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PSYC1020 - Midterm 2 > Ch. 7: Learning > Flashcards

Ch. 7: Learning Flashcards

1
Q

What is learning, and what are its 3 key ideas?

A

Involves the acquisition, from experience, of new knowledge, skills, or responses that results in a relatively permanent change in the state of the learner; emphasizes 3 keys ideas:

  1. Learning is based on experience
  2. Learning produces changes in the organism
  3. These changes are relatively permanent
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2
Q

What is habituation?

A

A general process in which repeated or prolonged exposure to a stimulus results in a gradual reduction in responding

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3
Q

What is sensitization?

A

Occurs when presentation of a stimulus leads to an increased responses to a later stimulus

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4
Q

What is an unconditioned stimulus (US) in classical conditioning?

A

Something that reliably produces a naturally occurring reaction in an organism

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5
Q

What is an unconditioned response (UR) in classical conditioning?

A

A reflexive reaction that is reliably produced by an unconditioned stimulus

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6
Q

What is acquisition?

A

The phase of classical conditioning when the CS and US are presented together

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7
Q

What is a conditioned stimulus (CS) in classical conditioning?

A

A previously neutral stimulus that produces a reliable responses in an organism after being paired with a US

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8
Q

What is a conditioned response (CR) in classical conditioning?

A

A reaction that resembles an unconditioned responses but is produced by a conditioned stimulus

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9
Q

What is second-order conditioning?

A

A type of learning whereby a CS is paired with a stimulus that became associated with the US in an earlier procedure

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10
Q

What is extinction?

A

The gradual elimination of a learned responses that occurs when the CS is repeatedly presented without the US

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11
Q

What is spontaneous recovery?

A

The tendency of a learned behaviour to recover from extinction after a rest period

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12
Q

What is generalization?

A

The CR is observed even thought the CS is slightly different from the CS used during acquisition

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13
Q

What is discrimination?

A

The capacity to distinguish between similar but distinct stimuli in the context of classical conditioning

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14
Q

What were the goals of the Little Albert experiment?

A
  • To show that a relatively complex reaction could be conditioned using Pavlovian techniques
  • To show that emotional responses could be produced by classical conditioning, and therefore need not be the product of deeper unconscious processes
  • To confirm that classical conditioning can be applied to humans
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15
Q

What is the Rescorla-Wagner model?

A

Introduced a cognitive component that accounted for a variety of classical conditioning phenomena that were difficult to understand from a simple behaviourist point of view (ex. conditioning is easier when the CS is unfamiliar, since familiar events already have expectations associated with them)

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16
Q

What is biological preparedness?

A

A propensity of learning particular kinds of associations over other kinds; some behaviours are relatively easy to condition in some species but not in others because conditioning works best with stimuli that are biologically relevant to the organism

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17
Q

What is operant conditioning?

A

The consequences of an organism’s behaviour determines whether it will repeat that behaviour in the future

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18
Q

What are instrumental behaviours?

A

Behaviours which require an organism to do something (solve a problem, manipulate the environment, etc.)

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19
Q

What is Thorndike’s Law of Effect?

A

Behaviours that are followed by a satisfying state of affairs tend to be repeated, whereas those that produce an unpleasant state of affairs are less likely to be repeated

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20
Q

What is operant behaviour?

A

A behaviour that an organism performs that has some impact on the environment; the environment responds by providing events that either reinforce or punish the behaviour

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21
Q

What is a reinforcer when it comes to operant conditioning?

A

Any stimulus or event that increases the likelihood of the behaviour that led to it

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22
Q

What is a punisher when it comes to operant conditioning?

A

Any stimulus or event that decreases the likelihood of the behaviour that led to it

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23
Q

What does positive mean when it comes to operant conditioning?

A

A situation in which a stimulus is presented as a reward or punishment

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24
Q

What does negative mean when it comes to operant conditioning?

A

A situation in which a stimulus is removed as a reward or punishment

25
Q

Is reinforcement or punishment more effective in operant conditioning? Why?

A

Reinforcement is more effective than punishment; punishment signals that an unacceptable behaviour has occurred, but it doesn’t specify what should be done instead

26
Q

What are primary reinforcers when it comes to operant conditioning?

A

Reinforcers which help satisfy biological needs/desires (food, comfort, shelter, warmth)

27
Q

What are secondary reinforcers when it comes to operant conditioning?

A

Reinforcers which derive their effectiveness from their associations with primary reinforcers through classical conditioning (ex. money starts out as a neutral stimulus, and is then associated with acquiring food/shelter)

28
Q

How can the effectiveness of delayed punishment be increased?

A
  • Increasing the severity of the punishment

- Attempting to bridge the gap between behaviour and punishment with verbal instructions

29
Q

What is stimulus control?

A

Develops when a particular response occurs only when an appropriate discriminative stimulus is present (ex. if a person always watches tv when they eat, eating will lead a person to turn on the TV)

30
Q

What is a discriminative stimulus?

A

A stimulus that indicates that a response will be reinforced (ex. a child knowing their parent will let them watch TV when they are working from home, so the child then always asking to watch TV when the parent works from home)

31
Q

What is Three-Term Contingency?

A

In the presence of a discriminative stimulus, a response produces a reinforcer; a different context would likely produce a very different outcome

Example: in a coffee shop with friends (discriminative stimulus), a joke about a professor (response) will likely be met with reinforcement (laughter); in the absence of the discriminative stimulus (ex. in the professor’s office), the same response/reinforcement would likely not happen

32
Q

What are the 2 most important schedules of reinforcement?

A
  • Interval schedules: based on time between reinforcements

- Ratio schedules: based on the ratio of responses to reinforcement

33
Q

What is a fixed interval (FI) schedule, and what kind of behaviour patterns does it produce?

A
  • Reinforcers are presented at fixed time periods, provided that the appropriate response is made
  • Subjects produce predictable patterns of behaviour under these schedules; they show little responding right after the presentation of the reinforcement, but as the next time interval draws to a close, they show a burst of responding
34
Q

What is a variable interval (VI) schedule, and what kind of behaviour patterns does it produce?

A
  • A behaviour is reinforced on the basis on an average time that has expired since the last reinforcement (not every 2 minutes exactly, but every 2 minutes on average)
  • Typically produces steady, consistent responding because the time until the next reinforcement is less predictable
35
Q

What is a fixed ratio (FR) schedule?

A

Reinforcement is delivered after a specific number of responses has been made

36
Q

What is continuous reinforcement?

A

A special case of fixed ratio (FR) schedule where reinforcement is presented after each response

37
Q

What is a variable ratio (VR) schedule, and what kind of behaviour patterns does it produce?

A
  • The delivery of reinforcement is based on a particular average number of responses
  • Produces slightly higher rates of responding that fixed ratio (FR) schedules because the organism never knows when the next reinforcement is going to appear
38
Q

What is intermittent reinforcement, and what kind of behaviour patterns does it produce?

A
  • A special type of variable ratio (VR) schedule; only some of the responses made are followed by reinforcement
  • Produces behaviour much more resistant to extinction than a continuous reinforcement schedule because the more irregular and intermittent a schedule, the more difficult it is for an organism to detect when it has actually been placed on extinction
39
Q

What is the intermittent reinforcement effect?

A

The fact that operant behaviours that are maintained under intermittent reinforcement schedules resist extinction better than those maintained under continuous reinforcement

40
Q

What is shaping?

A

Learning that results from the reinforcement of successive steps to a final desired behaviour

41
Q

Who was one of the first researchers to question Skinner’s strictly behaviourist interpretation of learning? What approach did they advocate for instead?

A

Edward Chance Tolman; early advocate for a cognitive approach to operant conditioning

42
Q

What is a means-end relationship, and how is it related to operant conditioning?

A
  • The conditioning experience produces knowledge or a belief that, in a particular situation, a specific reward/end state will appear, and so a specific response is made
  • In contrast to behaviourist operant conditioning, this suggests that the stimulus does not directly evoke a response, but instead the response is evoked by an internal cognitive state
43
Q

What is latent learning, and how does it challenge the behaviourist position on learning?

A
  • When something is learned, but is not manifested as a behavioural change until sometime in the future
  • Occurs without any obvious reinforcement and challenges the behaviourist position that all learning requires reinforcement
44
Q

What is a cognitive map?

A

A mental representation of the physical features of the environment (ex. a rat being able to navigate a maze that has been changed slightly based on the general direction they found food in last time)

45
Q

What are pleasure centres in the brain? Which are the most susceptible to stimulation?

A
  • Some brain areas, particularly those in the limbic system, that produce intensely positive experiences
  • Neurons in the medial forebrain bundle, especially the nucleus accumbens
46
Q

What is the reward prediction error?

A

The difference between the actual reward received and the amount of predicted/expected reward

47
Q

What is a positive prediction error?

A

A type of reward prediction error where a better than expected outcome makes the repetition of the behaviour more likely, due to increase dopamine neuron activity

48
Q

What is a negative prediction error?

A

A type of reward prediction error where a worse than expected outcome reduces the chances that the behaviour will be repeated, due to decreased dopamine neuron activity

49
Q

What is observational learning, and who first investigated it?

A
  • An organism learns by watching the action of others

- Albert Bandura

50
Q

What is a model in observational learning?

A

Someone whose behaviour might be a guided for others

51
Q

What is a diffusion chain?

A

Individuals initially learn a behaviour by observing another individual, and then become models from which other individuals learn the behaviour

52
Q

Is observational learning more effective when a novice or an expert is the model?

A

Observational learning is actually most effective when watching both, because you are able to learn from the novice’s mistakes and the expert’s technique

53
Q

What is the enculturation hypothesis?

A

In observational learning, being raised in a human culture has a profound effect on the cognitive abilities of chimpanzees, especially their ability to understand the intentions of others when performing tasks such as using tools, which in turn increases their observational learning capacities

54
Q

What are mirror neurons?

A

A type of cell found in the brains of primates which fire when an animal performs an action or when it watches another perform an action

55
Q

What is implicit learning?

A

Learning that takes place largely independently of awareness of both the process and the products of information acquisition; some forms of learning start out explicit and become implicit over time (ex. driving)

56
Q

How are learning and memory linked?

A

Learning produces memories and the existence of memories implies that knowledge was acquired

57
Q

What regions of the brain are activated in explicit learning?

A
  • Prefrontal cortex
  • Parietal cortex
  • Hippocampus
  • Other areas associated with processing explicit memory
58
Q

What kind of brain activation takes place in implicit learning?

A

Decreased brain activation, primarily in the occipital region

59
Q

Who said, “Neurons that fire together wire together”?

A

Donald Hebb, Montreal psychologist

PSYC1020 - Midterm 2 (3 decks)

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