PSYC 100 Comprehensive Exam Review: Research Methods, Neuroscience, Genetics, Emotion, and Learning

Comprehensive practice flashcard set covering research methods, evolutionary psychology, behavioural epigenetics, knowledge emotions, neuronal and endocrine physiology, psychopharmacology, and classical and operant conditioning for PSYC 100.

What kinds of changes count as learning?

Experience-based changes in knowledge, skills, perception, memory, or behaviour.

What is auditory perceptual learning?

Experience-dependent changes in how the brain processes sounds, including familiar music.

What did Polley, Steinberg, and Merzenich investigate?

Experience-dependent changes in auditory perception.

What is implicit learning?

Learning that influences behaviour without deliberate attempts to acquire the information.

What is implicit memory?

Past experiences that influence current behaviour without conscious recollection.

How do implicit learning and implicit memory differ?

Implicit learning concerns the acquisition of information, whereas implicit memory concerns the later influence of that information.

What is explicit learning?

The conscious, deliberate learning of information or skills.

What is intentional learning?

Learning that occurs while deliberately trying to remember information.

What is incidental learning?

Learning that occurs without any conscious intention to learn.

Does learning require conscious intention?

No; implicit, incidental, and perceptual learning can all occur without conscious intention.

What is nonassociative learning?

A change in behavioural response resulting from repeated exposure to a single stimulus.

What is habituation?

A decrease in behavioural responding following repeated exposure to a benign stimulus.

What is sensitization?

An increase in behavioural responding following repeated or significant stimulation.

Why might someone stop noticing the ticking of a grandfather clock?

Habituation reduces the behavioural and neural response to the repeated sound.

Why might an irritating laugh become increasingly annoying over time?

Sensitization increases responsiveness to the repeated, salient stimulus.

What form of learning occurs when an earthworm retracts less after repeated touches?

Habituation.

How do habituation and sensitization differ?

Habituation decreases responding over repeated exposures, whereas sensitization increases responding.

What is associative learning?

Learning relationships between stimuli or between behaviours and their consequences.

What is classical conditioning?

A learning process in which an organism learns that one stimulus predicts another stimulus.

What is operant conditioning?

A learning process in which an organism learns how behaviour relates to its consequences.

What type of learning occurs when a cat associates the sound of a janitor with food?

Classical conditioning, because the auditory cue predicts food delivery.

What type of learning occurs when a dog rolls over and receives a treat?

Operant conditioning, because the treat reinforces the preceding behaviour.

What is the primary distinction between classical and operant conditioning?

Classical conditioning links two stimuli, whereas operant conditioning links a behaviour with its consequences.

What four factors did Jenkins identify in memory experiments?

Learners, encoding activities, materials, and retrieval conditions.

Which of Jenkins's factors are emphasized in Chapter 20?

Learner characteristics and encoding activities.

How does motivation affect learning performance?

Motivation matters, but motivation alone produces only modest benefits without effective study strategies.

What did studies using financial incentives reveal about motivation and learning?

Increasing motivation through monetary rewards produced only modest learning benefits.

What did Castel and colleagues demonstrate regarding learner prioritization?

Learners can selectively direct more study effort toward information they consider important.

Why are organization and planning critical for effective learning?

They enable learners to allocate study time and cognitive effort efficiently.

What is working memory?

A limited-capacity system used to temporarily hold and manipulate information during cognitive tasks.

How is working memory utilized during mental arithmetic?

It holds intermediate calculations, such as carried digits, while solving problems.

Which cognitive abilities correlate strongly with working-memory capacity?

Reasoning, reading comprehension, and attentional control.

How does math anxiety impair arithmetic performance?

Intrusive worries and anxious thoughts consume working-memory resources needed for calculations.

What did Ashcraft and Kirk investigate regarding cognitive performance?

The relationship between math anxiety and working-memory performance.

What did Ramirez and Beilock discover about expressive writing before exams?

Writing about test anxiety before an exam reduces intrusive worries and improves math performance.

Why does domain-specific expertise improve memory for new information?

Experts leverage existing knowledge structures to organize new information into meaningful patterns.

What is chunking in memory processing?

Grouping individual pieces of information into larger, meaningful units.

What did Chase and Simon discover regarding chess masters and memory?

Chess masters remembered realistic game positions far better than novices due to meaningful chunking.

What happened to chess experts' memory advantage when pieces were arranged randomly?

The memory advantage over novices largely disappeared.

What general principle did Chase and Simon's chess experiment demonstrate?

Expert memory relies on meaningful, domain-specific patterns rather than superior general memory.

Why can retrieval fail even when information is successfully stored in memory?

The stored information may lack effective or appropriate retrieval cues at the time of testing.

What is encoding in the context of memory?

The process of taking in and processing information so that it can be stored and later retrieved.

What did Eagle and Leiter find regarding intentional versus incidental word learning?

Intentional learning improved free recall but could impair recognition compared to incidental processing.

What is recall in memory testing?

Generating learned information from memory without presented alternatives or answers.

What is recognition in memory testing?

Identifying previously encountered information when presented with alternatives.

Why does an intention to learn not guarantee superior memory performance?

Memory retention depends heavily on the specific encoding activities used and how they match the test.

What is survival processing in memory research?

Encoding information by evaluating its relevance to a hypothetical survival situation.

What did Nairne, Pandeirada, and Thompson discover regarding survival processing?

Evaluating information for survival relevance produced exceptionally strong long-term recall.

What is semantic processing?

Encoding information by attending deeply to its meaning and conceptual associations.

What did Craik and Lockhart emphasize about levels of processing?

Deeper, meaning-based processing produces more durable memory traces than shallow, surface-level processing.

Why is the mere intention to learn insufficient for effective studying?

The cognitive nature of the actual encoding activity determines subsequent retention.

What did Tullis and Benjamin find regarding self-paced studying?

Benefits were modest and concentrated among learners who allocated extra study time to difficult items.

What did Kornell and Metcalfe find about restudy decisions?

Selectively choosing which items to restudy based on self-monitoring significantly improves learning.

Why does self-controlled studying often fail to produce optimal learning?

Learners frequently lack accurate metacognitive monitoring and fail to choose effective study strategies.

What is spaced practice?

Distributing study sessions or repetitions across time rather than massing them together.

What is massed practice?

Concentrating study repetitions into a single, continuous session with little or no time between them.

Which practice schedule produces superior long-term retention: spaced or massed practice?

Spaced practice.

What is interleaving in educational practice?

Mixing different types of problems, topics, or skills during a single study session.

What did the baseball batting practice study demonstrate about interleaving?

Practicing mixed pitch types improved subsequent batting performance compared to practicing one pitch type in blocks.

What did Taylor and Rohrer find regarding interleaved mathematics practice?

Interleaving different types of math problems produced superior test performance relative to blocked practice.

What is the testing effect?

The finding that actively retrieving information from memory enhances long-term retention more than restudying.

Why is self-testing more than just an assessment tool?

The act of memory retrieval directly modifies and strengthens the neural memory trace.

What three general principles conclude Chapter 20 on learning?

Effective metacognition, transfer-appropriate processing, and the functional value of forgetting.

What is metacognition?

The process of monitoring and regulating one's own thinking, learning, and memory.

How can learners improve their metacognitive accuracy?

By comparing subjective judgments of learning against objective self-test performance.

What is transfer-appropriate processing?

The principle that memory is maximized when cognitive processes engaged during encoding match test demands.

What did Morris, Bransford, and Franks demonstrate about encoding and retrieval matching?

Rhyme-based phonological encoding outperformed semantic encoding when retrieval was assessed via a rhyming test.

Why might semantic encoding be less effective than phonological encoding on a rhyming test?

The rhyming test requires access to phonetic information rather than conceptual meaning.

Why should emergency responders practice under realistic operational conditions?

Practice conditions should closely match the retrieval demands and environmental stressors of actual emergencies.

What is retrieval failure in memory?

The temporary or situational inability to access information that is successfully stored in long-term memory.

How can forgetting be beneficial for cognitive functioning?

It reduces cognitive interference from outdated, irrelevant, or competing information.

How might forgetting contribute to the benefits of spaced practice?

Some forgetting between sessions makes subsequent retrieval more effortful, thereby strengthening memory.

What are desirable difficulties in learning?

Instructional challenges that slow immediate acquisition but foster durable long-term retention and transfer.

Why can study strategies that feel easy be misleading to students?

Immediate perceptual fluency or familiarity creates an illusion of competence without ensuring retention.

What is the primary practical study recommendation from Chapter 20?

Engage in retrieval practice, space study sessions, monitor understanding accurately, and match encoding to exam demands.

What is positive reinforcement in operant conditioning?

The presentation or addition of a desirable stimulus following a behaviour that increases that behaviour's future frequency.

What is negative reinforcement in operant conditioning?

The removal or termination of an aversive stimulus following a behaviour that increases that behaviour's future frequency.

What is positive punishment in operant conditioning?

The presentation or addition of an unpleasant stimulus following a behaviour that decreases that behaviour's future frequency.

What is negative punishment in operant conditioning?

The removal or termination of a desirable stimulus following a behaviour that decreases that behaviour's future frequency.

What does the term 'positive' signify in operant conditioning?

A stimulus is added or presented.

What does the term 'negative' signify in operant conditioning?

A stimulus is removed, subtracted, or avoided.

What effect does reinforcement always have on behaviour?

It increases the future probability or frequency of the behaviour.

What effect does punishment always have on behaviour?

It decreases the future probability or frequency of the behaviour.

A dog receives a biscuit immediately after sitting. Which operant consequence is this?

Positive reinforcement.

Buckling a seatbelt silences an annoying reminder chime, increasing future buckling. Which operant consequence is this?

Negative reinforcement.

Assigning extra household chores reduces a student's misbehaviour. Which operant consequence is this?

Positive punishment.

Revoking phone privileges for a week reduces rule-breaking behaviour. Which operant consequence is this?

Negative punishment.

A student receives enthusiastic praise from a teacher and studies more often. Which operant consequence is this?

Positive reinforcement.

Taking an analgesic removes headache pain and increases future medication use. Which operant consequence is this?

Negative reinforcement.

A child loses screen privileges and consequently interrupts conversations less frequently. Which operant consequence is this?

Negative punishment.

Issuing a monetary fine reduces a motorist's speeding behaviour. Which operant consequence is this?

Positive punishment.

Why is negative reinforcement fundamentally different from punishment?

Negative reinforcement strengthens a behaviour by removing an aversive stimulus, whereas punishment weakens a behaviour.

How do positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement differ?

Both increase behaviour, but positive reinforcement adds a stimulus while negative reinforcement removes one.

How do positive punishment and negative punishment differ?

Both decrease behaviour, but positive punishment adds a stimulus while negative punishment removes one.

What two-step process should be used to classify an operant conditioning scenario?

First determine whether the behaviour increases or decreases, then identify whether a stimulus was added or removed.

What is a neutral stimulus (NS) in classical conditioning?

A stimulus that initially elicits no specific target response before conditioning.

What is an unconditioned stimulus (US) in classical conditioning?

A stimulus that naturally and automatically elicits a physiological response without prior training.

What is an unconditioned response (UR) in classical conditioning?

An automatic, unlearned reflex or reaction elicited by an unconditioned stimulus.

What is a conditioned stimulus (CS) in classical conditioning?

A previously neutral stimulus that comes to trigger a learned response after association with an unconditioned stimulus.

What is a conditioned response (CR) in classical conditioning?

A learned response elicited by a conditioned stimulus following associative conditioning.