Midterm 2

Learning

Learning

Process of development through experiencing new information and behaviors

How do we learn?

Through association, consequences, acquisition

Behaviorism

Psychology should be an objective science that studies behavior without reference to mental processes

Ivan Pavlov

Demonstrated associative learning via salivary conditioning

Classical conditioning

type of learning that in which one learns to link 2 or more stimuli and anticipate events

Neural stimulus

a stimulus that elicits no response before conditioning (ie a bell)

Unconditioned response

An unlearned naturally occurring response (ie salivation) to an unconditioned stimulus (US) (ie food in the mouth)

Unconditioned stimulus

a stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers an unconditioned response

What are the stages of classical conditioning?

Acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery, generalization, and discrimination

Acquisition

Initial stage when one links a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus begins triggering the conditioned response

Extinction

Diminishing of a conditioned response. Occurs when an unconditioned stimulus does not follow a conditioned stimulus.

Spontaneous recovery

Reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response

Generalization

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

How did Pavlov demonstrate generalization?

By attaching miniature vibrators to various parts of a dog's body. After conditioning salivation to stimulation of the thigh, he stimulated other areas. The closer a stimulated spot was to the dogs thigh, the stronger the conditioned response.

Discrimination

Learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and other irrelevant stimuli

What did Watson believe?

That human emotions and behaviors are mainly conditioned responses

How did Watson go about proving his belief?

Applied classical conditioning principles in his studies of "Little Albert" to demonstrate how specific fears might be conditioned

What did Skinner do?

Expanded on idea that behavior that leads to positive outcome is likely to be repeated. He designed & used the skinner box.

Operant conditioning

Everyday behaviors are continually reinforced and shaped

Reinforcement

Any event that strengthens a preceding response

Shaping

Gradually guiding toward closer & closer approximations of the desired behavior

Positive reinforcement

Presenting (adding) a stimulus

Negative reinforcement

Removing (subtracting) a stimulus

Positive reinforcer

Is any stimulus that, when presented after a response, strengthens the response (add things we like)

Negative reinforcer

Is any stimulus that when removed after a response, strengthens the response (remove something unwanted)

Types of reinforcers

Primary & Conditioned (secondary)

Primary

Is unlearned; innately reinforcing stimuli (food)

Conditioned (secondary)

Gains power through association with primary reinforcer (hitting a lever, money)

Timing of reinforcers

Immediate & delayed

Immediate

Occurs immediately after a behavior

Delayed

Involves time delay between desired response of & delivery of reward

Reinforcement schedules

Includes pattern that defines how often a desired response will be reinforced

• Continuous reinforcement schedules

• Partial (intermittent) reinforcement schedule

Continuous reinforcement schedule

Involves reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs

Partial (intermittent) reinforcement

Includes schedule reinforcing a response only part of the time; results in slower acquisition of a response but much greater resistance to extinction than does continuous reinforcement

Cognitive learning ???

Animal response on fixed interval vs variable interval reinforcement schedule. Destruction of intrinsic motivation by excessive rewards.

Observational learning

Higher animals learn without direct experience by watching & imitating others

Albert Bandura's Bobo doll study

• Pioneer researcher of observational learning

• Bobo doll experiment

  • Vicarious reinforcement & vicarious punishment

Mirror neurons

Include frontal lobe neurons that some scientists believe fire when performing certain actions or when observing another doing so.

• Brain's mirroring of another's action -> may enable imitation and empathy (monkey see monkey do)

Vygotsky's sociocultural transmission

Transmission to the next generations of a cultures: values, beliefs, customs, skills.

Inner speech

Cooperative dialogues between children and more expert members of society

Memory

Persistence of learning over time through the encoding, storage, and retrieval of information

Evidence of memory

Recalling information. Recognizing it. Relearning it more easily on a later attempt.

Ebbinghaus Retention Curve

The more time you practice something on day 1, the less time it will take to relearn on day 2.

Atkinson Shiffrin Model

• First, record "to be remembered" information as a fleeting SENSORY MEMORY

• Then, process information into WORKING MEMORY where we encode it through rehearsal

• Finally, information moves into LONG TERM MEMORY for later retrieval

Explicit memory

Explicit memories (declarative memories) of conscious facts and experiences encoded through conscious , effortful processing

Effortful processing and explicit memories

With experience and practice, explicit memories become more automatic

Implicit memory

Implicit memories (non declarative memories) that form through automatic processes and bypass conscious encoding track

Automatic processing and implicit memories

Implicit memories include automatic skills and classically conditioned associations. Information is automatically processed about: space, time, frequency.

Sensory memory

First stage in forming explicit memories. Immediate, very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system.

Iconic memory

picture image memory

Echoic memory

sound memory

Short term/ Working memory

Activated memory that holds a few items briefly before. the info is stored or forgotten. Working memory: newer understanding of short term memory that stresses conscious, active processing of incoming auditory & visual spatial information, and of info retrieved from long term memory. Capacity varies by age & distractions at time of memory tasks.

Processing strategies

Chunking, mnemonics, hierarchies

Chunking

organization of items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically

Mnemonics

memory aids, especially techniques that use vivid imagery & organizational devices

Hierarchies

Organization of items into a few broad categories that are divided & subdivided into narrower concepts & facts

Implicit memory system: Cerebellum & basal ganglia

Cerebellum -> forms and stores memories created by classical conditioning Basal ganglia -> Form memories for physical skills (muscle memory)

Retaining info in the brain

Excitement or stress triggers hormone production & provokes amygdala to engage memory.

• Emotions often persist with or without conscious awareness

• Emotional arousal cause an increase in stress hormones, which lead to activity in the brain's memory forming areas

• Foundation for emotional activation w PTSD

Infantile Amnesia

Conscious memory of first 3 years is blank. Command of language & well-developed hippocampus needed. Memory encodes experience: how does experience change in first 3 years of life?

Long term potentiation

Increase in a synapse's firing potential. After LTP, brain will not erase memories. Believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory.

Forgetting: Encoding failure

Age: encoding lag is linked to age related memory decline Attention: failure to notice or encode contributes to memory failure

Forgetting: Storage decay

Course of forgetting is initially rapid & then levels off w time. Physical changes in brain occur as memory forms.

Interference

Proactive & Retroactive Proactive: occurs when older memory makes it difficult to remember new information Retroactive: occurs when new learning disrupts memory for older information

Construction Errors

Misinformation & imagination effects: misinformation effect, imagination effect, source amnesia, deja vu

Misinformation effect

Occurs when a memory has been corrupted by misleading information

Imagination effect

Occurs when repeatedly imagining fake actions and events can create false memories

Source amnesia

Involves faulty memory for how, when, or where information was learned

Deja Vu

Is sense that "I've experienced this before". Suggests cues from the current situation may unconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience.

Ceci & Bruck Study

Studied effect of suggestive interviewing techniques. 58% of Pre-K students produced false stories abt one or more unexperienced events

Zygote

• conception to 2 weeks

• Life cycle begins at conception when 1 sperm cell unties w an egg to form a zygote (a fertilized egg)

• Enters a 2 week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo

Embryo

• 3 to 9 weeks

• Zygote's inner cells become embryo and outer cells become the placenta

• It's a developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the 2nd month

Fetus

• 9 weeks to birth

• In next 6 weeks body organs begin to form and function. By 9 weeks the fetus is recognizably human

Teratogen

• Negatively impacts development

• Agent (chemical/virus) that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm

What are some examples of teratogens?

Zika virus, alcohol, influenza virus

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD)

Physical and mental abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman's heavy drinking. Signs include: small, out of proportion head, and abnormal facial features

Newborn reflexes

automatic responses that support survival

• eye blink

• rooting

• sucking

• moro (embrace after shock)

• palmar grasp

• tonic neck

• stepping

• babinski

• diving /swimming

Habituation

becoming desensitized to something

Newborn preferences

When shown 2 images with the same 3 elements, newborns spent more time looking at the face-like image. Newborns seem to have an inborn preference for looking toward faces.

Motor skills development

• Develop as nervous system and muscles mature

• Primarily universal in sequence, but not in timing

• Guided by genes and influenced by environment

• Involve same sequence throughout the world

Walking

• In US 25% walk by 11 months, 50% by 12 months, 90% by 15 months

• New walkers will fall many times

Back to sleep position

associated with later crawling, but not later walking

Early memory development

• Children are active thinkers

• Minds develop through series of stages from simple reflexes to adult abstract reasoning

• Children's maturing brains build schemas used and adjusted through adaptation

Adaptation

assimilation and accommodation

Assimilation

(change to object) Use existing knowledge structures to understand new experiences

Accommodation

(change to self) Reorganize knowledge to understand new experiences

Sensorimotor stage

(birth to nearly 2 yrs)

• Schemas for thinking and reasoning change with development (adaptation)

• Object permanence

Object permanence

Awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived (our ability to hold on to the idea that something still exists even if you close it off)

Object permanence and A not B error

When you place a toy under a blanket and task the baby to find it under the cloth. After many times, baby gets objects permanence. Once you hide the toy under a different cloth the baby will look under the first cloth and not the second one where the toy actually is.

Pre operational stage

(2 to 7 years)

• Child learns to use language but cannot perform the mental operations of concrete logic

• Conversation error

• Egocentrism/ curse of knowledge

Concrete operational stage

(7-11 years)

• Children gain mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events (things in front of them)

• They begin to understand change in form before change in quantity

• Become able to understand simple math and conservation

Formal operational stage

(12 yrs to adulthood)

• Children are no longer limited to concrete reasoning based on actual experience.

• Able to think abstractly

Theory of mind

• Involves ability to read mental state of others

• Between 3.5 and 4.5 children use theory of mind to realize others may hold false beliefs

• By 4 to 5, children anticipate false beliefs of friends

Vygotsky and the Social Child

Believed that children's minds grow through interaction w the physical & social environment

• By age 7 children able to think & solve problems w words

• Parent's & others provide a temporary scaffold to facilitate a child's higher level of thinking

John Bowlby

• Theorized reciprocal relationship with caregiver.

• Hypothesized imprinting mechanism in humans.

Mary Ainsworth

Developed test for Bowlby's theory of social imprinting

Secure base

Strange situation

Secure/Insecure attachment styles

Leo Kanner

Believed autism involved: resistance to change, is congenital in nature, and causes developmental issues

DSM-5 Criteria

Autism spectrum disorder

• Persistent difficulties in social communication and social interaction

• Nonverbal communication

• Developing, maintaining, understanding relationships

• Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior interests or activities

• Repetitive motor movements

• Highly restricted interests

• Sensory issues