Intro to Psych - Learning and Memory

Learning

Relatively enduring change in behavior resulting from experience

Nonassociative learning

Occurs after repeated exposure to a single stimulus or event, change in response to the stimulus

Associative learning

The linking of two events that, in general, take place one right after the other. Associations develop through conditioning

Social learning

Involves acquiring behaviors and predictive associations between stimuli or events through interactions with others

Habituation

Nonassociative learning, decrease in a behavioral response after repeated exposure to a stimulus

Dishabituation

Increase in response because of a change in something familiar

Sensitization

Increase in behavioral response after exposure to a stimulus (usually the stimulus is meaningful, such as something threatening or painful)

Classical conditioning

Neutral stimulus elicits a response because it has become associated with a stimulus that already produces a response - learn that one event predicts another

Unconditioned response (UR)

Occurs without prior training and is an automatic behavior, such as some simple reflexes

Unconditioned stimulus (US)

Stimulus that elicits an unconditioned response without any training

Conditioned stimulus (CS)

The stimulus that has become associated with the unconditioned stimulus, elicits a conditioned response

Conditioned response

The response to the conditioned stimulus that has been learned

Acquisition

Formation of an association between a conditioned stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus

Extinction

Process of extinguishing the conditioned response (occurs when the conditioned stimulus no longer predicts the unconditioned stimulus)

Spontaneous recovery

Extinguished CS once again produces a CR some time after extinction. Recovery is temporary and will fade quickly, but the CR is much more quickly reestablished - extinction is new learning that overwrites the previous association, but doesn’t destroy it.

Rescorla-Wagner model

Animals learn to expect that some predictors (potential CSs) are better than others

Positive prediction error

Presence of an unexpected event or a stronger version of the expected stimulus than anticipated, strengthens the association between the CS and the US

Negative prediction error

Expected event does not happen after a stimulus, weakens the CS-US association

Stimulus generalization

Occurs when stimuli similar but not identical to the CS produce the CR, adaptive because the CS is seldom experienced repeatedly in an identical way

Stimulus discrimination

Occurs when an animal learns to differentiate between two similar stimuli if one is consistently associated with the US and the other is not

Second order conditioning

Once an association between a CS and a US is well learned, the CS itself can take on value. Once the CS has value, other stimuli may become associated with the CS only and can also produce CRs

Operant conditioning

Learning actions from consequences

Law of effect

Any behavior that leads to a ‘satisfying state of affairs’ is likely to occur again, while any behavior that leads to an ‘annoying state of affairs’ is less likely to occur again (developed by Thorndike)

Behaviorism

Emphasized environmental effects on observable behaviors (Ex: Skinner)

Reinforcer

Stimulus that occurs after a response and increases the likelihood that the response will be repeated

Positive reinforcement

Increases the probability that a behavior will be repeated, means that something is being added. Often called a reward

Negative reinforcement

Increases the probability that a behavior will be repeated, means that something (unpleasant) is being taken away

Punishment

Reduces the probability that a behavior will be repeated

Positive punishment

Decreases the behavior’s probability through the administration of a stimulus

Negative punishment

Decreases the behavior’s probability through the removal of a (pleasant) stimulus

Shaping

Reinforcing behaviors that are increasingly similar to the desired behavior (successive approximations)

Primary reinforcers

Stimuli that act as reinforcers that are necessary for survival, satisfy biological needs (ex: food and water)

Secondary reinforcers

Stimuli that serve as reinforcers but do not satisfy biological needs, established through classical conditioning (ex: money)

Reinforcer potency

Some reinforcers are more powerful/valuable to the animal than others - effectiveness of a reinforcer in operant conditioning is a function of its value

Premack principle

More-valued activity can be used to reinforce the performance of a less-valued activity

Temporal discounting

Value of a reward diminishes over time (ex: ten dollars now or twenty dollars in a year, the ten dollars now is usually preferred)

Continuous reinforcement

Reinforce a behavior each time it occurs

Partial reinforcement

Intermittent reinforcement of a behavior

Ratio schedule

Based on the number of times a behavior occurs, schedule for partial reinforcement

Interval schedule

Based on a specific unit of time, schedule for partial reinforcement

Fixed interval schedule

Occurs when a reinforcement is provided after a certain amount of time has passed

Variable interval schedule

Occurs when reinforcement is provided after the passage of time, but the time is not regular

Fixed ratio schedule

Occurs when reinforcement is provided after a certain number of responses have been made

Variable ratio schedule

Occurs when reinforcement is provided after an unpredictable number of responses

Partial-reinforcement extinction effect

Refers to the greater persistence of behavior under partial reinforcement than under continuous reinforcement

Equipotentiality

Suggests that any object or phenomenon could be converted to a conditioned stimulus when associated with any unconditioned stimulus (any behavior can be learned as long as it is reinforced) - no longer accepted as a principle

Conditioned taste aversions

Aversion to a food/taste after they become sick after eating it, irregardless of whether the illness was actually caused by the food. Especially likely to develop if the taste was not part of the person’s usual diet.

• Association between a novel taste and getting sick, even if the response was delayed by hours, is so strong that it can be formed in one trial

• Conditioned taste aversions are easy to produce with food, but very difficult with light or sound - makes sense from an evolutionary perspective

• Learning depends on biology

Biological preparedness

Animals learn associations between potentially dangerous stimuli and fear responses much more easily

Phobia

Acquired fear that is out of proportion to the real threat of an object or situation, developed through generalization of a fear experiencce

Fear conditioning

Classical conditioning of animals to fear neutral objects

Modeling

Imitation of observed behavior

Vicarious learning

Learning about an action’s consequences by watching others being rewarded or punished for performing the action

Instructed learning

Using language to communicate associations between stimuli or between actions and consequences

Memory

Ability to store and retrieve information

Case of H.M.

Had severe epilepsy - doctors removed parts of his temporal lobe, including the hippocampus. Stopped the seizures but prevented him from acquiring new information

Amnesia

Inability to retrieve vast quantities of information from memory as a result of brain injury or psychological trauma

Retrograde amnesia

Lose past memories for events, facts, people, or personal information

Anterograde amnesia

Lose the ability to form new memories

Priming

Facilitation of a response to a stimulus based on past experience with that stimulus or a related stimulus

Implicit memory

Unconscious or unintentional memory, expressed through actions and reactions

Explicit memory

Processes we use to remember information we can say we know

Procedural memory

Implicit, include skilled and goal-oriented behaviors that become automatic, such as motor skills, cognitive skills, and habitual behaviors (ex: riding a bicycle, reading). Very resistant to decay. Brain systems generally include the basal ganglia and (for motor skills) the cerebellum

Episodic memory

Explicit, memory of past experiences that can be identified as occurring at a time and place

Semantic memory

Explicit, knowledge of concepts, categories, and facts independent of personal experience

Encoding

Process by which the perception of a stimulus or event gets transformed into a memory, starts with attention

Dual-coding hypothesis

Information that can be coded verbally and visually will be remembered more easily than information that can be encoded only verbally

Level of processing model

The more deeply an item is encoded and the more meaning it has, the better it is remembered

Maintenance rehearsal

Simply repeating the item over and over

Elaborative rehearsal

Encodes the information in more meaningful ways, such as thinking about the item conceptually

Schemas

Cognitive structures in semantic memory that help us perceive, organize, understand, and use information

Chunking

Process of breaking down information into meaningful units

Mnemonics

Learning aids or strategies to improve memory, work by focusing attention on organizing incoming information and linking it to existing knowledge structures

Method of loci

Mnemonic strategy, associating items you want to remember with physical locations

Sensory memory

Temporary memory system closely tied to the sensory systems. Only lasts a fraction of a second, occurs when a light, sound, odor, taste, or tactile impression leaves a vanishing trace on the nervous system after the sensory information is gone

Working memory

Previously called ‘short-term memory’, actively retains and manipulates multiple pieces of temporary information from different sources, represents what we are consciously focusing on at any point in time.

• Information remains for 20-30 seconds without rehearsal

Memory span

Amount of information working memory can hold, generally seven plus/minus two items (though contemporary work suggests it may be as few as four)

Long-term memory

• Can last from a few minutes to forever

• Limitless capacity

• Separate storage system from working memory

Serial position effect

Consists of primacy effect and recency effect

• Primacy = better memory for items presented at the beginning of a list

• Recency = better memory for items presented at the end of a list

Consolidation

Process of forming the lasting connections that represent long-term memory

Long-term potentiation

The strengthening of a synaptic connection, making postsynaptic neurons more easily activated by presynaptic neurons. Learning results from a strengthening of synaptic connections (neurons that fire together wire together) - NMDA receptor is important

Replay

Occurs when the neural circuit representing the memory fires again, the memory ‘plays’ once more in your mind’s eye

Flashbulb memories

Vivid memories of the circumstances in which people first learn of a surprising and consequential or emotionally arousing event. Usually have a high confidence, but aren’t always as accurate as believed.

Reconsolidation

Second consolidation process, sometimes (not always) occurs after the memory is retrieved. Argued to update and strengthen memories

Retrieval cue

Anything that helps a person recall a memory

Encoding specificity principle

Any stimulus encoded along with an experience can later trigger a memory of the experience; memory retrieval is more effective when the context during recall matches the context during the initial learning

Prospective memory

Remembering to do something at some future time

Retrieval-induced forgetting

Occurs when retrieving an item from long-term memory impairs the ability to recall a related item in the future

Savings

Difference between the original learning and relearning (it is easier to relearn something that in was to learn it the first time)

Proactive interference

Old information inhibits the ability to remember new information

Retroactive interference

New information inhibits the ability to remember old information

Blocking

Occurs when a person is temporarily unable to remember something

Absentmindedness

Results from the shallow encoding of events, major cause is failing to pay attention

Persistence

Occurs when unwanted memories are remembered despite the desire not to have them

Memory bias

Changing of memories over time so they become consistent with current beliefs, knowledge, or attitudes

Source misattribution

Occurs when people misremember the time, place, person, or circumstances involved with a memory

Source amnesia

A form of misattribution that occurs when people have a memory for an event but cannot remember where they encountered the information

Cryptomnesia

Example of source misattribution, people think they have come up with a new idea

Suggestibility

Tendency to develop biased memories when provided with misleading information