PSYCH; Lecture 1, 2, 3 and 4 - Introduction, Health, beliefs and behaviour, Attention and Perception, Brain and Behaviour Flashcards
What is learning?
A process by which experience produces a relatively enduring change in an organisms behaviour or capabilities - behavioural (overt) or cognitive (covert)
What are the three elements of a behaviour?
Antecedent (env conditions or stimulus changes that exist before the behaviour of interest, may either be internal/external to subject) ===> Behaviour (behaviour of interest emitted by the subject and future instances of this behaviour will be influenced by both antecedents and consequences) ===> Consequence (stimulus change that follows the behaviour of interest)
What are the basic learning processes?
Classical conditioning (learning what events signal), operant conditioning (learning one thing leads to another) and observational learning (learning from others)
What is an unconditioned stimulus?
A stimulus that elicits a reflexive or innate response (the UCR) without prior learning
What is an unconditioned response?
A reflexive or innate response that is elicited by a stimulus (the UCS) without prior learning
What is a conditioned stimulus?
A stimulus that, through association with a UCS, comes to elicit a conditioned response similar to the original UCR
What is a conditioned response?
A response elicited by a conditioned stimulus.
What is classical conditioning and when is it strongest?
Repeated CS-UCS pairings; UCS is more intense and sequence involves forward pairing (CS -> UCS); time interval between CS and UCS is short
What is extinction?
The weakening and eventual disappearance of a response because it is no longer reinforced - when CS is presented without the pairing of UCS, it leads to extinction
What is stimulus generalisation?
A tendency to respond to stimuli that are similar, but not identical , to a conditioned stimulus. E.g. responding to a buzzer, or a hammer banging, when the conditioning stimulus was a bell; CR is elicited but in a weaker form
What is stimulus discrimination?
The ability to respond differently to various stimuli. E.g. A child will respond differently to various bells (alarms, school, timer); A fear of dogs might only include certain breeds
What is overshadowing?
When two or more more stimuli are present, and one stimulus produces a stronger response than the other because it is more relevant or salient.- e.g. cancer patients which were given novelty drinks when going to clinic reduced their nausea
What was Little Albert’s experiment?
Five days after conditioning he was tested with other objects like rats, wooden blocks, rabbit, dogs, Santa Claus mask -> led to strong fear to rat, rabbit, dog and coat but nothing to the mask
What is fear learning - needle injection e.g.?
Traumatic injection -> pain and fear; so trauma (UCS) and needle (CS) -> fear response (UCR); then leads to clinic setting (CS) leading to fear response (CR)
What is the two factor theory of maintenance of classically conditioned associations?
The UCS+CS-> UCR (fear response) which leads to avoidance of CS (injections), which reduces fear and tendency to avoid is reinforced
What is thorndike’s law of effect?
A response followed by a satisfying consequence will be more likely to occur. A response followed by an aversive consequence will become less likely to occur
What is operant conditioning?
Behaviour learned and maintained by its consequences
What is positive reinforcement?
Occurs when response is strengthened by subsequent presentation of reinforcer
What are primary/secondary reinforcers?
1ry: those needed for survival -> food, water, sleep, sex; 2ry: stimuli that acquire reinforcing properties through their association with 1ry reinforcers -> money, praise
What is negative reinforcement?
Occurs when a response is strengthened by removal/avoidance of aversive stimulus e.g. painkiller use is reinforced by removing pain
What is positive punishment?
Response is weakened by presentation of stimulus (squirting cat with water when it jumps on table)
What is negative punishment?
Occurs when response is weakened by removal of stimulus (phone confiscated)
What is the difference between reinforcement and punishment?
Reinforcement is a more potent influence on behaviour than punishment as punishment can only make response less frequent, not teaching a new behaviour
What is resistance to extinction?
Degree to which non-reinforced responses persist
What are the different kind of schedules for reinforcement and how do they affect the response to the stimulus?
- Fixed interval schedule: reinforcement occurs after fixed time interval.
- Variable interval schedule: the time interval varies at random around an average.
- Fixed Ratio Schedule: reinforcement is given after a fixed number of responses.
- Variable Ratio Schedule: reinforcement is given after a variable number of responses, all centered around an average.
- Continuous produces more rapid learning than partial reinforcement (association between behaviour and consequences is easier to understand) BUT continuously reinforced responses extinguish more rapidly than partially reinforced responses (shift to no reinforcement is sudden and easier to understand)
How is chronic pain operantly conditioned?
Chronic pain behaviour is often reinforced by family/staff by being overly sympathetic which is also reinforced by gratitude signals from patient - cycle where patient receives =ve consequences for being in pain so pain = more likely
What is the cognitive approach?
Humans are active info processors and think about relationship between behaviour and consequence -> social imitation may hasten/short-cut the acquisition of new behaviours without the necessity of reinforcing
What is Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory - observational learning and reinforcement?
Obs learning: observe behaviours of other and consequence of those behaviours; vicarious reinforcement: if their behaviours are reinforced we tend to imitate the behaviours
When does observational learning occur and what are the steps to successful modelling?
Occurs by watching and imitating actions of other person/noting consequences of person’s actions - NB: before direct practice is allowed. Steps to successful modelling = pay attention to model; remember what was done; able to reproduce modeled behaviour and if successful/behaviour is rewarded then more likely to occur
What is the Bobo doll experiment?
When is social learning more likely to occur?
If model is seen to be rewarded; high status; similar to us; friendly
What is sensation?
The stimulus detection system by which our sense organs respond to and translate environmental stimuli into nerve impulses that are sent to the brain
What is perception?
The active process of organising the stimulus output and giving it meaning
What are the 5 senses?
How is perception an active process?
Top-down: Processing in light of existing knowledge: motives, expectations, experiences, culture. E.g. ‘backmasking
Bottom up: Individual elements are combined to make a unified perception
Which factors affect perception (top down)?
Attention; Past experiences (Poor children and adults overestimate the size of coins compared to affluent people (Ashley et al., 1951)); Current drive state (e.g. arousal state) (Hunger: when hungry, more likely to notice food-related stimuli ( Seibt et al., 2007)); Emotions (Anxiety increases threat perception); Individual values; Environment; Cultural background
What are figure-ground relations?
Our tendency to organise stimuli into central or foreground and a background - focus if figure, all else is background
What is the continuity Gestalt Law?
When eye is compelled to move through one object and continue to another object
What is the similarity Gestalt Law?
Similar things are perceived as being grouped together
What is the proximity Gestalt Law?
Object near each other are grouped together
What is the closure Gestalt Law?
Things are grouped together if they seem to complete some entity
What are the 2 types of visual agnosia?
What is the difference in the types of visual agnosia?
Which stimulus factors affect attention?
What is the link between attention and response?
Intertwined with other cognitive processes (e.g. memory and perception). Sensory buffers register information for a few seconds which can be used to select which information to focus on. Limited capacity for short term memory. But, there is evidence that we can unconsciously perceive information not attended to.
When do medical mistakes occur?
How is pain perceived in chronic pain?
What is the gate theory of pain?
Pain signals compete to get through gate whch can be opened/closed by psych factors -> explains pain relief by rubbing it better
How does the mind process pain? (not exam important)
Very complex -> various areas to deal with pain; chronic pain lights up different areas of the brain c.f. to acute pain
What is the fear-avoidance model of chronic pain?
There is strong relationships between areas; pain breeds avoidance which perpetuates stress, low moods, anxiety
What is the structure of language?
Phoneme: smallest unit of speech sound in a language that can signal a difference in meaning (44 in english); morphemes: smallest units of meaning in a language (typically consist of one syllable, and combined into words)
How does language develop (1-12 months)?
How does lamguage develop (12months - 5years)?
What is the critical period in language acquisition?
When is it easiest to acquire a second language?
What is Broca’s Aphasia?
Non-fluent speech impaired repetition, poor ability to produce syntactically correct sentences, intact comprehension
What is Wernicke’s aphasia?
Problems in comprehending speech (input/reception of language); fluent meaningless speech; paraphasias, semantic/phonemic paraphasias, neologisms; poor repetition, impairment in writing
Summarise the different types of aphasias explaining comprehension and expression capabilities
Which conditions are associated with aphasia?
What are the behavioural and emotional aspects of the dysexecutive syndrome?
What is the health-belief model?
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What is the theory of planned behaviour?
What is the transtheoretical model?
