ASU Mendes Psych 101 Exam 2: Study Set

What is an unconditioned response?

an unlearned, automatic behavior to a stimulus (dog salivating)

What is sensory memory?

initial stage of memory storage; can hold a large amount of information from the senses for only a fraction of a second

What is echoic memory?

momentary auditory sensory memory (3-4 seconds of an audio)

What is iconic memory?

momentary visual sensory memory (a few 10ths of a second)

What is the flow of memory formation?

external event > sensory input > sensory memory > automatic processing > long term memory storage

What are retrieval cues?

external information that helps bring stored information to mind

What is sematic memory?

facts and general knowledge

If someone cannot form new explicit memories what part of their brain is damaged?

The hippocampus

What parts of the brain does explicit memory deal with?

The hippocampus and cerebral cortex

What is the self-fulfillment needs according to Maslow?

level 5, self-actualization

Our capacity for storing long-term memories is:

limitless.

What are heuristics?

mental shortcuts

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

(level 1) Physiological Needs, (level 2) Safety and Security, (level 3) Relationships, Love and Affection, (level 4) Self Esteem, (level 5) Self Actualization

What is belief persistence?

-Fact that people tend to persist in beliefs they hold long after the basis for those beliefs is substantially discredited

What is intristic motivation?

A desire to perform a behavior for its own sake

What are algorithms?

A methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem.

_____ was to the study of memory as _____ was to the study of conditioning.

Hermann Ebbinghaus; Ivan Pavlov

_____ memory refers to retention of information that is independent of conscious recollection, whereas _____ refers to memory of facts and experiences.

Implicit; explicit

What is the self-determination theory?

Individuals have 3 basic psychological needs that must be met in order to be motivated to engage behavior. Autonomy and competence are key with this theory. The person must feel that they have a sense of control. Must also feel challenged yet successful.

What type of reinforcement leads to longer-lasting learning?

Partial reinforcement

What is self-actualization?

Reaching your full potential

What is positive reinforcement?

Receiving a reward when a certain behavior is performed (ex: getting money for working)

What parts of the brain does the implicit memory system deal with?

The cerebellum and basal ganglia

What are flashbulb memories?

Vivid, detailed memories of an emotionally momentous events (via automatic processing)

What is the arousal theory?

We are motivated to maintain an optimal level of arousal. We seek excitement when we're bored and less stimulation when we're overwhelmed. The optimal level of arousal differs between individuals and is said to be genetically influenced.

What is context-dependent memory?

We retrieve a memory more easily when in the same context as when we formed the memory (explains difficulty recognizing people out of typical context)

What is short term memory referred as?

Working memory

What is instinct/ evolutionary perspective theory?

a complex behavior with a fixed pattern throughout a species shows a genetic disposition can motivate unlearned behavior (ex: dog shaking off water when wet)

What is achievement motivation theory?

a desire for significant accomplishment; for mastery of skills or ideas; for control; and for attaining a high standard

What is classical conditioning?

a form of learning that involves forming an association between two stimuli

What is a conditioned response?

a learned response to a previously neutral stimulus (dog salivating)

What is the availability heuristic?

a mental shortcut that relies on immediate examples that come to a given person's mind when evaluating a specific topic, concept, method or decision.

What is operant conditioning?

a type of learning where behavior is controlled by consequences

What is positive punishment?

adding a stimulus to stop a behavior from happening (ex: extra chores after breaking a rule)

When does reinforcement occur in a fixed interval?

after a specified amount of time has elapsed (ex: baking cookies)

When does reinforcement occur in a fixed ratio?

after a specified number of responses (ex: a dutch stamp card)

When does reinforcement occur in a variable interval?

after an unpredictable amount of time has elapsed (ex: waiting for a text back)

When does reinforcement occur in a variable ratio?

after an unpredictable number of responses (ex: slot machine)

What is intuition?

an effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning

What is an unconditioned stimulus?

an event that automatically triggers a response; no learning is required (food)

What is the recency effect?

better recall for items at the end of a list

What is the primary effect?

better recall of items at the beginning of a list

When attempting to persuade others, it is better to focus on the positive rather than the negative. This is a characteristic of:

framing

What is recognition?

can we identify items previously learned. ex: a multiple-choice test

What is relearning?

can we learn something more quickly a second (or more) time

What is recall?

can we retrieve information learned at an earlier time. ex: fill-in-the-blank test.

What does the explicit memory system do?

controls our conscious recall of facts and experiences. declarative memory

To get information into our brain is to:

encode

What is deep processing?

encoding semantically, based on the meaning of the words

The three steps in memory information processing are:

encoding, storage, and retrieval.

Divergent thinking involves:

expanding the number of possible solutions to a problem.

What does the implicit memory system do?

handles a different type of information. they are unconscious memories (that is, they can't be consciously recalled). They are memories for procedural skills (how to do something) and conditioned associations (how to respond to events). nondeclarative memory

What is continuous reinforcement?

in operant conditioning, providing a reinforcer for every instance of the desired behavior

What is partial reinforcement?

in operant conditioning, providing a reinforcer for some, but not all, of the desired behaviors. generally, produces slower initial learning but the behavior is more resistant to extinction

What is fixation?

inability to see a problem from a fresh perspective

One main difference between punishment and reinforcement is that the goal of reinforcement is to _____ a behavior, whereas the goal of punishment is to _____ a behavior.

increase; decrease

What is episodic memory?

information about events we have personally experienced

What is the serial position effect?

our tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list

The simultaneous processing of many aspects of a problem or stimulus is called _____ processing.

parallel

What kind of implicit memories are there?

procedural and conditioned memories

What is encoding?

processing info and transferring it into memory

What is the encoding specificity principle?

recall is better if the retrieval context is similar to the encoding context

What kind of explicit memories are there?

sematic and episodic memory

In the study of memory, the retention of encoded information over time is called _____.

storage

What is short term memory?

temporary memory storage; can hold about seven items for about twenty seconds that is later stored or forgotten

What is long term memory?

the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system

What is metacognition?

thinking about thinking

What is the drive reduction theory?

when a physiological need increases, so does our psychological drive to reduce it (ex: food > hunger > eat)

What is spontaneous recovery?

when an old, conditioned response comes back spontaneously

What are the two long term memory systems?

Explicit & implicit memory

Which statement BEST captures the relationship between priming and a retrieval cue?

Priming is the unconscious awakening of memories based on retrieval cues.

What is a conditioned stimulus?

a previously neutral stimulus that, after becoming associated with the unconditioned stimulus, eventually comes to trigger a conditioned response (bell)

What is a neutral stimulus?

a stimulus that elicits no response before conditioning (bell)

What is insight?

a sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem

What is mental set?

a tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past

What is chunking?

arranging information in units of manageable size to make it easier to remember; often occurs automatically

What kind of learning is operant conditioning?

associative learning

Respondent behavior is to operant behavior as _____ is to _____.

automatic; deliberate

What does the basal ganglia do?

involved with control of muscle movement

What are the basic needs according to Maslow?

level 1 & 2, physiological needs and safety/security

What are the psychological needs according to Maslow?

level 3 & 4, belongingness/love needs, and self-esteem needs

What are procedural memories?

memories for the performance of actions or skills

What are conditioned memories?

memories that are simple learned associations formed through conditioning

What is state-dependent memory?

memory retrieval is most efficient when an individual is in the same emotional state of consciousness as they were when the memory was formed

What is the representativeness heuristic?

mental shortcuts based on generalizations

What is extrinsic motivation?

motivation by external factors or rewards

Excessive self-love and self-absorption is called:

narcissism

What is negative punishment?

removing a stimulus to stop a behavior from happening (ex: take away kids toy when they have a tantrum)

What is shallow processing?

surface level encoding (based on less meaningful things, ex: appearance or structure words)

What is negative reinforcement?

taking away something bad to increase a behavior (removing alarm clock noise by waking up)

What is priming?

the activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations in memory

What is fixation?

the inability to see a problem from a new perspective

What is cognition?

the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

What is the Ebbinghaus retention curve?

the more that we initially practice information, the easier it is to relearn later

What is affiliation?

the need to form attachments to other people for support, guidance, and protection

What is retrieval?

the process of getting information out of memory storage

In classical conditioning, we learn _____, whereas in operant conditioning, we learn _____.

to associate two stimuli and thus to anticipate events; to associate a response and its consequence

Conditioning seldom occurs when a(n) _____ stimulus repeatedly comes before a(n) _____ stimulus.

unconditioned; neutral

What is motivated reasoning?

use our own conclusions to assess evidence

What is mood-congruent memory?

you remember things when you are in the same mood as you where when you learned it