Exam 3 Psychology Info

Schema

A schema is a mental construct consisting of a cluster or collection of related concepts

What is associative learning and how is related to "conditioning"?

Associative learning occurs when an organism makes connections between stimuli or events that occur together in the environment. You will see that associative learning is central to all three basic learning processes discussed in this chapter; classical conditioning tends to involve unconscious processes, operant conditioning tends to involve conscious processes, and observational learning adds social and cognitive layers to all the basic associative processes, both conscious and unconscious

Sensory Memory

sensory memory: storage of brief sensory events, such as sights, sounds, and tastes. It is very brief storage—up to a couple of seconds Sensory information about sights, sounds, smells, and even textures, which we do not view as valuable information, we discard. If we view something as valuable, the information will move into our short-term memory system.

Observational Learning - Vicarious Reinforcement

. You need to want to copy the behavior, and whether or not you are motivated depends on what happened to the model. If you saw that the model was reinforced for her behavior, you will be more motivated to copy her. This is known as vicarious reinforcement

Possible Essay Prompts

1) Brain regions associated with the 3 types of memory, types of long-term memory, H.M., consolidation, anterograde amnesia, procedural memory 2) Ronald Cotton, eyewitness identification, The Innocence Project, Suggestibility, the misinformation effect, Elizabeth Loftus, memory construction, memory re-construction 3) Spearman, multiple intelligences, Triarchic theory of intelligence, General intelligence, Gardner, emotional intelligence, cognitive styles, life success 4) Associative learning, classical conditioning, extinction, acquisition, neutral stimulus, conditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, conditioned response 5) Types of conditioning, shaping, rewards and punishments, associate, anti-tank dogs, food, learning

Flashbulb Memories

A flashbulb memory is an exceptionally clear recollection of an important event. Where were you when you first heard about the 9/11 terrorist attacks? Most likely you can remember where you were and what you were doing.

History of Operant Conditioning

Anti-Tank Dogs: Dogs would be sent out to smell gasoline to detect enemy tank (fault being that they were sent to scent their own gasoline, didn't have the smell difference of the enemy's gasoline), pigeons and skinner, dolphins.

Operant Learning - Operant Chamber

According to the law of effect, behaviors that are followed by consequences that are satisfying to the organism are more likely to be repeated, and behaviors that are followed by unpleasant consequences are less likely to be repeated. Working with Thorndike's law of effect as his foundation, Skinner began conducting scientific experiments on animals (mainly rats and pigeons) to determine how organisms learn through operant conditioning (Skinner, 1938). He placed these animals inside an operant conditioning chamber, which has come to be known as a "Skinner box" (Figure). A Skinner box contains a lever (for rats) or disk (for pigeons) that the animal can press or peck for a food reward via the dispenser. Speakers and lights can be associated with certain behaviors. A recorder counts the number of responses made by the animal.

Amensia

Amnesia is the loss of long-term memory that occurs as the result of disease, physical trauma, or psychological trauma

Observational Learning - Bandura and the Bobo Doll Study

Bandura and other researchers proposed a brand of behaviorism called social learning theory, which took cognitive processes into account. According to Bandura, pure behaviorism could not explain why learning can take place in the absence of external reinforcement. He felt that internal mental states must also have a role in learning and that observational learning involves much more than imitation. In imitation, a person simply copies what the model does. Bandura identified three kinds of models: live, verbal, and symbolic. A live model demonstrates a behavior in person, as when Ben stood up on his surfboard so that Julian could see how he did it. A verbal instructional model does not perform the behavior, but instead explains or describes the behavior, as when a soccer coach tells his young players to kick the ball with the side of the foot, not with the toe. A symbolic model can be fictional characters or real people who demonstrate behaviors in books, movies, television shows, video games, or Internet sources Bandura described specific steps in the process of modeling that must be followed if learning is to be successful: attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation. First, you must be focused on what the model is doing—you have to pay attention. Next, you must be able to retain, or remember, what you observed; this is retention. Then, you must be able to perform the behavior that you observed and committed to memory; this is reproduction. Finally, you must have motivation. You need to want to copy the behavior, and whether or not you are motivated depends on what happened to the model

Which region of the brain is involved in 'Consolidation'?

Because of its role in processing emotional information, the amygdala is also involved in memory consolidation: the process of transferring new learning into long-term memory. The amygdala seems to facilitate encoding memories at a deeper level when the event is emotionally arousing. The hippocampus also plays a part in memory consolidation: the process of transferring new learning into long-term memory.

How are superstition, stereotypes, and racism related to classical conditioning?

Because they are all things that are learned in one way or another.

Spearman on Intelligence

British psychologist Charles Spearman believed intelligence consisted of one general factor, called g, which could be measured and compared among individuals. Spearman focused on the commonalities among various intellectual abilities and demphasized what made each unique

Parts of the brain involved with memory - Cerebellum and Prefrontal Cortex

Cerebellum: implicit memories (procedural memory, motor learning, and classical conditioning) researchers have used brain scans, including positron emission tomography (PET) scans, to learn how people process and retain information. From these studies, it seems the prefrontal cortex is involved

The Misinformation Effect / Elizabeth Loftus

Cognitive psychologist Elizabeth Loftus has conducted extensive research on memory. She has studied false memories as well as recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse. Loftus also developed the misinformation effect paradigm, which holds that after exposure to incorrect information, a person may misremember the original event. ***EX. Loftus asked individuals what speed cars were going when they "crashed"/"smashed" into eachother - The speed was always higher when the word "smashed" was used, and most people also reported broken glass in smashed over crashed. Directly related to how we ask questions of people.**** According to Loftus, an eyewitness's memory of an event is very flexible due to the misinformation effect.

Cognitive Psychology

Cognitive psychology is the field of psychology dedicated to examining how people think. It attempts to explain how and why we think the way we do by studying the interactions among human thinking, emotion, creativity, language, and problem solving, in addition to other cognitive processes. Cognitive psychologists strive to determine and measure different types of **intelligence**, why some people are better at problem solving than others, and how emotional intelligence affects success in the workplace, among countless other topics.

Unintended Consequences

Come from negative / positive reinforcement / punishments Ex. Mr. Arduengo telling student if she shows up late to class one more time she will be sent to the dean - then unintended consequence being that she stops coming to class

Emotional Intelligence - How is high EQ related to life success?

Emotional intelligence encompasses the ability to understand the emotions of yourself and others, show empathy, understand social relationships and cues, and regulate your own emotions and respond in culturally appropriate ways. People with high emotional intelligence typically have well-developed social skills. Some researchers, including Daniel Goleman, the author of Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More than IQ, argue that emotional intelligence is a better predictor of success than traditional intelligence (Goleman, 1995). However, emotional intelligence has been widely debated, with researchers pointing out inconsistencies in how it is defined and described, as well as questioning results of studies on a subject that is difficulty to measure and study emperically

Memory Process - Encoding

Encoding involves the input of information into the memory system.

Encoding - Effortful Processing:

Ex. Remembering what exactly you studied on your last test. Requires a lot more work and attention to encode this kind of information.

Classical Conditioning - Spontaneous Recovery:

Ex. What happens when learning is not used for a while—when what was learned lies dormant? As we just discussed, Pavlov found that when he repeatedly presented the bell (conditioned stimulus) without the meat powder (unconditioned stimulus), extinction occurred; the dogs stopped salivating to the bell. However, after a couple of hours of resting from this extinction training, the dogs again began to salivate when Pavlov rang the bell. The behavior of Pavlov's dogs illustrates a concept Pavlov called spontaneous recovery: the return of a previously extinguished conditioned response following a rest period

Classical Conditioning - Extinction:

Extinction is the decrease in the conditioned response when the unconditioned stimulus is no longer presented with the conditioned stimulus. Ex. Once we have established the connection between the unconditioned stimulus and the conditioned stimulus, how do we break that connection and get the dog, cat, or child to stop responding? In Tiger's case, imagine what would happen if you stopped using the electric can opener for her food and began to use it only for human food. Now, Tiger would hear the can opener, but she would not get food. In classical conditioning terms, you would be giving the conditioned stimulus, but not the unconditioned stimulus; therefore, causing extinction.

Classical Conditioning - Stimulus Generalization:

On the other hand, when an organism demonstrates the conditioned response to stimuli that are similar to the condition stimulus, it is called stimulus generalization, the opposite of stimulus discrimination. The more similar a stimulus is to the condition stimulus, the more likely the organism is to give the conditioned response.

Classical Conditioning (learning) - NS (Neutral Stimulus) -

In classical conditioning, a neutral stimulus is presented immediately before an unconditioned stimulus. Pavlov would sound a tone (like ringing a bell) and then give the dogs the meat powder. The tone was the neutral stimulus (NS): which is a stimulus that does not naturally elicit a response. Prior to conditioning, the dogs did not salivate when they just heard the tone because the tone had no association for the dogs. Quite simply this pairing means: Tone (NS) + Meat Powder (UCS) -> Salivation (UCR)

Classical Conditioning = Classical Learning

In classical conditioning, also known as Pavlovian conditioning, organisms learn to associate events—or stimuli—that repeatedly happen together. We experience this process throughout our daily lives. For example, you might see a flash of lightning in the sky during a storm and then hear a loud boom of thunder. The sound of the thunder naturally makes you jump (loud noises have that effect by reflex). Because lightning reliably predicts the impending boom of thunder, you may associate the two and jump when you see lightning.

Classical Conditioning - Acquisition:

In classical conditioning, the initial period of learning is known as acquisition, when an organism learns to connect a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus. During acquisition, the neutral stimulus begins to elicit the conditioned response, and eventually, the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus capable of eliciting the conditioned response by itself.

Operant Learning

In operant conditioning, organisms learn to associate a behavior and its consequence. Skinner believed that behavior is motivated by the consequences we receive for the behavior: the reinforcements and punishments

Operant Conditioning

In operant conditioning, organisms learn, again, to associate events—a behavior and its consequence (reinforcement or punishment). A pleasant consequence encourages more of that behavior in the future, whereas a punishment deters the behavior. Ex. Imagine you are teaching your dog, Hodor, to sit. You tell Hodor to sit, and give him a treat when he does. After repeated experiences, Hodor begins to associate the act of sitting with receiving a treat. He learns that the consequence of sitting is that he gets a doggie biscuit (Figure). Conversely, if the dog is punished when exhibiting a behavior, it becomes conditioned to avoid that behavior (e.g., receiving a small shock when crossing the boundary of an invisible electric fence).

Instincts

Instincts are innate behaviors that are triggered by a broader range of events, such as aging and the change of seasons. They are more complex patterns of behavior, involve movement of the organism as a whole (e.g., sexual activity and migration), and involve higher brain centers. ***Not the same as gut intuition**** ***Involve whole body systems**** Ex. Monarch butterfly migration, beavers building a dam, group interactions, orchas teaching their babies how to hunt seals**

Know and understand the importance of "Cultural Intelligence".

Intelligence can also have different meanings and values in different cultures. If you live on a small island, where most people get their food by fishing from boats, it would be important to know how to fish and how to repair a boat. If you were an exceptional angler, your peers would probably consider you intelligent. If you were also skilled at repairing boats, your intelligence might be known across the whole island. Think about your own family's culture. What values are important for Latino families? Italian families? In Irish families, hospitality and telling an entertaining story are marks of the culture. If you are a skilled storyteller, other members of Irish culture are likely to consider you intelligent. Some cultures place a high value on working together as a collective. In these cultures, the importance of the group supersedes the importance of individual achievement. When you visit such a culture, how well you relate to the values of that culture exemplifies your cultural intelligence, sometimes referred to as cultural competence.

What are the negative effects of physical punishment?

It's important to be aware of some of the drawbacks in using physical punishment on children. First, punishment may teach fear. Brandon may become fearful of the street, but he also may become fearful of the person who delivered the punishment—you, his parent. Similarly, children who are punished by teachers may come to fear the teacher and try to avoid school (Gershoff et al., 2010). Consequently, most schools in the United States have banned corporal punishment. Second, punishment may cause children to become more aggressive and prone to antisocial behavior and delinquency (Gershoff, 2002). They see their parents resort to spanking when they become angry and frustrated, so, in turn, they may act out this same behavior when they become angry and frustrated. For example, because you spank Brenda when you are angry with her for her misbehavior, she might start hitting her friends when they won't share their toys.

"Everyday Connection"

Kate and her husband Scott recently vacationed in the Cayman Islands, and booked a boat tour to Stingray City, where they could feed and swim with the southern stingrays. The boat captain explained how the normally solitary stingrays have become accustomed to interacting with humans. About 40 years ago, fishermen began to clean fish and conch (unconditioned stimulus) at a particular sandbar near a barrier reef, and large numbers of stingrays would swim in to eat (unconditioned response) what the fishermen threw into the water; this continued for years. By the late 1980s, word of the large group of stingrays spread among scuba divers, who then started feeding them by hand. Over time, the southern stingrays in the area were classically conditioned much like Pavlov's dogs. When they hear the sound of a boat engine (neutral stimulus that becomes a conditioned stimulus), they know that they will get to eat (conditioned response).

Long Term Memory

Long-term memory (LTM) is the continuous storage of information. Unlike short-term memory, the storage capacity of LTM has no limits. It encompasses all the things you can remember that happened more than just a few minutes ago to all of the things that you can remember that happened days, weeks, and years ago. In keeping with the computer analogy, the information in your LTM would be like the information you have saved on the hard drive.

Memory

Memory is the set of processes used to encode, store, and retrieve information over different periods of time

Gardner on Intelligence

Multiple Intelligences Theory was developed by Howard Gardner. Gardner's theory, which has been refined for more than 30 years, is a more recent development among theories of intelligence. In Gardner's theory, each person possesses at least eight intelligences. Among these eight intelligences, a person typically excels in some and falters in others. Musical, Linguistic, intra/inter-personal, naturalist, spatial, bodily, and mathematical. Gardner's inter- and intrapersonal intelligences are often combined into a single type: emotional intelligence

Observational Learning

Observational learning extends the effective range of both classical and operant conditioning. In contrast to classical and operant conditioning, in which learning occurs only through direct experience, observational learning is the process of watching others and then imitating what they do. A lot of learning among humans and other animals comes from observational learning.

Obersvational Learning - Vicarious Punishment

On the other hand, if you observed the model being punished, you would be less motivated to copy her. This is called vicarious punishment. EX. imagine that four-year-old Allison watched her older sister Kaitlyn playing in their mother's makeup, and then saw Kaitlyn get a time out when their mother came in. After their mother left the room, Allison was tempted to play in the make-up, but she did not want to get a time-out from her mother

Know the curious story of H.M. and how his long-term memory was affected by surgery. What could H.M. remember and what could H.M. NOT remember?

One famous patient, known for years only as H. M., had both his left and right temporal lobes **(hippocampi)** removed in an attempt to help control the seizures he had been suffering from for years. As a result, his declarative memory was significantly affected, and he could not form new semantic knowledge. He lost the ability to form new memories, yet he could still remember information and events that had occurred prior to the surgery. H.M. Couldn't consolidate because his hippocampus was removed. Example: 50 first Dates!

Classical Conditioning

Pavlov (1849-1936), a Russian scientist, performed extensive research on dogs and is best known for his experiments in classical conditioning (Figure). As we discussed briefly in the previous section, classical conditioning is a process by which we learn to associate stimuli and, consequently, to anticipate events.

Criticism of Spearman

Problematic because it's one number; you lose the individuality between people because of test scores. Doesn't tell you differences between cultures, etc.

Type of Retrieval - Recall:

Recall is what we most often think about when we talk about memory retrieval: it means you can access information without cues. For example, you would use recall for an essay test.

Type of Retrieval - Recognition:

Recognition happens when you identify information that you have previously learned after encountering it again. It involves a process of comparison. When you take a multiple-choice test, you are relying on recognition to help you choose the correct answer.

Memory Construction

Reconstructive memory is a theory of elaborate memory recall proposed within the field of cognitive psychology, in which the act of remembering is influenced by various other cognitive processes including perception, imagination, semantic memory and beliefs, amongst others.

Reflex

Reflexes are a motor or neural reaction to a specific stimulus in the environment. They tend to be simpler than instincts, involve the activity of specific body parts and systems (e.g., the knee-jerk reflex and the contraction of the pupil in bright light), and involve more primitive centers of the central nervous system (e.g., the spinal cord and the medulla) ***Single body parts/systems (grasping, sucking, flinching, squinting)*****

Observational Learning - Mirror Neurons and their role in imitation

Research suggests that this imitative learning involves a specific type of neuron, called a mirror neuron. Mirror neurons help you imitate behavior because they become activated when watching someone do something. during observational learning.

Memory Process - Retrieval

Retrieval, or getting the information out of memory and back into awareness, is the third function.

Sternberg on Intelligence (Triarchic Theory)

Robert Sternberg developed another theory of intelligence, which he titled the triarchic theory of intelligence because it sees intelligence as comprised of three parts: practical, creative, and analytical intelligence. Practical: Street Smarts Analytical: Compare, Judge, Evaluate, Analyze, and Contrast. Creative: Inventing or Imagining a solution to a problem

Semnatic Memory

Semantic memory refers to a portion of long-term memory that processes ideas and concepts that are not drawn from personal experience. Semantic memory includes things that are common knowledge, such as the names of colors, the sounds of letters, the capitals of countries and other basic facts acquired over a lifetime.

Short Term/Working Memory

Short-term memory (STM) is a temporary storage system that processes incoming sensory memory; sometimes it is called working memory. Short-term memory takes information from sensory memory and sometimes connects that memory to something already in long-term memory. Short-term memory storage lasts about 20 seconds. Think of short-term memory as the information you have displayed on your computer screen—a document, a spreadsheet, or a web page. Then, information in short-term memory goes to long-term memory (you save it to your hard drive), or it is discarded (you delete a document or close a web browser)

Operant Learning - Positive Punishment

Something is added to decrease the likelihood of a behavior. An example of positive punishment is scolding a student to get the student to stop texting in class.

Operant Learning - Positive Reinforcement

Something is added to increase the likelihood of a behavior. For example, you tell your five-year-old son, Jerome, that if he cleans his room, he will get a toy. Jerome quickly cleans his room because he wants a new art set.

Operant Learning - Negative Punishment

Something is removed to decrease the likelihood of a behavior. For example, when a child misbehaves, a parent can take away a favorite toy.

Operant Learning - Negative Reinforcement

Something is removed to increase the likelihood of a behavior. For example, car manufacturers use the principles of negative reinforcement in their seatbelt systems, which go "beep, beep, beep" until you fasten your seatbelt. The annoying sound stops when you exhibit the desired behavior, increasing the likelihood that you will buckle up in the future.

Memory Process - Storage

Storage is the retention of the encoded information

Example of negative punishment

Taking away something to decrease the likelihood of behavior Prison and Time out

Classical Conditioning (learning) - CR (Conditioned Response)

The behavior caused by the conditioned stimulus is called the conditioned response (CR). In the case of Pavlov's dogs, they had learned to associate the tone (CS) with being fed, and they began to salivate (CR) in anticipation of food. Tone (CS) -> Salivation (CR)

Read and know the issue surrounding the "What Do You Think" on pag. 242

The case of Atkins v. Virginia was a landmark case in the United States Supreme Court. On August 16, 1996, two men, Daryl Atkins and William Jones, robbed, kidnapped, and then shot and killed Eric Nesbitt, a local airman from the U.S. Air Force. A clinical psychologist evaluated Atkins and testified at the trial that Atkins had an IQ of 59. The mean IQ score is 100. The psychologist concluded that Atkins was mildly mentally retarded. The jury found Atkins guilty, and he was sentenced to death. Atkins and his attorneys appealed to the Supreme Court. In June 2002, the Supreme Court reversed a previous decision and ruled that executions of mentally retarded criminals are 'cruel and unusual punishments' prohibited by the Eighth Amendment. The court wrote in their decision: Clinical definitions of mental retardation require not only subaverage intellectual functioning, but also significant limitations in adaptive skills. Mentally retarded persons frequently know the difference between right and wrong and are competent to stand trial. Because of their impairments, however, by definition they have diminished capacities to understand and process information, to communicate, to abstract from mistakes and learn from experience, to engage in logical reasoning, to control impulses, and to understand others' reactions. Their deficiencies do not warrant an exemption from criminal sanctions, but diminish their personal culpability (Atkins v. Virginia, 2002, par. 5).

Parts of the brain involved with memory - Hippocampus

The hippocampus is involved in memory, specifically normal recognition memory as well as spatial memory (when the memory tasks are like recall tests), Explicit memory (recollection, etc.). Another job of the hippocampus is to project information to cortical regions that give memories meaning and connect them with other connected memories.

Observational Learning - Models:

The individuals performing the imitated behavior are called models

Parts of the brain involved with memory - Amygdala

The main job of the amygdala is to regulate emotions, such as fear and aggression. The amygdala plays a part in how memories are stored because storage is influenced by stress hormones.

Acquisition and Extinction:

The strengthening (acquisition), and the weakening (extinction) of learned association.

What were the 2 Responses Pavlov found that an organism has to its environment

Through his experiments, Pavlov realized that an organism has two types of responses to its environment: (1) unconditioned (unlearned) responses, or reflexes, and (2) conditioned (learned) responses.

How is learning Defined?

Unlike instincts and reflexes, learned behaviors involve change and experience: learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior or knowledge that results from experience

Ronald Cotton

Was convicted of a rape that he did not commit by a woman named Jennifer, and went to jail for it.. Later DNA analysis proved him to not be guilty. Part of the innocence project (DNA Work). Jennifer who was originally unsure during line up to pick her assaulter, was made certain by a cop who told her "you picked the right one" after asking how she did.. She then became 100% certain during the trial because of the cop guiding her answer.

Classical Conditioning (learning) - CS (Conditioned Stimulus).

When Pavlov paired the tone with the meat powder over and over again, the previously neutral stimulus (the tone) also began to elicit salivation from the dogs. Thus, the neutral stimulus became the conditioned stimulus (CS), which is a stimulus that elicits a response after repeatedly being paired with an unconditioned stimulus. Eventually, the dogs began to salivate to the tone alone.

Classical Conditioning - Stimulus Discrimination:

When an organism learns to respond differently to various stimuli that are similar, it is called stimulus discrimination. In classical conditioning terms, the organism demonstrates the conditioned response only to the conditioned stimulus. Pavlov's dogs discriminated between the basic tone that sounded before they were fed and other tones (e.g., the doorbell), because the other sounds did not predict the arrival of food.

Suggestibility

When someone witnesses a crime, that person's memory of the details of the crime is very important in catching the suspect. Because memory is so fragile, witnesses can be easily (and often accidentally) misled due to the problem of suggestibility. Suggestibility describes the effects of misinformation from external sources that leads to the creation of false memories. Even though memory and the process of reconstruction can be fragile, police officers, prosecutors, and the courts often rely on eyewitness identification and testimony in the prosecution of criminals. However, faulty eyewitness identification and testimony can lead to wrongful convictions

Criticism of Gardner and the triarchic theory

a musical intelligence is a skill, not intellegence. His response: if you can take musical ability, a skill, and apply it to learning biology for example you are going toward intelligence rather than a skill set.

Classical Conditioning (Learning) - UCR (Unconditioned Response) - Unconditioned meaning prior to learning.

a natural (unlearned) reaction to a given stimulus. Pavlovs Example: The dog's salivation to the meat powder. Meat Powder (UCS) -> Salivation (UCR)

Classical Condition (Learning) - UCS (Unconditioned Stimulus) - Unconditioned meaning prior to learning.

a stimulus that elicits a reflexive response in an organism. Pavlovs Example: The meat powder

Stimulus Discrimination and Stimulus Generalization:

are involved in triggering which stimuli will trigger the learned association.

Mnemonic devices

are techniques a person can use to help them improve their ability to remember something. In other words, it's a memory technique to help your brain better encode and recall important information.

Encoding - Automatic Processing:

automatic processing, or the encoding of details like time, space, frequency, and the meaning of words. Can recall this information quite easily. Automatic processing is usually done without any conscious awareness Ex. What you had for lunch / the last time you studied for a test /

How can aversions be used for good outcomes? (Ex. If I wanted someone to stop drinking alcohol, how could I use aversions to accomplish that?)

taste aversion: you've been conditioned to be averse to a food after a single, negative experience. Ex. Alcoholics can take medicine that will make them physically ill at the scent and taste of alcohol (vomiting and dry heaving)

What is 'consolidation'? In what brain state does consolidation typically occur?

the conscious repetition of information to be remembered, to move STM into long-term memory is called memory consolidation. Occurs during REM sleep. Ex. Studying flash cards