BIO AND COG WEEK 4

Question 1

ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOUR AND LEARNING

Question 2

Briefly explain the hierarchy of adaptive behaviour?

Answer 2

reflexes- fixed action patterns - habituations- classical/operant conditioning

Question 3

Explain the behaviourist psychology ?

Answer 3

• emerged in the US around 1900 in response to a dissatisfaction with the method of introspection = Wundt
• these theories were originally based on so called observables only - stimuli and responses
• learning is main theme

Question 4

describe the cognitive psychology?

Answer 4

• cog revolution =1950s led to theoretical shift in the experimental psychology shift caused by the notion that certain types of human behaviour were to complex to be explained in terms of behaviourist accounts
• include the storage,retrieval and transformation of information which implies a sort of internal mental representations upon which such processes can operate
• uses computer metaphor of the human mind = focuses on information processing at a relatively symbolic level

Question 5

what was the early research on CC ?

Answer 5

• discovered by ivan pavlov in 1897 while he was studying the digestive system of dogs
• pvlov put meat powder in dogs mouths and measured the amount of saliva produced
• after few sessions measurements became unreliable because the dogs would start to salivate as soon as the experimenter entered room
  = nobel prize and discovery of classical conditioning

Question 6

How does Classical conditioning work ?

Answer 6

1. unconditioned stimulus - naturally occurring e.g. food
2. innate response to the environment - salivation = unconditioned response ( has not been learnt therefore it is not conditioned
3. the unconditioned stimulus paired with a conditioned stimulus e.g. bell organism learns to associate this with the unconditioned stimulus here being food
4. after number of pairings the CS evokes the response by itself without the presence of the US =the food
5. the UR is now a conditioned response- dog salivates when it hears the bell without the presence of food

Question 7

what does acquisition?

Answer 7

the magnitude or strength of the conditioned response CR is a function of the number of pairings between the US and CS

Question 8

what does extinction mean?

Answer 8

• The magnitude of the conditioned response gradually decreases with the number of trials in which no US (food) occurs

Question 9

name the rest of the basic principles of CC?

Answer 9

• spontaneous recovery- if after series of extinction trials the CS is presented some time later without the US the CR often shows recovery
• temporal ordering - conditioning is strongest if the CS precedes the US. It often fails to occur if the US precedes the CS

generalisation- after classical conditioning with one CS other similar stimuli will elicit ( to a lesser extent) CRs although these stimuli have never been paired with the US

discrimination- if after classical conditioning with one CS and generalization to similar stimuli the latter are not followed by the US the organism will eventually learn to discriminate i.e. will only response to the original CS but no longer to similar stimuli

Question 10

What are the basic principles of CC?

Answer 10

• AQUISITION
• EXTINCTION
• SPONTANOUES RECOVERY
• temporal ordering
• generalisation
• Discrimination

Question 11

what is contiguity vs contingency?

Answer 11

• Pavlov - contiguity is essential for c.c.

- Rescorla - contingency is important i.e. the CS has to be reliable predictor of what follows

Question 12

what is conditioned phobias?

Answer 12

• knowing when to expect pain reduces anxiety - not knowing when to expect pain increases anxiety.
  e. g Fear of the dentist

Question 13

Describe Rescorla’s (1968) experiment ?

Answer 13

• rats presented a 2 min tone periodically while they were pressing a bar
• A weak electric shock could occur both during the tone on intervals and the tone off intervals
• probability of a shock was greater in the tone on than the tone off interval there was an conditioning to the tone - response rate was reduced in the tone on intervals compared to the tone off intervals
• the strength of the conditioning decreased with increasing probability of a shock during the tone-off intervals

Question 14

what is conditioned inhibition?

Answer 14

• A condition inhibition refers to a type of conditioning where the CS becomes associated with the absence of the US
• uses two Cs
• CS+ positively associated with the US
• CS- negatively associated with the US

Question 15

why is the Rescorla- Wagner theory so important?

Answer 15

• explains features of cc
• the shape of the learning curve
• the effects of other stumuli in the enviro that may act as competing predictors of the US
• explains conditioned inhibition

Question 16

OPERANT CONDITIONING

Question 17

Whats were Thorndike’s learning done by?

Answer 17

It is done by the trial and error and the law of effect

Question 18

what did Thorndike conclude?

Answer 18

• that learning initially occurs by trial and error
• That law of effect - learning is dependant on reinforcement. Positive reinforcers e.g. food strengthens the association between stimulus and response and negative reinforcers ( e.g. shocks) weaken it
• law of effect was the basis of what later became known as instrumental conditioning.