Skip to content
Exam Guides

Test Bank for Learning and Memory, 4th Edition

Master difficult topics with Test Bank for Learning and Memory, 4th Edition, featuring easy explanations and exam-ready questions.

Preview 16 of 237 pages

See the first 16 pages exactly as they appear in the document.

  1. Page 1
    Read page 1 as text

    Test Bank for Terry Learning and Memory Basic Principles, Processes and Procedures Fourth Edition prepared by Louis Manza Lebanon Valley College

  2. Page 2
  3. Page 3
    Read page 3 as text

    Contents Preface iv Chapter 1 Introduction 1 Chapter 2 Habituation and Other Forms of Simple Stimulus Learning 22 Chapter 3 Classical Conditioning 37 Chapter 4 Instrumental Learning: Reward 57 Chapter 5 Instrumental Conditioning: Nonreward, Punishment, and Avoidance 75 Chapter 6 Verbal Learning 90 Chapter 7 Human Memory: Conceptual Approaches 106 Chapter 8 Short-Term Retention 129 Chapter 9 Encoding 146 Chapter 10 Storage and Retrieval 165 Chapter 11 Spatial, Motor-Skill, and Implicit Learning 187 Chapter 12 Individual Differences in Learning and Memory 203

  4. Page 4
    Read page 4 as text

    Chapter 1: Introduction ENHANCED OUTLINE I. INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPHS A. Many facts and principles about learning and memory processes have been developed since the formal start of psychology in 1879. B. These facts and principles have been developed at the same time that everyday individuals have accumulated “common-sense” based notions about the nature of learning and memory. C. This book will attempt to merge the “common-sense” notions with the science of learning and memory. Some examples: 1. Spaced vs. Massed practice 2. Forgetting and Hypermnesia 3. Feedback and Performance 4. Do subliminal learning tapes actually work? II. THE ORIGINS OF THE STUDY OF LEARNING A. The philosophical movements of Empiricism and Rationalism in the 1600s-1700s, and the start of Evolutionary theory in the 1800s fostered a scientific interest in learning. B. The field of Epistemology, in general, studies how knowledge is acquired. 1. Is learning due to nature (biological forces) or nurture (experienced-based elements)? 2. Descartes argued that some sources of knowledge can be innate, put into us by God. 3. John Locke and the Empiricists argued that all knowledge is derived from experience. 1

  5. Page 5
    Read page 5 as text

    a. Empiricism was based on the premise that different laws of Association were responsible for how knowledge was acquired. b. The law of Contiguity suggests that events occurring together in time are associated. c. The law of Frequency argued that events that are repeatedly contiguous are associated. d. The law of Similarity suggests that ideas that resemble one another come to be associated. e. The law of Contrast argues that ideas that are dissimilar become associated together. f. All of these laws function by way of “mental chemistry,” which involves reflecting on existing ideas to produce a novel thought. C. Darwin’s “The Origin of Species,” published in 1859, described how organisms evolved over the course of generations. 1. A critical notion in Darwin’s work was how the process of adaptation allowed a species to evolve. 2. The connection of evolution to learning is that the capacity to learn evolved as an adaptive specialization. a. Psychologists interpreted Darwin’s work in the context of allowing an individual to learn, and adapt, during the course of one’s lifetime. D. Contemporary influences arising from early philosophical and biological ideas include biological preparedness for learning, which has been illustrated in the contexts of language acquisition and other specialized learning systems (such as phobia learning). III. THE DEFINITION OF LEARNING A. Learning is defined as a relatively permanent change in behavior, or behavioral repertoire, 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 include overt behavior of organisms, physiological responses, and verbal reports. 2

  6. Page 6
    Read page 6 as text

    3. The changes in behavior may also not be readily noticed, as an experience may simply result in the potential for behavioral change, contingent upon proper environmental conditions. B. Some behaviors that may seem as if they are due to learning are typically excluded from the formal definition of learning. 1. Care must be taken when behavioral changes are attributed to either biology or the environment; these factors tend to interact, making strict divisions between them difficult to see. 2. Such exclusions include changes in behavior due to physical, neural, and cognitive maturation. 3. Other exclusions refer to temporary fluctuations in behavior, including changes in arousal, fatigue, or motivation. IV. THE LEARNING / PERFORMANCE DISTINCTION A. Behavioral measures are sometimes inaccurate because the fail to show the difference 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 and Honzick’s (1930) latent learning experiment. 1. In their experiment, Tolman and Honzick studied maze running ability in rats who were either a) never reinforced for running through a maze, b) always reinforced for running through a maze, or c) reinforced for maze running after going through a period where they were not reinforced. 2. Results revealed that learning ability was slow/nonexistent for rats who were not receiving any reinforcement, but once reinforcement was provided, rats who were previously not reinforced ran through the maze at a rate that was equal to, or faster than, those animals who always received reinforcement. 3. This “hidden” learning ability, revealed only when necessary, is what latent learning is. C. Stereotype threat also illustrates how performance does not always correlate with underlying knowledge. 1. Presenting individuals with a certain negative stereotype may induce that individual to give in to the implied suggestion (e.g., informing an elderly 3

  7. Page 7
    Read page 7 as text

    person that older people tend to be forgetful may result in that person being 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 different processes. B. The term “Learning” has be used in reference to: 1. Conditioning and reinforcement tasks 2. Non-human animal subjects 3. Skills requiring repeated trials for acquisition 4. The unconscious conditioning of specific behaviors C. The term “Memory” has been used in reference to: 1. Verbal recall tasks 2. Studies of human subjects 3. Material presented for study just once 4. The conscious recollection of previous experiences D. A more specific approach to learning and memory would be to say that “Learning” refers to the acquisition of knowledge, whereas “Memory” deals with retaining and recalling the acquired knowledge. 1. Learning tends to be illustrated by learning curves. a. Negatively accelerated curves show high amount of learning during the early portion of a training period, followed by relatively little improvement in later training episodes. b. “S” shaped curves show little learning at first, followed by the standard negative acceleration curve. c. Power curves illustrate learning as occurring in a constant manner across trials, with straight lines, not curves, representing the progress of a learning period. 2. Memory tends to be illustrated by forgetting curves. 4

  8. Page 8
    Read page 8 as text

    a. These patterns tend to parallel learning curves, in the sense that when forgetting does occur, it happens to a greater extent at the start of a retention period, with the rate of memory loss slowing thereafter. E. Since learning and memory seem to be dependent on one another, some have suggested that the effectiveness of learning is revealed by the level of retention that one exhibits. VI. BASIC AND APPLIED RESEARCH A. Basic Research seeks to understand the fundamental processes of learning and memory, and involves questions that are not always directly applicable outside of the laboratory. B. Applied Research is relevant to answering specific, practical, problems. C. Basic and applied research are not totally independent of one another, however, as they 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 between common sense and common knowledge. 1. Although people have some accurate understandings of how learning and memory 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 be improved via practice, but this is not supported by research. a. People can improve specific memory skills (e.g., memory for names or address, random number sequences, etc.), but having a strong memory for a specific domain does not always transfer across other memory areas. E. Another major area that is discussed in the context of basic and applied research is the 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 an experiment can be more tightly controlled that those of human subjects. 5

  9. Page 9
    Read page 9 as text

    b. Animals and human share an evolutionary past, allowing for the generalizability of learning principles across species. c. Animals can be experimented on in ways that are not ethically possible with humans. 2. Animal research in learning and memory has had important consequences for humans, including: a. the development of behavior therapies / biofeedback techniques b. the control of cardiovascular and asthmatic conditions c. psychoactive effects of drugs d. the simulation of human behavior disorders e. the identification of the neural bases of learning and memory VII. CONCEPTUAL APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF LEARNING A. In a general sense, there are several broad approaches toward the study of learning. 1. The Functional Approach focuses on how learning and memory ability can aid in one’s survival. a. Understanding how different stimuli are associated can be used to successfully navigate one’s environment, whereas lacking such knowledge could possibly interfere with the ability to survive. 2. The Behavioral approach emphasizes the relationship between observable behaviors, the antecedent conditions that precede them, and the consequences that follow them. a. Radical Behaviorism argues against the study of inferred, internal states of an organism; “functional” explanations are preferred 3. The Cognitive approach takes a computer-based perspective toward the study of learning, arguing that internal representations are used to guide behavior 4. The Neuropsychological approach seeks to determine the underlying biological bases of learning and memory. Several important researchers made early contributions in this regard. 6

  10. Page 10
    Read page 10 as text

    a. Lashley’s lesion studies b. Penfield’s stimulation studies c. Hydén’s RNA studies d. Modern brain imaging procedures (e.g., PET scans) 5. A newer approach to learning has focused on applying neuroscience research 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 that has gotten a high degree of public exposure. b. Research on the ME found that college students boosted their spatial IQ score by a few points following exposure to classical music. c. This finding, when made public, led to increased sales of Mozart CDs, but additional research failed to replicate the effect. DISCUSSION STARTERS 1. The classic nature-nurture issue is raised in Chapter 1, and this debate is an excellent source of discussion. The complexity of this issue can be explored via a variety of examples, although I have always found that controversial examples can lead to interesting in-class commentary. For example, is homosexuality innate, or a learned choice? If one argues for the nurture side, why might one choose to be homosexual when large portions of society have negative reactions to such behavior? Another example is intelligence--are we born with a certain potential, or can education increase one’s potential? 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 not accepted evolutionary theory as a valid explanation of human origins and behavior. Do students tend to support an evolutionary or creationist approach to human origins, and why? 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 differences between scientific claims and religious dogma? Can these two approaches coexist within learning? Although this is a sensitive issue, when handled properly it can be extremely effective in illustrating the basic ideas of evolutionary theory as well as what separates scientific from pseudoscientific explanations of behavior. 7

  11. Page 11
    Read page 11 as text

    3. Chapter 1 discusses Bandura’s classic Bobo doll experiment. This study can be elaborated via a discussion concerning whether or not children model what they see on television, specifically aggression. Should children be permitted to view violent cartoons, such as classic Bugs Bunny and Road Runner shows? What about R-rated movies? How would students raise their own children in this regard? If any students already have kids, how do they regulate TV viewing? 4. The utilization of animals in research is explored in Chapter 1. What are students’ beliefs about 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--would students volunteer for risky research (e.g., testing new vaccines, such as an AIDS injection, whose safety is not yet guaranteed)? If human subjects are needed for such research but volunteers are scarce, what can be done to continue the research--should prison inmates be forced to participate in such research? 5. Radical Behaviorists, such as B.F. Skinner, felt that cognitive approaches to behavior were not productive in explaining behavior, since thoughts cannot be observed. Is this still a valid perspective? Do students agree that learning should focus on observable behaviors, or is it acceptable to study unobservable processes? How can one be sure if an explanation concerning mental activity is accurate in the absence of direct observation? 6. The chapter discusses the controversy surrounding the Mozart Effect, which can be seen as 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 considered pseudoscientific (e.g., astrology, aliens, psychics, etc.)? How did these beliefs develop? What type of evidence would it take for students to abandon their pseudoscientific view for a more rational analysis of the same situation? 7. Research in neuroscience has investigated the phenomenon of imprinting, whereby an organism, soon after birth, forms a bond with their parent that can lead to enhanced learning ability throughout their life. In lower animals, this bond has been seen as being driven by biological forces. But what about within humans? Are we this dependent on early 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 parents until well after birth)? ACTIVE EXPERIMENTATION Chapter 1 discusses a variety of theoretical and philosophical ideas that form the core of modern approaches to learning and memory. One of these ideas concerns the philosophical debate over whether or not learning arises from genetic or environmental forces. Although this topic was debated long-before the formal start of psychology, many psychologists have joined in this debate. 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 hereditary elements mediating knowledge acquisition (Hergenhahn, 1997). This project will allow you to 8

  12. Page 12
    Read page 12 as text

    investigate this issue by comparing the learning and memory skills of people who share genetic qualities to those who do not, in an attempt to understand the origin of information processing ability. 1. This project requires that you select 10 individuals as participants. Half of these individuals, whom we’ll call the “RELATED” group, must be members of the same family (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 the other 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. The experimenter should read each word at the rate of 1 word/second, instructing each subject to simply memorize each word pair. 3. After all items have been presented, have each individual count backwards, out loud, by 3s, from the number 200 (e.g., 200, 197, 194, etc.), for one minute. This task serves as a distractor. 4. Once the distractor task is complete, verbally present each participant with the stem completion list, shown below (each stem is part of a paired-associate stimulus pair that was initially studied). Their task here is to complete each stem (in a verbal manner) with the word that they believe was associated with that stem on the initial study list. For each item, read each stem aloud, and then have the subject provide a verbal response to that stem (if a subject cannot recall anything for any particular stem, score it as an incorrect answer--they cannot skip items, or go back to previous items). Continue in this manner until all items have been presented. 5. The critical dependent variable is the percentage of correct responses made during the stem completion task. Once this score is obtained, you can use it to determine the degree to which one’s ability to associate and recall stimuli is nature- or nurture-driven. One way to measure the possible genetic/environmental basis of an ability is to see how much scores within a family vary, compared to scores stemming from unrelated individuals. By this logic, family members, since they share genetic elements, should not differ as much in terms of the quality one is measuring, compared to unrelated individuals, who are 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 - [B 2 / C] ) / C - 1) a. Now, this formula might look like a foreign language, but it’s very simple to compute! An example helps. You are going to calculate the Standard Deviation for the stem-completion task score for each group (NOT for each individual!). 9

  13. Page 13
    Read page 13 as text

    Paired-Associate Word List 1. tongue--event 8. adventure--burden 15. defense--passion 2. sailor--magazine 9. empire--brain 16. capital--dozen 3. bar--leather 10. anger--goat 17. factory--message 4. diamond--map 11. furniture--bottle 18. appearance--meaning 5. household--stamp 12. sheet--witness 19. colonel--pupil 6. railway--bread 13. midnight--rope 20. stroke--artist 7. substance--minister 14. prisoner--cousin Stem-Completion List 1. 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 for the RELATED group, let’s say that each of your 5 group members contributed the following scores. Mom = 15, Grandpa = 14, Sister = 20, Brother 1 = 15, Brother 2 = 18 The “A” score is calculated by squaring each score, then adding the squared scores together. Therefore, in this example, 10

  14. Page 14
    Read page 14 as text

    A = 15 2 + 14 2 + 20 2 + 15 2 + 18 2 = 225 + 196 + 400 + 225 + 324 = 1370 The “B” score in the formula is obtained by simply adding the 5 scores together. So, in this example, B = 15 + 14 + 20 + 15 + 18 = 82 Finally, the C score is obtained by simply counting the number of scores in the group. 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, in the following manner (the √ is the square-root sign, meaning that the very LAST thing to do is take the square root of the number that is calculated within the formula). SD = √ (( A - [B 2 / C] ) / C - 1) = √ (( 1370 - [82 2 / 5] ) / 5 - 1) = √ (( 1370 - 1344.8 ) / 4) = √ ( 25.2 / 4) = √ ( 6.3) = 2.5 c. You’ll calculate a Standard Deviation (SD) a total of two times--once for the five scores from the RELATED group, and then again for the five scores from the UNRELATED group. 6. In interpreting your data, the critical comparison to make is between the Standard Deviation scores for each group. The lower the SD score, the less variable and more similar the scores. As an example, let’s say that from the example above, the RELATED group’s SD = 2.5, while the UNRELATED group’s SD for stem completion = 6.1. In this 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 the UNRELATED group? Was this relationship reversed? If the related group’s scores are less 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 of knowledge acquisition. References Hergenhahn, 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, and pronunciability for 329 nouns. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 5, 459- 468. 11

  15. Page 15
    Read page 15 as text

    RELEVANT INTERNET SITES 1. http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exhibitions/Mind/EpistemologyoM.html This site contains ideas based on work created during the 1600s-1700s that discusses the epistemology of the mind and how such work connects to the historical/philosophical start of Experimental Psychology. 2. http://www.media.mit.edu/ This site contains information regarding the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; relevant issues focus on the ways in which modern technology can play a role in how we learn. 3. http://enews.lbl.gov/Education/ELSI/research-class-activity.html This site contains a classroom-based role-playing activity that is designed to explore a variety of issues 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.html This site contains information on split-brain surgery, as well as links to other neuropsychology articles/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.html This website features ideas related to how music impacts the brain during early development, including ideas related to the controversy-stirring “Mozart Effect.” 12

  16. Page 16
    Read page 16 as text

    Chapter 2: Habituation & Other Forms of Simple Stimulus Learning ENHANCED OUTLINE I. THE ORIENTING RESPONSE A. An orienting response (OR) is elicited when a novel of unexpected stimulus is presented to an organism. B. Several physiological and behavioral reactions make up an OR, including a startle response, a flight response, and increased arousal C. Novelty is not the sole factor responsible for ORs, however, as stimulus intensity and situational cues also play a role. 1. In addition, familiar stimuli have also been shown to elicit an OR. II. HABITUATION A. Habituation is the decrease in ORs (and other reactions) to a stimulus that is repeatedly presented. 1. Habituation is a unique form of learning in the sense that learning is demonstrated by the exhibition of less responding over time, not more responding. 2. Habituation to ORs tends to apply only to neutral stimuli, as distinguished from 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 eye fixations, startle reactions, the measurement of blood flow within the brain, and galvanic skin responses. 22

221 more pages in the full document

Unlock it once and it stays in your library, ready to chat with or turn into flashcards.

Unlock the full document

More Psychology study materials

See all

Study this document with CramX

Once it is in your library, every tool can work from it.