Chapter 1

Question 1

data

Answer 1

Facts and figures from which conclusions can be inferred

Question 2

Theory

Answer 2

A set of statements devised to explain a group of facts

Question 3

Associationism (Aristotle)

Answer 3

The principle that memory depends on the formation of linkages between pairs of events, sensations, and ideas, such that recalling or experiencing one member of the pair elicits a memory or anticipation of the other.

Question 4

Contiguity is one of 3 universal laws of ____ proposed by Aristotle, and it means…

Answer 4

Association; Nearness in time (temporal contiguity) or space (spatial contiguity)

Question 5

Empiricism (from the Greek word Empiricus)

Answer 5

As Aristotle argued, all the ideas we have are the result of experience.

Question 6

Nativism

Answer 6

As Plato has argued, the bulk of our knowledge is inborn.

Question 7

Learning

Answer 7

The process by which changes in behavior arise as a result of an organism’s experience interacting with the world

Question 8

Memory

Answer 8

The organism’s internal record of past experiences, acquired through learning

Question 9

Psychology

Answer 9

The study of mind and behavior

Question 10

Like Aristotle, James Williams also believed that most abilities and habits are formed by our ____, especially ____ in life.

Answer 10

Experiences; early

Question 11

Stimulus

Answer 11

A sensory event that provides information about the outside world

Question 12

Classical conditioning (also called Pavlovian conditioning)

Answer 12

A type of learning in which the organism learns to respond to a previously neutral stimulus that has been repeatedly presented along with a biologically significant stimulus.

Question 13

Learning curve

Answer 13

A graph showing learning performance (the dependent variable) as a function of training time (the independent variable).

Question 14

General trend of a learning curve

Answer 14

Learning starts off slowly, gets faster in the middle of the process, and later tapers off and again slows down

Question 15

Independent variable

Answer 15

The factor that is manipulated in an experiment

Question 16

Response

Answer 16

The behavioral consequence of perception of a stimulus

Question 17

Dependent variable

Answer 17

In an experiment, the factor whose change is measured as an effect of changes in the independent variable

Question 18

Extinction (Pavlov)

Answer 18

The process of reducing a learned response to a stimulus by ceasing to pair that stimulus with a reward or punishment

Question 19

Generalization (Pavlov)

Answer 19

The transfer of past learning to novel events and problems

Question 20

Operant conditioning (Edward Thorndike, instrumental conditioning)

Answer 20

The process whereby organisms learn to make responses in order to obtain or avoid important consequences

Question 21

Law of effect (Thorndike)

Answer 21

The observation that the probability of a particular behavioral response increases or decreases depending on the consequences that have followed that response.

Question 22

Descartes, like Plato, believed that what we know is ____

Answer 22

Inborn

Question 23

Dualism (Descartes)

Answer 23

The principle that the mind and body exist as separate entities

Question 24

Reflex arc

Answer 24

An automatic pathway from a sensory stimulus to a motor response

Question 25

Behaviorism (John Watson)

Answer 25

A school of thought that says psychology should restrict itself to the study of observable behaviors (such as level presses, salivation, and other measurable actions) and not seek to infer unobservable mental processes

Question 26

Radical behaviorism (B.F.Skinner)

Answer 26

An extreme form of behaviorism holding that consciousness and free will are illusions and that even so-called higher cognitive functions are merely complex sets of stimulus-response associations.

Question 27

Evolution (Darwin)

Answer 27

Living species change over time, with new traits or characteristics emerging and being passed down from one generation to the next; natural selection is one mechanism by which evolution occurs

Question 28

Natural selection

Answer 28

A proposed mechanism for evolution which holds that species evolve when there is some trait that is inheritable, varies naturally across individuals, and increases an individual’s “fitness”, or chance of survival and reproductive success.

Question 29

Cognitive map (Edward Tolman)

Answer 29

An internal psychological representation of the spatial layout of the external world.

Question 30

Latent learning (Tolman)

Answer 30

Learning that takes place even when there is no specific motivation to obtain or avoid a specific consequence, such as food or shock; remains undetected (latent) until explicitly demonstrated at a later stage

Question 31

Forgetting (Herman Ebbinghaus)

Answer 31

The loss or deterioration of memory over time

Question 32

Retention curve (Ebbinghaus)

Answer 32

Measures how much information is retained at each point in time following learning

Question 33

General trend of a retention curve

Answer 33

Retention drops quickly in the first few days, and then tapers off more slowly with increasing delays

Question 34

Hypothesis

Answer 34

A supposition made on the basis of limited evidence as a starting point for further investigation

Question 35

Subject bias

Answer 35

The influence a subject’s prior knowledge or expectations can have (consciously or unconsciously) on the outcome of an experiment

Question 36

Blind design

Answer 36

An experimental design in which the participants do not know the hypothesis being tested or whether they are, for example, receiving an experimental treatment or a placebo

Question 37

Experimenter bias

Answer 37

The influence an experimenter’s prior knowledge or expectations can have (consciously or unconsciously) on the outcome of an experiment

Question 38

Double blind design

Answer 38

Experimental design in which neither the participant nor the experimenter knows which participants is getting which treatment or intervention.

Question 39

Placebo

Answer 39

An inactive substitute that looks just like the real drug

Question 40

Mathematical psychology (W.K. Estes)

Answer 40

A subfield of psychology that uses mathematical equations to describe the laws of learning and memory

Question 41

Connectionist models (David Rumelhart)

Answer 41

Models that represent learning and other thought processes as networks of connections between simple processing units called nodes

Question 42

Distributed representation (David Rumelhart)

Answer 42

A representation in which information is coded as a pattern of activation distributed across many different nodes