08. Important Information Flashcards
How might psychologists define learning?
The process or set of processes through which sensory experience at one time can affect an individual’s behaviour at a future time.
What is classical conditioning?
A training procedure or learning experience in which a neutral stimulus (the conditioned stimulus) comes to elicit a reflexive response through its being paired with another stimulus (usually an unconditioned stimulus) that already elicits that reflexive response; originally studied by Pavlov.
What is a reflex?
A simple, relatively automatic, stimulus–response sequence mediated by the nervous system.
What is a stimulus?
A well-defined element of the environment that can potentially act on an individual’s nervous system and thereby influence the individual’s behaviour.
What is a response?
Any well-defined behavioural action, especially one that is elicited by some form of environmental stimulation or provocation.
What is habituation?
The decline in the magnitude or likelihood of a reflexive response that occurs when the stimulus is repeated several or many times in succession.
What is a conditioned stimulus?
In classical conditioning, a stimulus that comes to elicit a reflexive response (the conditioned response) because of its previous pairing with another stimulus (the unconditioned stimulus) that already elicits a reflexive response.
What is a conditioned response?
In classical conditioning, a reflexive response that is elicited by a stimulus (the conditioned stimulus) because of the previous pairing of that stimulus with another stimulus (the unconditioned stimulus) that already elicits a reflexive response.
What is an unconditioned stimulus?
A stimulus that elicits a reflexive response without any previous training or conditioning.
What is an unconditioned response?
A reflexive response that does not depend upon previous conditioning or learning.
What is extinction?
In classical conditioning, the gradual disappearance of a conditioned reflex that results when a conditioned stimulus occurs repeatedly without the unconditioned stimulus. (p. 268) In operant conditioning, the decline in response rate that results when an operant response is no longer followed by a reinforcer.
What is spontaneous recovery?
In both classical and operant conditioning, the return—due to passage of time with no further testing or training—of a conditioned response that had previously undergone extinction.
What is the phenomenon called generalisation?
In classical conditioning, the phenomenon by which a stimulus that resembles a conditioned stimulus will elicit the conditioned response even though it has never been paired with the unconditioned stimulus. (p. 269) In operant conditioning, the phenomenon by which a stimulus that resembles a discriminative stimulus will increase the rate at which the animal produces the operant response, even though the response has never been reinforced in the presence of that stimulus.
What is discrimination training?
The procedure, in both classical and operant conditioning, by which generalisation between two stimuli is diminished or abolished by reinforcing the response to one stimulus and extinguishing the response to the other.
What is the school of thought known as behaviourism?
A school of psychological thought that holds that the proper subject of study is observable behaviour, not the mind, and that behaviour should be understood in terms of its relationship to observable events in the environment rather than in terms of hypothetical events within the individual.
What are the two main theories of classical conditioning?
the stimulus- stimulus (S-S) theory and the stimulus-response (S-R) theory
Which theory of classical conditioning did Pavlov and other experiments support?
The S-S theory
Explain the S-S theory
The animal does not learn a direct stimulus-response connection but rather a connection between two stimuli (the conditioned and the unconditioned stimulus) [e.g. bell= mental representation of food= salivation]
List three cases that support the theory that conditioning depends on the predictive value of the conditioned stimulus
- The conditioned stimulus must precede the unconditioned stimulus
- the conditioned stimulus must signal heightened probability of occurrence of the unconditioned stimulus
- Conditioning is ineffective when the animal already has a good predictor
What is evaluative conditioning?
The changing in the strength of liking or disliking of a stimulus as a result of being paired with another positive or negative stimulus.
Many drugs seem to produce two effects, what are they?
A direct effect followed by a compensatory reaction to that direct effect which seems to try to restore the body’s normal state
True or false: the direct effect of drugs are reflexes?
False, the direct effect of drugs are not reflexes and therefore cannot be conditioned. The counteractive effects are reflexes (the body is trying to protect itself)
What is drug tolerance?
The phenomenon by which a drug produces successively smaller physiological and behavioural effects, at any given dose, if it is taken repeatedly.
What are operant responses?
Any behavioural response that produces some reliable effect on the environment that influences the likelihood that the individual will produce that response again; also called instrumental response.
What is operant conditioning?
A training or learning process by which the consequence of a behavioural response affects the likelihood that the individual will produce that response again; also called instrumental conditioning.
What is Thorndike’s law of effect?
Thorndike’s principle that responses that produce a satisfying effect in a particular situation become more likely to recur in that situation, and responses that produce a discomforting effect become less likely to recur in that situation.
What is a Skinner box?
A cage designed by B.F. Skinner (behaviourist) with a lever or another mechanism in it that the animal can operate to produce some effect. Responses can be easily counted and learning (changes in the rate of responses can be observed
Define Skinner’s term reinforcer
In operant conditioning, any stimulus change that occurs after a response and tends to increase the likelihood that the response will be repeated. (replacement for words such as satisfaction and reward)
What is shaping?
An operant-conditioning procedure in which successively closer approximations to the desired response are reinforced until the response finally occurs.
What is partial reinforcement?
In operant conditioning, any condition in which the response sometimes produces a reinforcer and sometimes does not.
What is continuous reinforcement?
In operant conditioning, any condition in which the response is always reinforced. Contrast with partial reinforcement.
What is a fixed-ratio schedule?
In operant conditioning, a schedule of reinforcement in which a response must be produced a certain fixed number of times (more than once) before it produces a reinforcer.
What is a variable-ratio schedule
In operant conditioning, a schedule of reinforcement in which the response must be produced a certain average number of times before a reinforcer will appear, but the number needed on any given instance varies randomly around that average.
What is a fixed-interval schedule?
In operant conditioning, a schedule of reinforcement in which a fixed period of time must elapse after each reinforced response before it produces a reinforcer.
What is variable interval schedule?
In operant conditioning, a schedule of reinforcement in which an unpredictable period of time, varying around some average, must elapse between the receipt of one reinforcer and the availability of another.
Which schedules of partial reinforcement produce rapid responses and which produce low rates of response
rapid= ratio schedules
low= interval schedules
What kinds of schedules produces the behaviour which is difficult ot extinguish?
Variable-ratio and variable- interval
What kind of schedule are slot machines on?
Variable-ratio schedule
What is reinforcement (in Skinner’s terminology)?
In operant conditioning, the presentation of a positive reinforcer or removal of a negative reinforcer when a response occurs, which increases the likelihood that the subject will repeat the response.
What is positive reinforcement?
In operant conditioning, the condition in which a response results in a positive reinforcer.
What is a positive reinforcer
In operant conditioning, a stimulus (such as food or money) that is presented after a response and that increases the likelihood that the response will recur.
What is negative reinforcement?
In operant conditioning, the condition in which a response results in removal of a negative reinforcer.
What is a negative reinforcer?
In operant conditioning, a stimulus (such as electric shock or loud noise) that is removed after a response and whose removal increases the likelihood that the response will recur.
What is punishment (in Skinner’s terminology)?
In operant conditioning, the process through which the consequence of a response decreases the likelihood that the response will recur.
What is positive punishment?
In operant conditioning, the type of punishment in which the presentation of a stimulus (such as an electric shock or scolding) when a response occurs decreases the likelihood that the response will recur.
What is negative punishment?
In operant conditioning, the type of punishment in which the removal of a stimulus (such as taking food or money) when a response occurs decreases the likelihood that the response will recur.
What is a discriminative stimulus?
In operant conditioning, a stimulus that serves as a signal that a particular response will produce a particular reinforcer.
What is a concept?
A rule or other form of mental information for categorising stimuli into groups.
What is the overjustification-effect?
The phenomenon in which a person who initially performs a task for no reward (except the enjoyment of the task) becomes less likely to perform that task for no reward after a period during which he or she has been rewarded for performing it.
What is behaviour analysis?
The use of principles of operant conditioning to predict behaviour. From this perspective, one has achieved “understanding” to the degree to which one can predict and influence future occurrences of behaviour.
According to Karl Groos (1898) what is the primary purpose of play?
To provide a means for young animals to practice their instincts (species typical behaviour)
What evidence is there of Groos’s theory of play (list 5)?
- Young animals play more than do adults of their species
- Species of animals that have the most to learn play the most
- Young animals play most at those skills that they most need to learn
- Play involves much repetition
- Play is challenging
What is culture?
A set of learned skills, knowledge, beliefs and values that characterise a group of interconnected individuals and are passed along from generation to generation
What is the one type of play which may be unique to humans?
symbolic play
What is symbolic play?
A type of play that includes an “as if” orientation to objects, actions, and other people. Symbolic play increases during early childhood as a result of children’s growing abilities to use symbols to represent something as other than itself.
True or false: evolution evolved out of the learning about category?
true
What is a key purpose of exploration?
To discover whether or not a novel object or place is safe
Tolman argued that rewards affect what animals do rather than what they…
learn
How did Tolman use the term latent learning?
Learning that is not demonstrated in the subject’s behaviour at the time that the learning occurs but can be inferred from its effect on the subject’s behaviour at some later time.
What is social learning?
Learning occurring in a situation in which one individual comes to behave similarly to another.
What is observational learning?
Learning by watching others.
What is vicarious reinforcement?
In Bandura’s social cognitive theory, learning from observing others’ behaviours and their consequences, without the need to receive specific reinforcement for one’s behaviour.
What are 5 key cognitive capabilities in Bandura’s social-cognitive theory?
- symbolisation
- Forethought
- self-regulation
- self-selection
- vicarious reinforcement
In which mammalian species does real imitation occur?
Primates
Which species comes second to humans in the exhibition of culture?
chimpanzees. wild chimpanzees have different cultural traditions
In the animal world (apart from humans) teaching is rare, how does most social learning occur?
By observational learning such as emulation
Give an example of food aversion learning?
If rats become sick after eating a certain food, they tend to avoid that food in future
Give an example of food preference learning?
When rats are deprived of a mineral (such as calcium) they learn to prefer foods that contain that mineral
What are two rules for learning what to eat?
- When possible, eat what your elders eat
- when you eat a new food, remember the taste and smell, if you get sick after eating eat, it should be avoided in future
What are precocial birds?
Bird species (such as chickens and geese) which can walk almost as soon as they hatch
Why might imprinting have developed in precocial birds?
Because they can walk almost as soon as they hatch, imprinting may have developed as a way for them to identify their mother and follow her (not get separated)
What is imprinting?
Ethologists’ term for a relatively sudden and irreversible form of learning that can occur only during some critical period of the individual’s development.
What is the critical period in relation to learning such as imprinting?
A relatively restricted time period in an individual’s development during which a particular form of learning can best occur.
What is the Westermarck effect?
Observation that people who are raised together from early in childhood rarely develop a sexual attraction to one another.
Which sense, other than sight, is there strong evidence for in the governance of the Westermarck effect?
smell
