PSYNTRO - chapter 5 and 6

Learning

• Learning is any relatively permanent change in behavior brought about by experience or practice.
• "Relatively permanent" means that learning involves physical changes in the brain that record what has been learned.
• Without the ability to remember what happens, people cannot learn.

Classical Conditioning

• Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist, pioneered the empirical study of learning in dogs.
• He studied the digestive system of dogs, discovering classical conditioning.
• Classical conditioning involves an involuntary response to a stimulus.
  • Unconditioned stimulus (UCS) is a stimulus that naturally causes an involuntary response.
  • Unconditioned response (UCR) is the natural, involuntary response to the UCS.
  • Conditioned stimulus (CS) is a learned stimulus that elicits a response.
  • Conditioned response (CR) is the learned response to a CS.

Stimulus Generalization

• The tendency to respond to a stimulus that is similar to the original conditioned stimulus (CS).

Stimulus Discrimination

• When an organism learns to respond to different stimuli in different ways.

Extinction

• When the conditioned stimulus (CS) is repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus (UCS), the conditioned response (CR) decreases or disappears.

Conditioned Emotional Responses

• Emotional responses can be learned through classical conditioning.
• Fear, a natural emotional response, can be conditioned to a previously neutral stimulus.

Vicarious Conditioning

• Learning by watching someone else respond to a stimulus.

Higher-Order Conditioning

• A strong conditioned stimulus can be paired with a neutral stimulus, making the neutral stimulus a conditioned stimulus as well.

Biological Influences on Conditioning

• Conditioned taste aversion, a type of classical conditioning, is a learned avoidance of a food or drink due to a negative experience.

Cognitive Perspectives

• Conscious expectations can influence classical and operant conditioning.
• Conditioned stimuli provide information about the unconditioned stimulus.

Operant Conditioning

• Learning that applies to voluntary behavior.
• The heart of operant conditioning lies in the effect of consequences on behavior.
  • If an action is followed by a pleasurable consequence, it's more likely to be repeated.
  • If an action is followed by an unpleasant consequence, it's less likely to be repeated

Reinforcement

• Reinforcement strengthens the response that follows it.
• Primary reinforcers, like food or water, fulfill basic needs.
• Secondary reinforcers get their reinforcing value from their association with primary reinforcers (e.g., money or praise).

Positive Reinforcement

• Increasing a behavior by adding something desirable.

Punishment

• Decreasing a behavior by adding something unpleasant or removing something desirable.

Development

• Operant conditioning involves developing an expectancy that a correct response will be followed by a reinforcement
• Classical conditioning involves developing an expectancy that the UCS will follow the CS.

Reinforcement and Punishment

• Positive reinforcement involves adding a valued stimulus to increase a behavior.
• Negative reinforcement involves removing an unpleasant stimulus to increase a behavior.
• Punishment involves adding an unpleasant stimulus or removing a valued stimulus to decrease a behavior.

Stimulus Control

• A discriminative stimulus signals that a certain response will be reinforced in a particular situation.

Shaping

• Gradually reinforcing behaviors that get closer to the desired behavior, step by step.

Comparing Classical and Operant Conditioning

• End Results: Operant increases existing responses; classical creates a new response to a stimulus.
• Responses: Operant responses are voluntary; classical responses are involuntary.
• Consequences: Operant conditioning focuses on consequences; classical conditioning focuses on associations.
• Placement/Timing: Operant conditioning is concerned with immediacy of reinforcement; classical conditioning is concerned with immediacy of CS before UCS.

Models of Memory

• Information-processing model describes memory as a flow of information through three stages (sensory, short-term, and long-term).
• Parallel distributed processing (PDP) model views memory as a network of interconnected nodes.

Types of Memory

• Sensory memory: Holds incoming sensory information for a brief period.
• Short-term memory (STM) holds information temporarily.
• Working memory manipulates and processes information in STM.
• Long-term memory (LTM) stores information permanently.

Retrieval of Long-Term Memories

• Retrieval cues are stimuli that help retrieve memories.
• Context-dependent learning means better recall when in the same environment as the learning.
• State-dependent learning is easier to recall if in the same psychological or physiological state.

Recall and Recognition

• Recall requires retrieving information without external cues; recognition involves matching information to stored information.

Serial Position Effect

• Primacy effect: Better recall for items at the beginning of a list.
• Recency effect: Better recall for items at the end of a list.

Classical Studies in Psychology

• Elizabeth Loftus's research highlights the inaccuracies of memory retrieval.
• Constructive processing of memories means information learned after an event can change the memory of that event.

Reliability of Memory Retrieval

• False-memory syndrome: Creation of false memories through suggestion.
• Encoding failure: Failure to process information into memory.
• Memory trace decay theory: Loss of memory traces over time if not used.
• Interference theory: Information interferes with the retrieval of other information.

Neuroscience of Memory

• Areas in the brain where different types of memories are formed
• Procedural memories: Cerebellum
• Short-term memories: Prefrontal cortex and temporal lobe:
• Semantic and episodic memories: Frontal and temporal lobes -Changes in the brain, like changes in the number of receptor sites, synapse sensitivity, and dendrites, and the formation of new proteins, play a role in memory formation.

Long-Term Memory Organization

• Organized in terms of concepts and relationships.
• Semantic network model: Information linked together in the brain based on related meanings.

Forgetting

• Encoding failure: Information not processed into memory.
• Memory trace decay theory suggests that memory traces weaken over time.
• Interference occurs when information interferes with recall.

Health and Memory

• Rehearsing memories during sleep can improve memory consolidation.
• Sleep deprivation and a lack of acetylcholine can impair memory formation.
• Exercise can enhance memory formation.

Amnesia

• Retrograde amnesia: Inability to recall memories before injury.
• Anterograde amnesia: Inability to create new memories after injury.
• Alzheimer's disease involves both anterograde and retrograde amnesia.

Infantile Amnesia

• Inability to remember early memories.