Unit 2 Exam - Psych

Unconditioned stimulus (US)

leads to an automatic response

(the food)

Unconditioned response (UR):

an automatic response to a stimulus.

(salivation)

Neutral stimulus (NS):

causes no reaction

(the bell)

classical conditioning - Pavlov’s dogs

NS (bell) + US (food) = NS becoming CS

Conditioned stimulus

previously neutral stimulus that now triggers a conditioned response

(bell)

Conditioned response

an automatic response established by training/creating a conditioned stimulus

(salivation)

Extinction

the loss of the conditioned response. 

• conditioned stimulus (bell) is no longer paired with the unconditioned stimulus (food)

spontaneous recovery 

reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response

Higher-order conditioning

a previously conditioned stimulus now becomes the unconditioned stimulus for a new neutral stimulus

Ex: if we paired bell with now a lightbulb

Stimulus generalization

other stimuli that are like conditioned stimuli may produce the same reaction 

Ex: Little Albert was initially scared just by the rat, but then all fluffy things caused him to cry.

Stimulus discrimination:

ability to distinguish between the conditioned stimulus and similar stimuli, and not responding to the similar stimuli 

• Ex: Your cat being able to tell the difference between hearing you open a bag of chips and you opening a bag of cat treats 

Conditioned preferences

 neutral stimulus paired with pleasurable stimulus = positive emotional response

Counterconditioning

1. used for phobias/conditioned fears (role of amygdala)

   1. If seeing rat was now paired with getting a dessert

Conditioned medical response

unexpected misery or relief from possibly unrelated symptoms

Operant Conditioning

response and its consequences 

• Deliberate, intentional, responses

• Behavior becomes more or less likely to occur depending on its consequences 

  • Is the consequence a reinforcement or punishment?

Skinner Box :

when a rat in a box presses a bar, a food pellet is automatically released. 

• It taught them of the reward, and taught them to press lever 

Primary Reinforcer

1. naturally reinforcing, satisfy a biological need

   1. Ex- food, water, comfort contact 

Secondary Reinforcer

1. (conditioned or learned) 

   1. strengthen a response through association with other reinforcers. money (buy food), praise (positive emotional response) 

1. Positive Reinforcer

1. something pleasant follows a response. 

   1. Ex; you recieve a good grade after studying 

1. Negative Reinforcer

1. something unpleasant is removed following a response. 

   1. Ex: you got good grades, so your chores for the week are taken away

1. Positive Punishment

1. something unpleasant is added

   1. Ex:  a spanking for bad behavior 

1. Negative Punishment

1. something pleasant is removed 

   1. Ex: your phone is taken away for bad behavior

Continuous reinforcement:

leads to most rapid learning. (ex: skinner box rat)

Intermittent (partial) reinforcement:

not being reinforced every time 

Shaping:

helps to promote learning across behaviors with a low probability of occurring spontaneously 

• Ex: helping young children learn to maintain eye contact. Reinforce them every time they look up at me. If they stay looking, reinforce again 

  Latent Learning 

subconscious retention of information without reinforcement; knowledge becomes apparent later when reinforcer is presented

• Not just the response is acquired, but also knowledge about the response and its consequences

observational learning

learn by watching someone else model a behavior

• What you learn is affected by beliefs, interpretations of events 

• Knowledge, rather than a certain response, is acquired 

  • Bobo doll experiment

Concept

mental category that groups things that share similar properties

• Ex: bean bag chair vs. wood chair 

○ makes decisions easier 

○ so that we can make decisions quickly and efficiently 

Propositions

most basic statement that can be judged as true/false

Mental images

 representation of sensory stimuli

cognitive schemas

cognitive framework helping to organize information. describes patterns of thinking and behavior that people use to interpret the world.

Subconscious thinking

occurs outside of current awareness

• Allows you to do 2 things at once, when one of the things is highly automatic

• Multitasking can be inefficient and produce errors

• Still part of consciousness (can be subject to introspection), but outside of current awareness

Nonconscious thinking:

outside of awareness; not subject to introspection, but still 

affects behavior

• Implicit learning → can’t state how/what exactly we’ve learned

• Mindless behavior

Metacognition:

awareness of your own cognitive processes; ability to monitor and control those processes. 

• How rational am I being? Awareness of how you are thinking. 

Triarchic Theory 

• Componential/analytical:

• Information processing strategies used when solving a problem

• Use of logic

Triarchic Theory 

• Experiential/creative:

• Creativity in transferring skills to new situations

Triarchic Theory 

• Contextual/practical:

• Practical application of intelligence

• Emotional intelligence

  • Ex: street smarts

Emotional intelligence

 involves the ability to identify, express, and regulate emotions. 

Theory of multiple intelligences 

Measuring intelligence 
Psychometric approach:

Psychological testing. How well I do on a standardized test.

Measuring intelligence 

G factor

a general ability. 

• Crystallized: Facts 

  • Ex: you know to put a stamp on the corner of a letter. 

• Fluid:reasoning and using information to solve new problems

Measuring intelligence 

IQ:

how well a person has done on an intelligence test compared to other people.

Measuring intelligence 

Mental age:

a measure of development expressed in terms of the average mental ability at a given age.

• Binet test

identifying children who needed remedial work

• There is a cultural bias

Stereotype Threat :

what are the people who are testing me thinking about me? 

• Can lead to anxiety or enhanced performance 

Intellectual Achievement 

also depends on motivation and work ethic

• Cultural influences on academic performance

• Ex: Asian students feel more pressure to do well in math 

Problem Solving 

Algorithm:

when problems are well defined 

• used to produce a correct (or best) solution 

Problem Solving 

Heuristic:

rule of thumb. Mental shortcuts. 

• Helps Limit options 

Problem Solving 

• Intuition:

• “fast”, make decision based on gut feeling or emotion 

Problem Solving 

•  Insight:

• “slow”, thinking requires intellectual effort 

Problem Solving 

• Affect heuristic:

• consult one’s emotions instead of estimating probabilities objectively. 

  Ex: shark attacks being more dangerous when the leading cause of death in the world is actually heart disease

Problem Solving 

• Availability heuristic:

• judging probability of an event based on how easily you can think of examples of it

• EX: recently learned info is more readily available. 

Cognitive Biases

Biases caused by…

• Desire to avoid loss 

• The framing effect - how the choice is presented

Fairness bias:

forgoing economic gain because you want to see fairness

• Evolutionary roots

• You walk out with the same as you had before 

• Don't want to give up on something you already possess 

Confirmation bias:

paying attention only to evidence that supports your conclusion

Hindsight bias:

People overestimate their ability to have made accurate predictions 

 “bias blind spot”:

we acknowledge that other people have biases 

• We tend to think that we are free of bias and see the world as it really is

Reasoning

thinking about something in a logical, sensible way

• Draw from: Observations, facts, or assumptions 

Formal reasoning problems:

provide necessary information to reach a single answer

• You have all info. possible, use it all, to reach conclusion

Informal reasoning problems:

no single solution; viewing the problem from multiple angles (dialectical thinking: examining opposing or contradictory ideas or perspectives)

1. Prereflective thinking:

there is one answer 

• A correct answer always exists, and it can be obtained directly. 

2. Quasi-reflective thinking: 

Judgements should be supported by reasons 

• Recognize that not everything can be known with absolute certainty

• Only looks at evidence that fits their beliefs 

3. Reflective thinking:

3. some things cannot be known with certainty. 

   • Some judgements are more valid than others 

   Considers varied evidence (from multiple sources)

Mental sets:

try to solve new problems by using the same strategy/heuristic 

• Ex: cramming before the exam always works for me, so i'll keep doing it 

• Not helpful when a problems calls for fresh insights 

Motivation

 goal to remove an individual from an unpleasant situation

Extrinsic motivation:

the desire to do something for external rewards 

• Ex: money, good grades 

Intrinsic motivation:

desire to do something for its own sake and the pleasure it brings. 

• Ex: earning a new language because you like experiencing new things, not because your job requires it.

A goal is most likely to improve your motivation and performance when:

1. The goal is specific

2. The goal is challenging but achievable 

3. The goal is framed in terms of getting what you want

   1. approach goals (desired outcomes)

   2. avoidance goals (avoiding unpleasant experiences)

Effects of Motivation on Work 

• Mastery (learning) goals:

• focus is on learning the task well

• Effects of Motivation on Work 

  • Performance goals:

• performing well for others

Other contributors to success: 

1. Self-control: ability to regulate emotion, attention, and behavior in the face of temptation. 

2. Self-confidence and grit

Effects of Work on Motivation 

Our motivation to do work depends on the type of work that we’re doing. 

• Are we a workaholic? 

• If we love our job we are more motivated to go 

What Motivates Accomplishment 

• Working conditions that promote motivation and accomplishment 

• Expectations of excellence can motivate accomplishment 

• These expectations stem from one’s level of self-efficacy 

  • Acquired through experience in mastering new skills, learning from failures 

Happiness Motivates 

• We are not good at predicting what will make us happy or unhappy 

• Well-being increases when people enjoy the intrinsic satisfaction of an activity 

Motivational Interviewing 

• Promotes sustained reduction in substance abuse and increased treatment retention

1. Sustain talk:

1. increases resistance; promotes keeping behavior the same 

1. Change talk:

1. decreases resistance; promotes changing behavior 

Explicit Memory 

• Consciously recalling previously learned information

• Recognition > recall

  • Great recognition for visual images

Implicit Memory 

• Unconscious and effortless

• Measured by priming and relearning method

• Current thoughts/actions affected by past experiences (even when not consciously remembered)

Models of Memory

• Information processing model :

• cognitively processing information 

  • Input, output, and retrieval

Models of Memory

• Three box model

• 3 interacting systems 

  • Sensory Register 

  • Short-term memory 

  • Long-term memory 

Sensory Register 

• Fleeting nature → prevents double exposures

• Briefly retained → does not easily go into short term memory

• information that does not transfer out of the

  sensory register  is assumed to be forgotten forever

Short-term memory 

• Retains new info for 30 seconds, unless rehearsal or chunking take place

• Encoded from sensory information

• Allows us to control attention, resist distraction, and maintain information in an accessible way

• Requires active processing to go into long term

• Long-term memory 

• No capacity limit

• Encoding, storage, and retrieval shaped by culture and experience

• Organized through network of interrelated concepts

• Parallel distributed processing (PDP) 

• knowledge represented as connections similar to neural connections in the brain

Chunking 

• The capacity of STM is extremely limited but can be extended if information is organized into larger units by chunking 

  • Ex: a word, phrase, sentence, or image 

  • Depends on previous experience 

Storing Information in Long-Term Memory (LTM) 

• Words organized by semantic categories → generalize natural language concepts

• Tip of the tongue research → words organized in terms of sound and form

• Information also organized by familiarity, relevance, or association with other information

Types of information in LTM 

• Skills or habits “knowing how”

• Abstract or representational knowledge “knowing that” 

• Semantic declarative memory 

• Knowing FACTS

• Paris is the capital of France

• Episodic declarative memory 

• a conscious memory of a previous experience.

• Your wedding day

1. serial position effect

We often recall the first and last subjects on a list, and forget those in the middle 

1. primacy effect: 

remembering things at start of list rather than middle or end

1. recency effect:  

items that are presented last are remembered best

Effortful vs. automatic encoding

Encoding : some kind of info, such as material in a college course, requires effortful encoding. 

• As opposed to automatic encoding like knowing how to walk

Retrieval 

1. Deep processing :

1. the processing of meaning 

Retrieval

shallow processing:

less effective retention strategy. surface-level

 features of information or stimuli

Retrieval practice

is necessary if a memory is going to

be consolidated.

○ For students, short quizzes and repeated testing

can have large benefits. 

Short term memory

temporary changes within neurons

• Altering ability to release neurotransmitters

• Ex. alcohol can reduce release of excitatory neurotransmitters

Long term memory

lasting structural changes in the brain

• Long term potentiation → increasing the strength of a synapse when the synapse is repeatedly used

  • Takes TIME