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Introspectionism

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Describing your own thoughts and consciousness/watching your own thought process, finding the irreducible elements of consciousness.

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Behaviorism

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Argued that a psychological theory must be observable, simple, and break behavior down into irreducible concepts

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Unconditioned stimulus

answer

A natural stimulus that has not been purposely introduced to the subject and produces a natural response. Example: the meat powder in Pavlov's Dog Experiment

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Unconditioned response

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A natural response. Example: salivation in Pavlov's Dog Experiment

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Conditioned stimulus

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A stimulus that has little importance to the organism on its own, but it is now paired with something psychologically important. Example: bell in Pavlov's Dog Experiment

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Conditioned Response

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Almost always the same as the unconditioned response, although it is conditional on (depends on) being paired with the conditional stimulus. Example: salivation after being introduced to bell in Pavlov's Dog Experiment

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Belongingness

answer

The stronger association between certain conditioned stimulus and learning (i.e. taste and nausea)

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Stimulus Response Theory (S-R theory)

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The CS/US enters the internal thoughts (abstract) and forms the association with the US, which evokes a response

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Stimulus Substitution Theory (S-S theory)

answer

Key prediction: the relationship is between the conditional stimulus and the conditioned response (i.e. bell and salivation); not super effective

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High Ordering Conditioning

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Supported by the SR model. If a CS and CR are paired and a second CS is introduced, the CR will be produced in response to the second CS.

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Classical Conditioning

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Presence of one stimulus is conditional on another stimulus

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Operant conditioning

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Type of conditioning - a behavior has consequences that affects how the subject behaves in the future

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Edward Thorndike

answer

This man created the experiment with the cat trapped in a box; operant conditioning - if it steps on a lever, it is freed from the box

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Thorndike's Law of Effect

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If response in the presence of a stimulus is followed by a reward, the association is strengthened in that environment. But if it is followed by a punishment, the association is weakened.

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Thorndike

answer

A highly laborious and ineffective method introduced by this man; involved long observation periods waiting for the subject to exhibit the desired behavior

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Free Operant Curve

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This allowed experimenter to just leave the experiment and study operant conditioning easily (a pen recorded behaviors like a pigeon pecking a key)

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Shaping

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Watching what the subject does and setting increasing expectations until your final goal is achieved

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Fixed ratio

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A consistent ratio of number of responses : number of reinforcers. Easy to extinguish.

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Steady

answer

Fixed ratio yields a ____________ response (steady vs. unsteady)

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Variable ratio

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Set ratio of number of responses : number of reinforcers, but it can vary locally; difficult to extinguish. Subject is more motivated

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Gambling

answer

A real world application of variable ratio; gets a subject to relentlessly try and achieve reinforcement via scheduling

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Fixed Interval

answer

First response after a specific amount of time after reinforcement is rewarded (i.e. after 10 seconds, if you respond, you will be reinforced). Predictable and easy to extinguish.

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Fixed interval

answer

(Schedule of reinforcement) Curve spikes as responses increase rapidly right before moment of reinforcement

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Variable Interval

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(Schedule of reinforcement) First response after a certain amount of time is reinforced, but the amount of time varies locally. Harder to extinguish because it is less predictable

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Variable Interval

answer

(Schedule of reinforcement) the amount of responses does not matter, just the time (not worth it for the subject to perform the task rapidly, since it wastes energy); subject does not know exactly when reinforcement will come

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Differential Reinforcement

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Reward that is introduced only in a specific condition with a specific stimulus (i.e. pressing the lever only when a red light appears)

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Differential reinforcement

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Operant conditioning would be ambiguous and less effective without this key element, which defines the conditions for reward

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Classical Conditioning

answer

Learning to associate a given stimulus with some event

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Operant Conditioning

answer

Learning to associate a behavior with some event

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Differential sign

answer

Example: a can opener, which leads a cat to start running to the kitchen for food

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Positive reinforcement

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A reward added to the environment (i.e. food)

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Negative reinforcement

answer

Something taken away from an environment as a reward (i.e. escape)

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Positive Punishment

answer

Something added to an environment as a punishment (i.e. spanking)

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Negative punishment

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Something taken away from an environment as a punishment (i.e. being grounded)

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Temporal Contingency

answer

The time between the reinforcement action and the delivery of the reward; if a longer delay occurs, the strength of learning is decreased

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Instinctive drift

answer

Something the subject does that drifts into the instinctive stream and makes it harder to train (i.e. instead of dropping a coin in the bank, the raccoon would wash the coin) - always a potential problem

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Variable

answer

in _______ ratio/interval scheduling, it is harder to train subjects because the schedule is not given to the subject

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Reinforcer

answer

There is a problem with defining this term, because it is not known what defines a reward

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Physiological homeostasis

answer

Based on biological drives - animal seeks to lessen thirst, hunger, etc. BUT, too many drives are proposed, so subjects often do things that are likely to raise drives instead of lower them, making this a problem

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Free behavior

answer

Allowing the subject to do whatever they want

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Contingency

answer

Must do x in order to get y (one activity becomes work for the other)

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Operant Conditioning

answer

Edward Thorndike and BF Skinner were both developers of this form of learning

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Skinner box

answer

Rat naturally explores its environment (a cage), then accidentally presses a lever. Food drops into the cage. The rat then learns to press the lever in order to receive food.

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Operant behavior

answer

The action that the subject itself makes - determinant/"operates" on the environment

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Classical

answer

In this form of conditioning, the response is elicited by a preceding stimulus

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Operant

answer

In this form of conditioning, the response is not elicited by any particular stimulus - they are voluntarily emitted

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System

answer

The CS in classical conditioning elicits a whole ____________ of responses as the body prepares for what it anticipates

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Taste aversion conditioning

answer

If a subject falls ill after consuming a certain food, they are likely to be repulsed/nauseated by that same food in the future

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Fear conditioning

answer

People associate cues (like closed spaces) with panic or other emotional trauma - the CS triggers an emotion

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Conditioned compensatory responses

answer

Ex. when a drug is taken and is associated with certain cues (like smells), whenever the person receives the same cue, physical/emotional responses can result that "compensate" for the effects (making more sensitive to pain, etc.)

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Blocking

answer

Subject learns to associate one CS with a US, but when multiple stimuli are introduced, the subject fails to learn the new stimuli

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Prediction error

answer

Chance that the conditioned stimulus will not lead to the expected outcome

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Preparedness

answer

Evolutionary sorting tendency where animals are naturally inclined to associate a certain CS and US together (also called belongingness)

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Spontaneous recovery

answer

After some time in which the CS extinction occurs, if you are re-exposed to it, it can evoke the CR again

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Renewal Effect

answer

If the CS is tested in a new context, the CR can also return

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Inhibits

answer

Extinction _______ but does not erase the learned behavior

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Discriminative Stimulus

answer

What controls the operant behavior - does not elicit the response, but instead sets the occasion for the behavior (i.e. putting a piano in front of someone does not necessarily always elicit the desire to play)

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Quantitative Law of Effect

answer

The effects of reinforcement depend on the amount of reinforcement earned in comparison to the other alternatives

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Reinforcer devaluation effect

answer

The subect remembers the reinforcers associated with each response and can combine the knowledge with preexisting knowledge that one reinforcer is bad (i.e. rat chooses candy over regular food, but then is made sick by that candy and chooses NOT to choose it later on)

question

Goal-directed

answer

Behavior that is influenced by the value of its associated goal (can also become a habit - an automatic response no longer sensitive to devaluation)

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Observational learning

answer

Subject observes other animals/people behaving a certain way in an environment and can learn from observing

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Social Learning Theory

answer

Individuals can learn novel responses via observation of others' behaviors

question

Social models

answer

The presence of others, usually of higher status

question

Critical period

answer

Time when the animal can learn particular info rapidly; but if that time period is missed, the animal has more difficulty learning (i.e. learning languages when young)

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Fixed action pattern

answer

Complex behavior that emerges with little opportunity for reward; innate, unlearned behavior (i.e. mating displays or an eyebrow flick)

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Noam Chomsky

answer

Proposed the idea that behaviorism did not account for the fact that language is generative - whatever you say and hear is novel; behaviorism cannot predict why you would do something you've never done before (so, language is biological, not reinforced)

question

Abstract constructs

answer

A theoretical set of processes and representations

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Logic Theorist

answer

Newell & Simon's ___________________ contained axioms, theorems, and combinations and made a program solve a new statement's proof

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Mind

answer

Creates/controls mental functions, including perception, attention, memory, emotions, language, deciding, thinking, and reasoning --> these are mental processes part of cognition

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Mind

answer

A system that creates representations of the world so that we can act within it

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Franciscus Donders

answer

Measured how long it took to make a decision by comparing choice reaction time and simple reaction time

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Simple reaction time

answer

Time it takes to respond to a stimulus

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Choice reaction time

answer

Time taken to get a specific response based on the stimulus (subject makes a choice)

question

Mental response

answer

Your brain's reaction (i.e. perception) to the stimulus

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Behavioral response

answer

The behavior exhibited after mental processing and reaction time

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Franciscus Donders

answer

Experiment by this man was one of the first cognitive psychology experiments and showed that mental responses (i.e. perception and decision-making) could only be inferred, not measured directly

question

Wilhelm Wundt

answer

Founded the first scientific psychology laboratory and introduced structuralism

question

Structuralism

answer

Created by Wundt - experience is determined by combining basic elements of experience called "sensations"

question

Analytic introspection

answer

Trained subjects described experiences and thought processes in response to stimuli

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Hermann Ebbinghaus

answer

This man created an experiment studying the nature of how rapidly learned information is lost over time -- used a quantitative method to measure memory (vs. analytic introspectionism) and determined how long it took to relearn list after time passed

question

Savings

answer

Determine how much was forgotten after a delay - (original time) - (relearning time)

question

Forgetting

answer

A reduction in savings was a measure of ___________

question

Savings Curve

answer

Created by Ebbinghaus. Memory drops rapidly after first 2 days, then levels off. This shows that memory could be quantified; determined that forgetting happens quickly

question

William James

answer

Observations based on his own mind's operation - not experimental results (resulted in a wide range of descriptions/results); created the first psych textbook

question

Attention

answer

Implies "withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others"

question

Information-processing approach

answer

Traces sequences of mental operations in cognition; describes the operation of the mind in separate stages

question

Broadbent's Filter Model

answer

This concept allowed people to analyze the mind in terms of a sequence of processing stages; proposed a model to be used in future experiments

question

Colin Cherry

answer

In this man's experiment, subjects were presented with two auditory messages and told to focus on one (attended message) and not the other (unattended); result was that subjects were not aware of the contents of the unattended message. Led to the first flow diagram of the mind.

question

Artificial intelligence

answer

Making a machine behave in intelligent ways mimicking human abilities

question

Dartmouth

answer

The school accredited with the creation of the logic theorist, which was presented in a 1956 conference

question

George Miller

answer

Author of the paper, "The Magical number Seven Plus or Minus Two", which stated that there was a limit of about seven items to human info processing - presented at MIT conference

question

Edward Tolman

answer

This man used behavior to infer mental processes through his experiment - rat learning to navigate a maze, then having a restricted sense of smell and still being able to find the food

question

Cognitive map

answer

A mental conception of one's surroundings - behaviorism could not account for this, and cognition violated the behaviorist belief that mental processes were off-limits

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Ulrich Neisser

answer

This man created the first cog psyc textbook and emphasized information-processing

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Choking

answer

Performing more poorly when pressured to perform well (Sian Beilock)

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Working memory

answer

Holding info as it is being manipulated

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High working memory (HWM)

answer

A group of subjects with ________ tended to have more accurate calculations of math problems, but under pressure, their accuracy dropped tremendously as they switched to a shortcut method

question

Structural model

answer

Purpose: to simplify details about a complex structures. A model representing structures involved in specific functions and demonstrates the connections between several structures or representations.

question

Process model

answer

A model illustrating how a given process works. Makes complicated systems easier to understand, providing starting point for research - often become more detailed as researchers study individual components

question

Sensory memory

answer

Holds incoming information for a fraction of a second

question

Short term memory

answer

Most sensory memories ends up here; limited capacity and holds info for a few seconds

question

Long term memory

answer

High-capacity, holds information for a long time

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Procedural memory

answer

Memory for physical actions

question

Episodic memory

answer

Memory for events in your life

question

Semantic memory

answer

Memory for facts

question

Testable

answer

Problem with abstract constructs: you could have several different theories account for the same outcome, but these theories were not __________ because of too much freedom/too many possibilities.

question

Representation

answer

A symbol that can bear an an obvious relationship to what it represents

question

Neural constraints

answer

A solution to limit theories by constraining them to how well we seem to know the brain

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Evolutionary constraints

answer

Constraining theories to what seems to align more w/ what we know about evolution

question

Efficiency

answer

Limiting theories to the time taken to complete a task - i.e. what theory produces the behavior the quickest? (i.e. this favors the STM representation model)

question

Sternberg Task

answer

In this task, subjects are given a set of letters to remember before a stimulus appears; they must determine whether or not the given stimulus was included in the set

question

Serial self-terminating

answer

Set in memory is searched one at a time and ends when the target object is found; if not, it goes through the entire list

question

Serial exhaustive

answer

The entire contents of a set are searched for one object, even if it is found

question

Parallel

answer

Searching of a set in which all contents of memory are evaluated simultaneously

question

Serial exhaustive

answer

Sternberg's Task's data aligned most with the model for ________________________ searching

question

Size

answer

Problem with the Sternberg Task: all three models assumed that the __________ of the set did not matter - they both take the same time; our intuition tells us that this does not make sense - it should be harder for us to recall in bigger sets

question

Descriptive

answer

A type of research in which the world is described as you see it (naturalistic observation)

question

Relational

answer

a type of research in which two things are observed and a relation is established between the two

question

Experimental

answer

A type of research that allows you to make a claim about causality, due to the manipulation of some aspect

question

Correlational

answer

Also known as relational; this is the type of study conducted whenever research involves age, gender, race, etc.

question

Brain damaged

answer

One method of psychological data collection - study a _____________ patient and try to determine the problem/location of damage

question

Brain intact

answer

Another method of psychological data collect - study a ___________________ patient and use MRIs or PETs while the patient does a cognitive task

question

Clean

answer

A type of patient in which there is one significant cognitive issue, but the rest of the processes tend to be fully functional

question

Subtraction Technique

answer

The technique used in brain imaging in which baseline activity is subtracted from the activity generated by a specific task. The result is the activity due only to the task that is being studied.

question

Neural networks

answer

Groups of neurons or structures that are connected together

question

Cognitive architecture

answer

A theory that summarizes the various results of cognitive psychology in a comprehensive computer model.

question

Localization of function

answer

Knowing which part of the brain is active during a specific task. This also brings up the problem of how this helps test or introduce cognitive models of thought.

question

Cognitive Architecture

answer

Creates a distinction between concepts and helps find a sense of what the big pieces of a theory are

question

Dehaene

answer

This man's work split up the brain and found several parts of the brain to help determine what the big pieces of a theory were - emphasized complexity

question

Dyslexia

answer

An example for "unity where there could be diversity" - one may assume that this condition may be different depending on the language/location, but it turns out that different symptoms are actually just manifestations of this one disease.

question

Naturalistic Observation

answer

Watching a subject naturally perform a given task to gain information; has the advantage of being "real" but also has a lack of control

question

Case studies

answer

Finding an unusual subject and studying them in detail - has the ability to gain richer insights, but also does not have much control and may not be a great representation of the general population

question

Straight

answer

Cells respond mostly to _________________ lines

question

Informs

answer

The brain ____________ cognitive theory; we know enough about the brain to collect discriminatory data and determine accuracy of any given theory

question

Narrow

answer

Not all abstract constructs are created equal, because some (i.e. parallel parking module) are foolish and _________________________

question

Occipital lobe

answer

Where the visual cortex is located - processes visual signals

question

Auditory cortex

answer

Receives signals from ears; responsible for hearing - in the upper temporal lobe

question

Somatensory cortex

answer

Located in the parietal lobe, receives signals about touch

question

Frontal lobe

answer

Part of the brain that controls higher processes and receives signals from all senses (i.e. thinking, problem solving)

question

Cerebral cortex

answer

The thick layer of tissue covering the brain - place where most cognitive functions are served

question

Localization of function

answer

Specific areas of the brain specialize in specific functions

question

Broca's area

answer

Area of the left frontal lobe, specialized for speech (production of language)

question

Wermicke's Area

answer

Area of temporal lobe that controls speech (language of comprehension)

question

Prosopagnosia

answer

Damage to lower left of temporal lobe - an inability to recognize faces

question

Double dissociation

answer

Occurs if damage to one brain area = function A absent and function B present and damage to another area = function B absent and function A present (used to help determine functions of a particular area)

question

Brain imaging

answer

Supports the belief that visual stimuli can be represented by firing of groups of neurons - helps determine which brain areas are activated by different cognitions

question

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

answer

Makes it possible to create images of structures within brain -- helps detect tumors and brain abnormalities, but does NOT indicate neural activity

question

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

answer

A type of brain imaging that makes it possible to determine how various types of cognition activate different areas of the brain by measuring hemoglobin's magneticism

question

Voxels

answer

Cube-shaped, small areas of the brain (a visual unit of analysis created by an fMRI scanner); kinda like pixels on photographs, but cubes since this is 3D

question

Fusiform Face Area (FFA)

answer

An area of the brain activated by faces, located in the fusiform gyrus on the underside of temporal lobe

question

Parahippocampal Place Area (PPA)

answer

Contains information about spatial layout and is activated by perception of indoor/outdoor scenes

question

Extrastriate Body Area (EBA)

answer

Activated by bodies/body parts - but not faces

question

Distributed representations

answer

Specific cognitive functions activate many parts of the brain. Complements localization (i.e. localized face perception - FFA is strongly activated but that doesn't mean it is the ONLY part activated)

question

Impoverished

answer

A lot of input that does not necessarily convey much information

question

Low-level vision

answer

A type of vision that deals with basic properties, such as shape or color - less information, but more useful

question

High-level vision

answer

Taking the output of low-level processes and transforming it to get useful information

question

Edge

answer

A sudden discontinuity in an image that corresponds to object boundaries; by mapping these out, you can identify objects (this is invariant to lighting conditions)

question

Texture

answer

You can use edges to determine ________________ by assessing edges at different scales (i.e. neighboring vs. every three columns); some scales yield more edges than others

question

Pattern recognition

answer

Study of how people recognize objects in their environment

question

Hubel & Wiesel

answer

Two people who experimented on the brain of a cat and determined that the brain best recognizes lines

question

Templates

answer

Holistic, unanalyzed entities compared w/ other patterns to measure their overlap; was a way of proposing what must happen in the brain to recognize an object

PSYC 2150 First Midterm Review – Lecture Notes – Flashcards

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