Study Guide
EXAM 3 - Chapters 5 & 6
If you have a good understanding of the following, taking exam 3 will be the highlight of your day.
Chapter 5 - LEARNING
What is:
- an instinct? (You should know the three criteria that a behavior must meet in order to be instinctive. Do humans have instincts as we defined them in class?)
- a reflex? (How are reflexes different from instincts?)
- learning?
- conditioning? (One general question about how conditioning relates to learning.)
Review our discussions on the comparisons between classical & operant conditioning. (The "key event list")
Look over our discussions of classical conditioning. I will describe a classical conditioning situation on the test and ask you to tell me what the UCS, UCR, NS, CS, or CR are.
In the section on classical conditioning there are also questions on:
- C.E.R's (what are they?)
- stimulus generalization
- extinction
Look over our discussions on operant conditioning. You should be able to define and understand the following concepts:
- positive reinforcement
- negative reinforcement
- punishment
- the 3 side effects of aversive conditioning
- shaping
- stimulus generalization
- stimulus discrimination
- extinction
- schedules of partial reinforcement (FI, VI, FR, & VR)
What is observational learning?
Chapter 6 - MEMORY
If you have a real good idea of the memory model we discussed in class, there should be no problem with this chapter. Go over your notes well. You'll find these specific areas included on the exam:
What are the different "stages" of memory which we discussed in the Memory Model? In what order do they occur?
There are also a number of specific questions about short-term-memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM), such as:
- How much information can they hold?
- How long can they hold information?
- How can you increase these capacities with chunking and repetition?
What are the 2 methods of transferring information from STM to LTM?
Which one of these methods for information transfer is the most affective?
Look over the methods for improving memory we discussed in class from the handout. There will be a few general questions from this section, so you should understand the concepts of:
- the importance of feedback
- the serial position effect
- spaced vs. massed practice
- overlearning
- organizing material in a meaningful way in order to aid learning.
If you have questions, please don't hesitate to contact me