Ch.6

Question 1

Learning

Answer 1

Change in an organism’s behaviour or thought as a result of experience. When we learn, our brains changed along with our behaviours. Remarkably, your brain is physically different now than it was just a few minutes ago because it underwent chemical changes that allowed you to learn novel facts, including the definition of learning itself. Virtually all our behaviours are a complex stew of genetic predisposition’s and learning. without learning, we’d be unable to do much; we couldn’t walk or talk.

Question 2

Habituation

Answer 2

Process of responding less strongly overtime to repeated stimuli. Habituation is the simplest and probably easiest form of learning to emerge in humans. Habituation makes good adaptive sense. We wouldn’t want to tend to every tiny sensation that comes across our mental radar screens because most pose no threat. Yet we wouldn’t want to habituate to stimuli that might be dangerous. Fortunately, not all repeated stimuli lead to habituation; only those we deem safe or worth ignoring do. We typically don’t habituate to powerful stimuli, like extremely loud tones or painful electrical shocks.

Some cases of repeated exposure to stimuli don’t lead to habituation but to sensitization— that is, responding more strongly overtime. Sensitization is most likely when a stimulus is dangerous, irritating, or both. 

Question 3

Classical conditioning

Answer 3

(Pavlovian) form of learning it which animals come to respond to a previously neutral stimulus that had been paired with another stimulus that elicits an automatic response.

Classical conditioning occurs in three phases— acquisition, extension, and spontaneous recovery.

Question 4

Unconditional stimulus (UCS)

Answer 4

Stimulus that elicits an automatic response without prior conditioning. That is, a reflexive response.

In the case of Pavlov’s dogs the unconditioned stimulus is the powder. 

Question 5

Unconditional response (UCR)

Answer 5

Automatic response to a non-neutral stimulus that does not need to be learned. 

For Pavlov’s dogs, the unconditioned response was salivation. 

Question 6

Conditional response (CR)

Answer 6

Response previously associated with a non-neutral stimulus that is elicited by a neutral stimulus through conditioning. The conditional response, in contrast to the unconditional response, is a product of nurture (experience), not nature (genes).

In Pavlov’s dogs, that’s when the dogs salivated when hearing the metronome

Question 7

Conditional stimulus (CS)

Answer 7

Initially neutral stimulus that comes to elicit a response due to association with an unconditioned stimulus. 

In Pavlov’s study, it’s the Metronome.

Question 8

Acquisition

Answer 8

Learning phase during which a conditioned response is established. Will see that the CS and UCS Are paired over and over again, the CR Increases progressively in strength. The steepness of this curve varies somewhat depending on how close together in time the CS and UCS are presented. In general, the closer in time the parent of the CS and UCS, the faster the learning occurs. About half a second delay is typically the ultimate pairing for learning. Longer delays usually decrease the speed and strength of the organisms response. This makes good evolutionary sense because the stimulus that immediately precedes a second stimulus is more likely to have caused it then a stimulus that came a long time before it. For conditioning to work effectively, you must forecast the appearance of the UCS. Again, this makes good evolutionary sense, because a stimulus that came after a second stimulus cannot have caused it.

Question 9

Extinction

Answer 9

Gradual reduction and eventual elimination of the conditional response after the conditional stimulus is presented repeatedly without the unconditional stimulus. 

During extinction a new response, which in the case of Pavlov’s dogs was the absence of salivation, gradually “writes over” or inhibits the CR— namely, salivation. The extinguished CR doesn’t vanish completely; it’s merely over written by the new behaviour. This contrasts with some forms of traditional forgetting, in which the memory itself disappears.

Question 10

Spontaneous recovery

Answer 10

Sudden re-emergence of an extinct Conditional response after a delay following an extinction procedure.

Question 11

Renewal effect

Answer 11

Sudden re-emergence of the conditional response following extinction when an animal is returned to the environment in which the conditional response was acquired. The renewal effect is often adaptive. 

Question 12

Stimulus generalization

Answer 12

Process by which conditional stimuli that are similar, but not identical, to the original condition stimulus elicit a conditional response. Stimulus generalization occurs along a generalization gradient. More similar to the original CS the new CS is, the stronger the CR will be. Stimulus generalization is typically adaptive, because it allows us to transfer what we’ve learned to new things. 

Question 13

Stimulus discrimination

Answer 13

Process by which organisms display a less pronounced conditional response to conditional stimuli that different from the original conditional stimulus. Is usually adaptive, because it allows us to distinguish among stimuli that share some similarities but that differ in important ways. 

Question 14

Higher-order conditioning

Answer 14

Developing a conditional response to a conditional stimulus by virtue of its association with another conditional stimulus. 

With higher-order conditioning, each progressive level results in a weaker conditioning, just as a verbal message becomes less accurate as it’s passed from one person to another.

So second-order conditioning— in which a new CS is paired with the original CS—tends to be weaker than the garden-variety classical conditioning, and third-order conditioning— in which a third CS is in turn paired with the second order CS— is even weaker. Fourth-order conditioning and beyond is typically difficult or impossible to achieve. 

Question 15

Latent inhibition

Answer 15

Difficulty in establishing classical conditioning To a conditional stimulus we repeatedly experienced alone, that is, without the unconditional stimulus.

In other words, a familiar stimulus is more difficult to condition than an unfamiliar stimulus.

Question 16

Conditioned compensatory response 

Answer 16

A CR that is the opposite of the UCR and serves to compensate for the UCR.

Ex: The typical effect of heroin is a decrease in blood pressure (the UCR), Whereas the cues associated with taking heroin, such as a bathroom stall in a seedy night club, will, Experience an immediate increase in blood pressure, which then helps to prevent blood pressure from dropping too low when heroin is injected. Unfortunately, this also means that the addict could inadvertently overdose if they inject heroin in a non-drug related setting, such as their parents bathroom when they go home for a visit. In fact, many addicts who “overdose” will swear that they took only a normal amount of the drug, and further questioning reveals that they took the drug in an unusual setting. In non-drug settings, with no conditional compensatory response elicited to counter the effects of the drug, the addict experiences the full effects of the drug, sometimes with fatal results. 

Question 17

Fetishism

Answer 17

Sexual attraction to nonliving things. Often arise in part from classical conditioning. Like phobias, fetishes come in a bewildering variety of forms. 

Question 18

Disgust reactions

Answer 18

In many cases, disgust reactions are tied to stimuli that are biologically important to us, like animals or objects that are dirty or potentially poisonous. 

Question 19

Operant conditioning

Answer 19

Learning controlled by the consequences of the organism’s behaviour.

Psychologists also refer to operant conditioning as instrumental conditioning because the organisms response serves an instrumental function. That is, the organism “gets something” out of the response, like food, sex, attention, or avoiding something unpleasant.

Behaviourists refer to the behaviours produced by the animal to receive a award as operants because the animal “operates” on its environment to get what it wants.

Question 20

Distinguishing operant conditioning from classical conditioning 

Answer 20

1. In classical conditioning the organisms response is elicited— that is, “pulled out” of the organism’s response by the UCS, and later the CS. Remember that in classical conditioning the UCR is generally a reflexive and autonomic response that doesn’t require training. In operant conditioning, the organisms response is emitted— that is, generated by the organism in a seemingly more voluntary, less automatic fashion.
2. In classical conditioning, the animal’s reward is independent of what it does. Pavlov gave his dogs meat powder regardless of whether, or how much, they salivated. In operant conditioning, the animals reward is contingent on behaviour— that is, dependent on what it does. If the animal doesn’t emit a response, it comes out empty-handed.
3. In classical conditioning, the organisms responses depend primarily on the autonomic nervous system. In operant conditioning, the organisms responses depend primarily on the skeletal muscles. That is, in contrast to classical conditioning, in which learning often involves changes in heart rate, breathing, perspiration, and other bodily systems, in operant conditioning learning often involves changes in voluntary motor behavior.

Question 21

Key differences between operant and classical conditioning

Answer 21

Classical conditioning-
Target behaviour is: Elicited automatically.
Behaviour is a function of: Stimuli that precede the behaviour.
Behaviour depends primarily on: Autonomic nervous system.

Operant conditioning-
Target behaviour is: Emitted voluntarily.
Behaviour is a function of: Consequences that follow their behavior.
Behaviour depends primarily on: Skeletal muscles.

Question 22

Law of Effect

Answer 22

Principal asserting that if a stimulus followed by a behaviour results in a reward, the stimulus is more likely to give rise to the behaviour in the future.

Psychologist sometimes referred to earlier forms of behavioralism as S-R psychology ( S Stands for stimulus, R a response). According to S-R theorists, most of our complex behaviours reflect the progressive accumulation of associations between stimuli and responses. S-R theorists maintain that almost everything we do voluntarily— results from the gradual build up of S-R bonds due to the law of effect. 

Question 23

Insight

Answer 23

Grasping the underlining nature of a problem.

Question 24

Aha reaction!

Answer 24

“Aha— I got it!” Once the animal solves the problem, it gets it correct just about every time after that.

Question 25

Skinner box

Answer 25

Small animal chamber constructed by Skinner to allow sustained periods of conditioning to be administered and behaviours to be recorded unsupervised. Electronically records an animals response and prints out a cumulative record, or graph, of the animals activity. A Skinner box typically contains a bar that delivers food when pressed, food dispenser, and often a light that signals when reward is forthcoming.

Question 26

Reinforcement

Answer 26

Outcome or consequence of a behaviour that strengthens the probability of the behaviour. Skinner would call these actions “reinforcements” only if they make the response more likely to occur in the future.

Question 27

Positive reinforcement

Answer 27

The presentation of a stimulus (what we would usually think of as a pleasant stimulus) following a behaviour that strengthens the probability of the behavior.

Question 28

Negative reinforcement

Answer 28

The removal of a stimulus (what we would usually think of as an unpleasant stimulus) following a behaviour that strengthens the probability of the behaviour. 

Question 29

Punishment

Answer 29

Outcome or consequence of a behaviour that weakens the probability of the behavior. Like reinforcements, it can be either positive or negative depending on whether they involve administering a stimulus— positive or taking one away—negative. discipline is punishment only if it decreases the probability of the behaviour. Skinner, argued that certain actions that might superficially appear to be punishments are actually reinforcers. 

Question 30

Positive punishment and Negative punishment

Answer 30

Typically involves administering a stimulus the organism wants to avoid, such as Physical shock, or an unpleasant social outcome, such as laughing at someone.

Involves the removal of a stimulus that the organism wishes to experience, such as a favourite toy or article of clothing.

Question 31

Distinguishing reinforcement from punishment

Answer 31

Positive reinforcement-
Procedure: Presenting a stimulus.
Effect on behaviour: Increases target behavior.
Typical example: Giving a gold star on homework, resulting in a student studying more.

Negative reinforcement-
Procedure: Removing a stimulus.
Effect on behaviour: Increases target behavior.
Typical example: Static on the phone subsides when you stand in a specific spot in your room, causing you to stand there more often.

Positive punishment-
Procedure: Presenting a stimulus.
Effect on behaviour: Decreases target behavior.
Typical example: Scolding by a pet owner, reducing the dogs habit of chewing on shoes.

Negative punishment-
Procedure: Removing a stimulus.
Effect on behaviour: Decreases target behaviour.
Typical example: Confiscating a favourite toy, stop being a child from throwing the future tantrums.

Question 32

According to Skinner and others, punishment has several disadvantages:

Answer 32

1. Punishment tells the organism only what not to do, not what to do. A child who’s punished for throwing a tantrum won’t learn how to deal with frustration more constructively.

2. Punishment often creates anxiety, which can interfere with future learning.

3. Punishment may encourage subversive behaviour, prompting people to become sneaker about the situation in which they can and can’t display forbidden behavior. A child who is punished for grabbing their brothers toys me learn to grab the brothers toys only when their parents aren’t looking.
4. Punishment from parents may provide a model for children’s aggressive behaviors. Children whose parents slap them when they misbehave may “get the message” that slapping is acceptable.

Question 33

Discriminative stimulus

Answer 33

(S^d) Stimulus associated with the presence of reinforcement.

Ex. When we snap our fingers at a dog in the hope of having a come over to us, the dog may approach us for a much-appreciated petting. For the dog, or finger snapping is it a discriminative stimulus: it’s a signal that if it approaches us, it will receive reinforcement. 

Question 34

Definition reminders of key concepts in both classical and operant conditioning

Answer 34

Acquisition- The learning phase during which a conditional response (in classical conditioning) or an operant response (in operant conditioning) is established.

Extinction- In classical conditioning, the gradual reduction and eventual elimination of the CR after a CS is presented repeatedly by itself. In operant conditioning, the gradual reduction and eventual elimination of an operant response when reinforcement for that response is no longer presented.

Spontaneous recovery- Sudden re-emergence of an extinguished CR (in classical conditioning) or an extinguished operant response (in operant conditioning) after a delay following extinction.

Stimulus generalization- In classical conditioning, the elicitation of a response by stimulus similar to the original CS. An operant conditioning, the increased probability of responding in the presence of stimuli similar to the original S^d. 

Stimulus discrimination- Displaying a less pronounced response to a stimulus that different from the original CS (in classical conditioning) or S^d (In operant conditioning).

Question 35

Extinction burst

Answer 35

Shortly after withdrawing reinforcement the undesired behaviour initially Increases in intensity. After the extinction burst, the behaviour will then begin to decrease. 

Question 36

Schedule of reinforcement

Answer 36

Pattern of reinforcing a behaviour. 

Question 37

Continuous reinforcement

Answer 37

Reinforcing the behaviour every time it occurs, resulting in faster learning but faster extinction then only occasional reinforcement. 

Question 38

Skinners principal a partial reinforcement

Answer 38

According to the principle of partial reinforcement, behaviours we reinforce only occasionally are slower to extinguish then those we reinforce continuously, that is, every time. Think of it this way: if the dog has learned that it will be rewarded every single time it catches a frisbee, after a few catches without a award, the dog will have now learned that the rewards are no longer coming and, as such, stop the behavior. However, if the dog is rewarded for catching the frisbee only occasionally, it is more likely to continue trying to catch the frisbee in the hopes of getting reinforcement, as it does not know when the next catch will lead to a reinforcer. 

So if we want an animal to maintain a trick for long, we should actually reinforce it for the correct responses only occasionally. Skinner noted that continuous reinforcement allows animals to learn new behaviours more quickly, but that partial reinforcement leads to a greater resistance to extinction.

Question 39

The principal reinforcement schedules vary along 2 dimensions:

Answer 39

1. The consistency of administering reinforcement. Some reinforcement contingencies are fixed, whereas others are variable. That is, in some cases experimenters provide reinforcement on a regular (fixed) basis, whereas in others they provide reinforcement on an irregular (variable) basis.

2.The basis of administering reinforcement. Some reinforcement schedules operate on a ratio schedules, whereas others operate on an interval schedules. In ratio schedules, the experimenter reinforces the animal based on the number of responses it emits. The interval schedule, the experimenter reinforces the animal based on the amount of time elapsed since the last reinforcement.

Question 40

Fixed ratio (FR) schedule

Answer 40

Pattern in which we provide reinforcement following a regular number of responses. 

Question 41

Variable ratio (VR) schedule

Answer 41

Pattern in which we provide reinforcement after a specific number of responses on average, with the number of varying randomly. 

Question 42

Fixed interval (FI) schedule

Answer 42

Pattern in which we provide reinforcement for a response at least once following a specified time interval.

Question 43

Variable interval (VI) schedule

Answer 43

Pattern in which we provide reinforcement for a response at least once during an average time interval, with the interval varying randomly. 

Question 44

Superstitious conditioning 

Answer 44

Actions linked to reinforcement by sheer coincidence. There’s no actual association between superstitious behaviour and reinforcement, although the animal acts as though there is. Accidental operant conditioning is sometimes called superstitious conditioning. 

Question 45

Shaping by successive approximations

Answer 45

Conditioning a target behaviour by progressively reinforcing behaviours that come closer and closer to the target. And then gradually fading (I.e decreasing the frequency of) our reinforcement for the not-exactly-right behaviours overtime. Animal trainers often combine shaping with a technique called chaining, in which they link several interrelated behaviours to form a longer a series. Each behaviour in the chain becomes a cue for the next behaviour in the chain, just as A becomes a cue for B, B for C, and so on. 

Question 46

Principle that may help procrastination

Answer 46

Premack found that we can positively reinforce a less frequently performed behaviour with a more frequently performed behaviour. If you find yourself putting off studying or a writing assignment, think of behaviours you’d typically perform if given the chance— perhaps hanging out with a few close friends, watching a favourite TV program, or treating yourself to an ice cream cone. Then, reinforce yourself with these higher frequency behaviours only after you’ve completed your homework. 

Question 47

Secondary reinforcers

Answer 47

Neutral object that becomes associated with a primary reinforcer

Question 48

Primary reinforcer

Answer 48

Item or outcome that naturally increases the target behavior.

Question 49

Token economy

Answer 49

Token economies are systems, often set up in psychiatric hospitals, for reinforcing appropriate behaviours and extinguishing inappropriate ones. Typically, psychologists who construct token economies begin by identifying target behaviours— that is, actions they hope to make more frequent. Staff members reinforced patient’s who exhibit these behaviours using tokens, chips, points, or other secondary reinforcers. 

Question 50

Putting classical and operant conditioning together

Answer 50

Although there are certainly important similarities between classical and operant conditioning, brain imaging studies demonstrate these two forms of learning are associated with activations in different brain regions. Classically conditioned fear reactions are based largely in the amygdala, Whereas operany conditioned responses are based largely in brain areas are rich in dopamine, which are linked to reward. These two types of conditioning often interact.

Enter two-process theory. According to this theory, we need both classical and operant conditioning to explain the persistence of anxiety disorders. Here’s how: people acquire phobias by means of classical conditioning. Then, once they have the phobia, they start to avoid their feared stimulus whenever they encounter it. If they have a dog phobia, they may cross the street whenever they see someone walking toward them with a large German Shepherd. When they do, they experience a reduction in anxiety than negatively reinforces their fear. Recalls that negative reinforcement involves the removal of a stimulus— in this case anxiety— that makes the behaviour associated with it more likely. So, by avoiding dogs whenever they see them, people with a dog phobia are negatively reinforcing their fear. Ironically, they’re operantly conditioning themselves to make their fears more likely to persist. They’re exchanging short-term gain for long-term pain. Two-factor theory points the way to an affective treatment for anxiety disorders: force people to confront, rather than avoid, their anxiety. Exposure therapy.

Question 51

Radical behaviourism

Answer 51

Skinner believed that observable behaviour, thinking, and emotion are all governed by the same laws of learning, namely, classical and operant conditioning. For radical behaviorists, thinking and emotion are behaviours, they’re just not observable.

Question 52

S-O-R Psychology

Answer 52

S-R (Stimuli-response), with O being the organism that interprets the stimulus before producing a response. For S-O-R psychologists, the link between S and R isn’t mindless or automatic. Instead, the organism’s response to a stimulus depends on what the stimulus means to it.

Ex: You’ve probably had the experience of giving to friends the same mild criticism (like, “it bothers me a little when you show up late”) and found that they reacted quite differently: one was apologetic, the other defensive. To explain these differing reactions, Skinner would probably have invoked your friends’ differing learning histories— in essence how each friend had been trained to react to criticism. In contrast, S-O-R theorists, who believe cognition Is central to explaining learning, contend that the differences in your friends’ reaction stem from how they interpreted your criticism. Your first friend may have viewed your criticism as constructive feedback, your second friend as a personal attack.

S-O-R theorists don’t deny that classical and operant conditioning occur, but they believe that these forms of learning usually depend on thinking. Take a person who’s been classically conditioned by tones and shock to sweat in response to the tones. Their skin conductance response will extinguish suddenly if they’re told that no more shocks are on the way. This phenomenon of cognitive conditioning, whereby our interpretation of the situation affects conditioning, suggests that conditioning is more than an automatic, mindless process. S-O-R theorists also emphasize the role of expectations in learning. They point out that classical conditioning occurs only if the CS regularly predicts the occurrence of the UCS. If we repeatedly present the CS and UCS close together in time, that alone won’t do the trick when it comes to producing classical conditioning. Organisms show classical conditioning reactions only when the CS reliably forecasts the UCS, suggesting that they are building up expectations about what comes next. So, according to S-O-R theorists, whenever Pavlov’s dogs heard the ticking of the metronome, they thought— and the word thought is crucial here— “Ah, I think some meat powder is on the way.”

Question 53

Latent learning

Answer 53

Learning that’s not directly observable. We learn many things without showing them. Putting it a bit differently, there’s a crucial difference between competence— what we know— and performance— showing what we know.

Why is this distinction important? Because implies that reinforcement isn’t necessary for learning. 

Latent learning research of Tolman and others challenged strict behavioural models of learning because their work suggested that learning could occur without reinforcement. “Unsupervised learning” Environments, does not involve instructions, reinforcers, or punishers. 

Question 54

Cognitive maps

Answer 54

Mental representation of how a physical place is organized. Theta waves— low frequency brain waves that occur between 4 and 7 times per second— appear to play a key role in forming cognitive maps. But scientists are not entirely sure how or why. 

Question 55

Latent learning study example

Answer 55

They randomly assigned three groups of rats to go through a maze over a three week period. One group always received reinforcement in the form of cheese when it got to the end of the maze. A second group never received reinforcement when It got to the end of the maze. The first group made far fewer errors. The third group of rats received no reinforced reinforcement for the first 10 days, and then started receiving reinforcement on the 11th day.

The rats in the third group showed a large and abrupt drop in their numbers of errors after receiving their first reinforcer. In fact, within only a few days the number of errors didn’t differ significantly from the number of errors among the rats who were always reinforced. Tolman argued that the rats in the third group had been learning all along. They just hadn’t bothered to show it because they had nothing to gain. Once there was a payoff for learning—namely, a tasty morsel of cheese— they promptly became miniature maze masters. 

Question 56

Observational learning

Answer 56

Learning by watching others (models). Many psychologists regard observational learning as a form of Latent learning because it allows us to learn without reinforcement. We can merely watch someone else being reinforced for doing something and take our cues from them.

Observational learning spares us the expense of having to learn everything first hand, plus it can spare us from serious, even life-threatening, mistakes. But it can also contribute to our learning of maladaptive habits. 

Question 57

Media violence and real-world aggression

Answer 57

Hundreds of investigators using correlational designs have reported that children who watch many violent television programs are more aggressive then other children, a Finding that holds up well across different countries.

•But do findings that point to a link between media exposure and aggression necessarily demonstrate that media violence causes real-world violence?

•They could indicate merely that are highly aggressive children are more likely than other children to tune in to aggressive television programs. Alternatively, these finding this could be due to a third variable, such as children’s initial levels of aggressiveness. That is, highly aggressive children may be more likely than other children to both watch violent television programs and to act aggressively.

Investigators have tried to get around this problem by using longitudinal studies designs, Which track individuals behaviour overtime. Longitudinal studies show that children who choose to watch many violent television shows commit more aggressive acts years later than children who choose to watch fewer violent television shows, even when the researchers have equated the children in their initial levels of aggression. These studies offer somewhat more compelling evidence for casual link between media violence and aggression than traditional correlational studies. But even they don’t demonstrate a casual association because they’re not true experiments.
•Consequently, unmeasured personality variables, like impulsivity, or social variables, like week parental supervision, may account for these findings. Moreover, just because variable A precedes variable B does it mean that variable A causes variable B.

Still, most— but by no means all— psychological scientists agree that media violence contributes to aggression in at least some circumstances and in a variety of cultural and ethnic groups. 

Question 58

Field studies

Answer 58

Finally, some researchers have contacted field studies of the link between media violence and aggression. Researchers examine the relations between naturally occurring events and aggression in the real world.

Correlational, longitudinal, and field studies tend to be strong in external validity— that is, generalizability to the real world, but weak in internal validity— that is, the extent to which they permit cause-and-effect inferences. Laboratory studies, in contrast, tend to be weak in external validity but strong an internal validity.

Question 59

Mirror neurons

Answer 59

Cell in the prefrontal cortex that becomes activated by specific motions when an animal both performs and observed that action. It’s as though these neurons are “imagining” what it would be like to perform the behaviour. Mirror neurons appear to be remarkably selective. No one knows for sure what mirror neurons do or why they’re in our brains. But some neuroscientist have conjectured that such neurons play a central role in empathy, including feeling others emotional states and emulating their movements.

Question 60

Conditional taste aversions

Answer 60

Refers to the fact that classical conditioning can lead us to develop avoidant reactions to the taste of food. Contradicts the other examples of classical conditioning In at least three ways.

1. In contrast to most classical conditional reactions, which require repeated pairings between the CS and UCS, conditional taste aversions typically require only one trial to develop.
2. The delay between the CS and UCS is conditional taste aversions can be as long as six or even eight hours.
3. Conditional taste aversions tend to be remarkably specific and display little evidence of stimulus generalization.

These differences make a good sense from evolutionarily standpoint. We wouldn’t want to have to experience horrific food poisoning again and again to learn a conditional association between taste an illness. Doing so not only would be incredibly unpleasant, but we’d sometimes be dead after the first trial. The Long Lag time between eating and illness violates typical classical conditioning because close timing between the CS and UCS is usually necessary for learning. But in this case, the delayed association between the CS and UCS is adaptive because it teaches us to avoid dangerous foods we might have ingested hours earlier. 

Scapegoat food- The taste aversion becomes conditioned to the scapegoat food rather than the patient preferred foods. 

Learned aversions can be seen across different species and span ages within a species. Consequently, animals more easily develop conditioned aversions to stimuli that tend to trigger nausea in the real world.



Question 61

Equipoteniablity

Answer 61

The claim that we can classically conditioned all CSs equally well to all UCSs. Certain CSs, such as those associated with taste, are easily conditioned to certain UCSs, such as those with nausea.

Question 62

Preparedness

Answer 62

Evolutionarily predisposition to learn some pairings of feared stimuli over others owing to their survival value. 

May render us likely to develop illusory correlations between fear-provoking stimuli and negative consequences. Recall that an illusory correlation is a statistical mirage; it’s the perception of a nonexistent association between two variables. 

• Latent inhibition: Refers to the fact that CSs that have appeared alone many times are especially difficult to classically conditioned to a stimulus. Because we routinely encounter electrical sockets, stoves, knives, and the likes, without experiencing any negative consequences, the stimuli may be resistant to classical conditioning. In contrast, because few of us have regular encounters with snakes, cliffs, deep water, and so on, the stimuli maybe more easily classically conditioned to aversive outcomes. However, when researchers informed participants that that stimuli that were previously conditioned to be associated with images of spiders, snakes, and guns wouldn’t be presented in the subsequent trials, the fear response to the images was eliminated. These findings carry important implications. They suggest that conditioned fear responses are neither automatic nor do they bypass cognition. Rather, they arise as a function of our learning that certain stimuli can be associated with threat or danger— but when they’re no longer perceived as potentially dangerous, they lose their ability to provoke fear.

Aside from preparedness, genetic influences probably play a role in the acquisition of certain phobias. Moreover, only about half of the people with a dog phobia have ever had a scary encounter with a dog; the same holds for people with many other phobias. These results make it unlikely that classical conditioning alone can explain all cases of phobia. Instead, some people appear predisposed genetically to develop phobias given a history of certain classical conditioning experiences.

Question 63

Instinctive Drift

Answer 63

Tendency for animals to return to innate behaviours following repeated reinforcement.

Psychologists don’t fully understand the reasons for such drift. Nevertheless, instinctive drift suggests that we can’t fully understand learning without considering innate biological influences, because these influencers place limits on what kind of behaviours we can train through reinforcement. 

Question 64

Sleep-Assisted learning

Answer 64

Learning new material while asleep. (Extraordinary claims)

Question 65

Accelerated learning

Answer 65

These methods, known as superlearning or suggestive accelerated learning and Teaching techniques (SALTT), supposedly allow people to pick up new information at anywhere from 25 to several hundred times the normal learning speeds. SALTT Relies on a mixture of several techniques, such as generating expectations for enhance learning (telling students to learn more quickly), getting students to visualize information they’re learning, playing classical music during learning, and breathing in a regular rhythm while learning. When combined, these techniques supposedly allow learners to gain access to intuitive aspects of their minds but otherwise remain inaccessible.

•Almost all studies show that SALTT doesn’t produce enhance learning. Even when researchers have reported positive results from SALTT, these findings have been open to rifle explanations.
•That’s because many of the studies conducted on SALTT Compared this method with a control condition in which students did a little or nothing. As a result, the few positive results reported from SALTT could be attributable to placebo effects, especially because one of the major components of SALTT is raising learners expectations. 

Question 66

Discovery learning

Answer 66

Giving students experimental materials and asking them to figure out the scientific principles on their own.

Ex: A psychologist professor who is teaching operant conditioning might set their students up with a friendly rat, a maze, and a plentiful supply of cheese and ask them to figure out which variables affect the rats learning. For instance, does the rat learn the maze most quickly when we reinforce it continuously or only occasionally? 

Nevertheless, the old fashion method of direct instruction, in which we simply tell students how to solve problems, is usually more effective and efficient than discovery learning. That’s not to say that discovery learning has no role in education, since in the long-term it may encourage students to learn how to pose scientific questions on their own. But because many students may never figure out how to solve certain scientific problems independently, it’s ill advised as a standalone approach.

Question 67

Learning styles

Answer 67

An individual’s preferred optimal method of acquiring new information. 

According to proponents of this view, some students are “analytical” learners who excel at breaking down problems into different components, whereas others are “holistic” learners who excel at viewing problems as a whole. Still others are “verbal” learners who learn best when they talk through problems, whereas others are “spatial” learners who prefer to visualize problems in their head. Some educational psychologist have claimed to boost learning dramatically by matching different methods of instructions to students’ learning styles. According to them, children who are verbal learners should learn much faster and better with written material, children who are spatial learners should learn much faster and better with visual material, and so on.

For one thing, it’s difficult to assess learning style reliably. Reliability refers to consistency in measurement. In this case, different measures designed to assess peoples learning style often yield different answers about their preferred mode of learning. In part, that’s probably because a few of us are purely analytical or holistic learners, verbal or spatial learners, and so on; most of us are a blend of multiple types. Moreover, studies have generally revealed that tailoring different methods to peoples learning styles doesn’t result in enhance learning. Instead, most research shows that certain teaching approaches, like setting high standards for students and providing them with motivation and skills to reach these standards, work best regardless of students’ learning styles.