Psychology Exam 3

acquisition

the initial stage when one links a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus begins triggering the conditioned response (in operant conditioning, the strengthening of a reinforced response)

Are human emotions and behaviors conditioned responses?

yes, though they are biologically influenced (Watson's ideas)

associative learning

learning that certain events occur together

classical conditioning

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

cognitive map

a mental representation of one's environment

conditioned response (CR)

learned response, associated to a previously neutral stimulus, but now conditioned stimulus (CS)

conditioned stimulus

originally neutral stimulus, triggers a conditioned response (CR)

discrimination

learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus (which predicts the unconditioned stimulus) and other irrelevant stimuli

extrinsic motivation

desire to perform a behavior to receive a reward or avoid threat/punishment

fixed-interval schedule

a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed

fixed-ratio schedule

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

generalization

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

How do we learn?

through associative learning, consequences, acquisition of mental information, and observation

instinctive drift

tendency of learned behavior to revert to biologically predisposed patterns

intrinsic motivation

desire to perform a behavior effectively for its own sake

Is classical conditioning a basic learning form?

yes

latent learning

learning that occurs but isn't seen until there is an incentive to demonstrate it

learning

process of acquiring new information or behaviors through experience

mirror neurons

include frontal lobe neurons, which some scientists believe fire when performing certain actions or when observing another person doing so

neutral stimulus (NS)

natural and automatic, triggers an unconditioned response (UR)

observational learning

higher animals learn without direct experience by watching and imitating others (Bandura was major researcher of this)

operant conditioning

a type of learning in which a behavior becomes more likely to recur if followed by a reinforcer or less likely to recur if followed by a punisher

Pavlov's principles are used to influence human health and well-being in these areas:

consciousness, motivation, emotion, health, psychological disorders, therapy

reinforcement

any event that strengthens the behavior it follows

shaping

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

unconditioned response

unlearned response to an unconditioned stimulus

unconditioned stimulus

stimulus that unconditionally triggers an unconditioned response

variable-interval schedule

a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a reponse at unpredictable time intervals

variable-ratio schedules

a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses

What are biological influences on learning?

genetic predispositions, unconditioned responses, adaptive responses, neural mirroring

What are psychological influences on learning?

previous experiences, predictability of associations, generalization, discrimination, expectations

What are social-cultural influences on learning?

culturally learned preferences, motivations, modeling

Who applied classical conditioning principles to demonstrate how specific fears might be conditioned?

Watson and Rayner

Automatic processing

Processing information outside of conscious awareness

Chunking

Organization of items into units

Cues

Any stimulus that helps you access target information

Deep processing

encodes information semantically based on word meaning

Deja vu

Feeling like you've felt or seen something before

Ebbinghaus Retention Curve

Curve that showed that speed of relearning decreases with the amount of repetitions

Echoic memory

Sound memory

Encoding

Converting information into a form usable in memory

Explicit memories

Conscious facts and experiences encoded through conscious, effortful processing

Forgetting

Failure to encode or store information

Hierarchies

Organization of items into a few broad categories divided and subdivided into narrower concepts and facts.

Iconic memory

Picture-image memory

Implicit memories

Memories formed through automatic processing and bypass the conscious track

Long-term memory

Where we store memory for later retrieval

Mnemonics

Technique that uses vivid imagery and organizational devices

Motivated forgetting

Freud: Repressed memories protect a person's self-concept and minimize anxiety \n \n Today: Attempts to forget are more likely when information is neutral not emotional

Priming

A cue which will make you more likely to react a certain way to a prompt

Proactive interference

Older memories make it hard to remember new things

Recall

Retrieving information that is not currently in your conscious awareness but that was learned at an earlier time

Recognition

Identifying items previously learned

Relearning

Learning something more quickly when you encounter it a second or later time

Retrieval

Bringing stored information to mind

Retroactive interference

New learning disrupts memory of older information

Sensory memory

Where we record to-be-remembered information

Shallow processing

Encoded information on a very basic level or a more intermediate level

Short-term memory

Where we process information

Source amnesia

Faulty memory of how/when/where information was learned

Storage

Retaining information in memory

Testing effect

Retrieval practice effect or test-enhanced effect

Working memory

Active processing

Algorithm

Logical rule or procedure to solve a problem

Availability heuristic

Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory (if an even comes to mind readily we perceive it as more likely)

Belief perseverance

Phenomenon of clinging to beliefs and ignoring counterarguments 

Category

Group of concepts, boundaries can blur as movement from prototype to category occurs

Cognition

Mental activities associated with thikning, knowing, remembering and communicating

Concept

Mental grouping of similar objects

Confirmation bias

Predisposition to verify rather than challenge our hypotheses

Creativity

The ability to produce new and valuable ideas

Fixation

Mental mindset which may prevent us from taking a fresh perspective

Framing

Phenomenon of swaying decisions and judgements by influincing the posing of a question (application of priming)

Heuristic

A problem solving strategy; simpler than an algorithm but more error prone

Insight

Sudden flash of inspiration that solves a problem

Intuition

Automatic feeling or thought

Mental set

Tendency to approach a problem with previously succesful sets

Metacognition

Thinking about thinking (eg monitoring how you learn to optimize study methods)

Overconfidence

The tendency to be more confident than correct

Prototype

A mental image or best example of a category

Representativeness heuristic

Estimating the likelihood of events in terms of how well they seem to represent our prototypes (it may lead us to ignore relevant information)

Trial and error

Guess and check solutions

sensation

stimulation of sensory receptors

perception

process by which sensations are organized and interpreted to form an inner representation of the world

absolute threshold

weakest level of a stimulus that is necessary to produce a sensation (detected 50% of the time)

subliminal stimulation

sensory stimulation that is below a person’s absolute threshold for conscious perception

difference threshold

minimum difference in magnitude of two stimuli required to tell them apart (detected 50% of the time)

Weber’s constant

standard of difference

just noticeable difference

minimum difference a person can detect

signal-detection theory

stimulus characteristics and psychological factors interact to influence whether a stimulus is detected

feature detectors

neurons that respond to different aspects of features

sensitization (positive adaptation)

one becomes more sensitive to stimuli of low magnitude

desensitization (negative adaption)

one becomes less sensitive to stimuli that remains the same

sharpness of vision

connected to the shape of the eye, dependent on the cornea and lens

rods

provide vision in black and white, more sensitive to dim light than cones

cones

densely packed in center of retina (fovea), provide color vision

trichromats

normal color vision

monochromats

totally color blind

dichromats

partial color blindness, discriminate between two colors

cochlea

coiled, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear