UNIT 3/4 Thread 2013

[darklight]

Engage Education, Multiple Choice:

Which of the following is an example of negative reinforcement?
A. Giving a student a detention for being rude to a teacher
B. Not letting a child play until they put on sunscreen
C. Giving a child a smack for being naughty
D. Giving an evil ex-boyfriend a second chance

Is negative reinforcement the removal of an aversive stimulus in order to strengthen a desired response? Wouldn't:
A - Positive punishment
B - Negative punishment (removing their play time for not putting on sunscreen)
C - Positive punishment
D - Pos reinforcement

So none of the options are neg reinforcement? The answer stated B. I don't see how this is possible.

[Slumdawg]

Hey guys,

Is remembering your name an example of "episodic" or "semantic memory"? What would VCAA accept considering this was a question in VCAA 2003, although no answer was stated.

Semantic.

A key distinction between semantic and episodic memories is the dependence of episodic memories on context (a given time and place). On the other hand, semantic knowledge enables an indvidual to remember information without having to consciously recall the experience/event where that information was learned. So information about yourself isn't necessarily episodic, if it isn't remembered within a specific context then it's semantic. E.g. you probably can't remember when or where you learned your name.

Hope that helps

[IvanJames]

Engage Education, Multiple Choice:

Which of the following is an example of negative reinforcement?
A. Giving a student a detention for being rude to a teacher
B. Not letting a child play until they put on sunscreen
C. Giving a child a smack for being naughty
D. Giving an evil ex-boyfriend a second chance

Is negative reinforcement the removal of an aversive stimulus in order to strengthen a desired response? Wouldn't:
A - Positive punishment
B - Negative punishment (removing their play time for not putting on sunscreen)
C - Positive punishment
D - Pos reinforcement

So none of the options are neg reinforcement? The answer stated B. I don't see how this is possible.

Seems like a typo to me, although you could over analyse it to make it correct...

Seeing as the child is allowed to play (pleasant consequence) after the risks of skin cancer (unpleasant stimulus) are removed, it can be seen as negative reinforcement.

If that is how the question is meant to be perceived, it was worded rather poorly.

[darklight]

Semantic.

A key distinction between semantic and episodic memories is the dependence of episodic memories on context (a given time and place). On the other hand, semantic knowledge enables an indvidual to remember information without having to consciously recall the experience/event where that information was learned. So information about yourself isn't necessarily episodic, if it isn't remembered within a specific context then it's semantic. E.g. you probably can't remember when or where you learned your name.

Hope that helps

Thanks Slumdawg for clearing up the distinction!

Seems like a typo to me, although you could over analyse it to make it correct...

Seeing as the child is allowed to play (pleasant consequence) after the risks of skin cancer (unpleasant stimulus) are removed, it can be seen as negative reinforcement.

If that is how the question is meant to be perceived, it was worded rather poorly.

Hmm yeah maybe they meant neg punishment...

Can anyone explain the distinction between appraisal and information support to me? Also an example of appraisal support? Thanks!

[radl223]

Hey guys,

I stumbled upon this question and got it wrong.

Luke's parents want to encourage him to get up earlier in the morning so he doesn't miss the train to get to school. At the end of each week, if Luke has caught the train each of the five school days his parents give him $10 pocket money.
Luke's parents are applying a schedule of reinforcement known as:

A) fixed interval
B) Fixed ratio
C) Variable interval
D) Variable ratio

The answer is B) Fixed ratio and I chose fixed interval instead. This question is confusing me because it has it in terms of time ("end of each week") and also ratio ("five school days"). Can anyone explain this to me in simplified terms?

[REBORN]

If you went to school 4 days out of 5, even if the time interval of a week elapsed, you get no money.

The condition of getting $10 is dependent on attending 5/5 (this ratio) school days.

[radl223]

Ohhh that makes sense, thanks!!

And also I hope someone can also explain this to me.

Question 5:

Using two pieces of evidence from the graph above, explain what age group this sleeping pattern represents.
The graph/hypnogram is in this link:  http://pavelfatin.com/images/sleeptracker/sleeptracker-pro-sleep-cycle-large.gif

The answer says its an adolescent because

- approx. 20% of time is spent in REM sleep (unlike infants with 50%)
I don't get how you'd come to this conclusion, how do you just automatically assume that 20% of the graph is in REM sleep?
- shorter time spent in stages 3&4 (older people spend a longer time in these stages)
I thought older people spend less time in stages 3&4 sleep, or is that just individuals 60 years old and older?
- Sleep is continuous and not broken (unlike infants)
I'm guessing this just means that they constantly sleep and wake up? So if I were given a graph of an infant's sleep cycle, would this mean that there'd be gaps because the infant would wake up?

Thanks in advance!

[IvanJames]

Just have a question in regards to referencing which needs to go on my mental health report,

- Does it matter if websites or books go first?

- When being put in alphabetical order, is it the title of the book that has to be alphabetical or the name of the author, as that goes first.


Thanks in advance.

[Lizzy7]

Hi Everyone!!!!

Just finished a Trial Exam today and I'm pretty sure I didn't do too well...

Does it contribute to your indicative grade? Do the VCAA examiners correct it? And if so does that mean my teacher will see it?

[ineedhelp2]

Hey lizzy7,

By trial exam I assume it is simply your school's own internal assessment. If this is the case then it will depend entirely on your school. In many cases, your teacher may be the one correcting it, or they may hire an external assessor (these will not be the real VCAA examiners) but your teacher will definitely see it.

Once again it depends on your school, but it should definitely count towards your indicative grade to an extent (my school emphasises on SAC grades, as this year is combined and it is hard to predict due to lack of time doing practice exams).

However, trial exams are not always reflective of how well you will do in the actual exam! I have heard of people failing the trial exam and receiving study scores of 40+ at the end because they aced the real vcaa exam. So don't stress, it is just a trial and your indicative grade is hardly relevant to what you will actually get

[Lizzy7]

Hey lizzy7,

By trial exam I assume it is simply your school's own internal assessment. If this is the case then it will depend entirely on your school. In many cases, your teacher may be the one correcting it, or they may hire an external assessor (these will not be the real VCAA examiners) but your teacher will definitely see it.

Once again it depends on your school, but it should definitely count towards your indicative grade to an extent (my school emphasises on SAC grades, as this year is combined and it is hard to predict due to lack of time doing practice exams).

However, trial exams are not always reflective of how well you will do in the actual exam! I have heard of people failing the trial exam and receiving study scores of 40+ at the end because they aced the real vcaa exam. So don't stress, it is just a trial and your indicative grade is hardly relevant to what you will actually get

Thank You !! I was just so super stressed today; I wish we get the results back soon so I know how well/bad I did... Do you think we'll have them back before the holidays end?

[slothpomba]

Just have a question in regards to referencing which needs to go on my mental health report,

- Does it matter if websites or books go first?

- When being put in alphabetical order, is it the title of the book that has to be alphabetical or the name of the author, as that goes first.


Thanks in advance.

This all depends on the style of referencing. All these styles actually do have guides on how to do it. If you dont know what style you're meant to use, i suggest either trying to find out or simply adopting one. Personally i like Harvard.

If youre using say Harvard, look up the style guide for it (or any website about it) and it should tell you all you need to know. If that still doesnt work, i have software that does referencing automatically and knows all the rules. I can plug in a few references and check for you.

[darklight]

Hey,

Quick question: the serial position effect does not occur when participants are asked to use serial recall right? Because then by the time, they get to the last words - the last words would no longer be in the STM? Therefore, are the TSSM 2010 solutions incorrect, because they stated "Archer is participating in a study on memory. In the first trial, he is shown 15 different items and then required to recall the items in the same order they are presented. Sketch the graph.

Their graph showed the typical serial position effect...

[ineedhelp2]

Hi darklight,

By 'typical serial position effect' I assume you just mean the normal U-shape? Not sure how the graph looks like in TSSM, but I believe the graph would be the typical U-shaped graph, except there would be no recency effect i.e. the beginning of the graph would be higher than the end of the graph.

When you use serial recall, the serial position effect still occurs, but the recency effect does not occur. This is because of exactly what you said - since STM only holds items for 18-20 seconds, by the time we get to the end of the list, these items will no longer be in our memory. This means that the primacy effect will still occur, because the items have been transferred to our long-term memory.

I don't know if this is what you're looking for, but I hope I helped.

[darklight]

Hi darklight,

By 'typical serial position effect' I assume you just mean the normal U-shape? Not sure how the graph looks like in TSSM, but I believe the graph would be the typical U-shaped graph, except there would be no recency effect i.e. the beginning of the graph would be higher than the end of the graph.

When you use serial recall, the serial position effect still occurs, but the recency effect does not occur. This is because of exactly what you said - since STM only holds items for 18-20 seconds, by the time we get to the end of the list, these items will no longer be in our memory. This means that the primacy effect will still occur, because the items have been transferred to our long-term memory.

I don't know if this is what you're looking for, but I hope I helped.

Hey, yep that's what I meant - but in TSSM they had the typical U-shaped graph in the sense that they demonstrated that both recency and primacy effect occur. I think it should be more of an exponential decreasing function since no recency effect will occur, so extremely unlikely to remember the last couple of words!

Another question: is the fact that sleep allows us to conserve energy evidence for the survival or restorative theory of sleep? Or is it both?