Define habituation and sensitization. Explain why they are examples of nonassociative learning.
Habituation: Reduced responsiveness to a repeated stimulus.
Sensitization: Increased responsiveness to a stimulus.
Neither habituation or sensitization involves associating one stimulus with another, as when we learn that, say, dark clouds signal rain. For this reason, habituation and sensitization are referred to as nonassociative learning.
Define classical conditioning, unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, conditioned stimulus, and conditioned response. How does classical conditioning work?
Classical Conditioning: A procedure in which a neutral stimulus is paired with a stimulus that triggers an automatic response until the neutral stimulus alone comes to trigger a similar response.
Meat powder [UCS] causes dog to salivate [UCR] + Tone [Neutral stimulus] triggers an orienting response → Tone [Neutral stimulus] followed by meat powder [UCS] triggers dog to salivate [UCR] → Tone [CS] triggers dog to salivate [CR]
Unconditioned Stimulus [UCS]: A stimulus that triggers a response without conditioning.
Unconditioned Response [UCR]: The automatic, unlearned, reaction to a stimulus.
Conditioned Stimulus [CS]: An originally neutral stimulus that now triggers a conditioned response.
Conditioned Response [CR]: The response
triggered by the conditioned stimulus.
In Classical Condition define the processes of extinction, reconditioning, and spontaneous recovery. Be able to identify an example of each.
Extinction: The gradual disappearance or a conditioned response.
Reconditioning: The relearning of a conditioned response following extinction.
Spontaneous Recovery: The temporary reappearance of a conditioned response after extinction.
Know an example of stimulus generalization and stimulus discrimination.
Stimulus Generalization: A process in which a conditioned response is triggered by stimuli similar to the original conditioned stimulus.
Example: A person who was bitten by one particular dog may now show some fear of all dogs.
Stimulus Discrimination: A process through which people learn to differentiate among similar stimuli and respond appropriately to each one.
Example: Many parents find that the sound of their own baby whimpering soon becomes a conditioned stimulus, triggering a conditioned response that wakes them up. The conditioned response may not occur if a visiting friend's baby whimpers.
Describe the role that timing, predictability, and strength of signals play in the speed and strength of conditioned response development. Indicate which type of conditioning produces the strongest type of conditioned response.
Timing: Classical conditioning works best when the conditioned stimulus comes before the unconditioned stimulus [called forward conditioning], rather than when the conditioned stimulus comes after the unconditioned stimulus [called backward conditioning].
Predictability: Classical conditioning proceeds most rapidly when the CS always signals the UCS and only the UCS.
Strength [Intensity]: A conditioned response will be learned more rapidly if the UCS is strong.
As with the importance of timing and predictability, the effect of UCS strength on classical conditioning makes adaptive sense. It's more important to be prepared for major events than for minor ones.
Explain how biopreparedness influences [Garcia effect] taste-aversion learning. Explain why it is a special case of classical conditioning.
The apparently natural tendency for certain events to become linked suggests that organisms are "biologically prepared" to develop certain conditioned associations. The most dramatic example of biopreparedness phenomenon is seen in conditioned taste aversions. The conditioned taste aversion explains how things like nausea work with internal issues rather than that of a light flashing.
Discuss how attention influences which stimulus is linked to the unconditioned stimulus. Define and know an example of higher-order conditioning.
In general, loud tones, bright lights, and other intense stimuli tend to get extra attention, so they are the ones most rapidly associated with an unconditioned stimulus.
Higher Order Conditioning: A process through which a conditioned stimulus comes to signal another conditioned stimulus that is already associated with an unconditioned stimulus.
Example: A child endures a painful medical procedure [UCS] at the doctor's office and the pain becomes associated with the doctor's white coat. The white coat might then become a conditioned stimulus [CS] that can trigger a conditioned fear response. Once the white coat is able to set off a conditioned fear response, the coat may take on some properties of an unconditioned stimulus. So, if the child later sees a white-coated pharmacist at the drugstore, that once-neutral store can become a conditioned stimulus for fear because it signals the appearance of a white coat, which in turn signals pain.
What is a phobia? How do therapists help relieve phobias?
Phobias are intense, irrational fears or situations—such as public speaking—that are not dangerous or that are less dangerous than the fear response would suggest.
Therapists help relieve phobias through systematic desensitization, a procedure that associates a new response, such as relaxation, with a feared stimulus.
What is the law of effect.
A law stating that if a response made in the presence of a particular stimulus is rewarded, the same response is more likely to occur when that stimulus is encountered again.
Define operant conditioning and explain how it differs from classical conditioning.
Operant Conditioning: A process in which responses are learned on the basis of their rewarding or punishing consequences.
In classical conditioning, the conditioned response does not affect whether or when the stimulus occurs. In contrast, an operant has some effect on the world. It is a response that operates on the environment.
Define the components of operant conditioning: operants and reinforcers.
Operants: A response that has some effect on the world.
Reinforcers: A stimulus event that increases the probability that the response immediately preceding it will occur again.
Define positive and negative reinforcers and positive and negative punishment.
Positive Reinforcers: Increases the chance of target behavior by using stimuli that strengthen a response if they follow that response.
Negative Reinforcers: Increases the chance of target behavior by the removal of unpleasant stimuli.
Positive Punishment: Decreases the rate of undesired behavior by adding a certain negative consequence to the individual after the behavior has been exhibited.
Negative Punishment: Decreases the rate of undesired behavior by removing certain favorite or desired item from the individual's life.
Define escape conditioning and avoidance conditioning. Be able to identify an example of both.
Escape Conditioning: The process of learning responses that stop an aversive stimulus.
Avoidance Conditioning: The process of learning particular responses that avoid an aversive stimulus.
Define punishment and describe its role in operant conditioning. Discuss the disadvantages of and guidelines for using punishment.
Punishment: The presentation of an aversive stimulus or the removal of a pleasant one following some behavior.
Disadvantages
- It does not "erase" an undesirable behavior. It merely suppresses the behavior temporarily.
- Punishment can produce unwanted side effects. If you punish a child for swearing, the child may associate the punisher with the
punishment and end up fearing you.
- Punishment is often ineffective unless it is given immediately after the undesirable behavior and each time that behavior occurs.
- Physical punishment can become aggressive, even abuse, if given in anger or with an object other than a hand.
- Because children tend to imitate what they see, frequent punishment may lead them to behave aggressively themselves.
- Punishment lets people know they have done something wrong, but it doesn't specify what
they should do instead.
Guidelines
- Specify why punishment is being given, in order to prevent the development of a general fear of the punisher.
- Emphasize that the behavior, not the person, is being punished.
- Make the punishment immediate and noticeable enough to eliminate the undesirable response, without being abusive.
- Identify and positively reinforce more appropriate responses.
Define discriminative conditioned stimuli and stimulus control. Explain how stimulus discrimination and stimulus generalization can work together in operant conditioning.
Discriminative Conditioned Stimuli: Stimuli that signal whether reinforcement is available if a certain response is made.
Stimulus Control: Stimulus discrimination occurs when an organism learns to make a particular response in the presence of one stimulus but not another—that response is then said to be under stimulus control.
We discriminate one stimulus from another and then through generalization respond similarly to all those we perceive to be in a particular category.
Define shaping. Explain when it is used in operant conditioning.
Shaping: The reinforcement of responses that come successfully closer to some desired response.
Animal trainers have used it to teach chimpanzees to roller-skate, dolphins to jump through hoops, and pigeons to play Ping-Pong.
Discuss the differences between primary and secondary reinforcers.
Primary reinforcers are events or stimuli that satisfy physiological needs basic to survival. Secondary reinforcers are rewards that people or animals learn to like.
Define continuous and partial reinforcement schedules. Be able to identify the fixed-ratio, variable-ratio, fixed-interval, and variable-interval reinforcement schedules; include a description of their effect on the intensity of response rates and the partial reinforcement effect.
Continuous Reinforcement Schedules: When a continuous reinforcement schedule is in effect, a reinforcer is delivered every time a particular response occurs.
Partial [Intermittent] Reinforcement Schedules: are described in terms of when and how reinforcers are given. "When" refers to the number of responses that have to occur; or the amount of time that must pass, before a reinforcer will occur. "How" refers to whether the reinforcer will be delivered in a predictable or unpredictable way.
- Both fixed-ratio and variable-ratio schedules produce especially high response rates overall.
- Fixed-interval and variable-interval schedule generally produce lower response rates that ratio schedules.
- Variable-interval produce a slower, but
steadier, response rate.
Partial Reinforcement Effect: A phenomenon in which behaviors learned under a partial reinforcement schedule are more difficult to extinguish than those learned on a continuous reinforcement schedule.
Define and give an example of latent learning and a cognitive map.
Latent Learning: Learning that is not demonstrated at the time it occurs.
Example: After years of experience in your neighborhood, you could probably tells a visitor that the corner drugstore is closed on Sundays, even if you had never tried to go there on a Sunday yourself.
Cognitive Map: A mental representation of the environment.
Example: Having such a map allows you to tell that neighborhood visitor exactly how to get to the corner drugstore from where you are standing.
Define insight. Discuss the differences in what is learned in classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and insight.
Classical Conditioning: A procedure in which a neutral stimulus is paired with a stimulus is paired with a stimulus that triggers an automatic response until the neutral stimulus alone comes to trigger a similar response.
Operant Conditioning: A process in which responses are learned on the basis of their rewarding or punishment consequences.
Insight: A sudden understanding of what is required to solve a problem.
Define observational learning and vicarious conditioning.
Observational Learning: Learning how to perform new behaviors by watching others.
Vicarious Conditioning: A kind of social observational learning through which a person is influenced by watching or hearing about the consequences of others' behavior.
What are the four key processes that need to occur for observational learning to occur
Attention Processes [attention to details]
Retention Processes [retain what occurred]
Production Processes [are you capable of doing the behavior]
Motivational Processes [having the motivation to do the behavior]
Define encoding, storage, and retrieval in memory processes.
Encoding: The process of putting information into a form that the memory system can accept and use.
Storage: The process of maintaining information in the memory system over time.
Retrieval: The process of finding information stored in memory.
Define episodic, semantic, and procedural memory, flashbulb memories, incidental memories, explicit memory and implicit memory.
Episodic Memory: Memory for events in one's own past.
Semantic Memory: Memory for generalized knowledge about the world.
Procedural Memory [procedural knowledge]: A type of memory containing information about how to do things.
Flashbulb Memories: Emotional and detailed memories of highly relevant or intimately personal experiences.
Incidental Memories: The mental storage of information that occurs passively; without conscious effort.
Explicit Memory: Information retrieved through a conscious effort to remember something.
Implicit Memory: The unintentional recollection and influence of prior experiences.
Define the information-processing model of memory.
A model that suggests that information must pass through sensory memory, and long-term memory in order to become firmly embedded in memory.
Define the levels-of-processing model of memory. Describe the transfer-appropriate model of memory.
Levels-of-Processing Model of Memory: A model that suggests that memory depends on the degree or depth to which we mentally process information.
Transfer-Appropriate Processing Model of Memory: A model that suggests that memory depends on how the encoding process matches up with what is later retrieved.
Describe the multiple memory systems and information-processing models of memory
Multiple Memory Systems Model: A model that suggests the existence of specialized and separated memory systems in the brain.
Information-Processing Model of Memory: A model that suggests that information must pass through sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory in order to become firmly embedded in memory.
Describe the encoding strategies of rehearsal, active rehearsal, elaboration, self-referent encoding, chunking, interactive imagery, bizarre story, rhymes-pegword, acronyms, method of loci
Rehearsal: Repeating information to retain it in our memory. Keeps information in working memory.
Active Rehearsal: Repeating several earlier items as we rehearse successive items.
Elaboration: Linking a stimulus to other information at the time of encoding.
Self-Referent: Making information personally meaningful.
Chunking: Reorganize it.
Interactive Imagery: Images of items interacting.
Bizarre Story: ???
Rhymes-Pegword: Uses association of terms to be remembered with a memorized scheme.
Acronyms: Taking each of the initial letters of the list members, create a memorable phrase in which the words with the same acronym as the material.
Method of Loci: Uses visualization with familiar objects on a path to recall information in a list.
Define the parallel distributed processing [PDP] model of memory.
A model of memory in which memory processes are proposed to take place at the same time over a large network of neural connections
Characteristics of the memory stores [sensory memory, short-term memory, Working memory, and long-term memory] in terms of their contents, capacity, and duration
Sensory Memory: A type of
memory that is very brief but lasts long enough to connect one impression to the next.
- Contents: Separate store for each sense
- Capacity: Large amounts of information
- Duration: Very limited duration [milliseconds to several seconds]
Short-Term Memory: A stage of memory in which information normally lasts less than twenty seconds; a component of working memory.
- Contents: Some argue that this is the location that encoding occurs [Working Memory]
- Capacity: Limited
information 7+2 chunks [5-9 pieces]
- Duration: Retained several seconds to 30 seconds without rehearsal
Working Memory: Memory that allows us to mentally work with, or manipulate, information being held in short-term memory.
- Contents: Central executive, articulatory loop, visuospatial loop, and episodic buffer
- Capacity: Age differences in memory capacity
- Duration: Age differences in memory duration
Long-Term Memory: The stage of memory that researchers believe
has an unlimited capacity to store new information.
- Contents: Store of the mental rules and strategies
- Capacity: Huge-possibility limitless
- Duration: Relatively permanent store
Define sensory memory and sensory registers.
Sensory Memory: A type of memory that is very brief but lasts long enough to connect one impression to the next.
Sensory Registers: Memory systems that briefly hold incoming information.
How did Sperling's partial report technique support the idea of sensory memory.
Sperling's partial report technique concluded that sensory store is a large capacity memory store that fades very quickly. Information must be accessed before it fades or it is lost.
Explain why selective attention is important in determining which information is transferred to short-term memory from sensory memory.
Using selective attention, you focus your mental resources on only some of the stimuli around you, thus controlling what information is processed further in short-term memory.
Define short-term memory [STM]. Discuss the relationship between short-term memory and working memory.
Short-Term Memory: A stage of memory in which information normally lasts less than twenty seconds; a component of working memory.
Short-term memory is actually a component of working memory, and together these memory systems allow us to do many kinds of mental work.
Define immediate memory span and chunking. Discuss the role of long-term memory in the chunking process.
Immediate Memory Span: The maximum number of items a person can recall perfectly after one presentation of the items.
Chunking: Organizing individual stimuli so that they will be perceived as larger units of meaningful information.
Break information into smaller chunks that are easier for your learners to digest, rather than overwhelming them with too much information at once. This gives them the ability to gradually absorb the information and assimilate it into their long-term memory, rather than forgetting key concepts just seconds after they've learned them.
Define the Brown-Peterson distractor technique. Describe the importance of rehearsal in maintaining information in short-term memory.
Brown-Peterson Distractor Technique: A method for determining how long unrehearsed information remains in short-term memory.
Unrehearsed information cannot be held in short term memory for longer than 20 seconds, but if the information is rehearsed or processed further in some other way, it may be encoded into long term memory.
Discuss the three components of working memory [central executive, articulatory loop, visuospatial sketch pad].
Central Executive: Controls activity of the Articulatory Loop, Visuospatial Pad, and Episodic Buffer.
Articulatory Loop: Most similar to original concept of Short-Term Memory. Location of Rehearsal and Chunking.
Visuospatial Sketch Pad: Visual imagery, Elaboration, and Self-Referent Encoding
Define long-term memory [LTM] and describe the storage capacity of LTM. Discuss how long-term memories, can become distorted.
Long-Term Memory: The stage of memory that researchers believe has an unlimited capacity to store new information.
The storage capacity of long-term memory is extremely large. In fact, it may be unlimited.
Long-term memories can become distorted. Most people whose memories had been substantially distorted over time were unaware that this distortion had occurred. In fact, they could be very confident that their reports were accurate.
Describe the structure of long-term memory [conceptual hierarchies, semantic networks, schemas, scripts]
Conceptual Hierarchies: Categorize groups of objects into similar or related groups.
Semantic Networks: Information that is linked or grouped in ways meaningful to you.
Schemas: Mental representations of general knowledge about a particular place, object, events and people
Scripts: Information about a common activity
What do we mean when we say that memories are socially constructed
Our memories are affected by what we experience but also by what we already know about the world in general and about the particular culture and family in which we live. We use the existing knowledge to organize the new information we encounter, and we fill in gaps in that information as we encode and retrieve it.
How what is the value of cues in retrieving information from memory, and why does having multiple, self-generated retrieval cues enhance recall
Cues are information used to aid our recall. You have a better memory for information if you use the same type of processing [cues] when you try to retrieve it as you did when you originally studied.
Cue generation helps explain why elaborative encoding is more effective than simple rehearsal. Elaborative encoding involves organizing and integrating new information—you are creating multiple cues for retrieval. Simple rehearsal doesn't generate additional cues.
What is mood-congruent memory and state dependent memory
Mood-Congruent Memory: More likely to recall pleasant events when feeling good at the time of recall. Negative events are more likely to be recalled when people are feeling sad or angry
State Dependent Memory: Memory that is helped or hindered by similarities or differences in a person's internal state during learning versus recall.
Discuss how memory can be disrupted, including false memories
Schemas and scripts can fill in mental gaps with false details that would seem to fit the scenario.
What are the possible causes of forgetting
Never actually committed to memory, memory decay, interference, cue loss, motivated forgetting, and organic amnesia.
What is the forgetting curve, decay, Serial Position effects, proactive interference, retroactive interference and repression
Forgetting Curve: The decreasing ability for the brain to retain information over the course of time. It is a very specific curve in which you can accurately see the rate at which a person forgets information.
Decay: A description of forgetting as the gradual disappearance of information from memory.
Serial Position Effects: The tendency to recall information that is presented first and last [like in a list] better than information presented in the middle.
Proactive Interference: A cause of forgetting whereby previously learned information interferes with the ability to remember new information.
Retroactive Interference: A cause of forgetting whereby new information with the ability to recall information already in memory.
Repression: A painful memory that is said to be kept out of consciousness by psychological processes.
What major roles do the hippocampus, cerebral cortex, thalamus, amygdala, and cerebellum play in memory
Hippocampus: explicit memory consolidation
Cerebral Cortex: integrate sensory information and information stored in memory
Thalamus: provides a signal to the cortex that's essential for maintaining that memory
Amygdala: emotional memories
Cerebellum: implicit memory
In regard to memory, what do we mean by we recall the scripts and gist of the story and reconstruct the details. How does this effect abilities in eyewitnesses
We use scripts to fill in lapses in memory which may lead to false eyewitness accounts.
Discuss Explain the nature of memory in whether memory is localized or distributed
The notion of a memory trace it's just that some change must occur in the workings of the brain when a new long-term memory is stored.