Psych 180 - Test 2

Learning

A relatively permanent change in knowledge or behavior due to experience (a change in what we know and what we do)

Classical Conditioning

things we do that are a reflex

Pavlovian Conditioning

Another name for Classical Conditioning

Pavlov

1910’s, trained in physiology and specialized in digestion

by chance

how did pavlov learn about classical conditioning

condition reflex

what pavlov called classical conditioning

unconditioned stimulus

a stimulus that involuntarily elicits a response

automatic, involuntary, reflexive, and illicitive

4 major words for classical conditioning

conditioned stimulus

the stimulus that causes some sort of reaction

US and CS

many pairings

UR and CR

always the same

the conditioned stimulus

which must come first in classical conditioning

1. Extinction

2. Spontaneous Conditioning

3. Generalization

4. Discrimination

5. Higher Order Conditioning

the 5 principles of classical conditioning

extinction

if you take away the unconditioned stimulus permanently, you will get rid of the reaction without the US

spontaneous recovery

it will take less time to get the response back without the US once it is lost

generalization

a new conditioned stimulus that is close enough will cause the response

discrimination

if the stimulus is too different then it won’t cause the same respones

higher order conditioning

you can get the same response using conditioned stimulus that are further and further away from the unconditioned response

taste, attraction, and phobias

classical conditioning in the real world

taste

something causes you to really love or really hate it

attraction

sometimes you see people in a good or bad mood, connecting them to that emotion

phobias

acquired by classical conditioning things. (scared of thunder but begins shaking at the sight of lightening)

Little Albert

scared of rats because he was presented with a rat and then they banged pipes behind his head (classical conditioning). he became scared of anything fluffy and white (generalization). Possibly were multiple cases of little albert

Operant Conditioning

behaviors, voluntary things

Other names for operant conditioning

Instrumental Conditions/Skinnerian Conditioning

Skinner

studied how consequences shape behavior through operant conditioning

skinners box

used pigeons and rats to study operant conditioning

thorndike’s law of effect (1910s)

any behavior followed by a positive consequence has an increased likelihood of being repeated and any behavior followed by a negative consequence has a decreased likelihood of being repeated

positive reinforcement

positive consequence and applied consequence

punishment

negative consequence and applied consequence

response cost

positive consequence and removed consequence

negative reinforcement

negative consequence and removed consequence

6 principles of Operant Conditioning

Apparatus, Shaping, Extinction, Schedules of Learning, Superstition, Problems with Punishment

Apparatus

example: skinner box

shaping

reinforcing successive approximations towards a goal

extinction

if they don’t get anything, they aren’t going to keep doing it

4 schedules of learning

immediate versus delayed, continuous versus partial, fixed ratio versus variable ratio, fixed interval versus variable interval

immediate versus delayed

positive comes quicker rather than later - immediate works better

continuous versus partial

everytime versus only sometimes - everytime extinguishes first

fixed ratio versus variable ratio

doesn’t change versus changes/varies but isn’t completely random

fixed interval versus variable interval

set time versus time that varies

contingent reinforcement

reinforcement based on something

noncontingent reinforcement

reward no matter what you do

Superstition

superstition is based on noncontingent but we think it is contingent

Problems with Punishment

it is a relatively ineffective way to change behavior

criticism (punishment) vs praise (positive reinforcement)

praise has better results

observational learning

we learn by watching things

Bandura

didn’t come up with the idea of observational learning but he learned how we did it

4 steps of observational learning

attention, memory, ability, motivation

attention (bandura)

you have to have your attention on the person for you to replicate what they did

memory (bandura)

there is a passage of time between when you will use it because you have to remember it

ability (bandura)

you have to have the ability to do whatever the thing is

motivation (bandura)

you will only do the ones you are motivated to do

encoding (bandura)

you have to put things into your mind before they can be memorized

storage

you have to store the information, get it there permanently

retrieval

just because it is there, doesn’t mean you can access it

3 memory systems

sensory, short-term, long-term

Iconic versus Echoic

iconic is things you see and echoic is things you hear

attention definition

cognitive resources, mental effort or concentration devoted to a cognitive process

cocktail party phenomenon

you can drown loud noises to focus on other noises

shadowing

repeating spoken audio

filter model

only one piece of information can pass at a time 

attenuation model

the brain doesn’t completely block unattended information but rather weakens it

duration of sensory memory

sensory is very short lived

capacity of sensory memory

sensory is very large

duration of short term memory

short term is about 30 seconds

capacity of short term

short term is very small 

maintenance rehearsal

you repeat it over and over again

elaborative rehearsal

if you make it weird when you rehearse, it will stick better

duration for long term memory 

long term is thought to be as long as you live

capacity for long term memory

long term is thought to be infinite

procedural (perceptual-motor)

things that started out as a process you learned and no longer need to know the process. you don’t think about it but you once had to learn.

declarative

information like facts and events 

semantic

memory for language

episodic

the episodes, the things that happen in your life

forgetting

ebbinghaus, linton, theories

ebbinghaus

memorized 20 nonsense syllables and watched how many he forgot from day to day

linton

forgetting real life things

what was different with the results between ebbinghaus and linton

the forgetting in linton’s study was much more steady/gradual

theories

decay and interference

decay

information is actually gone (short term/sensory)

interference types

retroactive and proactive

interference definition

the memory is there but you can’t pull it out

retroactive

new messes up with the recall of old

proactive

old messes up with the new

cue dependent memory

if the state of retrieval is the same as the state of encoding, the retrieval is better

schemas

mental representations that are centered on a theme that helps us enter information (file folders and the files are the schemas)

yourself

our largest schema

schema influence on social thought

attention, coding, retrival

attention (schema)

we attend to schema consistent information

coding (schema)

we code schema consistent information

retrieval (schema)

we retrive schema consistant information

perseverance effect

within 5 minutes you have an opinion, yet it can take years to change that

self fulfilling prophecy

people think something will happen, so it does

6 errors in cognition and decision making

heuristics, base-rate fallacy, confirmation bias, gambler’s fallacy, negativity bias, cognitive illusions

heuristics

rules of thumb that guide our thinking and require little cognitive effort (short cuts)

3 types of heuristics

representativeness heuristic, availability heuristic, anchoring heuristic

representativeness heuristic

the more we think a person has traits that represent being in a group, the more we think they are part of that group (judging a book by the cover)

availability heuristic

some memories are readily available and your brain pulls out the one that is easiest available

anchoring heuristic

we rely too heavily on the starting point of the discussion and fail to adjust for subsequent, potentially more important information