Psych 1001 Final-Carleton

Learning

Learning

any change in behavior or knowledge due to experience

Phobia

irrational fear of specific objects or situations

Conditioning

involves learning connections between events that occur in an environment

Classical conditioning

explains how neutral stimulus can acquire the capacity to elicit a response originally elicited by another stimulus

Unconditioned stimulus (UCS)

A stimulus that evokes an unconditioned response without previous conditioning

Unconditioned response (UCR)

is an unlearned reaction to an unconditioned stimulus that occurs without previous conditioning

Conditioned stimulus (CS)

A previously neutral stimulus that has, through conditioning, acquired the capacity to evoke a conditioned response.

Conditioned response (CR)

is a learned reaction to a conditioned stimulus that occurs because of previous conditioning

Evaluative conditioning

refers to changes in the stimulus due to pairing with positive or negative stimuli

Acquisition

In classical conditioning, the initial stage, when one links a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus begins triggering the conditioned response. In operant conditioning, the strengthening of a reinforced response.

Extinction

the gradual weakening and disappearance of a conditioned response tendency

Spontaneous recovery

the reappearance of a learned response after extinction has occurred

Renewal effect

if a response is extinguished in a different environment than it was acquired, the extinguished response will reappear if the animal is returned to the original environment where acquisition took place

Stimulus generalization

occurs when an organism that has learned a response to a specific stimulus responds in the same way to new stimuli that are similar to the original stimulus ex. when a child is afraid of a bridge from childhood and is now scared of all bridges he comes across

Stimulus discrimination

when an organism that has learned a response to a specific stimulus does not respond in the same way to new stimuli that are similar to the original stimulus ex. when a child who was attacked by a dog when a kid is NOT afraid of dogs when an adult

Little Albert

Subject in John Watson's experiment, proved classical conditioning principles, especially the generalization of fear (afraid of white rat transferred to anything white and furry)

Higher-order conditioning

when a conditioned stimulus functions as if it were an unconditioned stimulus

Aversion

many people develop them to food that is followed by feelings of nausea from illness or food poisoning

Preparedness

The species-specific biological predisposition to learn in certain ways but not others.

Operant conditioning

a type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher

Skinner Box

An example of operant conditioning, where a rat learned that by pressing a lever it would be fed

Law effect

if a response in the presence of a stimulus leads to satisfying effects, the association between the stimulus and the response is strengthened

Reinforcement

occurs when an event following a response increases an organism's tendency to make that response

Primary reinforcer

Events that are inherently reinforcing because they satisfy biological needs (food, water, warmth, sex, affection)

Secondary reinforcer

events that acquire reinforcing qualities by being associated with primary reinforcers (money (to buy food), good grades, praise)

Shaping

if a rat did not press the lever on it's own, researcher would release food whenever the rat got close to the lever

Resistance to extinction

when an organism continues to make a response after delivery of the reinforcer has been terminated

Generalization

when a cat thinks that any kitchen appliance noise means it's getting fed

Discrimination

when a cat knows only the sound of the a can opener means it's getting fed

reinforcement schedule

schedule that determines when a behaviour is rewarded

Continuous reinforcement

occurs everytime

Intermittent reinforcement

occurs some of the time

Fixed-ratio

reinforcement like a coffee shop stamp card (5 visits and you get a free donut)

Variable-ratio

a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses (ex scratch and win tickets)

Fixed-interval

a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed (ex a job where you get paid hourly)

Variable-interval

a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals (ex. Hunting)

Positive reinforcement

Increasing behaviors by presenting positive stimuli, such as food. Any stimulus that, when presented after a response, strengthens the response

Negative reinforcement

Increasing behaviors by stopping or reducing negative stimuli, such as shock. Any stimulus that, when removed after a response, strengthens the response

Avoidance learning

Rat learns that it gets shocked 5 seconds after a light turns on, so it learns to run away whenever it see's the light turn on

Punishment

occurs when an event following a response weakens the tendency to make that response

Latent learning

learning that remains hidden until its application becomes useful or until reward is introduced

Instinctive drift

tendency for animals to return to innate behaviors following repeated reinforcement. Rat rubbing coins example

Observational learning

learning by observing others. Must pay attention, remember, be able to reproduce, and be motivated

Behavioural theories

attempt to relate units of behaviour, called responses, to units of the environment, called stimuli

Evolutionary theories

focus on the adaptive aspects of learning to survival

orienting response

tendency to respond to novel stimulus

Habituation

learning not to respond to an unimportant event that occurs repeatedly

Sensitization

we become more responsive to subsequent stimulus (more sensitive)

Appetitive stimulus

Any stimulus that is good or desirable

Aversive stimulus

Any stimulus that is unpleasant or painful

Encoding

involves forming a memory code, for a word one might emphasize how it looks, the sounds or meaning. Requires attention

Storage

involves maintaining encoded information in memory over time

Retrieval

involves recovering information from memory stores

Attention

involves focusing awareness on a narrowed range of stimuli or events

Sensory memory

preserves information in its original sensory form for a brief time, usually only a fraction of a second. Is uunprocessed until it enters STM.

Iconic memory

holds a brief visual image of a scene that has just been perceived

Echoic memory

holds a brief auditory echo of a sound that has just been perceived

Short Term Memory (STM)

A limited-capacity store that can maintain unrehearsed information for about 20 to 30 seconds.

Primacy effect

the tendency to remember initial information

Recency effect

the tendency to recall later information

Working memory

a limited-capacity system that temporarily stores and processes information

Visuo-spatial Sketch Pad

stores a visual, or spatial, representation of the items

Episodic Buffer

-limited memory storage (buffer) that provides room for the various parts of working memory to integrate information with each other, and also with information from LTM

-combines the images and sounds from the other two components into coherent, story-like episodes

Central executive

-the "processor" that focuses our attention (controlling what we think about in our working memory) and coordinate the actions of the other three components

-the part of working memory that directs attention and processing

Consolidation

the process by which information in short-term memory is transferred to long-term memory

Maintenance rehearsal

rote repetition (repeating without understanding)

Elaborative rehearsal

forming associations between new material and old material recalled from LTM

Shallow processing

Structural encoding that emphasizes on physical structure analysis of surface features leads to lower number of words recalled than deep processing

intermediate processing

phonemic encoding that emphasizes on what the words sound like middle depth of processing

Deep processing

Semantic encoding that focuses on the analysis of semantic features (meaning)

3 ways to enrich encoding

Elaboration, Visual Imagery, Self-Referent Encoding

elaboration

linking a stimulus to other information at the time of encoding. ex. learning about phobias in class and linking it to your own phobia of spiders.

visual imagery

The use of visual images to represent the word or concept that needs to be encoded ex. the word 'juggler' is easier to create imagery for, and thus, to easier to remember than the word 'truth', which is more conceptual

self-referent encoding

deciding how or whether information is personally relevant ex. Looking at a list of adjectives and choosing those that apply to you leads to a better recall of those chosen adjectives

Long Term Memory

an unlimited capacity store that can hold information over lengthy periods of time

priming (implicit)

an automatic process where information in memory storage is activated automatically (recalling a sensation)

Flashbulb memory

are vivid and detailed recollections of events

Clustering

the tendency to remember similar items in groups

Conceptual hierarchy

a multilevel classification system based on common properties among items

Schema

Your mental formations of what something is supposed to look or be like Ex. What does a study typically look like?

Semantic networks

consists of nodes representing concepts, joined together by pathways that link related concepts

Connectionist network

Are models assumed that cognitive processes depend on patterns of activation

parallel distributed processing model

Type of connectionist model that processes multiple information spread through a wide set of neurons

Tip of the tongue phenomenon

the temporary inability to remember something you know, accompanied by a feeling that it's just out of reach

Misinformation effect

occurs when participants' recall of an event they witnessed is altered by introducing misleading post-event information

Retention

refers to the proportion of material retained (remembered)

retrieval cues

stimuli that aid the recall or recognition of information stored in memory

source monitoring error

when a memory from one source is misattributed to another source

7 sins of memory

Transience, absent-mindedness, blocking, misattribution, suggestibility, bias, persistence

transience 1/7

the weakening of a memory over time

absent-mindedness 2/7

a memory failure attributed to a lack of attention

Blocking 3/7

failure to retrieve an item of information, like someone's name after we've met them

Misattribution 4/7

assigning a memory to the wrong source

suggestibility 5/7

a distortion of memory due to leading questions

bias 6/7

inaccuracy of a memory due to current knowledge of feelings about the event looking at a memory through the lens of how you feel about it NOW, rather than what you felt THEN

persistence 7/7

remembering memories we would rather forget

Recall

measurement of retention that requires subjects to selected previously learned information

Relearning

measurement of retention that requires to memorize information a second time

Decay theory

proposes that forgetting occurs because memory traces fade with time

Interference theory

proposes that people forget information because of competition from other material