Psych Learning

Acquisition - This is the process of learning a new response when an organism produces a (CR) to a (CS)

Single Trial Learning - Learning circumstances are particularly intense. Learning can sometimes occur after just one paring of the (CS) and the unconditioned stimulus.

Stimulus Generalization - organisms learn a response to one particular stimulus, similar stimulus will also tend to elicit the same response.

Stimulus Discrimination - organisms can also learn to distinguish between one particular stimulus and other similar stimuli

Extinction - gradual disappearance of a (CR) that occurs when the (CS) is continually present w/o (UCS)

Spontaneous Recovery - period of time has passed since extinction, if the (CS) is presented once more then the (CR) may temporarily reappear

Learning by association

Learning to make a response through reinforcement or punishment. Consequences of behavior.

Response of conditioning is instantaneous

Placed cats in puzzle box w/ spring to open door in the middle of cage. The cats would scramble inside awhile and it took 40 tries to open the door. There was no insight, instead cats were conducting a trial and error system.

Thorndike proposed the law of effect which states the responses resulting in rewarding consequences are strengthened or learned while response resulting in punishing consequences are weaken or never learned. What we do depends on effect.

Designed a learning chamber; operate conditioning chamber to observe animal behavior. It had a lever that could be pushed or disk that could be pecked this apparatus could measure animal's reinforcement from food.

• Reinforcement add +/- stimulus
• Positive Reinforcement - adding a + rein, after desired action
• Negative Reinforcement - something aversive is taken away after desired action is produced.

• All types of reinforcement is more likely to increase the likelihood of desired action.
•                   Pos. Stimulus     Neg. Stimulus
• Add             Positive Rein.     Punishment
• Remove       Punishment        Negative Rein.

Shaping - involves systematic reinforcement of successive proximation of the desired behavior.

• Continuous reinforcement schedule ex. Candy machine
• Partial reinforcement schedule - sometimes depends on # of responses

• ratio schedule: # of respones
• interval schedule: timed responses

When Skinner gave rats food it was considered a primary reinforcer (basic biological need)

Secondary reinforcer - doesn't satisfy biological need but acquired power by it's connection with other enforcers ex. high grades.

discriminative stimulus signals that + rein. will be enforced.

occurs if an organism repetitively respond when rein. is extinct. If an organism is on a continuous reinforcement schedule extinction occurs very rapidly while partial reinforcement schedule occurs very slow and you're more likely to resist extinction.

The behaviors of animals, who are experiencing operate conditioning tends to drift more towards instinctive behaviors that are related to the task at hand.

Beland & Beland train animals for entertainment purposes, found that animals have their own significant predisposition for their nature.

Nature takes cuts and effect behavior.

Observing and imitating the behavior of a model.

• Albert Bandura (cognitive)
• Bo bo doll study
• Classical studies in early 1960s children observed adults beat up a bobo doll. Bandura wanted to see whether or not the children would imitate their behavior. Child brought into a large room to draw while an adult was punching + verbal phrases to the bobo doll.

• Room#1 observation room
• Room #2 enticing room w/ toys child not allowed to play w/ frustration room
• Room#3 imitation room - children repeated the same phrases and movements as adults in observation room. Imitating behavior.

Later in the studies they made a film & cartoon and it also led to observational learning. Trying to link the violence influence of mass media.

• These children were participating in observational learning w/o reinforcement.
• There's not enough negative connections to violence in mass media for children to be comprehended. The behavior isn't realistic.

Vicarious reinforcement - occurs when you observe a model receiving reinforcement.

Vicarious punishment - occurs when you observe a model receiving punishment.

Intrinsic punishment & reinforcement - from within.

3 fundamental processes

• encoding - transforming sensory stimuli into a form that's placed in a memory
• storage - maintain memory
• revival - locating and using

• 3 stages
• sensory, short, long term

information from the environment > sensory (info. lost within seconds.) > short term (lost within 30 seconds.) > < long term memory

holds information in a pure short time

fades very rapidly

audition echos in a memory

Information is encoded on a more elaborate way and is dominated by acoustic encoding.

published article that people averaged around 7 +/- 2 things in a short term memory.

Meaningful groupings - chunks

grows when you're older 3 +/- 5

focused on under lying meaning not focused on irrelevant details

distinguished pennies through the semantic encoding process. Capacity of long term memory is unlimited 

• Primacy effect first 3
• Recency effect recall words at end of list

we use our existing information to organize new information as we receive it and to fill in gaps in the information we encode and retrieve. 

Experiments - participants read stories of historical passages one of Adolf Hitler and a fictitious character tested on discrimination of Jewish people never mentioned but "should have been" cues sway you to conform into something different.

Eyewitness testimony - is inconclusive by reconstructive memory. As a society, we value this very much. Memories are reconstructive and after the reality challenges validity of personal memories

APA definition of intelligence

ability to understand complex idea to adapt effectively to the environment to learn from experience, to engage in various forms of reasoning and to overcome obstacles by taking thought.

• Compliant/Analytical intelligence- cognitive processes that constitute the basis of intelligence
• Experiential/creative intelligence - intelligence as it is influenced by and defined by one's surrounding cultural bound.

Gardner's theories of multiple intelligences. Different specialized parts of the brain that engage in tasks. Intelligences have evolved. Current psychology is caused by our past pressure.

• Linguistic - language and verbal skill
• Logical/Mathematical - ability to understand math and quantitative skills
• Musical - appreciating and understanding
• Spatial - perceiving form accurately and making spatial-visual manipulations
• Bodily/Kinesthetic - manual dexterity and skillfully controlling the body
• Interpersonal - understanding psychology of others
• Intrapersonal - understanding psychology of yourself.
• Naturalistic - understanding natural world nature and being well able to survive in the natural environment (existential intelligence design for spiritual

biological factors - twin studies compare intelligence test higher correlation 50% fraternal twins 100% identical. Identical twins raised separately are more similar than fraternal twins that were raised together.