Biological Dispositions in Learning Flashcards
Define activity anorexia.
An abnormally high level of activity and low level of food intake generated by exposure to a restricted schedule of feeding.
What is adjunctive behaviour?
An excessive pattern of behaviour that emerges as a byproduct of an intermittent schedule of reinforcement for some other behaviour.
Define autoshaping.
A type of sign tracking where a pigeon comes to automatically peck at a response key because the key light has been associated with the response-independent delivery of food.
Explain behaviour systems theory.
A theory proposing that an animal’s behaviour is organised into certain systems or categories, with each category containing a set of relevant responses that can become activated in certain situations.
Define CS-US relevance.
An innate tendency to easily associate certain types of stimuli with each other.
What is a displacement activity?
Any apparently irrelevant activity sometimes displayed by animals when confronted by conflict or thwarted from attaining a goal.
Explain instinctive drift.
An instance of classical conditioning in which a genetically based, fixed action pattern gradually emerges and displaces a behaviour that is being operantly conditioned.
What is preparedness?
An innate tendency for an organism to more easily learn certain types of behaviours or to associate certain types of events with each other.
What is sign tracking?
A type of elicited behaviour where an organism approaches a stimulus that signals the presentation of an appetitive event.
Explain taste aversion conditioning.
A form of classical conditioning where a food item that has been paired with gastrointestinal illness becomes a conditioned aversive stimulus.
