PSY100H1 Lecture 5: Learning and Memory

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering classical conditioning, operant schedules, cognitive models of memory, and reconstructive memory phenomena from PSY100H1 Lecture 5.

Stimulus

An object or event in the environment that can trigger behavioral or mental responses.

Classical Conditioning

A learning process in which two stimuli are paired so that a neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus that elicits a response associated with an unconditioned stimulus.

Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)

A stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers a response without any prior learning or training.

Unconditioned Response (UCR)

An unlearned, naturally occurring response elicited automatically by an unconditioned stimulus.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

An originally neutral stimulus that, after repeated association with an unconditioned stimulus, comes to trigger a conditioned response.

Conditioned Response (CR)

A learned reaction elicited by a conditioned stimulus only after conditioning has occurred.

Higher-Order Conditioning

A procedure in which an established conditioned stimulus ($\text{CS1}$) is paired with a new neutral stimulus to turn the new stimulus into a second conditioned stimulus ($\text{CS2}$), typically eliciting a weaker conditioned response.

Stimulus Generalization

The tendency for stimuli that physically resemble the original conditioned stimulus to elicit similar conditioned responses, with greater similarity producing stronger responses.

Preparedness

An evolutionary predisposition in animals and humans to easily learn certain associations (such as food with illness) more readily than others.

Conditioned Taste Aversion (CTA)

A learned avoidance of a specific food that occurs after consuming it and subsequently becoming ill, even after a single pairing.

Latent Inhibition

The phenomenon whereby prior neutral exposure to a stimulus makes it more difficult to condition that stimulus as a conditioned stimulus later on.

Blocking

The conditioning phenomenon in which prior conditioning to one stimulus ($\text{CS}_A$) prevents or impairs the conditioning to a second stimulus ($\text{CS}_X$) when presented simultaneously as a compound cue.

Extinction (Classical Conditioning)

The gradual reduction and eventual elimination of a conditioned response when the conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus.

Spontaneous Recovery

The unexpected reappearance of an extinguished conditioned response following a period of delay without any additional conditioning trials.

Renewal Effect

The recovery of an extinguished conditioned response when the conditioned stimulus is encountered in a novel context different from the extinction context.

Reinstatement

The reappearance of an extinguished conditioned response following independent, unsignaled exposure to the unconditioned stimulus alone.

Operant Conditioning

A form of learning in which the likelihood or frequency of a voluntary behavior is determined and modified by its consequences.

Positive Reinforcement

The process of strengthening or increasing the frequency of a behavior by presenting an appetitive or pleasant stimulus following that behavior.

Negative Reinforcement

The process of strengthening or increasing the frequency of a behavior by removing or stopping an aversive stimulus following that behavior.

Positive Punishment

The process of weakening or decreasing the frequency of a behavior by delivering an unpleasant or aversive stimulus following that behavior.

Negative Punishment

The process of weakening or decreasing the frequency of a behavior by removing a desirable or pleasant stimulus following that behavior.

Schedules of Reinforcement

Rules specifying whether every response is reinforced (continuous) or only some responses are reinforced (partial), based on time elapsed (interval) or number of responses (ratio).

Fixed Ratio (FR) Schedule

A partial reinforcement schedule where a reinforcer is delivered after a specific, predetermined number of non-reinforced responses, characterized by a post-reinforcement pause.

Variable Ratio (VR) Schedule

A partial reinforcement schedule where a reinforcer is delivered after an unpredictable, varying average number of responses, yielding the highest and steadiest rate of responding.

Fixed Interval (FI) Schedule

A partial reinforcement schedule where the first response made after a fixed duration of time has elapsed is reinforced, producing a scalloped response curve.

Variable Interval (VI) Schedule

A partial reinforcement schedule where a response is reinforced after unpredictable intervals of time that vary around an average, yielding a moderate, steady response rate.

Observational Learning

Learning that occurs by watching and imitating the behavior and experiences of others without requiring direct experience, famously demonstrated in Bandura's Bobo doll experiments.

Latent Learning

Learning that occurs without obvious reinforcement or immediate behavioral manifestation, becoming evident only when an incentive is introduced (demonstrated by Tolman and Honzik).

Dual Coding Theory

The learning hypothesis that memory performance is optimized when information is encoded using both verbal representations and mental visual imagery.

Meshing Hypothesis

The widely discredited notion that individuals possess specific learning styles (e.g., VARK) and perform significantly better when instruction matches their preferred modality.

Modal Model of Memory

A foundational cognitive framework proposing that incoming information is processed sequentially through three separate stores: sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.

Sensory Memory

The initial memory store that briefly holds a high-capacity sensory impression of external stimuli, lasting $1\,\text{s}$ or less for iconic memory and slightly longer for echoic memory.

Short-Term Memory (STM)

A temporary cognitive workspace with a duration of $\sim 15\text{--}30\,\text{s}$ without rehearsal and an average capacity of $7 \pm 2$ items (or around $3\text{--}4$ without chunking).

Maintenance Rehearsal

A shallow memory strategy involving repetitive rote vocal or subvocal repetition of information to keep it active in short-term memory.

Elaborative Rehearsal

A deep memory strategy that involves thinking about the meaning of new information and connecting it to existing concepts stored in long-term memory.

Chunking

The cognitive process of grouping individual pieces of information into larger, meaningful, and recognizable units to expand short-term memory capacity.

Baddeley's Model of Working Memory

A multi-component working memory framework consisting of a Central Executive that coordinates three slave systems: the Visuospatial Sketchpad, Episodic Buffer, and Phonological Loop.

Operation Span (OSPAN) Test

A working memory assessment that tests active processing and storage capacity simultaneously by having subjects solve arithmetic problems while retaining words for later recall.

Serial Position Effect

The U-shaped pattern of list recall where items at the beginning (primacy effect) and end (recency effect) are remembered better than intermediate items.

Declarative Memory

The category of explicit long-term memory for facts and events that can be consciously recalled and verbalized; it is dependent upon the hippocampus.

Episodic Memory

A subcategory of declarative memory that stores personally experienced events and autobiographical episodes situated in specific times and places.

Semantic Memory

A subcategory of declarative memory that encompasses general world knowledge, facts, and concepts independent of personal experience.

Nondeclarative Memory

A broad division of implicit long-term memory that influences behavior without conscious awareness, including procedural skill learning, priming, and classical conditioning.

Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenomenon

A temporary retrieval failure where a person feels confident that a specific target word is known and stored in memory, but cannot be immediately accessed.

Reconstructive Memory

The concept that remembering involves actively rebuilding and constructing past events using schemas, beliefs, and current goals rather than playing back a verbatim recording.

Schema

A learned cognitive framework or mental concept that organizes categories of information and guides interpretation, expectation, and recall of events.

Source Monitoring

The cognitive process of determining the origin or source of a memory, belief, or idea, errors in which can lead to inadvertent plagiarism.

Reminiscence Bump

The empirical finding that adults over the age of $40$ recall an elevated number of autobiographical memories originating between the ages of $15$ and $25$.

Misinformation Effect

The impairment or alteration of an individual's eyewitness memory of an event caused by exposure to misleading post-event information or suggestive questioning.

Context-Dependent Memory

The improvement in memory retrieval performance that occurs when the physical environment during testing closely matches the environment in which the information was acquired.