Ch 6- learning Flashcards
Define learning
A relatively permanent change in behaviour, knowledge, capability, or attitude that is acquired through experience.
Define classical conditioning
Association is learned between one stimulus and another.
Define stimulus
Any event or object that in the environment that an organism responds to
What are the elements of classical conditioning?
- Reflex (RESPONSE): Inborn, unlearned, automatic responses to certain environmental stimuli
- Stimulus: Any event or object that in the environment that an organism responds to.
Define unconditioned stimulus and give examples
A stimulus that elicits a specific response without prior learning.
Unconditioned=UNLEARNED
Food, heat, loud noise
Define conditional stimulus
Conditioned=LEARNED
A neutral stimulus that, after repeated pairing with an unconditioned stimulus, becomes associated with it and elicits a conditioned response.
Unconditioned reflexes become ____ after the ______.
Unconditioned reflexes become conditioned after the process of classical conditioning.
What are the steps of classical conditioning? Dog example
- Neutral stimulus (ex: tone) played for dog. No response from dog.
- Neutral stimulus played for dog just prior to presentation of food powder, the unconditioned stimulus. The dog salivates when presented with the food, the unconditioned reflex/response.
- This is repeated over many trials, usually 20 or more.
- Dog associates neutral stimulus with food after the process and salivates. The neutral stimulus is now called the conditioned stimulus, and the salivation is the conditioned reflex/response.
What is extinction?
The weakening and often eventual disappearance of a learned response (in classical conditioning, the conditioned response is weakened by repeated presentation of the conditioned stimulus without the unconditioned stimulus).
Define unconditional response
A response that is invariably elicited by the unconditioned stimulus without prior learning.
What is spontaneous recovery?
The reappearance of an extinguished
response (in a WEAKER form e.g smaller amount of slaiva) when an organism is exposed to the original conditioned stimulus following a rest period.
What is generalization in classical conditioning? In operant?
Classical- It’s he tendency to make a conditioned response to a stimulus that is similar to the original conditioned stimulus; in operant conditioning, the tendency to make the learned response to a stimulus that is similar to the one for which it was originally reinforced.
What is stimulus discrimination?
Give a methodology
The learned ability to distinguish between similar stimuli so that the conditioned response occurs only to the original conditioned stimulus but not to similar stimuli.
Step 1: The dog is conditioned to the tone C.
Step 2: Generalization occurs, and the dog salivates to a range of musical tones above and below tone C. The dog salivates less and less as the note moves away from C.
Step 3: The original tone C is repeatedly paired with food, but when neighbouring tones are sounded, they are not followed with food. The dog is being conditioned to discriminate. Gradually, the salivation response to the neighbouring tones is extinguished, while salivation to the original tone C is strengthened
Step 4: Eventually, discrimination is achieved:
What is higher-order conditioning?
- When another neutral stimulus is paired with a conditioned stimulus that elicits the same response reflex/response.
- Higher-order conditioning is the concept that drives advertising companies to pair celebrities with particular brands.
What are the factors influencing classical conditioning?
- The number of pairings of the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus.
- The intensity of the unconditioned stimulus- If a conditioned stimulus is paired with a very strong unconditioned stimulus, the conditioned response will be stronger and will be acquired more rapidly than if it is paired with a weaker unconditioned stimulus
- How reliably the conditioned stimulus predicts the unconditioned stimulus
- The temporal relationship between the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus- Conditioning takes place fastest if the conditioned stimulus occurs shortly before the unconditioned stimulus.
Describe the Little albert experiment
In the laboratory, Rayner presented Little Albert with a white rat. As Albert reached for the rat, Watson struck a steel bar with a hammer just behind Albert’s head. This procedure was repeated. A week later, the rat was paired with the loud noise five more times. Then at the sight of the white rat alone, Albert began to cry.
When Albert returned to the laboratory 5 days later, his fear had generalized to a rabbit and (to a lesser degree) to a dog, a seal coat, Watson’s hair, and a Santa Claus mask.
Describe Robert Rescorla’s experiment
- showed that in classical conditioning, pairing two stimuli doesn’t always produce the same level of conditioning. Conditioning works better if the conditioned stimulus acts as a reliable signal that predicts the appearance of the unconditioned stimulus
- Rescorla used a tone as the conditioned stimulus and a shock as the unconditioned stimulus. For one group of rats, the tone and shock were paired 20 times—with the shock always occurring during the tone.
The other group of rats also received the shock 20 times while the tone was sounding, but this group also received 20 shocks that were not paired with the tone. Only the first group, for which the tone was a reliable predictor of the shock, developed the conditioned response to the tone. For the second group, the tone provided no additional information about the shock
Do genetics play a role in classical conditioning?
Yes
Animals and humans have biological predispositions that help them acquire or resist classical conditioning
•Animal example: Mice avoidance response
•Human example: fearing things with negative effects on health and well-being
What are common fears related to?
Common fears are related to survival and adaptability of humans throughout evolution.
GARCIA & KOELLING TASTE AVERSION EXPERIMENT
- exposed rats to a three-way conditioned stimulus: a bright light, a clicking noise, and flavoured water.
- For one group of rats, the unconditioned stimulus involved being exposed to either X-rays or lithium chloride, both of which produce nausea and vomiting several hours after exposure. A second group of rats received electric shock to their feet as the unconditioned stimulus. The group of rats that were made ill associated the flavoured water with the nausea and avoided it at all times. These rats would drink unflavoured water even when the bright light and the clicking sound were present—so only the flavoured water served as a conditioned stimulus. The rats who received the electric shock, however, continued to prefer the flavoured water over unflavoured water, but they would not drink at all when the bright light or clicking noise were present. This second group associated the electric shock only with the light and sound, not with the presence or absence of flavouring.
Taste aversion examples in humans
Radiation and chemotherapy often causes nausea, which patients learn to associate with their foods (even favorite foods)
Bernstein et al. (1982, 1985) developed a technique to help patients avoid taste aversion during treatment- would feed patients maple-flaviured ice-cream so aversion would only be developed to that flavour
CC and Fear
Development of phobias and anxieties surrounding different objects or environments often a result of classical conditioning.
CC and drug use
- All drugs produce a physiological effect in the body which the body adjusts to ->Drug Tolerance develops.
- Familiar cues in the users usual environment act as conditioned stimuli to alert the body that the drug is about to be ingested-> Stimulates the body to apply physiological mechanisms to prepare for drug use and to counteract drug’s effect
- User finds self in an unfamiliar setting, without the usual cues-> Body is not signaled to prepare for large scale drug use, and does not prepare mechanisms to counteract drug-> User overdoses in unfamiliar setting.
Garcia and Koelling’s research suggests that classical conditioning is influenced by ___________.
biological predisposition
CC and sexual arousal
- male rats were each given a small jacket to wear just before being placed in a chamber with a sexually receptive female rat.
Over the next few days, the male rats were given several opportunities to mate—each time dressed in their jackets before gaining access to the female. - half of the males that had worn the jackets were each placed in a chamber with a receptive female, but this time without their jackets on. The other half continued to wear their jackets when they were placed with
a female. - The group that no longer wore their jackets took a much longer time to begin trying to copulate and a much longer time to ejaculate than did their jacketed counterparts.
Clearly, the jackets had become an important part of the rats’ sexual experience. Jackets had become a conditioned stimulus for sexual arousal, and without them, the rats’ sexual performance suffered.
What is operant conditioning?
Goal is to change behavior. The consequence of a behavior (reinforcement or punishment) tends to change or modify that behavior in the future. This is ACTIVE change.
Define reinforcement
An event that follows a response and increases the strength of the response or the likelihood it will happen. Reinforced behavior tends to increase
Define positive reinforcement
Something good is being added to INCREASE (or strengthen) a target behaviour
Define negative reinforcement
Something bad is being removed to INCREASE (or strengthen) a target behavior
Define punishment
Something is happening to an organism to DECREASE a target behavior. Opposite of reinforcement, lowering the chance of a response. Punished behavior tends to decrease
What is the skinner box?
Invented by B. F. Skinner for conducting
experiments in operant conditioning; a soundproof chamber with a device for delivering food and either a bar for rats to press or a disk for pigeons to peck
Explain hoe Skinner box is used (rat and a bar)
Rats in a Skinner box are conditioned through the use of shaping to press a bar for rewards. A rat may be rewarded first for simply turning toward the bar. Once this behaviour is established, the next reward comes only when the rat moves closer to the bar. Each step closer to the bar is rewarded. Next the rat may touch the bar and receive a reward; finally, the rat is rewarded only when it presses the bar.
