Science of Psychology Midterm #2

a ____ could not respond to the environment, since it would have no rules for how to respond

blank slate

what is an integral part of human nature?

human infants have “programs” or “modules” that allow them to decode and master the sounds, meanings, and grammar of any language they hear

____ are impossible without rules for responding

responses

what is learning?

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

what are 3 important points of learning?

based on experience; produces changes in the organism; changes are relatively permanent

what are two simple forms of learning?

habituation, sensitization

what is habituation?

a general process in which repeated or prolonged exposure to a stimulus results in a gradual reduction in responding (after a while, some stimuli get “tuned out” or ignored

what is sensitization?

a simple form of learning that occurs when presentation of a stimulus leads to an increased response to a later stimulus

who began the behaviorist movement?

John B. Watson

The behaviorst stance was fueled in large part by…

Ivan Pavlov

what did Ivan Pavlov study?

digestion in laboratory animals by surgically implanting test tubes into the cheeks of dogs to measure their salivary response to food

what is classical conditioning?

when a neutral stimulus produces a response after being paired with a stimulus that naturally produces a response

what are four elements of classical conditioning?

unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, conditioned stimulus, conditioned response

what is an unconditioned stimulus?

something that reliably produces a naturally occurring reaction in an organism

what is an unconditioned response?

a reflexive reaction that is reliably produced by an unconditioned stimulus

what is a conditioned stimulus?

a previously neutral stimulus that produces a reliable response in an organism after being paired with an unconditioned stimulus

what is a conditioned response?

a reaction that resembles an unconditioned response but is produced by a conditioned stimulus

what is acquisition?

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

after conditioning, there can be ____

second-order conditioning

what is second-order conditioning?

conditioning where a conditioned stimulus is paired with a stimulus that became associated with the unconditioned stimulus in an earlier procedure

what is extinction?

the gradual elimination of a learned response that occurs when the conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus (behavior declines abruptly, then continues to drop until the conditioned stimulus no longer produces the conditioned response)

what is spontaneous recovery?

the tendency of a learned behavior to recover from extinction after a rest period

what is generalization?

the conditioned response is observed even though the conditioned stimulus is slightly different from the conditioned stimulus used during acquisition

what is discrimination?

the capacity to distinguish between similar but distinct stimuli (the more the stimulus changes, the less conditioned responding is observed)

How did “Little Albert” experiment by Watson and Raynor (1920) extend Pavlov’s work?

showed that complex behaviors could be conditioned as well as simple ones, classical conditioning works in humans, and fears could be present without the need to theorize deeper unconscious processes or early traumatic experiences

what is operant conditioning?

a type of learning in which the consequences of an organism’s behavior determine whether it will be repeated in the future (behaviors are active and voluntary)

what did Edward L. Thordike work on?

instrumental behaviors and developed the law of effect

what are instrumental behaviors?

behaviors that require an organism to do something, solve a problem, or otherwise manipulate elements of its environment

what is the law of effect?

behaviors that are followed by a “satisfying state of affairs” tend to be repeated and those that produce an “unpleasant state of affairs” are less likely to be repeated

what is an operant behavior?

behavior that an organism produces that has some impact on the environment (the environment responds by providing events that strengthen (i.e. reinforce) or weaken (i.e. punish) the behavior

Skinner’s approach to studying learning focused on ____ and ____

reinforcement, punishment

what is a reinforcer?

any stimulus or event that functions to increase the likelihood of the behavior that led to it

what is a punisher?

any stimulus or event that functions to decrease the likelihood of the behavior that led to it

what are the terms qualifying the types of reinforcement and punishment?

positive, negative

what is positive?

situations in which a stimulus is presented

what is negative?

situations in which a stimulus is removed

how to increase behaviors?

positive/negative reinforcement

what is positive reinforcement?

a rewarding stimulus is presented

what is negative reinforcement?

an unpleasant stimulus is removed

how to decrease behavior?

positive/negative punishment

what is positive punishment?

an unpleasant stimulus is administered (spanking)

what is negative punishment?

a rewarding stimulus is removed to decrease behavior

what is a fixed-interval schedule?

reinforcers are presented at fixed-time periods, provided that the appropriate response is made

what is a variable-interval schedule?

a behavior is reinforced based on an average time that has past since the last reinforcement

____ is based on a time scale rather than how many responses occur

reinforcement

both ____ and ____ interval schedules produce slow, steady, and methodical responding

fixed, variables

what is a fixed-ratio schedule?

reinforcement is delivered after a specific number of responses have been made

what is continuous reinforcement?

a special case of a fixed-ration schedule in which reinforcement is presented after each response

what is variable-ratio schedule?

the delivery of reinforcement is based on a particular average number of responses (the higher the ratio, the higher the response rate is)

what is continuous reinforcement?

a special case of a fixed-ratio schedule in which reinforcement is presented after every response

what is intermittent reinforcement?

when only some of the response made are followed by reinforcement

what is an intermittent reinforcement effect?

operant behaviors that are maintained under intermittent reinforcement schedules resist extinction better than those maintained under continuous reinforcement schedules

what is shaping?

learning that results from the reinforcement of successive steps to a final desired behavior

each emotional experience can be described by a unique coordination on ____ (high or low) and ____ (positive or negative)

arousal, valence

what is emotion?

a positive or negative experience that is associated with a particular pattern of physiological activity

What did William James and Carl Lange suggest?

they suggested it happened in the opposite order: (1) see the raptor; (2) heart pounds; (3) experience fear (fear is nothing more than your bodily responses)

what is the James-Lange theory?

a stimulus triggers activity in the body, which in turn produces an emotional experience in the brain (emotional experience is the consequence, not the cause, of our physiological reactions)

what is the Cannon-Baird theory?

stimuli simultaneously trigger activity in the body and emotional experience in the brain

what is the two factor theory?

the theory that emotions are based on inferences about the causes of physiological arousal; people have the same physiological reaction to all emotional stimuli (Schachter and Singer)

What did Schachter and Singer do?

injected participants with epinephrine which causes physiological arousal, then exposed participants either a goofy or a nasty confederate

what were the findings of Schachter and Singer’s experiment?

when the confederate acted goofy, participants reported feeling happy; when the confederate acted nasty, participants reported feeling angry

What was James-Lange right about?

the patterns of physiological responses are not the same for all the emotions

what was Cannon-Baird right about?

people aren’t perfectly sensitive to physiological responses

what is emotional communication?

an observable sign of an emotional state (people can infer emotion from vocal cues - intonation, inflection, loudness, and duration, gaze direct, gait, and even a brief touch on the arm)

What did Ekman and Friesen do?

43 distinct muscles at various levels of intensity can create up to 10,000 visibly different expressions, so they developed an anatomically based system (Facial Action Coding System - FACS) to measure these

What did Darwin do?

he suggested that expressions were meant to communicate information about internal states (false) and that expressions are a convenient way for one animal to let another know how it is feeling and prepared to act (false)

what is an universality hypothesis?

emotional expressions have the same meaning for everyone (no cultural differences in the way that emotions are expressed and interpreted)

what is the facial feedback hypothesis?

emotional expressions can cause the emotional experiences they signal (emotional experiences cause facial expressions…facial expressions can also cause emotional experiences)

what did Strack, Martin, and Stepper do?

they asked participants to read comic strips and rate how funny they found them; they had two conditions involved holding a pencil in the mouth requiring the use of muscles associated with positive and negative emotion

what is motivation?

the purpose for or psychological cause of an action

how does emotions motivate us?

provide information about the world; are objectives towards which people strive

What did Damasio do?

he asked to examine a patient with brain damage to schedule an appointment; he gave the patients two dates that he was available for an appointment

what were the results of Damasio’s experiment?

it wasn’t a problem with reasoning, it was a problem with feeling; the patient couldn’t determine which option he felt better about

what is the hedonic principle?

the claim that people are motivated to experience pleasure and avoid pain (emotions are a gauge that range from bad to good; the primary goal is to keep the needle on the gauge as close to “good” as possible)

what did Maslow do?

he attempted to organize a list of human urges or “needs” in a meaningful way

What is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs?

bottom to top: physiological needs, safety and security needs, belongingness and love needs, esteem needs, and need for self-actualization (the most immediate needs are at the bottom and the most deferrable needs are at the top)

what are orexigenic signals?

signals sent to the brain to turn hunger “on”

what are anorexigenic signals?

signals sent to the brain to turn hunger “off”

what is a ghrelin?

a hormone produced in the stomach that seems to switch hunger on

what is leptin?

a chemical secreted by fat cells that tells the brain to switch hunger off

what is bulimia nervosa?

an eating disorder characterized by binging and purging (often eat large quantities of food in a short period)

what is anorexia nervosa?

an eating disorder characterized by an intense fear of being fat and severe restriction of food intake (individuals often have a distorted body image, believing they are larger than they actually are)

____ secrete hormones that travel through the blood to the brain, stimulating sexual desire

glands

what is dihydroepiandosterone (DHEA)

hormone involved in the initial onset of sexual desire

What did Masters and Johnson do?

created the stages of physiological arousal during sexual activity

what are the phases of human sexual response?

excitement, plateau, orgasm, resolution

what is inartistic motivation?

a motivation to take actions that are themselves rewarding (e.g. eating, drinking, having sex, etc.)

what is extrinsic motivation?

a motivation to take action that lead to reward (going to class, buying a girl dinner, etc.)

what are rational choice models?

typically assume that people choose among possible actions to maximize the extent to which they achieve their goals

what happens in the Ultimatum Game?

proposers usually offer around a 50/50 split; responders typically reject offers less than 30%

what happens in the Prisoner’s Dilemma Game?

the dominant strategy is to confess rather than remain silent; difficulty is that when each behaves in a self-interested way, both do worse than if each had shown restraint (lack of trust)

if both parties act selfishly, neither does as well as if they both acted cooperatively in Ultimatum scenarios:

if only a responder could prove to a proposer that she wouldn’t accept a low offer, both could avoid losing the entire pot

if both parties act selfishly, neither does as well as if they both acted cooperatively in Prisoner’s Dilemma scenarios:

if both players could prove that they will act cooperatively, both could avoid the low payoff of mutual defection

what is a commitment device?

something that provides the victim an incentive to keep his promise

what are moral sentiments?

these sentiments can/ do compete with the feelings that spring from rational calculations about material payoffs (anger, contempt, disgust, envy, greed, shame, and guilt)

what is irrationality?

an essential ingredient to the emotion of love

how is finding a husband is similar to renting a house?

both parties have costs (landlords pay the cost of having an empty flat; tenants pay the cost of homelessness), both parties settle (landlords desire the best of all tenants, but settle for the best they can find; renters want the best of all apartments, but settle for the best they can find), both parties invest (landlord may paint it a tenant’s favorite color; the tenant may install permanent decorations), both would be harmed if the other suddenly terminated the agreement (if the tenant left for a better flat, the landlord would have to bear the costs of an unrented unit, would have to search for another tenant, etc.; if the landlord could evict the tenant for a better one, the tenant would have to search for a new home, would be willing to pay only a low fee, etc.), if the best tenant were renting the best apartment, their worries would be moot (it wouldn’t be rational for either to end the relationship)

what is the solution to finding a husband is similar to renting a house?

since both parties have to compromise, they protect themselves by signing a lease that is expensive for either to break, landlord restricts his freedom, to evict (this allows the landlord to charge a higher rent), tenant restricts his freedom to leave (this allows the tenant to demand a lower rent), lack of choice works to each one’s advantage

what is the solution to marriage laws work a bit like leases?

don’t accept a partner who wanted you for rational reasons to begin with (accept a partner who wanted you for irrational reasons); look for a partner who is committed to staying with you because you are you; committed by an emotion (an emotion that the person did not decide to have and so cannot decide not to have; an emotion that was not triggered by your objective mate-value and so will not be alienated by someone with a greater mate-value)

what is the Strategy of Conflict (Schelling)?

freedom, information, and rationality are all handicaps