A semester from the syllabusPsychology 101 laid out by unit, studied from the open textbook and quizzed before each exam

Recipe No. 10 · Study and exams

For: A first-year student taking Introduction to Psychology

You get: A course map, a document per unit and a quiz before each exam

Time: An hour, then twenty minutes a week

See it in know.sh

One textbook section: the key terms checked and trimmed, lecture notes typed in after class, the lines a quiz caught out highlighted, and flashcards on the terms missed.

PSY 101 — Introduction to PsychologyUnit 2 — Consciousness, learning and memory (Ch. 4, 6, 7, 8)

10of 23

6.3 Operant Conditioning

Observation, key section, 2 highlights, 1 note, 1 source, 420 words

From OpenStax Psychology 2e, section 6.3 (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). Drafted by ChatGPT, checked against the chapter on 5 October.

Textbook

Operant conditioning: learning from consequences. A behaviour followed by a consequence becomes more or less likely. Skinner, building on Thorndike’s law of effect.
Reinforcement makes a behaviour more likely; punishment makes it less likely. Positive adds something, negative takes something away.
Negative reinforcement takes away something unpleasant, so the behaviour increases. It is not punishment.
Primary reinforcers (food, warmth) need no learning; secondary reinforcers (money, points, praise) are learned.
Shaping: reinforcing closer and closer approximations of the behaviour you want.
Schedules: continuous or partial; fixed or variable, ratio or interval. Variable ratio gives the highest, steadiest rate and is the hardest to extinguish.

Lecture, Thursday 8 October

The 2×2 grid: add and take away across the top, increases and decreases down the side. Draw it before any question on this.
Time-out is negative punishment: attention is taken away.
“Will be on the exam”: which schedule an example shows. Slot machine, variable ratio; checking for a text, variable interval.

Where I went wrong

Quiz, 19 October: I called the alarm example positive punishment. The alarm is taken away and getting up increases, so it is negative reinforcement.

```element flashcards
{
  "title": "Operant conditioning: the ones I missed",
  "cards": [
    {
      "question": "What is **negative reinforcement**?",
      "hint": "Look at what happens to the behaviour.",
      "answer": "Taking away something unpleasant, so the behaviour that removed it becomes more likely. It is not punishment."
    },
    {
      "question": "A child who hits is given a time-out from play. Which kind of operant conditioning is this?",
      "answer": "**Negative punishment**: attention and play are taken away, so hitting becomes less likely."
    },
    {
      "question": "Which **schedule of reinforcement** does a slot machine use?",
      "answer": "**Variable ratio**: a reward after an unpredictable number of responses. It gives the highest, steadiest rate and is the hardest to extinguish."
    },
    {
      "question": "What is **shaping**?",
      "answer": "Reinforcing closer and closer approximations of the behaviour you want, until the whole behaviour appears."
    }
  ],
  "shuffle": true
}
```

A scenario question written from the section above, with the wrong choice struck through and the section to reread named in the answer.

know., Quiz: Unit 2 — Consciousness, learning and memory (Ch. 4, 6, 7, 8) · Look up, New, ⋯

Quizzes, Unit 2 — Consciousness, learning and memory (Ch. 4, 6, 7, 8), Question 4 of 10

Your alarm keeps sounding until you get out of bed and switch it off, and over the semester you get up faster. Which kind of operant conditioning is this?

a. Positive reinforcement
b. Negative reinforcement (right)
c. Positive punishment (chosen)
d. Negative punishment

The answer is (b). Getting up takes the alarm away, and the behaviour that did it becomes more likely: something unpleasant removed, behaviour increased. Punishment of either kind makes a behaviour less likely. See Unit 2 — Consciousness, learning and memory, 10.

ChatGPT reading the syllabus and building the semester through know.sh, then naming the date it could not settle from the syllabus alone.

ChatGPT, connected to know.sh

You

I have attached my PSY 101 syllabus for fall 2026. Using know.sh, build the semester: a shelf for the course, a “Course map” document for grading, exams and policies, and a document per unit whose first section tables its dates. Then, for Unit 1, add a section per assigned OpenStax Psychology 2e section with its key terms in your own words, each citing the section page. Draft nothing for the application papers.

ChatGPT

The syllabus sets 14 chapters of Psychology 2e across 15 weeks in four units: exams on Thursday 24 September, Thursday 29 October and Thursday 19 November, and a cumulative final on Tuesday 8 December. I searched openstax.org for the Unit 1 sections and will build it now.

shelf_create Created the shelf PSY 101 — Introduction to Psychology

document_create Created Course map — grades, dates and rules on PSY 101

section_add Added “Grading: exams 65%, reading quizzes 15%, research 10%, papers 10%” to Course map, 1

section_add Added 8 more to Course map: each exam, the quiz rule, SONA credits, the papers, AI policy, accommodations

document_create Created Unit 1 — Research and the brain (Ch. 1, 2, 3, 5) and the three other unit documents

section_add Added “1.1 What Is Psychology?” to Unit 1, citing its page on openstax.org, 2

section_add Added 18 more section sections to Unit 1, each citing its section page

ChatGPT

Done: a shelf, five documents, 32 sections. One thing to check: the schedule puts Exam 3 on Thursday 19 November, but the grading table says Tuesday 17 November. I filed the 19th and said so in Course map, 4; confirm it on the course site. Every Lecture heading is empty for your notes, and I wrote nothing for the papers, since the syllabus allows AI for studying but not for graded work.

How it works

The syllabus holds fourteen chapters, four exams, a reading quiz most weeks and a paragraph on AI, and by October the dates live in four places. Your assistant turns it into a course map and a document per unit, drafts the key terms from OpenStax Psychology 2e, and writes a quiz ten days before each exam.

Give your assistant the syllabus on day one
Attach the syllabus and ask for a Course map of grades, exams and rules, then a document per unit whose first section tables every reading, quiz deadline and exam.
Let it draft the key terms
Ask for a section per assigned textbook section, “6.3 Operant Conditioning”, with its key terms in plain words, the section page as its source and an empty Lecture heading.
Check it, then add your lecture notes
Check every date against the syllabus in the editor. After each class, type your notes under Lecture and mark what the instructor stressed as Key.
Quiz ten days out, then flashcards
Ask for a quiz on the unit ten days before each exam, and a flashcards element on the terms you missed. Put the unit in Focus for its last week.

Try this prompt

Your assistant, connected to know.sh (Claude, ChatGPT or a local model):

I have attached my PSY 101 syllabus. Using know.sh, create a shelf called “PSY 101 — Introduction to Psychology” and a document called “Course map” with a section each for the grading weights, each exam, the reading-quiz rule, research participation, the AI policy and the accommodations deadline. Then create one document per unit, whose first section tables every reading, quiz deadline and exam. Tell me where the syllabus contradicts itself.

Your assistant, connected to know.sh (Claude, ChatGPT or a local model):

Using know.sh, make a quiz of ten questions on “Unit 2 — Consciousness, learning and memory (Ch. 4, 6, 7, 8)” on my PSY 101 shelf: six multiple choice, two true or false and two select all that apply. Weight it towards Key sections and the ones I have highlighted, prefer everyday scenarios to definitions, and cite the section each question comes from.

Made with

Shelf Document Your AI assistant Elements Quiz Star and Focus

See it in know.sh

6.3 Operant Conditioning

Operant conditioning: the ones I missed

How it works

Give your assistant the syllabus on day one

Let it draft the key terms

Check it, then add your lecture notes

Quiz ten days out, then flashcards

Try this prompt

Made with

See also