11 Flashcards

1
Q

Reflex

A

a behaviour that is automatically elicited by an environmental stimulus
E.g., blink when something rapidly approaches your eye

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2
Q

Habituation

A

the reduction in response strength of a reflex over repeated presentations of the stimulus

Imagine you’re a circus performer => things being thrown at you everyday lowers and stops your reflex to duck and dodge

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3
Q

Classical conditioning (Pavlovian conditioning)

A

The learning of a new association between two previously unrelated stimuli
• We learn that a stimulus predicts a certain event and we respond accordingly.
• In classical conditioning, all responses are reflexes or autonomic responses that are elicited by environmental stimuli.

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4
Q

Unconditioned stimulus

A

A stimulus that elicits an unconditioned response without previous conditioning.
(meat in pavlov’s experiment)

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5
Q

Unconditioned response

A

An unlearned reaction to an unconditional stimulus (UCS) that occurs without previous conditioning
(drooling in pavlov’s experiment)

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6
Q

Conditioned stimulus

A

A previously neutral stimulus that has acquired the capacity to elicit a conditioned response (CR)
(bell in pavlov’s experiment)

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7
Q

Conditioned response

A

A learned reaction to an conditioned stimulus (CS) that occurs because of previous conditioning
(response to the bell Pavlov’s experiment)

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8
Q

Acquisition in classical conditioning

A

The process of acquiring a new association between stimuli (e.g., food + bell)
It takes a certain number of pairings for association to become clear
▫ The process of pairing a conditioned stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus.
▫ The conditioned stimulus will acquire the ability to elicit a conditioned response

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9
Q

How does conditioning effect us ?

A

Advertising
▫ Associations between products and other stimuli
can be formed through advertising
▫ The main aim is that these associations will lead to a change in behaviour (e.g. purchase the product)

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10
Q

What gets conditioned ?

A

• Classical conditioning can change behaviour, physiology, emotions, and/or cognition

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11
Q

Learning

A

Any enduring change in the way an organism responds, based on its experiences.
▫ Implies change/adaptation
▫ Necessary for survival
• Key issue: Learning cannot be observed
directly. It is inferred from behaviour that is observed.

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12
Q

Changes in behaviour

A

▫ Changes in behaviour
-– e.g Salivation
- –For humans can be the establishment of avoidance or
preferences

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13
Q

Changes in physiology

A

–Increased heart rate, skin conductance responses and muscle tension during a conditioned stimulus paired with an aversive stimulus

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14
Q

Changes in emotion

A

–Conditioned stimuli paired with an aversive event are rated as less pleasant and more arousing than they were before conditioning
–Neutral stimuli paired with a “liked” stimulus becomes more liked after conditioning

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15
Q

Changes in cognition

A
  • –Increased expectancy of the unconditional stimulus when the conditional stimulus is presented (law of prediction)
  • –Formulation of plans or reactions to conditional stimulus (e.g. how to avoid impact of unconditional stimulus)
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16
Q

Conditioned taste aversion

A

• A learned aversion to a taste associated with an unpleasant feeling, usually nausea.
• Takes just one trial to develop
• Evolutionary adaptation
UCS (Toxic Event) => UCR (Nausea)
NS (Taste of Prawns) + UCS (Toxic Event) => UCR (Nausea)
CS (Taste of Prawns) => CR (Nausea)

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17
Q

Pavlov and his dogs

A

Used a bell to indicate the times of the day the dogs would be fed

  • when they were shown the food and fed the dogs would drool
  • eventually upon hearing the bell the dogs would drool, even without the presence of food
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18
Q

3 temporal relations

A
  • Simultaneous conditioning
  • forward conditioning
  • backward conditioning
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19
Q

Simultaneous conditioning

A

–UCS & CS begin end end together

Bell begins to ring at the same time the food is presented. Both begin, continue, and end at the same time.

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20
Q

Forward conditioning

A

–CS begins just before UCS
Bell begins to ring and continues to ring as until food has been presented.
- Most effective temporal relation

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21
Q

Backward conditioning

A

–UCS begins before CS begin
The food is presented, and then the bell rings
- Least effective temporal relation

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22
Q

Extinction in classical conditioning

A
  • The weakening of the conditioned response when the conditioned stimulus is presented without the unconditioned stimulus.
  • Bell, but no food
  • Time taken to extinguish CR depends on the strength of the conditioned bond when extinction begins
  • Extinction is not an unlearning of the conditioned response. It is a learned inhibition of responding.
  • Important implications for treatment of phobias.
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23
Q

Phobias

A

• Behavioural treatment for phobia is based on extinction
▫ The fear is so strong this is usually done in steps through systematic desensitisation
step 1 photograph of a spider in a book
step 2 spider in a jar
step 3 holding spider in jar
step 4 spider on table
step 5 holding spider

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24
Q

Spontaneous recovery

A

▫ If there is a break after extinction, a conditional response will be shown upon another presentation of the conditioned stimulus
▫ This “spontaneous recovery” response will typically be smaller than before extinction
▫ The longer the delay, the larger the spontaneous recovery

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25
Q

Renewal effect

A
  • If a CR is extinguished in an environment different to the real environment, then the extinguished response will re-appear when the animal (or person!) is returned to the real environment
  • Spontaneous recovery and renewal effect suggest that extinction suppresses a CR but CR is not unlearned
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26
Q

Stimulus generalisation

A
  • Organism that has learned a response to the specific stimulus responds in the same way to new stimuli that are similar
  • A conditioned response will be elicited by other stimuli that are similar to the original conditional stimulus
  • The conditional response is not usually as large as it is to the original conditional stimulus
  • Generalisation gradient – the more similar the stimulus to the conditional stimulus, the larger the conditioned response
  • Little Albert’s conditioned fear of rats generalised to other furry white objects.
27
Q

Stimulus discrimination

A
  • If a response is conditioned to one stimulus, the organism may also respond to a similar stimulus (generalisation) but not to a dissimilar stimulus (discrimination).
  • Pavlov’s dogs were able to discriminate between different tones/bells: learned which bells meant food and which didn’t
28
Q

3 factors affecting conditioning

A
  1. Stimulus contingency/Inter-stimulus interval
  2. Individual learning history
  3. Biological preparedness
29
Q

Stimulus contingency / inter-stimulus interval

A

▫ Time between presentations
▫ Order of presentation
- forward, backward and simultaneous conditioning

30
Q

Individual learning history

A

▫ Prior history with stimuli
- –Previously learned but extinguished associations are
easier to learn than “new” associations
▫ Blocking
-– Failure of a stimulus to elicit a conditioned response
when it is combined with another stimulus that
already elicits the CR
▫ Latent Inhibition
- –Initial exposure to neutral stimulus without the UCS
slows later learning of CS-USC association and developing CR

31
Q

Biological preparedness

A

Preparedness to learn
• Some associations are more easier learned than others
• Biologically wired readiness to learn some associations more easily than others
▫ E.g., land animals connect taste with nausea responses

32
Q

Operant conditioning / instrumental conditioning

A
  • Goal oriented behaviour
    Operant conditioning: changes in behaviour that occur as a result of the consequences of the behaviour
    • A form of learning in which voluntary responses come to be controlled by their consequences
    ▫ Operant responses (behaviours are voluntary in nature
    ▫ Emitted by the subject rather than elicited by the environment
33
Q

Instrumental learning - Thorndike (1898 - 1911)

A
  • Placed a hungry cat in a puzzle-box (cage) and a small
    amount of food was placed just outside the door
  • To get to the food, the cat could open the door by pressing a lever
  • Initially, the cats tried a number of behaviours to escape
    before stumbling across correct response
  • Thorndike was interested in how long it took the cat to
    escape when placed back in the box
  • DV = the latency (how long) for the cats to escape across a number of trials
34
Q

Thorndike’s experiments

A
• Trial 1 - more than 150 seconds to escape
• Trial 40 = 7 seconds
• Behaviours that opened the door were followed
by consequences (escape, food)
• Operant conditioning – the organism’s behaviour changed because of the consequences that followed it 
* Argued that the behaviour was not insight or intelligence
Intelligence would be knowing exactly what to do to get out after the "aha" moment of stumbling upon the lever - in reality it was a linear process of strengthening the desirable behaviours
35
Q

Thorndike’s law of effect

A

Behaviours leading to a desired state of

affairs are strengthened, whereas those leading to an unsatisfactory state of affairs are weakened

36
Q

B.F Skinner

A

the Skinner Box
• He devised methods that allowed the animal to repeat the operant response many times in the conditioning situation
• Studied lever pressing in rats & pecking in pigeons
• In Skinner’s experiments the DV = response rate (how many times the rat pressed the lever)

37
Q

Skinner’s beliefs

A
  1. Respondent behaviour (reflexive)
  2. Operant behaviour (voluntary)
    • Proposed that voluntary behaviours are controlled by their consequences (rather than by preceding stimuli)
38
Q

Reinforcement

A
  • An environmental stimulus that occurs after behaviour and increases the likelihood that the behaviour will occur in the future
  • If the consequences that follow a behaviour are favourable, the tendency to repeat the behaviour is strengthened
39
Q

Positive reinforcement

A
  • –The presentation of a pleasant stimulus after a behaviour makes the behaviour more likely to occur in the future
  • –The response is strengthened because it is followed by presentation of a rewarding stimulus
40
Q

Negative reinforcement

A

Occurs when a response is strengthened because it is
followed by the removal of an aversive stimulus
- Removal of an unpleasant stimulus (taking a panadol to stop a headache)

41
Q

Primary reinforcers

A

reinforcers that have innate reinforcing qualities. These kinds of reinforcers are not learned.
– Water, food, sleep, shelter, sex, and touch, among others, are primary reinforcers.

42
Q

Secondary reinforcers

A

has no inherent value and only has reinforcing qualities when linked with a primary reinforcer.
– Praise, linked to affection, is one example of a secondary reinforcer, as when you called out “Great shot!” every time Joaquin made a goal.

43
Q

Positive punishment

A

The presentation of an aversive stimulus after a behaviour reduces the likelihood of the behaviour occurring in the future – e.g. a speeding fine
- addition off a speeding fine makes it less likely you will speed again

44
Q

Negative punishment

A

The removal of a pleasant stimulus after a behaviour

reduces the likelihood of the behaviour occurring in the future – e.g. removal of TV watching time

45
Q

Issues with punishment

A
  • Learner may not understand which behaviour is being punished.
  • Learner may come to fear the ‘punisher’, rather than learn an association between the action and punishment .
  • Punishment may not undo existing rewards for a behaviour. E.g., ‘acting out’ in class may result in punishment but peer approval (reinforcement)
  • Punitive aggression may lead to future aggression
46
Q

Punishment v Reinforcement

A
  • Punishment of undesirable behaviours is not very effective in achieving disciplinary goals
  • Reinforcing desirable behaviours is more effective
47
Q

Acquisition and shaping - operant conditioning

A
• A procedure in which a complex behaviour is trained/taught by reinforcing closer and closer approximations of the desired response
▫ Training a dog to fetch the paper 
▫ Teaching a child to tie shoelaces 
▫ ‘Clicker’ training
▫ Only positive reinforcement
48
Q

Extinction in operant conditioning

A

• Just like in classical conditioning, if the reinforcer stops then the response tendency will weaken and disappear
▫ Commencement of extinction is often accompanied by a gradual decline until the response rate is zero

49
Q

Schedules of reinforcement

A

• The pattern of reinforcer (or punisher) delivery affects the pattern of responding

  • continuous
  • intermittent / partial
50
Q

Continuous reinforcement

A

– Reinforcer is obtained after every response

– Good for training new behaviour

51
Q

Intermittent / partial reinforcement

A

– Reinforcer is not obtained for every response
– More resistant to extinction, behaviour persists for longer
Ratio schedules
Interval schedules

52
Q

Ratio schedules

A

▫ Fixed Ratio: Reinforced every nth response
▫ Variable Ratio: On average, reinforced after every nth
response.

53
Q

Interval schedules

A

▫ Fixed Interval: Reinforced after specific time period has
elapsed
▫ Variable Interval: Reinforced after an average time
period has elapsed

54
Q

Fixed interval schedules

A

• when behavior is rewarded after a set amount of time.
• This type of schedule exists in payment systems when someone is paid hourly:
▫ no matter how much work that person does in one hour (behavior), they will be paid the same amount (reinforcement).

55
Q

Variable interval schedules

A

• subject gets the reinforcement based on varying and unpredictable amounts of time.
• People who like to fish experience this type of reinforcement schedule:
– on average, in the same location, you are likely to catch about the same number of fish in a given time period.
– However, you do not know exactly when those
catches will occur (reinforcement) within the time period spent fishing (behavior).

56
Q

Fixed ratio schedules

A

• a set number of responses must occur before the behavior is rewarded.
• This can be seen in payment for work such as fruit picking:
▫ pickers are paid a certain amount (reinforcement) based on the amount they pick (behavior), which encourages them to pick faster in order to make more money.

57
Q

Variable ratio schedule

A

• the number of responses needed for a reward varies.
• This is the most powerful type of intermittent
reinforcement schedule.
• In humans, this type of schedule is used by casinos
to attract gamblers:
– a slot machine pays out an average win ratio—say five
to one—but does not guarantee that every fifth bet (behavior) will be rewarded (reinforcement) with a win.

58
Q

Applications of operant conditioning

A
Behavioural therapy:
▫ Reducing thumb sucking 
▫ Reducing tantrums
▫ Quitting smoking
Behavioural modification:
▫ Token economies
▫ Remedial education
▫ Therapy for autism (ABA; Applied behaviour
analysis)
59
Q

Seligman (1975) Learned helplessness

A

• The expectancy that one cannot escape aversive events
▫ As a result of this belief severely adverse effect on motivation and learning
• Seligman argued that learned helplessness is central to human depression

60
Q

Seligman (1975) Learned helplessness

Day 1

A

Day 1
• Exp. Condition – dogs were harnessed so that they could not escape electric shocks
• The dogs eventually gave up
– Laid down, stopped struggling, showed signs of physiological distress
• Control condition – dogs were not exposed to inescapable shocks

61
Q

Seligman (1975) Learned helplessness

Day 2

A

• Dogs were placed in shuttle box where escape was possible
• The dogs in the control condition learned how to escape
• Dogs in experimental condition
– Most did not attempt escape
– They had learned how to be helpless

62
Q

Social learning

A

• Observational learning is learning by observing the behaviour of others (models).
• Imitation of a model’s behaviour depends on
▫ Prestige of the model
▫ Likeability and attractiveness of the model
▫ Whether the model was rewarded or punished for
his/her behaviour (vicarious conditioning)

63
Q

Bandura BoBo Doll Experiment

A

Groups of children:
• Group 1 watched an adult acting aggressively towards a BoBo doll;
• Group 2 watched a video of an adult acting aggressively towards the doll;
• Group 3 watched a cartoon version
• Group 4 watched a non-aggressive model
• Group 5 saw no model
- the children either mimicked or did not mimic behaviour towards the doll based on whether the adults were rewarded or not rewarded for their actions

64
Q

4 Key Processes

A
  • ATTENTION to model’s behaviour and the consequences
  • RETENTION of observed response in memory until a similar situation arises
  • Ability to REPRODUCE the observed response
  • MOTIVATION to reproduce the observed response