Psychology Chapters 7&9

Question 1

Learning

Answer 1

The acquisition, from experience, of new knowledge, skills, or responses that results in a relatively permanent change in the state of the learner

Question 2

Habituation

Answer 2

A general process in which repeated or prolonged exposure to a stimulus results in a gradual reduction in responding

Question 3

Sensitization

Answer 3

A simple form of learning that occurs when presentation of a stimulus leads to an increased response to a later stimulus

Question 4

Classical conditioning

Answer 4

A type of learning that occurs when a neutral stimulus produces a response after being paired with a stimulus that naturally produces a response

Question 5

Unconditioned stimulus (US)

Answer 5

Something that reliably produces a naturally occurring reaction in an organism

Question 6

Unconditioned response (UR)

Answer 6

A reflexive reaction that is reliably produced by an unconditioned stimulus

Question 7

Acquisition

Answer 7

The phase of classical conditioning when the CS and the US are presented together

Question 8

Conditioned stimulus (CS)

Answer 8

A previously neutral stimulus that produces a reliable response in an organism after being paired with a US

Question 9

Conditioned response (CR)

Answer 9

A reaction that resembles an unconditioned response but is produced by a conditioned stimulus

Question 10

Second-order conditioning

Answer 10

A type of learning where a CS is paired with a stimulus that became associated with the US in an earlier procedure

Question 11

Extinction

Answer 11

The gradual elimination of a learned response that occurs when the CS is repeatedly presented without the US

Question 12

Spontaneous recovery

Answer 12

The tendency of a learned behaviour to recover from extinction after a rest period

Question 13

Generalization

Answer 13

The CR is observed even though the CS is slightly different from the CS used during acquisition

Question 14

Discrimination

Answer 14

The capacity to distinguish between similar but distinct stimuli

Question 15

Biological preparedness

Answer 15

A propensity for learning particular kinds of associations over others

Question 16

Operant conditioning

Answer 16

A type of learning in which the consequences of an organism’s behaviour determine whether it will repeat that behaviour in the future

Question 17

Law of effect

Answer 17

The principle that behaviours that are followed by a “satisfying state of affairs” tend to be repeated, and those that produce an “unpleasant state of affairs” are less likely to be repeated

Question 18

Operant behaviour

Answer 18

Behaviour that an organism performs that has some impact on the environment

Question 19

Reinforcer

Answer 19

Any stimulus or event that increases the likelihood of the behaviour that led to it

Question 20

Punisher

Answer 20

Any stimulus or event that decreases the likelihood of the behaviour that led to it

Question 21

Fixed-interval schedule (FI)

Answer 21

An operant conditioning principle whereby reinforcers are presented at fixed time periods, provided that the appropriate response is made.

Question 22

Variable-interval schedule (VI)

Answer 22

An operant conditioning principle whereby behaviour is reinforced on the basis of an average time that has expired since the last reinforcement

Question 23

Fixed-ratio schedule (FR)

Answer 23

An operant conditioning principle whereby reinforcement is delivered after a specific number of responses have been made

Question 24

Variable-ratio schedule (VR)

Answer 24

An operant conditioning principle whereby the delivery of reinforcement is based on a particular average number of responses

Question 25

Intermittent reinforcement

Answer 25

An operant conditioning principle whereby only some of the responses made are followed by reinforcement

Question 26

Intermittent reinforcement effect

Answer 26

The fact that operant behaviours that are maintained under intermittent reinforcement schedules resist extinction better than those maintained under continuous reinforcement

Question 27

Shaping

Answer 27

Learning that results from the reinforcement of successive steps to a final desired behaviour

Question 28

Latent learning

Answer 28

A process in which something is learned, but it is not manifested as a behavioural change until sometime in the future

Question 29

Cognitive map

Answer 29

A mental representation of the physical features of the environment

Question 30

Observational learning

Answer 30

A condition in which an organism learns by watching the actions of others

Question 31

Diffusion chain

Answer 31

A process in which individuals initially learn a behaviour by observing another individual perform that behaviour, and then become models from which other individuals learn the behaviour

Question 32

Implicit learning

Answer 32

Learning that takes place largely independent of awareness of both the process and the products of information acquisition

Question 33

Language

Answer 33

A system for communicating with others using signals that are combined according to rules of grammar and that convey meaning

Question 34

Grammar

Answer 34

A set of rules that specify how the units of language can be combined to produce meaningful messages

Question 35

Phoneme

Answer 35

The smallest unit of sound that is recognizable as speech rather than as random noise

Question 36

Phonological rules

Answer 36

A set of rules that indicate how phonemes can be combined to produce speech sounds

Question 37

Morphemes

Answer 37

The smallest meaningful units of language

Question 38

Morphological rules

Answer 38

A set of rules that indicate how morphemes can be combined to form words

Question 39

Syntactical rules

Answer 39

A set of rules that indicate how words can be combined to form phrases and sentences

Question 40

Deep structure

Answer 40

The meaning of a sentence

Question 41

Surface structure

Answer 41

How a sentence is worded

Question 42

Fast mapping

Answer 42

The process whereby children can map a word onto an underlying concept after only a single exposure

Question 43

Telegraphic speech

Answer 43

Speech that is devoid of function morphemes and consists mostly of content words

Question 44

Nativist theory

Answer 44

The view that language development is best explained as an innate, biological capacity

Question 45

Language acquisition device (LAD)

Answer 45

A collection of processes that facilitate language of learning

Question 46

Genetic dysphasia

Answer 46

A syndrome characterized by an inability to learn the grammatical structure of a language despite having otherwise normal intelligence

Question 47

Aphasia

Answer 47

Difficulty in producing or comprehending language

Question 48

Linguistic relativity hypothesis

Answer 48

The proposal that language shapes the nature of thought

Question 49

Concept

Answer 49

A mental representation that groups or categorizes shared features of related objects, events, or other stimuli

Question 50

Family resemblance theory

Answer 50

The concept that members of a category have features that appear to be characteristic of category members but may not be possessed by every member

Question 51

Prototype

Answer 51

The "best" or "most typical" member of a category

Question 52

Exemplar theory

Answer 52

A theory of categorization that argues that we make category judgements by comparing a new instance with stored memories of other instances of the category

Question 53

Category-specific deficit

Answer 53

A neurological syndrome that is characterized by an inability to recognize objects that belong to a particular category, although the ability to recognize objects outside the category is undisturbed

Question 54

Rational choice theory

Answer 54

The classical view that we make decisions by determining how likely something is to happen, judging the value of the outcome, and then multiplying the two

Question 55

Availability bias

Answer 55

The concept that items that are more readily available in memory are judged as having occurred more frequently

Question 56

Heuristic

Answer 56

A fast and efficient strategy that may facilitate decision making but does not guarantee that a solution will be reached

Question 57

Algorithm

Answer 57

A well-defined sequence of procedures or rules that guarantees a solution to a problem

Question 58

Conjunction fallacy

Answer 58

When people think that two events are more likely to occur together than either individual event

Question 59

Representativeness heuristic

Answer 59

A mental shortcut that involves making a probability judgement by comparing an object or event with a prototype of the object or event

Question 60

Framing effects

Answer 60

A bias whereby people give different answers to the same problem depending on how the problem is phrased (or framed)

Question 61

Sunk-cost fallacy

Answer 61

A framing effect in which people make decisions about a current situation on the basis of what they have previously invested in the situation

Question 62

Optimism bias

Answer 62

A bias whereby people believe that, compared with other people, they are more likely to experience positive events and less likely to experience negative events in the future

Question 63

Prospect theory

Answer 63

The theory that people choose to take on risk when evaluating potential losses and avoid risks when evaluating potential gain

Question 64

Means-ends analysis

Answer 64

A process of searching for the means or steps to reduce differences between the current situation and the desired goal

Question 65

Analogical problem solving

Answer 65

The process of solving a problem by finding a similar problem with a known solution and applying that solution to the current problem

Question 66

Functional fixedness

Answer 66

The tendency to perceive the functions of objects as unchanging

Question 67

Reasoning

Answer 67

A mental activity that consists of organizing information or beliefs into a series of steps in order to reach conclusions

Question 68

Practical reasoning

Answer 68

The process of figuring out what to do or reasoning directed towards action

Question 69

Theoretical reasoning (or discursive reasoning)

Answer 69

Reasoning directed towards arriving at a belief

Question 70

Belief bias

Answer 70

The idea that people's judgements about whether to accept conclusions depend more on how believable the conclusions are than on whether the arguments are logically valid

Question 71

Syllogistic reasoning

Answer 71

Determining whether a conclusion follows from two statements that are assumed to be true