Test Bank for Learning and Memory, 4th Edition

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Test BankforTerryLearning and MemoryBasic Principles, Processes and ProceduresFourth Editionprepared byLouis ManzaLebanon Valley College

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ContentsPrefaceivChapter 1Introduction1Chapter 2Habituation and Other Forms of Simple Stimulus Learning22Chapter 3Classical Conditioning37Chapter 4Instrumental Learning: Reward57Chapter 5Instrumental Conditioning: Nonreward, Punishment, and Avoidance75Chapter 6Verbal Learning90Chapter 7Human Memory: Conceptual Approaches106Chapter 8Short-Term Retention129Chapter 9Encoding146Chapter 10Storage and Retrieval165Chapter 11Spatial, Motor-Skill, and Implicit Learning187Chapter 12Individual Differences in Learning and Memory203

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Chapter 1:IntroductionENHANCED OUTLINEI.INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPHSA.Many facts and principles about learning and memory processes have beendeveloped since the formal start of psychology in 1879.B.These facts and principles have been developed at the same time that everydayindividuals have accumulated “common-sense” based notions about the nature oflearning and memory.C.This book will attempt to merge the “common-sense” notions with the science oflearning and memory. Some examples:1.Spaced vs. Massed practice2.Forgetting and Hypermnesia3.Feedback and Performance4.Do subliminal learning tapes actually work?II.THE ORIGINS OF THE STUDY OF LEARNINGA.The philosophical movements of Empiricism and Rationalism in the 1600s-1700s,and the start of Evolutionary theory in the 1800s fostered a scientific interest inlearning.B.The field of Epistemology, in general, studies how knowledge is acquired.1.Is learning due to nature (biological forces) or nurture (experienced-basedelements)?2.Descartes argued that some sources of knowledge can be innate, put intous by God.3.John Locke and the Empiricists argued that all knowledge is derived fromexperience.1

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a.Empiricism was based on the premise that different laws ofAssociation were responsible for how knowledge was acquired.b.The law of Contiguity suggests that events occurring together intime are associated.c.The law of Frequency argued that events that are repeatedlycontiguous are associated.d.The law of Similarity suggests that ideas that resemble one anothercome to be associated.e.The law of Contrast argues that ideas that are dissimilar becomeassociated together.f.All of these laws function by way of “mental chemistry,” whichinvolves reflecting on existing ideas to produce a novel thought.C.Darwin’s “The Origin of Species,” published in 1859, described how organismsevolved over the course of generations.1.A critical notion in Darwin’s work was how the process of adaptationallowed a species to evolve.2.The connection of evolution to learning is that the capacity to learnevolved as an adaptive specialization.a.Psychologists interpreted Darwin’s work in the context of allowingan individual to learn, and adapt, during the course of one’slifetime.D.Contemporary influences arising from early philosophical and biological ideasinclude biological preparedness for learning, which has been illustrated in thecontexts of language acquisition and other specialized learning systems (such asphobia learning).III.THE DEFINITION OF LEARNINGA.Learning is defined as a relatively permanent change in behavior, or behavioralrepertoire, that occurs as a result of experience.1.The changes in behavior may or may not be observable.2.The types of behaviors that may be taken as evidence of learning includeovert behavior of organisms, physiological responses, and verbal reports.2

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3.The changes in behavior may also not be readily noticed, as an experiencemay simply result in the potential for behavioral change, contingent uponproper environmental conditions.B.Some behaviors that may seem as if they are due to learning are typicallyexcluded from the formal definition of learning.1.Care must be taken when behavioral changes are attributed to eitherbiology or the environment; these factors tend to interact, making strictdivisions between them difficult to see.2.Such exclusions include changes in behavior due to physical, neural, andcognitive maturation.3.Other exclusions refer to temporary fluctuations in behavior, includingchanges in arousal, fatigue, or motivation.IV.THE LEARNING / PERFORMANCE DISTINCTIONA.Behavioral measures are sometimes inaccurate because the fail to show thedifference between what subjects know and what they do: this is the Learning /Performance distinction.B.The classic example of the Learning / Performance distinction is Tolman andHonzick’s (1930) latent learning experiment.1.In their experiment, Tolman and Honzick studied maze running ability inrats who were either a) never reinforced for running through a maze, b)always reinforced for running through a maze, or c) reinforced for mazerunning after going through a period where they were not reinforced.2.Results revealed that learning ability was slow/nonexistent for rats whowere not receiving any reinforcement, but once reinforcement wasprovided, rats who were previously not reinforced ran through the maze ata rate that was equal to, or faster than, those animals who always receivedreinforcement.3.This “hidden” learning ability, revealed only when necessary, is whatlatent learning is.C.Stereotype threat also illustrates how performance does not always correlate withunderlying knowledge.1.Presenting individuals with a certain negative stereotype may induce thatindividual to give in to the implied suggestion (e.g., informing an elderly3

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person that older people tend to be forgetful may result in that personbeing more forgetful than normal).V.THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE TERMS “LEARNING” AND “MEMORY”A.The terms “learning” and “memory” have , over the years, referred to differentprocesses.B.The term “Learning” has be used in reference to:1.Conditioning and reinforcement tasks2.Non-human animal subjects3.Skills requiring repeated trials for acquisition4.The unconscious conditioning of specific behaviorsC.The term “Memory” has been used in reference to:1.Verbal recall tasks2.Studies of human subjects3.Material presented for study just once4.The conscious recollection of previous experiencesD.A more specific approach to learning and memory would be to say that“Learning” refers to the acquisition of knowledge, whereas “Memory” deals withretaining and recalling the acquired knowledge.1.Learning tends to be illustrated by learning curves.a.Negatively accelerated curves show high amount of learningduring the early portion of a training period, followed by relativelylittle improvement in later training episodes.b.“S” shaped curves show little learning at first, followed by thestandard negative acceleration curve.c.Power curves illustrate learning as occurring in a constant manneracross trials, with straight lines, not curves, representing theprogress of a learning period.2.Memory tends to be illustrated by forgetting curves.4

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a.These patterns tend to parallel learning curves, in the sense thatwhen forgetting does occur, it happens to a greater extent at thestart of a retention period, with the rate of memory loss slowingthereafter.E.Since learning and memory seem to be dependent on one another, some havesuggested that the effectiveness of learning is revealed by the level of retentionthat one exhibits.VI.BASIC AND APPLIED RESEARCHA.Basic Research seeks to understand the fundamental processes of learning andmemory, and involves questions that are not always directly applicable outside ofthe laboratory.B.Applied Research is relevant to answering specific, practical, problems.C.Basic and applied research are not totally independent of one another, however, asthey tend to feed off of one another to answer questions about behavior.D.Research in the fields of learning and memory also tries to distinguish betweencommon sense and common knowledge.1.Although people have some accurate understandings of how learning andmemory operate, many myths still exist.2.Some of these myths concern the nature of amnesia, eidetic imagery,memory under hypnosis, and the role of forgetting.3.Many people also believe that one’s general memory ability can beimproved via practice, but this is not supported by research.a.People can improve specific memory skills (e.g., memory fornames or address, random number sequences, etc.), but having astrong memory for a specific domain does not always transferacross other memory areas.E.Another major area that is discussed in the context of basic and applied research isthe use of animals in research.1.Animals can be beneficial in the research process for several reasons:a.The experiences of animal subjects before, during, and after anexperiment can be more tightly controlled that those of humansubjects.5

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b.Animals and human share an evolutionary past, allowing for thegeneralizability of learning principles across species.c.Animals can be experimented on in ways that are not ethicallypossible with humans.2.Animal research in learning and memory has had important consequencesfor humans, including:a.the development of behavior therapies / biofeedback techniquesb.the control of cardiovascular and asthmatic conditionsc.psychoactive effects of drugsd.the simulation of human behavior disorderse.the identification of the neural bases of learning and memoryVII.CONCEPTUAL APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF LEARNINGA.In a general sense, there are several broad approaches toward the study oflearning.1.The Functional Approach focuses on how learning and memory ability canaid in one’s survival.a.Understanding how different stimuli are associated can be used tosuccessfully navigate one’s environment, whereas lacking suchknowledge could possibly interfere with the ability to survive.2.The Behavioral approach emphasizes the relationship between observablebehaviors, the antecedent conditions that precede them, and theconsequences that follow them.a.Radical Behaviorism argues against the study of inferred, internalstates of an organism; “functional” explanations are preferred3.The Cognitive approach takes a computer-based perspective toward thestudy of learning, arguing that internal representations are used to guidebehavior4.The Neuropsychological approach seeks to determine the underlyingbiological bases of learning and memory. Several important researchersmade early contributions in this regard.6

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a.Lashley’s lesion studiesb.Penfield’s stimulation studiesc.Hydén’s RNA studiesd.Modern brain imaging procedures (e.g., PET scans)5.A newer approach to learning has focused on applying neuroscienceresearch to educational practice; the gap between these 2 fields, however,can sometimes be too great for immediate application.a.Research on the “Mozart Effect” (ME) is one such application thathas gotten a high degree of public exposure.b.Research on the ME found that college students boosted theirspatial IQ score by a few points following exposure to classicalmusic.c.This finding, when made public, led to increased sales of MozartCDs, but additional research failed to replicate the effect.DISCUSSION STARTERS1.The classic nature-nurture issue is raised in Chapter 1, and this debate is an excellentsource of discussion. The complexity of this issue can be explored via a variety ofexamples, although I have always found that controversial examples can lead tointeresting in-class commentary. For example, is homosexuality innate, or a learnedchoice? If one argues for the nurture side, why might one choose to be homosexual whenlarge portions of society have negative reactions to such behavior? Another example isintelligence--are we born with a certain potential, or can education increase one’spotential? Can a negative environment diminish one’s overall intelligence?2.The topic of evolution can be explored via looking at how modern society has/has notaccepted evolutionary theory as a valid explanation of human origins and behavior. Dostudents tend to support an evolutionary or creationist approach to human origins, andwhy? Why do people endorse empirically supported claims in many aspects of daily life(e.g., taking the correct dose of medication), yet reject science in other arenas (e.g.,believing in a spiritually-based higher power)?Can students define the differencesbetween scientific claims and religious dogma? Can these two approaches coexist withinlearning? Although this is a sensitive issue, when handled properly it can be extremelyeffective in illustrating the basic ideas of evolutionary theory as well as what separatesscientific from pseudoscientific explanations of behavior.7

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3.Chapter 1 discusses Bandura’s classic Bobo doll experiment. This study can beelaborated via a discussion concerning whether or not children model what they see ontelevision, specifically aggression. Should children be permitted to view violentcartoons, such as classic Bugs Bunny and Road Runner shows? What about R-ratedmovies? How would students raise their own children in this regard? If any studentsalready have kids, how do they regulate TV viewing?4.The utilization of animals in research is explored in Chapter 1. What are students’ beliefsabout the ethics of animal research? Is it OK to use certain types of creatures (e.g., rats),but not others (e.g., dogs) in research? What about using humans as test subjects--wouldstudents volunteer for risky research (e.g., testing new vaccines, such as an AIDSinjection, whose safety is not yet guaranteed)? If human subjects are needed for suchresearch but volunteers are scarce, what can be done to continue the research--shouldprison inmates be forced to participate in such research?5.Radical Behaviorists, such as B.F. Skinner, felt that cognitive approaches to behaviorwere not productive in explaining behavior, since thoughts cannot be observed. Is thisstill a valid perspective? Do students agree that learning should focus on observablebehaviors, or is it acceptable to study unobservable processes? How can one be sure if anexplanation concerning mental activity is accurate in the absence of direct observation?6.The chapter discusses the controversy surrounding the Mozart Effect, which can be seenas a pseudoscientific idea. Some people are convinced of the validity of this effect,despite evidence to the contrary. Do students hold any beliefs that could be consideredpseudoscientific (e.g., astrology, aliens, psychics, etc.)? How did these beliefs develop?What type of evidence would it take for students to abandon their pseudoscientific viewfor a more rational analysis of the same situation?7.Research in neuroscience has investigated the phenomenon of imprinting, whereby anorganism, soon after birth, forms a bond with their parent that can lead to enhancedlearning ability throughout their life. In lower animals, this bond has been seen as beingdriven by biological forces. But what about within humans? Are we this dependent onearly attachments to parents, or can humans learn easily when this bond might not exist(for example, adopted children who do not begin to interact with their adoptive parentsuntil well after birth)?ACTIVE EXPERIMENTATIONChapter 1 discusses a variety of theoretical and philosophical ideas that form the core of modernapproaches to learning and memory. One of these ideas concerns the philosophical debate overwhether or not learning arises from genetic or environmental forces. Although this topic wasdebated long-before the formal start of psychology, many psychologists have joined in thisdebate. Some (e.g., John Watson, B.F. Skinner) have emphasized environmental influences,while others (such as Henry Goddard and Lewis Terman) have been in favor of hereditaryelements mediating knowledge acquisition (Hergenhahn, 1997). This project will allow you to8

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investigate this issue by comparing the learning and memory skills of people who share geneticqualities to those who do not, in an attempt to understand the origin of information processingability.1.This project requires that you select 10 individuals as participants. Half of theseindividuals, whom we’ll call the “RELATED” group, must be members of the samefamily (no in-laws or adopted individuals, and one’s mom AND dad can’t both be used--they’re not blood-related, technically; all subjects must be “blood-related”), while theother 5, whom we’ll call the “UNRELATED” group, must not be related to one another,and must not be related to anyone in the first group.2.The first task for all participants is to attend to a set of stimuli, seen in the paired-associate word list (individual words from Spreen & Schulz, 1966) shown below. Theexperimenter should read each word at the rate of 1 word/second, instructing each subjectto simply memorize each word pair.3.After all items have been presented, have each individual count backwards, out loud, by3s, from the number 200 (e.g., 200, 197, 194, etc.), for one minute. This task serves as adistractor.4.Once the distractor task is complete, verbally present each participant with the stemcompletion list, shown below (each stem is part of a paired-associate stimulus pair thatwas initially studied). Their task here is to complete each stem (in a verbal manner) withthe word that they believe was associated with that stem on the initial study list. For eachitem, read each stem aloud, and then have the subject provide a verbal response to thatstem (if a subject cannot recall anything for any particular stem, score it as an incorrectanswer--they cannot skip items, or go back to previous items). Continue in this manneruntil all items have been presented.5.The critical dependent variable is the percentage of correct responses made during thestem completion task. Once this score is obtained, you can use it to determine the degreeto which one’s ability to associate and recall stimuli is nature- or nurture-driven. Oneway to measure the possible genetic/environmental basis of an ability is to see how muchscores within a family vary, compared to scores stemming from unrelated individuals.By this logic, family members, since they share genetic elements, should not differ asmuch in terms of the quality one is measuring, compared to unrelated individuals, whoare likely to differ because they do not share as many genetic traits as related individuals.To determine the degree of variation for the stem completion scores from each group(RELATED vs. UNRELATED), you’ll compute what’s known as a standard deviation,using the following formula:Standard Deviation (SD) =√(( A - [B2/ C] ) / C - 1)a.Now, this formula might look like a foreign language, but it’s very simple tocompute! An example helps. You are going to calculate the Standard Deviationfor the stem-completion task score for each group (NOT for each individual!).9

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Paired-Associate Word List1. tongue--event8. adventure--burden15. defense--passion2. sailor--magazine9. empire--brain16. capital--dozen3. bar--leather10. anger--goat17. factory--message4. diamond--map11. furniture--bottle18. appearance--meaning5. household--stamp12. sheet--witness19. colonel--pupil6. railway--bread13. midnight--rope20. stroke--artist7. substance--minister14. prisoner--cousinStem-Completion List1. tongue--8. adventure--15. defense--2. sailor--9. empire--16. capital--3. bar--10. anger--17. factory--4. diamond--11. furniture--18. appearance--5. household--12. sheet--19. colonel--6. railway--13. midnight--20. stroke--7. substance--14. prisoner--For example, to compute the stem completion task score Standard Deviation forthe RELATED group, let’s say that each of your 5 group members contributed thefollowing scores.Mom = 15, Grandpa = 14, Sister = 20, Brother 1 = 15, Brother 2 = 18The “A” score is calculated by squaring each score, then adding the squaredscores together. Therefore, in this example,10

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A = 152+ 142+ 202+ 152+ 182 =225 + 196 + 400 + 225 + 324 = 1370The “B” score in the formula is obtained by simply adding the 5 scores together.So, in this example,B = 15 + 14 + 20 + 15 + 18 = 82Finally, the C score is obtained by simply counting the number of scores in thegroup. In this case, we have 5 scores (one from each of the 5 subjects), so C = 5.b.With the individual scores computed, you can now plug them into the formula, inthe following manner (the√is the square-root sign, meaning that the very LASTthing to do is take the square root of the number that is calculated within theformula).SD =√(( A - [B2/ C] ) / C - 1) =√(( 1370 - [822/ 5] ) / 5 - 1)=√(( 1370 - 1344.8 ) / 4) =√( 25.2 / 4)=√( 6.3) = 2.5c.You’ll calculate a Standard Deviation (SD) a total of two times--once for the fivescores from the RELATED group, and then again for the five scores from theUNRELATED group.6.In interpreting your data, the critical comparison to make is between the StandardDeviation scores for each group. The lower the SD score, the less variable and moresimilar the scores. As an example, let’s say that from the example above, the RELATEDgroup’s SD = 2.5, while the UNRELATED group’s SD for stem completion = 6.1. Inthis example, the RELATED group would have less variability in their scores.7.In analyzing your own data, did the RELATED group show lower variability than theUNRELATED group? Was this relationship reversed? If the related group’s scores areless variable, as theoretically predicted, is this due to genetic or environmental effects?Answer these and any other questions in drawing some conclusions about the origins ofknowledge acquisition.ReferencesHergenhahn, B. R. (1997).An introduction to the history of psychology(3rd ed.). Pacific Grove,CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company.Spreen, O., & Schulz, R. W. (1966). Parameters of abstraction, meaningfulness, andpronunciability for 329 nouns.Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 5,459-468.11

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RELEVANT INTERNET SITES1.http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exhibitions/Mind/EpistemologyoM.htmlThis site contains ideas based on work created during the 1600s-1700s that discusses theepistemology of the mind and how such work connects to the historical/philosophical start ofExperimental Psychology.2.http://www.media.mit.edu/This site contains information regarding the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology; relevant issues focus on the ways in which modern technology can play a role inhow we learn.3.http://enews.lbl.gov/Education/ELSI/research-class-activity.htmlThis site contains a classroom-based role-playing activity that is designed to explore a variety ofissues surrounding the nature of basic and applied research.4.http://www.peta.org/This is the home page for the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals,and includes information on a variety of animal-experimentation issues.5.http://www.indiana.edu/~pietsch/split-brain.htmlThis site contains information on split-brain surgery, as well as links to other neuropsychologyarticles/images.6.http://www.talkorigins.org/This newsgroup focuses on the debate between creationism and evolutionary theory.7.http://parenting-baby.com/Parenting-Baby-Music-Research/Music-Research.htmlThis website features ideas related to how music impacts the brain during early development,including ideas related to the controversy-stirring “Mozart Effect.”12

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Chapter 2:Habituation & Other Forms ofSimple Stimulus LearningENHANCED OUTLINEI.THE ORIENTING RESPONSEA.An orienting response (OR) is elicited when a novel of unexpected stimulus ispresented to an organism.B.Several physiological and behavioral reactions make up an OR, including a startleresponse, a flight response, and increased arousalC.Novelty is not the sole factor responsible for ORs, however, as stimulus intensityand situational cues also play a role.1.In addition, familiar stimuli have also been shown to elicit an OR.II.HABITUATIONA.Habituation is the decrease in ORs (and other reactions) to a stimulus that isrepeatedly presented.1.Habituation is a unique form of learning in the sense that learning isdemonstrated by the exhibition of less responding over time, not moreresponding.2.Habituation to ORs tends to apply only to neutral stimuli, as distinguishedfrom intense or painful stimuli.3.Habituation is also very common, occurring across the phylogenetic scale,from snails to humans.B.Habituation has been studied using a variety of measurements, including eyefixations, startle reactions, the measurement of blood flow within the brain, andgalvanic skin responses.22

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