Psychology Midterm 2

Front 1

What is language? Is language an instinct?

Back 1

The use of an organized means of combining words in order to communicate.

Yes, instinct

Front 2

What is language for?

Back 2

Communicate our thoughts to others
Immediate thoughts
The wishes for the future
Pass on the vast knowledge of the past

Front 3

What are the building blocks of language?

Back 3

The sound units: phonemes
Morphemes and words;
phrases and sentences.

Front 4

What is a phoneme?

Back 4

The smallest significant unit of sound in a language. Alphabetic characters roughly correspond to phonemes (e.g., apt, tap, and pat are all made up of the same phonemes).

Front 5

What is a morpheme?

Back 5

the smallest significant unit of meaning in a word
boys: (1)boy (2) -s

Front 6

What is syntax?

Back 6

The regular principles governing how words can be assembled into sentences.

Front 7

Chomsky & syntax (or grammar)

Back 7

Difference between prescriptive grammar (rules of proper English) and descriptive grammar (how language really is)

The rules of syntax that we are discussing are the implicitly known psychological principles that organize language use and understanding in all humans, including very young children as well as adults.

Front 8

Why is syntax important for our understanding of how language works?

Back 8

Built from the theories of Noam Chomsky. As Chomsky emphasized, this interest in the rules governing word combination is not surprising if one wants to understand the fact that we can say and understand a virtually unlimited number of new thing. We put our words together in ever new sentences to mean ever new things, but we have to do so systematically or our listeners won't be able to decipher the new combinations.

Front 9

Surface & deep structure

Back 9

Sentences have a surface structure (words) and a deep structure (abstract meaning)

Front 10

What is a tree diagram?

Back 10

A geometric description of the hierarchical structure of a sentence.

Front 11

The definitional theory of meaning

Back 11

The theory that mental representations of word meanings consist of a necessary and sufficient set of semantic features. The representation of apple, for example, might be [round], [edible], [sweet], [red], [juicy]

semantic feature: A basic semantic category or concept that cannot be decomposed into smaller or less inclusive categories. According to several strict theories, the basic features are all sensory-perceptual.

Front 12

The prototype theory of meaning

Back 12

The meaning of words is represented by an ideal (or prototype). formed around average or typical values.

Front 13

Garden path

Back 13

A premature, false syntactic analysis of a sentence as it is being heard or read, which must be mentally revised when later information within the sentence falsifies the initial interpretation, as in, e.g., Put the ball on the floor into the box

Front 14

How do we resolve ambiguity in words and sentences? The case of garden path sentences.

Back 14

Garden Path Sentences
Sentence interpretation is very rapid, beginning before whole sentences are heard.
Listeners jump to temporary false interpretations, called garden paths.
To recover, we consider, not only structure, but also plausible semantic relations among words.

Front 15

What is the role of the listener in language comprehension?

Back 15

Filling in the blanks. infer the meaning of language in context.

Front 16

What are the advantages to being bilingual?

Back 16

bilingual exposure in early infancy: enhances the ability to monitor and switch between competing tasks in a way that not only supports learning the two languages, but extends to flexible switching among other tasks as well. -------"cognitive flexibility" and "executive control"

Young children: a kind of cognitive control that enable them to monitor, repair, and reinterpret sentences on the fly from an early age.

Older adults: delaying the onset of dementia

Front 17

What is the sensitive period? What can it tell us about the biological bases of language?

Back 17

An early period during the development of an organism when it is particularly responsive to environmental stimulation. Outside of this period, the same environmental events have less impact.

Language has a biological component.

Front 18

What can evidence from atypical language groups and late second- language learners tell us about language development?

Back 18

The earlier, the better/quicker!!

Front 19

Do animals have language?

Back 19

Animals do indeed have rich communicative systems of their own, but these systems are strikingly, qualitatively, different from human language.

Animals do have rudimentary propositional thought, but limited in creating syntactic structures.

Front 20

The Whorfian hypothesis: Does language determine thought?

Back 20

The Whorfian hypotheses: The proposal that the language on speaks determines or heavily influences the thoughts one can think or the saliency of different categories of thought.

Front 21

How does the computer metaphor describe the organization of memory?

Back 21

Acquisition: The process of gaining new information and placing it in memory.
--intentionally or incidentally

Storage: Maintaining memories

Retrieval: Accessing remembered information at a later time.

Front 22

What is the difference between recall & recognition?

Back 22

Recall: A type of retrieval that requires you to produce an item from memory in response to a cue or a question.
Essay questions, crossword puzzles

Recognition: A type of retrieval that requires a judgment as to whether one has encountered a stimulus previously.
Multiple-choice questions

Front 23

Are memories acquired only intentionally?

Back 23

Not only intentionally, but also incidentally

Intentional learning: Placing new information into memory in anticipation of being tested on it later

Incidental learning Learning without trying to learn, and often without awareness that learning is occurring.

Front 24

What is the difference between working memory & long-term memory?

Back 24

Working memory: A term describing the status of thoughts in memory that are currently activated. Dynamic character of memory

Long-term memory: The vast memory depository containing all of an individual's knowledge and beliefs---including all those not in use at any given time.

Front 25

Does working memory have a limit?

Back 25

The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information"

Front 26

What is the serial position curve?

Back 26

A curve showing effects in free recall.

Front 27

Primacy effect

Back 27

In free recall, the tendency to recall the first items on the list more readily than those in the middle

Front 28

Recency effect

Back 28

In free recall, the tendency to recall items at the end of the list more readily than those in the middle

Front 29

Do primacy & recency effects depend on the same memory mechanisms? The role of rehearsal.

Back 29

Rehearsal: repetition of presented information that makes it more likely that the information will be stored in long-term memory.
Manipulating the delay period.

Primacy---retrieval from long term memory(rehearsal)

Recency---retrieval from working memory.

Front 30

What is chunking?

Back 30

A process of reorganizing (or recoding) materials in working memory by combining items into a singly larger unit.

Front 31

Mnemonics & metamemory: examples

Back 31

Deliberate techniques people use to memorize new materials.
Importance of making connections.
Multiple sources!

Front 32

What is the difference between deep & shallow processing for memory?

Back 32

An approach to memorization that involves focusing on the superficial characteristics of the stimulus, such as the sound of a word or the typeface in which it's printed.

Deep processing: An approach to memorization that involves focusing on the meaning of the stimulus.

Front 33

What do we mean with the term ‘context reinstatement’ in memory research?

Back 33

A way of improving retrieval by re-creating the state of mind that accompanied the initial learning.

retrieval cue : A hint or signal that helps one to recall a memory.

Front 34

What do we mean with the term ‘encoding specificity’ in memory research?

Back 34

The hypothesis that when information is stored in memory, it is not recorded in its original form but translated ("encoded") into a form that includes the thoughts and understanding of the learner.

Front 35

What is memory consolidation? Which part of the brain is mostly involved in the consolidation of new memories?

Back 35

The biological process through which memories are transformed from a transient and fragile status to a more permanent and robust state; according to most researchers, consolidation occurs over the course of several hours.

Front 36

What is the process of normal forgetting?

Back 36

As the retention interval gets longer, memory decreases.

Front 37

Retrograde vs. anterograde amnesia: Definitions

Back 37

Retrograde: Amnesia in which the lack of memory relates to events that occurred before a traumatic event.
Anterograde amnesia in which the lack of memory relates to events that occurred after a traumatic event.

Front 38

Varieties of memory

Back 38

Explicit memories(Conscious):
1\Episodic memory: memory of specific event
2\Semantic memory:
General knowledge, not tied to any time or space

Implicit Memory(Revealed by indirect tests):
1\Procedure memory(knowing how):i.e. memory for skills
2\Priming:
Change in perceptions and believes caused by previous experience.
3\Perceptual learning:
Recalibration of perceptual system as a result of experiences.
4\Classical stimuli:
Learning about associations among stimuli.

Front 39

What is a schema? How does it influence memory?

Back 39

An individual’s mental representation that summarizes her knowledge about a certain type of event or situation.

chemata influence our attention, as we are more likely to notice things that fit into our schema. If something contradicts our schema, it may be encoded or interpreted as an exception or as unique. Thus, schemata are prone to distortion. They influence what we look for in a situation. They have a tendency to remain unchanged, even in the face of contradictory information. We are inclined to place people who do not fit our schema in a "special" or "different" category, rather than to consider the possibility that our schema may be faulty. As a result of schemata, we might act in such a way that actually causes our expectations to come true

Front 40

Is memory only reconstructive or is it also constructive?

Back 40

Memory is not only reconstructive but also highly constructive.
In everyday situations prior experience affects how we recall things and what we actually recall.

Front 41

What is the DRM paradigm? What was the main finding in experiments using the DRM paradigm?

Back 41

n cognitive psychology, the Deese–Roediger–McDermott paradigm[1][2] (DRM paradigm) is a memory illusion. After studying a list of semantically related words, people will falsely remember that an associated word was in the list, even though this word was not actually presented. For example, if a research subject heard the words: bed rest awake tired dream wake snooze blanket doze slumber snore nap peace yawn drowsy, there is a statistical likelihood that they would falsely recall that the word "sleep" was in the list. These memory errors can be difficult to avoid even if the research subject is informed about the illusion.

The implications of the DRM paradigm are far-reaching, but generally it supports the idea that human memories are often "filled in" with what people thought they should have experienced, rather than what they actually experienced. Many cognitive psychologists and neuroscientists have used this illusion as a basic tool to investigate how the brain creates false memories.

Front 42

What are ‘intrusion errors’?

Back 42

Memory mistakes in which elements that were not part of the original information intrude into someone’s recall.

Front 43

What are flashbulb memories? Are they more accurate than other memories?

Back 43

Refer to vivid recollection of the circumstances surrounding highly emotional events.
Memories may be remembered initially more accurately than ordinary events.
Flashbulb memories are forgotten with the passage of time, just as all memories are without rehearsal.

They are relatively accurate, but still only somewhat indiscriminate.

Front 44

What is the misinformation effect? What are its consequences for eyewitness testimonies?

Back 44

The misinformation effect is a memory bias that occurs when misinformation affects people's reports of their own memory.

Eyewitness testimonies are highly vulnerable towards manipulation.

Front 45

What is problem solving?

Back 45

A situation in which a person develops and implements plans so as to move from a problem state to a goal state within a range of constraints.
Obstacles can provide redirection
Solving or attempting to solve a problem gives you new knowledge that you can use in the future

Front 46

Can knowledge be an obstacle to problem solving? The case of functional fixedness.

Back 46

Functional fixedness is a cognitive bias that limits a person to using an object only in the way it is traditionally used.

Candle box problem

Front 47

Where do creative discoveries come from? Is the creative process akin to a process of knowledge or memory retrieval?

Back 47

Creative thinking: if the situation is novel
Different situations may require different degrees of innovation depending on how new the problem is, but the steps are the same.

Front 48

How do experts differ from novices? The case of chess.

Back 48

DeGroot (1965): How do chess masters choose the moves they make?
How do experts differ from the rest of us?
DeGroot (1965): Players at different levels of skill
Novices spent time considering moves that were not options for experts.
Experts immediately ‘saw’ the best moves
Expertise = extensive memory for the best moves after years of practice
Identify best moves & then analyze them in depth
Blindfold chess (Ericsson & Kintsch, 1995)

Chase & Simon (1973a): Players at different levels of skill
Were shown a chessboard in the middle of a game (~25 pieces)
Experts & novices were asked to reproduce from memory the positions of the pieces on the board.
Chess masters were about 80% correct
Novices were about 20% correct

Number of individual items reduced to meaningful chunks
3-4 pieces are grouped together in one meaningful chunk in memory
Allows for superior memory performance in experts
~ 50,000 chunks in chess masters

Front 49

What is a judgment?

Back 49

The process of extrapolating from evidence to draw conclusions.

Front 50

Do people base their judgments on an exhaustive analysis of all the possible factors implicated in a decision?

Back 50

Nah...heuristic..

Front 51

What do we mean with the term heuristics?

Back 51

A strategy for making judgments quickly at the price of occasional mistakes.

Front 52

What is the availability heuristic?

Back 52

A strategy for judging how frequently something happens--or how common it is--based on how easily examples come to mind.

Front 53

What is the representativeness heuristic?

Back 53

A strategy for judging whether an individual, object, or event belongs to a certain category based on how typical of the category it seems to be.

Front 54

What do we mean with the term confirmation bias?

Back 54

The tendency to take evidence that is consistent with your beliefs more seriously than evidence inconsistent with your belief.

Front 55

Framing effects in decision making

Back 55

The way a decision is phrased or the way options are described. Seemingly peripheral aspects of the framing can influence decisions by changing the point of reference.
Loss aversion
Satisficing

Front 56

Why is it hard to measure concepts such as creativity and intelligence?

Back 56

Difficulties operationally defining and measuring creativity & intelligence.
Individual differences
Different types of creativity & intelligence
Influences of genetic & environmental factors

Front 57

General intelligence vs. multiple intelligences

Back 57

Video in class

Front 58

What is consciousness?

Back 58

Moment-by-moment awareness of ourselves, our thoughts, and our environment.

Front 59

What is introspection?

Back 59

The process of ‘looking within’ to observe one’s own thoughts, beliefs, and feelings.

Front 60

Is there a one-to-one correspondence between what we are conscious of and what were are able or willing to report overtly?

Back 60

No.

Front 61

What is the ‘problem of other minds’? What is the evidence in support of and against the view that it is a legitimate problem in our interactions with others?

Back 61

Consequences of the subjectivity of our experiences.
Consciousness is ineffable = utterly indescribable
Is it really a ‘problem’?
examples?

Front 62

Are conscious experiences ineffable?

Back 62

Yes

Front 63

What do we mean by the term ‘the cognitive unconscious’?

Back 63

The mental support processes outside our awareness that make our perception, memory, and thinking possible.
We are conscious or aware of what is relevant to us at any given moment.
Perception, attention, memory
Background knowledge & experience

Front 64

What can we accomplish without conscious awareness?

Back 64

The cases of amnesia and blindsight.


Anterograde amnesia: inability to form new memories about personal experiences following damage to the hippocampus.
Implicit memory & priming intact


Blindsight: The ability of a person with a lesion to the visual cortex to reach toward or correctly ‘guess’ about objects in the visual field even though the person reports seeing nothing

Front 65

Can the cognitive unconscious influence our actions outside of awareness?

Back 65

Automaticity of some social behaviors: stereotype activation influences action directly (Bargh et al., 1996).

(pp. 224- 225)

Front 66

What is defined as ‘the mind-body problem’?

Back 66

The difficulty in understanding how the mind and body influence each other-so that physical events can cause mental events, and so that mental events can cause physical events.

Front 67

What are the assumptions behind the mind-body problem? Are the mind and the body independent? Can we establish a causal relationship between them?

Back 67

no.

Front 68

What parts of the brain are implicated in consciousness?

Back 68

Thalamus
hypothalamus
Hippocampus
Reticular Formation
Amygdala

Front 69

Variations in consciousness: Clarity of content vs. levels of arousal

Back 69

Under certain circumstances, brain activation is preceding awareness of a stimulus or response or actions.
Global workspace hypothesis: Specialized neurons (workspace neurons) give rise to consciousness by allowing us to link stimuli or ideas in dynamic coherent representations.

Front 70

Sleep: Alpha, beta, delta rhythms

Back 70

Alpha rhythm: A pattern of regular pulses, between 8 & 12 per second, visible in the EEG of a person who is relaxed but awake and typically has her eyes closed.
Beta rhythm: The rhythmic pattern in the brain’s electrical activity often observed when a person is actually thinking about a specific topic.
Delta rhythm: The rhythmic pattern in the brain’s electrical activity often observed when a person is in slow-wave sleep.

Front 71

Slow-wave vs. REM sleep: Definition & brain waves associated with each

Back 71

Slow-wave sleep: A term used for both stage 3 & stage 4 sleep; characterized by slow, rolling eye movements, low cortical arousal, and slowed heart rate and respiration.


REM sleep: Sleep characterized by rapid eye movements, EEG patterns similar to wakefulness, speeded heart rate and respiration, near-paralysis of skeletal muscles, and highly visual dreams.

Front 72

Why do we sleep? What is the function of sleep & dreams?

Back 72

Restoration
Ontogenesis
Memory processing
Preservation, etc.

Front 73

Suppose Mary is about to fall asleep. If we were recording her brain waves by means of an EEG, the types of waves we would most likely see would be:

Back 73

Alpha waves

Front 74

Why is the continuity of species important for the study of learning?

Back 74

Strong biological resemblance between humans and other animals

Front 75

Habituation & dishabituation: Definitions

Back 75

Habituation: A decline in the response to a stimulus once the stimulus has become familiar.
Dishabituation: An increase in responsiveness when something novel is presented, following a series of presentations of something familiar.

Front 76

What is the main premise of accounts of learning through classical conditioning?

Back 76

US, UR, CS, CR

Front 77

What is classical conditioning?

Back 77

Learning occurs by establishing associations among events.


A form of learning in which one stimulus is paired with another so that the organism learns the relationships between the stimuli.

Front 78

Unconditioned stimulus (US), unconditioned response (UR), conditioned stimulus (CS), conditioned response (CR): Definitions

Back 78

Unconditioned stimulus (US): A stimulus that reliably triggers a particular response without prior training.
Unconditioned response (UR): A response elicited by an unconditioned stimulus without prior training.


Conditioned stimulus (CS): An initially neutral stimulus that comes to elicit a new response due to pairings with the unconditioned stimulus.
Conditioned response (CR): A response elicited by an originally neutral stimulus (CS)-after it has been paired repeatedly with the unconditioned stimulus (US).

Front 79

Pavlov’s experiments and the process of classical conditioning (in detail)

Back 79

Classical conditioning
Before conditioning:
an unconditioned stimulus (US, such as food)
elicits an unconditioned response (UR, such as salivation)





After conditioning:
If the US follows a conditioned stimulus (CS, such as a buzzer) many times, this CS on its own will soon evoke the conditioned response (CR; salivation).

Front 80

How does classical conditioning work in humans?

Back 80

Associations with food, fear, other emotional responses.
Classical conditioning may provide a plausible account as to how certain types of anxiety disorders are formed.

Front 81

Watson’s Little Albert experiment

Back 81

John B. Watson and his partner, Rayner, chose Albert from a hospital for this study at the age of almost nine months[1]. Albert's mother was a wet nurse at the Harriet Lane Home for Invalid Children. "Albert was the son of an employee of the Phipps Clinic at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where Watson and Rayner were conducting their experiments."[2] Before the commencement of the experiment, Little Albert was given a battery of baseline emotional tests; the infant was exposed, briefly and for the first time, to a white rat, a rabbit, a dog, a monkey, masks with and without hair, cotton wool, burning newspapers, etc. During the baseline, Little Albert showed no fear toward any of these items.

Watson and his colleague did not begin to condition Little Albert until approximately two months later, when he was just over 11 months old. The experiment began by placing Albert on a mattress on a table in the middle of a room. A white laboratory rat was placed near Albert and he was allowed to play with it. At this point, the child showed no fear of the rat. He began to reach out to the rat as it roamed around him. In later trials, Watson and Rayner made a loud sound behind Albert's back by striking a suspended steel bar with a hammer when the baby touched the rat. Not surprisingly in these occasions, Little Albert cried and showed fear as he heard the noise. After several such pairings of the two stimuli, Albert was again presented with only the rat. Now, however, he became very distressed as the rat appeared in the room. He cried, turned away from the rat, and tried to move away. Apparently, the baby boy had associated the white rat (original neutral stimulus, now conditioned stimulus) with the loud noise (unconditioned stimulus) and was producing the fearful or emotional response of crying (originally the unconditioned response to the noise, now the conditioned response to the rat).

This experiment led to the following progression of results:

Introduction of a loud sound (unconditioned stimulus) resulted in fear (unconditioned response), a natural response.
Introduction of a rat (neutral stimulus) paired with the loud sound (unconditioned stimulus) resulted in fear (unconditioned response).
Successive introductions of a rat (conditioned stimulus) resulted in fear (conditioned response). Here, learning is demonstrated.
The experiment showed that Little Albert seemed to generalise his response to furry objects so that when Watson sent a non-white rabbit into the room seventeen days after the original experiment, Albert also became distressed. He showed similar reactions when presented with a furry dog, a seal-skin coat, and even when Watson appeared in front of him wearing a Santa Claus mask with white cotton balls as his beard, although Albert did not fear everything with hair.

Front 82

What is second order conditioning?

Back 82

A form of learning in which a neutral stimulus is first made meaningful through classical conditioning. Then that stimulus (the CS) is paired with a new, neutral stimulus, until the neutral stimulus also elicits the conditioned response.

Front 83

The process of extinction & spontaneous recovery

Back 83

Extinction: The weakening of a learned response that is produced if a conditioned stimulus is now repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus.
Spontaneous recovery: The reappearance of an extinguished response after a period in which no further conditioning trials have been presented.

Front 84

Stimulus generalization & stimulus discrimination: Definitions

Back 84

Stimulus generalization: The tendency for stimuli similar to those used during learning to elicit a reaction similar to the learned response.
Stimulus discrimination: An aspect of learning in which
the organism learns to respond differently to stimuli that have been associated with an US (or reinforcement) and stimuli that have not.


Because of stimulus generalization, the CR can also be elicited by stimuli that are similar to the CS.
To train the animal to discriminate among stimuli,
one stimulus (CS+) is presented with the US,
while another (CS–) is presented without the US.

Front 85

Contingencies & their importance for learning

Back 85

The CS serves as a signal to predict future events.
An imperfect predictor is better than no predictor at all.
Animals seem sensitive to probability:
Do they track probabilities directly?
They develop expectations and adjust their expectations whenever events surprise them.

Front 86

What is the blocking effect?

Back 86

an animal learns nothing about a stimulus if the stimulus is not producing any new information.

Front 87

What is Thorndike’s ‘Law of Effect’?

Back 87

Performance is strengthened if it’s followed by a reward and weakened if it’s not.
The animal need not notice a connection between the stimulus and the reward.
Behavior is determined by its consequences.

Front 88

Thorndike’s experiments with cats & the puzzle-box

Back 88

When first constrained in the boxes, the cats took a long time to escape. With experience, ineffective responses occurred less frequently and successful responses occurred more frequently, enabling the cats to escape in less time over successive trials. In his law of effect, Thorndike theorized that successful responses, those producing satisfying consequences, were "stamped in" by the experience and thus occurred more frequently. Unsuccessful responses, those producing annoying consequences, were stamped out and subsequently occurred less frequently. In short, some consequences strengthened behavior and some consequences weakened behavior. Thorndike produced the first known learning curves through this procedure

Front 89

Skinner’s operant conditioning: Definitions

What is an operant? What is a reinforcer?

Back 89

Operant: An instrumental response that is defined by its effect, the way it operates on the environment.
Reinforcer: A stimulus delivered after the response that makes the response more likely to appear in the future.
Voluntary responses

Front 90

What are the basic tenets of instrumental (or operant) conditioning?

Back 90

nstrumental (or operant) conditioning uses a reward system.
reinforcement after appropriate response
The stimulus tells the animal something about the impact of its own behavior.

Operant conditioning is the use of a behavior's antecedent and/or its consequence to influence the occurrence and form of behavior. Operant conditioning is distinguished from classical conditioning (also called respondent conditioning) in that operant conditioning deals with the modification of "voluntary behavior" or operant behavior. Operant behavior "operates" on the environment and is maintained by its consequences, while classical conditioning deals with the conditioning of reflexive (reflex) behaviors which are elicited by antecedent conditions. Behaviors conditioned via a classical conditioning procedure are not maintained by consequences

Front 91

What is shaping?

Back 91

The process of eliciting a desired response by rewarding behaviors that are increasingly similar to that response.
Successive approximations

Front 92

What is partial reinforcement? What is its relationship to learning?

Back 92

The response is reinforced only some of the time and leads to better learning.

Front 93

Schedules of reinforcement (ratio-interval)

Back 93

in ratio schedules, reinforcement after a number of responses; the ratio used may be fixed or variable
in interval schedules, reinforcers for the first response made after a given interval since the last reinforcement; this interval can be fixed or variable

Front 94

Can we explain thinking and learning by focusing exclusively on observable changes in behavior?

Back 94

who knows?

Front 95

Can learning occur without observable changes in behavior?

Back 95

Yes?

Front 96

Observational learning & vicarious conditioning: Definitions & examples

Back 96

Observational Learning
The process of watching how others behave and learning from their example.
Vicarious learning: Learning a response simply by observing another person being conditioned.