Gen Psych Reviewer #2

Good luck with the test yall

(づⴲ□ⴲ)づ
Learning
• Acquiring information
• Any relatively permanent change in behaviour brought about by
experience/practice
• Part of one’s brain is physically changed to record whatever is learned
• A change in behaviour
•
Classical Conditioning
• Ivan Pavlov: Discovered Classical Conditioning in his Dog Digestion
experiment
• Basically learning to make a reflex response to a stimulus other than
the original and natural stimulus that normally produces said reflex
Classical Conditioning terms
• Unconditioned Stimulus: Natural stimulus leading to involuntary response
• Unconditioned response: Not needed to be learned, as it just happens
• Conditioned Stimulus: A stimulus that becomes able to produce a learned
reflex by being paired with the original unconditioned stimulus, is learned
• Neutral Stimulus: A stimulus that may become a conditioned stimulus
when paired with an unconditioned stimulus
• Conditioned response: Learned response that happens in response to
conditioned stimulus
An Example
• Loud Noise (UCS) Leads to Startle (UCR)
• An object (Initially NS) is seen/occurs seconds before a Loud Noise
(UCS) that Leads to Startle (UCR)
• When done enough times, the middle man (Loud Noise (UCS)) may
be removed
• The object (now CS) now leads to Startle (UCR)
Terms Part 2
• Stimulus Generalization: A response to a stimulus being similar to the
original conditioned response with the conditioned response
• Discrimination: Tendency to stop making a general response to a stimulus
similar to the original conditioned response, because the stimulus response
is never paired with the unconditioned stimulus
• Extinction: Disappearance or weakening of a learned response following
the removal/absence of unconditioned stimulus
• Spontaneous Recovery: The reappearance of a learned response after the
extinction has occurred
• Higher-order Conditioning: A strong conditioned response paired with a
neutral stimulus, making said NS also a 2nd conditioned response
Conditioned Emotional Response
• An emotional response classically conditioned to occur to learned
stimuli, such as phobias and crushes
• Stimulus Substitution: The original theory by Pavlov, where a
conditioned stimulus becomes a substitute for the unconditioned
stimulus by pairing the two together
According to the Cognitive Perspective
• Modern theory
• Classical conditioning is seen to occur, the conditioned stimulus gives
information and expectancy of the unconditioned stimulus’s coming
Operant conditioning
• Thorndike’s law of effect: If a response is followed by a pleasurable
consequence, it will be repeated. But if it is followed by an unpleasant
consequence, it will NOT be repeated.

• The name was suggested by B. F. Skinner, who claimed that any

behaviour is voluntary, and learning depends on what happens after
the response (the consequence)
• The learning of voluntary behaviour through the effects of
(un)pleasant consequences to responses
Operant Conditioning’s components
• Reinforcements: Any event or stimulus, that when following response,
increases/decreases possibility of it ever occurring again
• Primary Reinforcement: Naturally reinforced (hunger, thirst, touch)
• Secondary Reinforcement: Paired with a primary reinforcement (praise,
tokens, the highly-coveted gold stars)
• +RF: Adds a pleasurable stimulus
• -RF: Removes pain, unpleasantries, kebabs
• Shaping: Reinforcement of simple steps in behaviour that lead to a more
desired and complex behaviour
• Successive approximations: Small steps in behaviour, one after the other,
that lead to a particular goal/behaviour/both
• Schedules of reinforcement: lol tf is dis
The Fixed/Variable and Interval/Ratio
difference
• A schedule of reinforcement in which…
• Fixed Ratio: the number of required responses per reinforcement is
always the same
• Fixed Interval: the interval of time passed in each reinforcement is
always the same
• Variable Ratio: the number of required responses per reinforcement
varies
• Variable Interval: the interval of time passed in each reinforcement
varies
• Extinction: Occurs if behaviour/response isn’t reinforced
• Operantly conditioned responses can be generalized
• Continued Reinforcement: The reinforcement of “correct” responses
• Partial Reinforcement: If the behaviour is reinforced after some
“correct” responses, but not all, preventing extinction from
happening
Punishment (In the case of operant
conditioning)
• Follows a response and makes said response less likely to happen
again
• +Punishment: Adds a negative stimulus (Ex. An ass-whooping)
• -Punishment: Removes a positive stimulus (Ex. Taking away your
crotch-goblin’s phone)
Punishment’s Ineffectivity
• Severe punishment may cause the avoidance of the punisher rather
than the punished behaviour
• May encourage lying
• Creates fear and anxiety
How to make it effective
• Immediately have the punishment follow whatever behaviour it’s
meant to punish
• Be consistent with the punishment
• Pair the punishment with the reinforcement of the “correct”
behaviour
Observational Learning
• Can be likened to (radical) behaviourism: Environmental change
(stimulus) and person
• Leaning new behaviour when watching a model perform the
behaviour
• Learning/Performance distinction: Learning can happen without
performing the behaviour (Example given: The Bobo doll experiment)
Observational Learning’s 4 Elements
• Attention: Pay attention to the model
• Memory: Retain information
• Imitation: Capability of one to reproduce/imitate model’s activities
• Motivation: One’s desire to perform activities

• When all elements are fulfilled, one would add and subtract to the
activity until it merely becomes an action, and not an imitation
Memory
• The active system receiving information from senses, then organizes,
alters, stores, and retrieves it
• Encoding: A set of mental operations that makes information usable
in the brain’s storage systems
• Storage: Holding on to the information for some time
• Retrieval: Getting information in storage, and turning it into
something usable
 The Model presented in class
Encoding
Maintenance
Rehearsal
External Sensory Events

Consolidation
Selective
Sensory Memory Attention Short-term Memory Long-term Memory

Retrieval

Unrehearsed
All information Information
information lost in
within a second retained indefinitely,
15-30 seconds
although may be
hard to retrieve for
some
Sensory Memory
• First stage, when information goes to the nervous system via the senses
• Iconic Memory: Visual memory that lasts around a second
• IM Capacity: All that can be seen at a time
• IM Duration: Information is quickly pushed out by new information; this process
is called “Masking”
• Eidetic Imagery: The rare ability to remember the visual/iconic memory for 30
seconds or more

• Echoic Memory: Auditory memory that lasts around a second

• EM Capacity: Limited to what can be heard at a moment, is actually smaller than
iconic memory
• EM Duration: 2-4 seconds
Short-term Memory
• The memory system in which information is held for the brief time periods it is being used
• Is encoded in auditory, making it susceptible to interference
• Selective attention: The ability to focus only on ONE stimulus from sensory input

• Working memory: The active system processing the information present in STM, coordinates,
interprets, and manipulates the information
• Can hold information for like 15-30 seconds
• Auditory and Visual Memory: Like an audio recorder and visual sketchpad respectively

• Maintenance Rehearsal: Repeating information to be remembered in one’s head in order to

maintain it in short-term memory
• Chunking: Information combined into chunks so that more information can be stored (Think of
compressed zip files)
Long Term Memory
• The system of memory where information is placed to be kept more
or less permantently
• Consolidation: Making memories permanent
• Elaborative Rehearsal: Short to long term memory transfer making
the information into something meaningful
• Organization and Retrieval: Organized in terms of related meanings
and concepts
• Semantic Network Model: Model of memory organization that
assures information is stored in the brain in a connected fashion
Procedural/nondeclarative LTM
• Skills, procedures, habits, conditioned response, muscle memory
• Unconscious, but definitely exist as they affect conscious behaviour
• Implicit memory
• Stored in the Cerebellum
• Basically a person on autopilot, as they are things people SHOULD
know how to do
Declarative LTM
• Contains information that’s conscious and known
• Semantic: General knowledge and formal education
• Episodic: Personal information not readily available, events that are
experienced
• (Both of the former 2 are explicit)
More related concepts
• Retrieval cues: Stimulus for remembering
• Recall: To recall is to pull something from memory with very few retrieval cues
(One needs a dense and interconnected semantic memory to do this)
• Retrieval failure: Recall fails (at least temporarily) Can be associated with the tip-
of-the-tongue phenomenon
• Recognition: Matching a piece of information (external cue) to a stored image or
fact
• False Positive: An error in recognition where people think they recognize a
stimulus that is NOT in their memory
• Serial Position Effect: Tendency of information at the beginning and end to be the
more accurately remembered parts
• Encoding Specificity: Tendency to retrieve information better with external cues
mimicking the state one was in when one originally received the information