Exam I Review

Psychology of Learning

Introduction (9 questions)

            Characteristics of mechanistic world view

            Characteristics of organismic World View

            Characteristics of contextualist World View

Chapter 1 – Human Learning Basics (9 questions)

            Epistemology; roles of different philosophers

            Definition of learning (must involve experience)

            Differences among theories, principles, laws, beliefs

            Characteristics of good theories

            Properties of experiments (IV, DV, operational definitions)

Chapter 2 – Early Behaviorism (12 questions)

Elements of classical conditioning (US, UR, CS, and CR)

            Variations in continuity (delayed, trace, simultaneous, and backward)

            Phenomena in classical conditioning (acquisition, extinction, spontaneous                                            recovery, generalization, discrimination, higher-order conditioning)

            Watson’s role in behaviorism (emotional learning and nature/nurture issue)

            Guthrie’s one-shot learning (basic premise, MPS, and techniques for breaking habits)

            Pavlov (physiologist): US-CS theorist; Watson (advertising): S-R theorist; Guthrie (teacher): S-R

                        theorist (all three contiguity theorists)

Chapter 3 – Behavioristic Theories (10 questions)

            Thorndike’s connectionism – revised version (basic premise, Law of Exercise, Law of Effect, Law                     of Readiness, Law of Multiple Responses)

            Thorndike’s principle of belongingness and spread of effect

            Hull’s contribution

            Hull’s concepts of anticipatory responses and habit-family hierarchy      

            Thorndike (educational psychologist): S-R theorist; Hull (precise, mathematical theorist): S-O-R

                        theorist (both reinforcement theorists)

Chapter 4 – Operant Conditioning (10 questions)

            Respondents vs. operants

            Types of reinforcement (reward, relief, punishment, penalty; arguments for and against)

            Schedules of reinforcement (continuous vs. intermittent; interval vs. ratio; fixed vs. random;                                 superstitious)

            Extinction vs. forgetting

            Shaping, fading, generalization, discrimination

            Skinner (novelist): R-R theorist (reinforcement)