exam 1

Question 1

what is learning

Answer 1

a relatively permanent change in knowledge or behavior resulting from experience, you can learn and forget and learning can change but it has to endure for some time

Question 2

why is learning knowledge and behavior

Answer 2

because the essence of science is publicly observable

Question 3

how can you prove knowledge or learning

Answer 3

run experiments to rule everything out to prove that knowledge is there

Question 4

what is reductionism

Answer 4

take a complicated system and look for the underlying building blocks

Question 5

what are the themes of learning

Answer 5

1) learning involves formation of connections and associations
2) learning involves enduring changes in neural connections (rewiring of cell structures in brain)

Question 6

thread of philosophy and learning

Answer 6

Descartes said that animals are reflex machines and said that things can be taken apart and studied (excluded humans because of souls), Locke Hyme and Stuart Mill were British empiricists who were interested in where knowledge comes from and decided it was from experience and the physical world (associations)

Question 7

thread of natural science and learning

Answer 7

Pavlov= reflexes in animals can be studied in labs (just dogs, not people)
Darwin= we are products of evolution; we are related to the other creatures of earth

Question 8

what is parsimony or Morgan Canon’s Law

Answer 8

means of keeping explanations as simple as possible, never assume a higher mental process when a lower one will do

Question 9

what are the characteristics of learning

Answer 9

1) happens continuously
2) often no intentions of learning
3) associations
4) neuron connection changes

Question 10

why should we study non-humans

Answer 10

1) simpler systems (nervous system, no culture or language or things that can influence responses)
2) provide motivation (no incentives in human studies, cannot give incentives or consequences)
3) eliminate demand effects (humans react to the perceived expectations of the experiment)
4) can’t use surveys (not a good research method)
5) can control non-humans past experiences

Question 11

what is introspection

Answer 11

asking questions to uncover knowledge

Question 12

what are the problems with introspection

Answer 12

1) thinking you don’t know but you do (inaccurate access to state of knowledge)
2) thinking you know but you don’t
3) we have to look at behavior to gauge someones knowledge because of the inaccuracy of introspection

Question 13

why does behavior not equal knowledge

Answer 13

1) learning, but no behavior change (ex. other outside reasons for a poor test grade other than lack of knowledge)
2) behavior change but no learning (ex. other outside reasons for good performance on a test)

Question 14

why is control necessary in research

Answer 14

1) to rule out alternatives

2) to produce best conditions for learning

Question 15

what are the three questions about learning

Answer 15

1) conditions: what is required for learning to occur?
2) content: what is stored in memory?
3) performance: how is the knowledge turned into behavior?

Question 16

what is habituation

Answer 16

responding declines to repeated single event (most common)

show general habituation curve with tones (test)

Question 17

what is sensitization

Answer 17

responding increases to repeated single event

Question 18

if a rat is no longer responding to a stimulus what other possibilities must a researcher rule out

Answer 18

motor fatigue (tired), sensory fatigue (can no longer feel the stimulus), spontaneous recovery (behavior comes back after time apart with no cause)

Question 19

what is dishabituation

Answer 19

change of stimulus or context to prove that the response loss was learned

Question 20

what are the ways to dishabituate

Answer 20

1) new stimulus
2) change appearance
3) spontaneous recovery (spend time apart or wait)
4) change location

Question 21

what is the Coolidge effect

Answer 21

animals should mate with different partners overtime to keep the frequency of mating high

Question 22

what memory does cramming improve and what memory does spaced apart learning imporve

Answer 22

cramming improves short term memory, whereas spaced apart learning improves long term memory

Question 23

why does response go up after the first trial

Answer 23

because arousal increases and total response= S-R strength x arousal level, part of the reason you don’t respond as time goes on is because your arousal goes down overtime (sleeping)

Question 24

what does the Dual Process Theory say about a gradual increase in intensity

Answer 24

minimizes sensitization (less arousal)

Question 25

what is an Aplysia how can you show habituation in an Aplysia why study Aplysia how can you rule out sensory and motor fatigue

Answer 25

sea slug has a withdraw reflex (goes into shell after being poked) that is its way of showing habituation (gill/siphon) Aplysia have neurons that are big enough to see so they are used in studies rule out sensory and motor fatigue by adding mild tail shock then poking

Question 26

how does the Aplysia show short term and long term habituation

Answer 26

short term: (poke poke poke poke) habituate quickly, but wait and response comes back long term: (poke...poke...) initial loss of response takes longer (habituate slower) but wait and response doesn't come back (they're habituated)

Question 27

difference between short term and long term in neurons

Answer 27

short term: functional change, circuit is deactivated because of the depletion of neurotransmitter (no more chemical to travel from neuron) long term: doesn't deplete the chemicals because of the time between stimuli, nervous system rewires itself in response to a stimulus, reduction in number of presynaptic terminals

Question 28

how are active and inactive events handled in STM (short term memory)

Answer 28

1) events that are already active in short term memory are ignored (expected event) and there is no response to the event and no additional learning (ex. seeing Robbins in class) 2) events which are inactive in STM are attended to (surprising events) they are responded to and learned about (ex. seeing Robbins in grocery store)

Question 29

how do things become active in STM

Answer 29

1) the event just happened (self-generated priming: making a mental event active) 2) something else reminds you of the event (retrieval generated priming)

Question 30

short term habituation explained in Memory Model

Answer 30

(tone tone tone tone) fast habituation and poor retention, self-generated priming: massed trials (expected event), response declines quickly and there is no further learning, the rat is not forming the box-tone association

Question 31

long term habituation explained in Memory Model

Answer 31

(tone....tone...tone) slow habit and good retention, no self generated priming, more startle response in the beginning but there is more learning (associating the tone with the box), retrieval generated priming

Question 32

what is drug tolerance and how is it related to the memory model

Answer 32

drug tolerance is with repeated use of the same dose of drug has less and less effect and to get the same initial effect you had you need more drug context -> drug, in a certain setting your body expects drugs or alcohol so they can take more of the drug or alcohol (if you switch the context you remove the tolerance)

Question 33

how is morphine tolerance tested in rats

Answer 33

morphine is pain relief, scientists use the tail flick or the hot plate test (tail in hot water or body on hot plate) if you give the rats morphine they keep the tail in the hot water longer

Question 34

how do rats react to repeated doses of morphine

Answer 34

m....m....m...m... with repeated doses of morphine the rats get tolerant to it (habituate) and the tail flick time is shorter again

Question 35

difference between where habituation happens in dual process theory and memory model

Answer 35

where the habituation happens: dual process S(->) R (context independent) memory model (memory -> S) -> R (habituation is context specific) we are unsure which is right, could be that there are different ways to habituate

Question 36

what behavior do infants show that can be studied to tell us what they know

Answer 36

infants look at things

Question 37

why did pavlov change his studies from the digestive system to reaction

Answer 37

because of "psychic secretions" dogs began to salivate when Pavlov just walked by

Question 38

what are the CS US UR and CR

Answer 38

US: event in the world that causes a response in a species (unconditioned stimulus) UR: natural response to an event in the world that you didnt learn (unconditioned response) CS: stimulus a researcher implements in attempt to get a natural response (conditioned stimulus) CR: réponse to the conditioned stimulus, learn to respond this way (conditioned response)

Question 39

what are conditioned responses considered

Answer 39

adaptive reactions to expectations of future events

Question 40

what is classical conditioning

Answer 40

learning about associations between two stimuli (or more)

Question 41

what five factors can enhance the conditioning that occurs in a species

Answer 41

1) relationship between the CS and US (timing) 2) attention paid to the stimuli 3) biological and perceptual similarity of the CS and US 4) contingency /statistical relatedness 5) surprise

Question 42

what are the four different kinds of timing between the CS and US

Answer 42

short delay, long delay, simultaneous conditioning, backwards

Question 43

how does the role of similarity play a part in human learning and subjects (examples)

Answer 43

1) "draw-a-person test" presumed that people whom suffer from paranoia will draw faces with larger eyes 2) people used to draw blood when they had a fever because when people have a fever they turn red

Question 44

pavlov said that the essential cause of conditioning is temporal contiguity. what is this and why is this not right in context of a rain example?

Answer 44

temporal contiguity is when things are close together this is not right because for example receive text -> rain if conditions was based solely on temporal contiguity we would have the conclusion that text -> rain, but we don't because many times you: receive text -> no rain not text -> rain not text -> not rain

Question 45

what are positive, negative and zero contingency

Answer 45

postive: there is an association between CS and US, CS makes US more likely zero: no association between CS and US negative: CS makes the US less likely

Question 46

do people actually do math when theyre thinking about contingencies in daily life

Answer 46

no, but something is happening in the nervous system that is similar to the process of math

Question 47

what is an example of contingencies and human stereotypes

Answer 47

thinking the probability a nurse is female is more likely than the probability nurse is a male contingency implies collection of frequency information

Question 48

what happens in a blocking experiment

Answer 48

expectations suppress learning

Question 49

what is an example of "surprise" in real life (going on a date to a taylor swift concert)

Answer 49

expected good time: forget the person you were on a date with is the reason you had a good time because you know taylor swift concerts are naturally a good time surprising good time: it must be the person you were with because you had a good time at an event you wouldn't expect to have a good time at

Question 50

what is inhibition and how is it shown in the nervous system

Answer 50

signaling the absence of something (draw two neurons) neurons can turn on other neurons (+) and neurons can also turn other neurons off

Question 51

why is inhibition important

Answer 51

1) to turn things off, sometimes we need systems to be turned off (ex. muscle system while sleeping) 2) produces flexibility: don't act one way consistently ex. touching hot surface vs holding hot plate of casserole (+ and - circuits)

Question 52

what are the three ways to measure inhibition

Answer 52

1) direct measurement= conditioned suppression 2) indirect measurement= retardation test 3) indirect measurement= summation test