Conditioning, Learning & Acquisition

Classical Conditioning

• Ivan Pavlov's experiment discovered that dogs salivate at the sound of a bell when the bell is repeatedly rung before food presentation.
• The bell became a conditioned stimulus, eliciting salivation, which became a conditioned response.
• Food = unconditioned stimulus.
• Salivation when presented with food = unconditioned response.

Operant Conditioning

• B.F. Skinner's theory states that behaviors are shaped by their consequences.
• Positive reinforcement involves adding a stimulus to increase a behavior.
• Negative reinforcement involves removing a stimulus to increase a behavior.
• Punishment aims to decrease or stop a behavior.

Knowledge Acquisition

• The process entails absorbing and storing new information in memory.

Social Learning

• Individuals acquire social behaviors through observation and imitation, according to this theory.
• Albert Bandura's Bobo doll experiment supports this.
• Imitation is more likely when models are similar, especially of the same gender.

Biological Constraints

• Biological limitations can restrict learning abilities.
• An example is the physical inability in animals' brains to learn human language.

Levels of Processing

• Information is understood or processed at different depths.

Shallow Processing

• Cognitive processing focuses on superficial characteristics rather than meaning.
• It produces weaker, shorter-lasting memories compared to deep processing.

Types of Shallow Processing

• Structural and phonemic processing are forms of shallow processing.
• Maintenance rehearsal is needed to store information in short-term memory.

Structural Processing

• Encoding focuses solely on the physical appearance of something.

Phonemic Processing

• Encoding focuses on processing the sound of something.

Types of Deep Processing

• Semantic processing uses elaboration rehearsal for more meaningful analysis.

Semantic Processing

• Encoding involves understanding the meaning of a word and connecting it to similar words or prior knowledge.

False Memory

• A distorted or fabricated recollection of an event that did not occur.

Flashbulb Memory

• A vivid and clear memory of a significant emotional event.

Encoding

• The process of converting information into a format suitable for memory storage.

Storage

• The retention of encoded information over a period of time.

Retrieval

• The process of accessing and recovering stored information from memory.

Atkinson-Shiffrin Model of Processing

• A memory model that outlines three stages: sensory, short-term memory (STM), and long-term memory (LTM).

Sensory Memory

• The immediate and brief recording of sensory information in the memory system.

Short Term Memory

• STM is activated memory that briefly holds a few items before they are stored or forgotten.

Long Term Memory

• LTM is the relatively permanent and limitless storage of the memory system.

Working Memory

• A newer understanding of STM emphasizes active processing of incoming sensory information (auditory, visual-spatial) alongside information retrieved from LTM.

Automatic Encoding

• Unconscious encoding of incidental details like space, time, and frequency.
• This also applies to well-learned information, such as the meaning of words.

Effortful Processing

• Encoding that requires focus and conscious effort.

Rehearsal

• Consciously repeating information to maintain it in awareness or encode it for storage.

Spacing Effect

• Distributed study or practice leads to better long-term retention.
• Spacing out study sessions is more effective than cramming.

Serial Position Effect

• The tendency to best recall the first and last items in a list.

Chunking

• Organizing information into familiar, manageable units.

Hierarchies

• Organizing information into hierarchical structures can improve processing by grouping related information.

Long Term Potential

• LTP involves the increased efficiency of synaptic firing after brief, rapid stimulation.
• It is believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory.
• Synapses transmit signals more efficiently as experience strengthens pathways between neurons.

Implicit Memory

• Also known as procedural memory, which involves retaining skills and procedures.
• It is partly processed in the cerebellum.

Explicit Memory

• Also known as declarative memory, which involves retaining facts and experiences that one can consciously declare.
• Processed mainly in the hippocampus.

Recall

• Retrieving information that is not in conscious awareness.
• Short-answer and fill-in-the-blank questions rely on recall.

Recognition

• Identifying previously learned items.
• Multiple-choice questions rely on recognition.

Retrieval Cues

• Related information encoded with a target memory that helps access that memory.
• Mnemonic devices assign meaning to random information associated with the target memory.

Priming

• The unconscious activation of particular associations in memory.

Context Dependent Memories

• Memories are more easily recalled in the same environment or context as when they were encoded.
• Taking a test in the same classroom where the information was learned can improve performance.

State Dependent Memories

• Memories are more accessible when in the same state of mind as when they were encoded.
• For example, happier memories are more easily recalled when feeling happy.

Absent Mindedness

• Inattention to details leads to encoding failure.
• We cannot remember what we do not encode.

Transience

• Storage decay that causes forgetting of information over time.
• Unused or meaningless information is often forgotten.

Proactive Interference

• Prior learning disrupts the recall of new information.
• Example: Difficulty remembering a new phone number due to interference from an old one.

Retroactive Interference

• New learning disrupts the recall of old information.
• Example: Difficulty remembering an old phone number after using a new one for a year.

Repression

• In psychoanalytic theory, anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories are banished from consciousness.
• Most memory theorists question whether repression occurs.

Misattribution

• Confusing the source of information.
• Source amnesia involves attributing an event to the wrong source.

Suggestibility

• The lingering effects of misinformation, often due to leading questions.

Bias

• Recollections colored by beliefs, expectations and bias.
• Memories are perceptions of the past and subject to these influences.

Persistence

• The unwanted, intrusive recollection of events that one wishes to forget.

Encoding Failures

• Failure to process information into memory.

Semantic Organization

• Organizing information based on connections between meanings.

Information Processing

• Humans process information either unconsciously in parallel or consciously in a serial fashion.

Problem Solving

• The mental process of discovering, analyzing, and resolving problems.

Algorithms

• Step-by-step procedures that guarantee a correct solution.
• Mathematical formulas are examples.
• This strategy is not practical for many situations because it can be so time-consuming.

Heuristics

• Mental rule-of-thumb strategies that may or may not work.
• They simplify complex problems but do not guarantee a correct solution.

Trial and Error

• Trying different solutions and eliminating those that do not work.
• This approach can be a good option if you have a very limited number of options available.

Insight

• Sudden realization of a problem's solution.
• Insight can occur when recognizing similarities to past experiences.

Obstacles in Problem-Solving

• Factors that hinder the ability to solve problems, like assumptions, mental set, irrelevant/missing info, and functional fixedness.

Functional Fixedness

• The tendency to view problems only in their customary manner.
• It prevents seeing all available options for a solution.

Irrelevant or Missing Info

• Difficulty distinguishing relevant information from irrelevant data, which can lead to faulty solutions.

Assumptions

• Unrecognized constraints and obstacles are often assumed when dealing with a problem.

Mental Set

• The tendency to use solutions that have worked in the past instead of looking for alternative ideas.
• It can lead to inflexibility in problem-solving.

Reasoning

• Reasoning is the central activity in intelligent thinking.
• It is the process by which knowledge is applied to achieve goals.

Metacognition

• Awareness and understanding of one's own thought processes.

Language

• A communication system using speech, with sounds understood to have shared meanings within a group.

Skinner's Theory of Language Development

• Children learn language through behaviorist reinforcement by associating words with meanings.
• Correct utterances are positively reinforced.

Chomsky's Language Acquisition Device

• Children are born with innate grammatical categories that facilitate language development.
• Universal Grammar is an idea of innate, biological grammatical categories, such as a noun category and a verb category that facilitate the entire language development in children and overall language processing in adults.

Nativist Theory of Language Development

• Humans are born with a genetic predisposition to learn language.
• It proposes a language acquisition device (LAD) in the brain responsible for language learning.
• Language acquisition is hampered if certain parts of the brain are damaged during critical periods of language development.

Neurons

• Individual cells in the nervous system that receive, integrate, and transmit information.

Neural Communication

• Transmission of information between neurons occurs across synapses.

Central Nervous System

• The brain and spinal cord.

Peripheral Nervous System

• Sensory and motor neurons connecting the CNS to the rest of the body.

Psychopharmacology

• The study of the effects of drugs on mind and behavior.

Hormonal Factors

• Hormones, produced in the endocrine system, regulate many bodily functions.

Biological Factors

• Genetic factors, neurotransmitters, brain structure and function.

Psychological Factors

• Motives, attitudes, perceptions, learning, lifestyle.

Sociocultural Factors

• Social identity and other background factors, such as gender, ethnicity, social class, and culture.

Diagnostic Systems

• Standardized terminologies that enable mental health professionals to communicate about diagnosis and treatment planning.

Nature vs Nurture

• Debate on whether genetics or environment drives behavior.
• Research shows that personality is determined by the interaction of biology and social influences.

Behavioral Genetics

• Study of how hereditary influences behavior and thinking.

Motor Development

• The emergence of physical action abilities.

Sensory Development

• Development of senses such as taste and touch. Typically precedes intellectual and motor development

Perceptual Development

• The gradual development of the senses and the interpretation of sensory information.

Language Development

• The process by which children understand and communicate language during early childhood.

Intelligence

• The ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and adapt to new situations.

Social Development

• How interactions and relationships grow, change, and remain stable over time.

Social Perception

• The study of how we form impressions and make inferences about others.

Social Cognition

• How people process social information to make judgments and decisions.

Industrial-Organizational Psychology

• Applying psychological concepts and methods to optimize human behavior in workplaces.

Human Factors

• Designing products and systems considering the interaction between humans and their elements.

Education

• A formal process of learning where some teach and others learn.

Applied Psychology

• The study of psychological issues with practical significance and the application of psychological findings.

Public Policy and Psychology

• Psychology influences politics positively, but politics can interfere with psychological research.

Health Psychology

• The subfield of psychology concerned with ways psychological factors influence the causes and treatment of physical illness and the maintenance of health

Valid

• Measures what the researcher intended to measure.

Reliability

• The ability to be replicated and consistent.

Piaget

• Developed a theory of cognitive development from birth to 12 years old.

Kohlberg

• Proposed stages of moral development.

Psychosexual Stages

• Freud's theory of stages of childhood development focused on erogenous zones.

Erikson

• Proposed stages of psychosocial development, each requiring resolution of a psychological crisis.

Applied Research

• Research with clear, practical applications.

Basic Research

• Explores questions of interest to psychologists without immediate real-world applications.