Introduction to Psychology: Intelligence, Memory, and Learning

Sometimes, memory fails due to interference. Proactive interference occurs when old information disrupts your ability to learn new things (e.g., calling your new partner by your ex's name). Conversely, retroactive interference happens when new information makes it hard to remember old information.

Learning: Classical and Operant Conditioning

Learning is defined as a relatively permanent change in behavior due to experience. This happens primarily through two mechanisms: classical and operant conditioning.

Classical Conditioning

This involves associating two stimuli. It begins with a neutral stimulus (something that triggers no response) being paired with an unconditioned stimulus (which naturally triggers a response). This pairing eventually turns the neutral stimulus into a conditioned stimulus, eliciting a conditioned response.

For example, if a bell (neutral stimulus) is rung every time a dog receives food (unconditioned stimulus), the dog will eventually salivate (conditioned response) just at the sound of the bell.

During this process, you will see acquisition (the initial stage of learning), extinction (the gradual weakening of a learned response when the stimulus is no longer paired), and spontaneous recovery (the sudden reappearance of an extinguished response after a period of rest).

Operant Conditioning

In operant conditioning, behavior is shaped by its consequences. To master this, you must distinguish between reinforcement (increasing behavior) and punishment (decreasing behavior):

• Positive Reinforcement: Adding a desirable stimulus to increase a behavior (e.g., giving a treat for a good trick).
• Negative Reinforcement: Removing an unpleasant stimulus to increase a behavior (e.g., turning off an annoying alarm by hitting a button).
• Positive Punishment: Adding an unpleasant stimulus to decrease a behavior (e.g., a speeding ticket).
• Negative Punishment: Removing a desirable stimulus to decrease a behavior (e.g., taking away a teenager's phone).

Psychologists also study schedules of reinforcement, which are the rules determining when a behavior will be reinforced.

Sensation, Perception, and Cognition

While often used interchangeably, sensation and perception are different. Sensation is the physical process of your sensory receptors receiving stimuli (like light waves hitting the eye), whereas perception is the mental process of organizing and interpreting that sensory input.

A key phenomenon in sensation is sensory adaptation, where our sensory receptors become less sensitive to constant, unchanging stimuli (like not noticing the smell of your own house after being inside for an hour). Note that certain physiological issues, such as color blindness, can affect how these sensations are processed.

When we perceive the world, we don't just see bits of data; we see patterns. Gestalt principles describe how our brains naturally organize small pieces of information into meaningful "wholes".

Finally, our thinking is often guided by heuristics, which are mental shortcuts that allow us to make decisions quickly:

• Availability Heuristic: Judging the likelihood of an event based on how easily examples come to mind (e.g., fearing a plane crash because you just saw one on the news).
• Representativeness Heuristic: Judging something based on how well it matches a particular prototype or stereotype.

Study Strategy: To avoid "massed practice" (cramming), use distributed practice. Spacing out your study sessions over several days is scientifically proven to be more effective for long-term retention than one long session the night before the exam.