Module 4 Study Guide

Chapters 5 and 6

Learning Objective 1

Chapter 5.1, Your Senses Detect Physical Stimuli and Your Brain Processes Perception

  1. What is sensation? What is perception? How do sensation and perception differ? (p. 180)
  2. What are sensory receptors, and what role do they play in sensation? (pp. 180-181)
  3. Describe the process of transduction. (pp. 180-181)
  4. Briefly describe how an environmental stimulus becomes a perception. (pp. 180-181, Figure 5.1)

Learning Objective 2

Chapter 5.2, There Must Be a Certain Amount of Stimulus for You to Detect It

  1. What are sensory thresholds? What is the absolute threshold? (pp. 182-183)
  2. What is the difference threshold? (p. 183)
  3. Explain how Weber’s Law describes your ability to notice changes in a stimulus. (p. 183)
  4. Does sensory adaptation make you more sensitive to a stimulus, or less sensitive? (p. 184)

Learning Objective 3

Chapter 5.5, You Perceive Objects by Organizing Visual Information

  1. What do the principles of Gestalt psychology tell us about perceptual content? (p. 191)
  2. Explain the perceptual principle of figure and ground. (pp. 191-192)
  3. What is the basic Gestalt concept of grouping? Be able to recognize each of the Gestalt principles of grouping mentioned in the textbook. (p. 192)
  4. What is the sequence of bottom-up processing? (p. 192)
  5. What is top-down processing? How does it differ from bottom-up processing? (p. 192-193)

Learning Objective 4

Chapter 5.6, 5.8, You Perceive Depth, Objects Remain Constant

  1. What is depth perception, and how does binocular disparity work to create a sense of depth?(p. 194)
  2. How do monocular depth cues differ from binocular cues? (p. 194)
  3. What are the six pictorial cues that create a sense of depth? When do you use these? (pp. 194-195)
  4. Why do you usually perceive objects as unchanging despite changes in their sensory input? (p. 196)
  5. What are the four types of object constancies described in the textbook? (pp. 196-198)
  6. What does object constancy say about the objectivity of your perceptions? (pp. 197-198)

Learning Objective 5

Chapter 6.1, 6.2, Learning from Experience, Three Ways we Learn

  1. How do psychologists define learning? (p. 222)
  2. How did John Locke’s tabula rasa influence John Watson’s ideas of behaviorism? (pp. 222-223)
  3. What is the difference between associative learning and non-associative learning? (pp. 223-224)
  4. Compare the two forms of non-associative learning. What circumstances does each apply to? (pp. 223-224)
  5. What are the two forms of associative learning? (pp. 223-224)
  6. What are the ways that we might learn new behaviors simply by watching others? (pp. 223-224)

Learning Objective 6

Chapter 6.3, Classical Conditioning

  1. Who was Ivan Pavlov? (pp. 225-228)
  2. What becomes associated in classical conditioning? (p. 226)
  3. What is an unconditioned stimulus (US)? Why is a US necessary for classical conditioning? (p. 226)
  4. What is an unconditioned response (UR)? Is the UR learned? (p. 226)
  5. What is a neutral stimulus and a conditioned stimulus (CS)? (p. 226)
  6. What is the conditioned response (CR)? Is the CR learned? (pp. 226-228)
  7. What are some examples of a CS and CR that have been conditioned in your own life experiences? What might have been the US in each? (p. 228)

Learning Objective 7

Chapter 6.4, 6.5, 6.6, More on Classical Conditioning

  1. What is the acquisition of a learned association? (pp. 229-230)
  2. What is extinction, and how does it happen? Is it total? Is it permanent? (p. 230)
  3. What is stimulus generalization in classical conditioning? What is stimulus discrimination? Which of these must be learned? (p. 231)
  4. Who were John Watson and Little Albert? How did Watson demonstrate that classical conditioning can account for some of our emotional reactions? (pp. 231-232)
  5. Once you become conditioned to fear something, what influence might stimulus generalization have? (p. 232)
  6. Describe counterconditioning (a la Mary Cover Jones). What might the US be when counterconditioning for a phobia? (p. 232)
  7. What is conditioned taste aversion, and what evidence suggests that it is different from ordinary classical conditioning? (p. 233)
  8. What does it mean to be biologically prepared to acquire some (and not other) conditioned associations (according to Martin Seligman)? (p. 233)
  9. Explain how expectations might alter the strength of an association in classical conditioning. (p. 234)

Learning Objective 8

Chapter 6.7, 6.8, Operant Conditioning

  1. What is a behavior, and why are behaviors essential to operant conditioning? (p. 234)
  2. Who was Edward Thorndike and what was he demonstrating with his puzzle box? (p. 235-236)
  3. What is the basic idea in Thorndike’s law of effect? (p. 236)
  4. Who was B.F. Skinner, and what did he claim about behaviors and their effects? How can Skinner’s claims be seen in a “Skinner box”? (pp. 236-237)
  5. What is a reinforcer? How do you know if you have reinforced some behavior in someone else? (pp. 236-237)
  6. Why do some behaviors require shaping? What is reinforced during a shaping sequence? (pp. 237-238)
  7. What are some of your own behaviors that must have gone through a shaping procedure? (p. 238)
  8. What is the difference between primary reinforcement and secondary reinforcement? What are some examples of each? (p. 238)
  9. What eventually happens to a behavior that is no longer reinforced? (pp. 238-239)

Learning Objective 9

Chapter 6.9, 6.10, 6.11, More on Operant Conditioning

  1. What do “positive” and “negative” mean in operant conditioning? Why is “negative reinforcement” not the same as punishment? (p. 239)
  2. How do reinforcements differ from punishments? (p. 239)
  3. How does negative reinforcement work? (p. 240)
  4. What is the difference between positive and negative punishment? (p. 240)
  5. What is continuous reinforcement? Does the reward depend on the behavior? (p. 241)
  6. What is the difference between a fixed schedule of reinforcement and a variable schedule? (p. 241)
  7. How does an interval schedule differ from a ratio schedule of reinforcement? (p. 241)
  8. What are the features of a fixed interval schedule? (p. 242)
  9. What are the features of a variable ratio schedule? (pp. 242-243)
  10. From a trainer/teacher’s perspective, what is the advantage of the partial reinforcement extinction effect? (p. 243)
  11. What problems can occur from using positive punishment, especially on people? (pp. 243-244)
  12. What is behavior modification? (pp. 245-247)
  13. What is a token economy, and how is it used in connection with behavior modification? (p. 245)

Learning Objective 10

Chapter 6.12, 6.13, Biology and Cognition in Operant Conditioning; Learning by Watching Others

  1. What neurotransmitter is associated with the neural networks involved in processing reward? (p. 247)
  2. How might an animal’s biological predispositions interfere with operant training attempts? (p. 248)
  3. Can learning occur without reinforcement? What does the acquisition of cognitive maps have to do with this? (pp. 248-249)
  4. Why is the acquisition of a cognitive map a matter of “latent learning”? (p. 249)
  5. How does Bandura’s Bobo doll study verify that we can learn behaviors through observation? (pp. 250-251)
  6. How do we know that humans naturally model one-another? (p. 251)
  7. What is vicarious conditioning? (pp. 253-254)
  8. What is the difference between the acquisition of a new behavior and the performance of that behavior? What motivates performance? (pp. 253-254)