psych

unconditioned stimulus (US)

• any stimulus or event that triggers a response naturally without prior learning

• aka automatic trigger

• ex. lemon being placed in mouth will automatically trigger a response without prior learning, food in dogs mouth

unconditioned response (UR)

• the response that always occurs after the unconditioned stimulus

• usually a biologically programmed reflex

• aka automatic response

• ex. salivating after lemon in mouth

conditioned stimulus (CS)

• previously neutral stimulus (does not naturally produce a response) that is paired with an unconditional stimulus to produce a learned contingency, triggering a response all on its own

• CS appears before US

• CR (learned response) is often very similar to UR

• aka demand trigger

• ex. sound of bell in Pavlov’s Experiment

instrumental conditioning/operant conditioning

• allows us to associate actions and consequences

• occurs when an actor performs a voluntary, overt behavior that operates on the environment to produce a consequence (reinforcer)

• reinforcers can be added or removed to increase or decrease in target behavior

stimulus generalization

• process where stimulus similar to CS will also elicit a CR

• more diff from CS: weaker effect

stimulus discrimination

• involves CS+ which reliably predicts the US (excitatory conditioning) and CS- which reliably predicts the absence of US (inhibitory conditioning)

• if CS+ and CS- occur at the same time, an intermediate CS will create an intermediate level of US/CR

latent learning

• learning that has occurred even though there are minimal changes in performance

habituation

• a decrease in response to a stimulus when it is presented repeatedly without much consequence

• allows an organism to ignore familiar inputs that have proved to be of no consequence

• ex. finding traffic loud to fall asleep to but a few weeks later he could fall asleep easily

• ex. putting on clothes and feeling it at first but later on dont notice

• non-associative learning

• modifies an existing stimulus-response

• no new stimulus or response is associated with the original stimulus

• ex. habituation and sensitization

• does not include cc and ic

dishabituation

• when an organism habituates to a stimulus but then the stimulus changes, eliciting an orienting response (an automatic shift of attention toward that stimulus) or the recovery of responsiveness

sensitization

• an increase in response to a stimulus as it is repeatedly presented. Often adaptive, because it prompts you to engage in behaviors appropriate to escaping a potentially harmful stimulus.

• ex. watching movie and getting more scared as sounds repeat

long term potentiation

• the strengthening of synaptic connections between neurons after learning trials

contiguity

• the closeness in time between two stimuli occurring

• any stimulus that produces an orienting response can be used as a CS and paired with any stimulus that produces a reflexive UR

short-delay conditioning

• CS is presented seconds shortly before the US

• rate of acquisition declines sharply if CS and US are presented simultaneously or if the CS–US interval is too brief and too long

renewal

• when a contingency is extinguished in an environment different than the original environment of acquisition, but the CR again occurs when the CS is presented in the original environment

test trial

• CS is only presented once without the US, meant to test the strength of a contingency.

conditioning/learning trial

• CS presented multiple times along with US

extinction trial

• CS presented multiply times by itself

higher-order conditioning

• a neutral stimulus is paired with a CS, comes to elicit a CR the same as the CS. does not use US.

• CR is weaker and more vulnerable to extinction compared to the CS’s CR

reinforcer

• any stimulus that is presented after a response that impacts frequency to which response is performed again

auto-shaping

• actor develops voluntary behavior without any guidance for simple tasks

• does not apply to everything

successive approximations (shaping)

• complex behaviors can be learned by organizing behavior into smaller approximations with reward training which gradually build up to the final complex behavior response hoped

• decreases acquisition time

chaining

• technique used to develop a sequence of behaviors

• each behavior is reinforced with the opportunity to perform the next behavior in the sequence

continuous reinforcement

• a response leads to a reinforcer on every single trial

• FR-1 schedule

primary reinforcers

• food, water, mate

secondary reinforcers

• a reinforcer that can be exchanged for primary reinforcers

• established through classical conditioning

• ex money

contrast effects

• changes in value of a reward lead to shifts in response rates

• negative contrast occurs when a response originally receiving a high reward shifts to a lower reward, resulting in reduced responding

• positive contrast occurs when a response originally receiving a low reward is shifted to a higher one, resulting in increased responding

over justification effect

• a newly introduced reward for a previously unrewarded task can alter an individual’s perception of that task

• a task that previously was rewarding itself becomes a task only done because it leads to reward

• can lead to decreased responses if the reward suddenly becomes taken away

mirror neurons

• cell that responds in the same way when performing an action as it does when the organism possessing that cell observes someone else perform or even imagines performing the action

• organisms generate involuntary motor responses roughly equivalent to that of any behavior that they observe

• plays a role in observational learning

cumulative recorder

• records the cumulative response rate during an instrumental conditioning experiment

operant chamber

• a special chamber with a lever where an animal could respond to produce a reinforcer

intelligence

• cognitive ability to learn from experience and adapt, reason well, remember important info, and cope with demands of daily living

• study of intelligence began with Galton's method of assessing intelligence by measuring reaction time to sensorimotor tasks. faster reaction time DOES NOT = higher intelligence. test had high reliability but low validity.

deductive reasoning

• working from ideas and general info to arrive at specific conclusions

inductive reasoning

• moving from specific facts to broader ideas

insight problem

• special category of problems that are designed to test your ability to think outside the box

functional fixedness

• difficulty seeing alternative uses for common objects

quality of test

• reliability: extent to which repeated testing produces consistent results when one person repeats it

• validity: extent to which test actually measures what the researcher claims to be measuring

a test can be reliable and not be valid and vise versa

bounded rationality

• cognitive limitations that prevent humans from being fully rational

framing

• bias affected by the way in which information is presented

confirmation bias

• tendency to seek out info that supports hypothesis

• tendency to favor information in a way that confirms your existing beliefs, while ignoring or discounting evidence that contradicts them

• ex diagnoses

anchoring

• the bias to be affected by an initial anchor, even if the anchor is wrong

• subconsciously relying too heavily on the first piece of information received

opt in

• not included -> included. results in lower participation rates.

• ex. checking a box to subscribe to a newsletter

opt out

• included -> choice to leave. involves high participation.

• ex. auto-enrollment

well defined problem

• a problem in which the starting position, allowable rules, and end goals are clearly stated

ill defined problem

• problem in which starting position, allowable rules, and end goal are not clearly stated. most problems encountered in daily life

• best solved through breaking the problem into smaller subgoals

interrater reliability

• degree of agreement between multiple observers witnessing the same event. if agreement is high, then reliable

predictive validity

• the extent to which a score on a test can be used to predict future behavior

• ex. does an Intelligence test actually predict how well you perform in a situation that requires intelligence? If yes, then the test is said to have high predictive validity.

charles spearman

• believer in the idea of a single type of intelligence. people who performed well on classical intelligence tasks performed well on all kinds of tasks

• created ‘g’ - measure of the one general intelligence

adoption studies

• research method where an adopted child is compared to their biological parents and adopted parents to assess genetic and environmental influences on particular trait

over extension

• when children apply a rule too broadly semantically or syntax

• overextensions in production persist longer than those in comprehension

• ex. calling a dog or any four legged animal doggie

overregulization

• type of overextension where a child makes a syntactical error by applying a grammar rule too broadly

• ex. i played → i runned

underextension

• children applying a rule to a specific object only

• ex. a child saying doggie to only their own dog and not others

language acquistion device

• an innate mechanism, present only in humans, that helps language develop rapidly because although different languages have variations in grammatical rules, all languages follow certain universal rules

social learning theory

• language learned through imitation and instrumental conditioning

• lack of social interaction leads to inability to develop language skills

innate mechanism theory

• humans are born with an inherent, biological capacity for language acquisition

• supported by overextensions and under extensions, preference for speech sounds, etc

• ex. deaf kids learning signing w/o being taught and sign grammar doesn’t match parents language’s grammar rules

transparent orthographies

• consistent letter to sound correspondence, so that a given letter will always make the same sound. languages that have a lot of these make it easier to learn

• every letter corresponds to a single phoneme

perceptual narrowing

• process where one loses the ability to distinguish between contrasts in sounds not used in one’s native language (loss of universal phoneme sensitivity)

• occurs around first year of life

• suggests there exists an innate basis for phoneme discrimination in infancy that is influenced by experience

infant directed speech

• use of higher and exaggerated changes in pitch and use of rhythm when talking to infants to help discriminate between different vowel sounds

pragmatics

• skills that allow children to communicate appropriately and effectively in a social situation, such as taking turns during a convo

holophrastic phase

• when a child uses a single word to indicate the meaning of an entire sentence

• phase after babbling

• ex. ball! to indicate that they want u to give them the ball

fast mapping

• when children learn the meaning of a word after 1-2 encounters with it

• occurs during languae explosion

receptive vocabulary

• words that children can understand but may not yet speak. develops before expressive vocab (spoken words)

telegraphic speech

• phase after language explosion. infants use short phrases that contain only the most crucial info they are trying to communicate

anectodal evidence

• evidence based on personal accounts, stories, or individual experiences rather than on systematic research, empirical data, or scientific studies.

concept

• mental representation of a category. abstract.

• represented by prototypical item that has a central tendency

family resemblance

• the idea that members of a category share overlapping features, even though each individual feature may not be shared amongst all members.

• suggests that all members of a category resemble one another

• there is no one defining feature that all category members have

  
  
  

borderline members

• category members that do not clearly belong inside or outside category

• found in prototype theory only

old item advantage effect

• phenomenon where its easier to categorize already known items compared to new items that are equally similar to one’s prototype

• ex. it would be much faster to categorize my pet dog as a dog than a new dog who is the same level of ‘grade’ as my dog

• explained by exemplar theory, but not prototype

the classical view

• old way of categorization that says for every category, there is a set of rules that define it

typicality

• how representative a category member is of that category

• more typical → closer to prototype or have more exemplars

• less typical → further from prototype and less exemplars

sentence verification task

• tests typicality

• participants are presented with a sentence and must determine whether that sentence is true or false as quickly as possible. faster time = more typical

essentialism

• belief that members of a category have deep underlying properties that cause them to be in that category regardless of alterations

• better for categorize natural kinds over man made artifacts

• a way to categorize without looking at typicality

• ex. painting a horse strips and calling it a zebra is not possible bc of essentialism. understood for 3+ yo kids

anomia

• brain disorder whereby one cannot name common object but can still understand its function

object agnosia

• individuals cannot recognize objects despite having perfect vision

• can still recognize faces. we categorize faces differently than objects

cathartic swearing

• rage circuit theory - animals emit sudden angry noises to startle attackers and humans swear when something negative has happen

• actually releases emotions

subordinate level

• lower chance for accuracy, high predictive power

• most narrow, specific level. zooms in on basic category.

• ex. golden retriever (dog), toyota (car)

• expertise increases speed of subordinate categorization

superordinate level

• highest, broadest level. groups many different things together based on very general shared traits.

• animal, vehicle, furniture.

• high chance for accuracy, low predictive power

successive relearning

• learn content, then relearn material in spaced sessions

• leads to very long-term retention

near transfer learning

• test of memory

far transfer learning

• test of understanding

structuralism

• study of sensory perceptions to discover the nature of thought and perception

• did so through introspection - examining contents of ones own consciousness

• believed in reductionism - explaining complex things by breaking them down into simpler components. leads to losing the ability to answer them in a meaningful way

functionalism

• focused on what conscious thoughts were for, rather than what they were made of

• opposite of structuralism

• used tests and questionnaires to collect data

observational study

• type of research where watch what happens without intervening

psychoanalysis

• unconscious motives and desires are motivators of behavior

• mind not accessible to conscious thought

• repression - pushing bad memories into unconscious so conscious doesnt have to deal with them

basic research

• research conducted to acquire new knowledge but no application of knowledge

durable learning

• long‑term retention and flexible transfer of knowledge

• begins with effortful and focused attention

behaviourism

• any behaviour/responses measured by observable behavior and experiences rather than internal processes bc hard to measure

emphatic swearing

• curse word purely for emphasis or strong emotion, rather than to insult someone or express anger.

change blindness

• change has occurred in a visual scene, but observer does not notice

• even with directed focus, attention limits leads us to missed info

flashbulb memory

• highly detailed and vivid snapshot of a moment

• occurs during a time where a important news was heard

• not always accurate

orientating

• act of shifting one’s attention to something in the environment

overt attending

• obvious process of looking where youre attending

covert attending

• attending to something without looking at it

inhibition of return

• prevents gaze from revisiting a previously attended location. orientates toward new unsearched locations instead, promoting a more efficient search

inattentional blindness

• limited attentional processes can miss out on some very important and salient things

bottleneck

• only a limited amount of the information based on physical characteristics to pass on for further processing

• dual filter model

late filter model

• filtering occurs after all the incoming information has been analyzed for both physical and semantic properties

• explains breakthrough effect