General Psych Exam 3

What is classical conditioning?

Learning to respond to a new stimulus that has been associated with another stimulus that produces the response - automatic nonvoluntary behaviors

How did Pavlov study classical conditioning?

Notices that dogs salivate at mere sight of food dish - he presented food to them with a neutral stimulus (bell) and measured dogs response

What is an unconditioned response?

Innate response to US - Ex: Salivation

What is an unconditioned stimulus?

Stimulus that automatically elicits a response without conditioning - Ex: food

What is a conditioned response?

Learned response to CS

What is a conditioned stimulus?

previously neural stimulus that now elicits a conditioned response due to association with an unconditioned stimulus

What is acquisition?

Stage of conditioned in which the association is being learned

What is generalization in classical conditioning?

Conditioned response to stimuli that are not the conditioned stimulus

What is discrimination in classical conditioning?

Conditioned response occurs only to a specific stimulus

What is extinction in classical conditioning?

Failure to exhibit the CR to the CS (because the CS no longer predicts the US)

What is spontaneous recovery in classical conditioning?

Reappearance of the CR to the original CS after extinction

What is second-order (higher-order) conditioning?

New neutral stimulus becomes associated with previously conditioned stimulus - becomes new CS (tends to be weaker then first order conditioning)

What is a conditioned aversion? What are some examples of conditioned aversions in use (e.g., wolves and coyotes)?

Classically conditioned between CS and a US that causes an unpleasant response Ex: John Garcie discovers conditioned aversion to flavored water in rats

What was Watson and Raynor's study with Little Albert?

Paries loud noise with rat - fear, generalized fear to other fuzzy objects

What is counterconditioning (i.e., Mary Cover Jones's study)?

Replacing unwanted CR with wanted response (rabbits and cookies)

What is operant conditioning?

A learning process in psychology where voluntary behaviors are modified, shaped, or maintained by their consequences - Voluntary behaviors, choices you make

What is Thorndike's law of effect?

The tendency of an organism to produce a behavior depends on the effect of the behavior on the environment.

What was Thorndike's puzzle box?

Thorndike's Puzzle Box: put cat in box and fish outside, cat pressed a level to open, he didn't figure out the mechanics of the box, he just found the correct behavior for the reward

What is a Skinner box?

Hungry animal placed in box, presses bar - revieces food pellet - increases bar pressing

What is reinforcement?

consequence of behavior that increases the probability that the behavior will occur

What is punishment?

consequence of behavior that decreases the probability that hte behavior will occur

What is shaping?

reinforcing closer and closer approximations of the desired response

What are successive approximations?

responses that are increasingly similar to the desired response

What is positive reinforcement?

presentation of a pleasant stimulus after a behavior - increases probability of behavior

What is negative reinforcement?

removal of pleasant stimulus after a behavior - decreases probability of behavior

What is positive punishment?

unpleasant stimulus follows behavior - decreases probability of behavior

What is negative punishment?

removal of pleasant stimulus after a behavior - decreases probability of behavior

What is generalization in operant conditioning?

After a behavior that is reinforced in one situation, it is performed in a different situation

What is discrimination in operant conditioning?

After behavior that is reinforced in one situation is not performed in a different situation

What is extinction in operant conditioning?

After the reinforcer is withdrawn, the behavior decreases

What is spontaneous recovery in operant conditioning?

After extinction, the behavior decreases

What is continuous reinforcement, and which is better for learning?

consequences are the same each time the behavior occurs * better for learning

What is intermittent (partial) reinforcement?

consequences are given only some of the times the behavior occurs

What is a fixed-ratio schedule of reinforcement?

for a fixed proportion of responses emitted

What is a variable-ratio schedule of reinforcement?

reward for some percentage of responses, but unpredictable number of responses required before reinforcement

What is a fixed-interval schedule of reinforcement?

reinforcement for responses after a fixed amount of time

What is a variable-interval schedule of reinforcement?

reinforcement for response after an amount of time that is not constant

What are some problems with punishment?

Must wait until the behavior is exhibited before reinforcing

What is intrinsic motivation?

pursuit of activity for its own sake

What is extrinsic motivation?

pursuit of goal for external rewards

What is the overjustification effect?

too much reward undermines intrinsic motivation

What is observational learning?

learning by observing the behavior of others

What is modeling?

imitating others behaviors

What was Bandura's Bobo doll study?

Used dolls to show that humans learn without conditioning or reinforcement, children weren't praised for hitting the doll, they just did it bc they observed an adult do it

What are the implications of observing aggressive behavior?

Children will be aggressive to other children

What are the implications of observing prosocial behavior?

more like to help others

What are encoding, storage, and retrieval?

They are the three steps of Information processing Model of Memory

What is encoding?

Getting information into memory

What is storage?

maintaining encoded information over time

What is retrieval?

pulling previously encoded and stored information from memory

What are sensory, short-term, and long-term memory?

They are the stages for Atkinsons & Shiffrins Three-Stage Model of Information Processing

What is sensory memory?

duration short, capacity unknown

What is short term memory?

memory we hold in our minds for a short time

What is long term memory?

unlimited capacity, unlimited duration

What is iconic memory?

visual sensory memory, very short, ½ second long

What is echoic memory?

auditory sensory memory, 3 or 4 seconds

How did Sperling study iconic memory? What were the results of his study?

He flashed 12 letters for 1/20 second, then told participants to report as much they could from top to bottom row

What is explicit memory?

conscious recollection of material from long term memory

What is implicit memory?

not brought to mind consciously, but expressed in behavior

What is semantic memory?

general knowledge (explicit)

What is episodic memory?

personal experienced events (explicit)

What is procedural memory?

memory for the performance of skills

What is priming?

prior exposure to a stimulus affects response to a later stimulus

What are classical conditioning associations?

automatic response is paired with a stimulus

What is recall?

prodigy memories using minimal retrieval cues

What is recognition?

knowledge whether one has previously been exposed to information

What is relearning?

learning occurs more quickly the second time its learned

What is chunking?

organizing information into smaller meaningful pieces to facilitate memory

What are mnemonics?

strategies and tricks for improving memory (acronyms)

What is maintenance rehearsal?

rote(over and over) repetition of material

What is elaborative rehearsal?

thinking about the meaning of the information

What is Craik and Tulving's (1975) levels of processing theory?

Information can be processed at different depths (shallow to deep)

What is shallow processing?

superficial features such as physical appearance

What is deep processing?

the meaning behind something

What was their study with CHAIR, etc.?

Asked questions at different depths, what is the word in capital letters.. To - would the word fit in the following sentence?...

What is context-dependent memory?

environment in which something is learned serves as cue for retrieval

What is state-dependent memory?

physical or mental state in which something is learned as cue for retrieval

What is encoding failure?

memory fails to form due to lack of attention or processing

What is storage decay?

after memory has been stored, it may fade

What is retrieval failure?

stored memories cannot be assessed

What is Ebbinghaus's forgetting curve?

After forming a memory, majority of forgetting occurs initially

What is the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon?

Example of retrieval failure, memories are there but they don't come out

What is anterograde amnesia?

memory loss for information encountered after head injury

What is retrograde amnesia?

memory loss for information from before head injury

What type of amnesia and memory impairment did H.M. experience?

Anterograde amnesia