Learning
A change in an organism's behavior or thought as a result of experience.
Habituation
The process of responding less strongly over time to repeated
Ivan Pavlov
A physiologist interesting in digestive functioning
Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)
A stimulus that elicits an automatic response
Unconditioned Response (UCR)
A stimulus that elicits an automatic response
Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
A neutral stimulus that comes to elicit a response after it is paired with UCS several times (ASSOCIATION)
Conditioned Response (CR)
A response previously associated with the UCS that is now elicited by the CS through conditioning
Acquisitions
The learning phase during which a conditioned response is gradually established
Extinction
If the CS is presented many times without the presence of the UCS, the CR eventually goes away
Spontaneous recovery
An extinguished CR suddenly reappears when the CS is presented
Renewal effect
This occurs when a CR that was extinguished in one setting occurs again when the CS happens in the original setting
Stimulus Generalization
If an organism learns to generate a CR in response to a CS, they may generate a weaker CR to stimuli similar to the CS
Stimulus discrimination
Learning to respond differently to stimuli different from the
Higher-order conditioning
This is where we add a second CS using the first CS a bit like the UCS
Thorndike's Law of Effect
Power of stimulus (S) to evoke a response (R) is strengthened when the response is followed by a reward and weakened when it is not followed by a reward
Reinforcer
Any stimulus that, when made contingent on a behavior, increased the probability of the behavior overtime
Reinforcement
The delivery of a reinforcer following a response
Positive Reinforcement
Following a behavior, a pleasant stimulus is added
Negative Reinforcement
Following a behavior, an aversive stimulus is removed
Punisher
Any stimulus that, when made contingent on a behavior , decreases the probability of that behavior over time
Punishment
delivery of a punisher following a response
Positive punishment
Following a behavior, an aversive stimulus is added
Negative punishment
Following a behavior, a pleasant stimulus is removed
Extinction burst
Can occur when you are trying to eliminate behavior
Continuous schedule
reinforced EVERY TIME behavior occurs
Partial schedule
reinforced only a portion of the time
Latent Learning
learning that is not directly observable
Memory
The retention of info over time
Paradox of memory
the same mechanism that make memory good can cause problems at other times
Memory illusion
a false, but compelling memory
Span
how much a system can hold
Duration
How long the system can hold info
Sensory memory
Information that is gathered by the senses
Proactive interference
Old info interferes with new info
Retro interference
New info interferes with old info
Chunking
organizing the material into meaning units to increase the span of STM
Maintenance
Just repeating the info
Elaborative rehearsal
Associating new info with material that is already stored
Primacy effect
tendency to better remember things that came early
Recency effect
tendency to better remember things that came towards the end
Von Restorff effect
tendency to remember things that stand out are distinctive
Semantic memory
knowledge of facts about the world
Episodic memory
our personally experienced events
Implicit Memory
memories we don't deliberately reflect on consciously
Procedural memory
memory for motor skills or habits
Encoding
extracting the important parts and formatting them into a form our memory can use
Method of loci
relies on imagery of places
Keyword Method:
Relate the concept you are trying to remember with a word that you already know
Acronyms
a series of letters that stand for a number of items you need to remember
Storage
is the process of keeping something in your memory once it is encoded there
Schemas
are organized structures of knowledge (mental models) that we have stored in our memory
Retrograde amnesia
when we lose memories of our past
Anterograde amnesia
when we lose the ability to create new memories
Flashbulb memories
emotional memories that seem so vivid that you can recall them in remarkable detail