Columbus State- Intro to Psychology- Exam 2

Behaviorism

a theory of learning that focuses on observable behaviors

Classical Conditioning

organisms learn the association between two stimuli; as a result of this association, organisms begin to anticipate events

Pavlov

Classical Conditioning; demonstrated that neutral aspects of the environment can attain the capacity to evoke responses through pairing with other stimuli and that bodily processes can be influenced by environmental cues

Watson

correctly concluded that we learn many of our fears through classical conditioning

US (Unconditioned Stimulus)

a stimulus that produces a response without prior learning

UR (Unconditioned Response)

an unlearned reaction that is automatically elicited by the US; are involuntary

Neutral Stimulus

becomes a conditioned stimulus by being paired with the unconditioned stimulus

CS (Conditioned Stimulus)

previously neutral stimulus that eventually elicits a conditioned response after being paired with the unconditioned stimulus

CR (Conditioned Response)

the learned response to the conditioned stimulus that occurs after CS

Acquisition

the initial learning of the connection between the US and CS when these two stimuli are paired

Extinction

in classical conditioning; the weakening of the conditioned response when the unconditioned stimulus is absent

Generalization

in classical conditioning; the tendency of a new stimulus that is similar to the original conditioned stimulus to elicit a response that is similar to the conditioned response

Discrimination

responding appropriately to stimuli that signal that a behavior will or will not be reinforced

Spontaneous Recovery

the process in classical conditioning by which a conditioned response can recur after a time delay, without further conditioning

Aversive Conditioning

a form of treatment that involves repeated pairings of a stimulus with a very unpleasant stimulus

Taste Aversion

a special kind of classical conditioning involving the learned association between a particular taste and nausea

Habituation

refers to the decreased responsiveness to a stimulus after repeated presentations

Operant Conditioning

(a.k.a. instrumental conditioning) a form of associative learning in which the consequences of behavior change the probability of the behavior's occurrence

B.F. Skinner

developed the concept of operant conditioning

Shaping

rewarding successive approximations of a desired behavior; example- can be used to train a rat to press a bar to obtain food

Reinforcement

the process by which a stimulus or event (a reinforcer) following a particular behavior increases the probability that the behavior will happen again

Positive or Negative (Reinforcement)

the frequency of a behavior increases or decreases because it is followed by the presentation of something that increases the likelihood the behavior will either be repeated or not

Primary Reinforcement

innately satisfying; does not require any learning on the organism's part to make it pleasurable

Secondary Reinforcement

acquires its positive value through an organism's experience; learned or conditioned reinforcer

Punishment

a consequence that decreases the likelihood that a behavior will occur

Positive Punishment

the presentation of a stimulus following a given behavior in order to decrease the frequency of that behavior

Negative Punishment

the removal of a stimulus following a given behavior in order to decrease the frequency of that behavior

Learned Helplessness

through experience with unavoidable aversive stimuli, an organism learns that it has no control over negative outcomes

Observational Learning

(a.k.a. imitation or modeling) learning that occurs when a person observes and imitates behavior

Latent Learning

(a.k.a. implicit learning) unreinforced learning that is not immediately reflected in behavior

Insight Learning

a form of problem solving in which the organism develops a sudden insight into or understanding of a problem's solution

Memory

the retention of information or experience over time

Encoding

the process by which information gets into memory storage

Storage

encompasses how information is retained over time and how it is represented in memory

Retrieval

takes place when information that was retained in memory comes out of storage

Levels of Processing

Sensory memory, short-term memory, long-term memory

Elaboration

the formation of a number of different connections around a stimulus at a given level of memory encoding; like creating a huge spider web of links between some new information and everything one already knows

Three Stage Memory Model

sensory input goes into sensory memory; through the process of attention, information moves into short-term memory, where it remains for 30 seconds or less unless it is rehearsed; When the information goes into long-term memory storage, it can be retrieved over a lifetime

Sensory Memory

time frames of a fraction of a second to several seconds; holds information from the world in its original sensory form for only an instant, not much longer than the brief time it is exposed to the visual, auditory, and other senses

Iconic Memory

visual sensory memory, which is retained only for about ¼ of a second (ex. our ability to "write" in the air using a sparkler on the Fourth of July)

Short-term Memory

time frames up to 30 seconds; a limited-capacity memory system in which information is usually retained for only as long as 30 seconds unless we use strategies to retain it longer

Chunking

involves grouping or "packing" information that exceeds the 7 ± 2 memory span into higher-order units that can be remembered as single units; works by making large amounts of information more manageable

Rehearsal

the conscious repetition of information

Working Memory

a combination of components, including short-term memory and attention, that allow us to hold information temporarily as we perform cognitive tasks

Long-term Memory

time frames up to a lifetime; a relatively permanent type of memory that stores huge amounts of information for a long time

Explicit Memory

(declarative memory) the conscious recollection of information, such as specific facts and events and, at least in humans, information that can be verbally communicated (ex. recounting the events in a movie you have seen)

Episodic Memory

the retention of information about the where, when, and what of life's happenings—how we remember life's episodes (ex. includes the details of where you were when your younger brother or sister was born, what happened on your first date, and what you ate for breakfast this morning)

Semantic Memory

a person's knowledge about the world; includes one's areas of expertise, general knowledge of the sort learned in school, and everyday knowledge about the meanings of words, famous individuals, important places, and common things (ex. involved in a person's knowledge of chess, of geometry, and of who the Dalai Lama, LeBron James, and Lady Gaga are)

Implicit Memory

related to non-consciously remembering skills and sensory perceptions rather than consciously remembering facts; memory in which behavior is affected by prior experience without a conscious recollection of that experience; (ex. the skills of playing tennis and snowboarding, as well as in the physical act of text messaging; song you heard playing in the supermarket, even though you had not noticed that song playing)

Procedural Memory

a type of implicit memory process that involves memory for skills (ex. assuming that you are an expert typist, when you type a paper you are not conscious of where the keys are for the various letters; somehow, your well-learned, non-conscious skill of typing allows you to hit the right keys)

Schema

a preexisting mental concept or framework that helps people to organize and interpret information; these from prior encounters with the environment influence the way we handle information—how we encode it, what inferences we make about it, and how we retrieve it

Script

a schema for an event; often have information about physical features, people, and typical occurrences- This kind of information is helpful when people need to figure out what is happening around them; help to organize our storage of memories about event (ex. if you are enjoying your after-dinner coffee in an upscale restaurant and a man in a tuxedo comes over and puts a piece of paper on the table, your script tells you that the man probably is a waiter who has just given you the check)

Retrieval Cue

cues that can prompt your memory

Recall

a memory task in which the individual has to retrieve previously learned information, as on essay tests

Recognition

a memory task in which the individual only has to identify (recognize) learned items, as on multiple choice tests

Serial Position Effect

the tendency to recall the items at the beginning and end of a list more readily than those in the middle

Flashbulb Memory

the memory or emotionally significant events that people often recall with more accuracy and vivid imagery than everyday events

Repressed memories

(repression) a defense mechanism by which a person is so traumatized by an event that he or she forgets it and then forgets the act of forgetting; main function is to protect the individual from threatening information

Motivated forgetting

forgetting that occurs when something is so painful or anxiety-laden that remembering it is intolerable

Eyewitness testimony

memory in criminal matters; much of the interest in this focuses on distortion, bias and inaccuracy in memory

Forgetting theories

interference theory, decay theory, tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) phenomenon

Encoding Failure

information was never entered into long-term memory

Retrieval Failure

causes of this include problems with the information in storage, the effects of time, personal reasons for remembering or forgetting, and the condition of the brain

Interference

theory that people forget not because memories are lost from storage but because other information gets in the way of what they want to remember

Decay

theory stating that when an individual learns something new, a neurochemical memory trace forms, but over time this trace disintegrates; suggests that the passage of time always increases forgetting

Cognition

the way in which information is processed and manipulated in remembering, thinking, and knowing

Thinking

the process of manipulating information mentally by forming concepts, solving problems, making decisions, and reflecting critically or creatively

Concepts

a mental category that is used to group objects, events and characteristics

Prototype

a model emphasizing that when people evaluate whether a given item reflects a certain concept, they compare with the most typical item(s) in that category and look for a "family resemblance" with that item's properties

Algorithm

strategies- including formulas, instructions, and the testing of all possible solutions- that guarantee a solution to a problem

Heuristic

shortcut strategies or guidelines that suggest a solution to a problem but do not guarantee an answer

Fixation

using a prior strategy and failing to look at a problem from a fresh new perspective

Functional Fixedness

failing to solve a problem as a result of fixation on a thing's usual functions

Confirmational bias

the tendency to search for and use information that supports one's ideas rather than refutes them

Hindsight bias

the tendency to report falsely, after the fact, that one has accurately predicted an outcome

availability heuristic

a prediction about the probability of an event based on the ease of recalling or imagining similar events

Intelligence

all-purpose ability to do well on cognitive tasks, to solve problems, and to learn from experience

Validity

the soundness of the conclusions that a researcher draws from an experiment; in the realm of testing, the extent to which a test measures what it is intended to measure

Reliability

the extent to which a test yields a consistent, reproducible measure of performance

Standardization

the development of uniform procedures for administering and scoring a test, and the creation of norms (performance standards) for the test

IQ Test

intelligence test- to measure intelligence, Binet came up with idea of comparing a person's mental abilities to the mental abilities that are typical for a particular age group

IQ Test Purpose

to determine mental age (MA), which is an individual's level of mental development relative to that of others

IQ Test Scores

High=130+, Low=70 or less

Cultural Bias

different cultures see things differently and with early IQ tests they were culturally biased; culture-fair tests are intelligence tests that are intended to be culturally unbiased

Gifted

possessing high intelligence (an IQ of 130 or higher) and/or superior talent in a particular area

Intellectual disabled

(formerly known as mental retardation) a condition of limited mental ability in which an individual has a low IQ, usually below 70 on a traditional intelligence test, and has difficulty adapting to everyday life

Spearman's G

Spearman noted that schoolchildren who did well in math also did well in reading, and he came up with the idea that intelligence is a general ability, which he called g. This view of intelligence suggests that general intelligence underlies performance in a variety of areas, whether it is mathematics, verbal ability, or abstract reasoning. Spearman's g essentially assumes that the intelligent person is a jack-of-all-cognitive trades.

Sternberg's Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

theory that intelligence comes in three forms: analytical, creative, and practical

Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligence's

theory the suggests there are nine types of intelligence, or "frames of mind"- verbal, mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalist, existentialist

Language

a form of communication- whether spoken, written, or signed- that is based on a system of symbols

Chomsky versus Behaviorism

Noam Chomsky argued that humans come into the world biologically prewired to learn language at a certain time and in a certain way; behaviorists argued that language represents nothing more than chains of responses acquired through reinforcement

Milestones

all children are different and acquire language at varying rates, but these milestones provide a general sense of how language emerges in human life; 0-6 months, 6-12 months, 12-18 months, 18-24 months, 2 years, 3-4 years, 5-6 years, 6-8 years, 9-11 years, 11-14 years, 15-20 years

Cross-sectional design (Study)

a research design in which a group of people are assessed on a psychological variable at one point in time

Longitudinal Study

a research study in which a group of people are assessed on psychological variable multiple times over a lengthy period of time

Nature

an individual's biological inheritance, especially his or her genes

Nurture

an individual's environmental and social experiences

Resilience

a person's ability to recover from or adapt to difficult times

Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development

human beings use schemas (mental concept or framework that organizes information and provides a structure for interpreting it) to make sense of their experience

Assimilation

an individual's incorporation of new information into existing knowledge

Accommodation

an individual's adjustment of his or her schemas to new information