Learning Basics
A relatively stable change in behavior, based on experience.
What is Learning?
James notices that every time his favorite app sends a notification sound, he feel a small rush of excitement because it often signals a message from a friend. The notification sound itself is an example of this.
What is a Conditioned Stimulus?
When asked to verify whether "Golden Retriever is a dog" and "Otterhound is a dog" are true statements, participants were able to verify the first statement quicker than the second. This is an example of what phenomenon
What is the Typicality effect?
Learning that occurs by watching the behavior of others, rather than through direct experience or reinforcement.
What is Observational learning?
The initial process of memory creation, including sensation and the transient storage of the information in working memory.
What is Encoding?
A child of an NBA star repeatedly cries every time that she hears the sound of a basketball bouncing. After going to many practices and games, the child stops crying when he hears the sound of a bouncing ball.
What is Habituation?
A person always feels a wave of nausea after eating a specific type of sushi that once made them sick. Later, they feel slightly queasy when they smell that sushi being prepared, even if they haven’t eaten it. The nausea felt from actually eating the sushi before any smells were associated is an example of this
What is an Unconditioned response?
In a lab, participants are asked to verify statements as true or false. They respond faster when the statements are true (e.g., “A robin is a bird”) than when the statements are false (e.g., “A penguin is a bird that flies”). This phenomenon is called:
What is The true-false effect?
An employee observes a senior coworker demonstrating the proper way to write a client report, including formatting and phrasing. Later, the employee applies the same techniques when completing their own reports. This process of imitating a behavior is called
What is Modeling?
A commuter repeatedly repeats the number of their train platform to themselves while walking through a busy station so they don’t forget it before boarding.
What is Maintenance rehearsal?
After surviving a car accident, a driver shows an exaggerated startle response to sudden braking sounds, even when riding in a parked vehicle with no actual threat present.
What is Sensitization?
A teenager frequently texts during family dinner. After one particularly long texting session, their parents immediately require them to do an extra hour of chores before bedtime. Over the next few weeks, the teen texts less often during dinner.
What is Positive punishment?
A psychology student is asked to study a long list of 20 grocery items that will be used in a memory experiment. Later, during a surprise recall test, the student vividly remembers the items they wrote down at the very start and the ones they happened to double-check at the end of the list, but the middle items blur together. This pattern of recall is most likely due to:
What is the Serial position effect?
A child watches an older sibling tie their shoes several times. Without receiving verbal instructions, the child is later able to imitate the same hand movements and successfully tie their own shoes. This type of neurons is most directly involved in this ability to copy the observed behavior
What are Mirror Neurons?
To remember the name of a new colleague, a project manager notices that the colleague shares a first name with a famous author. The manager imagines the colleague writing a report alongside the author and repeats this mental image several times when introducing themselves.
What is Elaborative rehearsal?
A sea slug repeatedly exposed to a harmless touch shows a decreased gill-withdrawal response. When a strong shock is later applied, the slug once again shows a robust withdrawal response to the original touch.
What is Dishabituation?
A student frequently feels anxious when their phone vibrates during study sessions. To avoid the distraction, they put their phone on silent before studying. Over time, the student completes study sessions more consistently and experiences less anxiety during those sessions.
This principle of operant conditioning explains the student’s increased likelihood of completing study sessions.
What is Negative reinforcement?
A student learns a list of Spanish vocabulary words. The next day, they try to learn a list of French vocabulary. They find it difficult to remember the French words because the Spanish words keep coming to mind.
What is Proactive Interference?
According to this theory, learning occurs through observing others, forming expectations about outcomes, and regulating one’s own behavior based on those observations.
What is Social-cognitive theory?
A medical student studies complex anatomy diagrams while drinking a cup of coffee each morning. On the day of the exam, they drink coffee before the test and are able to recall the diagrams more accurately than when they tried recalling them on a day without coffee.
This memory phenomenon best explains the student’s improved recall under these conditions.
What is State-dependent learning?
A rat is trained to press a lever for food. After the food reward is no longer delivered, lever-pressing behavior gradually decreases across multiple trials.
What is Extinction?
A researcher trains mice to run through a maze. Each mouse receives food after pressing a lever an unpredictable number of times. Over time, the mice continue pressing the lever almost constantly, even when food stops being delivered. The reinforcement schedule described is called this.
What is a variable-ratio reinforcement schedule?
A student spends the morning memorizing the rules for soccer. After lunch, they spend several hours learning the rules for tennis. That evening, when asked to recall the soccer rules, they mix up some of the rules that are similar to the tennis rules but remember unrelated soccer rules perfectly.
Which phenomenon best explains the student’s difficulty remembering certain soccer rules?
What is Retroactive interference?
A wedding planner needs to memorize the sequence of tasks for the ceremony: seating arrangements, music cues, speeches, and floral arrangements. To do this, she mentally imagines walking through the wedding venue, assigning each task to a specific location along the path. On the day of the event, she recalls the tasks in order by mentally retracing her walk through the venue.
This memory phenomenon best explains the student’s improved recall under these conditions.
What is the Method of loci?