Chapter 1

Question 1

Learning

Answer 1

The process where changes in behavior arise as a result of experience interacting with the world

Question 2

Empiricist

Answer 2

Humans are shared primarily by their experience (nurture)

Question 3

Which philosophers held an empiricist view?

Answer 3

Aristotle and Locke

Question 4

What are Aristotle’s three principles of association?

Answer 4

• contiguity
• frequency
• similarity

Question 5

Explain Aristotle’s Rule of Contiguity

Answer 5

Experiences near each other in time/space are associated

Question 6

Explain Aristotle’s Rule of Frequency

Answer 6

Experiences repeated often are connected more strongly

Question 7

Explain Aristotle’s Rule of Similarity

Answer 7

Experiences similar to one another are associated

Question 8

Which philosophers held a nativist view?

Answer 8

Plato and Descartes

Question 9

Explain the modern view on nature versus nurture

Answer 9

We are shaped by both nature and nurture
- people are less likely to be strict empiricist or nativists

Question 10

Give an example of the modern view

Answer 10

Mathematical Abilities
- Nature: some people are naturally better at mathematical reasoning
- Nurture: there are certain steps on follows to solve an addition problem

Question 11

Experimental Psychology

Answer 11

Testing psychological theories by experimentation rather than observation of natural events
- transition of the study of learning from philosophy to a natural science

Question 12

Herman Ebbinghaus

Answer 12

First to study memory scientifically
- empirical: collected data
- experimental: manipulated the IV to observe effects on DV
- quantitate: expressed observations numerically

limit: studies were only on himself

Question 13

Describe Herman Ebbinghaus’ memory experiments

Answer 13

• Studied a list of 3 letter non-sense words (couldn’t be real words because he could more easily remember words he was familiar with)
• Put list away
• Came back to list and tried to remember as many as possible
• continued the process until he remembered all words
• collected data on time savings

Question 14

Time Savings

Answer 14

The amount of time it took to learn the words the second time minus the original amount of time it took to learn them
- strong if the delay between learning and relearning is short
- as the delay increases, savings decreases

Question 15

Memory

Answer 15

The record of our past experiences, which are acquired through learning

Question 16

Associationism

Answer 16

Memory depends on forming linkages between pairs of events/sensations/ideas so that recalling one of the pair elicits a memory of the other
- Defined by Aristotle

Question 17

Nativism

Answer 17

Humans are shaped primarily by their inherited nature

Question 18

The Forgetting Curve

Answer 18

Most of what we learn, we forget/loose very rapidly

Question 19

The Retention Curve

Answer 19

How much information is retained after a specific point in time following learning

Question 20

Describe Pavlov’s Work

Answer 20

• studied animal learning
• developed classical conditioning
• explained extinction and generalization

Question 21

Classical Conditioning

Answer 21

Learn that a specific stimulus predicts and event, causing a behavioral response to the stimulus

Question 22

Extinction

Answer 22

The weakening of a learned response when the specific stimulus no longer predicts the event

Question 23

Generalization

Answer 23

The ability to transfer past learning to similar situations
- ringing a different but similar bell may also make the dogs mouth water

Question 24

Operant Conditioning

Answer 24

Organisms learn to make responses in order to obtain/avoid consequences

Question 25

Law of Effect

Answer 25

The probability of a particular behavioral response increases/decreases depending on the consequences that follow - increased if response led to a desirable outcome - decreases if the response led to an undesirable consequence

Question 26

Behaviorism Belief

Answer 26

Psychology should restrict itself to the study of observable behaviors and avoid internal mental processes

Question 27

Who is considered the founder of behaviorism? Describe his studies

Answer 27

Watson - studied learning in rats by placing them at the entrance to a maze and rewarding them if they found the exit - stimulus response learning

Question 28

What are the principles of behaviorism?

Answer 28

- Focus on behavior over mental processes (mental processes are irrelevant) - Empiricism: should be studied experimentally - Supports evolutionary perspective (what works for rats works for humans, all organisms are the same) - Quantitate - Supports Law of Effect

Question 29

What is the problem with behaviorism?

Answer 29

It can’t explain all of human learning - doesn’t explain: - the formation of a cognitive map - latent learning - reasoning

Question 30

Latent Learning

Answer 30

Learning that takes place even when there is no specific motivation to obtain or avoid a specific consequence - challenges the behaviorist assumption of stimulus response learning

Question 31

Cognitive Map

Answer 31

An internal representation gif the spatial layout of the external world

Question 32

Describe Tolman’s Experiment to show Watson’s rats were doing more than stimulus response learning

Answer 32

- if you block the rats route in the maze, they find a new one - if you start the rat at a new part of the maze, they still find the exit the rats have goals and intentions