Psych Midterm 2

Learning

the process of acquiring new and relatively enduring information or behaviors

Associative learning

learning that certain events occur together.

The events may be two stimuli (as in classical conditioning) or a response and its consequences (as in operant conditioning).

Stimulus

any event or situation that evokes a response

Respondent behavior

behavior that occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus

Operant behavior

behavior that operates on the environment, producing consequences

Cognitive Learning

the acquisition of mental information, whether by observing events, by watching others, or through language

Observing events and people and regular learning is acquiring through personal EXPERIENCE

Classical Conditioning

a type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events

Ex. a first stimulus elicits a behavior in anticipation of the second stimulus (Pavlov's experiment)

Pavlov's experiment

Putting food in a dogs mouth caused it to salivate

Pavlov sounded a tone before putting the food in front of the dog, and the tone began to signal salivation

Drooling is an *unconditioned response* and the food is an *unconditioned stimulus*, salivation is the *conditioned response*, the sound placed is a *conditioned stimulus*

Neutral stimulus

in classical conditioning, a stimulus that elicits no response before conditioning

Applications of Classical Conditioning

Drug Cravings: classical conditioning may inform treatments for substance use disorder

Food Cravings: classical conditioning makes dieting difficult. Sugary substances evoke sweet sensations.

Immune Responses: classical conditioning even works on the body's disease-fighting immune system.

Operant Conditioning

a type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher

(Learning to repeat acts that bring reward)

Shaping

an operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior

Positive reinforcement

Increasing behaviors by presenting positive stimuli

Negative reinforcement

Increasing behaviors by stopping or reducing negative stimuli, such as shock

Fixed ratio schedule

a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses

Ex. 1 free coffee every 10 purchases

Observational learning

learning by observing others; also called social learning

mirror neurons

frontal lobe neurons that some scientists believe fire when performing certain actions or when observing another doing so.

The brain's mirroring of another's action may enable imitation and empathy

Acquisition

the phase of classical conditioning when the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus are presented together

Extinction

the diminishing of a conditioned response;

occurs in classical conditioning when an unconditioned stimulus does not follow a conditioned stimulus; occurs in operant conditioning when a response is no longer reinforced.

Spontaneous recovery

the reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response

Generalization

the tendency, once a response has been conditioned, for stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses

Discrimination

in classical conditioning, the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus

Reinforcement

in operant conditioning, any event that strengthens the behavior it follows

Punishment

an event that decreases the behavior that it follows

Downside of giving rewards for normal activities

- *undermine intrinsic motivations*
- Give kids rewards IF they play with magic markers
- Come back in 2 weeks, give them magic markers, kids - who didn't get a reward played w markers, rest didn't

Overjustification effect

The effect of promising a reward for doing what one already likes to do. The person may now see the reward, rather than intrinsic interest, as the motivation for performing the task.

Sensation

Process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from the environment

Perception

the process by which our brain organizes and interprets sensory information, enabling us to recognize objects and events as meaningful

Bottom-up processing

analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information

(Enables your sensory systems to detect the lines, angles, and colors that form the images)

Top-down processing

information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations

- Interpret what your senses detect
- Perception to sensory

Ex. Being shown images of rats vs human faces will influence whether a unfinished drawing looks like a human or rat

Transduction

conversion of one form of energy into another. In sensation, the transforming of stimulus energies, like sights, sounds, smells, into neural impulses our brain can interpret

Absolute Threshold

the minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time

Ex. How long before I smell the chocolate in a cookie?

Difference threshold

the minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50% of the time

Ex. How much cinnamon does there have to be in the chocolate cookie before I smell cinnamon over chocolate?

Sensory Adaptation

diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation

Perceptual Set

stereotypes and schemas, context clues, a mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another

Wavelength

the distance from the peak of one light or sound wave to the peak of the next

Electromagnetic wavelengths

vary from the short blips of cosmic rays to the long pulses of radio transmission

Hue

the dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light; what we know as the color names

Intensity

the amount of energy in a light wave or sound wave, which influences what we perceive as brightness or loudness

Cornea

outer layer that bends light to help provide focus

Iris

a colored muscle that dilates or constricts in response to light intensity

Retina

the light-sensitive inner surface of the eye

Accommodation

the process by which the eye's lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina

Rods

retinal receptors that detect black, white, and gray

Necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don't respond

Cones

Cones detect fine detail and give rise to color sensations

Optic nerve

the nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain

Blind spot

the point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a "blind" spot because no receptor cells are located there

Feature detectors

nerve cells in the brain's visual cortex that respond to specific features of the stimulus, such as shape, angle, or movement

Young Helmholtz trichromatic (three-color) theory

the theory that the retina contains three different color receptors
- one most sensitive to red, one to green, one to blue which, when stimulated in combination, can produce the perception of any color.

Hering's opponent-process theory

there are three additional sets of opposing retinal processes (red-green, blue-yellow, black-white)

If you are seeing one color, you are NOT seeing its complement because it is actively inhibited

Ex. Yellow and green flag produces an after image of a red and blue American flag

color processing occurs in two stages

• trichromatic theory explains what is happening at the level of cones
• opponent process theory explains at "higher" levels

Parallel processing

the processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously

Gestalt

an organized whole that is perceived as more than the sum of its parts.

Ex. Lines that are together, shapes that look the same, continuity, and closure we tend to group together

Figure-ground

organization of the visual field into objects (figures) that stand out from their surroundings (ground)

Grouping

the perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups

Depth Perception

the ability to see objects in three dimensions, although the images that strike the retina are two dimensional; allows us to judge distance

Binocular cues

depth cues that rely on information from both eyes

Monocular cues

depth cues that let us judge depth using information transmitted by only one eye

Perceptual constancy

perceiving objects as unchanging (having consistent color, brightness, shape, and size) even as illumination and retinal images change

Ex. Moon illusion
Ex. Big man - little man in hallway

Perceptual Adaptation

ability to adjust to changed sensory input, including an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field

Ex. Football player wearing distorted goggles

Sound waves

Sound waves vary in amplitude, which we perceive as differing loudness (with sound intensity measured in decibels) and in frequency (measured in hertz), which we experience as differing pitch

Frequency

number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time

Pitch

tone's experienced highness or lowness; depends on frequency

Hearing range

Intensity usually measured in decibels
- Every 10dB increase refers to a 10x increase (logarithmic measurement)
- BUT every 10dB increase only seems twice as "loud" (perceived)

Sensorineural hearing loss

most common type. Damage to cochlea's receptor cells or to the auditory nerve - nerve deafness.

Conduction hearing loss

less common. Damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea.

Cochlear Implant

device for converting sounds into electrical signals and stimulating the auditory nerve through electrodes threaded into the cochlea

Place Theory

the theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea's membrane is stimulated (high pitch)

Frequency Theory

rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches the frequency of a tone, thus enabling us to sense its pitch. (low pitch)

Kinesthesia

our movement sense - our system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts

Vestibular sense

our balance sense - our sense of body movement and position that enables our sense of balance

Gate Control Theory

theory that explains how the nervous system blocks or allows pain signals to pass to the brain

Control Pain Therapies

drugs, surgery, acupuncture, massage, exercise, hypnosis, relaxation, mediation, etc. Placebo

Gustation

sense of taste

Olfaction

sense of smell

Memory

the persistence of learning over time through the encoding, storage, and retrieval of information

Recall

a measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier

Recognition

a measure of memory in which the person identifies items previously learned

Encode

The process of getting information into the memory system

Storage

The process of retaining encoded information over time

Retrieval

The process of getting information out of memory storage

sensory memory

the immediate, very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system

short-term memory

activated memory that holds a few items briefly, such as the seven digits of a phone number while dialing, before the information is stored or forgotten

encoded it through rehearsal

long-term memory

- the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system.
- Includes knowledge, skills, and experiences.

Automatic processing

unconscious encoding of incidental information

Working memory

a newer understanding of short-term memory that focuses on conscious, active processing of incoming auditory and visual-spatial information, and of information retrieved from long-term memory

Explicit memory

retention of facts and experiences that we can consciously know and "declare"

- Formed through effortful processing

effortful processing

encoding that requires attention and conscious effort

Implicit memory

retention of learned skills or classically conditioned associations independent of conscious recollection

Priming

the activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations in memory

EX: Hearing the word "rabbit" makes us more likely to hear "hare" rather than "hair"

Implicit Recognition

Ex. Study where people showed preference to shape they saw for 1 millisecond

Processing ease feels good - i.e. because you saw it before

Iconic memory

a momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli

Ex. a photogenic or picture-image memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second

Echoic memory

a momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli

Ex. if attention is elsewhere, sounds and words can still be recalled within 3 or 4

Chunking

organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically

Mnemonics

memory aids, especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices

Hierarchies

process info in hierarchies composed of a few broad concepts divided and subdivided into narrower concepts and facts

Distributed practices

is a learning strategy, where practice is broken up into a number of short sessions - over a longer period of time.

Spacing effect

tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better long-term retention than is achieved through massed study or practice

Testing effect

enhanced memory after retrieving, rather than simply rereading, information

- Spaced study and self-assessment beat cramming and rereading

Shallow processing

An approach to memorization that involves focusing on the superficial characteristics of the stimulus, such as the sound of a word (rhyme)or the typeface in which it's printed (uppercase or lowercase)