PSY 3341 - Exam 2

What happens in the frontal lobes during REM?

Activation-synthesis: dreams

What does the spinal cord do?

Afferent (incoming) sensory Efferent (outgoing) motor Reflex connections

What is continuous reinforcement?

- reinforcing every response - increases numbers of response (rapid acquisition) - used when first learning new behavior

What is partial reinforcement?

- reinforcing only some responses - prevents extinction (used to maintain behavior) - ratio or interval

What is a variable interval reinforcement schedule?

- unannounced pop-quiz - slow steady responding

When does brightness detection mature?

2 months

When do babies perceive the visual cliff?

2 months (Joseph Campus)

When does color detection mature?

2-3 months

What is the visual acuity of a 1 month baby?

20/120 vision on the standard eye chart

What percent of a newborn's sleep is spent in REM?

50% of sleep is REM - Sleep 70% of the day 6 months old: 25-30% of sleep is REM Children & adults spend 20% of sleep in REM

When do babies fear the visual cliff?

6-7 months

What is ADHD and its symptoms?

A disorder characterized by attentional difficulties, impulsive behavior, and overactive of fidgety behavior - Inattention, impulsivity, hyperactivity

What is learning?

A relatively permanent change in behavior (or behavior potential) that results from a person's experiences or practice - allows us to adapt to our environment

What is REM sleep?

A state of active, irregular sleep associated with dreaming; rapid eye movement associated with it

What is an unconditioned stimulus?

A stimulus that elicits a particular response without prior learning/naturally triggers a response

What is plasticity?

An openness of the brain cells (or of the organism as a whole) to positive and negative environmental influence; a capacity to change in response to experience

What is behavior modification?

Applying operant principles to changing specific needs

PNS?

Peripheral Nervous System - Voluntary/Skeletal - Automatic - Motor - Somatic sensory - Autonomic (ANS)

What are the states of infant sleep?

Quiet sleep Active sleep - w/ movements & irregular breathing Drowsy Non-alert waking Alert waking

When does memory consolidation occur?

REM sleep

What are theta waves, what do they do, and where are they seen?

Regular repeating waves @ 6 cycles per second Produced by areas of the hippocampus & surrounding cortex During REM

What happens to "sensory thresholds" as you get older?

Rise of the threshold with age = sensitivity to low levels of stimulation is lost

What is was unconditioned response in Pavlov's experiment?

Salivation

What was the conditioned response in Pavlov's experiment?

Salivation after bell is rung

What is discrimination?

The ability to distinguish one stimuli from another, responding only to the CS

What is a sensory threshold?

The point at which low levels of stimulation can be detected - dim light being seen - faint tone being heard - slight odor being detected

What is spontaneous recovery?

The reappearance of an extinguished response after a rest period

What are the three learning behaviors and who had thought of them?

Classical: Watson (and Rosalie Raynor) Operant: B.F. Skinner Observational: Bandura

What is glaucoma?

Increased fluid pressure in the eye that causes damage to the optic nerve and can cause a progressive loss of peripheral vision, and ultimately, blindness

What does the cerebellum do?

Motor Coordination 'Unconscious' or 'Procedural' Memory

What is the corpus callosum?

Nerve fibers that connect the brain's two hemispheres - brain/body connections are crossed

What the punishment guidelines?

- ASAP - Intensity - Consistently - Be otherwise warm - Explain yourself - Reinforce alternate behavior - Alternative responses (TIME OUT, rephrase politely)

What is token economy?

- An item that can be traded for a reinforcer - Each token is a step toward a reinforcer Example: chart with stars, poker chips, point system

What is applied behavior analysis?

- Intense, systematic - Identify:behavior to be targeted and environmental conditions contributing to behavior - Obtain baseline - Do a functional analysis - Develop a treatment plan - Reassess for effectiveness Example: shaping social/language skills in autistic children

What is systematic desensitization?

- a type of behavioral therapy based on the principle of classical conditioning (Wolpe) - aims to remove the fear response of a phobia, and substitute a relaxation response to the conditional stimulus gradually using counter conditioning

Describe the changes in vision with old age.

- pupils become smaller (greater difficulty when lighting is dim & when it suddenly changes) - pupils slower to dilate - dark adaptation is slower - lens become less denser and less flexible - yellowing of lens - lens and gelatinous liquid behind lens are less transparent - visual acuity decreases - sensory receptor cells in the retina may die or not function as efficiently as they did before - retina change = decreased visual field/loss of peripheral vision = tunnel vision

What is the Premack principle?

- uses activity as a reinforcement - one activity... (something you like doing) ... can act as a reinforcement for another activity Example: boy plays baseball when he cleans his room

What is ABC?

A = antecedent - environmental stimuli & events that precede the behavior B = behavior - specific response the individual makes C = consequence - stimuli & events immediate following the behavior

What is retinitis pigmentosa (RP)?

A group of hereditary disorder that all involve gradual deterioration of the light-sensitive cells of the retina - can cause tunnel vision

What is a conditioned response?

A learned response to a stimulus that was not originally capable of producing the response

What are cataracts?

A pathological condition of the eye involving opacification (clouding) of the lens that can impair vision or cause blindness

What is habituation?

A simple form of learning that involves learning not to respond to a repeated stimulus; - a method of assessing infant perception - learning to be bored by the familiar/losing interest - decreased response to a stimuli - stimulus discrimination

What is an age related change in the retina that results in poor vision (esp. in the center of the visual field)?

Age-related macular degeneration - damage to the cells in the retina responsible for central vision

What is the visual cliff experiment?

An elevated glass platform that creates an illusion and is used to test the depth perception of infants

What is a conditioned stimulus?

An initially neutral stimulus that elicits a particular response after it is paired with an unconditioned stimulus that always elicits the response

What is an operant/operant response?

Any response that "operates" on the environment - behavior happens first (we operate on our environment) - we are then rewarded or punished - Engage in behaviors that are rewarded; avoid behaviors that are punished

Describe the development of attention from infancy to adolescence.

As children get older... 1) their attention spans become longer 2) become more selective in what they attend to 3) better able to plan and carry out systematic strategies for using their senses to achieve goals Infancy: - selective attention: deliberately concentrating on one thing while ignoring something else - with age, attention becomes more selective and less susceptible t0 distraction - @ 2 yrs, able to form plans of actions --> guides what they focus on and what they ignore - systematic attention Adolescence: - longer attention spans - improved considerably between childhood and adulthood (b/c of increase myelination of the portions of the brain that help regulate attention) - become more efficient at ignoring irrelevant information - can divide their attention more systematically between two taskswwe

How do newborns view patterns/what do they prefer?

Attracted to moderately complex patterns - prefers a clear pattern like a bold checkerboard

What is operant conditioning?

B.F. Skinner - a learner's behavior becomes either more or less probable depending on the consequences it produces - acquiring and modifying "voluntary" or non-reflexive behavior by the application of reinforcers of punishers - organisms behave in ways that bring them desirable consequences or help them avoid unpleasant ones

How do babies use common motion (@ 4 months) to help identify contour or figures?

Babies are attracted to displays that are *dynamic or contain movement* - newborns can and do track a moving target with their eyes (although it is imprecise, unless the target it moving slowly) - infants also look longer at moving objects and perceive their forms better than stationary ones - expects all pars of an object to move in the same direction at the same time and USE COMMON MOTION in determining what is or is not part of the same object

What tactile sense can babies detect?

Babies can detect and react to touch or pressure, heat or cold, and painful stimuli

What is the social cognitive theory (observational)?

Bandura - claims that humans are cognitive beings whose active processing of information plays a critical role in their learning, behavior, and development - learning by observing the behavior of other people (models)

What is the Bobo Doll experiment and who performed it?

Bandura - experiment set to demonstrate that children could learn a response neither elicited by a conditioned stimulus (classical conditioning) nor performed and then strengthened by a reinforcer (operant conditioning) - An adult models aggressive behavior towards the clown doll and the child imitates the behavior (aggression-frustration model)

What is the process of hearing?

Begins when moving air molecules enter the ear and vibrate the eardrum; these vibration are transmitted to the cochlea in the inner ear and are converted to signals that the brain interprets as sounds

What was the conditioned stimulus in Pavlov's experiment?

Bell

What is biological predisposition?

Biological constraints on learning Garcia- Bright, noisy, tasty water

What are some functions of sleep?

Brain is active - Internal stimulation from PGO spikes - Visual, auditory, motor areas active - PFC active Memory - Primed hippocampus - Theta waves & repetitive firing Hippocampus - Part of the limbic system - Memory structure Theta waves - Regular repeating waves @ 6 cycles per second - Produced by areas of the hippocampus & surrounding cortex Awake animals produce theta rhythm during behaviors learned for survival Asleep animals produce theta waves during REM sleep Cell in the hippocampus fire longer (more times) in response to a single stimulus during theta wave production Complex tasks learned better with REM sleep By activating theta rhythm, PGO spikes prime the hippocampus to "save" information Theta waves function as signal enhancer Memory consolidation of the days events

What are the 2-3 month milestones?

Brightness (rods) - detects 5% change at 2 months Color (cones) - mature at 2-3 months - now perceives shades of colors Scanning - explore figure interiors - prefers "normal faces"

What tastes do babies prefer?

Can distinguish sweet, bitter, salty, and sour tastes BUT PREFER SWEETS - flavor preferences are highly responsive to learning/may be influenced by early tastes that are exposed during infancy

What is figure/ground contour?

Contour: the amount of light-dark transition or boundary area in a visual stimulus - light/dark edges - babies prefer bold patterns with shape contrast - at 3 months

What is common motion?

Could also be known as the "Law of Common Fate" by Gestalt - states that humans tend to group similar objects together that share a common motion or destination

What was the unconditioned stimulus in Pavlov's experiment?

Food

What is a interval (time) reinforcement schedule?

Dependent on "amount of time" that has passed (and a response being made) - fixed interval- pay day, pain meds - scalloping with post-reinforcement pause

What is a ratio (number) reinforcement schedule?

Dependent on amount of work - fixed ratio- piece work - variable ratio-slot machines

Who performed the visual cliff experiments?

Eleanor Gibson & Richard Walk

How do you know when a person is in REM sleep?

Eyeball movement

What is the function of the amygdala?

Fear Recognition of what to avoid

What did Pavlov do?

First discovered classical conditioning - demonstrated how dogs, who have an innate (unlearned) tendency to salivate at the sight of food, could learn to salivate at the sound of a bell if, during a training period, the bell was regularly sounded just as a dog was given meat powder

What is the function of the temporal lobe?

Hearing Memory Personality Categorization & organization Speech comprehension Wernikie's area

What is vicarious reinforcement?

In observational learning, the consequences experienced by models, because of their behavior, that affect the learner's likelihood of engaging in the behavior - model is rewarded

What is vicarious punishment?

In observational learning, the tendency to engage in a behavior is weakened after having observed the negative consequences for another engaging in that behavior - model is punished

Who is Thorndike and what did he believe?

Law of Effect - the response to a stimulus is affected by the consequence of that behavior - trial & error learning results in some behaviors (those follows by a good consequence) being "stamped in", while others (those follows by discomfort or unpleasant consequences) are stamped out - behavioral response is affected by the consequence of that behavior - behavior changes because of its consequences - rewarded behavior is likely to reoccur

What is latent learning?

Learning occurs but is not evident in behavior; children can learn from observation even though they do no imitate (perform) the learned responses - learning that occurs but is not exhibited until there is reinforcement or an incentive to do so

What did Watson do?

Little Albert Experiment (classical conditioning - fears are not innate and can be learned) Rat was presented to Albert and showed no fear --> after presenting rat to Albert, Watson bangs a steel rod with a hammer (UCS) for fear (UCR) --> during conditioning, stimuli of the rat and the loud noise were presented together several times --> Watson present the rat without the bang --> Albert begins to whimper and cry (white rat - CS; fear after rat- CR) --> same response is generalized with furry items *emotional responses can be learned*

Parts of the brain stem and functions?

Medulla Oblongata - Vegetative functions - HR, Resp, BP Reticular activating system (RAS) - Arousal, wakefulness & sleep Thalamus - Sensory Relay Center

What is the function of the hippocampus?

Memory

What is SORC?

Model for conceptualizing a behavior S = stimulus or "antecedent" factors which occur before target behavior O = organismic variables relevant to target behavior R = the response = the target behavior C = consequences of target behavior

What are some lateralizations for babies?

More likely to turn their heads right 1/4 prefer the right hand in their grasp reflex More left hemispheric response to speech sounds Right handedness more popular (left hemisphere) - males more likely to be left handed - genetics play a role, though for left handedness experiences can be a factor

What soothes newborns?

Mother's voice, their own amniotic fluid, and their mother's breast milk

Example of bottom-up processing?

Nose smells something funky (response in body) --> repulsion (emotion)

What is the function of the frontal lobe?

PFC/Association "Personality" Strategy formation Associative learning Risk taking, rule breaking Motor inhibition Smell Motor Voluntary Speech Production Broca's Area

PGO spikes?

PGO: pontine - geniculate - occipital - Brain stem - thalamus - visual cortex Originate in brainstem area (pons) Activates visual cortex & motor cortex Inhibits motor neurons in spinal cord Stimulates rapid eye movements Causes theta rhythm in hippocampus

What is equipotent?

Principles of learning should apply across different behaviors and across different species ("organisms")

What is presbycusis (truncated range hearing)?

Problems of the aging ear, which commonly involve loss of sensitivity to high-frequency of high-pitched sounds - hearing aids can help

What is presbyopia?

Problems of the aging eye, especially loss of near vision related to a decreased ability of the lens to accommodate to objects close to the eye - loss of accommodation - caused by the thickening of the lens - cope by moving newspaper further away to read, getting reading glasses

What was Rosenzweig's experiment about?

Rats raised in a large cage with a few other rats for company wheels for exercising, and blocks to play with develop more neurons, more connections between neurons, and more glial cells supporting neurons than rats raised in isolation *plasticity*

What was Greenough's experiment about?

Rats that grow up in enriched environments with plenty of sensory stimulation develop larger, better-functioning brains with more synapses than rats that grow up in barren cages *plasticity*

What is the olfactory capability at 1 week?

Recognition of mother by smell from breast-fed babies

What is shaping?

Reinforcing successive approximations of behavior

Example of top-down processing?

Seeing a sign that has missing letters (sensory), but still being able to make out the words because of PRIOR knowledge I l_ke c_tt_n ca_dy!

What is the function of the parietal lobe?

Sensory Association areas Math (angular gyrus - left) Body image Spatial ability & drawing Contralateral neglect (right)

What is the Skinner box?

Skinner would give a reward or punishment towards the birds or rats in the Skinner box, while teaching them a trick (light, food)

ANS?

Sympathetic - Fight or Flight - Mobilizes for emergency - Accelerates - Diffuse/widespread - Adrenaline - Epinephrine - Norepinephrine Parasympathetic - Rest & rejuvenate - Slows/digests - Discrete - Acetylcholine

What is time-out?

Technique for the control of problem behaviour based on operant conditioning principles

What was the experiment that Fantz performed and what was the outcome of it?

Testing the visual perception on infants Outcome: infantss preferred to look at the picture that seemed more of a human face rather than the scrambled one

What does the left side of the brain do?

The LEFT hemisphere controls the right side of the body (ie right hand) Right visual field to LEFT brain Math Speech/Words/Lists Explains, gives reasons Laughter Motor to and sensory from right body & right visual field

What does the right side of the brain do?

The RIGHT hemisphere controls the left side of the body (ie left hand) Left visual Field to RIGHT brain Spatial/Pictures/Diagrams Faces Emotional tone Motor to & sensory from left body & left visual field

What is visual accommodation?

The ability of the lens of the eye to change shape to bring objects at different distances into focus - 6 months-1 year

What is acuity?

The ability to perceive detail - ability to distinguish two points close together - sharpness - newborn: poor, 20/600 & prefers bold patterns w/ sharp contrast, closeness (8" from face)

What is intermodal/cross-modal perception?

The ability to use one sensory modality to identify a stimulus or a pattern of stimuli already familiar through another modality - developed around 3-6 months

What is transduction? Related to?

The conversion of one form of energy to another/process that converts a sensory signal to an electrical signal to be processed in a specialized area in the brain - changing, encoding, or transducing that energy into neural signals *sensation*

What is extinction?

The gradual weakening and disappearance of a learned response when it is no longer reinforced Lessening of a conditioned response - Classical: occurs when the UCS is no longer paired with the CS - Operant: occurs when behavior is no longer reinforced

What is perception?

The interpretation of sensory input - selecting, organizing, and interpreting sensory information - enables recognition and makes meaning of objects and events - based on "higher level" information (prior knowledge or experience or wiring) - making meaning *top-down processing*

What is hearing acuity?

The keenness or sharpness of hearing - is good at birth - more developed than vision - orient to soft sounds; startles & retreats from loud sounds (reflexive at birth; voluntary control at 4 months) - recognizes mother's voice - prefer relatively complex sounds

What is sensation?

The process by which information is detected by the sensory receptors and transmitted to the brain/detection of physical energy from the environment by sensory receptors - Also is the starting point in perception - Based on properties of stimulus - properties of the stimulus + transduction *bottom-up processing*

What is dark adaptation ?

The process by which the eyes become more sensitive to light over time as they remain in the dark/process in which the eyes adapt to darkness and become more sensitive to the low level of light available - occurs more slowly in older individuals than in younger ones - less sensitive/glare

What is negative reinforcement?

The process in operant conditioning in which a response is strengthened or made more probable when its consequence is the removal of an unpleasant stimulus from the situation (taking something away to increase behavior - something you will be glad is gone) - alarm goes off, pressing the snooze button, alarm noise stops

What is negative punishment?

The process in operant conditioning in which a response is weakened or made less probable when its consequence is the removal of a pleasant stimulus from the stimulus (taking something away to decrease behavior - you will be sorry it is gone) - Getting in a fight with sibling over toy, the mother take the toy away

What is positive reinforcement?

The process in operant conditioning whereby a response is strengthened when its consequence is a pleasant event (applying something increase behavior - something that you like) - candy, food

What is positive punishment?

The process in operant conditioning whereby a response is strengthened when its consequence is an unpleasant event (applying something to decrease behavior - something you don't like) - late to work, driving over the speed limit, gets pulled over and receives a ticket

What is bottom-up processing?

The process in which sensation is stimulated before the brain is active in decision-making - pressure waves of sound, temperature differences (heat, cold), chemical molecules for smell, wavelengths of light *sensory information/body response --> emotion --> brain/thoughts/beliefs

What is top-down processing?

The process in which the brain makes use of information that has already been brought into the brain by one or more sensory systems - rules the brain to interpret sensory information The Gestalt - the "percept" - a unified whole - things being grouped perceptually because the stimuli occur close to one another in time and space - ex: leaves and branches merging into trees, and trees merging into forests

What is accommodation?

The process of modifying existing schemes to incorporate or adapt to new experiences - Piaget's cognitive development theory - Perhaps you will need to invent a new name for this animal (dog) or ask what it is and revise your concept of four-legged animals accordingly

What is size constancy?

The tendency to perceive an object as the same size despite changes in its distance from the eyes - an object keeps its same size no matter its distance from our eyes - change in size of image on retina is cue to depth - visual cliff experiment

What is a unconditioned response?

The unlearned response elicited by an unconditioned stimulus/natural response

How do babies react to sensory integration?

Vision --> sound - looking in the direction of a sound they hear Touch --> vision - infants expecting to feel objects they can see and are frustrated by a visual illusion that looks like a graspable object, but proves to be nothing but when they reach for it

What is the function of the occipital lobe?

Visual Primary visual cortex (some visual "association cortex" in parietal and temporal)

What is classical/associative conditioning?

Watson - behaviorism: Believed that conclusions about human development and functioning should be based on observations of overt behavior rather than on speculations about unobservable cognitive and emotional processes - Classical conditioning: a simple form of learning in which a stimulus that initially had no effect on the individual comes to elicit a response through its association with a stimulus that already elicits the response - we learn associations b/w events, anticipate important events - stimulus happens first and ELICITS the response; behavior then follows - Like John Locke

What is generalization?

When stimuli that are similar to the CS evokes some level of the CR

What is preferential looking/visual preference method?

When two objects are presented together and there is a longer looking time to the "new/different" one - in cross-model matching, we look at the one that we have already experienced - length of time looking *baby will look at the UNSCRAMBLED face*

What can newborns smell?

Yes

Does early experience affect later taste preference?

Yes - babies that had a greater exposure to a variety of flavors during infancy may lead to a more adventurous eater later on - early experiences with different flavors also extend to the prenatal period and exposure to different chemicals in the amniotic fluid *cannot discount genetic predisposition!*

Can babies hear before birth?

Yes; fetuses can hear some things outside of the womb 3 months before birth