Psych
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Created by:
shubona on October 25, 2010
Subjects:
learning, memory, intelligence
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53 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Operant Conditioning | a type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher -Skinner |
| shaping | an operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior |
| operant behaivor | behaivor that operates on the environment to produce rewarding or punishing stimuli |
| Law of Effect | Thorndike's principle that behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely, and that behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences become less likely |
| Reinforcer | in operant conditioning, any event that strengthens the behavior it follows |
| positive reinforcement | increasing behaviors by presenting positive stimuli, such as food. A positive reinforcer is any stimulus that, when presented after a response, strengthens the response. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 329) |
| Negative reinforcement | increasing behaviors by stopping or reducing negative stimuli, such as shock. A negative reinforcer is any stimulus that, when removed after a response, strengthens the response. (Note: Negative reinforcement is not punishment.) (Myers Psychology 8e p. 329) |
| Primary Reinforcer | an innately reinforcing stimulus, such as one that satisfies a biological need |
| conditioned reinforcer | A stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer; also known as secondary reinforcer. |
| Classical Conditioning | a type of learning in which an organism comes to associate stimuli |
| Unconditioned Response | in classical conditioning, the unlearned, naturally occurring response to the unconditioned stimulus (US), such as salivation when food is in the mouth. |
| Unconditioned Stimulus | in classical conditioning, a stimulus that unconditionally—naturally and automatically—triggers a response. |
| Conditioned Response | in classical conditioning, the learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus (CS). |
| Conditioned Stimulus | in classical conditioning, an originally irrelevant stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus, comes to trigger a conditioned response |
| Acquisition | a process in classical conditioning by which the association of a neutral stimulus with a natural stimulus is first established |
| Higher-Order Conditioning | a procedure in which the conditioned stimulus in one conditioning experience is paired with a new neutral stimulus creating a second, weaker conditioned stimulus |
| Extinction | the diminishing of a conditioned response; occurs in classical conditioning when an unconditioned stimulus (US) does not follow a conditioned stimulus (CS); occurs in operant conditioning when a response is no longer reinforced. |
| Spontaneous Recovery | the reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response |
| Generalization | the tendency, once a response has been conditioned, for stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses |
| Discrimination | in classical conditioning, the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus |
| Punishment | an event that decreases the behavior that it follows |
| Modeling | the process of observing and imitating a specific behavior |
| Memory | the persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information |
| Encoding | the processing of information into the memory system |
| Storage | the retention of encoded information over time |
| retrieval | the process of getting information out of memory storage |
| Sensory Memory | the immediate, very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system |
| Short-Term Memory | activated memory that holds a few items briefly before the info is stored or forgotten |
| Long-term Memory | the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system. includes knowledge, skills, and experiences |
| Flashbulb Memory | a clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event |
| Amnesia | loss of memory |
| Implicit Memory | retention independent of conscious recollection |
| Explicit Memory | memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and "declare" |
| Three Sins of Forgetting | 1: Absent-mindedness: inattention to details leads to encoding failure 2: Transience: storage decay over time 3: Blocking: inaccessibility of stored info |
| Three Sins of Distortion | 1: Misattribution: confusing the source of info 2: Suggestibility: the lingering effects of misinformation 3: Bias: belief-colored recollections |
| Sin of Intrusion | Persistance: unwanted memories |
| General Intelligence | a general intelligence factor that according to Spearman and others underlies specific mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence test. |
| Savant Syndrome | a condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability has an exceptional specific skill, such as in computation or drawing |
| Gardner's Eight INtelligences | linguistic, logico-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalistic |
| Creativity | the ability to produce novel and valuable ideas |
| Emotional Intelligence | the ability to percieve, understand, manage, and use emotions |
| Mental Age | a measure of intelligence test performance devised by Binet; the chronological age that most typically corresponds to a given level of performance |
| Stanford-Binet | a widely used American revision of Binet's original intelligence test |
| Intelligence Quotient | defined originally as the ratio of mental age (ma) to chronological age (ca) multiplied by 100 (thus, IQ = ma/ca × 100). On contemporary intelligence tests, the average performance for a given age is assigned a score of 100. |
| Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale | the WAIS is the most widely used intelligence test; contains verbal and performance (nonverbal) subtests. |
| Standardization | defining meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested group |
| Normal Curve | the symmetrical bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many physical and psychological attributes. Most scores fall near the average, and fewer and fewer scores lie near the extremes. |
| Reliability | the extent to which a test yields consistent results, as assessed by the consistency of scores on two halves of the test, on alternate forms of the test, or on retesting |
| Validity | the extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to |
| Content Validity | the extent to which a test samples the behavior that is of interest |
| Predictive Validity | The success with which a test predicts the behavior it is designed to predict; it is assessed by computing the correlation between test scores and the criterion behavior. |
| Mental Retardation | a condition of limited mental ability, indicated by an intelligence score of 70 or below and difficulty in adapting to the demands of life; varies from mild to profound |
| Down Syndrome | a condition of retardation and associated physical disorders caused by an extra chromosome in one's genetic makeup |
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