PSYC 400 Learning & Memory Final Review PDF

PSYC 400 – Learning & Memory Final Review Dr. Levens New Stuff – 102 points Choice Behavior Concurrent Schedule – def. and examples A concurrent schedule operant conditioning is when an animal has access to two or more reinforc...

PSYC 400 – Learning & Memory Final Review Dr. Levens New Stuff – 102 points Choice Behavior Concurrent Schedule – def. and examples A concurrent schedule operant conditioning is when an animal has access to two or more reinforcement schedules are available at the same time. An example of this is when a pigeon is in a skinner box and can peck a 30sec key for reinforcement or a second key that reinforces 60sec, but he chooses the 30sec key bc its quicker and reinforcement is higher Matching Law (Vollmer & Bourret, 2000) Relative rate of responding on a particular response equals the rate of reinforcement. For example, if we get more out of something we are more likely to choose it. A college basketball player is really good at 3s but bad at frees, they’re gonna shoot more 3s then frees. Behavior therapy – how do we apply choice behavior to changing behavior Understanding choice behavior helps change behavior by making pos choices more appealing and neg choices less rewarding. We can pair doing hw with positive immediate reinforcement to promote it , while reducing the reward for harmful behavior Choice with commitment You cant go back and forth between choices. Ex, you can either go to college or go straight into a job (variable ratio or fixed ratio). Variety is the spice of life though and even pigeons will choose variable ratio over fixed ratio. Self-control – drug addiction, ADHD Self control is the ability to wait for a larger reward thats delayed over some time then a small immediate reward. Ex, ADHD might find it hard to wait for a delayed rewards, sleeping in vs going to class, etc. stress, peers, fatigue, and age impact our self control. Stress is the number one reason why relapse happen Stimulus Control of Behavior – Stimulus Discrimination – def and examples, differential responding, training good sleep habits Stimulus discrimination is the ability of an organism to distinguish between different stimuli and respond accordingly (putting on clothes when going in public, waiting in line, etc). is when an organism performs a response differently in the presence of an different stimulus. Differential responding is when an organism performs a response differently in the presence of an different stimulus (traffic lights, saying please and thank you, etc). Training good sleep habits in kids can be done by discriminative sleep if you make their bed every night it will become a part of their routine and will associate a made bed with nighttime or sleep Stimulus generalization – def and examples (six ways to apply generalization to therapy) How sensitive the organism is to variations in the environment. Specifically, will organism perform IR in response to similar but not identical CS? Ex- car horns, different colored Clemson paw we still see as Clemson, when we see an orange we dont think of Texas mascot since its the color orange. Therapy generalization 1. Equalize treatment situation and natural environment (intermittent in environment = intermittent in treatment) 2. Conduct treatment in new settings 3. Use number of exemplars (if treating snake phobia, show many different kinds of snakes) 4. Condition new responses to the stimulus that are common in various settings (verbal praise is the most accessible ) 5. Make training incidental to other activities (if autistic child only pays attention to a certain toy, use that toy to teach reading- “what is the toys name”) 6. Once behavior is acquired through training, the behavior can be naturally maintained (reading or riding a bike) Factors that influence whether a stimulus controls behavior 1. Sensory capacity and orientation (dogs and sensitive hearing) 2. Ease of conditioning- overshadowing - more intense stimulus will control responding 3. Type of reinforcer (visual- appetitive, auditory aversive) Punishment – Positive pun – def and examples Delivery of aversive stimulus (spanking) Negative pun – def and examples, time-out vs. response cost Omission. Loss of positive reinforcer. Time out is a loss of access to a positive reinforcer. Response cost is the removal of a specific reinforcer after the problem behavior occurs. (Reinforcer must be clearly identified- ex; out after curfew, no car) Intrinsic vs Extrinsic pun; Primary vs secondary punisher Intrinsic punishment is when doing the behavior itself is punishing (pulling an all nighter to write a paper). Extrinsic punishment is the punishment that follows a behavior or that the result of the behavior is punishing (getting an F on that paper) Problems and benefits of punishment Problems 1. Punishment of wrong behavior doesn’t strengthen occurrence of correct behavior 2. Person doing the punishing becomes a discriminative stimulus for punishment (dad who punishes, kids when theres a substitute ) 3. Teaches avoidance of the person giving it 4. Can elicit aggression 5. Teaches kids punishment is an acceptable means of controlling behavior (child abuse) 6. Punishment reinforces the person using it because it produces immediate effects Benefits 1. Punishment can lead to an inc in social behavior (trying to get on mom and dads good side) 2. Leads to improvement in mood (being caught may bring relief) 3. Inc attention to the environment (sympathetic nervous system active) Effective use of punishment 1. Immediate 2. Consistent 3. Intense 4. Negative punishment > positive 5. Accompanied with an explanation 6. Combined with positive reinforcer of appropriate behavior Theories – Conditioned Suppression, Avoidance, Premack Approach Conditioned suppression is when punishment doesn’t weaken the behavior, but produces and emotional reaction that interferes with the occurrence of the behavior (person who’s been in car accident may freeze when hearing the sound of emergency sirens) Avoidance theory is when someone learns to avoid the specific behavior rather than the overlying theme (kid being puished for pulling hair will stop , but then he will kick, then he will bite, he’s not learning hurting others is bad) Premark approach says a low probability behavior can be used to punish high probability behavior (if the kid Is stealing from his sister, make the low prob behavior of sharing his toys as the punishment) Observational Learning Bandura and Bobo the clown Learned aggressiveness Classical conditioning – vicarious emotional conditioning (fear reactions and advertising), higher-order conditioning – think of examples of each Vicarious emotional conditioning is the learning of emotional responses nu seeing the response of others (fear and disgust reactions- important for survival). Ex) cs is bear, which makes the new cs the look of fear in your friends eyes , the us is the scary event and the CR becomes the fear in you due to the bear. Advertising uses vicarious emotion to make people seem happy and having a good time with the product to make you buy it. Higher order conditioning example is like when you have a fear of needles so when you get the call to set up your doc appointment youre already stressed way before you even come in contact with the needle Operant conditioning – acquisition vs. performance (under what conditions are we more likely to acquire and perform a response?) – examples Acquisition is paying attention to behavior of model and performance is actually doing the behavior. We are more likely to aquire and perform a behavior if 1. The model achieves a desirable goal 2. We get reinforced for paying attention to the model 3. We can understand and duplicate the behavior 4. The model is someone who resembles us or that we respect and admire 5. We see the model being reinforced = more likely to perform behavior 6. Model getting punished = less likely to perform behavior 7. Own learning history (when is it appropriate to swear) Mirror neurons Mirror neurons activate when we are watching others (responsible for our culture?) Memory What is the difference between short-term and long-term memory? The difference between short term memory and long term memory is how long the information is stored. For short term memory, a limited amount of info for no more than about 30s without rehearsal. Long term memory stores a unlimited amount of information for a lifetime, but you have to practice the memory to make it long term. What is the difference between declarative and non-declarative memory? Give examples. Declarative (explicit) is about facts or events. An example is like your first day of college. Non-declarative (implicit) is stuff that you know you know, but you dont know how you know it. An example is how to ride a bike. What is the difference between episodic and semantic memory? Which are you more likely to remember? Episodic memory is autobiographical. Examples of this would be your first day of college, storming the USC football field, etc. It takes less effort, so you’re more likely to remember it. Semantic memory is knowledge about the world and facts. This would be like when the civil war ended, who is our president, etc. What does encoding of memory mean? We talked about various strategies to help with encoding. Discuss two. Encoding is the act of getting information to our memory system through automatic or effortful processing. Two strategies are to give meaning to something and to make mental images or mnemonics. What does chunking mean? Give an example. Chunking is when you breakdown large pieces of information to smaller more manageable units. An example of this would be when you’re trying to memorize a 10 digit number. You could break it down like a phone number. What is the semantic network theory, use an example to illustrate your definition. The semantic network theory states that items of knowledge are connected via associations or relationships. An example would be like when you ask someone the first word that comes to their head after hearing “chair”. Neurons would fire for both chair and table, but they wouldn’t fire for chair and ant eater. What is long-term potentiation? Is there one specific area in the brain where memory is stored? Long term potentiation is increase in synaptic efficiency. It is everywhere in the brain because memory is emotional, autobiographical, semantic, sensory, etc. This means the hippocampus, amygdala , cortex, and cerebellum are all involved. Long term potentiation happens because the more you rehearse or practice, tighter the neurons get, and the better you remember. What are some phenomena that might help you retrieve memory from your brain? How can context help your memory? What is the von Restorff effect? Factors that can help you retrieve memory is the distinctiveness of the memory, and testing effects (retrieval is helped by previous attempts of retrieval). Context can help memory because of associations and encoding specificity. This means that the cues present at encoding will help with retrieval and that retrieval is better under matching conditions (state, mood, time of day, etc). The von Restorff effect says that we are more likely to remember things that stand out or are different. What is the definition of false retrieval (memory)? False retrieval is the mistaken recall of some stimulus or event that did not actually occur. Is our memory like a video camera? When we say memory is actually a reconstruction, what does this mean? Our memory is not like a video camera, or memory is pieced together by fractions of information that we remember. It is very susceptible to inaccuracies or alterations each time we remember it due to our current sate, knowledge, and influences. Why is Elizabeth Loftus important? What does her research have important implications for? Loftus is a well known researcher on memory and specifically false memory. Her research proved that eyewitness testimony isn’t reliable and is easily molded by how leading questions are asked. Why should you be careful of how you word your questions? You should be careful because you can create misinformation by incorporating misleading info into ones memory of an event. For example asking a question like “did you see the dog in front of the house” when there was really no dog, will cause people to falsely remember that there was one. What is the difference between retroactive and proactive interference? Give an example of each. Retroactive interference is when you learn something new and it pushes old information out(new classes each semester). Proactive is knowing something so well that it is hard to learn information in a similar field (ex, language) What is the evidence against repressed memories? PTSD disregards the theory. The explanations for repressed memories is that the memory was forgotten, forgetting is different than avoid thinking about it, or the event never happened. What type of memories are hippocampus-dependent? Hippocampus-independent? What does hippocampus-dependent mean? Memories that are hippocampus dependent are episodic, semantic, spatial, associative, single item, recognition, and familiarity. Hippocampus independent is implicit, delay conditioning, and motor skills (procedural memory). Hippocampus dependent means that the hippocampus Is crucial for the encoding and retrieval of memories. What class of hormones is known to damage the hippocampus? Under what circumstances are these hormones released? How much is required? What are the consequences of hippocampal damage? Corticosteroids or cortisol damages the hippocampus. Cortisol is released when you are stressed. The effects of hippocampal damage is memory deficits, poor immune function, and neurons dying in the hippocampus. What psychological disorder is associated with decreased hippocampal volume? What are other biological correlates of this disorder? Depression is correlated with decreased hippocampal volume. With depression, one may have cognitive impairments, be worse learners, have decreased BDFN, neurotransmitter deficiency, and decreased hippocampal volume. What does short-term adrenaline/cortisol do for memory? Enhance memory by improving consolidation, especially for emotionally significant event. What roles does the amygdala play in memory? What disorders are an overactive amygdala associated with? The amygdala is responsible for giving emotional context to memories, the evaluation of social stimuli, and learning conditioned responses to stimuli associated with fear. An overactive amygdala can be associated with anxiety, autism, phobias, ocd, etc. When the amygdala is activated due to fear, what three sets of behavior does it activate? It will cause the amygdala to produce either an autonomic response, a behavioral response, or an emotional experience Older Stuff – 48 points Habituation vs sensitization Habituation is a decrease in the strength of response in response to repeated presentation of the stimulus (fan that makes noise at night). Sensitization is the increase in responding to a repeated presentation of stimulus (baby crying makes you sensitize to other noises around you). Hab and sens are due to the changes in the nervous system and transmission between the sensory and motor neurons are hindered or facilitated Classical conditioning – CS, US, CR, UR The simplest mechanism where organisms learn about relations between stimulus and alter their behavior accordingly. US is a stimulus that naturally triggers a response, CS is Originally irrelevant stimulus that after association with the us becomes a triggered condition response, the UR is the naturally occurring response to the US and the CR is the learned response to the previously neutral cs. Ex) US produces a UR CS ——-> US CS produces a CR Food produces excitement Can opener ———> food Can opener produces excitement Sign-tracking – what is it, what does the animal have to do to get the US Sign tracking or autoshaping is when an organism interacts with the CS that predicts the arrival of a US. Ex) if light signals food, the animal may interact with the light to try to get food Short-delay, long-delay, trace procedures – what does the trace mean? Short delay is when there is a perceptual overlap in the cs and us with only a minute delay. This brings faster stronger learning. Long delay is when there is about a 5-10 min delay from when the cs starts and the us is presented. Trace is when the cs starts and stops after a short off interval (no overlap between cs and us) Inhibitory conditioning When CS predicts the US not happening Anxiety disorders – phobias, OCD, PTSD (not technically an anxiety disorder) – how does class cond contribute to these disorders, how can we use it to treat these disorders Classical conditioning contributes to these disorders by fear conditioning (a direct or imagined negative experience), stimulus generalizations (a dog attack provokes fear of all or most dogs) and reinforcement (operate cond) and observational learning (social). We can treat these disorders with systematic desensitization (exposure therapy; VR can be used) and flooding Learned helplessness – dog shock experiments Dogs were conditioned initially that they couldn’t escape the shock, so when they were placed in a room with the option to stop the shock they didn’t even try to stop it because they had learned helplessness Belongingness and salience in CC Belongingness is when certain responses belong with certain reinforcers due to evolution (fish will show off for females in the tank, but will be more aggressive with males). Salience refers to how noticeable or attention grabbing a stimulus is to an organism Jenkins and Moore pigeon study pigeon study demonstrated sign-tracking behavior in classical conditioning. Pigeons were conditioned to associate a lighted key (CS) with either food or water (US). The conditioned response (CR) depended on the US: pigeons pecked the key forcefully with an open beak when expecting food, but gently with a closed beak when expecting water. This showed that the CR mirrors the behavior typically associated with the US and highlighted how classical conditioning produces speci c, biologically relevant behaviors. fi Procrastination, external locus of control Avoiding tasks despite knowing it may have a negative consequences Operant conditioning Learning through consequences that inc or dec the likelihood of a behavior Magazine training Preliminary step in operant conditioning where an animal is taught to associate a neutral stimulus with a reward Schedules of reinforcement, difs bet positive and neg rein, pos and neg pun Continuous- reinforcement after every response Fixed ratio- reinforcement after set number of responses (buy 9 get the 10 free) Variable ratio- reinforcement after random number of responses (slot machine) Fixed interval- reinforcement after set number of time (paycheck every two weeks) Variable interval- reinforcement after unpredictable time interval ( shing) Pos reinforcement- adding something to inc behavior (candy for hw) Neg reinforcement- removing something unpleasant to inc behavior (turning off alarm) Pos punishment- adding something neg to dec behavior (giving extra chores for being late) Neg punsihment- removing something pleasant to dec behavior (taking away phone privileges for not studying) How do we most effectively use operant cond 1. Reinforce immediately 2. Use consistent consequences 3. Start with continuous reinforcement 4. Transition to intermittent reinforcement 5. Focus on positive reinforcement 6. Clear expectations 7. Avoid overuse of punishment 8. Shaping 9. Monitor progress fi