Psychology: Memory and Operant & Classical Conditioning

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the stages and types of memory, memory retrieval processes, classical conditioning terms, and operant conditioning principles and schedules.

Memory

An active system that receives information from the senses, puts that information into a usable form, organizes it as it stores it away, and retrieves the information from storage.

Encoding

The memory process of programming and converting sensory information into a usable form for the brain.

Storage

The process of keeping information stored away so that it can be retrieved later.

Retrieval

The process of taking information out of storage and putting it to active use.

Sensory Memory

The initial stage of memory where raw information from the senses is held for a brief time so it can potentially be encoded.

Iconic Memory

Visual sensory memory composed of what we see.

Echoic Memory

Auditory sensory memory composed of what we hear.

Eidetic Imagery

The ability to vividly project an image in the mind with high detail for a few seconds before it completely fades away.

Selective Attention

The ability to focus on only one stimulus from among all sensory input; an important executive function that determines what moves into conscious processing.

Memory Bottle-Neck

The filtering mechanism between sensory memory (which processes large volumes of data in milliseconds) and short-term memory (which has a strict capacity of at maximum $7$ pieces).

Maintenance Rehearsal

The practice of repeatedly saying or thinking information to keep it active within short-term memory.

Elaborative Rehearsal

A method of transferring information from short-term memory into long-term memory by actively thinking about its meaning and connecting it to existing knowledge.

Declarative Memory

A form of long-term memory where one consciously recalls facts or information out loud, such as reciting a phone number.

Procedural Memory

Long-term motor or muscle memory used for performing actions and physical skills, such as riding a bicycle.

Episodic Memory

A type of long-term memory that stores personally experienced events and autobiographical episodes, such as remembering the last place you went out to eat.

Semantic Memory

A category of long-term memory consisting of general knowledge and objective facts, such as knowing that a red traffic sign indicates 'stop'.

State-Dependent Memory

The phenomenon in which memories formed during a particular physiological or psychological state are more easily retrieved when the individual is in a similar state.

Recognition

A memory retrieval process where an individual matches a stimulus to stored information, commonly tested via multiple choice, matching, and true/false questions.

Recall

A memory retrieval process where stored information must be retrieved with minimal external cues, utilized on short answer, fill-in-the-blank, and essay exams.

Primacy Effect

The tendency to better remember information presented at the very beginning of a sequence because it receives sufficient processing to enter long-term memory.

Recency Effect

The tendency to remember information presented at the very end of a sequence because it still lingers in short-term memory.

Flashbulb Memory

A vivid, detailed memory of an emotionally significant or shocking event (such as a house exploding) that people often report with high confidence, though still subject to modification and exaggeration.

Constructive Processing of Memory

The principle that memory operates like a construction project rather than a photocopier, being continuously reshaped and modified by current biases, beliefs, and level of knowledge.

Ebbinghaus's Curves of Forgetting

A principle showing that forgetting occurs most rapidly immediately after information is first learned.

Distributed Practice

The strategy of spacing out learning over multiple shorter study sessions rather than massing or cramming material immediately beforehand.

Learning

Any relatively permanent change in potential behavior that is acquired through experience.

Stimulus

Any environmental factor or event that causes an organism to react.

Response

The specific reaction or behavior exhibited by an organism in reaction to a stimulus.

Unconditioned

Natural and instinctive; requiring no prior learning or conditioning.

Conditioned

Learned through the process of associative learning.

Neutral Stimulus

A stimulus that initially produces no specific response and is ignored prior to conditioning.

Fixation (Extinction)

The disappearance or weakening of a learned response following the removal or absence of the unconditioned stimulus.

Thorndike's Law of Effect

The behavioral principle stating that behaviors followed by pleasant consequences tend to be repeated, while behaviors followed by unpleasant consequences are discouraged ('Feels good, do it again. Feels bad, don’t do it again').

Reinforcement

Any consequence in operant conditioning that serves to encourage or strengthen a behavior.

Punishment

Any consequence in operant conditioning that serves to discourage or weaken a behavior.

Positive (Operant Conditioning)

The operational process of adding or presenting a stimulus following a behavior.

Negative (Operant Conditioning)

The operational process of removing or taking away a stimulus following a behavior.

Primary Reinforcer

An unlearned, naturally satisfying reinforcer that fulfills innate biological or survival instincts.

Secondary Reinforcer

A learned reinforcer that derives its reinforcing power through its association with primary reinforcers.

Fixed Interval Schedule of Reinforcement

A schedule in which reinforcement is provided for the first response made after a specific, predetermined amount of time has elapsed (e.g., an annual birthday).

Variable Interval Schedule of Reinforcement

A schedule of reinforcement where a response produces a reward after an unpredictable, varying interval of time.

Fixed Ratio Schedule of Reinforcement

A reinforcement schedule where a reward is delivered only after a fixed, specified number of actions or responses (e.g., earning points for each kill in a game).

Variable Ratio Schedule of Reinforcement

A reinforcement schedule where an action is rewarded after an unpredictable and varying number of responses (e.g., gambling).

Discriminative Stimulus

Any stimulus that provides an organism with a cue that making a particular response will lead to reinforcement.

Shaping

A technique of teaching a complex behavior by baby stepping new skills—guiding behavior in the right direction by gradually reinforcing successive approximations of the goal.

Latent Learning

Learning that occurs without immediate reinforcement and is demonstrated only once an incentive or reinforcement is provided, as demonstrated in Tollman's rat experiment.