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CSS Psychology Cognitive Psychology Flashcards
59 question-and-answer cards covering Cognitive Psychology as it is examined in CSS Psychology. 24 of them are printed below, taken from across the deck — no signup, no paywall on the preview.
24 sample cards from the Cognitive Psychology deck
Sampled from the end of the deck, so these are different cards from the ones shown on the syllabus page.
Define learning in psychology.
A relatively permanent change in behavior or knowledge that results from experience or practice, excluding changes due to maturation, fatigue, or drugs.
What is habituation as a form of learning?
A decrease in response to a repeated, harmless stimulus; the simplest form of learning.
Who proposed classical conditioning, and through what experiment?
Ivan Pavlov, through experiments with dogs salivating to a bell (sound) that was paired with food.
In classical conditioning, define UCS, UCR, CS, and CR.
UCS (unconditioned stimulus) naturally triggers a response; UCR (unconditioned response) is the natural reaction to the UCS; CS (conditioned stimulus) is a neutral stimulus that, after pairing, triggers a response; CR (conditioned response) is the learned reaction to the CS.
What is acquisition in classical conditioning?
The initial stage of learning when the neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired with the UCS so that it becomes a CS able to produce the CR.
What is extinction in classical conditioning?
The weakening and eventual disappearance of the conditioned response when the CS is repeatedly presented without the UCS.
What is spontaneous recovery?
The reappearance of an extinguished conditioned response after a rest period, without further conditioning.
Distinguish stimulus generalization from stimulus discrimination.
Generalization is responding to stimuli similar to the CS; discrimination is learning to respond only to the specific CS and not to similar stimuli.
Who developed operant conditioning, and what is its central principle?
B. F. Skinner; behavior is shaped by its consequences—behaviors followed by reinforcement are strengthened, and those followed by punishment are weakened (Law of Effect, originally Thorndike).
Distinguish positive from negative reinforcement.
Positive reinforcement adds a pleasant stimulus to increase a behavior; negative reinforcement removes an unpleasant stimulus to increase a behavior. Both strengthen behavior.
Distinguish positive from negative punishment.
Positive punishment adds an unpleasant stimulus to decrease a behavior; negative punishment removes a pleasant stimulus to decrease a behavior. Both weaken behavior.
Name the four schedules of reinforcement in operant conditioning.
Fixed-ratio, variable-ratio, fixed-interval, and variable-interval schedules. (Variable-ratio produces the highest, most resistant response rate.)
What is shaping in operant conditioning?
Reinforcing successive approximations of a desired behavior until the target behavior is achieved.
What is observational learning, and who is its main theorist?
Learning by watching and imitating the behavior of others (models); the main theorist is Albert Bandura.
What did Bandura's Bobo doll experiment demonstrate?
That children learn aggression and other behaviors by observing and imitating models, showing learning can occur without direct reinforcement.
List the four key processes in Bandura's observational learning.
Attention, retention (memory), reproduction (motor reproduction), and motivation (reinforcement).
What is the difference between sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory in the Atkinson-Shiffrin model?
Sensory memory holds raw sensory input briefly (under a second to a few seconds); short-term memory holds about 7 items for ~15-30 seconds; long-term memory stores information relatively permanently with vast capacity.
What is the capacity and duration of short-term memory according to Miller?
About 7 plus or minus 2 items (the 'magic number seven') for roughly 15-30 seconds without rehearsal.
Name and describe the two types of sensory memory.
Iconic memory (visual sensory memory, lasting about 0.5 second) and echoic memory (auditory sensory memory, lasting about 3-4 seconds).
Distinguish explicit (declarative) from implicit (non-declarative) long-term memory.
Explicit memory is conscious memory of facts and events (declarative); implicit memory is unconscious memory for skills and conditioned responses (procedural).
Distinguish episodic from semantic memory.
Episodic memory stores personal experiences and events tied to time and place; semantic memory stores general knowledge, facts, and concepts independent of personal context.
What is chunking, and how does it aid memory?
Chunking is organizing individual items into larger, meaningful units, which increases the effective capacity of short-term memory.
What is the law of effect (Thorndike), foundational to learning theory?
Responses followed by satisfying consequences are more likely to be repeated, while responses followed by unpleasant consequences are less likely to be repeated.
What is insight learning, and who demonstrated it?
Insight learning is the sudden realization of a problem's solution ('aha' experience) without trial and error; demonstrated by Wolfgang Kohler in his experiments with chimpanzees.
What this deck covers
The Cognitive Psychology deck follows the CSS Psychology Cognitive Psychology syllabus — 4 chapters and 23 topics — so questions land on material that is genuinely examinable rather than trivia around it. That works out to roughly 14.8 cards per chapter.
Answers are written to be recallable, not just readable — averaging about 146 characters, which is long enough to carry the reasoning and short enough to say out loud.
A deck like this earns its keep on the second and third pass. Read the syllabus first so you know the shape of the subject, then use the cards to find the specific facts that have not stuck.
Cognitive Psychology flashcards FAQ
How many Cognitive Psychology flashcards are in this CSS Psychology deck?
59 cards. This page previews 24 of them, sampled evenly across the deck so you can judge the difficulty before installing anything.
Are these CSS Psychology flashcards free?
Yes. The preview here is free to read with no signup, and the full 59-card deck is free inside the Examius app.
What do the Cognitive Psychology cards cover?
They follow the CSS Psychology Cognitive Psychology syllabus — 4 chapters and 23 topics — so the questions track what is actually examinable.
How should I use these flashcards?
Read the syllabus first so you know the shape of the subject, then drill the deck. Examius schedules each card with spaced repetition, so cards you keep missing come back sooner and ones you know drift further apart.