Ch. 4; Learning, Memory, and Intelligence

Operant Conditioning

(Skinner) describes changes in the probability of a response as a function of its consequences (is built around the importance of behavior's consequences. _____________ is closely associated with B. F. Skinner (1953, 1969, 1971, 1989), one of the most influential psychologists of this age.)

Rate of learning

(acquisition rate): •Initial learning is usually more rapid when every correct response is reinforced (a continuous schedule). •If only some responses are reinforced (intermittent schedule), learning tends to be slower and more haphazard.

Rate of forgetting

(extinction rate): •Extinction is typically more rapid with a continuous schedule than with intermittent schedules. •Of the intermittent schedules, variable ratio schedules typically result in the longest extinction times.

Cognitive Theories

Theories that look at intellectual processes such as those involved in thinking, problem-solving, imagining, and anticipating.

The Main Beliefs of Cognitive Psychology

-Learning Involves Mental Representation -Learners Are Not Identical -New Learning Builds on Previous Learning

Attention

A concentrated mental effort that functions as a filter to ignore un-important events and focus on important events. (conceptualized as a state of concentrating on something (focalization of consciousness) or as a finite processing capacity that can be allocated in a variety of ways.)

Schacter (1999) discussed the forgetful nature of our long-term memory with following seven characteristics.

1.Absent-mindedness: This refers to the breakage between your memory and your attention. 2.Transience: Despite our effort, memory tends to diminish quickly. It describes the temporal nature of our memory. 3.Blocking: Blocking is also known as the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon--when you feel and try to remember things but cannot articulate it. It happens because of the inaccessibility of stored information. 4.Misattribution: This refers to the confusion of the original source of information. 5.Suggestibility: Due to the constructive nature of our memory system, leading words or suggestions from others can alter and bias our memory. 6.Bias: Current personal experiences or events can cloud how we remember similar events that happened in the past. 7.Persistence: According to Schacter, negative events tend to linger longer than neutral or positive memories.

Models provide the imitator with two kinds of information:

1.How to perform an act 2.What the likely consequences of doing so are.

contemporary models of attention

1.Theories that view attention as a causal mechanism, which distinguish between automatic and controlled processes. 2.Theories that see attention as a consequence of other processes, like priming activities for some memory.

stretched

As people try to multitask, their cognitive resources get "__________________" to their maximum ability, which interferes with performance as well as results in more rapid fatigue due to cognitive shifts from one source or activity to another

generalization/discrimination

A dog trained to salivate in response to a buzzer may also salivate in response to a bell, a gong, or a human imitation of a buzzer. This phenomenon is called stimulus _______________. It involves making the same responses to different but related stimuli. An opposite phenomenon, stimulus _______________, involves making different responses to highly similar stimuli.

Sensory Memory

A form of memory that holds large amounts of sensory information such as sights and sounds for a very brief amount of time, normally only a few seconds. (cannot be retained for a longer duration through the process of rehearsal (e.g., studying). •It seems to happen automatically, without awareness, and is very difficult to manipulate through psychological techniques. •It captures a very large amount of information.)

social imitation

A large number of studies indicate that _________________ is a powerful teacher among humans: Even children as young as 2 or 3 imitate and learn from each other

Symbolic Model

A model other than a real-life person. For example, books and TV important symbolic models (any representation or pattern that can copied, such as oral or written instructions, pictures, book characters, mental images, cartoon or film characters, and television actors.)

Conditioned Stimulus:

A once neutral stimulus that becomes conditioned after repeated pairings with the US.

Blocking

A phenomenon in classical conditioning in which conditioning to a specific stimulus becomes difficult or impossible because of prior conditioning to another stimulus. (Whenever something new happens to an animal, it immediately searches its memory to see what events could have been used to predict it.)

Learning

A process resulting in a relatively consistent change in behavior or behavioral potential and is based on experience. (is defined as relatively permanent changes in behavior that result from experience but are not caused by fatigue, maturation, drugs, injury, or disease.)

Maintenance Rehearsal

A relatively shallow level of rehearsal typically characterized by repeating something many times (e.g., repeating a phone number in your head).

Respondent

A response elicited by a known, specific stimulus. An unconditioned response. (Skinner noted that although classical conditioning explains some simple forms of learning where responses are associated with observable stimuli (______________ behavior), most of our behaviors are of a different kind.)

Concurrent Schedule of Reinforcement

A situation in which two or more different reinforcement schedules, each typically related to a different behavior, are presented at the same time (Our lives illustrate what are called _____________________—a variety of options, each linked with different kinds and schedules of possible reinforcement)

Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

A stimulus that elicits an automatic, unlearned response from an organism (The stimulus of food powder that gives rise to the UR is an _____________)

Self-efficacy

Judgments we make about how effective we are in given situations

Psychometric g

A term coined by Spearmen regarding a person's general or overall intelligence.

Culturally Biased

A term used when an intelligence test gives an unfair advantage to White, affluent, male test takers.

Culturally Loaded

A term used when many of the items on the intelligence test are derived from the mainstream culture.

Retroactive Interference

A theory of forgetting in which more recent information gets in the way of trying to recall older information.

Interference Theory

A theory of forgetting which suggests most forgetting is the result of an interaction between new and previously learned information, leading either to a failure to learn new material, or a forgetting of past material. (currently the dominating theory to explain forgetting.)

Multiple Intelligences

A theory suggesting that intelligence is a product of a number of abilities rather than one ability. (Howard Gardner: He proposed a theory of _____________ (at least 8 different types) because he believed intelligence could be best described and understood through multiple abilities.)

Flashbulb Memories

A type of long-term memory. Memories formed by dramatic and surprising public or personal events; typically known to be immune from forgetting. (Although long-term memories are not perfect. However, there seem to be special events immune from forgetting. ________________ are typically long lasting, precise, and accurate.)

Elaborative Rehearsal

A type of rehearsal in which a person actively tries to tie new information to pre-existing information already in long-term memory. The net effect is to increase the likelihood that the new information is retained in long-term memory.

Short-term Memory

A type of temporary memory used to hold information long enough for an individual to process it, and make sense of it; also called working memory.

awareness

According to Bandura, reinforcement does not control us blindly; its effects depend largely on our ________________ of the relationship between our behavior and its outcomes.

Modeling Effect, Inhibitory/Disinhibitory Effect, Eliciting Effect

According to Bandura, through observational learning, we learn three different classes of behaviors:

condition/consequence

Any stimulus (______________ or _____________) that increases the probability of a response is said to be reinforcing.

Reinforcer

Any stimulus condition or consequence that increases the probability of a response.

Edwin Twitmyer

An American named _____________________ was actually the first person known to have reported the principle of classical conditioning. (He used humans)

Operant

An apparently voluntary response emitted by an organism. (Skinner calls them _______________ because they are operations that are performed on the environment rather than in response to it.)

Skinner Box

An experimental chamber used in operant conditioning experiments (In his investigations, Skinner used this highly innovative piece of equipment now know as a __________)

Social Cognitive Theory

An explanation of learning and behavior that emphasizes the role of social reinforcement and imitation as well as the importance of the cognitive processes that allow people to imagine and to anticipate. (models are not limited to people who might be imitated by others; they include symbolic models as well)

Stimulus

Any change in the physical environment capable of exciting a sense organ. Stimuli can also be internal events such as glandular secretions or even thoughts.

maintenance and elaborative

There are two main types of rehearsal used to get information into long-term memory are _______________ rehearsal and _______________ rehearsal

voluntary

Behaviors such as walking, jumping, listening to music, writing a letter, and so on are more deliberate; they are seldom associated with a specific stimulus the way salivation might be. These behaviors appear more _______________.

observational learning

Bandura's theory involving learning through observing and imitating models.

self-efficacy.

Being agents of our own actions requires three things: 1.Intentionality. 2.Intentionality implies forethought, the ability to symbolize that allows you to foresee the consequences of the actions you intend. 3.Being able to reflect on them and to reflect on ourselves and especially on our own effectiveness, _______________)

motivation

Changes in behavior are centrally involved in many aspects of psychology, including _________________, personality, development, and even mental disorders.

Instincts

Complex unlearned, behaviors.

Positive Punishment

Decreases the probability of a behavior's occurrence. Involves giving the person an undesired stimulus

Negative Punishment

Decreases the probability of a behavior's occurrence. Involves the removal of a desired stimulus

Triadic Reciprocal Determinism

Describes the three principal features of our social cognitive realities: our personal factors (our personalities, our intentions, what we know and feel); our actions (our actual behaviors); and our environments (both the social and physical aspects of our world). (That we are both products and producers of our environment is the basis of Bandura's concept of_________________)

Army Alpha and Army Beta

During World War I, Yerkes and colleagues created two group-administered intelligence tests: _____________ and _____________. Both intelligence tests were used to assess incoming soldiers on their ability to serve the military and move into leadership positions.

Evidence of Learning

Experience, Learning, Change in Behavior

direct reinforcement or vicarious (secondhand) reinforcement.

If the observer now imitates the behavior, there is a possibility of either _______________________ or ________________________

Eliciting Effect

Imitative behavior in which the observer does not copy the model's responses but simply behaves in a related manner. We learn to engage in behaviors similar but not identical to the model's behavior. (Engaging in behavior related to that of a model. Robin tries to learn to play the guitar after her cousin is applauded for singing at the family reunion.)

Learners Are Not Identical

Individuals come with different background information, different inclinations and motives, different genetic characteristics, and different cultural origins. As a result, even in the same situation, individuals often learn very different things.

innately

Intelligence is not ______________ given to each individual and can change throughout one's lifetime.

retroactive/proactive

Interference can happen in one of two ways: Because new materials are competing with something you used to know and interferes with the old information, ______________ interference •When old materials can compete with new things we are trying to learn, _______________ interference.

Spontaneous recovery:

Is a classical conditioning-related behavior referring to the rapid re-emergence of a previously extinguished behavior.

Semantic Memory

It is one's general knowledge about the world and specific concepts. (Explicit Memory)

magazine trained

It needs to be _________________. In a typical magazine training session, these steps are followed: •The experimenter depresses a button that releases a food pellet into the tray. •At the same time, there is an audible clicking sound. •Eventually the rat is drawn to the tray, perhaps by the smell of the pellet, perhaps only out of curiosity. •The experimenter releases another food pellet. •The rat hears the click, eats the pellet, hears another click, runs over to eat another pellet (repeat).

consequences

Learning is a fundamentally adaptive process: changes in behavior are what allow organisms to survive. One explanation for classical conditioning says, in effect, that what is learned is not a simple pairing of stimulus and response as a function of contiguity, but the establishment of relationships between stimuli. This explanation holds that what is important in a conditioning situation is the information a stimulus provides about the probability of other events.

explicit and implicit

Long-Term Memory is one of the human memory systems that can store information for a long-period of time; it is divided into two types: ______________ memory and ______________ memory.

malleable

Long-term memory is _______________; it can be surprisingly easy to implant a new memory or alter one's existing memory.

extinction/spontaneous recovery

Many classically conditioned responses are remarkably durable. But classically conditioned responses can be eliminated—a process called ________________. Once a classically conditioned response has been extinguished, it can be reacquired much more easily than was initially the case. This phenomenon, _________________, illustrates that behaviors that are apparently extinguished are not necessarily completely forgotten.

reflexes/instincts

Most animals, including humans, are born with a number of these simple, prewired (meaning they don't have to be learned) stimulus-response associations called _______________. More complex behaviors that are also unlearned are _____________.

20 seconds

On average, the amount of time a piece of information will remain in short-term memory—without rehearsal—is ________________. (Miller)

intelligence quotient (IQ)/mental age

One of the major changes made to the Binet-Simon Scale was that Terman (1916) introduced the term ___________ rather than using ____________.

conditioned stimulus (CS)/conditioned response (CR)

Pavlov's conditioning demonstration. The animal was been conditioned to respond to a buzzer, termed a ________________, by salivating, a ___________________.

discipleship

Perhaps it would be better to re-conceptualize punishment from strictly discipline to __________________.

Conditioned Response:

Previously the UR that is now given in response to the CS.

Shaping

Reinforcing small sequential steps in a chain of behaviors, leading to the desired final behavior. (does not learn a complete final response at once but is reinforced instead for behaviors that come progressively closer to that response. ____________ can be a very helpful concept for the process of potty training small children.)

Direct Reinforcement

Results from the conse-quences of the act itself.

Discriminative Stimulus (SD)

Skinner's term for the features of a situation that an organism can discriminate to distinguish between occasions that might be reinforced or not reinforced.

Reflexes

Stimulus-response associations.

Working Memory

The Baddeley model describing how information is processed in short-term memory by means of a control system (central executive system) and systems that maintain verbal material (phonological loop) and visual material (visual-spatial sketch pad).

central executive

The _________________ acts as a type of CEO, organizing and integrating the specialized processing of the visuospatial sketchpad and phonological loop prior to encoding the information into long-term memory. It also plays a key role in dictating when retrieval from long-term memory will occur, and which information will be retrieved.

visuospatial sketchpad

The _________________ is specialized to process visual and spatial information.

phonological loop

The _________________, which is specialized for auditory and verbal information, is the part of short-term memory assumed to be used during most traditional memory tasks, such as remembering word lists

independent variable

The __________________ in studies of operant conditioning is the experimenter's control of reinforcement (the schedule of reinforcement).

stage model of memory

The ______________________ suggests the process of encoding → storage → retrieval is integrated into these three different levels of memory. These levels are sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.

Mental Age

The age given at which a child is currently performing intellectually

Cognitive Overload

The amount of working memory resources dedicated to a specific task with the idea that there is a limit to the amount of processing load the brain can manage. occurs when excessive demands are placed on particular cognitive processes, especially attention and memory

Unconditioned Response (UR)

The automatic, unlearned response an organism gives when the US is presented. (The salivation that occurs when food powder is placed in the dog's mouth is an unlearned response and is, therefore, an _________)

Learning Involves Mental Representation

The cognitive view describes an organism that is more thoughtful, that can mentally imagine and anticipate the consequences of behavior. In this view, the learner actively participates in the learning process, discovering, organizing, and using strategies to maximize learning and reward.

noxious

The consequences of behavior can involve the removal or presentation of stimuli that are pleasant or unpleasant (______________). This presents the four distinct possibilities that are relevant to operant learning. (positive reinforcement, positive punishment, negative reinforcement, negative punishment)

information processing (IP) metaphor

The dominant metaphor in cognitive psychology, notes Garnham (2009), is a computer-based, __________________. The emphasis is on the processes that allow the perceiver to perceive, that determine how the actor acts, and that underlie thinking, remembering, solving problems, and so on. (Not surprisingly, experimental participants in cognitive research tend to be human rather than nonhuman.)

Reinforcement

The effect of a reinforcer.

dependent variables

The effects of different schedules of reinforcement are evident in three different __________________: (rate of learning, rate of responding, rate of forgetting)

Intelligence Quotient

The global score derived from standardized intelligence tests.

New Learning Builds on Previous Learning

The importance of individual differences among learners rests partly on the fact that new learning is often highly dependent upon previously acquired knowledge and skills.

CHC Theory of Intelligence

The most researched and widely supported theory of intelligence. (This is one of the most researched and widely accepted theories of intelligence. The _______________ is actually an integration of Cattell and Horn's and Carroll's models of intelligence-Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC).)

Army Beta

The nonverbal test given to illiterate military personnel to determine rank.

Behavioristic Theories

Theories concerned with objective evidence of behavior rather than with consciousness and mind. Sometimes these are referred to as S-R or associationistic theories because they deal mainly with associations between stimuli and responses (muscular, glandular, or mental reaction to a stimulus).

Memory Process

The process of encoding, storage, and retrieval of any piece of information obtained through conscious experience; (a _____________ can also be an individual instance of encoded, stored, and retrieved information. Each stage in the _________ process in important for the accuracy and the ability to retrieve the information later. We refer to the information itself as a "___________." The ability to bring that particular memory into our cognitive awareness depends on encoding, storage, and retrieval).

Retrieval

The process of recognizing and then correctly recalling a piece of information from storage in long-term memory.

Rehearsal

The process of repeatedly introducing new information in order to retain the information in short-term memory, or to introduce into long-term memory. (Encoding helps move information from its temporary state in short-term memory to a much longer lasting state in long-term memory through__________)

Storage

The process of storing. This occurs after encoding.

Encoding

The process of transforming experienced information into a form that can be later stored and used by the brain.

Insight

The sudden recognition of relationships among elements of a problem (According to Köhler,___________, is a complex, largely unconscious process, is not easily amenable to scientific examination)

Behavior Modification

The systematic application of learning principles to change behavior. This is widely used in schools and institutions for children with behavioral and emotional problems, as well as in the treatment of mental disorders. Essentially, it involves the deliberate and systematic use of reinforcement, and sometimes punishment, to modify behavior.

Army Alpha

The test given to literate military personnel to determine rank.

Modeling Effect

The type of imitative behavior that involves learning a novel response. We learn brand new behaviors. (Acquiring a new behavior as a result of observing a model. After watching a mixed martial arts program, Jenna tries out a few novel moves on her young brother, Liam.)

Inhibitory/Disinhibitory Effect

The type of imitative behavior that results either in the suppression (inhibition) or appearance (disinhibition) of previously acquired deviant behavior. We learn to suppress or stop suppressing deviant behaviors (Stopping or starting some deviant behavior after seeing a model punished or rewarded for similar behavior. After watching Jenna, Nora, who already knew all of Jenna's moves but hadn't used them in a long time, now tries a few of them on her sister_________. Nora abandons her pummeling of her sister when Liam's mother responds to his wailing and takes Jenna's smartphone away ___________.)

Procedural Memory

This involves learning of motor and cognitive skills. (Implicit Memory)

Constructivism

This is a general term for student-centered approaches to teaching, such as discovery-oriented approaches, reciprocal learning, or cooperative instruction—so called because of their assumption that learners should build (construct) knowledge for themselves.

Discovery Learning

This is a learner-centered approach to teaching where content is not organized by the teacher and presented in a relatively final form. The acquisition of new knowledge comes about largely through the learner's own efforts; learners are expected to investigate and discover for themselves, and to construct their own mental representations.

Reciprocal Teaching

This is a teaching method designed to improve reading comprehension.

Explicit Memory

This is conscious recollection of facts or experiences. It requires you to consciously think about general knowledge about this world and specific concepts (semantic memory) or may involve your conscious access to your personal experiences that took place at a specific time in a certain place (_______________).

Episodic Memory

This is conscious recollection of one's personal experiences that took place at a specific time in a certain place. (Explicit Memory)

Implicit Memory

This is memory about how to perform a task which is usually unconsciously accessible; it is generally easier to demonstrate or perform this memory than to explain it.

Cognitive Apprenticeship

This is when novice learners are paired with older learners, teachers, or parents who serve as mentors and guides.

Proactive Interference

This is when old information prevents the formation or recall of newer information.

Variable Interval (VI)

This schedule provides a reinforcement after the first response is made after some period of time has elapsed, but the time changes or varies from reinforcer to reinforcer. (For example, if you were to tell your child to do his homework and to ensure that it was actually being done you check on him at 2, 4, 8, 10, 12, 16, and 18 minutes, that child would be on a VI 8 minute schedule.)

Variable Ratio (VR)

This schedule provides reinforcement after a certain yet changing number of responses are emitted. (For example, if you were to tell your child that they could have a piece of candy after they pick up about 20 toys, they would be on a VR 20 schedule. The difference between this schedule and a FR schedule is that they could be rewarded after picking up 15, 17, 18, 21, 24 or 25 toys.)

Fixed Ratio (FR)

This schedule provides reinforcement after a specific/defined number of responses are made. (For example, if you were to tell your child that they could have a piece of candy after they pick up 10 toys, that child would be on a FR 10 schedule.)

Fixed Interval (FI)

This schedule provides reinforcement for the first response made after a certain time period has elapsed since the last reward, regardless of how many responses have been made during the interval. (For example, you tell your child to eat his or her dinner and, to ensure that your child is eating, you tell him or her that you will check on him or her every 3 minutes. If they are eating when you check on them, you tell them that they can have a piece of candy.)

environment

To the right is Bandura's notion of triadic reciprocal determinism. Behavior, the person, and the _________________ all mutually influence and change each other.

delayed

Unconditioned stimulus (US)-conditioned stimulus (CS) pairing sequences are shown here in the order of effectiveness: _______________, trace, simultaneous, backward (The temporal relationship between the conditioned and the unconditioned stimuli)

Vicarious Reinforcement

When you see someone doing something repeatedly, you unconsciously assume that the behavior must be reinforcing for that person.

abused drugs

While the concept of classical conditioning might seem abstract or not applicable to important human behavior, it is one of the more important factors in maintaining dependence on __________________.

Ivan Pavlov

a Russian by the name of _______________ presented essentially the same findings (principle of classical conditioning.) —only he had used dogs.

Model

a pattern for behavior that can be copied by someone. Also refers to descriptions of objects or phenomena. IN science, models often serve as a sort of mental guide.

Learning and memory

are also intricately connected to intelligence.

Negative Reinforcer

are are effective not when they are added to a situation, but rather when they are removed. For these reinforcers, when an unwanted or painful stimulus is removed and consequently, the probability that the behavior will be repeated is increased

Positive Reinforcers

are pleasing or positive stimulus is given and consequently, the probability that the behavior will be repeated is increased (If the stimulus increases the probability of a behavior it follows, it is a ______________)

Primary Reinforcers

are stimuli that are naturally rewarding for an organism. They are stimuli that are rewarding for most people, most of the time, without anybody having had to learn that they are rewarding, such as food, drink, sleep, comfort, and sex. These are not learned.

Secondary Reinforcers

are stimuli that may not be reinforcing initially but that eventually become reinforcing as a function of having been associated with other reinforcers. include the wide range of stimuli that may not be reinforcing initially but that eventually become reinforcing as a function of having been associated with other reinforcers. Thus, secondary reinforcers are learned.

high adaptive value

behaviors that are highly probable and relatively easy are typically those that have _________________. Among humans, these might include behaviors such as learning a language so we can communicate.

Contiguity

closeness in time of the stimulus and response (According to Pavlov, what is most important in the conditioning situation is the ______________ (closeness in time) of the stimulus and response.)

Imitation

copying behavior. To imitate a person's behavior is simply to use that person's behavior pattern. (a form of operant learning in that the imitative behavior is like an operant that is learned as a result of being reinforced.)

Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale

extended intelligence testing to adult populations that currently could not be assessed using the Stanford-Binet. Currently, there are four different Wechsler intelligence tests.

Intelligence and intelligence testing

has been one of the most studied and controversial constructs in the history of psychology. (It has been extremely useful in identifying individual strengths and weaknesses by providing additional information on how to best teach struggling students.)

Stimulus Discrimination

involves making different responses to highly similar stimuli

Stimulus Generalization

involves making the same responses to different but related stimuli

Cognitivism

is an approach concerned mainly with intellectual events such as problem solving, information processing, thinking, and imagining.

Extrinsic Reinforcement

is reinforcement to increase a behavior in the future that comes from an external source (e.g., reading to earn a reward). It includes the variety of external stimuli that might increase the probability of a behavior.

Memory

is simply a process of encoding, storing, and retrieving pieces of information (Everything we are, in our conscious experience, is dependent upon ___________. Without ___________ we would live in a constant state of rediscovery, whereby every instance would be newly learned.)

Intelligence

is the overall capacity to think and act logically and rationally within one's environment.

Trace conditioning

is to have the CS begin and end before the US.

Simultaneous conditioning

is to present the US and the CS simultaneously.

Backward conditioning

is to present the US prior to the CS.

Intrinsic Reinforcement

may be loosely defined as satisfaction, pleasure, or reward that is inherent in a behavior and is therefore independent of external rewards. It is reinforcement to increase a behavior in the future that comes from an internal source (e.g., reading because one loves to read).

Positive Reinforcement

occurs when a behavior allows a person to experience something that is pleasurable—like getting high or onset of euphoria/reward. In turn, this increases the probability that the person will engage in that behavior in the future. (Increases the probability of a behavior's occurrence. Involves giving the person a desired stimulus)

Negative Reinforcement

occurs whenever a behavior gets rid of something undesirable, and the person becomes more likely to engage in that behavior in the future. Meaning, the experience is positive because a bad thing is taken away. (Increases the probability of a behavior's occurrence. Involves the removal of an undesired stimulus)

Instinctive drift

presents a problem for traditional operant theory. It is now apparent that not all behaviors can be conditioned and maintained by schedules of reinforcement, that there is some degree of competition between unlearned, biologically based tendencies and the conditioning of related behaviors

Extinction

process by which classically conditioned responses are eliminated

Classical Conditioning

sometimes called learning through stimulus substitution, is learning through stimulus substitution as a result of repeated pairings of an unconditioned stimulus with a conditioned stimulus

Wolfgang Köhler

spent 4 years trying to frustrate apes with a pair of problems: the "stick" problem and the "box" problem. (In the "stick" problem, the solution involves inserting a small stick inside a larger one to reach the fruit. In the "box" problem, the ape has to place boxes one on top of the other.)

The Law of Effect

the basic law of operant conditioning: Behaviors followed by reinforcement are more likely to be repeated and behaviors not followed by reinforcement are less likely to recur.

Delayed (or forward-order) conditioning

the ideal situation, presents the conditioned stimulus before the unconditioned stimulus, with the CS continuing during the presentation of the US.

(Baddeley) short-term memory is divided into three components

visuospatial sketchpad, phonological loop, central executive

The Binet-Simon Scale

was designed so that test items increased in level of difficulty related to age. As you can expect, a 10-year-old should be capable of completing more complex tasks than a 7-year-old. This is the genesis of the concept of mental age.

three principal features of our social cognitive realities:

•Our personal factors - our personalities, our intentions, what we know and feel •Our actions - our actual behaviors •Our environments - both the social and physical aspects of our world (These three factors affect each other reciprocally)

There are a few useful strategies for successful studying habits:

•Repeat the materials: Proper encoding and repetition help maintain the information for a longer period of time. •When repeating the materials, leave some space between your study sessions: New materials are more vulnerable to forgetting, so repeat the process to consolidate that information. •Make the materials meaningful: Information that goes through elaborative rehearsal is processed deeply and more deeply processed information is typically remembered better. Minimize interference if possible: If you are studying two similar contents, leave sometime between the two rather than working on them back to back. Devising your own memory aid (mnemonic device

Factors Influencing Attention

•The number of sources •The similarity of sources •The complexity of the tasks •Automaticity

Rate of responding

•With intermittent schedules, this is closely tied to expectations the animal might develop about how and when it will receive reinforcement. •With a fixed-interval schedule, this tends to drop off dramatically immediately after reinforcement and picks up again just before the end of the time interval.