Associative Learning

Question 1

What is the purpose of Associative Learning, and what does this allow us to encode about our environment?

Answer 1

Acquisition of knowledge and/or beliefs about the relationship between two or more events in the world.
This allows us to encode statistial regularities in, and build representations of, our environment.

Question 2

When using animals for research, it will be ethical if:

Answer 2

1) The animal is invertebrate
2) Purpose is for development of new medicines
3) The results are likely to benefit its species even if the animal suffers
4) There is no alternative
5) The number of animals is kept to a minimum
6) Purpose is for development of new cosmetics
7) It causes psychological rather than physical distress

Question 3

What are the three R’s of Animal Ethics that will reduce mistreatment of animals in research?

Answer 3

1) Replacement of animals with other methods
2) Reduction in number of animals used
3) Refinement of techniques to minimize adverse impact on animals

Question 4

What is Autoshaping Conditioning?

Answer 4

The conditioned response has not been reinforced by rewards or punishment; consists of a modified instinctive response to stimuli.

Question 5

Explain the Pigeon Pavlovian Conditioning experiment.

Answer 5

Pigeons respond to light by doing eating, drinking or ‘courting’ motions towards the light for food or water. They do a pecking motion when expecting food, and a drinking motion when expecting water.

Question 6

Identify possible attractive approach and contact signals.

Answer 6

Food, fluid and sexual partners are attractive events that elicit approach and consummatory responses. Effects produced by drugs of abuse also signal effects that elicit approach and drug-related responses.

Question 7

Define omission training using an example.

Answer 7

Schedule of reinforcement aimed to reduce unwanted actions. E.g. rewards are given to pigeons in absence of pecks, and no rewards are given with pecks

Question 8

What was the sign-tracking experiment in rats? Define the two difference trackers involved in the experiment.

Answer 8

A lever was inserted in a chamber for a few seconds, then it was removed and food was presented to the rats.
Sign Trackers approached, manipulated and gnawed at the lever, while Goal Trackers used the lever as a signal to enter the aperture where the food was delivered.

Question 9

Explain the individual differences of rats in the Sign-tracking experiment.

Answer 9

They are related to how readily the rats acquired drug-related habits; sign trackers were more likely than goal trackers to become addicted to the drug.

Question 10

Define flavour-nutrient learning using an example.

Answer 10

This learning conditions animals to prefer a certain flavour if it is associated with a beneficial element, or dislike a certain flavour if it is associated with consequences.
Rats were given two bottles containing orange-flavoured water and lemon-flavoured water. Drinking the orange-favoured water is followed by an infusion of a nutrient such as glucose, starch or a protein. The lemon flavour is infused with saline.
As expected, the rats prefer the orange-flavour more than the lemon flavour, because the association between flavour and neutrient result in the flavour being liked.

Question 11

What could be a possible reasoning why animals are easily conditioned? Explain this with use of an experimental exmaple.

Answer 11

Conditioning increases reproductive fitness and therefore helps with species survival, hence, survival of the fittest.
In experimental conditions, male birds learnt that a light signals females, allowing them to copulate with a female. The number of eggs fertilized by the signalled (conditioned) male were large compared to male birds in the control condition.

Question 12

Define and explain an experimental example of fear conditioning.

Answer 12

Fear conditioning is where a stimulus is associated with a negative event, causing fear of that stimulus if an animal is repeatedly exposed to it. An example of this is Little Albert, where fluffy toys were imbued with a fearful loud noise, causing Albert to be scared of fluffy toys in the long-term.

Question 13

What is an example of a biologically conditioned response?

Answer 13

Naturally, male gourami fish establish a territory in order to attract females. This was used in an experiment where male gourami fish were repeatedly exposed to a light that signalled the appearance of a rival in their territory. Males in the experimental conditioning with a light were more successful in fights and attracting females than those in the control condition.

Question 14

Imagine that you press a button 10 times. A light illuminates on 6 of those occasions, and stays dark on the other 4 occasions.
On a separate 10 occasions, you do not press the button. The light illuminates on 2 of these occasions, and stays dark on the other 8 occasions.
What is the contingency between pressing the button and the light illuminating?

Answer 14

With a total of 10 occasions, in the condition of the light illuminating when the button is pressed, the probability is 6/10 = 0.6.
With another total of 10 occasions, in the condition of the light illuminating when the button is not pressed, the probability is 2/10 = 0.2.
Therefore, the contingency between pressing the button and the light illuminating is the difference between these: 0.6 - 0.2 = 0.4.

Question 15

Which experimental concept provides an example of competition between cues in associative learning?

Answer 15

The blocking effect.

Question 16

Each week, the fire alarm in an office building is tested at 9am on a Thursday. A new worker at the office is surprised when shes sees that, at 8:59am, all the employees put their hands over their ears. This could be considered an example of:

Answer 16

Pavlovian conditioning.

Question 17

What is the cue-to-consequence effect and how was it studied?

Answer 17

Selective associations in feeding systems are formed when there is positive consequences of ingesting food and negative consequences of ingesting food.
Rats were trained to drink water, then sweet solution was introduced. Everytime the rat drinked the sweet solution they would hear a loud noise. During the loud noise, half of the rats were given a shock, and the other were injected with an illness.
Sick rats refused to ingest the sweet solution, while the shocked rats would continue to ingest. If they learned that sweet tastes signal pain, they will suppress ingestion of the taste.

Question 18

Define temporal continguity.

Answer 18

Where two events of the CS and US are more likely to be associated when they occur together

Question 19

What is the contingency effect according to Rescorla (1969)?

Answer 19

Both contingency and contiguity are only present when there is constant exposure to CS and US. When the US is presented alone after CS-US association, there is no contingency.

Question 20

What does the contingency effect say about better predictors?

Answer 20

Learning about the CS is ineffective when it is accompanied by a better predictor of the US. Pre-training is a better predictor for the Blocking Effect, while the environment is a better predictor for the Contingency Effect.

Question 21

How does Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) use cues to reduce trauma?

Answer 21

Patients are confronted by trauma-related cues and learn that these cues can occur in absence of trauma, resulting in extinction of fear responses over time.

Question 22

How does prediction error influence conditioned responses?

Answer 22

Getting rid of the predicted US causes prediction error, and a reduction in conditioned responses. The size of the error also determines inhibitory and excitatory learning.

Question 23

Define Pavlovian Conditioning and state an example.

Answer 23

Pavlovian conditioning is passive learning about the relationship between events in the world, without requiring the subject to perform a response to a learnt association. An example in everyday life is following road rules or using an Opal card for the bus. McDonalds logos are also signals for tasty food.

Question 24

Define Instrumental Conditioning and state an example.

Answer 24

Instrumental conditioning is active learning about our behaviour and events in the world, which requires the subject to perform a response to a learnt association. An example in everday life is taking a different route home to avoid a dog barking at you, or reading in a park because you have learnt it is a quiet place to read. Taking ibuprofen relieves headaches.

Question 25

How does Instrumental Conditioning help us in our environment?

Answer 25

It allows us to alter and adapt behaviour to exploit statistical regularities in the environment. This includes gaining rewards and avoiding punishments.

Question 26

If I studied hard and got a high grade 6 times, then I studied hard and didn’t get a high grade 2 times, what is the probability that I will get a high grade by studying hard?

Answer 26

P(High Grade | study) = 6/8
= 0.75
= 75% probability that I will get a high grade by studying hard.

Question 27

Explain the effect of causal illusion.

Answer 27

People percieve a weak relationship even if the overall outcome is high.