8/12/2019 Psychology Unit 4

1/11

PsychologyUnit 4: Learning and MemoryChapters 5 & 6

8/12/2019 Psychology Unit 4

2/11

Unit Outline

Theories of Learning

Theories of Memory

Biological Bases of Memory

Forgetting

Memory Distortion

8/12/2019 Psychology Unit 4

3/11

Theories of Learning

Learning: "A relatively permanent change in behavioror mental processes caused by experience."

Classical Conditioning: Modifies involuntary behaviorby linking the response to a new (conditioned) stimulus

Operant Conditioning: Modifies voluntary behavior bya system of reinforcement or punishment

Social-cognitive learning: Consists of insight/intuition,latent behavior and modeling ( copying observedbehaviors)

8/12/2019 Psychology Unit 4

4/11

Classical Conditioning

The unconditioned stimulus (something to which there isalready an un-learned or unconditioned response)

The unconditioned response ( an involuntary behavior thatoccurs in response to a stimulus without any conditioning orexternal motivations

The neutral stimulus (an external -often artificial- stimulus thatthe conditioning aims to link with the unconditioned response

When linked, these produce a conditioned response (thebehavior of the unconditioned response occurring due to thepreviously neutral, now conditioned, stimulus).

8/12/2019 Psychology Unit 4

5/11

Classical Conditioning

An experiment is conducted by a popular radio station do determinewhether ad placement following particular music types wouldincrease the effectiveness of the ad. They chose to always play In TheGarden of Eden at the lunch hour, along with ads for local restaurants

which described the specials of the day. Over a period of two months,the individuals in the experiment (already regular listeners to thestation) listened to the radio station at the same time each day, duringtheir lunch hour, and always heard the same song. After the end ofthe experiment, the station collected statistics from various restaurantsthat showed that whenever the song was played in subsequent

months, there would be a slight increase in business, always fromregular listeners. By six months after the end of the experiment, theincreased business effect had dwindled to nothing. Identify: UR, US,NS, CR, CS, and which of the six theories mentioned in your textbookexplains the change in response.

8/12/2019 Psychology Unit 4

6/11

Operant Conditioning

Reinforcement: Is always aimed an increasing abehavior. Positive reinforcement involves addinga 'positive' stimulus (reward) while negative

reinforcement involves removing a 'negative'stimulus (an irritant)

Punishment: Is always aimed at decreasing a

behavior. Positive punishment involves adding a'negative' stimulus (such as pain) while negativepunishment involves removing a 'positive'stimulus (such as the aforementioned reward)

8/12/2019 Psychology Unit 4

7/11

Theories of Memory

Memory: "an internal record or

representation of some prior event orexperience."

Encoding, Storage, and Retrieval Model

Three-Stage Memory Model

8/12/2019 Psychology Unit 4

8/11

Three Stage Memory

ModelSensory Memory: 1/4 to a few seconds durationrecord of sensory input

Short Term Memory: active memory- theconscious, useful information storage forprocessing

Long Term Memory: the long term storage of allnecessary information. Practically infinite storagecapacity, and long duration (years or decades)

8/12/2019 Psychology Unit 4

9/11

Biological Bases of Memory

8/12/2019 Psychology Unit 4

10/11

Forgetting

Decay

Interference

Motivated Forgetting

Encoding Failure

Retrieval Failure

8/12/2019 Psychology Unit 4

11/11

Memory Distortion

False Memories

Encoding Failure