Learning and Memory

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