Psychology Of Learning Exam 3

Front 1

What is encoding and why is it important to learning?

Back 1

Encoding is a basic perceptual process of interpreting incoming stimuli.

Important because what you encode is what you remember.

Front 2

What is rehearsal?

What is the difference between maintenance and elaborative rehearsal?

Back 2

Rehearsal in STM promotes better LTM representation. But, there is a qualitative difference.

Levels of processing (Craik & Lockhart, 1972)
Maintenance = Shallow processing
Elaborative = Relate it to other information in memory
Why? Expanding, distinctiveness of memory, cognitive effort

Front 3

What is “testing effect”?

What are some of the proposed mechanisms underlying testing effect?

Back 3

Taking a test is often more beneficial to remembering than additional study of the material.

Testing provides more challenging and active way of re-studying.

Front 4

Why does distributed practice lead to better memory performance than massed practice?

Is spacing always better than massed practice? (Hint: Consider the effects of retention interval)

Back 4

Attend less to a second presentation when it is repeated too soon (attention deficit).
Spacing repetitions result in slightly different encodings resulting in multiple retrieval cues.

Mass studying results in better recall when the test is immediate, but spaced studying results in better recall when the test is delayed.

Front 5

What is the difference between intentional and incidental learning?

Give an example to each one of them.

Back 5

Intentional learning requires deliberate study whereas incidental learning is just spontaneously remembering things without intentional study.

Front 6

How are flashbulb memories different than non-emotional memories?

Back 6

Flashbulb memories are remembered more vividly than non-emotional memories.

Vivid memory for a surprising, emotional, and consequential event about when, where, why, who, what information.
However, recollections are not often accurate (Neisser, 1982)

Front 7

How is metamemory important for learning?

Back 7

Metamemory is important because it lets you know when you know something.

Study strategy's etc.

Front 8

What is extinction?

Back 8

Omitting the US following presentations of the CS or omitting the reinforcer following occurrences of the instrumental response produces extinction.

Front 9

What happens to behavior during extinction?

Back 9

a. Conditioned responding decreases

b. Behavior variability increases

c. Frustration

Front 10

Spontaneous Recovery – know what conditions (i.e., rest vs. no rest) are ideal for spontaneous recovery to occur. In other words, is an animal more likely to exhibit spontaneous recovery if there is a break after the extinction phase?

Back 10

Spontaneous Recovery – extinction effects dissipate with time

Front 11

Renewal of Original Excitatory Conditioning =

Back 11

refers to the recovery of acquisition performance when the CONTEXTUAL CUES that were present during extinction are changed. For clarity, refer to the experiment by Bouton & King, 1983 (p.258).

Front 12

Reinstatement of Conditioned Excitation =

How is this different renewal? Also, be able to recognize an example.

Back 12

Reinstatement: a CR can re-occur after an extinction procedure if the subject is re-exposed to the US in the same context.

Same US is presented again.

Front 13

Understand how each of these behavioral phenomena support the idea that extinction does not result in unlearning of the original excitatory conditioning.

Back 13

Nothing is unlearned, only new associations are made.

Front 14

What is the difference between avoidance and escape behavior?

Back 14

avoidance trial:
response during CS (tone) before the US (shock)
turns off the CS and the US is omitted on that trial

escape trial:
failure to respond during the CS
results in presentation of the US until the response occurs, followed by termination of the US and CS

Front 15

The Discriminated Avoidance Procedure – The two-process theory of avoidance.

a.Know what the Two-Process theory of Avoidance is intended to measure and what the two processes are.

b.Acquired drive experiments.

Back 15

Q: How can the absence of something provide reinforcement for the instrumental response? (i.e., clearly, negative reinforcement is involved, but is that everything?)

Classical conditioning: fear elicited by the CS caused by pairings of the CS and US before the avoidance response was learned (i.e., CS becomes aversive).

Instrumental conditioning: negative reinforcement of the avoidance response by ending the exposure to the fear-eliciting CS

Front 16

Be able to identify some characteristics necessary for effective behavior suppression (punishment). Intensity, duration, contingency, and alternative sources of reinforcement.

Back 16

response suppression is more effective if the aversive stimulus is more intense and lasts longer.

Response contingency: aversive stimuli is most effective at reducing behavior if its contingent on the punished response.

punishment much more effective if an alternate source of positive reinforcement is available.

Front 17

Know the difference between utilitarian (Jeremy Bentham) and deontological (Immanuel Kant) views on ethics.

Back 17

a.Utilitarian: Actions are judged to be ethical or unethical based on benefits/harm ratio. In other words, an action can be ethical if circumstances require it to be so (e.g., Lying to a murderer who asks for potential location of a victim). The end justifies the means.

b.Deontological: The means are important than the ends. Lying is always bad no matter what the context is. Also, helping others is only ethical if you have the intention to help.

Front 18

b.Memory in Food Storing Birds Know what food storing birds know about the food they buried (what, where, when) See Clayton & Dickenson, 1999. What kind of memory is this?

Back 18

Shows that scrub jays remember what, where, and when food was hidden (i.e. episodic-like memory of each food-storing trial)

Front 19

In general, what do the great apes have difficulty with?

What is so special about Kanzi?

Know what the apes are capable of in terms of language acquisition.

Back 19

In general, the great apes have trouble with syntax and have a very small vocabulary. (Kanzi is the exception to this)

Kanzi:
substantial vocabulary
Evidence of syntax.
Flexibility associated with human language (i.e., familiar words in unfamiliar sentences).

Front 20

d.What is needed for language competency?

Back 20

Syntax
substantial vocabulary
familiar words in unfamiliar sentences

Front 21

How are artificial languages different from natural languages?

Back 21

a natural language is a language that is spoken, signed, or written by humans for general-purpose communication.

artificial languages - computer programming code, etc.

Front 22

What are some basic functions of language?

Back 22

Communication

Defining abstract ideas such as numbers

Understanding the unknown