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)