Intro to Psychology - Course Overview

• The course is Introduction to Psychology
• It is winter semester 2025
• The instructor is Doctor Gabrielle Pitt, [email protected]

Agenda Summary

• Classes are on Tuesday and Thursday from 8:30-9:50 in 104 Rozanski
• Course outline available at https://courselink.uoguelph.ca/d2l/le/content/937538/Home

Course Assessments

• Research Participation contributes TBD, 5%
• 2 Online Discussion Posting Periods (ODPP). See Learning Content for dates
• Each ODPP contributes 10% of the total grade, 20% in total
• Midterm Exam 1 has 40 MC questions
• Exam 1 is based on Weeks 1-4, Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, and lecture material
• Exam 1 is on Tuesday, Feb 4th, in class
• Midterm Exam 2 has 40 MC questions
• Exam 2 is based on Weeks 5-9, Chapters 6, 7, 10, and lecture material
• Exam 2 is on Tuesday, Mar 11th, in class
• The final exam has 70 MC and T/F questions
• The final exam is based on Weeks 9-12, Chapters 11, 14, 15, 16, and lecture material
• The final exam is on Monday, April 7th @ 8:30-10:30 AM; location TBD

Weekly Readings and Assignments

• Week 9, March 11th: Midterm Exam 2
• Week 9, March 13th: Motivation & Emotion Chapter 11 continued, sections 11.3, 11.4
• Week 10, March 18th and 20th: Health, Stress & Coping Chapter 14, sections 14.1, 14.2, 14.3
• Week 11, March 25th and 27th: Mental Health (Psychological Disorders) Chapter 15, sections 15.1, 15.2, 15.3, 15.4
• Week 12, April 1st: Mental Health (Psychological Disorders) Chapter 15 continued, sections 15.1, 15.2, 15.3, 15.4
• Week 12, April 3rd: Therapies Chapter 16, sections 16.1, 16.2

Week 5 - Learning

• Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior due to practice or experience, but not growth or maturation
• Three general kinds of learning exist: classical, operant, cognitive

Classical Conditioning

• Classical conditioning involves people (and animals) acquiring behaviors through associations
• In classical conditioning, associations are made between an unconditioned stimulus and a neutral stimulus
• Ivan Pavlov's work contributes to the understanding of classical conditioning

Classical Conditioning Defined

• Classical conditioning is a learning form through the repeated association of two or more different stimuli
• Learning occurs when a particular stimulus consistently produces a response that it did not previously produce
• In classical conditioning, a response is automatically produced when one stimulus becomes associated/linked with another stimulus that would normally produce this response

Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)

• Pavlov, a Russian physiologist, described classical conditioning in 1899 while researching the digestive system of dogs
• He studied salivary secretions' role in digestion and won the 1904 Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology

Pavlov's Research

• Pavlov used an apparatus to measure the amount of saliva produced when a dog consumed food
• Saliva flow naturally occurs when food is placed in the dog's mouth and is an involuntary reflex response

Pavlov's Discoveries

• Pavlov noticed dogs salivating at the sight of food and the sight/sound of the lab tech preparing the food
• Intrigued by his observations, Pavlov conducted further experiments
• Pavlov found a form of learning based on associating different stimuli, called classical conditioning

Stimuli in Pavlov's Experiment

• (US) Unconditioned Stimulus - food
• (UR) Unconditioned Response - saliva
• (NS) Neutral Stimulus - bell
• (CS) Conditioned Stimulus - bell
• (CR) Conditioned Response - salivate to bell
• The parasympathetic nervous system's autonomic division controls the salivation response, which is involuntary
• Salivation becomes associated with/conditioned to a new stimulus

Stimulus Defined

• Any event or object that elicits a response from an organism
• A response is a reaction by an organism to a stimulus
• Different types of stimuli have been documented in research

Stimulus Types

• Neutral stimulus: Does not elicit a response initially
• Unconditioned stimulus (UCS): Elicits a predictable response without any training
• Unconditioned response (UCR): Automatic or natural reaction to a stimulus without any training
• Conditioned Stimulus (CS): Elicits a response due to being paired with an UCS
• Conditioned response (CR): The learned reaction to a CS

Classical Conditioning Factors

• Classical conditioning can be influenced by four factors: number of CS and US pairings, intensity of US, CS reliability in predicting US, and temporal relationship between CS and US

Stimulus Generalization

• Dogs salivated to other noises similar to a bell
• Stimulus generalisation - The tendency for another stimulus to produce a response that is similar to the CR
• Generalization is likelier when stimuli are more similar
• Stimulus generalization occurred when a dog might also salivate in response to the ringing of the front-door bell
• Dogs began to salivate when they see the lab tech wearing a white lab coat
• The amount of saliva would tend to be less than the amount produced by the original conditioning bell

Extinction

• Conditioned stimulus-response associations can fade or disappear altogether
• Extinction is the gradual decrease in the strength or rate of a CR that occurs when the UCS is no longer presented
• Extinction occurs when a CR no longer occurs following CS presentation
• Pavlov's dogs eventually ceased salivating (CR) in response to the bell (CS) after food (UCS) no longer followed
• There is some variation between individuals in the rate at which extinction of the same conditioned response will occur
• There is also considerable variation between the rates at which different response will be extinguished

John Watson - Behaviorism

• Little Albert study is a famous example
• John Watson & Rosalie Rayner published in 1920 on conditioning emotions
• The classic emotional conditioning experiment: Little Albert
• Little Albert was an eleven-month-old infant
• Albert developed a conditioned emotional response through an experiment:
• White rat (NS) + loud bang (UCS) created a startle response (CR)
• Baby Albert was conditioned to fear white rat
• Little Albert learned to fear things resembling white rat (generalization)
• Watson's views were widely accepted despite the lack of research data
• Watson's contributions to behaviourism and learning are viewed as having fundamental errors and ethical concerns

Watson's Parenting Advice

• Watson advised parents to never hug/kiss their children or let them sit in their lap
• Watson advised to kiss forehead them once when they say good night, in Psychological Care of the Infant and Child (1928, pp. 81-82)
• Watson advised to shake hands with them in the morning and give them a pat on the head if they have made an extraordinarily good job of a difficult task

The Adaptive Value of Classical Conditioning

• Adaptive value: usefulness of certain traits that animals & humans evolve & tend to increase their chances of survival
• Biological Predisposition refers to genetics or biological motivations
• Animals can be prepared to acquire/resist classically conditioned responses
• Humans fear stimuli that can harm them
• Taste-aversion learning: Associating a particular sensory cue with illness, which forms an aversion for weeks/months/years
• Chemotherapy treatments can result in conditioned taste aversions
• Oncology teams de-sensitize the taste aversions enabling proper diets

Classical Conditioning In Life

• Fears and phobias often result from classical conditioning
• Dental phobia - generalize anxiety to dental chair/waiting room/dentist's office/external stimuli
• Dental work pain & discomfort can be a trigger
• Smell of the dentist's office/tools paired with pain while getting dental work
• Experiences in public that smelled like the dental office can act as triggers
• Environmental cues or social situations can lead to continued drug use
• Environmental cues associated with drug use can become CS
• Drug cravings can be produced (CR)
• Higher doses can be needed for effects in (tolerance)
• Cues initiating protective mechanisms are absent when the same dose is taken in unfamiliar surroundings, leading to overdose

Advertising

• Classical conditioning has proved to be a highly effective advertising tool
• A new and neutral product is paired with the image of a popular celebrity, objects, or situations
• People become conditioned to buy products

Systematic Desensitization

• Procedure using classical conditioning: A person visualizes fearful stimuli and uses deep relaxation to overcome anxiety
• Replaces fear and anxiety with relaxation as counterconditioning
• Developed in 1950s and most frequently used as nonmedical therapy for anxiety/fear relief in children and adults
• Very effective

Behaviour Psychology

• Behavioural psychology studies external behavior
• Behavior is objective and observable
• Behavior of organisms is in response to stimuli
• Behavior and learning theorists emphasize experience and learning as primary forces shaping human behavior
• Behavior can be controlled by consequences - reinforcement following the behaviour

Classical & Operant Conditioning

• Classical and operant are both types of conditioning

Operant Conditioning

• Operant conditioning is associated with Behaviorism
• A type of learning: Behaviour is strengthened if reinforced/diminished if followed by punishment
• The consequence depends on an action in operant conditioning
• Getting good grades contingent on studying/attending

Classical vs. Operant Conditioning

• Acquisition, discrimination, SR, generalization, and extinction are all used
• Classical conditioning involves involuntary reflexive responses
• US presentation, no thinking
• Operant conditioning: Voluntary, influence the environment
• Operant behavior has consequences
• Organism "gets something" (food) because of its response (avoids punishment)

Edward Thorndike

• Law of Effect: Rewarded behavior is likely to recur
• Association of stimulus response (S-R) and reward associating behaviour consequences
• A child learns that they are praised for picking up after themselves and ignored for temper tantrums
• The individual can recognize that one event predicts another
• reinforcement theory and behaviour analysis: Thorndike's Legacy

B. F. Skinner

• A pioneer in work with operant conditioning
• Influenced by Thorndike's Law of Effect

Skinner's Work

• Skinner designed an operant chamber or Skinner box
• To help subjects/animals learn, behavior started with a shaping

Operant Conditioning Terms

• The ultimate motivator in operant conditioning is a reinforcer
• Skinner designed the box to record 24/7 information and captured behaviour

Shaping

• Shaping is a technique that Skinner used to teach complicated tasks to rats
• The rat was rewarded for each response closer to the final desired behaviour, pressing the lever for food
• The process reinforces successive approximations of a specific operant response

Reinforcement

• Skinner developed reinforcement types
• Positive Reinforcement strengthens a response by presenting desirable stimuli
• Negative Reinforcement strengthens a response by reducing/removing the undesirable/unpleasant

Reinforcers

• Skinner also developed two types of reinforcers
• Primary reinforcer consists of innate stimulus, satisfying a biological need
• Conditioned (secondary) reinforcer-a stimulus is learned to be positive, associated with a primary reinforcer

Punishment

• Skinner also used the term punishment: Any outcome that weakens/diminishes a response's probability
• Positive or negative, like reinforcement
• Punishment must be administered quickly after behaviour
• Influence behaviour (encourage/reinforce, or discourage/punish)
• Influence behaviour with adding something (positive) or taking something away (negative)

Schedules of Reinforcement

• Refers to pattern of delivering reinforcers
• Continuous reinforcement includes reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs
• Partial reinforcement includes reinforcing the desired response only part of the time
• The acquisition process of the desired response is slower.
• Greater resistance to extinction
• Fixed Ratio includes reinforcement after specific number of responses
• Variety Ratio includes reinforcement after the average number of responses
• Fixed intervals include reinforcement after a particular amount of time
• Variable Interval includes reinforcement after the average amount of time

Nucleus Accumbens

• Active while processing rewards, both natural and artificial

Dopamine

• It releases during operant behavior
• It reinforces reward producing behaviors
• Dopamine-releasing neurons in the nucleus accumbens and other areas maintain record to rewarding behaviors
• People with risky behaviors (gambling, substance abuse, etc.) are likelier to have the gene that codes for dopamine and other reward chemicals
• They release more dopamine and struggle to remove Dopamine

Operant Conditioning: Additional Terms

• Chaining includes reinforcing behavior completing sequence responses
• They learn simple skills; they combine to enable subject for complex tasks
• Reading, Writing, Sport
• Delayed reinfocrement
• A little time between action and consequence
• More addictive than dugs,minutes or hours mentally associate action with drug & reiforcement
• Extinction has weakening operant response, lack of reinforcement
• Behaviour and Dopamine declined

Operant Conditioning Today

• Today has several areas from operant
• Behavioural therapy

Latent Learning - Cognitive Learning Component

• Parenting programs, training programs, Sports Program, Animals training

Cognitive Learning Challenges

• behavioral view of classical/operant condition
• Learning result not automatically processed but metal ones
• 2 cognitive types: laternal learnings, and Observational
• Mental Process, Attention

Latent Learning

• Absorbing learning infor, show what’d learn in Q&A
• Learning doesn't mean observable
• competence. V S, performance
• Never express Learning goes alone for organism so
• Reinforcement: never necessary for occur learnings
• Tolom & Honzik said: animals/humans are Latent
• Study in rats:
• 1st reward
• 2nd: every 10times
• 3rd never reward

Observational Learning: Cognitive Learning Component

• After being reward or second one reward
• Rats still learn with reward
• Reward only used: Cognition maps there
• Mize trial: Behavior challenged
• Thought some for

Observational Learning: Social Learning Component

• Cognitive; knowledge change watch others
• Not need direct experience
• Not depend BEHAVIOUR - OR condition
• Trial and error: don't need learn new thinks

Bandura: Cognitive/Social Learning Theories

• Learning development via modelling
• Observational and bob do clown: A child want copy someone
• Bandura: Reciprocal environment vice
• Albert bandurnidentfied 4 process for learning:
• Attention/ act

Emotional Cognitive Connection

• When you see someone fear of snakes could have fearful reactions
• Conditioning can cause similar reactions
• Pay attention as operate condition, Punished
• Learn: see them others see more we punish
• Remember/behaviour
• Cook step by step for dinner
• Act/behaviour copy
• Practice: Learning with effective

Bobo: Learning Cognitive Component

• Imitate: see model
• Help see make reflect mistake
• Motivation: behaviour
• Being hungry thirsty will show were food

Memory

• Cognitive; helps remember for later
• Learning/memory/empathy

Violence: Cognitive Component

• Study look at Impact of behave
• Violence cases really
• The link doesn't = Cause if relationships
• Show: Desensitization
• Notice when happens

Imitating mirror-neurons

• Imitate facial
• Over imitate
• Kids v S chimp
• Action and helps for

Memory Defined

• Memory & learning process: learning in new information what memory = Learning present it late
• Squre: 1987
• Cording/STORIE/Retrieve, INFORMATION
• Rention, INFORMATION and not static
• Poor memory and good memory
• Brain help show what'd need

Types of Brain Functions

• Usually: help but also correct
• Makes prone
• Brain put nothing In memory put something
• Keep memory but brains
• Not one: Memory
• Diffuses. STORIED

Change: Syaptic Brain

• The brain change the: bases neuron
• Long term neuron and impulse traveling circuits
• More use its string = Long

Hipocampus

• Memory hipo campus and potation; Gradual stimulation pathways
• Synapsis: Long for tran
• Long for memory. And Brain levels
• Hipo:Ltp
• memory

Neuroscience

• Brain and behave
• Celle change learn
• Memory: Occur cells
• Study for cells

Hebb's Law and Amygdala

• Memory campus. Hipe compus: amygdala
• Memory: Brain
• Hipe recall
• Process. Consoildiation
• From memory
• Time Stamped
• HELP RECALL
• Play store

Strong Memory Connection

• Cognitve hormins; strong
• Emoiton
• Release: epinerphrime..nor
• Interfer
• Estrogen

Cognition Problems

• Begin after, Deter
• Frequency for case
• Memory/language

Long/short Term

• Muliti Store term for
• Show: Sensory with
• Short and long

Types Memory

• Muliti store: Askison; at first thinking then
• Flow process
• Raw; sensory and hold
• 2nd: hold, stimulai second _ Later; exam

Show Memories

• Sensor: short time
• Enters: hold
• 2; forms, sensory
• Visual = ICON LAST ONE S
• Auditory = Echo LAST 5 AND 10
• Sensor. LARGE
• Pass; ATTENTION

Sperling's Test

• Show 1/20 per sec
• RECALL OF LETTERS
• Specific tonw = GOOD FOR LETTERS
• short term is memories Memory system keeps information Brief between, 5 AND 20 S Adults: 7 Information Reheresal extened to duration
• CHURNK Information
• Chunk organize larger more meaningful

Lossing Memories

• Lose of, SHORT . Memory due process
• Decline
• interfer compete Information

Interfere

• When learning something before it
• Early Learning way to help you somethings new
• Long: memories
• Include facts = STORIED last deaclss
• error: Long last

Long/ Short Error

• Semantic relations short is acostic
• Long memory, include explicit
• With get old

Memory With Demtia

• Declarative and constant consious
• Divid with sports
• First: procedure how things do: song 1/priming tostim
• Coneection: responses

Working Memory

• To with information
• INdivual carrie info temp
• Used carry moment basis
• Location cortex = frontal

Cultural Event Memories

• Culteral Organzied
• Memory, Events: For events
• Collect encode and reteievsocial
• Autobiograophy: Reacll exp
• Weak

Not Good

• Not encode
• And Underdevoped brain

Stages for Memory

• Reasions;
• Script you kid
• Memory; assemble
• Make sure it works, it pass
• Show; long and sensiry
• Show; Meaningful
• 3; Steps
• Encode and retrievals, storign

Memory Procsess

• To memory, require process
• Stor and retrieve
• Failure can failure process

Hipocamous

• Storage the, and the process with remember storages

HipoCompus. : Process

• Show, graduallys change long term
• Reaseach long
• Encode for storages
• Mofifications

Encoding memory

• Autmatic: Aware
• Help and attention
• To filter background

2 Procsess

• Process = rehearsal
• Mainenance store prolong expoure Long for short- term numbers, Improve

3 Encoding terms

• Sematic And encoding sounds

Memory Storage

• LOP with encodes material.
• LOP SHALLOW PROCESS superficial for encoded
• Deep processing- properties meaning/function
• Selg refrence: reates you and maintains

Storage brain

• Consolidation: Physiogical hhipo is

Memory With Retrieveals:

• Retrieveal info from, google earchs : brain
• Better: terms; locations