Terms:
| metatheory | explanation | Aquinas | Newton | vitalism |
| teleological explanations | Augustine | Ibn-Sina | Ibn-Rushd | Descartes |
| Hobbes | Locke | Mill | Swammerdam | Galvani |
| Milgram | Caspi et al. | Smith & Engel | Dutton & Aron | neural determinism |
| Sechenov | Spencer | representations | insight | preparedness |
| explanation | necessary causes | sufficient causes | disconfirming data | Lorenz & Wilson |
| substitutability test | ethology | learning | memory | Ebbinghaus |
| Thorndike | Watson | Hull | Tolman | Skinner |
| GPS model | trigram | extinction | spontaneous recovery | temporal order effect |
| CER | suppression ratio | movement ratio | E=(HxDxK)-I | Atkinson & Shiffrin |
| forward conditioning | trace conditioning | delay conditioning | simultaneous conditioning | backward conditioning |
| sensitization | habituation | background conditioning | neuromarketing |
eye movement measures |
| Estes | stimulus sampling | Bower and insight learning | Miller and information theory | Simon and Newell |
| Rumelhart and McClelland | connectionism | autoshaping | generalization | discrimination |
| LTP | synaptic plasticity | ablation | Galen | Broca |
| Gall | scanning methods | EEG | PET | CT |
| fMRI | CS preexposure | stimulus substitution | cumulative record | unipolar neurons |
| LTP | bipolar neurons | interneurons | GABA | neuromodulators |
| glial cells | Hebb's law | Lomo, 1966 | synaptic plasticity | Dunwiddie & Lynch, 1978 |
| associative LTP | episodic memory | semantic memory | autobiographical memory | amygdala |
| declarative memory | implicit memory | Tulving | source amnesia | cryptomnesia |
Topics: 1. Trace the philosophical history of learning theory.
2. List and explain the laws of association.
3. Explain the logical development of theories of learning and memory as they grew from the physiological works of researchers from Descartes to Pavlov.
4. Explain and evaluate the research evidence for determinism in human behavior. Do you still believe in free will? Why or why not?
5. Outline the research methods of Thorndike and Pavlov.
6. Compare and contrast the contributions to learning theory made by Hull and Tolman.
7. Describe and explain the structure of the nervous system, making reference to functions in learning and memory where appropriate.
8. How does brain anatomy vary among vertebrates? How does the nervous system differ in invertebrates?
9. Compare and contrast three main methods for studying the brain and its role in learning and memory. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the different scanning methods?
10. Explain the problems with imaging research on brain function. How much do you trust the results of imaging studies?
11. Explain the different shapes and structures of neurons, and relate the differences to different functions.
12. How do drugs act at synapses? How could the action of drugs affect learning and memory?
13. What roles do glial cells play in learning and memory?
14. How do the phenomena of LTP offer an understanding of learning? What synaptic changes of LTP relate to memory? How strong is the evidence?
15. Explain long term depression.
16. Compare and contrast episodic and semantic memory. Which comes first? How does repetition affect each type of memory? Why?
17. Explain six concepts in declarative memory. Include research evidence on each concept, and connect to your own experience.
18. How does forgetting happen? Consider at least two theories.
Second examination starts here:
12. Apply the Rescorla-Wagner theory to given values of CS salience (alpha) and US potential learning (lambda), for five trials. Explain how R-W fits data for overhadowing, blocking, unblocking, and conditioned inhibition. What four phenomena does R-W have trouble explaining?
13. Explain the two-system hypothesis of fear and conditioning. Include the relevant brain pathways, and the two-system explanation of learning without awareness.
Terms:
| instrumental paradigm | practice effects | delay effects | Colwill & Rescorla | inferential learning |
| primary reinforcers | Premack principle | response-deprivation hypothesis | secondary reinforcers | social reinforcers |
| FI, FR, VI, VR schedules | labor supply curve | bliss point | cognitive maps | DRH, DRL, DRO schedules |
| matching | melioration | momentary maximizing | global maximizing | discounting the future |
| optimal foraging theory | peak shift | relational responding | errorless discrimination learning | dimension learning |
| reversal shift | non-reversal shift | intradimensional shift | extradimensional shift | shift strategies |
| species-specific responding | predator learning | partial reinforcement extinction effect | superstitious learning | interim behaviors |
| terminal behaviors | learned helplessness | learned efficacy | reinforcement-induced stereotypy | graph-and-display |
| contingency contracting | rational analysis | positive reinforcement | negative reinforcement | positive punishment |
| negative punishment | omission | Yerkes-Dodson law | behavioral self-control | schedule-induced behaviors |
| category learning | place learning | instinctive drift | behavior systems analysis | sign tracking |
| partial reinforcement extinction effect | learned helplessness inoculation | rationality and optimality | fading | associative bias |
| Brehm's reactance theory | intrinsic motivation | behavioral contracts | systematic sensitization | punishment inoculation |
14. Outline the similarities and differences between classical and operant conditioning.
15. Describe four ways in which consequences can affect behavior. What results are produced by each type of consequence?
16. What is reinforcement? Explain the different theories about what makes a reinforcer. What are the special benefits of secondary reinforcers?
17. What are the different effects of four different schedules of reinforcement?
18. How do studies of cognitive maps in elephants and rats show that operant conditioning is not the whole story of learning?
19. What are the effects of delay of reinforcement?
20. What unusual effects are produced by schedules of partial reinforcement? What principle seems to be active here? Do you see any connection to Staddon & Simmelhag's results?
21. What factors influence choice among responses that lead to different reinforcers?
22. Human choice usually follows momentary maximizing or melioration rather than global maximizing. We seem to be like pigeons, discounting the future. From a research point of view, why is that the case? What can be done to overcome that bias in a particular choice situation?
23. Explain how generalization and discrimination occur in both classical and operant conditioning.
24. Explain how Spence's research on the peak shift refined our thinking about discrimination learning. What alternate explanation of the peak shift was offered by the Gestalt psychologists?
25. In discrimination learning, we must learn the relevant dimension and then the appropriate categories. Explain that statement, using research on intradimensional, extradimensional, reversal, and non-reversal shift learning.
26. In concept learning, we must learn dimensions and categories. From research, explain how each occurs, and the relative difficulty of each type of learning. Is it easier to learn to discriminate between categories or within categories? Discuss the implications of dimensional and categorical learning for human relations and education.
27. Explain Crespi's research leading to the effects of negative and positive contrast.
28. Describe Hammond's (1980) study, and explain how it supports a contingency explanation of operant conditioning.
29. Compare the superstition studies by Skinner (1948) and by Staddon & Simmelhag (1971). Evaluate them, and draw a conclusion about contiguity vs. contingency explanations of operant conditioning.
30. What are the implications of learned helplessness and learned efficacy for the educational process?
31. Develop and explain a program of behavioral self-control to change the frequency of a behavior of your choice. Incorporate self-monitoring, stimulus control/control of your environment, control of your behavioral repertoire, and contingency management. Include measurement strategies and sample tactics.
32. What is rational behavior? Compare rational analysis with Hull's model. What does rational analysis predict we will do if the same response produces both desired and feared consequences?
33. What role does reward play in learning? Explain, using research that uses a between-groups design and research that uses a within-groups design. What is the critical factor in determining whether different reward levels have different effects on learning?
34. Prepare a 2 x 2 contingency table showing the combinations of adding or taking away stimuli and increasing or decreasing behavior.
35. How does the Yerkes-Dodson law inform the appropriate use of reinforcement to avoid undermining behavior? What other factors influence whether reinforcement will undermine behavior?
36. How can a token economy be used to change a particular behavior? Explain and evaluate all factors relevant to the effectiveness of a token economy.
37. How can we maintain behavior that has been learned through reinforcement after the reinforcement is no longer provided?
38. What cautions about the use of reinforcement are supported by research? Explain fully. What can we do to minimize undermining?
Third exam starts here. Items in red will not be on the exam:
39. Outline the principles of punishment. Then, in a summary paragraph, show how you might use punishment most effectively to induce Billy to stop throwing spitballs in class.
40. What can be done to make punishment more effective? What factors might argue against the use of punishment?
Terms:
| induction | iconic store | echoic store | suffix effect | encoding |
| rehearsal systems | phonological loop | visuospatial sketchpad | acoustic encoding | semantic encoding |
| anterograde amnesia | retrograde amnesia | central executive | picture superiority effect | records |
| probes, primes, and cues | matching to sample tasks | body memory | Area 46 | Area 47 |
| acquisition | retention | retrieval | surprise test | incidental learning |
| elaboration | generation effect | make-a-story/narrative method | card-sorting tasks | chunking |
| hippocampus | droodles | change blindness | episodic memory | semantic memory |
| procedural memory | Claparede | HM | mirror drawing | propositions |
| relations | arguments | flash-in-the-pan effect | negative transfer | retroactive interference |
| systematic desensitization | systematic sensitization | Smith & Jonides (1995) | deliberate practice | fan effect |
| chunking | Slamecka & Graf (1978) | equipotentiality | visual permanent memory | ACT-R and SAM |
| proactive interference | spacing effect | emotional blocking | reminiscence | weapon focus |
| flashbulb memories | surface vs. deep structure |
40. What is sensory memory? What types of sensory memory have been studied? How long does each type last? What did Sperling's research show us about the amount of material in sensory memory?
41. In Atkinson and Shiffrin's model, STM is different from LTM in three ways: the effects of rehearsal, coding, and the duration of retention. Describe the research on each side of the issue, and draw a conclusion.
42. What is working memory? Explain how the concept of working memory and its rehearsal systems is different from the concept of STM.
43. What effect on memory is produced by different levels of processing information?
44. What significant phenomenon about retention and forgetting comes from studies which generalize from Peterson and Peterson (1959)?
45. What is the nature of permanent memory? How is it conceptualized in memory research? How is it stored, and how is it accessed?
46. What is the Sternberg paradigm? What does critical research about it show us?
47. What is the difference between serial and parallel processing in memory searches?
48. What happens when a string of digits is too long to fit in the phonological loop?
49. Outline the findings in research on delayed matching to sample. Do pigeons rehearse? What evidence supports the idea?
50. Where is the neural location(s) of working memory? What research supports it?
51. Outline and explain the three stages of permanent memory: acquisition, retention, and retrieval.
52. What are the effects of practice on memory acquisition? How did Pirolli and Anderson study practice effects? How does elaborateness of processing affect memory? Do practice and elaborateness interact? If so, how?
53.What does the power law tell us about practice effects?
54. What is the effect of elaborateness in processing on memory? Compare and contrast the research on depth of processing, elaboration, the generation effect, and episodic/context memory. Why does elaborateness increase memory accuracy? What does it not do?
55. What did Hyde and Jenkins (1973) show us about intentional and incidental learning? What seems to be the crucial variable in memory acquisition? Compare the work of Glenburg, Smith & Green (1977).
56. In what ways can we apply memory acquisition research to classroom learning?
57. How are chunking and priming related?
58. What is dual code theory? Does it make sense?
59. What are the distinctive characteristics of visual memory? How do meaningfulness and salience relate to visual memory? What is the content of visual memory?
60. Are episodic and semantic memory separate memory systems? Review the research.
61. What does the research on meaningful memory tell us about how we form memories for text? Discuss propositional interpretations of memory, like Kintsch.
62. Outline, compare, and contrast three theories of forgetting.
63. What is the retention function? the power law of forgetting?
64. What does practice do to forgetting? What does it not do?
65. Connect the research on spacing effects to massed vs. spaced practice, the CRF extinction effect, and life as a college student.
66. How does human memory match the frequency of occurrence of events in the environment?
67. What causes interference? Consider the types of interference, factors which induce interference, and the role of repression.
68. In what ways may emotional factors interact with memory, either to improve it or to interfere?
69. How does arousal interact with retention? What is reminiscence? What is going on in eyewitness memories? in flashbulb memories? Is location special? Consider MacKay and Ahmetzanov (2005).
70. What is the paradox of the expert? Under what conditions does it not appear?
71. Discuss the research on cued recall. Does it adequately explain why recognition memory is often better than recall memory? When is recognition not better than recall?
72. Explain the generate-recognize theory. Does it fit with what you know about mnemonic methods? How?
73. Describe three mnemonic methods, and in theoretical terms explain why they are helpful.
74. Compare and contrast the encoding specificity (context) hypothesis with the transfer-appropriate processing hypothesis. Describe at least one research study which supports each model.
75. What is reconstructive memory? How does it relate to elaborateness of processing? What memory research explains how reconstructed memories can incorporate inaccurate material? Include Loftus.
76. What is the feeling of knowing? How fast and accurate is it?
77. Compare and contrast the various effects of familiarity.
78. What is priming, and what does it do?
79. What are declarative memory and procedural memory, and how are they related?
80. What factors can cause anterograde amnesia? Are the effects of anterograde amnesia uniform? What is selective amnesia?
81. Is there any connection between research on learning and memory, such as we have covered in this course, and learning in the classroom at any level? What connections exist and do not exist from academic learning to learning in everyday life?
82. What features inherent in mathematics education make learning maths difficult, according to research in learning and memory?
Last updated: 29 April, 2009