PSYCH 101 - Final Exam

Encoding

getting information into your head

Semantic Encoding

Relating information in a meaningful way to knowledge that is already stored in memory

Visual Encoding

• Encoding information as images

• Relates to the inherent properties of the words

• High imagery words are easier to remember + more semantic(dog, lamp)
  - Less imagery are harder to remember (justice, moral)

Acoustic Encoding

• Encoding the sounds that words make

• Enhanced through semantic and auditory coding (ex : rhyming)

Atkinson-Shiffrin Model of memory

assumes three different memory systems: sensory memory, short-term memory (STM), and long-term memory (LTM).

Sensory memory

• Hold sensory information anywhere between 0.5-5 seconds

• Helps us interact and navigate the world but of the information is useless

• Short-lived

• Any info not attended to will be lost forever

Short Term Memory

• Temporary storage

• Information last for about 20 seconds

• If info is kept alive it will stay there (rehearsed)

• We can hold about 7 pieces of information in our short term memory

• Better for numbers then letters

• Better for acoustic then visual encoding

Long term memory

• Continuous storage of information

• Storage is infinite (diff from short term) - doesn't mean that its going to stay there

Consolidation

Taking information from short term and putting it in long term

Declarative memory

Explicit memory

Episodic memory

Specific events, we also use it to understand/imagine what our future might be like

Semantic memory

School concepts

Non-Declarative memory

Implicit memory

Procedural memory

Example: driving and not remembering a thing about the drive (muscle memory)

Automatic processes

Processes that occur without conscious thought

Emotional conditioning

Learning through emotional responses

Retrieval

Bringing information out of long-term storage back into short-term memory

Recall

Retrieving information without any retrieval cues

Recognition

Identifying information that you have previously learned (cued recall)

Retrieval cue

External information that is associated with stored information

Relearning

Relearning information that was previously learned

Hippocampus

Linked to episodic memory

Prefrontal cortex

Linked to semantic memory, involved in memory retrieval

Amygdala

Linked to emotional conditioning

Cerebellum

Linked to procedural memories and motor learning (implicit memories)

Engram

Specialized bundles of nerves in the hippocampus which 'store/encode' information

Neurotransmitters

Involved with memories, must be involved in memory processes

Glutamate

Most sure to be involved in memory, triggers release of neurotransmitters during emotional events

Flashbulb memory

Very clear memory of a significant

Amnesia

Loss of long term memory

Anterograde amnesia

Inability to make new memories, old memories are still intact

Retrograde amnesia

Loss of memories prior to trauma, can be partial or full

Construction

making a memory

Reconstruction

bringing up old memories from long term to short

7 sins of memory

transience, absentmindedness, blocking, misattribution, suggestibility, bias, persistence

Transience

• Forgetting

• Occurs in sensory

Absentmindness

• Type of forgetting

• A lapse in attention that results in a memory failure

• Incorporates encoding failures

Brain involvement in semantic memory

*Left inferior(lower) frontal gyrus is involved in semantic memory
*Right inferior frontal gyrus is involved in retrieving semantic info

Blocking

• Type of forgetting

• Failure to retrieve information that is readily available

• "tip of the tongue" phenomenon

• Most often occurs for names

Misattribution

• Type of distortion

• Assign memory to the wrong source

Suggestibility

• Type of distortion

• Incorporate misleading information from external sources into personal recollections

Bias

• Type of distortion

• The distorting influence of present knowledge

Egocentric Bias

involves enhancing our memories of the past

Hindsight Bias

I knew it all along

Persistance

• Type of intrusion

• Intrusive recollection of events that we wish we could forget

• The amygdala plays a key role

Learning

The acquisition, from experience, of new knowledge, skill or responses that result in a relatively permanent change in the state of the learner.

Instincts

Behaviours which do not need to be learned, they are innate.

Reflexes

Relatively simple motor/neural responses that are localized.

Associative Learning

Making connection between stimuli or events that occur together in the environment.

Classical Conditioning

A type of learning whereby a neutral stimulus produces a response after being paired with a stimulus that naturally produces that response.

Conditioned

Learned.

Unconditioned

Not learned, akin to a reflex.

Neutral Stimulus

A stimulus that does not evoke an unconditioned response.

Unconditioned Stimulus

A stimulus that evokes an unlearned response.

Unconditioned Response

An unlearned response in response to the unconditioned stimulus.

Conditioned Stimulus

After acquisition

Conditioned Response

The response that is evoked by the new conditioned stimulus.

Acquisition

Learn to associate the neutral stimulus with the unconditioned stimulus.

Extinction

A decrease in the conditioned response when the UCS is no longer presented with the CS.

Spontaneous Recovery

Brief resurgence of the conditioned response to the conditioned stimulus

Generalization

If you present a conditioned stimulus that is similar to the conditioned stimulus

Discrimination

When conditioned response is not evoked by stimuli that are similar to the original stimulus.

Law of Effect

Behaviors followed by a positive outcome are likely to be repeated and vice versa.

Operant Conditioning

A method of learning that employs rewards and punishments for behavior.

Reinforcement

Anything that increases the likelihood that a target behavior will be repeated.

Punishment

Anything that decreases the likelihood that a behavior will be repeated.

Positive Reinforcement

Adding something pleasant to encourage a behavior.

Negative Reinforcement

Removing something unpleasant to encourage a behavior.

Positive Punishment

Adding something negative to discourage a behavior.

Negative Punishment

Taking something positive away to discourage a behavior.

Primary Reinforcers

Reinforcers that are biologically important and do not lose their reinforcing properties.

Secondary Reinforcers

Reinforcers that only have value when linked to primary reinforcers.

Shaping

Reinforcing successive steps to achieve a final behavior.

Timing of Reinforcement

Reinforcement works best when it immediately follows the behavior.

Negative Consequences of Punishment

Can lead to fear and aggression in children.

Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Motivation

Rewarding can shift motivation from intrinsic enjoyment to extrinsic rewards.

Examples of Positive Reinforcement

Praise

Examples of Negative Reinforcement

Using sunscreen to avoid sunburn

Examples of Positive Punishment

More homework

Examples of Negative Punishment

Changing Wi-Fi until room is cleaned

Fixed-Ratio

The specific number of behaviours completed

Fixed-Interval

A set amount of time had passed

Variable-Ratio

The number of behaviours is random each time

Intermittent reinforcement effect

Behavior is more resistant to extinction when reinforcement is discontinuous

Variable-Interval

A specific amount of time but changes every time

Learning + operant conditioning

There is no room for cognition (thoughts/expectations)

Reward proximity

The closer the reward, the better the learning

Observational Learning

Involves a cognitive component to learning

Vicarious

Observed rewards/punishments are known as vicarious

Live model

Live demonstration of behavior

Verbal Model

Behavior is explained aloud

Symbolic Model

Models that demonstrate behavior in books/movies/YouTube

Bandura Four Step Model

Includes Attention, Retention, Reproduce, and Motivation

Attention

Focus on what the model is doing

Retention

You need to be able to retain what you see

Reproduce

You need to be able to actually do the behavior

Motivation

Do you want to do the behavior? What were the observed consequences?

Latent Learning

Learning that takes place but is not observable until needed

Cognition

How we 'think'

Concept

Group/categories of shared features of related objects