PSYCH 1100: Chapter 8 Memory

Operant Chamber (Skinner Box)

A chamber containing a bar or key that an animal can manipulate to obtain a food or water reinforcer, with attached devices to record the animal's rate of bar pressing or key pecking. Used in operant conditioning research.

Extrinsic Motivation

A desire to perform a behavior due to promise of rewards or threats of punishment.

Intrinsic Motivation

A desire to perform a behavior for its own sake and to be effective.

Cognitive Map

A mental representation of the layout of one's environment. For example, after exploring a maze, rats act as is they have learned a cognitive map of it.

Learning

A relatively permanent change in an organism's behavior due to experience.

Conditioned Reinforcer

A stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer; also known as secondary reinforcer.

Classical Conditioning

A type of learning in which an organism comes to associate stimuli. A neutral stimulus that signals an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) begins to produce a response that anticipates and prepares for the unconditioned stimulus. Also called Pavlovian conditioning.

Operant Conditioning

A type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher.

Positive Reinforcement

Add a desirable stimulus. Ex. Watch tv, get a hug.

Punishment

An event that decreases the behavior that it follows.

Primary reinforcer

An innately reinforcing stimulus, such as the one that satisfies a biological need.

Shaping

An operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and closer approximations of a desired goal.

imagination inflation

As a practical joke, Nadine tells her younger brother a story about an event that did NOT happen when he was 4 years old. She said he called "911" to report a fight they were having. Nadine repeated this story several times, until her brother really imagines dialing the phone. This is an example of:

serial

At a block party, Cyndi meets nine new neighbors. Moments later, she can only remember the names of the first three and last two neighbors she met. Her experience illustrates the _____ position effect.

Respondent Behavior

Behavior that occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus; Skinner's term of behavior learned through classical conditioning.

Operant Behavior

Behavior that operates on the environment, producing consequences.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

In classical conditioning, an originally irrelevant stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus (UCS), comes to trigger a conditioned response.

Discrimination

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

Conditioned Response (CR)

In classical conditioning, the learned response to a previously neutral conditioned stimulus (CS).

Unconditioned Response (UCR)

In classical conditioning, the unlearned, naturally occurring response to the unconditioned stimulus (UCS), such as salivation when food is in the mouth.

Reinforcer

In operant conditioning, any event that strengthens the behavior it follows.

Variable

Interval Schedule - In operant conditioning, a schedule of reinforcement that reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals.

Fixed

Interval Schedule - In operant conditioning, a schedule of reinforcement that reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed.

flashbulb

John remembers very clearly the day his best friend died in a bicycle accident when he was hit by a drunk driver. This best illustrates _____ memory.

right hippocampus

Jonny has suffered hippocampal damage from a near-fatal bus crash. He is able to remember verbal information, but has no ability to recall visual designs and locations. He has probably suffered damage to his:

Observational Learning

Learning by observing others.

Associative Learning

Learning that certain events occur together. The events may be two stimuli (as in classical conditioning) or a response and it's consequences (as in operant conditioning).

Latent Learning

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

source amnesia

Lonnie often has vivid dreams. In the morning, he can recall them in great detail. This sometimes gets him in trouble, because he can't figure out if he is remembering a dream or something that he actually experienced. This problem is known as _____.

iconic memory

Nine-year-old Jade has just discovered something very interesting. She can look at a picture in a book and, when she closes her eyes, she can still see the picture very clearly for a few tenths of a second. Jade is experiencing:

serial

Our tendency to recall the last and first items in a list is known as the _____ position effect.

illusions

Perceptual _____ are to real perceptions as false memories are to real memories.

Prosocial Behavior

Positive, constructive, helpful behavior. The opposite of antisocial behavior.

Variable

Ratio Schedule - In operant conditioning, a schedule of reinforcement that reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses.

Fixed

Ratio Schedule - In operant conditioning, a schedule of reinforcement that reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses.

Partial (intermittent) Reinforcement

Reinforcing a response only part of the time; results in slower acquisition of a response but much greater resistance to extinction than does continuous reinforcement.

Continuous Reinforcement

Reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs.

Negative Reinforcement

Remove an aversive stimulus. Ex. Fastening seatbelt to turn off beeping.

Generalization

The tendency, once a response has been conditioned, for stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses.

Behaviorism

The view that psychology (1) should be an objective science that (2) studies behavior without reference to mental processes. Most research psychologists today agree with (1) but not (2).

short term

Theo suffers from depression and is currently in treatment. His physician is using electroconvulsive therapy, which will affect his _____ memory.

Law of Effect

Thorndike's principle that behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely, and that behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences become less likely

positive transer

When bits of information do not compete with each other, and actually facilitate memory, it is called _____.

mood-congruent

When people get depressed, they are often flooded with thoughts of failed relationships and missed chances. This experience best illustrates _____ memory.

mood-congruent memory

Whenever Valerie experiences intense feelings of fear, she is overwhelmed with childhood memories of her abusive parents. Valerie's experience best illustrates:

James

_____ referred to priming as the "wakening of associations."

James

_____ said, "If we remembered everything, we should on most occasions be as ill off as if we remembered nothing."

meaning

Fergus Craik and Endel Tulving found that deep processing, by its _____, produced better recognition.

Mirror Neurons

Frontal lobe neurons that fire when performing certain actions or when observing another doing so. The brain's mirroring of another's action may enable imitation, language learning, and empathy.

encoding failure

If you ask your classmates to draw either side of a U.S. penny from memory, the vast majority will not be very successful. This is likely due to _____.

Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)

In classical conditioning, a stimulus that unconditionally - naturally and automatically - triggers a response.

hippocampus

The _____ is the neural center involved in processing explicit memories for storage.

meaningful

The amount remembered depends both on the time spent learning and on your making it _____.

Extinction

The demising of a conditioned response; occurs in classical conditioning when an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) does not follow a conditioned stimulus (CS); occurs in operant conditioning when a response is no longer reinforced.

Overjustification effect

The effect of promising a reward for doing what one already likes to do. The person may now see the reward, rather than intrinsic interest, as the motivation for performing the task.

retrieval cues

The happier Judie feels, the more readily she recalls experiences with former teachers who were warm and generous. This best illustrates that emotional states can be:

Acquisition

The initial stage in classical conditioning; the phase associating a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus comes to elicit a conditioned response. In operant conditioning, the strengthening of a reinforced response.

visual

The peg-word system relies heavily on the use of _____ imagery.

Modeling

The process of observing and imitating a specific behavior.

Spontaneous Recovery

The reappearance, after a rest period, of an extinguished conditioned response.