PSYC 340 1st EditionExam # 1 Study Guide Lectures: 1 – 7Study Guide Table of Contents:Lecture 1 (January 20) ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….Pg. 1 Lecture 2 (January 22) ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….Pg. 2 Lecture 3 (January 27) ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….Pg. 4 Lecture 4 (January 29) ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….Pg. 6 Lecture 5 (February 3) ………………………………………………………………………………………………….…..Pg. 10 Lecture 6 (February 5) ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….Pg. 14Lecture 7 (February 10) …………………………………………………………………………………………………….Pg. 18 Chapter 1 ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Pg. 21Chapter 2 ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Pg. 23Don’t forget to read Boxes 3.1, 5.1, and 6.1 (see pages on syllabus) in Domjan! Lecture 1 (January 20)Nature of Learning – an Introduction I. Learning is an evolutionary advantageA. Allows you to adapt to your environment B.Learning makes the system more sophisticated II. Sometimes it is better to have an innate response rather than a learned oneA. Should organisms have to learn that boulders roll downhill, or should that just beinnate?1. Let it be innate! Otherwise you would have a lot of flat animals… Nature vs. Nurture – a Societal Debate I. “Nurturists” A. Everything is learnedB. Advocate for education changes 1. Start it early! This is a huge advantage C. “All men are created equal”1. Nurturistic response to nativist logic II. “Nativists” A. You are born with all you will ever need to know B. Advocate for: 1. Healthcare 2. Prisons 3. EugenicsC. But wasn’t this like the Holocaust?1. Weed out the “weak?” Why do we study learning in simpler creatures? I. To understand an engine, you would take apart and try to understand your lawnmower first, not your dad’s expensive Lamborghini.A. It is easier to understand! Then we can continue on to look at how it works in more complex creatures like us! B. However, we have to make an assumption of biological continuity 1. Brains have to be similar 2. Means we have to make implicit assumptions that these simpler creatures experience pain, emotion, etc. Lecture 2 (January 22)IntroductionI. What is learning? A. The acquisition of information through “experience”1. Experience does not have to be conscious! 2. Moth moving towards a light – innate and maladaptive; no learning B. Are words arbitrary? 1. Nature - Language is biologically constrained by frequency of sound and “gymnastics” of mouth 2. Nurture – Constrained by phonemes learned in infancy a. May not be able to learn how to make a certain sound because you didn’t learn it when you acquired language i. Some people cannot roll their r’s Learning v. MemoryIII. Learning is the process used to store and acquire information, while memory is the retention of the information over time IV. Like two sides of a coin, you cannot have one without the otherV. Remember how learning doesn’t have to be conscious? Neither does memory! VI. Learning is a kind of neural plasticity change:A. Can be altered by development, traumatic brain injury, experience…B. Focusing on how experience affects neuroplasticity 2Common Criteria for Learning I. The behavioral modification depends on a form of neural plasticity II. Behavioral modification depends on the organism’s experimental history III. Behavioral modification outlasts/extends beyond the environmental contingencies used to induce it; experience has a lasting effect on performance A. “Lasting”- has a fuzzy definition; not a particular time, but most can figure out what is relatively “lasting” (see figure above)Approaches to the Study of Learning I. Forms of explanation A. Efficient cause - environmental conditions 1. When the behavior is observed 2. This cause must be determined first! B. Formal cause - model the process 1. Create a mathematical model/map inorder to emulate the process 2. Anchors what you are studying in theconcrete C. Material cause – underlying neurobiological processes 1. Amygdala, hippocampus, etc. D. Final cause – WHY? 1. Why does the behavior occur? 2. The bunny that freezes when in danger survives because it can avoid detection – this is an adaptive advantage History I. Starts with Plato (nativism) and Aristotle(empiricism) II. Critical question: How do we come to know? Or, howdoes our brain work? A. Early philosophers 1. Plato/nativism a. All knowledge is innate, butexperience brings it out 2. Aristotle/empiricism a. All knowledge is acquired3b. Leads to the paradox that we must have the innate knowledge on how to learn? B. More recent philosophical developments 1. Descartes (1588-1679) a. Dualism Lecture 3 (January 27)Philosophical Histories of Learning (cont.) I. Descartes (1588-1679)A. DualismB. Sometimes credited with discovering the reflex 1. In a world dominated by Church doctrine (all of your behavior is willed) 2. Descartes realized some of what we do is machine-like and is reflexive in nature 3. Patella reflex (hitting the knee) – doesn’t require a brain C. Implication of his dualistic position 1. Governed by two kinds of entitiesa. The physical world/matter and body - extended substances i. Physical in nature; body abides by physical laws b. Soul – unextended substance c. Free and nonphysical; not governed by physical laws; can’t predict what it does d. Good thing he said this! Otherwise the Church would not have been very happy with him! 2. Gave rise to reflexology a. Studied by people like Sechenov, and then later Pavlov II. Materialists (e.g., Julien de la Mattrrie, 1748)A. They began to argue that the mind is also an extended substance 1. Able to predict – isn’t this the point of psychology? a. Psychology assumes the mind is physical in
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