Intro to Psychology Exam II

learning

Any relatively permanent change in behavior due to experience or practice 

Classical conditioning

Learning to make an involuntary response to a stimulus other than the original, natural, stimulus that usually produces the response 

Reflex

involuntary response; not under personal control/choice 

Stimulus

any object, event, or experience that causes a response 

Response

reaction of an organism

UCS

naturally occurring stimulus that leads to an involuntary and unlearned response 

UCR

involuntary & unlearned response to a naturally occurring stimulus

NS

stimulus with no effect on the desire response prior to conditioning 

CS

NS that becomes able to produce a conditioned response, after being paired with an unconditioned stimulus 

CR

learning response to a conditioned stimulus 

Stimulus generalization

tendency to respond to any stimulus that is similar to the original CS with the CR 

Stimulus discrimination

tendency to stop making a generalized response to a stimulus that is similar to the original CS because the similar stimulus is never paired with UCS 

Extinction

disappearance/weakening of learned response after the removal/absence of the UCS 

Spontaneous recovery

reappearance of a learned response after extinction has occurred 

CES

emotional response that has been classically conditioned to occur to learned stimuli 

Operant conditioning

The learning of voluntary behavior through effects of pleasant and unpleasant consequences to responses 

Reinforcement

Any event/stimulus that (when following a response) increases the probability that the response will occur again 

Reinforcers

Any events or objects that, when following a response, increase the likelihood of that response occurring again 

Primary reinforcer

any reinforcer that works due to meeting a basic biological need

Secondary reinforcer

any reinforcer that becomes reinforcing after being paired with a primary reinforcer 

Positive reinforcement

reinforcement based on the addition of a pleasant stimulus  

Negative reinforcement

reinforcement based on the removal, escape, or avoidance of an unpleasant stimulus  

Reinforcement timing

differences in the speed and strength at which learning occurs 

Partial reinforcement effect

tendency for a response that is reinforced after some, but not all, correct responses appear to be resistant to extinction  

Continuous reinforcement

reinforcement of every correct response  

Interval schedule

depends on timing of the response

Ratio schedule

depends on the number of responses

Fixed interval schedule

when specific interval of time must pass before reinforcement happens is always the same  

Variable interval schedule

number of responses required for reinforcement is always different  

Punishment

Any event/object that (when following a response) makes that response less likely to happen again  

Postive punishment

punishment of a response by the addition of an unpleasant stimulus  

Negative punishment

punishment of a response by the removal of a pleasant stimulus  

Observational learning

Learning new behavior by watching someone perform that behavior 

Cognition

Mental activity that happens in the brain when a person is processing info 

Concepts

Ideas representing a class or category of objects, events, or activities  

Prototypes

An example of a concept that closely matches the characteristics of the concept 

Problem solving

Process that occurs when a goal must be reached by thinking/behaving in certain ways 

Descion making

identifying, evaluating, and choosing between alternatives 

Trial & error

in which one possible solution after another is tried until a sucessful one is found  

Algorithms

specific step by step procedures to find a solution 

Heuristics

an educated guess based on prior experiences  

Representative heuristic

assumption that any object/person that shares characteristics of a category is part of that category 

Availability heuristic

estimating the likelihood of an event based on how easy it is to recall info about it or think of related examples 

Working backwards

starting with the goal to find the solution  

Insight

sudden perception of a solution to a problem  

Functional fixedness

thinking about objects only in terms of their typical uses 

Mental sets

tendency to persist using problem-solving patterns that previously worked 

Confirmation bias

search for evidence that supports belief 

Creativity

Process of solving problems by combining ideas & behaviors in new ways 

Convergent

problems only have one answer & try to find it

Divergent

creating many ideas or possibilities to resolve a problem

Intelligence

Ability to learn from one’s experiences, acquire knowledge, & use resources to adapt to new situations or solves problems  

Spearman’s theory of general intelligence

ability to reason & solve problems  

Spearman’s theory of specific intelligence

ability to excel in certain areas  

Gardener’s Multiple Intelligences

Intelligence is comprised of distinct domains & abilities  

(Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory) Analytical

applying/creating strategies, meta-cognitive knowledge, self-regulation 

STT Creative

ability to generate useful solutions to novel problems 

STT Practical

application of skills in everyday situations 

Stanford-Binet intelligence scales

method of testing to compare one’s mental & chronological age 

Wechsler tests

method of testing to compare specific age groups 

Intellectual disabilities

Developmental disorder in which a person exhibits deficits in mental ability & adaptive behavior 

Giftedness

The 2% of humans that fall on the upper end of intelligence measures 

Emotional intelligence

Ability to manage one’s own emotions, to be self-motivated, and to feel what others feel 

Grammar

rules governing the structure & use of language 

Phonemes

basic units of sound 

Syntax

rules for combining words/phrases to form grammatically correct sentences 

Semantics

rules to determine meaning of word/sentences 

Pragmatics

rules that involve the practical ways of communicating with others 

Child-directed speech

way of talking that is higher pitched, repetitious, and singsong