Learning and Memory: Chapter 1

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

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

Humans are shared primarily by their experience (nurture)

Aristotle and Locke

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

-contiguity -frequency -similarity

Experiences near each other in time/s[ace are associated

Experiences repeated often are connected more strongly

Experiences similar to one another are associated

Humans are shaped primarily by their inherited nature

Plato and Descartes

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

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

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

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

-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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-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

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

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

An internal representation of the spatial layout of the external world

-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

Focuses on human abilities like thinking, language and reasoning

-Studies mental processes which cannot be directly observed but can be studied objectively -humans are self-motivated to learn (despite law of effect) -humans are related to other animals but what works for rats may not work on humans, we are distinct beings -computer metaphor

Explained the learning curve is not a slow gradual learning process -If you look at a single person, you realize that a person tries to solve a problem/figure out how to behave and once they've figured it out, they will stick with their solution -the "curve" is because we average numerous people's behavior -shows individuals have different learning processes