PSYC EXAM 3: learning , intelligence, memory

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reflex

• motor/neural reaction to a stimulus in the environment

• simpler than instincts, involving body systems

  • eg: knee jerk reflex, pupil dilating, sucking reflex

• primitive centers of central nervous system (spinal cord and medulla)

instincts

• innate behaviors triggered by a broader range of events

• maturation, change of seasons

• complex patters including the movement of the organism as a whole

• involve higher brain centers

  • sexual activity, migration, hibernation

learning

• permanent change in behavour or knowledge resulting from experince

  • involes acquriing knowledge

associative learning

• minds have a natural tendancy to connect events closley together

• occours when organism makes connections betweens stimuli or events that occour together in the enviroment

  • used in conditioning

classical conditioning

• Ian pavlov (1849-1936): dogs salivating to the ring of a bell, assosiated with food

• associate stimuli that are repeated together

• a neutral stimulus is presented immediately before an unconditioned stimulus.

unconditioned stimulus

• a stimulus that elicits a reflexive response in an organism

• eg: the smell of food

unconditioned response

• a natural unlearned reaction to a stimulus

  • eg: salivation

neutral stimulus (NS)

• stimulus that does not naturally

• eg: ringing a bell

• when paired with and repeated with stimulus (becomes conditoned) , results in reponse

conditioned response

• simulus that ilicits a response after being repeatdly paired with a unconditoned stimulus

  • eg: dogs associated the bell (CS), salivate (CR) in anticipation of food

higher-order conditioning (second order conditioning)

• pairing a new stimulis with the condtioned stimulus

• using the condtioned stimulus to condition another stimulus

• hard to acheive anything above 2nd order conditioning

  • blowing a horn every time the bell rights for food, dog will not get excited hearing bell alone

acquisition

• when an organism learns to connect a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus

• timing is key: there should only be a brief interval between condtioned stimulus and uncondtioned stimulus

  • usally as little as 5 seconds sometimes up to hours

taste aversion:

• interval of several hours between ingestion (conditioned stimulus) and unconditioned stimulus (nausea or illness)

• can occur in a single instance due to evolutionary adaptation to avoid harmful foods

  • survive via natural selection

Extinction

decrease in conditioned response when unconditioned stimulus is no longer presented together with conditioned reponse

• gradual wekening and disapperance of the conditoned reponse

  • eg: ring bell no food provided

spontaneous recovery

• the return of a prevously extinguished conditoned repsonse following a rest period

stimulus discrimination

• need to distinguish between stimuli to respond appropriately when an organism learns to respond different to various stimuli that are similar

• involved in determining which stimuli will trigger learned responses

  • eg: salivating at bell and not a doorbell

Behavoirism

• John B watson founder of behavoirism

• focus on outword observable behavoir that can be measured contrasting freuds theories on unconcious

• influenced by pavlov

• little albert: exposed to loud noises when playinf with animals conditoning a phobia

operant conditioning

• organisms learn to associate a behavior and its consequence

• punsihment vs reward stimulus

  • occours soon after response

law of effect

• BF. Skinner

• consequences that are satisfying to the organism are more likely to be repeated, and behaviors that are followed by unpleasant consequences are less likely to be repeated

  • eg: showing up to work because of pay

skinner box

• animal press for food reward

  • counts respones made by animal

positive reinforcment

• Something is added to increase the likelihood of a behavior

  • eg: giving treat to a dog who sits to continue such behavoior

negative reinforcement

• something is removed to increase the liklehood of a behavior

  • eg: plugging in seatbelt to remove annoying beep sound

Positive punishment

Something is added to decrease the likelihood of a behavior.

• eg: spanking a kid to decrease stealing

Negative Punishment

Something is removed to decrease the likelihood of a behavior.

• taking away a toy if kid misbehaves

pros and cons of punishment

pros

• effective, person is less likley to do

con

• instills fear towards person who delivered punsihment

  • can mkae child more agressive, antisocial and use the same behavoir on others

shaping

• skinner used in his operant condiutioning experirments

• reward successive approximants of a target behavoir

• reifnrces any response that resembles the desired behavoir

  • reinforce closer and closer approximations of the desired behavoir, until only reinfocing the desired behavoir

• skinner used to teach pigeons behaovirs such as turning in circles, playing ping pong etc

primary reinforcer.

• are reinforcers that have innate reinforcing qualities.

• These kinds of reinforcers are not learneed

  • Water, food, sleep, shelter, sex, and touch, plrasureamong others, are primary reinforcers.

secondary reinforcer

has no inherent value and only has reinforcing qualities when linked with a primary reinforcer.

• praise is linked to affection

• money is linked to buy needs

continuous reinforcement

• When an organism receives a reinforcer each time it displays a behavior

• the quickest way to teach someone a behavior

• effective in teaching new behavoir

  • eg: each time rat presses button it gets food

partial reinforcement

• intermittent reinforcement

• does not get reinforced every time they perform the desired behavior

  • diffrent schedules: fixed, variable, interval, ratio

Fixed interval

• Reinforcement is delivered at predictable time intervals

• higher qualirt of output

• results in moderate response rate with signficant pauses after reinfocement

  • eg: patient presses button for morphine which is docter timed

Variable interval

Reinforcement is delivered at unpredictable time intervals

moderate yet steady response rate

eg: checking social media, not knowing when manager will come

Fixed ratio

Reinforcement is delivered after a predictable number of responses

• high response rate with pauses after reinforcments

• quantity based

• worker getting paid for every x number of items manufactured

Variable ratio

Reinforcement is delivered after an unpredictable number of responses

• high and steady response rate

• eg: gambling

radical behavoirism

• Skinner was such a staunch believer that cognition didn't matter

• considered the mind a "black box"—something completely unknowable— not to be stuided

cognitive map

As the unreinforced rats explored the maze, they developed a cognitive map: a mental picture of the layout of the maze

latent learning:

learning that occurs but is not observable in behavior until there is a reason to demonstrate it.

• exiting the maze onlydue to food (shupid rat),

observational learning

• learn by watching others and then imitating, or modeling, what they do or say

• eg: chimpanizes, humans

models

The individuals performing the imitated behavior

Albert Bandura

• the scientists behind:

• pure behaviorism could not explain why learning can take place in the absence of external reinforcement.

• internal mental states must also have a role in learning and that observational learning

3 kinds of models

• live: behaovir inperson

• verbal: explains behaovir such as a coach

• symbolic: books, movies etc

vicarious reinforcement

occurs when learners observe role models receiving either positive or negative reinforcement

• behavior, you will be more motivated to copy them.

vicarious punishment

hand, if you observed the model being punished, you would be less motivated to copy them.

Bobo doll

• When the teacher was praised or ignored (and not punished for her behavior), the children imitated what she did, and even what she said.

• when the teacher was punished for this behavoir they were less likley to

• whem teacher was praised, They punched, kicked, and yelled at the doll too

conclusion: Bandura concluded that we watch and learn, and that this learning can have both prosocial and antisocial effects.

cognition

thinking

• encompasses the processes associated with perception, knowledge, problem solving, judgment, language, and memory.

Cognitive psychology

• field of psychology dedicated to examining how people think.

  • explain how and why we think the way we do by studying the interactions among human thinking, emotion, creativity, language, and problem solving,

Concepts

• are categories or groupings of linguistic information, images, ideas, or memories, such as life experiences.

• big ideas generated by observing details

  • informed by our semantic memory

  • can be abstract or concrete

prototype

• an ideal example of a concept

  • eg: what comes to mind when hearing “dog” is a golden retriver, that is someones prototype

Natural concepts

created “naturally” through your experiences and can be developed from either direct or indirect experiences

• eg: living in canada, having a natural understanding of snow vs someone in Guyana

can construct an understanding of it through direct observations, experiences with snow, or indirect knowledge (such as from films or books)

artificial concept

• a concept that is defined by a specific set of characteristics

• artificial concepts can be built off of another

  • eg: understanding the properties of a square or triangle

schema

• a mental construct consisting of a cluster or collection of related concepts

• a method of organizing information that allows the brain to work more efficiently.

  • examples: sterotypes, social roles, worldviews, archetypes, mental models

role schema

• makes assumptions about how individuals in certain roles will behave

• pre-exisitng belifs of someones personality due to some information

  • u hear they are a firefighter and assume they are brave and community oriented

event schema

• also known as a cognitive script

• set of behaviors that can feel like a routine

  • behaviors you do when walking into an elevator

  • eg: when u geeking and u go on autopilot

  • can vary in different cultures (tibet greeting by ticking tounge out vs America hand shake)

Language

• is a communication system that involves using words and rules to organize and transmit information from one individual to another

• not all communication is language

  • some species use movments, odors, vocalizations

  • langauge makes human unique

Lexicon

• refers to the words of a given language

• is a language’s vocabulary

Grammar

refers to the set of rules that are used to convey meaning through the use of the lexicon

phoneme

(e.g., the sounds “ah” vs. “eh”)

is a basic sound unit of a given language, and different languages have different sets of phonemes.

morphemes

phonems are combined to form morphemes

smallest unit of language that convey meaning that cannot be further dividedrefers to the process by which we derive meaning from morphemes and words.

eg: ing

Semantics

refers to the process by which we derive meaning from morphemes and words

Syntax

refers to the way words are organized into sentences

B. F. Skinner

(1957)

proposed that language is learned through reinforcement

Noam Chomsky- Langauge

(1965)

• criticized this Skinners behaviorist approach

  • said that mechanisms underlying language acquisition are biologically determined

Stages of Language and Communication Development: Stage 1

Age	Developmental Language and Communication
0–3 months	Reflexive communication

Stages of Language and Communication Development: Stage 2

Age	Developmental Language and Communication
3–8 months	Reflexive communication; interest in others

Developmental Language and Communication: Stage 3

Age	Developmental Language and Communication
8–13 months	Intentional communication; sociability

Stages of Language and Communication Development: 4

Age	Developmental Language and Communication
12–18 months	First words

Stages of Language and Communication Development: 5

Age	Developmental Language and Communication
18–24 months	Simple sentences of two words

Stages of Language and Communication Development: 6

Age	Developmental Language and Communication
2-3 years	Sentences of three or more words

Stages of Language and Communication Development: 6

Age	Developmental Language and Communication
3-5 years	Complex sentences; has conversations

overgeneralization- language

to an extension of a language rule to an exception to the rule

eg: children will “add an s to the end of the word” rule and say things like “those two gooses” or “three mouses.”

problem-solving strategy

is a plan of action used to find a solution

trial and error

Continue trying different solutions until problem is solved

eg: restarting phone or turning off wifi to see why phone tweakingqStep-by-step problem-solving formula

Algorithm

• Step-by-step problem-solving formula

• eg: Instructional video for installing new software on your computer

Heuristic

• General problem-solving framework

• eg: Working backwards; breaking a task into steps

  • planning time from when u gotta be there to when u need to start getting ready

mental set

• where you persist in approaching a problem in a way that has worked in the past but is clearly not working now.

Functional fixedness

type of mental set where you cannot perceive an object being used for something other than what it was designed for

anchoring bias

when you focus on one piece of information when making a decision or solving a problem.

• eg: if you see a shirt that is 1k and then one that is 10ur more likey to see the 2nd as cheap

The confirmation bias

• tendency to focus on information that confirms your existing beliefs.

  • example, if you think that your professor is not very nice, you notice all of the instances of rude behavior exhibited by

Hindsight bias

• leads you to believe that the event you just experienced was predictable, even though it really wasn’t.

Representative bias

• which you unintentionally stereotype someone or something

  • for example, you may assume that your professors spend their free time reading books

availability heuristic

• Decision is based upon either an available precedent or an example that may be faulty

Crystallized intelligence

• characterized as acquired knowledge and the ability to retrieve it

• When you learn, remember, and recall information, you are using crystallized intelligence

Fluid intelligence

encompasses the ability to see complex relationships and solve problems.

• Navigating your way home after being detoured onto an unfamiliar route because of road construction would

triarchic theory of intelligence

• Robert Sternberg developed

• practical, creative, and analytical intelligence

Practical intelligence

• “street smarts.”

• Being practical means you find solutions that work in your everyday life by applying knowledge based on your experiences

Analytical intelligence

• academic problem solving and computations.

• ability to analyze, evaluate, judge, compare, and contrast.

Creative intelligence

• is marked by inventing or imagining a solution to a problem or situation

Multiple Intelligences Theory

• developed by Howard Gardnereight

  1. linguistic intelligence,

  2. logical-mathemcatiical

  3. musical

  4. bodily kniesthetic

  5. spatial

  6. interpersonal

  7. naturalsitic

linguistic intelligence,

the ability to understand the emotions of yourself and others, show empathy, understand social relationships and cues, and regulate your own emotions and respond

Creativity

the ability to generate, create, or discover new ideas, solutions, and possibilities.

divergent thinking.

• thinking “outside the box;”

• allows an individual to arrive at unique, multiple solutions to a given problem

convergent thinking

• describes the ability to provide a correct or well-established answer or solution to a problem

intelligence quotient

• IQ

• describes a score earned on a test designed to measure intelligence

• only professionals trained in psychology can administer IQ tests

Standardization

means that the manner of administration, scoring, and interpretation of results is consistent.

Norming

• giving a test to a large population so data can be collected comparing groups, such as age groups

• the resulting data provides norms of what the group does know

• ensures the test are reliable

Flynn effect

• refers to the observation that each generation has a significantly higher IQ than the last

representative sample is

• subset of the population that accurately represents the general population.

• example, you measured the height of the women in your classroom only, you might not actually have a representative sample.

Standard deviations

describe how data are dispersed in a population and give context to large data sets.

The bell curve uses the standard deviation to show how all scores are dispersed from the average score

Range of Reaction

theory that each person responds to the environment in a unique way based on their genetic makeup.

• genetics are fixed but reaching full intellectual potential is dependent upon environmental stimulation

dysgraphia

have a learning disability that results in a struggle to write legibly.

physically writing is challenging

Dyslexia

• most common learning disability in children

• exhibits an inability to correctly process letters