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AP Psych Mid Term

Terms in this set (146)

Something that excites an organism to functional activity
Stimulus
The action as a product of the stimulus
Response
Stimulus that elicits a reflex response
Unconditioned stimulus
An unlearned response to a stimulus
Unconditioned response
Previously neutral stimulus, begins to elicit the unconditioned response through subsequent pairings
Conditioned stimulus
The learned response to the conditioned stimulus, always same as unconditioned response, if its not the same, no learning occurs
Conditioned response
Tendency for a conditioned response to be evoked by stimuli that are similar to the conditioned response (the word ban or tan)
Generalization
Tendency to distinguish between a conditioned stimuli and similar stimuli
Discrimination
When conditioned stimuli loses its ability to elicit the conditioned response
Extinction
When the conditioned stimuli randomly elicits the conditioned response after extinction
Spontaneous recovery
A process that results in a relatively consistent change in behavior or behavior potential, a relatively permanent change in an organism's behavior due to experience
Learning
A type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if by a punisher
Operant conditioning
Forms associations between stimuli, requires respondent behaviors
Classical conditioning
Skinners work talked about this, throndikes principle that behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely, and that behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences become less likely
Law of effect
A chamber containing a bar or key that an animal can manipulate to obtain a food or water reinforcer, attached devices record the rate of bar pressing or key pecking
Operant chamber (Skinner box)
In operant conditioning, any event that strengthens the behavior it follows
Reinforcement
An operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior
Shaping
In operant conditioning, a stimulus that elicits a response after association with reinforcement ( in contrast to related stimuli not associated with reinforcement)
Discriminative stimulus
Increasing behaviors by presenting positive reinforcers, any stimulus that, when presented after a response, strengthens the response, adds a desirable stimulus
Positive reinforcement
Increasing behaviors by stopping or reducing negative stimuli, any stimulus that, when removed after a response, strengthens the response
Negative reinforcement
An innately reinforcing stimulus, such as one that resolves biological needs
Primary reinforcer
A stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer (aka secondary reinforcer)
Conditioned reinforcer
A pattern that defines how often a desired response will be reinforced
Reinforcement schedule
Reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs
Continuous reinforcement
Reinforcing a response only part of the time, results in slower acquisition of a response, but much greater resistance to extinction than does continuous reinforcement
Partial (intermittent) reinforcement
In operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses
Fixed-ratio scheduling
In operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response after an unpredictable amount of responses
Variable-ratio schedule
In operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a certain amount of time has passed
Fixed-interval schedule
In operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response in unpredictable time intervals
Variable-interval schedule
An event that tends to decrease the behavior it follows
Punishment
By adding positive stimuli, behavior increases (gold star for making the bed)
Positive reinforcement
By taking away negative stimuli, behavior increases (take away a chore if you receive an A on a test)
Negative reinforcement
By adding an aversive stimulus, the behavior decreases (detention for a UV)
Positive punishment
By removing a desirable stimulus, behavior decreases (taking away phone as punishment for bad grades)
Negative punishment
Any mental activity involved in the representation and processing of knowledge (thinking, remembering, perceiving, and language use)
Cognition
Learning that becomes apparent only when there's an incentive to demonstrate it (learning that happens by accident)
Latent learning
Representation of the overall layout of a location, useful in recognizing and identifying features, finding important objects in environment, plan routs (think learning the way to and from school)
Cognitive maps
Sudden awareness of the solution of a problem (think of the video of the apes escaping the cage)
Insight learning
The desire to perform a behavior effectively for its own sake, diminishes when an extrinsic reward is applied to the behavior
Intrinsic motivation
The overuse of bribes, leading people to see their actions as externally controlled rather than internally appealing
Overjustification
Someone believing they have control of their personal successes and failures, do better in jobs where they can set their own pace, more health conscious and seek medical attention when needed, less prone to stress-related illnesses, anxiety, or depression, high achievement and expects to perform well
Internal locus of control
Someone believing success or failure is a result of luck, change, fate, or powerful others, tends to be negative, gives up easily, not try too hard, will not initiate contact or attempt to repair damaged relationships, work better when pace is automated, feels victimized by illness and stress and take less preventive action, correlated with emotional instability, anxiety, and neuroticism
External locus of control
Process of learning new responses by watching the behavior of another, ability to learn through vicarious reinforcement and vicarious punishment
Observational learning
When is behavior most influential?
Has reinforcing consequences, model is perceived positively, liked, and respected, there are perceived similarities between model and observer, observer is rewarded for paying attention, behavior is visible and salient, behavior is within observer's range of competence
Socially constructed concept, dependent on attributes that enable success in a particular culture at a particular time, defined as the ability to learning from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations
Intelligence
Formulated by Howard Gardner, there are 8 intelligences, each person has all 8 in some capacity, most people can develop an adequate competency, usually interact
Multiple intelligences theory
What are the 8 intelligences by Gardner?
Verbal/linguistic, logical/mathematical, visual/spatial, bodily/kinesthetic, musical/rhythmic, naturalist, interpersonal, intrapersonal
What is the verbal/linguistic intelligence?
Being word smart/book smart, knowing through language
What is the logical/mathematical intelligence?
Number smart/logic smart, numbers, math, and logic to make sense of the world
What is the visual/spatial intelligence?
Art smart/picture smart, knowing through what we see and imagine
What is the bodily/kinesthetic intelligence?
Body smart/movement smart, knowing through physical movement
What is the musical/rhythmic intelligence?
Music smart/sound smart, knowing through vibration and sound
What is the naturalist intelligence?
Nature smart/environment smart, knowing in and through encounters with the natural world
What is the interpersonal intelligence?
People smart/group smart, knowing through working with people and special development of social skills
What is the intrapersonal intelligence?
Self smart/introspection smart, human self-reflective abilities by which we can objectively think about our own lives
What is the triarchic theory?
Made by stern berg, we have analytical, creative, and practical intelligence
What is analytical intelligence?
Academic problem solving, assessed by intelligence tests with one correct answer
What is creative intelligence?
Shown by reacting adaptively to novel situations and generating novel ideas
What is practical intelligence?
Required for everyday, ill-defined tasks that often have multiple solutions, contextual, how one interacts with outside world, street smarts
What are the four aspects of emotional intelligence?
Thought of by salovey and Mayer, ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions
What is the perceive aspect of emotional intelligence?
Recognize faces, music, and stories
What is the understand aspect of emotional intelligence?
Predict them and how they change and blend
What is the manage aspect of emotional intelligence?
To know how to express them in varied situations
What is the using emotions aspect of emotional intelligence?
To enable adaptive or creative thinking
Defined as logic, rational thought, problem solving, and linguistic skills
Traditional definition of intelligence
Defined as the ability to validly reason with emotions and to use emotions to enhance thought
Emotional intelligence
What is spearmans theory of general intelligence?
Factor of general intelligence underlying all intelligent perofmrance
Who broke intelligences into two components and what were those components?
Cattell> crystallized intelligence, fluid intelligence
Knowledge a person already has and ability to access it, allows you to cope with life's recurring, concrete challenges
Crystallized intelligence
Ability to see complex relationships and solve problems, allows you to attach a novel, abstract problems
Fluid intelligence
Process of defining meaningful scores relative to a pretested group
Standardization
Yields dependably consistent scores
Reliability
Does it measure what it should (ex. Is SAT predictive of intelligence?)
Validity
Evaluates whether or not the test is actually about the content being measured (drivers tests and final exams)
Content validity
Evaluates what we want from intelligence tests
Predictive validity
What did Alfred Binet do?
Sought to create an objective test to identify children likely to have difficulty in a regular classroom, mental age, tested reasoning and problem solving
What did Lewis terman do?
Wanted to modify test to meet CA needs, becomes the Stanford-Binet IQ test, sprung from eugenics movement (measuring human traits to encourage/discourage reproduction)
What is the low extreme of intelligence?
Mental retardation/intellectual disabilities, down syndrome
What is the high extreme of intelligence?
People who score of 135 on IQ test, typically pose deep philosophical questions, grasp essential elements of a complex problem, consider many possible interpretations of a question
What are explicitly memories?
Declarative, conscious memories of facts and experiences, form through effortful processing
What are implicit memories?
Non-declarative, memories of skills and classically conditioned associations, formed by automatic processing
What is effortful processing?
Requires conscious effort and attention, used in explicit memory
What is automatic processing?
Happens without human awareness, used in implicit memory
What are the two types of sensory memories?
Iconic and echoic
A fleeting sense of memory of visual stimuli, images at fraction of a second
Iconic memory
A fleeting sense of memory of auditory stimuli, sounds, 3-4 seconds
Echoic memory
Retain about 7 information tidbits (digits, words, letters etc), only lasts a couple of minutes
Short term memory
What are the two levels of processing?
Shallow and deep
Encodes on a very basic level such as words letters or at an intermediate level such as words sounds
Shallow processing
Encodes semantically, based on the meaning of words
Deep processing
What are the three strategies for effortful processing?
Chunking, mnemonics, hierarchies
Organizing items into familiar, manageable units, enables us to recall more easily, occurs pretty naturally
Chunking
Memory aids that use vivid memory, requires you to memorize a jingle, more easily remember concrete, visualizable words that abstract words
Mnemonics
Organize your chunks into hierarchies (categories)
Hierarchies
What is the role of the frontal lobe in the explicit-memory system?
Replaying past experiences and working memory processing, recalling and holding things in working memory (passwords), calling up a visual scene
What is the role of the hippocampus in explicit-memory system?
Processes memories for storage (loading zone and save button), brain replays events of day during sleep, verbal info, visual info, spatial info, names and faces
what is the cerebellum's role in the implicit-memory system?
Key role in forming and storing implicit memories by classical conditioning
What is the basal ganglia's role in the implicit-memory system?
Deep brain structures involved in motor movement, facilitators formation of our procedural memories for skills, receive input from cortex but doesn't return the favor of sending information back, helps explain why we can type
What is the role of the amygdaloid in memory?
Initiates a memory trace in frontal lobs and basal ganglia
Clear memory of an emotionally significant moment of event, remembering what you were doing when something big happened (ex. When MJ died)
Flashbulb memories
The increase in a cell's firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation and is believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory
Long term potentiation (LTP)
A measure of memory in which the person needs to only identify items previously learned
Recognition
A measure in which the person must retrieve information that was learned in an earlier time, not in your current awareness
Recall
The activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations in memory, Asking leading questions to get people to say what you want (ex. Sights and sounds in theaters make you want popcorn)
Priming
Memory retrieval that is most efficient when an individual is in the same state of consciousness as they were when the memory was formed
State-dependent memory
The tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one's current good or bad mood, explains being sad and thinking of more sad things
Mood-congruent memory
The improved recall of specific episodes or information when the context present at encoding and retrieval are the same (forgetting why you walked into a room, and then going back to your original room to remember what you were thinking about going back into the new room)
Context-dependent memory
A measure of memory that assesses the amount of time saved when reviewing learning material again
Relearning
Our tendency to recall best the last and first items on a list
Serial position effect
An inability to form new memories
Anterograde amnesia
An inability to retrieve information from one's past
Retrograde amnesia
What is the difference between encoding failure and storage decay?
Encoding failure- never knew the information to begin with bc it was never able to properly encode in the brain

Storage decay- it was encoded once, but over time the information goes away due to lack of use
Disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information
Proactive interference
Disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information
Retroactive interference
When previously learned information facilitates the learning of new information
Positive transfer
Defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories
Repression
When we fill in the gaps in our memories that alter the actual memory itself
Misinformation
Attributing to the wrong source an event we have experiences, heard about, read about, or imagined
Source amnesia
The eerie sense that "I've experienced this before", cues from the current situation may unconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience
Deja vu
What are some ways of using memory research in different courses (studying tips)?
Rehearse repeatedly, make the material meaningful, active retrieval clues, use mnemonic devices, minimize interference, sleep more, test your own knowledge
Mental groupings of similar objects, events, ideas and people
Concepts
Mental images or best example that incorporates all the features we associate with a category, people recognize concepts more readily if they see this
Prototypes
Step by step procedures for a guaranteed solution
Algorithms
Speedier, but more error prone algorithms (educated guesses)
Heuristics
Tendency to search for information that confirms one's biases, people often employ strategies to elicit information from people that supports our initial beliefs
Confirmation bias
Inability to see a problem from a new perspective
Fixation
What are the two types of fixation?
Mental set and functional fixedness
Tendency to approach a problem in a particular way, usually one that had been successful in the past; using problem solving strategies on a problem that you've used on other problems before
Mental set
Tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions
Functional fixedness
Judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent particular prototypes (stereotypes can lead us astray)
Representativeness heuristic
Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory (the first thing that comes to mind when someone says 9/11> asking to fly on 9/11 or 9/12)
Availability heuristic
The tendency to be more confident than correct; to overestimate what our performances was, is, or will be
Overconfidence
Clinging to initial beliefs even after the reason you hold this view has been discredited
Belief perserverance
Field of study that seeks to describe the way language is structured and used
Grammar, system of rules in a given language that enable us to communicate with and understand others
What are the four structures of grammar?
Phonology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics
What is phonology?
A system of sounds, the study of sounds that are put together to form words
What is syntax?
Word order and grammar, way in which words are strung together to form sentences
What is semantics?
Word meanings, studying the meaning of words and their changes over time
What are pragmatics?
The analysis of language in terms of the situational context with which utterances are made, including the knowledge and beliefs of the speaker and the relation between speaker and listener (being asked how are you at the grocery store)
At what point does the babbling stage of babies start?
4 months
At what point does the one word stage of babies start?
Around one year
At what point doers the two word stage of babies start?
Around two years
Using words incorrectly to cover a wide range of objects (using cat for all furry things with a long tail)
Over-extend
Only applying a word to one specific object (doggie only refers to his/her own dog)
Under-extend
What are the brain areas involved in language?
Broca's area, primary motor cortex, supramarginal gyrus, angular gyrus, primary auditory area, wernicke's area
The ability to hear differences in phonemes even in languages that we are not exposed to
Language acquisition
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