Basic Psychology- Learning Theory

Question 1

3 Types of non associative learning:
Habituation
Sensitization
Pseudoconditioning

Answer 1

Habituation occurs when we learn not to respond to a stimulus that is presented repeatedly without change, punishment, or reward.

Sensitization occurs when a reaction to a stimulus causes an increased reaction to a second stimulus. It is essentially an exaggerated startle response and is often seen in trauma survivors.

During habituation, fewer neurotransmitters are released at the synapse. In sensitization, however, there are more pre-synaptic neurotransmitters, and the neuron itself is more excitable

Pseudoconditioning (cross-sensitization): The emergence of a response to a previously neutral
stimulus simply as a result of exposures to a different but powerful stimulus.

Question 2

3 Types of associative learning

Answer 2

Classic Conditioning- repeated temporal association of 2 events. Learning organism is passive. CS+UCS=UCR after time CS=CR (aquisition)
Operant Conditioning- learning from consequences of actions. Learning organism is active.
Social Learning Theory- includes CC and OP as well as cognitive process and social interaction.

Question 3

Types of conditioning:
Delayed
Backward
Simultaneous
Trace

Answer 3

Delayed- CS before UCS; CS+UCS continued until UCR appears

Backward- UCS before CS (advertising)

Simultaneous- UCS+CS together (common in real life)

Trace- CS presented and removed before (0.5ms) UCS. therefore depends on memory trace.

Question 4

Temporal contiguity vs predictability in conditioning.

Answer 4

Sound of dentist’s drill, then the noise gets conditioned to elicit fear response better than two unconnected, unpredictable events having temporal contiguity. For classical conditioning it is not necessary that the organism understands an association in cognitive
terms but such awareness facilitates the learning

Question 5

Higher order conditioning

Answer 5

CS1+UCS=CR. add another stimulae for CR. Animal no higher than 4th order.

Question 6

Stimulus generalisation

Discrimination

Answer 6

Little Albert (watson). Scared of white rat then scared of any furry white object.

Discrimination- learned responses are made only to specific stimulae eg dogs not all 4 legged animals.

Question 7

Extinction
Counter conditioning
Latent Inhibition

Answer 7

Extinction: reduction of learned response when UCS/CS pairing or reinforcer for operant conditioning is not available anymore. Spontaneous recovery occurs.

Counter conditioning: type of classical conditioning. previous CR replaced by new CR that may be more desirable. eg aversion therapy.

Latent inhibition: delay in learning association between UCS and CS if previous isolated exposure to CS.

Question 8

Reinforcement: increases frequency of behaviour
Punishment reduces frequency of behaviour.
Types?

Answer 8

Positive Reinforcer Food for pressing a lever (given)
Negative Reinforcer Ceasing of electric shock on pressing a lever (taken away)
Positive Punishment Points on your driving license for speeding (given)
Negative Punishment A monetary fine from a parking ticket (taken away)
Primary Reinforcer Stimulus affecting biological needs (such as food)
Secondary Reinforcer Stimulus reinforcing behaviour associated with primary reinforcers
(money, praise)

eg In OCD compulsions provide short term relief of anxiety via negative reinforcement.

Question 9

Reinforcement schedules.

6

Answer 9

Continuous (aka
contingency
reinforcement): Reinforcement every time the positive response occurs - e.g. food pellet
every time a rat presses a lever in an experiment

Partial: Only some of the positive responses result in positive reinforcement – the reinforcement is determined by number of responses (ratio) or time
(interval)

Fixed Interval: Reward occurs after a specific period of time regardless of number of responses e.g. a monthly salary irrespective of your level of performance!

Variable Interval: Reward occurs after a variable (unpredictable) period of time, regardless of the number of responses e.g. an angler catching a fish - the first may be after 10 minutes, the next after 45, then 5 minutes etc.

Fixed Ratio: Reward occurs after a specific number of responses e.g. after completing 20 MCQs, you give yourself a coffee (or chocolate) break.

Variable Ratio: Reward occurs after a random number of responses e.g. gambling slot machines. Your first win of £20 on a gamble may occur after 3 tries; then the next win may not occur even if you play 30 times, while the third win may follow in quick succession after the second.

When we interpret an
operation to be under control (as in fixed schedules) we learn more quickly.
Variable ratios
are the most resistant to extinction.

Question 10

Premack’s Principle

Answer 10

Premack’s principle (a.k.a. Grandma’s rule): high-frequency behaviour can be used to reinforce lowfrequency behaviour e.g. “eat your greens and you can have dessert”. An existing high-frequency
behaviour (eating dessert) is used to reward low-frequency behaviour (eating greens).

Question 11

Avoidance Learning

Answer 11

Avoidance learning: an operant conditioning where an organism learns to avoid certain responses or
situations. Avoidance is a powerful reinforcer and often difficult to extinguish. A special form of
avoidance is escape conditioning seen in agoraphobia where places in which panic occurs are avoided /
escaped from leading to a housebound state eventually

Question 12

Aversive conditioning

Answer 12

Aversive conditioning: This is an operant conditioning where punishment is used to reduce the
frequency of target behaviour e.g. the use of disulfiram (noxious stimuli) to reduce the frequency of
drinking alcohol

Question 13

Covert Reinforcement

Covert Sensitization

Answer 13

Covert reinforcement: In covert reinforcement schedules, the reinforcer is an imagined pleasant event
rather than any material pleasure e.g. imagining MRCPsych graduation event to reinforce the behaviour
of practicing MCQs.
Covert sensitization: The reinforcer is the imagination of unpleasant consequences to reduce the
frequency of an undesired behaviour e.g. an alcoholic may be deterred from continuing to spend on
alcohol by imagining his wife leaving him, being unable to support himself and ending up broke and
homeless.

Question 14

Flooding

Answer 14

Flooding: An operant conditioning technique where exposure to feared stimulus takes place for a
substantial amount of time so the accompanying anxiety response fades away while the stimulus is
continuously present e.g. a man with a phobia of heights standing on top of the Burj Khalifa or the Shard.
This will lead to the extinction of fear. When a similar technique is attempted with imagined not actual
exposure then this is called implosion.

Question 15

Shaping

Answer 15

Shaping (a.k.a. successive approximation): This is a form of operant conditioning where a desirable
behaviour pattern is learnt by the successive reinforcement of behaviours closer to the desired one. Note
that shaping is used when the target behaviour is yet to appear (i.e. it is novel and does not exist already).

Question 16

Chaining

Answer 16

Chaining: This refers to reinforcing a series of related behaviours, each of which provides the cue for the
next to obtain a reinforcer. Chaining is used when the target behaviour is already notable in some form
but not in the fully formed sequence. An example is teaching a child to write his name. The shape of
individual alphabets is first taught using reinforcers and forward chaining can be used to link each
alphabet in the correct order, finally reinforcing the completed name. Backward chaining starts at the end
e.g. when making cupcakes, the child is first taught how to sprinkle over a fnished cupcake, the next time
icing the cake and sprinkleing, the next time placing the prepared cake mixture into cupcake wrappers
then icing then sprinkling etc.

Question 17

Incubation

Answer 17

Incubation: An emotional response increases in strength if brief but repeated exposure of the stimulus is
present. Rumination of anxiety-provoking stimuli can serve to increase the anxiety via incubation. This is
a powerful mechanism that maintains phobic anxiety and PTSD.

Question 18

Stimulous Preparedness

Answer 18

Stimulus preparedness (Seligman) explains why snake and spider phobia are commoner than ‘shoe
phobia’ or ‘watch phobia’. In evolutionary terms, the stimuli that were threatening to hunter-gatherer men
has been hard wired into our system, reflexively eliciting responses immediately – and phobia develops
more readily for such ‘prepared stimuli’

Question 19

Learned Helplessness

Answer 19

Learned helplessness (Seligman): initially put forward as a behavioural model for depression. When
confronted with aversive stimuli from which escape is impossible, an animal stops making attempts to
escape. This was shown experimentally with a dog on an electrified floor unable to escape. After a while,
the dog stopped trying, as if accepting its fate. This paradigm is frequently invoked to explain the
dependence seen in victims of domestic abuse.

Question 20

Reciprocal Inhibition

Answer 20

Reciprocal inhibition (Wolpe): If stimulus with desired response and stimulus with the undesired
response are presented together repeatedly, then the incompatibility leads to a reduction in frequency of
the undesired response. This is evident when your dog barks at your friend; try hugging her in front of
© SPMM Course 7
your dog every time the dog barks and slowly the dog will stop barking at your friend. This is used in
relaxation therapy for anxiety and in systematic desensitisation.

Question 21

Cueing

Answer 21

Cueing (a.k.a. prompting): specific cues can be used to elicit specific behaviours – e.g. in a classroom a
teacher puts her finger on her lips to reduce chatter and elicit the response of silence. The process of
unlearning such cue associations is called fading

Question 22

Bandura Social Learning Theory

Answer 22

Not all learning occurs during direct reinforcement, can learn by observing behaviour of others and its outcome.
Emphasises cognition in learning.

Question 23

Cognitive Processing during social learning.
6 steps.
A, E, R, R, M

Answer 23

1. Attention to observed behaviour is the basic element in learning.
2. Visual image and semantic encoding of observed behaviour memory
3. Memory permanence via retention and rehearsal
4. Motor copying of the behaviour and imitative reproduction
5. Motivation to act.

Question 24

Reciprocal causation: which experiment demonstrates this?

Answer 24

Reciprocal causation: Bandura proposed that behaviour can influence both the environment and the
individual and each of these three variables, the person, the behaviour, and the environment can have an
influence on each other. The most commonly discussed experiment illustrating Bandura’s theory is the
Bobo Doll experiment. Children watching a
model showing aggression against a bobo doll
learnt to display the aggression without any
reinforcement schedules.

Question 25

Tolman- what animal did he demonstrate cognitive learning with?

Answer 25

Cognitive learning (Tolman): reinforcement
may be necessary for a performance of learned
response but not necessary for the learning
itself to occur (latent learning). He inferred that
rats can make cognitive maps of mazes – called
place learning - which consists of cognitive expectations as to what comes next.

Question 26

Who proposed a heirarchy of learning?

Answer 26

Hierarchy of learning: Gagne’s hierarchy of learning (see the attached table) describes that simple or
basic learning steps are prerequisites for later complex learning. This pattern of learning can also be seen
during human development and in the hierarchy of evolution

Stages Gagne’s learning hierarchy
1 Classical conditioning (signal learning)
2 Operant conditioning
3 Chaining
4 Verbal association
5 Discrimination learning
6 Concept learning
7 Rule learning
8 Problem solving