Psychology Exam 2 - Learning and Memory

what tabula rasa? who proposed it and why?

-tabula rasa: blank slate

-John B. Watson, influenced by Ivan Pavlov

-founder of school of behaviorism

-scorned what Freud and psychoanalysts doing, wanted to study only that which could be directly observed: overt behaviors and obvious events that preceded them, not what people claim to think and feel

what did John B Watson say in his tabula rasa approach?

-Watson said “give me a dozen healthy infants, and I’ll guarantee to take any one of them at random and train him to become any type of specialist", regardless of talents”

-said he is going beyond facts, but so have others for thousands of years

who was B.F Skinner? what did he think about Pavlov and Watson?

-influenced by Watson

-noted that Pavlov and Watson studied learning that took place in cage/lab room where animal is passive

-noted animals must also act on their worlds, operating and seeking rewards

what did Skinner say about choice and free will?

-said any behavior rewarded will be repeated, if not rewarded it won’t be repeated

-choice, free will is an illusion and behavior is the sum of its consequences

what is learning?

-learning is a relatively lasting change in our behavior based on our experiences with the world

what did Pavlov’s consequent experiments find?

-Pavlov’s experiments showed that a neutral stimulus (harness) when paired with an innately evocative stimulus (food) can lead to the same outcome (salivation)

define UR

-unconditioned response (UR)- does not have to be learned

-like a reflex (salivating, startle response, or emotional responses)

define US

-unconditioned stimulus (US)- the things that elicits the response with no prior learning (food)

define CS

-conditioned stimulus (CS)- the thing that will elicit a response only after learning has taken place

define CR

-conditioned response (CR)- the response that has been learned, same as the UR

what did the bell begin and end as in the experiments?

-bell began as a neutral stimulus

-ended by being a conditioned stimulus after being paired with the unconditioned stimulus (food)

what is classical conditioning?

-classical conditioning is a learned behavioral response, reaction

-happens when a neutral object is paired with one that already produces some reaction in it

-the neutral object ceases to be neutral and now evokes the same response in us on its own

what is the US, UR, CS, and CR in the example of a person feeling nauseated at their middle school where they were bullied?

-US: bullying, causes reaction without any prior learning

-UR: nausea, natural unlearned reaction caused by bullying

-CS: middle school building, originally neutral, now associated with bad experience

-CR: nausea, learned reaction upon seeing the photo

what is the US, UR, CS, and CR in the example of Watson’s little Albert?

-Watson showed white rat, clanged metal bar with hammer when Albert tried to touch it

-US: loud clanging noise

-UR: startle, cry

-CS: white rat

-CR: startle, cry

what is acquisition in the context of classical conditioning?

-acquisition- the time when you are making the association between the unconditioned stimulus and the conditioned stimulus, the learning phase (like dog learning to associate bell with food)

what is extinction within the context of classical conditioning?

-extinction: when the conditioned stimulus no longer produces the response

-over time, if the conditioned stimulus is no longer followed by the unconditioned stimulus, can learn that it is no longer a good predictor

-ex: if bell sounds from harness but no food enough times, salivary response will extinguish

what is second order conditioning?

-in second order conditioning, other elements can become second order CS because of their associated with the first CS

-ex: pair harness with a tone, the tone ceases to be neutral and now also elicits salivating

what is another example of second order conditioning?

-US: watching favorite TV show

-UR: happiness, interest

-CS: actors in the show

-CR: happiness, interest

-2nd order CS: ad for bottled water with actors in it

-2nd order CR: happiness, interest

will any pairing of US-CS work?

-no, some easier to learn than others

-ex: food aversions. animals who have received poison in their food show long lasting association with tastes and smells related to original stimulus, but not sounds or lights

-animals are innately prepared to learn some associations, easier to condition a monkey to fear snakes than to fear flowers

what is cognition and why does it matter?

-cognition (what is going on in your mind) matters

-expectations: why didn’t Albert fear Watson or the dogs salivate when pavlov came in? (pavlov around dogs all day, watson in room before experiment)

-the conditioned stimulus should be predictive

how are classical and operant conditioning different from one another?

-CC is a fairly passive process, reactive, involuntary: objects in our world become associated with one another via already occurring responses to them (fear, salivating) two events become paired

-OC accounts for our actions on our world: reinforced behaviors more likely to happen again. we act on our world and the results determine whether or not we will try that action again. behavior and outcome paired

what is the connection between Watson and Skinner?

-B.F. Skinner was a student at Harvard and was influenced by John Watson’s theory of behaviorism

what terms did Skinner use to describe behavior?

-didn’t want to use any terms like (satisfying, positive outcome, joy, unpleasant) so simply stated that anything that encouraged an animal to repeat a behavior would be reinforcer, anything that discourages a behavior is a punisher

what are primary and secondary reinforcers?

-primary reinforcers: things that are necessary for our survival (food, water, social companionship)

-secondary reinforcers: anything else that can encourage a behavior, be rewarding for us (money, A on a test, flashing police lights)

what is the Skinner box?

-major means of research using the skinner box in which animals are placed and have to learn to press a lever in order to receive food/drink or avoid shocks

what is shaping?

-shaping involves reinforcing behaviors as they become more and more like what you want

-ex: parents potty training child, learning to hit a ball with a bat, the dolphins in the water park. start encouraging initial attempts

what is positive reinforcement?

-positive reinforcement increases the likelihood of a behavior by giving a positive stimulus

-ex: praise

what is negative reinforcement?

-negative reinforcement increases the likelihood of a behavior by removing a negative stimulus

-parents allowing more freedoms (taking away restrictions), pain medication taking away pain

what is positive punishment?

-positive punishment decreases the likelihood of a behavior by giving a negative stimulus

-ex: reprimanding a child, assigning more chores

what is negative punishment?

-negative punishment decreases the likelihood of a behavior by taking away a positive stimulus

-ex: grounding

what is a parent taking away a teen’s car keys?

-this is negative punishment, taking away a good

-decreases the likelihood of a behavior by taking away a positive stimulus

when is punishment effective?

-it must be reasonable, unpleasant (but not too unpleasant), and applied immediately

-don’t want confusion about why being punished

-if unreasonable may lead to fear and anxiety which then becomes associated with the punisher

-punishment may not be enough to offset positives of desired behavior, may push it into secrecy

-punishment does not teach what child/animal/us should do

what are ratio and interval schedules of reinforcement?

-reinforcement comes either after number of behaviors performed (ratio) or after certain amount of time (interval)

-WHAT

what are fixed and variable schedules of reinforcement?

-reinforcement comes either after set number of behaviors or set amount of time (fixed) or at different rates or different times (variable)

does ratio or interval elicit more of the behavior?

-in general, ratio elicits more of the behavior than interval

-greater resistance to extinction with variable ratio, like a slot machine: not sure when reinforced, but know its contingent on your action as opposed to fixed, regular reinforcement like a vending machine

-a fixed continuous ratio indicates clearly when extinction is taking place

can all behavior be explained by these conditioning examples?

-short answer no

-animals cannot learn some associations that run counter to their evolved abilities/tendencies

what is the trust game experiment?

-participant keep $1 or give away $3 to to other who could share half

-play the game, learn as you go, is someone trustworthy or not

-but if first given a description of the person that seems to carry more weight than what they do

-people not conditioned the way expected, animals aren’t blank slates

what is Deci and Ryan’s work on self determination?

-need for autonomy, sense of control

-school: candy as a reward versus sense of accomplishment or self-choice in an activity

-candy may be a failure even though is a reward, adding external reward does not mean behavior automatically increases

what is observational learning?

-observational learning: behaviors acquired because we watched and imitated someone else

-and this is a problem for the severe behaviorist view, proves you can learn without ever receiving direct reinforcement

what are albert bandura’s bobo doll studies?

-children either watch an adult behave violently or not

-children who observed violent model were more likely to imitate the same aggression when left alone with the doll

how do we imitate others and what is modeling?

-all the ways we imitate others (sports, dance, art, math formulas, fashion decisions, social choices)

-modeling (the act of imitating someone else) is more likely to occur when the model is seen as similar to us or as high status or an authority

what happens at the neural level of learning?

-researchers found that much electrical stimulation of one neuron can make it easier to create an action potential in other neurons that it communicates with

-this is known as long term potentiation

-in the future, when that neurons fires, the others it communicates with depolarize very easily

what is sensory memory?

-sensory memory: our sensory organs pick up info, this info leaves a momentary near perfect trace (sounds, smell, images) on our nervous system for a split second

-if not attending to at some level, lose the info

-a sensory buffer

where does sensory info we attend to go?

-info that we attend to passes form our sensory memory system into our short term memory system

what is our short term memory (working memory)?

-short term memory (working memory) is where we actively process, where we hold info in awareness

-have about 20 seconds if we are not actively engaging with new info

-has limited space (7 ± 2 chunks of info)

what is chunking information?

-chunking makes a big difference in how much you can remember

-limited to 7, but 7 units can be concepts as well as simple words or numbers

-meaningful units easier to recall than nonsense ones

what is the definition of short term/working memory?

-short term/working memory is the portion of our memory system in which we access stored or engage with newly acquired information in order to problem solve, reason, comprehend

what is long term memory?

-long term memory is different from our short term memory in terms of duration and capacity

what are the different types of memories in long term memory?

-explicit memories: memories that we retrieve consciously and can declare as knowledge

• episodic memories: our own personal past experiences

• semantic memory: one’s knowledge of facts

how do we know that we have distinct memory systems?

-evidence that these are distinct processes comes from patients

-children with damage showed inability to remember themselves learning, but they have normal IQs, no problems with learning facts (no episodic memory, but semantic memory preserved)

what are implicit memories?

-implicit memories: influence of past experiences on our behavior and decision making even though not aware of it, don’t realize “remembering”

ex:

• repeated exposure (something familiar) leads to increased liking, but we don’t realize why we prefer it over less familiar

• Jimmy and Where’s Waldo

what is procedural memory (type of implicit memory)

-procedural memory: employing motor skills to move toward a goal without having to think about it

-gradual acquisition of skills through practice (riding a bike, walking, making a free throw)

how do things get into our long term memory?

-encoding: sensory experiences transformed into some kind of meaningful representations, engaging and perceiving at some level with our world

-storage: encoded info is housed in neural networks. corresponds to some change in the nervous system

-retrieval: recalling, remembering the stored info in order to make use of it (does not have to be conscious, don’t need to be aware you are remembering it because could be implicit)

does the type of encoding make a difference?

-yes, type of encoding makes a difference

-the level at which you process info makes a difference in how well it is stored and consequently retrieved

what are the types of encoding?

-maintenance rehearsal: simply repeating the item over and over again

-semantic encoding: making meaningful connections with info already in LTM

• schemas: the way info in our LTM is categorized, connected with other info. coherent configurations, related info stored together

what is a retrieval cue?

-anything that helps us access information in LTM is known as a retrieval cue

what is the encoding specificity principle?

-encoding specificity example: any stimulus that is encoded with an event is capable of triggering the memory for that event

what is context dependent memory?

-context dependent memory: easier to remember info if the setting in which you are recalling is same/similar to the one in which you learned

-same classroom effects: studies 80 words, remember 49 on average if in same room for recall. remember 35 if in a different room

what is state dependent memory?

-state dependent memory: easier to remember info if you are in the same internal state you were when you learned the info

-ex: emotion effects, feeling sad leads to remembering more sad events. feeling joyful leads to remembering more joyful events

what is the “curse” of forgetfulness? why do we forget?

-7 different, common reasons our memories can fail us

-argued to be the by products of an adaptive system

-losing info we don’t use over time allows us to retrieve relevant info when making current decisions

-having some info, though stored, impeded during recall, is generally useful system. we don’t want mad rush of info to spill forward every time we think, we want filtered retrieval system

what is sin 1, transience (a type of forgetting)?

-transience is a common pattern of forgetting as time goes by

-loss of or change in stored memories

why do we have transience?

-competing information interferes with info we are trying to remember

-like trying to remember an old password that you haven’t used in a while, current passwords are interfering

-over time details tend to fade and we rely more on generalities, on our general sense of how things work or how situations usually are

what is sin 2, absent mindedness (a type of forgetting)?

-absent mindedness is forgetting because info was not well or not completely encoded to begin with

why do we have absent mindedness?

-studies found that when attention is divided during time of encoding, subsequent memory is poor for target items

-change blindness: failure to notice that parts of objects or scene have changed

• may be related to us encoding certain details but not others, enough to get us by in an interaction. probably shaped by our schemas

what is an example of change blindness?

-college students’ failure to notice when construction worker asking for instructions as opposed to another college student asking

-problem for eye-witnessing

what is sin3, blocking (a type of forgetting)?

-blocking: info is temporarily inaccessible, a problem of retrieval

what are examples of blocking?

-tip of the tongue, have a powerful feeling that you know info, remembering bits and pieces but not entirety

-other info is competing, similar but incorrect information (ugly step sisters, undesirable and dominating)

what is sin 4, misattribution (a type of distortion)?

-misattribution: form of memory is present but is incorrectly attributed to time, place, or person

-where the memory came from is off

what is source misattribution?

-source misattribution: remember item or fact but attribute to wrong person or place or time

-one problem with eyewitness testimonies: transferring one person you have seen to the event incorrectly

-1995 bombing of federal building in oklahoma city: man who rented van to McVeigh remembered second man with him, this was incorrect and a day later

what is the other way that misattribution can happen?

-have no subjective experience of memory as a memory

-ex: attribute some thought to yourself because cannot remember read it elsewhere

what is sin 5, suggestibility (a type of distortion)?

-suggestibility: incorporate new (incorrect) info into a memory because it was provided by others, such as leading questions

what is elizabeth loftus’ research on misleading info?

-Elizabeth loftus show event and then ask specific questions about it, create memories that never happened

-”how fast were the cars going when they (smashed into or hit) one another?”

-eyewitnesses who are wrong about details feel just as confident as those who are right. confidence is not an indicator of accuracy

what is sin 6, bias (a type of distortion)?

-bias: present knowledge, beliefs, and feelings distort past memories

-we tend to exaggerate the consistency between our present and past attitude, beliefs, and feelings

-ex: the current state of our romantic relationship influences how we remember feeling about it months ago

what is sin 7, persistence (inability to forget)?

-persistence: remembering a fact or event that one really wants to forget

-ex: certain details of highly emotional event may be remembered better than non-emotional events

-amygdala plays a role in this. those with amygdala damage don’t show general memory deficits but do not remember emotional events better than non emotional

-we also may rehearse and relive emotional events more

if you perform poorly on class test after only going through flash cards once what type of learning is this?

-operant conditioning positive punishment

-transience (memory fading) and absent mindedness (not encoded well)

what is the type of learning if you never minded flying, last experience was bad and a few months later thought of buying plane ticket makes you anxious?

-classical conditioning, learned fear association

-persistence, emotional memory won’t go away