Chapter 2

Key Terms

Introspection: a careful examination and description of one’s own conscious mental thoughts and states.

Cognitive psychology: it is concerned with internal mental processes (e.g., attention; perception; learning; thinking) and how these processes influence our behaviour.

Cognitive neuroscience: an approach designed to understand human cognition by combining information from behaviour and brain activity.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI): a technique providing detailed and accurate information concerning activation in brain areas while a cognitive task is being performed.

Cognitive neuropsychology: research on brain-damaged patients designed to increase our understanding of cognition in healthy individuals.

Ecological validity: the extent to which research findings generalise to everyday settings.

Classical conditioning: a basic form of learning in which simple responses (e.g., salivation) are associated with a new or conditioned stimulus (e.g., tone).

Unconditioned reflex: a well-established association between an unconditioned stimulus and an unconditioned response.

Unconditioned stimulus: a stimulus that produces a well-established unconditioned response in an unconditioned reflex.

Unconditioned response: a well-established reaction (e.g., salivation) to a given unconditioned stimulus (e.g., food) in an unconditioned reflex.

Conditioned reflex: a new association between a conditioned stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus produced as a result of classical conditioning.

Conditioned stimulus: a neutral stimulus paired with an unconditioned stimulus to produce classical conditioning.

Conditioned response: a new response produced as a result of classical conditioning.

Extinction: in classical conditioning, the elimination of a conditioned response when the conditioned stimulus is presented repeatedly in the absence of the unconditioned stimulus.

Spontaneous recovery: the re-emergence of conditioned responses over time following extinction.

Blocking effect: the absence of a conditioned response to a conditioned stimulus if another conditioned stimulus already predicts onset of the unconditioned stimulus.

Phobias: excessive fears of certain objects or places leading to avoidance of those objects or places.

Exposure therapy: a form of treatment in which phobic patients are exposed to stimuli or situations they fear greatly.

Operant conditioning: a form of learning in which an individual’s responses are controlled by their consequences (reward or punishment).

Law of reinforcement: the probability of a response being produced is increased if it is followed by a reward but decreased if followed by punishment.

Primary reinforcers: rewarding stimuli that essential for survival (e.g., food; water).

Secondary reinforcers: stimuli that are rewarding because they have repeatedly been associated with primary reinforcers; examples include money and praise.

Shaping: a form of operant conditioning in which behaviour is changed slowly in the desired direction by requiring responses to resemble increasingly the desired response for reward to be given.

Extinction: in operant conditioning, the elimination of a response when it is not followed by reinforcement.

Token economy: a form of therapy based on operant conditioning in which tokens are given to patients for producing desirable behaviour; these tokens can then be exchanged for rewards.

Means-ends relationship: the knowledge that a given action in a given situation will produce a certain outcome.

Positive punishment: a form of operant conditioning in which the probability of a response is reduced by following it with an unpleasant or aversive stimulus.

Negative punishment: a form of operant conditioning in which the probability of a response is reduced by following it with the removal of a positive reinforcer.

Time-out technique: a form of negative punishment in which undesirable behaviour (e.g., aggression) is reduced by removing the individual from the situation in which they have been aggressive.

Avoidance learning: a form of operant conditioning in which an appropriate avoidance response prevents presentation of an unpleasant or aversive stimulus.

Negative reinforcers: unpleasant or aversive stimuli that strengthen responses preventing those stimuli from being presented.

Observational learning: learning based on watching the behaviour of others and copying behaviour that is rewarded.

Weblinks

An introduction to introspection
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1UnYiPwBQ0

A biography of John B. Watson
http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/watson.htm

A typical child attempting one of Piaget’s conservation tasks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnArvcWaH6I

Dr P Zimbardo introducing Asch’s test of conformity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyDDyT1lDhA

An educational biography of Charles Darwin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOiUZ3ycZwU

A series of documentaries entitled ‘Human Instincts’ in which Profession Winston explores the evolutionary basis of behaviour
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OH-FN9942w&list=PL_kdQ_spKED7Uui7gAmpO956ZGyUwbKt1

The website for the Freud museum.
https://www.freud.org.uk/

An educational film exploring psychoanalysis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxaFeP9Ls5c

A video about Pavlov’s experiments and classical conditioning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhqumfpxuzI

A video showing patients dealing with specific phobias being treated by exposure therapy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8GHsjBhWV8

Useful video about Pavlov, Skinner, and operant conditioning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUwCgFSb6Nk&feature=related

A video about Skinner and operant conditioning with pigeons. The video also discusses schedules of reinforcement
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_ctJqjlrHA

An example of operant conditioning – pigeons playing ping pong!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGazyH6fQQ4

A video about concept learning in pigeons: Sometimes they are smarter than humans!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1kj6_7x4PY

Video of a rat in a Skinner box (shaping)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tYUS5ljGhI

Positive reinforcement: A Self-instructional exercise
http://psych.athabascau.ca/html/prtut/

Albert Bandura talking about the Bobo doll study, including video clips of the experiment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmBqwWlJg8U