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Behavior Science > Ch 12 > Flashcards

Ch 12 Flashcards

1
Q

What is learning defined as?

A

A change in behavior as a result of experience

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2
Q

What are the limits to the extent to which behavior can change?

A
  • Physical
  • Nonheritability
  • Learning ability
  • Neurological damage
  • Critical periods
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3
Q

What does anatomical preparedness refer to?

A

The structure of an animal’s body makes certain kinds of behavior possible and other kinds impossible

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4
Q

Give an example of anatomical preparedness.

A

We can never teach a non-human animal to engage in vocal verbal behavior

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5
Q

Why can non-human animals not engage in vocal verbal behavior?

A

They lack operantly controlled vocal cords

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6
Q

How can stimuli controlling behavior depend on an animal?

A

They may depend on the sensory capabilities of the animal

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7
Q

List the sensory capabilities that can affect behavior.

A
  • Olfaction
  • Vision
  • Gustation
  • Audition
  • Somatosensation
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8
Q

What is meant by the nonheritability of behavior?

A

Every individual starts from ‘square one’ concerning learned behavior

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9
Q

What happens to learned behavior after an individual dies?

A

It dies with the individual

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10
Q

What is a potential limitation of nonheritability on species?

A

It limits the ability of a species to benefit from experience

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11
Q

What is the value of learning for organisms?

A

It allows adaptation to changes in the environment

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12
Q

What could happen if learned behavior was inherited?

A

Organisms would likely go extinct as soon as a change in environment occurred

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13
Q

What do observational and experimental studies show about enriched environments?

A

They yield near-maximum behaviors

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14
Q

How does an enriched environment affect an individual’s abilities?

A

The more enriched the environment, the more likely an individual is to attain the highest (IQ, social awareness, etc.)

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15
Q

What can damage to the nervous system determine?

A

What we learn via interaction with the environment

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16
Q

What are neurotoxins?

A

Substances that damage nerve tissues and threaten learning ability after birth

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17
Q

Provide examples of neurotoxins.

A
  • Alcohol
  • Nicotine
  • Lead
  • Drugs of abuse
18
Q

How can head injury affect learning?

A

Single or repeated neurological trauma will decrease the ability to learn

19
Q

What are examples of neurological trauma?

A
  • Concussion
  • Stroke
20
Q

What are Critical Periods?

A

A period of time in development in which an animal is especially likely to learn a particular kind of behavior.

21
Q

What is Imprinting according to Lorenz (1952)?

A

A newborn animal is especially likely to discriminate the first stimulus he/she is exposed to as a parent.

Newly hatched chicks would follow whatever they first saw as if it were their mother.

22
Q

What is Preparedness in learning?

A

The extent to which an animal’s phylogenic history prepares or counter-prepares an animal to learn a particular skill.

23
Q

How do animals learn different skills?

A

Animals will learn some skills very quickly and efficiently and other skills slowly, if at all.

Example: Breland’s animal training.

24
Q

What is Instinctual Drift?

A

A tendency for an animal to revert to a fixed action pattern regardless of the learning history/momentum for a skill.

25
Q

How do innate tendencies affect learning?

A

Innate tendencies to behave in particular ways interfered with learning abilities.

Example: Raccoon rub sources of food together to expose edible portions.

26
Q

What is Instinctual Drift?

A

A tendency for an animal to revert to a fixed action pattern regardless of the learning history or momentum for a skill.

27
Q

What determines the success of operant learning procedures?

A

The effectiveness will depend on the compatibility of the operant response and the preexisting organization of the organism.

28
Q

What is Biological Preparedness?

A

Animals are differentially prepared or counter-prepared to have their behavior controlled by conditional-unconditional stimuli.

29
Q

How does conditioning relate to the relevance of stimuli?

A

Conditioning will be enhanced if the conditioned stimulus (CS) is ‘relevant’ to the unconditioned stimulus (US).

30
Q

What did Garcia and Koeling demonstrate?

A

Rats are more prepared to pair external stimuli with shocks and internal stimuli with illness and nausea.

31
Q

What is the Noisy Group in Garcia and Koeling’s experiment?

A

Rats paired external conditioned stimuli (e.g., noise) with external unconditioned stimuli (e.g., shock).

32
Q

What is the Taste Group in Garcia and Koeling’s experiment?

A

Rats paired internal conditioned stimuli (e.g., taste of water) with internal unconditioned stimuli (e.g., illness and nausea).

33
Q

What do the results from Garcia and Koeling indicate about genetic predispositions?

A

Organisms may be genetically predisposed to pair some neutral stimuli with unconditional fear stimuli.

34
Q

How effective is fear conditioning?

A

Fear conditioning is more effective with ‘fear-relevant’ stimuli than ‘fear-non-relevant’ stimuli.

35
Q

What are sign tracking and autoshaping?

A

They were discovered by observing that animals approach and contact stimuli correlated with food.

36
Q

What is the difference between sign tracking and goal tracking?

A

Some animals allocate time and behavior to stimuli paired with food presentation, even if distant from the food location.

37
Q

What is defined as forgetting?

A

The deterioration in performance of learned behavior following a retention interval.

38
Q

What does deterioration of performance indicate?

A

Some non-optimal change in behavior.

39
Q

What is a retention interval?

A

The period of learning in which behavior directly contacts consequences.

40
Q

What methods measure forgetting?

A

Several methods include free recall, cued recall, recognition, and gradient deterioration.

Behavior Science (3 decks)

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