psyc 101 test 2

Memory

The ability to store and retrieve information over time.

encoding

–transform what we perceive, think, or feel into an enduring memory.

storage

maintain information in memory over time.

retrieval

–bring to mind information that has been previously encoded and stored.

Three types of Encoding

elaborative, visual, organizational

elaborative

link new knowledge with current memory

the process of actively relating new information to knowledge that is already in memory

Visual imagery encoding

mental pictures, the process of storing new information by converting it into mental pictures.

Place things around room or house.

Visual and verbal modes of memory.

processing in the occipital lobe.

Memory palace – creating a visual image that’s bizarre, gross, or weird and it enhances your memory

Organizational encoding

notice relationships, the act of categorizing information by noticing the relationships among a series of items.

improves recall.

Fruits, animals, furniture

–Semantic Judgment

best elaborative method → search for MEANING, reading you a string of numbers and looking for meaning within that sequence

Memory storage

the process of maintaining information in memory over time.

sensory storage

short-term storage/working memory

long-term storage

Sensory storage

u have sensory input from your senses, touch/smell/etc, this lasts seconds, theres tactile, iconic, gustatory memory all these types of memory for your senses. Iconic sensory memory is a very fast decaying visual memory lasts 2 seconds, auditory lasts 5 seconds

Short-term Storage

a place where non-sensory information is kept for more than a few seconds but less than a minute. moved to your short term memory based on your attention, lasts 30 seconds

can hold approximately 7 bits of information at one time.

Info either moves to LTM or decay and lost forever

Once you pay attention to something, like a cough and you think abt it like whether itll get you sick →

Rehearsal, saying smth over and over until you need to use it, keep it in short term memory for longer

long term storage LTSM

a place in which information can be kept for minutes to decades.

Unlimited capacity

Can be used to process sensory info

Can be used to process STM.

information that is encoded, goal is to bring it back out and retrieve it

Recency / Primacy Effect

More prone to remember the things in the beginning and end of a list

Sensory memory store

the place in which sensory memory is kept for a few seconds or less.

iconic memory - visual

echoic memory - hearing

Olfactory, gustatory, tactile

working memory

STM + LTM information used to interpret/manipulate/process.

3 times 5 is an example of working memory, you held onto the numbers with STM and then you used LTM to multiply

Rehearsal

STM, the review or practice of material

Can hold in STM and can help move from STM → LTM

Chunking

the process of binding individual pieces of information into larger, more meaningful units (called "chunks") to improve short-term and working memory capacity

Biological Mechanism of LTM

Sending neurotransmitters across the synapse of two communicating neurons changes the synapse by strengthening the connection.

makes communication easier next time.

“neurons that fire together wire together”

Physiologically changing the makeup of your brain based on how much you review something or study, etc.

Mindset → when you keep telling yourself something it becomes engrained in your brain and is wired there, neurons are made to think this

Long-term potentiation (LTP)

long lasting increase in strength of synaptic responsiveness .

Thought to be biological mechanism of LTM

Explicit memory

LTM, Semantic

Episodic

Implicit memory

May be unconsciously impacting behavior and performance

Procedural

Priming

Semantic Memory

Independent of context, what is the 4^th of july, everyone answers the same, it’s a fact

Episodic Memory

Set in time and place, what is a memorable 4th of july for you, personal experience, memorable, etc.

Implicit memory

the influence of past experiences on later behavior and performance, even though people are not trying to recollect them and are not aware that they are remembering them.

Procedural

brushing your teeth in the morning, gain this acquisition of skills and it is stored in the background

Priming

knowing how to do things. when you get a car you start to see it more, when you learn about something you end up seeing it more

Brought into research study, two groups given a list of words to read, one group given words with theme, the other group given random words, the group with theme walked out of building at a notably slower pace

Nonconscious Priming After 17 Years (David B. Mitchell, 2006)

Show black and white line drawings of everyday objects

17 years later…show new and old incomplete line drawings to participants and to control group (never saw original drawings)

Identification rates were significantly higher for fragments from these previously exposed targets than for novel fragments

no differences in control groups that had not been previously exposed to the pictures.

Multiple forms of LTM

LTM

Explicit memory (with conscious recall)

• semantic memory (facts and general knowledge)

• episodic memory (personally experienced events)

Implicit memory (without conscious recall)

• procedural memory (motor and cognitive skills)

• priming (enhanced identification of objects or words)

Two Types of Memory Loss

Anterograde amnesia, Retrograde amnesia

anterograde amnesia

The inability to form new long-term memories or retain new information after the onset of the injury or illness

retrograde amnesia

The inability to retrieve past memories and information stored before the onset of the injury or illness

Retrieval

Bring to mind information that has been previously encoded and stored.

Retrieval cue

External information that is associated with stored information and helps bring it to mind.

1. Hint

Encoding specificity principle

a retrieval cue can serve as an effective reminder when it helps recreate the specific way in which information was initially encoded.

Context is the same as when initially formed (environmental or situational cues)

Place: Alcoholics at a bar

The context for which we have a new memory, when we are back in that context, it helps us retrieve that back in our mind

The first time learning about this principle, if u want to remember what this principle or really any concept weve learned is, it is best to be back in the class where u learned it

Something about the world and land that helps us with memory retrieval

state-dependent retrieval

the tendency for information to be better recalled when the person is in the same state during encoding and retrieval.

Anxiety

in a different emotional state, so it makes it difficult to recall these things that you acquired when a more calm and less emotional state

Memory Failures

TABBPMS

Transience

Absentmindedness

Blocking

Bias

Persistence

Memory misattribution

Suggestibility

Transience

forgetting what occurs with the passage of time.

occurs during the storage phase of memory.

involves a gradual switch from specific to general memory.

Mind fills in what “probably” happened.

Most forgetting happens right after an event, if u remember it for longer than it might stay

Absentmindedness

a lapse in attention that results in memory failure

divided attention affects elaborative encoding.

Your attention is divided and when your focused on more than one thing u can experience memory failure

prospective memory: remembering to do things in the future.

Prospective memory – calendars help with this

Prospective memory

remembering to do things in the future.

– calendars help with this

Blocking

a failure to retrieve information that is available in memory even though you are trying to produce it.

“tip-of-the-tongue”

phenomenon.

bias

distorting influences of present knowledge, beliefs, and feelings on recollection of previous experiences.

consistency bias:

change bias:

egocentric bias:

Consistency bias

changing the past to have it match the present

Marijuana legalization opinion back in ’73 → ask them same question today → tend to match what they believe today with what they believe to have asked in the past

change bias

relationship seven-year study, the quality of a relationship is the same each year (based on the questionnaire metric ratings), but we tend to exaggerate the change since we want to think that its gotten better

We exaggerate the differences between what we feel now and what we’ve felt before

egocentric bias

we often make ourselves look good, putting ourselves in a good light. Misremember the bad things we did in middle school, not that we’re lying it is true misremembering

Asked about our grades in high school – if you got a good grade in biology then u will remember that A but if u got a C in chemistry then you will forget this

Persistence

the intrusive recollection of events that we wish we could forget (often traumatic or disturbing).

Flashbulb memories

Flashbulb memories

detailed recollections of when and where we heard about shocking events.

highly highly detailed memories about events that often have cultural relevance or significance,

9/11, where you were, what you were doing, etc.

When JFK got shot

The amount of emotional arousal from these events enhances your memory, when u experience a trauma, the heightened emotional trauma from that experience will lead to more memory of that

But these memories aren’t always as accurate as they are remembered

Memory Misattribution

assigning a recollection or an idea to the wrong source.

one of the primary causes of eyewitness error.

You might remember something but the source of how you experienced it might not be accurate, you remember the challenger shuttle explosion but how you learned about it, not sure

Source Memory: recall of when, where, and how information was acquired.

The Real World: Deadly Misattributions

Wrongfully imprisoned innocents suffer due to misattributions in eyewitness testimony.

DNA evidence is crucial.

Standard suspect lineup procedures flawed.

relative judgment errors.

Suggestibility

the tendency to incorporate misleading information from external sources into personal reflections.

misleading suggestions cause individuals to make source memory errors.

therapists and suggestive psychotherapeutic procedures: recollecting false repressed memories .

Loftus Car Stop Experiment

“Did u see THE stop sign?” lots of yes

“Did u see A stop sign?” not so confident

False Childhood Memories

1970s-1980s Day Care sexual abuse cases

Children reported horrible examples of child abuse

Highly influential interview techniques

Learning

an acquisition, from experience, of new knowledge, skills, or responses that result in a relatively permanent change in the state of the learner.

can be conscious and deliberate or unconscious.

Occurs in a number of ways, including

Classical Conditioning

Operant Conditioning

Observational Learning

Implicit Learning

Behaviorism

All behavior is learned from the environment

Psychology is a science

Focus on observable behaviors, not internal events (emotions, thoughts)

John B. Watson, Ivan Pavlov, BF Skinner

Classical Conditioning

when a neutral stimulus evokes a response after being paired with a stimulus that naturally evokes a response.

four components of classical conditioning

unconditioned stimulus (US)

unconditioned response (UR)

conditioned stimulus (CS)

conditioned response (CR)

Pavlov’s dog classical conditioning

The food is the unconditioned (natural) stimulus, and the salivating is the unconditioned (natural) response

Pairing the food with a bell (an unconditioned stimulus with a conditioned stimulus), eventually the dog will learn that the bell is a warning for food is on its way, when that happens the bell becomes a conditioned stimulus and the salivating is a conditioned response, the salivating is now both the UR and CR

The pairing of unconditioned and conditioned stimuli is during the acquisition phase, and the conditioned stimulus has to start as a neutral stimulus

1. Pavlov gave his dog food = dog salivates

2. Rings bell + gives food = dog salivates

3. Pavlov rings bell = dog salivates

food, US

salivates, (1,2) UR → (3) CR

bell, (2) NS → (3) CS

A reaction that resembles an UR, but is produced by a CS

CR

Something that reliably produces a naturally occurring reaction in an organism.

US

A stimulus that is initially neutral and produces no reliable response in an organism

CS

A reflexive reaction that is reliably elicited by an US

UR

Understanding Drug OverdosesSiegal, Hinson, Krank & McCully (1982)

Drug overdose deaths are puzzling:

Often experienced drug users

Dose is not larger than usually

BUT deaths tend to occur in unusual settings

A CS includes the context and many CR’s can be compensatory reactions to the US.

Taking drugs in a new environment can be fatal.

Heroine, Opioids

6 Principles of Classical Conditioning

ASSHES

Acquisition

Stimulus Generalization*

Stimulus Discrimination*

Higher Order Conditioning (read in book)

Extinction

Spontaneous Recovery

Acquisition

the initial learning stage where an organism forms a mental association between a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus, eventually causing the neutral stimulus to trigger a conditioned response.

Stimulus Generalization

When a stimulus that resembles the also elicits the

You blink to a bell and then the next day youre given a different bell and still blink

Salivate to one bell,

will salivate to any bell sound

“He who hath been bitten by a snake fears a rope.” Old proverb

Stimulus Discrimination

the tendency to respond differently to > 2 stimuli

Middle C on piano evokes CR, but not middle C on guitar

you can distinguish the difference between two stimuli

Higher Order Conditioning

A neutral stimulus becomes a CS when paired with an already established CS

- Light → bell → food → salivation.

Extinction

the bell is enough for the dog to salivate without the food, but how long does that CR last

If you keep presenting the CS (bell) without providing the US (food) then the CS doesn’t last

Without the US (food) being presented then the CS loses its impact, eventually the bell alone will lose its power

the weakening and eventual disappearance of a learned response

–When response is no longer reinforced

–May have initial burst of behavior

Spontaneous Recovery

The bell without the food no longer requires the

If u don’t hear the bell without the blow for a few days then you might just blink, temporarily elicits the CR just for a moment

John B. Watson

1878-1958) Entire array of rich human emotions and behavior can be accounted for by conditioning principles

Human Behavior & Emotions

Entire array of human behavior and emotions is accounted for by conditioning principles

Learning to Like- CC plays role in our emotional response to object, people, places, events, symbols

Learning to Fear- learn to fear almost anything if paired with something associated with pain, embarrassment

PHOBIAS

The Case of Little Albert

In Watson’s experiment, Little Albert (9months) associated a frightening loud noise (US) with a white rat (CS) to elicit fear (CR).

also showed stimulus generalization in fear responses to similar stimuli.

Fear can be learned just as any other behavior.

The Cognitive Elements of Classical Conditioning

Classical conditioning only occurs when an animal has learned to set up an expectation.

Conditioning is easier when the CS is an unfamiliar event than a familiar one (no pre-existing expectations).

Food Aversions

Biological readiness/preparedness to associate sickness with taste more than sights or sounds

Natural selection to enhance survival

Pair neutral stimulus with aversive stimulus even when unrelated

Operant Conditioning

reinforcements from the environment

a type of learning in which the consequences of an organism’s behavior determine whether it will be repeated in the future.

Law of effect

if you engage in a behavior that results in a satisfying or pleasant state of affairs then youre more likely to repeat it and vice versa

Consequences

neutral consequence, reinforcer, punisher

Neutral Consequence

neither increases nor decreases the probability that something will occur

Reinforcer

strengthens a behavior or makes it more likely to occur.

positive reinforcement

negative reinforcement.

Reinforcement always works more efficiently

punisher

weakens behavior or makes it less likely to occur.

positive punishment

negative punishment.

Primary reinforcer

inherently reinforcing, satisfy physiological needs.

Food, water, stroking of skin

Primary punisher

pain, extreme heat/cold

Secondary reinforcer

learned; associated with primary reinforcers through CC.

Money, gold star

Secondary punishers

fines, bad grades

Overjustification effect

circumstances when external rewards can undermine the intrinsic satisfaction of performing a behavior

Two groups asked to solve a puzzle

Group A paid, Group B unpaid

Group A was paid, and both groups no longer required to work on puzzle

Group B kept working while Group A stopped

Positive reinforcement

add or give something, gold star

the behavior happens MORE often

Potty training – giving candy as positive reinforcer, toilet fairy

negative reinforcement

subtract or take away something, dont have to make your bed

the behavior happens MORE often

positive punishment

add or give something, smack

the behavior happens LESS often

negative punishment

subtract or take away something, no tv

the behavior happens LESS often

Getting a pizza party for earning a good grade on an exam

PR

Having your car privileges taken away for disobeying a curfew

NP

Having to do more weekly chores for getting caught stealing money

PP

Don’t have to make bed in the morning if you get an A

NR

Principles of Operant Conditioning

Stimulus Generalization

Stimulus Discrimination

Discriminative Stimulus

Extinction

Stimulus Generalization

a behavior that has been reinforced/punished in presence of one stimulus, will/will not occur in the presence of other similar stimuli

Pigeon reinforced for pecking circles, will also peck at ovals

Stimulus Discrimination

behavior will/will not occur in presence of stimuli that differ from initial reinforced/punished stimuli

Pigeon only reinforced for circle, will not peck at square

A discriminative stimulus is one that is associated with reinforcement.

May come right before a stimulus

If the light is on, the pigeon will be reinforced when he pecks on the circle

Smile

-Something that happens before the stimulus that tells you youre going to be reinforced

-The pigeon being reinforced to spin in a counterclockwise circle, the noise of the food dispenser was a discriminative stimulus

-Is this classical or operant conditioning? Is this for a reflex or is this teaching you to do something again

Schedules of Reinforcement

Continuous reinforcement

Intermittent reinforcement

Schedule of reinforcement:

interval schedule

ratio schedule

Fixed interval schedule (FI)

Variable interval schedule (VI)

Fixed ratio schedule (FR)

Variable ratio schedule (VR)

Continuous reinforcement

all responses are reinforced

Intermittent reinforcement

only some of the responses made are followed by reinforcement.