PSY100 Lecture 5 Flashcards

Classical Conditioning

Learning where two stimuli get paired (S-S association) so the first becomes a signal that the second is coming, and you expect and prepare for the second. Responses are involuntary (dark sky means rain is coming, so you grab an umbrella)

Conditions For S-S Associations (Paired Stimuli)

Contiguity means S1 and S2 overlap in space (same place) and time (close together). Contingency means one stimulus reliably signals the other (about 90 percent of the time dark clouds bring rain). Frequency or intensity must be HIGH because the more often they are paired the more likely you link them

Pavlov's Classical Conditioning

A dog has no natural response to a metronome. Meat powder naturally makes it salivate. After the metronome is paired with meat powder many times, the dog salivates to the metronome alone because it is preparing for meat powder

Neutral Stimulus (NS)

A stimulus that causes no natural or genetic response without training (the metronome before training)

Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) And Unconditioned Response (UCR)

Unconditioned means untrained and natural. The UCS is what causes a strong response without training (meat powder) and the UCR is that natural response (salivating)

Conditioned Stimulus (CS) And Conditioned Response (CR)

Conditioned means learned through pairing and frequency. The CS is the former neutral stimulus (metronome) and the CR is the learned response to it (salivating to the metronome because the dog is preparing for meat powder)

Higher-Order Conditioning (Chains Of CS)

UCS causes UCR. CS1 (the metronome) paired with the UCS many times causes a strong CR. CS1 paired with CS2 (like a light) many times makes CS2 cause a WEAKER CR. CS3, CS4 and so on cause even weaker responses further down the chain

Aversive Stimulus And Aversive Learning

An aversive stimulus is unpleasant and people try to avoid it (needles, bee stings). Aversive learning is linking a stimulus with something unpleasant, so if you get stung on a cloudy day you may link cloudy days with that bad feeling, which can trigger phobias

Fear Conditioning And Freezing Behaviour

An animal in a blue box hears a bell before a shock (UCS). After training it expects the shock when it hears the bell, which causes freezing behaviour, a conditioned response usually due to fear

Stimulus Generalization

Reacting the same way to a new thing because it is similar to something you already learned to react to (stung by a wasp, then you flinch at a honeybee that never stung you)

CS-UCS Pairings (Conditioned Taste Aversion And Preparedness)

Conditioned taste aversion is pairing a food (CS) with illness (UCS) so you avoid that food. Other stimuli like lights or music are hard to pair with illness. Preparedness is the idea that we evolved a predisposition for certain CS-UCS associations

Latent Inhibition

A stimulus experienced many times in a neutral context is hard to pair with a UCS later (a familiar stimulus is difficult to use in learning)

Blocking Of Classical Conditioning

Once a UCS has been paired with one CS, it is hard to pair that same UCS with another CS in the future

Acquisition And Extinction

Acquisition is when the CS comes to cause the CR because the metronome and meat powder were paired over and over. Extinction is when the dog is shown ONLY the metronome a thousand times after training, which makes the CR decline

Does Extinction Erase Learning

No. Extinction causes INHIBITION (NOT LOSS) of learned associations. Three pieces of evidence support this and they are reinstatement and reacquisition, spontaneous recovery, and renewal, which all happen after extinction

Reinstatement And Reacquisition

Reinstatement is the return of a response when the UCS is presented alone after extinction (often used in substance use studies). Reacquisition is the rapid relearning of a conditioned response when the CS and UCS are paired together again after extinction

Spontaneous Recovery

An extinguished reaction suddenly pops back up on its own just because a long time has passed, without retraining or reminders. It is a TIME-DEPENDENT EFFECT

Renewal

An extinguished reaction comes back simply because you change your physical environment (context)

Extinction In Therapy (Exposure Therapy)

Repeated exposure to triggers in a SAFE environment may diminish fear, which is known as EXPOSURE THERAPY

Operant Vs Classical Conditioning

Classical conditioning is stimulus-stimulus (S-S) and involuntary, so the target behaviour is elicited automatically. Operant conditioning is voluntary or intentional responses you control to get a specific outcome, so the target behaviour is emitted voluntarily

Stimulus-Response (S-R)

Stimuli are also linked to behavioural responses, which is what operant conditioning is about. Responses linked to positive stimuli (S+) are performed FREQUENTLY and responses linked to negative stimuli (S-) are performed RARELY

Reinforcement

Anything that increases the frequency of a behaviour

How To Read The Reinforcement And Punishment Chart

The rows tell you what happens to the behaviour. Increases = reinforcement and decreases = punishment. The columns tell you what happens after the behaviour. Something added = positive and something removed = negative

Positive Vs Negative Reinforcement

Positive reinforcement means something is added and the behaviour increases (a child gets a cookie after cleaning their room, making them more likely to clean again). Negative reinforcement means something is removed and the behaviour increases (a driver buckles their seatbelt to stop the annoying alert, making them more likely to buckle up)

Positive Vs Negative Punishment

Positive punishment means something is added and the behaviour decreases (a student gets a failing grade after cheating on a test, making them less likely to cheat again). Negative punishment means something is removed and the behaviour decreases (an athlete loses playing time after arriving late to practice, making them less likely to arrive late again)

Token Economy

A system where you earn tokens for certain behaviours and trade them for rewards (a student earns a point for finishing work and trades five points for extra free time)

Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA)

An approach that studies what happens before and after a behaviour and uses that information to teach skills (a child practices asking for help and gets help when they ask, making them more likely to ask again)

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

A developmental condition that can affect how someone communicates, interacts with others, and responds to things like sounds or textures. Spectrum means it can look different from person to person

Why A Mix Of Reinforcement And Punishment Is Best

Reinforcement encourages what to do instead, while punishment alone only tells you what to stop doing, leaves you guessing, can cause fear or embarrassment, and can lead people to hide mistakes (a student loses a point for shouting out an answer and gets praised for raising their hand)

Reinforcement Schedules

The rules for when a behaviour is reinforced. Continuous means a reinforcer after every single response (praise after every sale). Interval schedules depend on time and ratio schedules depend on number of responses. Each can be fixed (set) or variable (unpredictable, based on an average)

Fixed Schedules (Fixed Interval And Fixed Ratio)

Fixed interval reinforces after a set period of time (a weekly or monthly paycheck) and fixed ratio reinforces after a set number of responses (commission on a specific number of units sold). Both have a POST-REINFORCEMENT PAUSE, meaning response rates go down or pause after getting reinforcement

Variable Schedules (Variable Interval And Variable Ratio)

Variable interval reinforces after an unpredictable amount of time (unexpected bonuses or promotions) and variable ratio reinforces after an unpredictable number of responses (praise during random quality checks). Both have steady response rates

Observational Learning And Bandura's Studies Of Aggression

Observational learning is when an organism learns through seeing others' experiences. In Bandura's studies, children who watched aggressive videos were more likely to be aggressive afterwards

Latent Learning

Learning that is not expressed due to lack of incentive (something that drives a person to show what they learned). If an incentive IS present, the learning could be revealed

Note-Taking Strategy

The idea that handwritten notes beat laptop notes is not exactly true and is hard to replicate. People who process notes in a personal way that reflects their understanding do better than people who copy slides word for word

Dual Coding Theory

Pairing note-taking with mental imagery maximizes the chances you will remember the info in the long term

Spaced Practice

Doing a little bit over a long time is more effective than mass practice in a short time

Learning Styles And The Meshing Hypothesis

Learning styles are NOT supported by evidence (the idea that people are ONLY visual, auditory, reading or kinesthetic learners). The meshing hypothesis is the idea that people perform best with their preferred study method

Memory And The Modal Model Of Memory

Memory is the process where info is stored, consolidated and retrieved. The modal model says there are several memory STORES in this order, sensory, short-term or working, then long-term. It suggests SERIAL PROCESSING, meaning the order matters

Duration Vs Capacity (In Memory)

Duration is how long info can be stored without rehearsal, which is limited by DECAY. Capacity is just the amount of info that can be stored

Sensory Memory

The first store, with a VERY SHORT DURATION. Iconic memory is the visual kind, like a trace of a flash lasting about one second or less. Echoic memory is the auditory kind and lasts longer

Short-Term Memory (STM)

Info decays IF NOT REHEARSED (15 to 30 seconds without rehearsal, minutes WITH rehearsal). Capacity is 5 to 9 items but can expand with CHUNKING. Emotion biases attention and affects consolidation

Forms Of Rehearsal

MAINTENANCE is simple repetition and ELABORATIVE is complex and requires relating info to other concepts

Digit Span And Chunking (Part Of STM Capacity)

Digit span is the longest string of digits you can remember without error, tested with the DIGIT SPAN TASK. The world average is about 7, called the MAGICAL NUMBER 7. Chunking is dividing info into meaningful groups rather than memorizing digits or letters all at once

Limitation Of STM (Multitasking)

MULTI-TASKING is hard to explain with one STM store, because we would expect poor performance when two tasks are done at once since one store would be overwhelmed easily

Working Memory (And The OSPAN Test)

Several processes that work together to manage info, involving MANIPULATING info and not just remembering it like STM does. The Operation Span (OSPAN) Test has you track words (temporary storage) while doing math (active processing)

Primary And Recency Effect (Serial Position Effect)

The first and last parts of a short list of items are best remembered out of the entire list

Types Of Long-Term Memory (Declarative And Nondeclarative)

***CHECK LECTURE RECORDING FOR FULL DIAGRAM***

Declarative is things you know that you can tell others (hippocampus dependent). Nondeclarative is things you know that you can show by doing (hippocampus independent)

Episodic Vs Semantic Memory (Types Of Declarative Memory)

Episodic is memory of an event from your own perspective (remembering) and semantic is general knowledge anyone could know (knowing)

Tip-Of-The-Tongue

Sometimes we have a memory but cannot retrieve it

Priming

When something you see, hear or smell right now secretly gets your brain ready for whatever comes next without you noticing (someone says yellow and your brain gets ready for a banana)

Schemas And Scripts

A schema is a learned cognitive framework that helps your brain organize and make sense of new info based on past experiences (knowing how to order at a restaurant). A script is a type of schema made of a sequence of events predicted by the individual

Source Monitoring

Trying to identify the source of information

Reminiscence Bump

People remember a large number of personal memories from adolescence or early adulthood (ages 10 to 30), likely due to experiencing firsts (first job, love and so on) and figuring out who you are

Misinformation Effect

A person's recall of an event becomes distorted or inaccurate because they were exposed to misleading information AFTER the event happened

Memory Wars

A controversial debate about whether traumatic memories can be actively repressed into the unconscious mind and later accurately recovered

Dependence-Related Influences On Memory Retrieval

Retrieval is better when things match how they were when you learned. Context-dependence is being in the same place or room. State-dependence is having the same body state (studying while jittery from coffee, then being not jittery at the test). Mood-dependence is feeling the same way, like happy or sad

Mood-Congruent Memory

When your brain matches memories with your current emotion, like feeling sad makes you automatically remember sad things and feeling happy does the opposite