psych midterm 4
Terms
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copy deck
- How do we learn?
- by association, our minds naturally connect events that occur in sequence
- association is a fundamental form of what?
- prediction
- what is stimulus-stimulus learning?
- learning to associate one stimulus with another.
- classical conditioning is what type of learning?
- stimulus-stimulus learning
- what is an example of stimulus-stimulus learning?
- lightning and thunder, we see lightning and assume thunder will follow
- what is response-consequence learning?
- learning to associate a response with a consequence
- operant conditioning is what type of learning?
- response-consequence learning
- what is an example of response-consequence learning?
- a seal balancing a ball(response) and receiving food (consequence), behavior strengthened
- What is US
- unconditioned stimulus (food in the Pavlov study)
- what is UR
- unconditioned response (salivation)
- What took place during conditioning?
- the neutral stimulus (tone) and the U.S. (food) are paired, resulting in U.R. (saliva)
- What happened after conditioning?
- the neutral stimulus (now a conditional stimulus) elicits salivation (now a conditioned response)
- What is C.S.
- conditioned stimulus (tone)
- what is C.R.
- conditioned response, saliva after conditioning
- Why does conditioned responding develop?
- acquisition
- What is acquisition
- learning to associate one stimulus with another during the conditioning stage, C.S. functions as a signal that the U.S. is about to occur
- When is the C.S. the most effective as a signal for the U.S.
-
1)when the C.S. comes first
2)When the U.S. follows closely behind the C.s. (about 1/2 second after)
3)C.S. uniquely predicts the U.S. - What is blocking?
- When one stimulus already signals the U.S. and a new stimulus is added to also signals the same U.S. so the new one doesnt work
- What is second order conditioning?
- a procedure in which an established C.S. is used to condition a second neutral stimulus
- What is stimulus generalization?
- responding to a stimulus similar to the C.S.
- How did Little Albert so stimulus generalization
- he was conditioned to fear white rats, the fear extended to rabbits and fur coats also.
- What is extinction
- when the CS no longer signals the US
- When does extinction occur?
- when the U.S. no longer follows the C.S., the C.R. begins to decrease and is eventually eliminated
- What is spontaneous recovery?
- after a rest period, an extinguished C.R. can return
- What is conditioned inhibition?
- when the C.S. signals the absence of the U.S.
- what happens during conditioned inhibition?
- learning that an event signals the absence of the U.S. can produce a response opposite of the original C.R., such as leaving the food area.
- What is Latent inhibition?
- when the C.S. is presented by itself
- what takes place during latent inhibition?
- pre-exposure of the subject to the C.S. before conditioning slows the rate of C.R. acquisition
- How is classical conditioning used?
- to increase sales of consumer goods
- what is an example of classical conditioning being used to increase sale of consumer goods?
-
Maxwell House Coffee- sing pot(u.s) generates happiness (u.R), their coffee (C.S) is associated with the happiness(C.R.)
Coke- polar bears (u.s) generate smiles (u.r), coke is associated with the smiles (Cr) - how is stimulus generalization applied in the real world?
- look-a-like packaging on consumer goods
- What is the law of effect?
-
if a response is followed by a satisfying consequence, it will be strengthened.
if a response is followed by an unsatisfying consequence it will be weakened. - What is an example of a positive consequence
- studying really hard for a test and then in turn doing well on it
- what is an example of a negative consequence
- throwing up after eating mcdonalds and not wanting to eat there again
- What is shaping? (operant conditioning)
- the procedure in which reinforcers (food) guide behavior towards the desired behavior.
- example of shaping?
- training a squirrel to water ski using treats
- types of reinforcers
-
primary vs secondary
positive vs negative
immediate vs delayed - positive reinforcer
- adding a pleasant stimuli to strengthen a response
- reinforcer
- strengthening behavior
- negative reinforcer
- taking away an unpleasant stimuli to strengthen a response
- example of a positive reinforcer
- telling your children "good job" after they clean their room
- example of a negative reinforcer
- the beeping in a car stops after you put your seat belt on
- primary reinforcer
- an innately reinforcing stimulus (e.g food or drink)
- secondary reinforcer
- a learned reinforcer by association with the primary reinforcer (e.g. money, because money means food)
- immediate reinforcer
- a reinforcer that happens immediately after the behavior
- example of an immediate reinforcer
- a rat gets food pellet after pressing down the bar
- delayed reinforcer
- a reinforcer that is delayed in time for a certain behavior
- example of a delayed reinforcer
- getting a paycheck that comes at the end of the month
- types of schedules
-
reinforcement schedule
ratio schedule
interval schedule - continuous reinforcement schedule
- reinforces the desired behavior each time it happens
- example of continuous reinforcement
- saying "i like your smile" every time someone smiles
- partial reinforcement schedule
- reinforcing the desired behavior sometimes, not always. slower learning but also slower extinction
- ratio
- number of your behavior
- fixed-ratio reinforcement
- reinforces the behavior only after a certain number of times the behavior has been shown
- example of fixed-ratio reinforcement
- saying "i like your smile" after someone smiles 2 times. or a sales person getting paid for every 10 sales
- problems with fixed-ratio reinforcement
-
stop responding for a period after each reinforcement (ex salesman takes a vacation after they get paid)
also fast extinction when the reinforcement is no longer given - variable-ratio reinforcement
-
a reinforcer is given after an unpredictable number of behavior.
high response rate and high resistance to extinction (slow extinction) - interval
- time (e.g. hours)
- fixed-interval schedule
- reinforces the behavior only after a certain time has elapsed. low response rates, "scalloped pattern". low response rates after reinforcement but pick up the response when the reinforcement time approaches
- example of fixed-interval reinforcement
-
monthly paychecks regardless of sales
seeing a lot of cops on the road writing tickets approaching the end of the month - variable-interval reinforcement schedule
- reinforces behavior at unpredictable time intervals (e.g pop quiz). produces a slow steady response rate. high resistance to extinction.
- highest response rate?
- variable
- lowest response rate?
- fixed
- punishment
- weaken your behavior
- 2 types of punishment
- positive and negative
- positive punishment
- adding an unpleasant event to weaken a response
- example of positive punishment
- receiving a parking/speeding ticket
- negative punishment
- taking a pleasant event away to weaken a response
- alternative approach to punishment
- use it to suppress behavior but then also teach how to act appropriately
- applications of operant conditioning
- reinforcers affect productivity, many companies now allow employees to share profits and participate in company ownership
- learning by observation
- higher animals learn through observing and imitating others
- example of learning by observation
- the monkey on the left imitates the monkey on the right to get food.
- modeling
- natural tendency to imitate behavior of significant others
- when is modeling strongest?
- model is viewed positively and model is rewarded for the behavior
- modeling violence
- research shows that exposing to media violence (eg TV, videogame) leads to an increased expression of aggression.
- positive observational learning
- prosocial(positive, helpful) models may have prosocial effects
- thinking
- a process involves knowing, understanding, remembering, and making decisions
- what are the 2 types of problems
- well-defined and ill defined
- well defined problem
- goal and starting point are clear, you know when it has been solved.
- a math problem is an example of what type of problem?
- a well-defined problem
- ill-defined problem
- goal and starting point are unclear; hard to tell when the solution is reached. (many real-life problems are ill-defined)
- What the secret to having a happy life is, is what type of problem?
- an ill-defined problem
- what are 3 obstacles in problem solving?
- confirmation bias, functional fixedness, and mental set.
- confirmation bias
- a tendency to search for only the information that supports your idea
- functional fixedness
- a tendency to use the objects in only their customary way
- If you are faced with the 2 string problem, and realize to solve it you must use the screwdriver as a weight to swing one string closer to the other, you are overcoming what problem solving obstacle?
- functional fixedness
- who suffers the least from functional fixedness?
- young children and animals
- mental set
- a tendency to solve the problem in a particular way, especially if that way was successful in the past.
- overcoming obstacles
- successful solutions require overcoming self-imposed restraints
- the "aha!" moment
- insight, process by which the solution seems to "magically" pop into mind. tends to be sudden
- which part of brain is activated during "aha!" moment?
- the right temporal cortex
- what causes insight (aha)
- mystery, difficult to recreate an aha moment, so difficult to study in lab
- decision making
- choosing among alternatives
- example of decision making
- deciding classes to take, answering a multiple choice test question, picking dessert.
- human decision making
- not optimal, either not enough information or too much info that overloads our limited mental resources. use limited resources to make a decision that is "good enough"
- decision biases
- availability, representatives, framing effect, anchoring, sunk cost, illusory correlation, hindsight bias, overconfidence
- availability
- some causes of death simply "come to mind" more easily than others (are more available), reflect bias in media coverage.
- availability heuristic
- estimation frequencies of events based on the ease with which instances can be retrieved from memory
- framing effect
- even when options are formally identical the "frame" can influence choices
- choice between gains
- people prefer the sure thing
- choice between losses
- "sure thing" doesnt sound as good, gamble for the chance to have no loss
- application of framing
- 25% fat vs 75%lean
- anchoring and adjustment
- estimates are strongly influenced by reference point provided, people use the reference point as an anchor and then adjust up or down from there.
- examples of sunk cost
- vietnam war, watching a bad movie all the way to the end
- illusory correlation
- a tendency to see relationships that are not actually present, especially likely to occur with variables that are already associated in our minds
- placebo effect
- if you believe that a medicine will work, you are likely to think it really works (even if it doesnt)
- memory availability
- some events are more memorable than others
- invisible correlation
- sometimes the existing correlation runs contrary to our prior beliefs and is missed
- hindsight bias
- a tendency to consistently exaggerate what could have been anticipated
- overconfidence
- tendency to think of confirming examples rather than disconfirming, lack of proper feedback