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learning

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a relatively permanent change in behavior due to experience the process of acquiring knowledge, skills, attitudes, or values, through our experience, research, or teaching, that causes a measurable change of behavior

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classical conditioning

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how we respond to the environment -Pavlov's dogs reaction to bell and food

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operant (instrumental) conditioning

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changing behavior by following a response with reinforcements how we act in the environment -Thorndike's puzzle boxes

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observational learning

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describes how an animal learns by watching others with no outside reinforcement how we observe the environment -Bandura's Bobo Doll Experiment

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behaviorists

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psychologists who insist that psychologists should study only observable, measurable behaviors, and not concern itself with mental processes or events seek the simplest explanations for behaviors

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methodological behaviorism

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observing our behavior to see why we act this way ex. if a monkey bares its teeth and makes loud noises after the following events, the behaviorist infers fear only observable behaviors are worthy of research, according to John B. Watson

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radical behaviorism

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environment & genetics mold behavior internal states are caused by external events or genetics ex. BF Skinner strict (formerly "radical") behaviorists avoid making inferences about internal states. the ultimate cause of behavior is observable events

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Jacques Loeb

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argued that all animal and most human behavior could be explained with stimulus-response psychology ex. Flinching from a blow or shading one's eyes from strong light

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determinism

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all behavior has a cause and effect

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Ivan Pavlov

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Founder of Classical Conditioning famous experiment: dog associates sound of a bell with presentation of food physiologist; won Nobel Prize for research on digestion

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Unconditioned Stimulus

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evokes an unconditioned response without any prior conditioning no learning needed for the response to occur -it is when animals react to stimulus without training

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Unconditioned Response

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an unlearned reaction to an unconditioned stimulus that occurs without prior conditioning -it is an action that the unconditioned stimulus automatically brings out; you react

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Conditioned Stimulus

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previously neutral stimulus that has, through conditioning, acquired the capacity to evoke a conditioned response -it is a stimulus that we react to only after we learned about it

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Conditioned Response

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a learned reaction to a conditioned stimulus that occurs because of prior conditioning -you learned how to react to the stimulus

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Eye Blink Experiment

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The processes of classical conditioning: A rabbit is conditioned to blink its eye. A musical tone is repeatedly followed by a puff of air blown in its eye. After a few repetitions, the rabbit blinks when the tone sounds. (Acquisition) The tone is repeatedly played without the air puff. Gradually, the rabbit stops blinking. (Extinction)

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Acquisition

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the process that establishes or strengthens a conditioned repsonse

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Extinction

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elimination of a learned behavior by discontinuing the reinforcer of that behavior

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Spontaneous Recovery

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the temporary return of an extinguished response

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Stimulus Generalization

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a response to a specific stimulus becomes associated to other stimuli (similar stimuli) and now occurs to those other similar stimuli ex. child bitten by Black Lab later becomes afraid of all dogs

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Stimulus Discrimination

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learning to respond to one stimulus and not another ex. puppy initially responds to lots of different people, but learns to respond to only one or a few people's commands process of learning to respond differently to two stimuli because the produce two different outcomes

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Edward Thorndike

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Founder of the Law of Effect used a learning curve, a graph of the changes in behavior that occur over successive trials of an experiment used puzzle boxes to see how animals learn to escape the cage

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reinforcement

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an event that increases the future probability of the most recent response desirable item such as money or food, or removal of an unpleasant stimulus such as verbal nagging or physical pain

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punishment

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an event that decreases the future probability of a response removal or desirable condition such as driving privileges or presentation of an unpleasant condition such as physical pain

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Law of Effect

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states that behaviors that are followed by pleasant consequences will be strengthened, and will be more likely to occur in the future conversely, behaviors that are followed by unpleasant consequences will be weakened, and will be less likely to be repeated in the future describes operant conditioning ex. free throws

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4 Categories of Operant Conditioning

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1. Positive Reinforcement - increase in behavior, presentation of good thing 2. Positive Punishment - decrease in behavior, presentation of bad thing 3. Negative Punishment - decrease in behavior, decrease in good thing 4. Negative Reinforcement - increase in behavior, decrease in bad thing

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B. F. Skinner

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Founder of Operant Conditioning studied the behavior of animals-usually rats of pigeons-in chambers

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Skinner Box

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a.k.a operant chamber comes with a bar or key that an animal manipulates to obtain a reinforcer like food or water

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Shaping

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using reward or reinforcement to produce progressive changes in behavior in a desired direction; teaches animals/humans behaviors that they have never performed before

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Skinner's famous pigeon experiment

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Shaping Behavior would feed pigeon more every time it turned more to the right, until it completed a full circle

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Chaining Behavior

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operant conditioning method in which sequential behaviors are reinforced by opportunities to engage in the next one step by step

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Primary/Secondary reinforcers

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1. unconditioned, like food and water; meet biological needs 2. conditioned, like money, praise; can be exchanged for food and water

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Albert Bandura

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Founder of Observational Learning defined the social-learning approach, stating that we learn many behaviors before we attempt them for the first itme -more likely to imitate rewarding behaviors and less likely to imitate unpleasant behaviors modeling and imitation

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Bobo Doll Experiment

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children watch people and cartoons either attack the doll or not -children who saw aggressive behavior were more likely to imitate the behavior that they witnessed

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Conditioned Taste Aversion

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type of learning that occurs after a single trial

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Memory

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storage, retention and recall of events, information and procedures brain never loses anything forgetting = inability to recall or fail to store info

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Hermann Ebbinghaus

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Founder of memory studies studied his own ability to memorize new material invented/memorized over 2300 nonsense syllables studies show meaningful materials are easier to remember

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Von Restorff effect

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the tendency of people to remember unusual items better than more common items

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Recall (free recall)

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information must be produced with little to no hint provided (essay/short answer) simplest method for tester but most difficult for the person tested ex. Author of book without initials

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Retrieval Cues

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reminders or hints that help us to retrieve information from long-term memory bits of associated information that help you to regain complex memories

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Cued recall

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method that gives significant hints about the correct answer (fill in the blank) ex. Author with hint of initials

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recognition

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requires the person being tested to identify the correct item from a list of choices (multiple choice) ex. recognizes a mother's voice or face

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savings (relearning) method

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compares the speed that new material is learned to the speed of relearning of old material

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Explicit memory

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ability to retain info that you've put real effort into learning ex. recalling describing a basic principle of classical conditioning

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Implicit/indirect memory

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ability to remember info you did not deliberately try to learn, that you did not know exists

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Declarative memory

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ability to state a fact, info, names, dates, faces Fact memory. It stores why, how, when, where, what, who

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Procedural memory

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memory of how to do something Skills memory. Conditioned responses like writing, riding bike, typing. It's performing actions

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Semantic

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dealing with principles of knowledge mental dictionary; stores meanings of words

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Episodic

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containing events and details of life history Autobiography of thoughts, things that happened to us, retention of info about what happened to you, what you did on your birthday

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sensory memory

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first stage of memory processing combination of memory and perception last less than a second

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short term (working) memory

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limited capacity memory of info retained for 30 seconds ex. recall what was just said in class

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long term memory

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relatively permanent storage of mostly meaningful information (birth date, address, SSN, names)

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decay/capacities of short and long term memory

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information may be vulnerable to the effects of interference forgetting begins in seconds unless rehearsal is permitted most normal adults can immediately repeat a list of 7 bits of info (varies from 5 to 9)

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Chunking

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grouping or packing info into units, making info more manageable to remember

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1. encoding 2. storage 3. retrieval

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3 mental operations required for memory 1. transfer of info into your memory. put info in 2. holding info for later use. filing it away 3. recovering info from storage. finding it

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primacy and recency effects

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lists and serial-order effects -tendency to remember the beginning of the list -tendency to remember the items at the end of the list

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SPAR method

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best strategy for anyone who needs to learn a lot of material is to space out the sessions -study -wait -return and test yourself

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Mnemonic devices

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any memory aid that is based on encoding each item in a special way short, verbal strategies that improve, expand our ability to remember new info; use mental pictures, form unusual mental associations acronyms, strategies, tricks

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method of loci

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learn a list of places, then link each of these places to an item on a list of words or names

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reconstruction

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when remembering an event, you start with details you remember clearly, and fill in gaps based on surviving memories combined with expectations fade rapidly unless unusual (ex. meal that made you sick)

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interference

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memories block each other decay - memory is subject to combined effects of time and interference loss of retrieval cues, source amnesia

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proactive interference

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retaining old material makes it hard to recall new material

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retroactive interference

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learning new material makes it hard to recall old material

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hindsight bias

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tendency to mold our recollection of the past to how events later turned out

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flashbulb memory

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long lasting deep memories in response to traumatic events ex. where were you when 9/11 happened

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false memory

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a report that an individual believes to be a memory but actually never occurred; memories may or may not be reliable

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repressed memory

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memory of a traumatic event that is made unavailable for recall

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amnesia

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severe loss or deterioration of memory; caused by brain damage or a traumatic event

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anterograde amnesia

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disorder that results in the loss of memory after an injury; unable to store any new memories

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retrograde amnesia

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disorder that results in the loss of memory prior to an injury; could not remember many events that occurred between 1 and 3 years before surgery

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Korsakoff's Syndrome

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degenerative memory disorder caused by chronic alcoholism and vitamin deficiency symptoms: amnesia, confabulation, lack of insight treatment: vitamin B injections, proper nutrition, hydration Amnesia after Brain Damage: frontal lobe damage as a result of stroke, head trauma or...

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confabulation

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wild guessing mixed in with correct information in an effort to hide memory gaps patients have pre-frontal cortex damage in brain

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Dementia

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condition of a slow decline in memory, problem solving ability, learning ability and judgement

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Alzheimer's Disease

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most common cause of dementia -degenerative brain disease where the brain starts wearing down Symptoms: repeating questions, forgetting how to do simple tasks, forgetting who you are and where you are

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cognition

answer

thinking, acquiring, and managing knowledge

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attention

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the tendency to respond selectively to stimuli -a feature or object that is unusual or different will get your attention quickly, while one that is surrounded by similar objects will require a long and patient search

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preattentive process

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a procedure for extracting information automatically finding an unusual feature or figure

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attentive process

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a procedure that considers only one part of the visual field at a time finding a typical feature or figure

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shifting attention

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during a brief time perceiving one stimulus, it is difficult to attend to something else attentional blink ex. video games, flying airplane, operating complex machinery

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Stroop Test

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psychological test of our mental (attentional) vitality and flexibility directed attention - cognitive mechanism involved difficult to name colors in which words are written, instead of reading the words themselves

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change blindness

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common failure where people believe they remember everything in a scene they have recently scanned, but fail to detect changes in parts of a scene upon viewing it again related to sensory memory

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Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

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characterized by easy distraction, impulsiveness, moodiness, and inability to follow through on plans +noticeable fidgeting 3 to 10% of all children; 70% are boys

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categorization

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formation of concepts/_____ is one of the primary ways that we organize info about the world

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prototype

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familiar example of a typical category member we decide if an object belongs in a category by assessing how well it resembles the typical members of the category ex. Rose - flower

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conceptual networks and priming

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-difficult to think about something "by itself" -hierarchy in mind of categories and subcategories -simplifies the process of clarifying -upper = broad, lower = distinct

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spreading activism

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when you hear about one concept, the other concepts you associate with it are also primed or activated car -> drive, road

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-understanding and simplifying the problem -generating hypotheses -testing the hypotheses -checking the result

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4 phases of problem solving

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algorithm

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a mechanical, repetitive, step-by-step procedure for arriving at the solution to a problem exhaust all possibilities used by computers

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problem-solving procedure

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a logical step-by-step procedure for solving a mathematical problem in a finite number of steps, often involving repetition of the same basic operation

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heuristics

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strategies for simplifying a problem or guiding an investigation allow us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently less time consuming, but more error prone because they are based on informal methods or experience

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Maximize

answer

considering every possibility to identify the best choice (uses algorithms)

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Satisfy

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to stop at a good-enough choice (uses heuristics)

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Insight

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sudden novel realization of a solution to a problem used in cases where we have no idea whether or not we would be able to solve the problem solutions arrived at suddenly

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metacognition

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refers to thinking about thinking the clarity and knowledge it provides justifies the effort involved ex. reflecting on why you are nervous

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Representativeness Heuristic

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judging the likelihood of things or objects in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, a particular prototype

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Availability Heuristic

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using remembered examples of an event to assess how common the event is ex. air travel is more dangerous than car travel because of more news about airplane crashes

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overconfidence

answer

tendency to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments (usually for answers to difficult questions) increased by intuitive heuristics, confirmation of beliefs, and inclination to explain failures

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functional fixedness

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tendency to adhere to a single approach to a problem or a single way to use an item special case of premature commitment example of fixation

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fixation

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an inability to see a problem from afresh perspective impedes problem solving

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framing effect

answer

the tendency to answer a question differently when it is phrased differently ex. 25% fat or 75% lean?

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Belief Perseverance Phenomenon

answer

the tendency to cling to our beliefs in the face of contrary evidence if a country is hostile, you are likely to interpret their ambiguous actions as a sign of hostility

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sunk cost effect

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the tendency to do something that we'd otherwise choose not to do, just because we spent the money to d it

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Language

answer

animal: comprised of prepacked messages human: communicate a deep structure, the intended meaning of the words Noam Chomsky - transformational grammar

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Broca's Aphasia/area

answer

difficulties in language production vital for using an understanding grammatical devices - prepositions, conjunctions, prefixes, suffixes, etc.

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Wernicke's Aphasia/area

answer

difficulty in recalling names of objects and impaired comprehension of language important for naming objects and comprehending language

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Jargon (babbling with speech inflections)

answer

1 year old language development

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Phonemes

answer

units of sound - single letters or combinations of letters

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Morphemes

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units of meaning - usually syllables or words

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fixations

answer

periods when your eyes are stationary

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saccades

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quick eye movements that take your gaze from one fixation point to another you are virtually blind during this

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Speedreaders

answer

people who have briefer fixations and backtrack less frequently than do average adult readers

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