Gen. Psych. Exam #2

Chapters 5, 6, and 7

Learning

Change in behavior acquired through experiences

Classical Conditioning

Founder:

Learning by pairing 2 things together

Pavlov

Unconditioned Stimulus

something that naturally elicits a response

Unconditioned Response

the natural response to stimulus

Conditioned Stimulus

Something that was neutral but began to elicit a response after pairings with an unconditioned stimulus

Conditioned Response

The learned response to a conditioned stimulus

How to strengthen the Conditioned Response

Increased frequency of pairing, closer together in timing, increased intensity of unconditioned stimulus

Stimulus Generalization

The tendency for similar things to trigger a conditioned response

ex: little Albert being scared of all things small, white, and fuzzy things

Stimulus Discrimination

The tendency to distinguish between different stimuli so they don’t all elicit the same conditioned response

Extinction

Gradual weakening of a conditioned response when it is no longer being paired

Spontaneous Recovery

When the conditioned response may randomly return after extinction

Conditioned Taste Aversion

The aversion to certain foods because of classical conditioning

ex: John Garcia put fatal chemicals in lamb carcasses to condition wolves to stop killing and eating them

Operant Conditioning

Learning due to consequences

Edward Thorndike:

“Puzzle Boxes”

Law of Effect

People are more likely to do things that are pleasurable, less likely to do things that aren’t

B.F. Skinner

“Skinner box”; Furthered the work on operant conditioning

Reinforcement

Increasing behavior

Positive Reinforcement

Adding something to increase behavor

Negative Reinforcement

Taking something away or making something unpleasurable to increase behavior

Punishment

Decreasing behavior

Positive Punishment

Adding something to decrease behavior

Negative Punishment

Taking something away to decrease behavior

Shaping

Reinforcing behavior that gets closer to the desired end behavior

ex: potty chart

Continuous Reinforcement

When behavior is reinforced every time

Partial Reinforcement

Behavior that is only sometimes reinforced

Observational learning

Learning by observing and imitating the behaviors of others

Albert Bandura

Observational learning; “bobo doll” experiment

3 basic processes of the memory system

1. Encoding

2. Storage

3. Retrieval

Stage 1: Sensory memory

Holds memory of sensory short term. Includes Iconic memory (visual mental image), and echoic memory (mental hearing)

Stage 2: Short-term memory

Founder:

retaining new info for a short amount of time (5-9 bits of info at a time)

• Chunking- remembering things in smaller groups

• Maintenace rehearsal- repetition

George Miller

Stage 3: Long-term memory

Unlimited capacity

• Semantic mem.- facts

• Episodic mem.- personal experiences. “Episode of my life”

• Retrospective- memory of the past

• Prospective- future action (remembering to remember)

Stage 3: Declarative memory

Just making a conscious effort to know things. “I declare”

Stage 3: Procedural memory

Knowing how to do things without a conscious effort

Misinformation effect

Founder:

Misinformation/disruptions may distort memories

Elizabeth Loftus

Decay Theory

Founder:

Memories consist of traces in the brain that fade away over time.

Herman Ebbinghaus

Ebbinghaus forgetting curve

Forgetting occurs rapidly after learning and then more gradually overtime

Interference theory

Forgetting occurs because memories interfere with each other. The greater the similarity of the events, the more likely there will be interference

Retroactive- new info interferes with previously learned info

Proactive- old info blocks the recall of new info

Retrieval theory

Forgetting is the result of failure to access stored memories

Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon

Recall task

Ask to come up with correct answer from memory

ex: essay exam

Recognition task

Asked to select correct answer from a selection

ex: multiple choice exam

Retrograde Amnesia

Loss of memory from past events

Anterograde Amnesia

loss of ability to form or store new memories

Amnesia

Memory loss. Causes may be biological (most common) or psychological

Intelligence

The capacity to acquire, retain, and apply knowledge to adapt to the environment

Spearman’s “g”

People who do well in one type of test tend to do well in other types of tests

g factor- general intelligence

Sternberg’s triarchic theory

3 aspects to general intelligence

1. Practical- common sense

2. Analytic- analyze problems

3. Creative- new ways to solve unfamiliar problems

Gardner’s model

8 different intelligences

1. Linguistic (words/sounds)

2. Logical/Mathematical

3. Musical

4. Spatial (size/shape)

5. Bodily-kinesthetic (body control)

6. Interpersonal (understanding others)

7. Intrapersonal (understanding one’s self)

8. Naturalist (patterns/processes in nature)

IQ

Intelligence quota, (mental age/actual age) x 100

Misuses of IQ

Cultural bias, too much emphasis put on IQ, and low expectations of people with low IQ

IQ is correlated with

Academic achievement, job performance, long-term health and longevity

Normal distribution chart

Bulk of scores in the middle, fewer on the ends (think of stats)

Flynn effect

The phenomenon of increasing IQ scores in the 20th century