Leanring and Motivation- Chapter 1

Data

Facts & figures from which conclusions can be inferred

Theory

A set of statements devised to explain a group of facts

Associationism

The principle that memory depends on the formation of linkages between pairs of events, sensations, and ideas, such that recalling or experiencing one member of the pair elicits a memory or anticipation of the other

Contiguity

Nearness in time (temporal contiguity) or space (spacial contiguity )

Empiricism

A philosophical school of thought that holds the idea that all ideas we have are the result of experience

Nativism

A philosophical school of thought that holds that the bulk of knowledge is inborn

Learning

The process in which changes in behavior arise as a result of experiences interacting with the world

Memory

The internal record of past experiences acquirred through learning

Psychology

The study of mind and beavior

Stimulus

A sensory event that provides information about the outside world

Classical Conditioning

A tyoe of learning in which the organism learns to respond to a previous netural stimulus that has been repeatedly presented along with a biological significant stimulus

Learning Curve

A graph showing learning performance as a function of training time

Response

the behavioral consenquence of perception if a stimulus

Extinction

The process of reducing a learned response to a stimulus with a reward or punishment

Generlazation

the transfer of past learning to novel events and problems

Operant Conditioning

The process whereby or organisms learn to make responces in order to obtain or avoid important consequences

Law of effect

The observation made by Thorndike, that the probability of a particular behavorial response increses/decreases depending on the consenquences that have followed that response

Dualism

mind and body are seperate entities

Reflex arc

An automatic pathway from a sensory stimulus to a motor response

Behaviorism

A school of thought that says psychology should restrict itself to the study of observable behavior and not seek to infer unobservable mental processes

Radical Behaviorism

Free will and consciousness are illusions and that even high cogntive functions are complex sets of stimulus-response associations

Evolution

The change a species goes through over time, with new traits/charecterics being passed from on generation to the next

Natural Selection

Mechenism of which evolution occurs; Species evolve when there is a trait that is inheritable and increases chance of survival

Cognitive Map

A internal psychological representation of the spatial layout of the external world

Latent Learning

Learning that is unconnected to a postive/negative consequence and that remains undetected until explicitly demonstrated at a later stage

Forgetting

The loss or deterioration of memory over time

Retention Curve

A graph of forgetting or relearning as a function of time since initial learning

Mathematical Psychology

A subfield of psychology that uses math equations to describe the laws of learning and memory

Distributed Representation

a representation in which information is coded as a pattern of activation distributed across many different nodes

Who came up with associationism?

Arisotle

What are the 3 laws of associationism?

Contiguity, Frequency, Similarity

Aristotle belived knowledge comes from…?

experience

What are the 4 essential themes?

?’s/ Challenges, Nature vs. Nurture, Similair/different to other animals, Can we study this in a scientfic way?

William James studied?

How we learn new habits aquire new memories

William James thought that?

Activation of memory networks could activate memories of a 2nd event that share elements

Ivan Pavlov devloped?

Methods for studying animal learning

In classical conditioning the neutral stimulus becomes assoicated with….?

The stimulus that follows

If you give a rat a toy and the produce a loud sound, what is the netural stimulus?

The toy

Who created classical conditioniong?

Ivan Pavlov

Who used puzzle boxes to study learning assocation with cats?

Edward Thorndike

Who came up with Instrumental/Operant Conditioning

Edward Thorndike

Who thought that newborns were blankslates and were “ready to learn”

John Locke

Who belived good education should be avaliable to all?

John Locke

Who was the founder of behaviorism

John Watson

Who started radical behaviorism?

B. F. Skinner

Who thought the mind was a black box that we should not concern ourselves with?

B. F. Skinner

Who discovered Evoultion?

Darwin

What are the three conditions to cause a trait to evolve

Inhertiable, variable, relevent to survival

Who did the first experimaental study of human memory?

Hermann Ebbinghaus

Who belived that psychological memory could be a natural science defined by precise mathmetical laws?

Hermann Ebbinghaus