10 - Associative Learning Flashcards
What is associative learning?
Associative learning is a theory that states that ideas reinforce each other and can be linked to one another
What are the 2 types of associative learning?
- Pavlovian or classical conditioning 2. Operant or instrumental conditioning
What was Skinner’s theory of associative learning?
Operant conditioning - the individual’s behaviour has an impact on the environment (this may positively or negatively reinforce the behaviour) i.e. action leads to stimulus (behaviour has consequences)
What is classical conditioning?
One event/stimulus leads to another event/stimulus
What are the stages of classical conditioning? (e.g. dog - bell = food)
- Cephalic phase –> mouth waters, prepare to eat
- Conditioning phase –> ring bell before footsteps to ‘condition’ dog
- Acquisition –> gaining conditioned response, extinction = losing it
- Spontaneous recovery –> if you take a break during extinction, they go back to their conditioned response. So extinction doesn’t = forgetting, it = learning new association
- Latent inhibition –> hard to learn new association due to past experiences
What is equipotentiality?
Exception to latent inhibition, 2%. Same principles regardless of past experiences, etc.
What are the key assumptions of associative learning?
- Simple conditioned associations are the building blocks of learning
- Same laws of learning apply regardless of what is being learned or who is doing the learning
Who came up with Pavolvian /classical conditioning and the ‘dog theory’?
Pavlov 1890
What is classical conditioning?
A type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events. Learning through association, conditioned stimulus and conditioned response from unconditioned stimulus
What is acquisition?
The phase of classical conditioning when the CS and the US are presented together
What is a spontaneous recovery?
- The reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response
Describe Pavlov’s dog prototype
Intial:
- UCS (food) –> UCR (saliva)
- CS (bell) –> UCR (nothing)
Conditioning:
- CS (bell) –> UCS (food) –> UCR (saliva)
Testing:
- CS (bell) –> CR (saliva)
What is a cognitive view in relation to classical conditioning?
Knowledge about the relationships between 2 stimuli
How is Pavlovian conditioning largely affected by temporal contiguity?
Temporal contiguity occurs when two stimuli are experienced close together in time and, as a result an association may be formed. In
Pavlovian conditioning the strength of the association between the conditioned stimulus (bell) and the unconditioned stimulus (food) is largely affected by how close in time they are presented
How is contingency related to Pavlovian conditioning?
For Pavlov, the key variable in associative learning was the number of times the CS was paired with the US. As the number of pairings increases, the strength of the association between CS and US increases.
What is extinction in relation to spontaneous recovery and Pavlov?
Learning a new association (e.g. dog remembers light used to predict food)
What is latent inhibition?
Past learning experience changes acquisition of new associations
What is the concept of preparedness and what does it challenge?
Some associations (learning) are biologically advantaged –> challenges equipotentiality
What is the ‘sauce bearnaise syndrome’ and who coined this term?
Learned taste aversion to a food that comes after that food has been associated with nausea –> conditioned taste aversions
Coined by Seligman
What did Garcia & Koelling study in 1966 to do with taste?
Bright noisy water –> learned taste aversions
- Flavoured water –> light and click
- Conditioning –> xrays, lithium or shock
- Testing –> flavoured water or water with light + click
- Outcome –> sickness: avoided flavoured water, pain: avoid bright, noisy water
What % anticipate nausea with chemotherapy?
20-40%
Describe classical conditioning of nausea and chemo
- Chemo (UCS) –> Nausea (UCR)
- Sights/smells/thoughts preceding treatment (CS) –> Chemo –> Nausea
- Sights/smells/thoughts preceding treatment (CS) –> Nausea (CR)
What is 2nd order conditioning?
Building conditional stimuli, pairing with response. eg chemo – smell of hospitals, getting in car, reminder of appointment = nausea
New CS successively paired with old CS
New CS able to elicit CR
What is generalisation and discrimination?
Similar stimuli all cause same conditioned response but can discriminate if reinforced to make an exception – eg. Only one dog they’re not scared of, but scared of all others
Generalisation –> Greater similarity of new CS, more likely to elicit
Discrimination –> Responding to differences via reinforcement
What is Event 2 often called?
Reinforcer
What is the law of effect?
Thorndike’s principle that behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely, and that behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences become less likely
What are primary reinforcement?
Unconditioned and inherently reinforcing –> the response occurs naturally without any effort, doesn’t require any form of learning
What is secondary reinforcement?
Conditioned and becomes reinforcing –> a stimulus requires a behaviour after being previously associated with primary reinforcement
What is social reinforcement?
Consequences of behaviour (smiling, nodding, verbal praise, attention)
What are the types of reinforcement that increase responding?
Positive and negative reinforcement
What is positive reinforcement?
Adding something into the situation that increases the tendency to repeat the preceding behavior (reinforcing positive behaviour)
E.g. giving chocolate when they say pls and thanks
What is negative reinforcement?
Negative reinforcement occurs when something already present is removed (taken away) as a result of a behaviour and the behaviour that led to this removal will increase in the future because it created a favourable outcome
What types of reinforcement decrease responding?
Extinction and punishment
What is extinction as a type of reinforcement?
Remove positive reinforce to remove conditioned response, eg. baby cried b/c would get held, but if you stop holding it, it stops crying
What is punishment as a type of reinforcement?
Positive (add unpleasant stimulus); negative (withdraw positive stimulus)
What is shaping?
Reinforcements of successive approximations of desired act/behaviour
What is chaining?
Reinforcing each behavior by the opportunity to do the next behavior. Complex behaviours are broken into smaller parts.
- Each stage in sequence +vely reinforced
- Reinforcer cues next stage in sequence
What are token economies?
A token economy is a system of contingency management based on the systematic reinforcement of target behavior. The reinforcers are symbols or tokens that can be exchanged for other reinforcers.
Rewards good behavior with tokens that can be exchanged for something desired
What continuous reinforcement?
The reinforcement occurs every time
What is partial reinforcement?
the reinforcement only occurs part of the time
What is the partial reinforcement extinction effect?
Give reinforcements but not every time the action is carried out: harder to extinguish once taught, but may be slower to condition them to that action
What are ratio schedules / ratio reinforcement?
Reward every fixed number of responses (e.g. 5 –> FR5)
What are interval reinforcements?
Fixed or variable time periods (e.g. after x days, or varying)
