APSY2032 Midterm

Question 1

learning

Answer 1

A relatively permanent change in behavior or mental state that results from experience.

Question 2

methods for experimental study of learning

Answer 2

animal studies, neurological studies, psychological research in the lab, educational research in the classroom

Question 3

fixed schedules: post-reinforcement pauses

Answer 3

The rate of behavior increases as the time of reinforcement approaches and decreases after reinforcement.

Question 4

challenges of using conditioning in the classroom

Answer 4

• external reinforcement can undermine internal motivation
• individual differences in what students find reinforcing
• what if the desired behavior is never displayed?

Question 5

frontal lobe

Answer 5

movement and high level cognition

Question 6

parietal lobe

Answer 6

sensory information and spatial orientation

Question 7

temporal lobe

Answer 7

auditory information, memory

Question 8

occipital lobe

Answer 8

vision

Question 9

brain plasticity

Answer 9

ability of brain to reorganize its structure or function (learning new tasks, relocating lost functions to new areas)

Question 10

synaptic plasticity

Answer 10

the brain’s ability to reorganize and change its wiring

Question 11

critical and sensitive periods

Answer 11

A time window when a particular skill is most easily acquired and when the effects of environment on the developing brain are especially strong.

Question 12

left hemisphere

Answer 12

language; better at processing info in a sequential, detailed, piece-by-piece way

Question 13

right hemisphere

Answer 13

spatial cognition; better at processing info in a holistic, integrative way

Question 14

shaping

Answer 14

reinforcement of successive approximations of a desired behavior

Question 15

mirror neurons

Answer 15

active both when we observe a certain behavior and when we do it ourselves

Question 16

observational learning

Answer 16

observing and replicating behavior of others, often following the analysis of consequences (social cues)

Question 17

enactive learning

Answer 17

learning from the consequences of one’s own actions (as in behaviorism/operant conditioning)

Question 18

vicarious learning

Answer 18

learning from the consequences of someone else’s actions

Question 19

4 key processes underlying observational learning

Answer 19

attention, retention, reproduction, motivation

Question 20

factors affecting likelihood of observational learning

Answer 20

model status (prestige and competence), observer’s developmental status, observer’s self-efficacy

Question 21

self-efficacy

Answer 21

personal beliefs about one’s capabilities

Question 22

What affects the development of self-efficacy?

Answer 22

previous successes and failures, messages from others, successes and failures of others

Question 23

reciprocal causation

Answer 23

the interaction of environment, person, and behavior in Bandura’s theory

Question 24

executive functioning

Answer 24

cognitive system that provides strategic control and regulation of thought and action; a supervisory system that can override automatic responses in favor of actions based on plans or intentions

Question 25

components of executive functions

Answer 25

inhibitory control, attention shifting/flexibility, working memory

Question 26

type of memory that does not rely on the hippocampus

Answer 26

non-declarative memory

Question 27

assimilation

Answer 27

responding to/interpreting an object/event in a way that is consistent with an existing scheme

Question 28

accommodation

Answer 28

modify an existing scheme to account for a new object/event, or form an entirely new scheme to deal with it

Question 29

internalization

Answer 29

children gradually internalize processes they first use in collaboration with others until they can use these processes on their own (social activities -> internal mental activities)

Question 30

attention

Answer 30

focused cognitive processing of particular aspects of the environment; involves both automatic responses and conscious control

Question 31

control processes in WM

Answer 31

organization, retrieval, maintenance rehearsal

Question 32

word length effect

Answer 32

being able to remember a greater number of short items than long items

Question 33

declarative knowledge

Answer 33

nature of how things are, were, will, or might be

Question 34

procedural knowledge

Answer 34

how to do things (either physically or mentally)

Question 35

explicit knowledge

Answer 35

easily recalled and explained

Question 36

implicit knowledge

Answer 36

affects people's behavior even though they can't consciously retrieve and inspect it

Question 37

serial learning curve

Answer 37

people learn the first few items and last few items more quickly and easily than they learn the middle items; this challenges whether WM and LTM are really different

Question 38

meaningful learning

Answer 38

internal organization, elaboration, visual imagery

Question 39

encoding specificity

Answer 39

retrieval of info tends to be easier when both internal and external conditions are similar to those that existed when a person first acquired the info

Question 40

misinformation effect

Answer 40

memory for an event may become distorted when people subsequently receive inaccurate info about the event; reconstructing what "must" have happened

Question 41

reasons for forgetting

Answer 41

decay, interference, inhibition, suppression, failure to retrieve, construction error, failure to store or consolidate