Attention, Perception, Learning and Memory Questions and Answers

Answer: D

This is Simultaneous conditioning.

In classical conditioning, the timing of the conditioned stimulus (CS) relative to the unconditioned stimulus (US) defines the procedure. In simultaneous conditioning the CS and US begin and end at the same time. It usually produces weak conditioning, because the CS does not predict the US.

In delay conditioning the CS starts first and overlaps with the US, which generally gives the strongest learning. In backward conditioning the US comes before the CS. Acquisition is the stage in which a conditioned response is first learned, not a timing arrangement.

Answer: A

This is Synesthesia.

Synesthesia is a condition in which stimulation of one sensory modality automatically produces an experience in another. A synesthete may see colours when hearing music, or perceive particular letters or numbers as having particular colours (grapheme-colour synesthesia), consistently over time.

Sensation is the detection of stimuli by a sense organ, and perception is the organisation and interpretation of sensations. 'Sensory perception' simply combines the two. None of these refers to one sense triggering experience in another.

Answer: B

The keyed sequence is Attention, Memory, Imitation, Desire.

Bandura described four processes in observational learning. The learner must first pay attention to the model's behaviour, then retain it in memory, then be able to reproduce (imitate) it, and finally have the motivation (desire) to perform it, which depends on expected reinforcement. In this option set memory stands for retention, imitation for reproduction and desire for motivation.

The other sequences put imitation before memory, or desire and memory before attention, which breaks the logic of the process: one cannot remember what one has not attended to, or reproduce what one has not retained.

Answer: A

Vicarious reinforcement was conceptualised by Bandura.

In social learning theory, Albert Bandura showed that people learn not only from their own rewards and punishments but from seeing the consequences of others' behaviour. When a learner sees a model rewarded, the learner becomes more likely to imitate the behaviour; this is vicarious reinforcement. In the Bobo doll studies, children who saw an aggressive model rewarded imitated the aggression more.

Skinner's operant conditioning deals with reinforcement of the learner's own responses. Rotter developed locus of control and expectancy theory, and Rollo May was an existential psychologist.

Answer: A

This is Perceptual learning.

Perceptual learning is a relatively lasting improvement in the ability to perceive and discriminate stimuli that results from practice and experience. Wine tasters learn to distinguish subtle flavours, radiologists learn to spot faint shadows on an X-ray, and listeners learn to tell apart sounds of a new language.

'Perceptual practice' is not a technical term. The superiority effect (as in the word-superiority effect) is the finding that letters are recognised better within words. The 'missing-later effect' is not a standard concept. Only perceptual learning names the change in perception with practice.

Answer: C

Mach proposed (3) only: space form and time form.

In The Analysis of Sensations (1886), Ernst Mach argued that we perceive a spatial pattern, such as a shape, or a temporal pattern, such as a melody, as a whole, even when its elements change: a square remains a square when it is moved, and a tune is recognised in a new key. He treated these as new kinds of sensation, 'space form' and 'time form', an idea that led to Ehrenfels' form qualities and then to Gestalt psychology.

Isomorphism is a later Gestalt idea, Wolfgang Kohler's proposal that brain processes share the structure of experience. It was not proposed by Mach, so options including it are wrong.

Answer: A

Subliminal perception occurs with stimuli presented (I) only, below the threshold.

'Subliminal' means below the limen, the threshold of conscious awareness. Subliminal perception is the registration and influence of stimuli that are too weak or too brief to be consciously reported, such as words flashed for a few milliseconds, which can still prime later responses.

Stimuli above the threshold are perceived consciously; that is ordinary (supraliminal) perception. So 'above the threshold' does not belong, and the options including (II) are wrong.

Answer: D

This illustrates Decay/Fading theory.

Decay theory proposes that memory traces fade with time if they are not used or rehearsed, as Ebbinghaus' forgetting curve suggested. Facts that are never recalled or mentioned gradually weaken and disappear, which is what the question describes: forgetting due to disuse and the passage of time alone.

Interference theory explains forgetting by competition from other learning, earlier (proactive) or later (retroactive). Retrieval failure theory holds that the memory is still stored but cannot be accessed without suitable cues. 'Reactive interference theory' is not a standard theory.

Answer: B

The phenomenon is Inattentional blindness.

Inattentional blindness is the failure to notice a fully visible, unexpected object because attention is engaged elsewhere. In Simons and Chabris' famous study, about half of the viewers counting basketball passes failed to see a person in a gorilla suit walk through the scene. It shows that we consciously register only what we attend to.

'Attentional blindness', 'perceptual blindness' and 'visual blindness' are not the established term. The related phenomenon of change blindness is failing to notice changes in a scene, which is not what the question describes.

Answer: D

This is a Variable-ratio schedule.

In a ratio schedule reinforcement depends on the number of responses; in an interval schedule it depends on time. When the number of responses required varies unpredictably around an average, the schedule is variable-ratio. Slot machines work this way, and the schedule produces high, steady response rates and strong resistance to extinction.

A fixed-ratio schedule reinforces after a set number of responses, as in piecework. Fixed-interval and variable-interval schedules reinforce the first response after a fixed or varying amount of time, not after a number of responses.