Psych Exam 2 Gillis

Learning

relatively permanent change in potential behavior that results from experience

Classical Conditioning/Pavlov Conditioning

(Associative Learning) Associates two stimuli (neutral stimulus and conditioned stimulus) and relates them together so the response to the neutral stimulus will be the same as the response to the associated stimulus

Stimulus Contingency

The relation between the CS and the UCS

Selective Association

When certain associations are acquired very quickly (ex: conditioned taste aversions)

Generalization

When a response has been conditioned to a particular stimulus, other stimuli may also produce the same response

Discrimination

The process of learning to make distinctions between the CS similar but not identical stimuli

Second order conditioning

when a neutral stimulus becomes a CS through association with an already established CS

Operant Conditioning/Skinnerian Conditioning

(Instrumental Conditioning) The learning and association between one's behavior and its consequence (reinforcement/punishment)

Reinforcement

a procedure that increases the probability that a response will occur

positive reinforcer

any stimulus presented following a response that increases the probability of the response

negative reinforcer

a stimulus that increases the probability of a response through its removal when the desired response is made

escape conditioning

an organism learns to produce a response that will allow termination or escape from an aversive stimulus (negative reinforcer)

avoidance conditioning

the individual learns to emit an appropriate avoidance response

primary reinforcer

a stimulus that satisfies a biologically based drive or need (hunger, thirst, sleep)

secondary reinforcer

stimuli that acquire reinforcing properties through association with primary reinforcers (money, status)

types of partial reinforcement

Fixed Ratio

Variable Ratio

Fixed Interval

Variable Interval

Law of Effect

Behavior followed by reinforcement will be strengthened while behavior followed by punishment will be weakened- Thorndike

Punishment

anything that makes the behavior less likely to occur

Skinner box

Placed rats and pigeons inside box, animal is fed when signal is pressed

Manipulandum

something that is manipulated when testing motor skills (the signal in the skinner box)

Resistance to extinction

More experience with non- reinforcement (ex: partial reinforcement schedule)

Shaping/Successive Approximation

A technique in which responses that are increasingly similar to the desired behavior are reinforced until the desired behavior occurs

Chaining

stringing a number of different shaping behaviors together in a specific order and reinforcing them

Superstitious reinforcement

Kamakazee pigeons, randomly reinforced, led to random behaviors developed

Behavior modification therapy

using learning theory to improve performance/function

Token economy/biofeedback

setting up a system that will reward the learner for doing the correct behavior

Thorndike's Puzzle Boxes

put hungry cats in a box and food outside the box, Cats tried random trial and error to get out of the box until they found the lever, the more trials the faster the cats got at getting out (Satisfier= food, Annoyer= spray bottle)

Acquisition training

the process of learning to associate a conditioned stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus

Extinction training

When the researcher stops associating the conditioned stimulus with the unconditioned stimulus. The process by which a conditioned response is eliminated through repeated presentation of the conditioned stimulus without the unconditioned stimulus

Aversive conditioning

to treat an addiction by making the person hate what they are addicted to

Habituation

how someone/something responds to a new stimulus and grows accustomed to it

Sensitization

if a novel stimulus is followed by shock, then a stronger response is created

Insight Learning

Learning through thinking

Taste Aversion

example of one trial learning and selective associations- if you eat something that makes you sick you may never eat that food again

Observational Learning/ Social Learning

An individual acquires a behavior by observing someone else performing a behavior

Bandura's BoBo Doll study

Kids watch an older woman beat up bobo doll, then kids beat up the bobo doll when placed in same situation

No-trial learning

children see, but do not do, it is possible to learn something and not act it

Vicarious reward/punishment

When kids saw woman get rewarded for beating up the bobo doll, they beat up the bobo doll, when they saw her get scolded for beating up the bobo doll, they did not play with it.

Sensory register

1/3 system model of memory - Sperling

brief impressions from any senses are stored fleetingly, disappearing within a few seconds if they are not transferred to short term memory

Tachiostoscope

Slides shown for too short of time, people asked to say a word, people say the word of the object on the slide, they unconsciously stored the word

Iconic memory

Visual sensory memory

Echoic Memory

auditory sensory memory

Eidetic memory

very good iconic memory, total recall (photographic)

Short term memory

Immediate recollection of stimuli that have just been percieved under 1 minute (working memory)

"Workbench of memory"

memory that needs to be sorted into longterm

Serial Position Effect

Most people remember first and last info, middle info forgotten

Limited Capacity Study

-Miller

How much we can remember in short term memory: 7+/- 2 pieces of info

Why we have 7 digit phone numbers

Chunking

Grouping items into longer meaningful units to make them easier to remember

Long term memory

information transferred from short term, anything over a minute, can be stored indefinitely

Episodic Memory

personally experienced events

Sematic Memory

facts and abstract knowledge

Procedural Memory

skills and habits

Primacy effect

first words will be remembered

Recency effect

last words will be remembered

Proactive interference

remembering early words will make remembering later words harder

Retroactive interference

remembering later words will make remembering early words harder

The Encoding Process

moving info from short term to long term memory

Shallow Processing

Rehearsal

Deep processing

elaboration, organization, visual imagery

Mnemonic Devices

Linking new info to something you already know

Method of loci

linking info to physical locations

Types of Mnemonic Devices

1. Method of loci

2. Peg Word

3. Acrostics

4. Acronyms

Forgetting

inability to retrieve information

Decay theory

"Use it or lose it"

dendrites or axons growing and connecting to different neurons and synapses disappear

Interference theory

Not forgotten, just other info interfering with it

Motivated forgetting/Freudian Repression

Block out information

Can lead to Freudian slip

Retrograde amnesia

memory loss for details before trauma

Anterograde amnesia

memory loss for details after trauma, cant form new memories

Eye witness testimony

-Elizabeth Loftus

-observers give own memories of different situations

-used in court

-inaccurate

Loftus' implanted memory study

showed students a video of car accident and asked questions about something that wasnt in the video and students answer and believe that it was in the video

-creating new memories

Schema

a mental/conceptual framework that individuals use to make sense out of stored information

False memory syndrome

a person may recover a memory in therapy but it may be a false memory

ENGRAM

how memories are encoded in the brain/memory trace

-studied planaria in a maze, cut planaria in half, both halves went the right way

Kandel's research

memory and gene expression in aplysia

Instinct/Evolutionary theory

Instincts are innate patterns of behavior that occur in every species, dont explain behavior

Freud's instincts

Eros and Thanatos

Eros

Positive emotions, life instincts (sexual, helping, teaching, anything good)

Thanatos

Negative emotions, death instincts (suicide, depression, anything bad)

Drive Reduction Theory

a need creates a negative drive state that will lead to the reduction of that drive (hunger)

Arousal Theory/Optimal Level Theory/ Yerkes Dodson Law

the optimum level of arousal for peak performance will vary somewhat on the nature of the task. Best performance achieved at a moderate level of anxiety

Arousal

physiological state in which an individual is able to process information effectively and engage in motivated behavior

Humanistic theory

-Maslow

All people are motivated to reach their full potential but tend to get stopped along the way by negativity of a situation or people

Needs pyramid/hierarchy

Needs Pyramid

1. Physiological/biological

2. Safety

3. Love

4. Esteem

5. Self Actualization

Self actualization

people are reaching their full potential in many different things

Social learning theory

Our motivations are taught to us socially

Personality

The scientific study of stable characteristics that differentiate people

State

the factors that cause someone to act in a certain way, externally motivated, unstable, situational

Trait

internally motivated, stable, typical of person

Early explanations of personality

1. Astrology- same planetary cycles share same personality traits

2. Phrenology- personality caused by bumps on your head

3. Somatophytes- body types cause personality

4. Palm Reading

5. Graphology- handwriting

Freud's psychoanalytical approach to personality

1. ID

2. Ego

3. Superego

Id

Pleasure Principle

life and death instincts, unconscious

Superego

Morality principle

moral values that motivate us to do the right thing, conscious

Ego

Reality principle

the tendency to behave in ways that are consistent with reality

Shaped by life learning

partly conscious and unconscious

Ego Defense Mechanisms

Repression

Rationalization

Projection

Displacement

Regression

Reaction Formation

Denial

Sublimation

Psychosexual development

Stages of development in which the focus of sexual gratification switches from one body site to another - Freud

Oral (0-2)

lips and mouth are the primary erogenous zone, if babies breast feed too long, they can develop oral fixations later in life (smoking, eating, talking a lot)

Anal (2-3)

toilet training age

Anal retentive: OCD

Anal expulsive: messy

Phallic (3-7)

Gender identity develops

Oedipus complex

Boys love their mother and jealous of their father

Electra complex

girls love their father and jealous of their mother