Associative Learning - EXAMINABLE Flashcards
What is associative learning?
Learning the relationship between two events
What is classical (pavlovian) conditioning?
Association between two environmental stimuli
Survival benefits
What is operant/instrumental conditioning?
Association between conscious action and its consequences on the environment
Why is event 2 of conditioning also called a reinforcer?
It has meaning - it is either worth doing or worth avoiding
What are the building blocks of learning?
Simple conditioned associations
Are the laws of learning the same regardless of what is being learned or who is learning?
Yes
Explain Pavlov’s dog experiments
The dog salivates when he smells food = unconditioned stimulus and unconditioned response
Flashing of light/ringing a bell gives no response = unconditioned stimulus
The dog is conditioned that a light and a bell mean food is coming, so starts salivating when he hears a bell = conditioned stimulus
What is the acquisition phase of learning?
Learning that a certain environmental stimulus gives a certain response - very quick and adaptive
What is extinction in terms of classical conditioning?
The initial conditioned response is being extinguished - the bell no longer brings food
Why is temporal contiguity an issue with classical conditioning?
Food must be presented AT THE SAME TIME as the ringing of the bell - or the association between the two won’t be made
Define contingency
A future event or circumstance which is possible but cannot be predicted with certainty.
Why is contiguity an issue with classical conditioning?
Who confirmed this? (1967)
Does conditioning reliably predict the unconditioned stimulus? Animal cognitively weights up whether the stimulus is a RELIABLE predictor for food
Rescorla
What is sponteaneous recovery?
The animal does not forget that the bell predicts food, but it is learning a new association - dog remembers that light used to predict food but it doesn’t any more
learning builds on top of other learning
What is latent inhibition?
Past learning experience changes the acquisition of new association - dog may have prior learning history toward ringing of a bell which can cause it to be slower/quicker to react
What are the biological constraints to classical conditioning?
Concept of preparedness - some associations are biologically advantaged
Phobias
Conditioned taste aversions - like Holly can’t eat subway anymore because she was sick
Who did the bright, noisy water experiment?
Garcia & Koelling 1966
What was the bright, noisy water experiment 1966? Garcia & Koelling
Water is flavoured and it lights up and clicks (bright, noisy, tasty water)
They are then put into 3 groups. 2 groups exposed to nausea (x-rays, lithium), 1 group exposed to pain (shock).
They are then exposed to flavoured water on some days and bright, noisy water on same days
Nauseas animals will drink bright, noisy water but not flavoured water
Pain animals will drink flavoured water but not bright, noisy water
demonstrates selective conditioning
What does the bright, noisy water experiment demonstrate? Garcia & Koelling
Selective association
How is chemotherapy related to selective conditioning?
Anticipatory nausea/vomiting (20-40%)
Causes people to disengage from treatment
chemo (unconditioned stimulus) causes nausea/vomiting (unconditioned response)
sights/smells/thoughts preceding treatment are the conditioned stimulus - vomiting/nausea is the conditioned response
What is second order conditioning?
New conditioned stimulus successively paired with old conditioned stimulus, so the new conditioned stimulus elicits the conditioned response
(smell of hospital used to cause vomiting, but now just seeing the hospital (which is linked with smell) causes vomiting etc)
What is the issue of generalisation of conditioning?
Greater similarity of new conditioned stimulus is more likely to elicit conditioned response
(e.g. smell of dentist makes you feel sick because it reminds you of the smell of the hospital)
What is the issue of discrimination in conditioning?
Responding to differences via reinforcement
scared of most dogs BUT likes the family dog because she had excessive friendly exposure
What is operant/instrumental conditioning?
Behaviour/action is linked to reinforcing consequences
e.g. in secondary school you get merits for doing well and these relate to prizes
What are the two basic principles of operant conditioning?
Association - things that occur together become associated
Law of effect - behaviours that are followed by good things will happen more often
