PSYC 1010 TEST 2 NOTES -

Learning

The process of acquiring new and enduring information or behaviors through experience.

Associative learning

Learning that certain events occur together, either through the association of two stimuli (classical conditioning) or a response and its consequence (operant conditioning).

Stimulus

Any event or situation that evokes a response.

Respondent behavior

Behavior that occurs as an automatic response to a stimulus.

Operant behaviors

Behaviors that operate on the environment, producing a consequence.

Cognitive learning

The acquisition of mental information through observing events, watching others, or language.

Classical conditioning

A type of learning in which two or more stimuli are linked, resulting in the first stimulus eliciting a behavior in anticipation of the second stimulus.

Behaviorism

The view that psychology should be an objective science that studies behavior without reference to mental processes.

Neutral stimulus (NS)

In classical conditioning, a stimulus that elicits no response before conditioning.

Unconditioned response (UR)

In classical conditioning, an unlearned response that occurs naturally to an unconditioned stimulus.

Unconditioned stimulus (US)

In classical conditioning, a stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers an unconditioned response.

Conditioned response (CR)

In classical conditioning, a learned response to a previously neutral stimulus.

Conditioned stimulus (CS)

In classical conditioning, an originally neutral stimulus that, after being associated with an unconditioned stimulus, triggers a conditioned response.

Acquisition

In classical conditioning, the initial stage of learning when a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus are linked.

Higher order conditioning

A procedure in which a conditioned stimulus from one conditioning experience is paired with a new neutral stimulus, creating a second conditioned stimulus.

Extinction

The diminishing of a conditioned response, occurring when an unconditioned stimulus no longer follows a conditioned stimulus.

Spontaneous recovery

The reappearance of an extinguished conditioned response after a pause.

Generalization

The tendency for stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses.

Discrimination

In classical conditioning, the ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and similar stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus.

Learn

The process of acquiring new and enduring information or behaviors through experience.

Operant conditioning

A type of learning in which behavior becomes more or less likely to recur based on its consequences.

Reinforcement

Any event that strengthens the behavior it follows.

Shaping

A procedure in operant conditioning where reinforcers guide behavior toward closer approximations of the desired behavior.

Positive reinforcement

Increasing behaviors by presenting a pleasurable stimulus after a response.

Negative reinforcement

Increasing behaviors by removing or reducing an aversive stimulus after a response.

Primary reinforcers

Innately reinforcing stimuli that satisfy biological needs.

Conditioned reinforcers

Stimuli that gain reinforcing power through association with primary reinforcers.

Reinforcement schedules

Patterns that define how often a desired response will be reinforced.

Continuous reinforcement

Reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs.

Partial (intermittent) reinforcement schedules

Reinforcing a response only part of the time, resulting in slower acquisition but greater resistance to extinction.

Punishment

An event that decreases the behavior it follows.

Preparedness

A biological predisposition to learn associations that have survival value.

Instinctive drift

The tendency of learned behavior to gradually revert to biologically predisposed patterns.

Latent learning

Learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it.

Observational learning

Learning by observing others.

Modeling

The process of observing and imitating a specific behavior.

Mirror neurons

Frontal lobe neurons that fire when performing certain actions or observing another doing so.

Prosocial behaviors

Positive, constructive, and helpful behaviors.

Social psychologist

The scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another.

Attribution theory

The theory that explains someone's behavior by crediting either the situation or the person's disposition.

Fundamental attribution error

The tendency to underestimate the impact of the situation and overestimate the impact of personal disposition when analyzing others' behavior.

Attitudes

Feelings that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events.

Foot in the door phenomenon

The tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request.

Peripheral route persuasion

Occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues, such as a speaker's attractiveness.

Central route persuasion

Occurs when interested people are influenced by considering evidence and arguments.

Norms

Understood rules for accepted and

Psychedelic drugs

Drugs such as LSD that distort perceptions and evoke sensory images in the absence of sensory input.

Near death experience

An altered state of consciousness reported after a close brush with death.

THC

The major active ingredient in marijuana; triggers a variety of effects including mild hallucinations.

Biological psychologists

The scientific study of the links between biological (genetic, neural, hormonal) and psychological processes.

Neuroplasticity

The brain's ability to change, especially during childhood, by reorganizing after damage or by building new pathways based on experience.

Neurons

Nerve cells; the basic building block of the nervous system.

Cell body

The part of a neuron that contains the nucleus; the cell's life support center.

Dendrite

A neuron's often bushy, branching extensions that receive and integrate messages conducting impulses toward the cell body.

Axon

The segmented neuron extension that passes messages through its branches to other neurons or to muscles or glands.

Myelin sheath

A fatty tissue layer segmentally encasing the axons of some neurons; enables vastly greater transmission speed as neural impulses hop from one node to the next.

Glial cells

Cells in the nervous system that support, nourish, and protect neurons; they also play a role in learning, thinking, and memory.

Action potential

A neural impulse, a brief electrical charge that travels down an axon.

Threshold

The level of stimulation required to trigger a neural impulse.

Refractory period

A brief resting pause that occurs after a neuron has fired.

All or none response

A neuron's reaction of either firing or not firing.

Synapse

The junction between the axon tip of the sending neuron and the dendrite or cell body of the receiving neuron.

Neurotransmitters

Chemical messengers that cross the synaptic gap between neurons.

Reuptake

A neurotransmitter reabsorption by the sending neuron.

Endorphins

Natural, opiate-like neurotransmitters linked to pain control and pleasure.

Agonist

A molecule that increases a neurotransmitter's action.

Antagonists

A molecule that inhibits or blocks a neurotransmitter's actions.

Nervous system

The body's speedy, electrochemical communication network, consisting of all nerve cells of the peripheral and central nervous systems.

Central nervous system

The brain and spinal cord.

Peripheral nervous system

The sensory and motor neurons that connect the central nervous system to the rest of the body.

Nerves

Bundled axons that form neural cables connecting the central nervous system with muscles, glands, and sensory organs.

Sensory neurons

Neurons that carry incoming information from the body's tissues and sensory receptors to the brain and spinal cord.

Motor neurons

Neurons that carry outgoing information from the brain and spinal cord to the muscles and glands.

Interneurons

Neurons within the brain and spinal cord; they communicate internally and process information between the sensory inputs and motor outputs.

Somatic nervous system

The division of the peripheral nervous system that controls the body's skeletal muscles.

Autonomic nervous system

The part of the peripheral nervous system that controls the glands and the muscles of the internal organs.

Sympathetic nervous system

The division of the autonomic nervous system that arouses the body, mobilizing its energy.

Parasympathetic nervous system

The division of the autonomic nervous system that calms the body, conserving its energy.

Reflexes

A simple, automatic response to a sensory stimulus, such as the knee-jerk reflex.

Endocrine system

The body's slow chemical communication system; glands and fat tissue that secrete hormones into the bloodstream.

Hormones

Chemical messengers that are manufactured by the endocrine glands, travel through the bloodstream, and affect other tissues.

Adrenal glands

A pair of endocrine glands that sit just above the kidneys and secrete hormones that help arouse the body in times of stress.

Pituitary gland

The endocrine system's most influential gland; regulates growth and controls other endocrine glands.

Lesion

Tissue destruction, a brain lesion is a naturally or experimentally caused destruction of brain tissue.

EEG (electroencephalogram)

An amplified recording of the waves of electrical activity across the brain's surface.

MEG (magnetoencephalography)

A brain imaging technique that measures magnetic fields from the brain's natural electrical activity.

PET (positron emission tomography)

A technique for detecting brain activity that displays where a radioactive form of glucose goes while the brain performs a given task.

undefined