Raise criteria in increments small enough so that the subject always has a realistic chance of reinforcement.
Train one aspect of any particular behavior at a time. Don't try to shape for two criteria simultaneously.
During shaping, put the current level of response on a variable ratio schedule of reinforcement before adding or raising the criteria.
When introducing a new criterion, or aspect of the behavioral skill, temporarily relax the old ones.
Stay ahead of your subject: Plan your shaping program completely so that if the subject makes sudden progress, you are aware of what to reinforce next.
Don't change trainers in midstream. You can have several trainers per trainee, but stick to one shaper per behavior.
If one shaping procedure is not eliciting progress, find another. There are as many ways to get behavior as there are trainers to think them up.
Don't interrupt a training session gratuitously; that constitutes a punishment.
If behavior deteriorates, "Go back to kindergarten." Quickly review the whole shaping process with a series of easily earned reinforcers.
End each session on a high note, if possible, but in any case quit while you're ahead.
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Learning
A relatively enduring or permanent change in behavior that results from previous experience with certain stimuli and response
Behavior
Includes both unobservable mental events (thoughts, images) and observable responses (fainting, salivating, vomiting)
Kinds of learning
-Classical conditioning
-Operant conditioning
-cognitive learning
Classical Conditioning
A kind of learning in which a neutral stimulus acquires the ability to produce a response that was originally produced by different stimulus
Ivan Pavlov
-Conducted experiments with dogs
-Pavlov rang a bell before
putting food in a dog's mouth
-After numerous trials of pairing the food and bell, the dog salivated to the sound of the bell
-This is a conditioned reflex
operant conditioning
-Refers to a kind of learning in which the consequences that follow some behavior increase or decrease the likelihood of that behavior's occurrence in the future
-Also called instrumental conditioning
-Kind of learning in which an animal or human performs some behavior
-Following consequence (reward or punishment) increases or decreases the chance that an animal or human will again perform that same behavior
Law of Effect
Says that if some random actions are followed by pleasurable consequences or reward, such actions are strengthened and will likely occur in the future
E.L. Thorndike
-Law of effect
-experimented with cats in the puzzle box
Cognitive learning
A kind of learning that involves mental processes, such as attention and memory; may be learned through observation or imitation, and may not involve external rewards or anyone performing an observable behavior
Albert Bandura
-Cognitive learning
-Found that children who had watched a film of an adult modeling aggressive behavior played more aggressively than children who had not seen the film
-Bandura's study demonstrated that we can learn through observation or imitation
Classical Conditioning Step 1
Choosing stimulus and response
-neutral stimulus
-unconditioned stimulus
-unconditioned
response
Neutral Stimulus
some stimulus that causes a sensory response, such as being seen, heard, or smelled, but doesn't produce the reflex being tested
Unconditioned stimulus
USC; some stimulus that triggers or elicits a physiological reflex, such as salivation or eye blink
Unconditioned response
UCR; unlearned, innate, involuntary physiological reflex elicited by the unconditioned stimulus
Classical Conditioning Step 2
Establishing classical conditioning
-Neutral Stimulus
trial; pair neutral stimulus (bell) with the unconditioned stimulus (food)
neutral stimulus presented first, then short time later, the unconditioned stimulus
-Unconditioned
stimulus
seconds after the tone begins, present the UCS
-Unconditioned response
UCS(food) elicits the UCR(salivation)
Classical Conditioning Step 3
Testing for conditioning
-Conditioned stimulus
a formerly neutral stimulus that aquires the ability to elicit a response that was previously elicited by the unconditioned stimulus
-Conditioned response
-elicited by the conditioned stimulus and
similar to, but not identical in size or amount to, the UCS
-CR; less salivation than the UCR
-Acquisition
initial process of forming new responses through repeated pairing of NS and UCS
Generalization
Tendency for a stimulus that's similar to the original conditioned stimulus to elicit a response similar to the conditioned response
Discrimination
Occurs during classical conditioning when an organism learns to make a particular response to some stimuli but not to others
Extinction
Refers to a procedure in which a conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus, and, as a result, the conditioned stimulus tends to no longer elicit the conditioned response
spontaneous recovery
Tendency for the conditioned response to reappear after being extinguished, even though there have been no further conditioning trials
Adaptive value
-Refers to usefulness of certain abilities or traits that have evolved in animals and humans and tend to increase their chances of survival, such as finding food, acquiring mates, and avoiding pain and injury
-It is
also adaptive to have responses to taste conditioned in a more positive direction
Salivation when you think of a tasty treat prepares your mouth to consume that treat
Taste aversion learning
Refers to associating a particular sensory cue (smell, tastes, sound, or sight) with getting sick and thereafter avoiding that particular sensory cue in the future
Explanation
-One-trial learning
Taste-aversion can occur with only one pairing of a smell/taste with nausea/vomiting
Preparedness
-Refers to the phenomenon that animals and humans are biologically prepared to associate some combinations of conditioned and unconditioned stimuli more easily than others
-Animals are genetically prepared to use different senses to detect stimuli that are
important to their survival and adaptation
classical conditioning
-Taste aversion helps alert
rats to the presence of poison
Blue jays to the presence of chemicals in particular butterflies that will make them sick
conditional emotional response (CER)
-feeling some positive or negative emotion, such as happiness, fear,
or anxiety, when experiencing a stimulus that initially accompanied a pleasant or painful event
-sound of a rattlesnake or wail of a siren
Classical conditioning in the brain
-Conditioning an eyeblink requires the cerebellum
-Eyeblink is a motor response, and cerebellum is connected to motor coordination
-Conditioning emotional response requires the amygdala
-Amygdala is particularly connected to
conditioned fear responses
stimulus substitution theory
stimulus substitution means that a neural bond or association forms in the brain between the neutral stimulus (tone) and unconditioned stimulus (food)
Contiguity theory
classical conditioning occurs because two stimuli (neutral stimulus and unconditional stimulus) are paired close together in time (contiguous)
Cognitive perspective
-says that an organism learns a predictable relationship between two stimuli such that the occurrence of one stimulus (neutral stimulus) predicts the occurrence of another (unconditioned stimulus)
-in other words, classical conditioning occurs when an organism learns what to expect
Conditioning little albert
Can emotional responses be conditioned?
-John Watson believed so, and did an experiment to demonstrate it
-Method
Little Albert (9-month old infant) was the test subject
UCS = Noise
UCR = Startle/Cry
NS/CS = White rat
CR = Startle/Cry in response to white rat
Results of conditioning little albert
-Albert did startle/cry in response to the white rat after classical conditioning acquisition phase
-This response lasted about a week, at which point it underwent extinction
-Generalization
Albert was afraid of other small furry animals/objects
-Discrimination
Albert was not afraid of blocks or paper
Classical conditioning and racial prejudice
-Prejudice is an unfair, biased, or intolerant attitude toward another group of people
-Conditioning prejudice
Direct conditioning (e.g., a person of another race assaults you)
Observational experiences (e.g., you watch a person of another race assault someone else)
Verbal experiences (e.g., you hear about a person of another race assaulting someone else)
Unconditioning prejudice
-A conditioned response to a person of another race may generalize, creating prejudice
-To
minimize this, some strategies include
Provide experiences with persons of another race that are not negative to facilitate extinction
Pay attention to the kind of observational and verbal experiences, as well, to reduce the association prejudice is based upon
Examples of classical conditioning
-Fainting at the sight of blood
-Anticipatory nausea
Feelings of nausea elicited by stimuli
associated with nausea-inducing chemotherapy treatments
May be experienced after treatment, or prior to (in anticipation of the treatment)
UCS = Chemotherapy
UCR = Nausea
NS/CS = Smell of treatment room
CR = Nausea in response to smells like treatment room
Systematic desensitization
-Procedure based on classical conditioning
-Person imagines or visualizes fearful or anxiety-evoking stimuli
-Immediately uses deep relaxation to overcome the anxiety
-Form of counterconditioning because it replaces, or counters, fear and anxiety with relaxation
steps of systematic desensitization
-Learn to relax
-Make an anxiety hierachy
-Imagine and relax
Very effective at treating a variety of fearful and anxiety-producing behavior
Thorndikes law of effect
-behaviors followed by positive consequences are strengthened
-behaviors followed by negative consequences are weakened
Skinner's Operant Conditioning
-Operant response: can be modified by its consequences and is a meaningful, easily measured unit of ongoing behavior
-Focuses on how consequences (rewards or punishments) affect behaviors
-1920s and 1930s
discovery of two general principles
Pavlov's classical conditioning
Skinner's operant conditioning
Skinner box
-a small enclosure that is automated to record an animal's bar presses and deliver food pellets as a consequence
-efficient way to study how an animal's ongoing behaviors may be modified by changing the consequences of what happens after a bar press
Three factors in operant conditioning of a rat
-a hungry rat is more willing to eat the food reward
-can thus condition the rat to press the bar
-successively reinforced behaviors lead up to or approximate the desired behavior (shaping)
Operant conditioning//Shaping
-Facing the bar
-rat is put in box
-when rat faces the bar, food pellet is released
-rat sniffs
the food pellet
-Touching the bar
-rat faces and moves toward the bar
-another pellet is released
-rat eats then wanders; returning to sniff for a pellet, another pellet is dropped into the cup; rat places a paw on the bar, and another pellet is released
-Pressing the bar
-when rat touches bar, pellet is released; rat eats and then puts paws back on bar and gets another pellet; wait for rat to push bar then release pellet
-rat soon presses bar repeatedly to get
pellets
-rat's behavior reinforced as it leads up to, or approximates, the desired behavior of bar pressing
Operant Conditioning//Immediate reinforcement
-Reinforcer should follow immediately after the desired behavior
-If reinforcer is delayed, the animal may be reinforced for some undesired or superstitious behavior
Operant conditioning//Superstitious behavior
Behavior that increases in frequency because its occurrence is accidentally paired with the delivery of a reinforcer
Examples of operant conditioning
-Toilet training
target behavior
preparation
reinforcers
shaping
-Food refusal
target behavior
preparation
reinforcers
shaping
operant conditioning continued
-goal: increase or decrease the rate of some response
voluntary response: must perform -voluntary response before getting a reward
-emitted response: animals or humans are shaped to emit the desired responses
-contingent on behavior: depends or is contingent on the consequences or what happens next
reinforcer must occur immediately after the desired response
-consequences: animals or humans learn that performing or
emitting some behavior is followed by a consequence (reward or punishment)
classical conditioning continued
-goal: create a new response to a neutral stimulus
-involuntary response: physiological reflexes (salivation, eye blink)
-elicited response: unconditioned stimulus triggers or elicits an involuntary reflex response, salivation, which is called the unconditioned response
-conditioned response:
neutral stimulus becomes the conditioned stimulus if it occurs before the conditioned response
-expectancy: animals and humans learn a predictable relationship between, or develop an expectancy about, the neutral and unconditioned stimuli
classical conditioning leads to learning a predictable relationship between stimuli
Consequences
are the results of actions
-reward or punishment
Reinforcement
a consequence that occurs after a behavior and increases the chance that the behavior will occur again
Punishment
consequence that occurs after a behavior; decreases the chance that the behavior will occur again
Principles used to treat pica
-behavioral disorder that involves eating inedible objects or unhealthy substances
positive reinforcement
refers to the presentation of a stimulus that increases the probability a behavior will occur again
negative reinforcement
refers to an aversive stimulus whose removal increases the likelihood that the preceding response will occur again
Reinforcers
A stimulus that increases the likelihood that the response preceding it will occur again
Primary reinforcers
stimulus such as food, water, or sex; innately satisfying and requires no learning on the part of the subject to become pleasurable
Secondary reinforcers
stimulus that has acquired its reinforcing power through experience; secondary reinforcers are learned, such as by being paired with primary reinforcers or other secondary reinforcers
Positive punishment
presenting an aversive (unpleasant) stimulus after a response
negative punishment
-removing
a reinforcing stimulus after a response
-noncompliance: refers to a child refusing to obey a command/request given by a parent or caregiver
-time-out: removes reinforcing stimuli after an undesirable response
removal decreases the chances that the undesired response will recur
Skinner's Contribution
-Schedule of reinforcement
refers to a program or rule that determines how and when the occurrence
of a response will be followed by a reinforcer
-Measuring ongoing behavior
Cumulative record is a continuous written record that shows an animal's or human's individual responses and reinforcements
continuous reinforcement
every occurrence of the operant response results in delivery of the reinforcer
partial reinforcement
refers to a situation in which responding is reinforced only some of the time
Fixed ratio schedule
a reinforcer occurs only after a fixed number of responses are made by the subject
Fixed interval schedule
a reinforcer occurs after the first response that occurs after a fixed interval of time
variable-ratio schedule
a reinforcer is delivered after an average number of correct responses has occurred
Variable interval schedule
reinforcer occurs after the first correct response after an average amount of time has passed
Operant Generalization
Animal or person emits the same response to similar stimuli
Classical generalization
Tendency for a stimulus similar to the original conditioned stimulus to elicit a response similar to the conditioned response
operant discrimination
-A response is emitted in the presence of a stimulus is reinforced and not in the presence of unreinforced stimuli
Discriminative stimulus is a
cue that a behavior will be reinforced
Classical Discrimination
Tendency for some stimuli, but not others, to elicit conditioned response
Operant Extinction
reduction in operant response when it is no longer followed by a reinforcer
Classical extinction
reduction in response when the conditioned stimulus is no longer followed by the unconditioned stimulus
Operant Spontaneous Recovery
Temporary recovery in the rate of responding
classical spontaneous recovery
temporary occurrence of the conditioned response in the presence of the conditioned stimulus
Cognitive learning: attention and memory
Says that learning can occur through observation or imitation and may not involve external rewards or require a person to perform any observable behaviors
Cognitive learning: Viewpoints
-Against: B. F. Skinner ("As far as I'm concerned, cognitive science is the creationism (downfall) of psychology")
-In favor: Edward
Tolman
explored hidden mental processes
cognitive map; mental representation in the brain of the layout of an environment and its features
social cognitive learning
Results from watching, imitating, and modeling; doesn't require the observer to perform any observable behavior or receive any observable reward
Bobo doll experiment
-Watch
an adult model behave aggressively with the doll versus no watching of this behavior
-Only kids who watched an aggressive model imitated those behaviors
Learning versus performance
-Variation on the first Bobo Doll: watch an adult receiving varying consequences for hitting the doll
-Imitated behavior that was rewarded, but not punished
learning/performance distinction
Learning may occur but may not always be measured by, or immediately evident in, performance
Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory
-Emphasizes the importance of observation, imitation, and self-reward in the development and learning of social skills, personal interactions, and many other behaviors
-Differs from operant and classical conditioning in that it is not
necessary to perform any observable behavior or receive any external rewards to learn
Processes in social cognitive learning
-Attention
observer must pay attention to the model
-Memory
observer must store or remember the information
-Imitation
observer must be able to use the remembered information and imitate the model's behavior
-Motivation
observer must have some reason or incentive to
imitate the model's behavior
Insight Learning
-a mental process marked by the sudden and unexpected solution to a problem
-a phenomenon often called the "a ha!" experience
-Köhler and Sultan the chimp
-Characteristics of "a ha!" experience
Sudden
Easy
Experience positive affect
Feel the solution is true, and confident in that
Biological Factor
innate tendencies or predispositions that may either facilitate or inhibit certain kinds of learning
Imprinting studied by ethologists
-Imprinting: inherited tendencies or responses that are displayed by newborn animals when they encounter certain stimuli in their environment
-Critical or sensitive period: a relatively brief time during which learning is most likely
to occur
Prepared learning
-Preparedness is the innate or biological tendency of animals to recognize, attend to, and store certain cues over others
-Also involves associated some combinations of conditioned and unconditioned stimuli more easily than others
-Examples
Bird memory
Human language acquisition
Relational and physical aggression in the media
-Participants watched an aggressive (physical vs. relational) vs. non-aggressive film
-Then were treated rudely by the experimenter in a subsequent task
-Finally, were given an opportunity to behave aggressively (to the researcher and to another opponent)
-Participants who viewed the aggressive films behaved more aggressively
Suzuki method relies on similar principles to Banduras
-Attention
-Memory
-Imitation
-Motivation
Bahavior modification
-Treatment or therapy that changes or modifies undesirable behaviors by using principles of learning based on operant conditioning, classical conditioning, and social cognitive learning
Autism
-marked by poor development in social
relationships
-great difficulty developing language and communicating
-very few activities and interests
-long periods of time spent repeating the same behaviors and following rituals that interfere with more normal functioning
Behavior modification and autism
-Target behavior to change: Increase eye contact
-Shaping the behavior
Seat child facing therapist, state "look at me" every few seconds,
and when the child does say "good looking" and reward with food
Continue until child repeatedly obey "look at me" command
Gradually increase duration of eye contact
contingency management
Systematic reinforcement of desired behaviors and withholding of reinforcement (or punishment) of undesired behaviors
postive punishment:Spanking
-Immediately stops undesired behavior
-Does not produce long-term compliance
-May increase aggression in child
negative punishment: time out
Fewer undesirable side effects than spanking
Best used in combination with reinforcers
memory
active system that allows people to retain information over time
Information processing model
The ability to retain information over time involves three processes: encoding, storing, and retrieving
encoding
refers to making mental representations of information so that it can be placed into memory
storage
process of placing encoded information into relatively permanent mental storage for later recall
retrieving
process of getting or recalling information that has been placed into short- or long-term storage
Sensory memory
Initial process that receives and holds environmental information in its raw form for a brief period of time, from an
instant to several seconds
-don't pay attention, information is forgotten
-pay attention, information is automatically transferred into short-term memory
short term memory
Process that can hold only a limited amount of information (an average of seven items) for a short period of time (from 2 to 30 seconds)
-don't pay attention, information isn't encoded and is forgotten
long-term memory
Process of storing almost unlimited amounts of information over long periods of time
-encoded information will remain on a relatively permanent basis
three stages of memory
1.Encoding
2.Storage
3.Retrieval
Iconic memory
Form of sensory memory that
automatically holds visual information for about a quarter of a second or more; as soon as you shift your attention, the information disappears
-Icon means image
echoic memory
-Form of sensory memory that holds auditory information for 1 to 2 seconds
-Holds speech sounds long enough to know that sequences of certain sounds form words
Functions of sensory memory
Prevents being overwhelmed
Gives decision time
Provides stability, playback, and recognition
short term memory (working memory)
Process of holding a limited amount of information (an average of seven items) for a limited period of time (2 to 30 seconds)
Working memory
-More
recent understanding of short-term memory
-Involves active processing of incoming information from sensory memory and the retrieval of information from long-term memory
Short Term memory: Limited duration
-Maintenance rehearsal
practice of intentionally repeating information so that it remains in short-term memory longer
Short term memory: limited capacity
-Interference
results when new information enters short-term memory and overwrites or pushes out information that is already there
Short term memory: chunking
Combining separate items of information into a larger unit, or chunk, and then remembering these chunks rather than individual items
Example: Daniel Tammet's amazing memory is in part due to the way synesthesia promotes chunking
functions of short term memory
attending-selectively attend to relevant information and disregard everything else
rehearsing-allows you to hold information for a short period of time until you decide what to do with it
storing-helps store or encode information in long-term memory
Long term memory: storing
Sensory, short-term, and long-term memory are not things or places, but interacting processes
-Sensory memory
-Attention
-Short-term memory
-Encoding
-Long-term memory
-Retrieving
Long term memory
Process of storing almost unlimited amounts of information over long periods of time with the potential of retrieving, or remembering, such information in the future
Retrieval
Process of selecting information from long-term memory and transferring it back into short-term memory
Features of long term memory
-Large capacity and relatively permanent
-Chances of retrieval depend on how information was encoded and how much interference occurred at time of encoding
-Not always as accurate as people
believe
Long term memory: Primacy effect
better recall, or improvement in retention of information, presented at the beginning of a body of information
Primacy effect seems to result from information being successfully encoded and stored into long-term memory due to more rehearsal time than information later in the list
Long term memory: recency effect
better recall, or improvement in retention of information, presented at the end of a body of information
Recency effect seems to result from information still being in short-term memory at the time of recall
Long term memory: Serial position effect
-better recall of information presented at the beginning and end of a body of information rather than in the middle
Long term memory: Declarative memory
-involves memories for facts or events, such as scenes, stories, words, conversations, faces, or daily events
-These memories are explicit, or consciously known
Two types of declarative memory
semantic and episodic
Semantic memory
-type of declarative memory that involves knowledge of facts, concepts, words, definitions, and language rules
episodic memory
type of declarative memory that involves knowledge of specific events, personal experiences (episodes), or activities, such as naming or describing favorite restaurants, movies, songs, habits, or hobbies
Long term memory: Procedural or nondeclarative memory
-involves memories for motor skills (playing tennis), some cognitive skills (learning to read), and emotional behaviors learned through classical conditioning (fear of spiders)
-is a form of implicit memory
--Implicit memories cannot be consciously known
Memories of emotional events
-McGaugh's study of the role of epinephrine and norepinephrine in formation of emotional memories
-These hormones create tiny molecular changes that help brain cells form memories
Memories of amnesia patients
-Amnesia is temporary or permanent loss of memory that may occur after a blow or damage to the brain or after disease, general anesthesia, certain drugs, or severe psychological stress
-Case of Claire Robertson
Encoding
the process of transferring information from short-term to long-term memory by paying attention to it, repeating or rehearsing it, or forming new memories
Automatic and effortful encoding
Automatic encoding
transfer of information from short- to long-term memory without effort and usually without any awareness
Effortful encoding
transfer of information from short- to long-term memory by working hard to rehearse the information or by making associations between new and old information
Maintenance encoding
simply repeating or rehearsing information rather than forming any new associations
Elaborative rehearsal
using effort to actively make meaningful associations between new information that you wish to remember and old or familiar information already stored in long-term memory
levels of processing theory
Theory says that remembering depends on how information is encoded
Information encoded at a shallow level results in poor recall
Deeper and deepest processing: encode by making new association, resulting in better recall
Repressed memory
-repression is a process by which the mind pushes a memory of some threatening or traumatic event deep into the unconscious
-once in the unconscious, the repressed memory cannot be retrieved at will and may remain there until something releases it and the person remembers it
Some therapists believe that especially traumatic experiences are likely to be repressed (i.e., forgotten), although there is no scientific evidence for this
Therapists role in recovered memories
-Believe that repressed memories need suggestion to release them
-Loftus' research raises the question that therapists may actually be implanting false memories rather than releasing repressed ones
Implanting false memories
Numerous studies show that a false suggestion can grow into a vivid, detailed, personal memory
Accuracy of recovered memories
-Accuracy of a memory is established by outside corroborating evidence
-Memories recovered outside of therapy can be corroborated 37% of the time
--This is close to the corroboration rate for any childhood memory (45%)
-None of the memories recovered inside of therapy could be corroborated
Loftus questions the accuracy of recovered memories on the basis of a large body of evidence
United States versus Africa
-United States emphasizes a written tradition, while Africa emphasizes an oral tradition
-These traditions influence how people best encode and remember information
--Residents of Ghana did show superior recall
for orally transmitted information, compared to a U. S. sample
Oral tradition
-Griots are official storyteller who keep record and convey historical information
-Act as educators as well as artists and entertainers
Photographic memory
Occurs in adults; ability to form sharp, detailed visual images after examining a picture or page for a short period of time and to recall the entire image at a later date
Extraordinary episodic memory
The case of Jill Price—she can't forget any of her life events since the age of 14
Super memory for faces
Superrecognizers can easily recognize someone they met in passing years later, making them excellent eyewitnesses (where normal memory may be inaccurate)
Flashbulb Memories
Vivid recollections, usually in great detail, of dramatic or emotionally charged incidents that are of interest to the person
Encoded effortlessly and may last for long periods of time
Application: Unusual memories
Although flashbulb memories feel accurate, research has found numerous inconsistencies between people's reports of flashbulb events given one week versus three years after the event
Current feelings get projected onto the memory, but feelings have changed over time
The secretion of hormones during the emotional "flashbulb" event may have something to do with the long-lasting nature of these memories
Most memories are more impressions than actual pictures
recall
Retrieving previously learned information without the aid of, or with very few external cues
recognition
Identifying previously learned information with the help of more external cues
network theory of memory organization
-We store related ideas in separate categories, or files, called nodes and create links among them
-A gigantic interconnected network of files for
storing and retrieving information
Associations
Linking of nodes or categories together by making associations between new and old, previously stored information
Network
Thousands of interconnected nodes form a huge cognitive network for arranging and storing files
Nodes
memory files that contain related information organized around a specific topic or category
network hierarchy
-the arrangement of nodes or memory files in a certain order
-bottom of hierarchy made up of nodes with very concrete information connected to nodes with somewhat more specific information, which in turn are connected to nodes with general or abstract information
Early memories
Earliest that people in different cultures can recall personal memories averages 3.5 years old
Unfamiliar and uninteresting
Forgetting curve measures the amount of previously learned information that subjects can recall or recognize
Familiar and interesting
Remembering is partly related to how familiar or interesting the information is
forgetting
Inability to retrieve, recall, or recognize information that was stored or is still stored in long-term memory
repression
according to Sigmund Freud, repression is a mental process that automatically hides emotionally threatening or anxiety-producing information in the unconscious (from which repressed memories can't be recalled voluntarily, but something may cause them to enter consciousness at a later time)
Reasons for forgetting
poor retrieval cues/poor encoding
Interference
Amnesia
Decay
Retrieval cues
-mental
reminders that we create by forming vivid mental images or associations between new information and information we already know
-Mental reminders you create by forming vivid mental images of information or associated new information with information you already know
-Forming effective retrieval cues enhances memory
-Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon
Having a strong feeling that a particular word can be recalled, but despite making a great effort, being temporarily unable to recall this
particular information
Interference
-common reason for forgetting
-recall of some particular memory is blocked or prevented by other related memories
Decay
-Memory traces, which are physical changes in the brain that represent the memory form
-If we don't access that trace, then over time the trace will decay (become
inaccessible due to disuse)
Amnesia
may be temporary or permanent loss of memory that may occur after a blow or damage to the brain or after disease, general anesthesia, certain drugs, or severe psychological trauma
proactive interference
occurs when old information (learned earlier) blocks or disrupts the remembering of related new information (learned later)
retroactive interference
occurs when new information (learned later) blocks or disrupts the retrieval of related old information (learned earlier)
State dependent learning
-Finding it easier to recall information when in the same emotional state as when originally encoding
it
-Emotional/physiological states can serve as retrieval cues
Cortex
-short-term memories
--ability to hold words, facts, and events in short-term memory depends on activity in the cortex
-long-term memory
--ability to remember or recall songs, words, facts, and events for days, months, or years depends on areas widely spread throughout the cortex
Amygdala: emotional memories
the amygdala, located in the tip of the temporal lobe, receives input from all the senses and is associated with emotional memory
Hippocampus: Transferring Memories
transfers words, facts, and personal events from short-term memory into permanent long-term memory
Brain: Memory Model
-Cortex stores both long-term and short-term memories
-Hippocampus saves declarative information into long-term memory, but not nondeclarative or procedural information
-Amygdala adds emotional content to memories, both positive and negative
Neural assemblies
groups of interconnected neurons whose activation allows information or stimuli to be recognized and held briefly and temporarily in short-term memory
long-term potentiation (LTP)
-refers to change in the structure and function of neurons after they've been repeatedly stimulated
-neuroscientists believe that the LTP process, which changes the structure and function of neurons, is the most likely basis for learning and memory in animals and humans
Forgetting unwanted long term memories
Reduced activity in amygdala and hippocampus leads to people forgetting their unwanted memories
Mnemonic methods
improve encoding and create better retrieval cues by forming vivid associations/images to improve recall
Method of loci
create visual associations between already memorized places and new items to be memorized
Peg method
create associations between number-word rhymes and items to be memorized
Euro-Americans versus Asians
-Episodic memory involves knowledge of specific events, personal experiences, or activities
-Euro-Americans seem to have better episodic memory recall than
Asians
--This difference is due to differences in perceptual and encoding processes between the two groups
--This differences is NOT due to differences in the ability to remember
Recalling sexual history
-Rosenbaum surveyed students two times, a year apart, about their sexual histories
--Many students changed their responses about having taken a virginity pledge
--Adolescents who have had intercourse
after having taken a virginity pledge were likely to deny having taken the pledge at the second assessment
--Adolescents who have had intercourse before taking a pledge were likely to deny their sexual histories
-Survey respondents may experience belief change between the two measures, and recall is aligned to current beliefs
eyewitness testimony
Refers to recalling or recognizing a suspect observed during a potentially very disruptive and distracting emotional situation that may have interfered with accurate remembering
misinformation effect
Misleading or false information changes a person's memory for the actual event
Source misattribution
-Memory error that results when a person has difficulty deciding which of two sources a
memory came from
-Was the source something the person saw or imagined, or was it a suggestion?
Cognitive interview
-Technique for questioning people, such as eyewitnesses
-Have them imagine and reconstruct the details of an event, reporting everything they remember and holding nothing back
-Have them narrate the event from different viewpoints