weeks 1-6

Question 1

How to fight procrastination?

Answer 1

written plans ahead of time, written schedules.
Prioritize.
Isolated location/device devoted only for work as to not be associated with distracting things.

Question 2

classical conditioning

Answer 2

associating something with an automatic response

Question 3

unconditioned stimulus

Answer 3

stimulus that produces an automatic response

Question 4

Conditioned stimulus

Answer 4

stimulus that does not produce an automatic response

Question 5

Operant conditioning

Answer 5

changing behavior via reward/punishment

Question 6

self handcaping

Answer 6

constructing impediments to performance to protect or enhance one’s perceived competence

Question 7

proper way to praise a child

Answer 7

reward hard work and effort. not talent and natural skill.

Question 8

the high utility study techniques

Answer 8

Practice testing:

distributed practice: space out studying

Question 9

medium utility study techniques

Answer 9

elaborate interrogation
self explanation
interleaved practice

Question 10

poor study techniques

Answer 10

summarizing
highlighting
underlining
imagery
rereading

Question 11

variable ratio schedule of reinforcement

Answer 11

pigeons generally peck the key more frequently, and are much less likely to give up pecking, if they are reinforced on infrequent random pecks, rather than every peck

The moral: bad behaviours that are only rewarded occasionally are harder to eradicate than those that are rewarded all the time.

Question 12

discriminative stimuli (“triggers”)

Answer 12

Environmental cues , indicate to the animal when a given behaviour is likely to be rewarded or punished.

Question 13

Augmenting

Answer 13

: Increasing our assessment of one cause of a behaviour when another cause appears to be working against it (e.g. “I got an A on the exam even though I was hung over. I must be really smart!”)

Question 14

Discounting:

Answer 14

decreasing our assessment of one cause of a behaviour because another cause appears to be working in the same direction (e.g. “I feel kind of stupid about flunking that exam, but I didn’t study very hard, so maybe I’m not that stupid.”)

Question 15

Research methedology

Answer 15

Must have a large group of test subjects and a control group. Control as many factors as possible. (diet, sleep, etc)

Question 16

Correlational studies:

Answer 16

Multiple variables are measured, and none are manipulated.

Question 17

Experiments:

Answer 17

Independent variables are manipulated to observe their effects on dependent variables.

Question 18

Primary sources

Answer 18

People report data they gathered themselves.

Question 19

Secondary sources (a.k.a. review articles)

Answer 19

People summarize data gathered by other people, and try to find some patterns in this data.

Question 20

Opinion pieces

Answer 20

People write these mainly to voice opinions, and data plays a secondary role.

Question 21

Practice testing

Answer 21

Can be low-stakes testing or self-directed, can include short essays, one-sentence answers, flash cards, etc.
More effective than restudying
Appears to be widely applicable (even to open book exams)
Free recall test better than recognition
Implementation issues
Reasonable time demands
Minimal training
Practice testing with feedback outperforms testing alone
Feedback should be immediate (i.e. should know instantly if answer right or wrong)
Overall assessment: HIGH UTILITY

Question 22

Distributed practice

Answer 22

Greater intersession forgetting (i.e. longer intervals between sessions) associated with greater long-term retention
Very robust across different conditions
Distributed practice testing better than distributed reviewing
Benefit even occurs for lags of weeks or months
Bigger effect for intentional than incidental processing (this may be why practice testing is so good)
Issues for implementation
Study materials (e.g. textbooks) tend to promote massed practice; this is bad
The way students actually study: procrastination scallop

Question 23

Elaborative interrogation

Answer 23

Generating explanation for why fact is true
Focus on similarities and differences between right and wrong answers
Works better when explanations are precise, self-generated
Works best for domains with much prior knowledge
Implementation issues
Requires little training
Reasonable time commitment
May be easier to use for discrete facts than complex systems
Overall assessment: MODERATE UTILITY

Question 24

Self-explanation

Answer 24

Explaining relation of new with known info, or explaining steps in problem-solving
Related to elaborative interrogation, but much more variable prompts
Explain own processing during (not after) learning or problem solving

Can be done with minimal instruction
Potentially very time-consuming (few studies control for this)
Overall assessment: MODERATE EFFICACY

Question 25

Interleaved practice

Answer 25

Contrast with blocked practice (i.e. practice one technique at a time)
During practice, blocked practice works better than interleaved practice; this reverses at test
Why? Gives student practice identifying correct method (reduces discrimination errors)
Also, when switching problems, solution not in short term memory, practice retrieval from long term memory
Does not seem to work for vocabulary
Overall assessment: MODERATE EFFICACY

Question 26

Working memory

Answer 26

lasts about 20 secs
can hold about 4 chunks of info
mainly sight and auditory

Question 27

Long-term memory (LTM) Three stages

Answer 27

Encoding: Putting information into LTM. Encoding is highly dependent on paying attention.
A demonstration of depth of processing and encoding

Storage: Maintaining information in long-term memory.

Retrieval: Accessing information from LTM so that it is once again available to working memory. Your ability to retrieve memories is often dependent on how you encode them.

Question 28

Improving encoding

Answer 28

Elaborative encoding
Linking new to already known information
Assembling into meaningful units
Relating to self

Depth of processing
Recall our demonstration of depth of processing effects

Organization
A demonstration of organization

Question 29

Improving storage

Answer 29

Hermann Ebbinghaus (1885)
Forgetting curve
Distributed practice
Overlearning

Managing stress improves long-term storage, just as it does working memory

Stress, the hippocampus, and long-term memory

Question 30

Improving Retrieval

Answer 30

Context affects how well we retrieve from LTM.
The tip of the tongue phenomenon is a sign of retrieval failure.

Retrieval cues facilitate retrieval. You want lots of them, and you want them to be relevant to contexts in which the information is likely to be useful.
How do you do this? Elaborative encoding! Make links with related ideas explicit, think of examples relevant to yourself, organize!
Serial position curve (Ebbinghaus)
Primacy effect. First few items on a list tend to be better remembered.
Recency effect. Last few items on a list tend to be better remembered.
Moral: If you have to memorize lists, try to keep them short.
Mnemonics: They work by creating really powerful retrieval cues

Question 31

five factors of personality (OCEAN)

Answer 31

Extraversion
Neuroticism
Agreeableness
Openness to experience
Conscientiousness

Question 32

Taking notes that enhance memory

Answer 32

Complete notes are better than incomplete notes.
Accurate notes are better than inaccurate notes.
Notes that highlight linkages among related pieces of information are better than fragmented notes.
Matrices and mind maps may be better than linear notes under many circumstances, but they are hard to do on the fly, so it may be better to do them after the lecture.

Question 33

Iconic memory

Answer 33

can hold dozens
lasts .25 secs
holds visual info

Question 34

LTM

Answer 34

can last a life time
can hold unlimited info
all senses

Question 35

Study group benefits

Answer 35

Motivational tool
Facilitate self-testing
Multiple perspectives can make lack of understanding easier to detect
Multiple perspectives increase odds that if one student doesn’t understand something, another does and can explain it to them
Can make it easier to establish a regular study schedule
Can make studying less unpleasant

Question 36

Preventing social loafing

Answer 36

Ensure individual contributions are identifiable
Keep groups small
Set specific goals
Ensure that people are motivated by goals and buy in
Increase identification with the group
Set appropriate norms and roles, and ensure they are adhered to
Note: many of these can be implemented by an effective leader

Question 37

Groupthink:

Answer 37

a syndrome in which groups make poor decisions because of excessively strong conformity pressures (i.e. everybody is pressured to go along with a plan even though in their hearts they don’t really agree with it)

Question 38

Solution to group think

Answer 38

leader encourages people to voice dissenting views, questions the emerging consensus him- or herself, makes contingency plans

Question 39

forming a study group

Answer 39

Get to know each other (this is genuinely important)
Set goals
Set roles (e.g. what does the leader do, do you need a note-taker, etc.)
Set meeting times
Set norms
How are people expected to contribute during study sessions?
What are people expected to do to prepare for study sessions?
What are the norms surrounding asking questions, contradicting people whom you think are making a mistake (people need to be able to do this without offending each other)
How will the group ensure that people contribute?
How will the group monitor itself to see if it is doing what it is supposed to be doing?

Question 40

negative feedback,

Answer 40

is stabilizing

Question 41

positive feedback

Answer 41

is destabilizing