PSYC 100, midterm 2, uiuc

learning

change in an organism's behavior or thought as a result of experience

Habituation

process of responding less strongly over time to repeated stimuli

classical conditioning

form of learning in which animals come to respond to a previously neutral stimulus that had been paired with another stimulus that elicits an automatic response

unconditioned response(UCR)

automatic response to a nonneutral stimulus that does not need to be learned

unconditioned stimulus(UCS)

stimulus that elicits an automatic response

Conditioned response (CR)

response previously associated with a nonneutral stimulus that is elicited by a neutral stimulus through conditioning

conditioned stimulus (CS)

initially neutral stimulus that comes to elicit a response as a result of association with an unconditioned stimulus

acquisition

learning phase during which a conditioned response is established

extinction

gradual reduction and eventual elimination of the conditioned response after the conditioned stimulus is presented repeatedly without the unconditioned stimulus

spontaneous recovery

sudden reemergence of an extinct conditioned response after a delay in exposure to the conditioned stimulus

renewal effect

sudden reemergence of a conditioned response following extinction when an animal is returned to the environment in which the conditioned response was acquired

Stimulus generalization

process by which conditioned stimuli similar, but not identical, to the original conditioned stimulus elicits a conditioned response

higher-order conditioning

developing a conditioned response to a conditioned stimulus by virtue of its association with another conditioned stimulus

latent inhibition

difficulty in establishing classical conditioning to a conditioned stimulus we've repeatedly experienced alone, that, is without the unconditioned stimulus

fetishism

sexual attraction to nonliving things

operant conditioning

learning controlled by the consequences of the organism's behavior

law of effect

principle asserting that if a stimulus followed by a behavior results in a reward, the stimulus is more likely to give rise to the behavior in the future

insight

grasping the underlying nature of a problem

Skinner box

small animal chamber constructed by Skinner to allow sustained periods of conditioning to be administered and behaviors to be recorded unsupervised

reinforcement

outcome or consequence of a behavior that strengthens the probability of the behavior

positive reinforcement

presentation of a stimulus that strengthens the probability of the behavior

negative reinforcement

removal of a stimulus that strengthens the probability of the behavior

punishment

outcome or consequence of a behavior that weakens the probability of the behavior

discriminative stimulus

stimulus that signals the presence of reinforcement

schedule of reinforcement

pattern of reinforcing a behavior

continuous reinforcement

reinforcing a behavior every time it occurs, resulting in faster learning but faster extinction that only occasional reinforcement

partial reinforcement

occasional reinforcement of a behavior, resulting in slower extinction than if the behavior had been reinforced continually

fixed ratio (FR) schedule

pattern in which we provide reinforcement following a regular number of responses

fixed ratio (FR) schedule

pattern in which we provide reinforcement following a regular number of responses

fixed interval (FI) schedule

pattern in which we provide reinforcement for a response at least once following a specified time interval

variable interval (VI) schedule

pattern in which we provide reinforcement for a response at least once during an average time interval, with the interval varying randomly

shaping

conditioning a target behavior by progressively reinforcing behaviors that come closer and closer to the target

secondary reinforcer

neutral object that becomes associated with a primary reinforcer

primary reinforcer

item or outcome that naturally increases the target behavior

latent learning

learning that's not directly observable

cognitive map

mental representation of how a physical space is organized

observational learning

learning by watching others

mirror neuron

cell in the prefrontal cortex that becomes activated when an animal performs an action or observes it being performed

preparedness

evolutionary predisposition to learn some pairings of feared stimuli over others owing to their survival value

instinctive drift

tendency for animals to return to innate behaviors following repeated reinforcement

learning style

an individual's preferred or optimal method of acquiring new information

memory illusion

false by subjectively compelling memory

memory

retention of information over time

sensory memory

brief storage of perceptual information before it is passed to short-term memory

iconic memory

visual sensory memory

echoic

auditory sensory memory

short-term memory

memory system that retains information for limited durations

decay

fading of information from memory over time

interference

loss of information from memory because of competition incoming information

retroactive interference

interference with retention of old information due to acquisition of new information

proactive interference

interference with acquisition of new information due to previous learning of information

Magic Number

the span of short-term memory, according to George Miller: seven plus or minus two pieces of information

chunking

organizing information into meaningful groupings, allowing us to extend the span of short-term memory

rehearsal

repeating information to extend the duration of retention in short-term memory

maintenance rehearsal

repeating stimuli in their original form to retain them in short-term memory

elaborative rehearsal

linking stimuli to each other in a meaning ful way to improve retention of information in short-term memory

levels of processing

depth of transforming information, which influences how easily we remember it

long-term memory

relatively enduring retention of information stored regarding our facts, experiences, and skills

permastore

type of long-term memory that appears to be permanent

primacy effect

tendency to remember words at the beginning of a list especially well

recency effect

tendency to remember words at the end of a list especially well

serial position curve

graph depicting both primacy and recency effects on people's ability to recall items on a list

semantic memory

our knowledge of facts about the world

episodic memory

memories we recall intentionally and of which we have conscious awareness

implicit memory

memories we don't deliberately remember or reflect on consciously

procedural memory

memory for how to do things, including motor skills and habits

priming

our ability to identify a stimulus more easily or more quickly after we've encountered similar stimuli

storage

process of keeping information in memory

schema

organized knowledge structure or mental model that we've stored in memory

retrieval cue

hint that makes it easier for us to recall information

recall

generating previously remembered information

recognition

selecting previously remembered information from an array of options

relearning

reacquiring knowledge that we'd previously learned but largely forgotten over time

distributed versus massed practice

studying information in small increments over time(distributed) versus in large increments over a brief amount of time(massed)

tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) phenomenon

experience of knowing that we know something but being unable to access it

encoding specificity

phenomenon of remembering something better when the conditions under which we retrieve information are similar to the conditions under which we encoded it

context-dependent learning

superior retrieval of memories when the external context of original memories matches the retrival context

state-dependent learning

superior retrieval of memories when the organism is in the same physiological or psychological state as it was during encoding

long-term potentiation (LTP)

gradual strengthening of the connections among neurons from repetitive stimulation

retrograde amnesia

loss of memories from our past

anterograde amnesia

inability to encode new memories from our experiences

meta-memory

knowledge about our own memory abilities and limitations

infantile amnesia

inability of adults to remember personal experiences that took place before an early age

flashbulb memory

emotional memory that is extraordinarily vivid and detailed

source monitoring confusion

lack of clarity about the origin of a memory

cryptomnesia

failure to recognize that our ideas originated with someone else

suggestive memory technique

procedure that encourages patients to recall memories that may or may not have taken place

misinformation effect

creation of fictitious memories by providing misleading information about an event after it takes place

thinking

any mental activity or processing of information, including learning, remembering, perceiving, communicating, believing, and deciding

cognitive bias

systematic error in thinking

representative heuristic

heuristic that involves judging the probability of an event by its superficial similarity to a prototype

base rate

how common a characteristic or behavior is in the general population

availability heuristic

heuristic that involves estimating the likelihood of an occurrence based on the ease with which it comes to our minds

hindsight bias

our tendency to overestimate how well we could have predicted something after it has already occurred

concept

our knowledge and ideas about a set of objects, actions, and characteristics that share core properties

linguistic determinism

view that all thought is represented verbally and that, as a result, our language defines our thinking

linguistic relativity

view that characteristics of language shape our thought processes

decision-making

the process of selecting among a set of possible alternatives

framing

the way a question is formulated that can influence the decisions people make

problem solving

generative cognitive strategy to accomplish a goal