Chapter 10 Flashcards
All repetitive behaviour results from what?
results from learning
What is associative learning?
Learning the relationship or associations between different kinds of information in your environment
What are the 2 types of associative learning?
Classical conditioning
Operant conditioning
Which is a more simple learning system: classical conditioning or operant conditioning?
classical conditioning
What is it called when we learn that a stimulus predicts another stimulus?
classical conditioning
What is it called when we learn that a behaviour leads to a certain outcome?
operant conditioning
Who is Ivan Pavlov?
Was he a psychologist?
Russian physiologist who did lots of his work looking at the digestive system of dogs (wasn’t a psychologist)
discovered classical conditioning
What did Ivan Pavlov realize?
- Realized that dogs would respond to cues that were associated with the delivery of food early in this research (i.e., lab assistants that fed dogs entered the lab and when they did, dogs became excited for food – dogs associated certain people in the lab with food)
How did Ivan Pavlov set up his experiment of classical conditioning?
- Placed a dog in an apparatus and placed food in front of the dogs (noticing that when dogs were in the presence of food they would start to salivate)
- Set up an experimental set up above (had a way of measuring the amount of saliva that would accumulate from the dog)
What is an unconditioned stimulus?
unlearned stimulus (ex. food) - in study is evokes an unconditioned response without needing to be learned
(ex. dog salivates to food without needing to be learned)
What is an unconditioned response?
a natural unlearned reaction to the unconditioned stimulus
What is a neutral stimulus?
does not naturally evoke the unconditioned response on its own
(in Pavlov’s study this was the metronome)
What is the conditioning phase?
the neutral stimulus is paired with the unconditioned stimulus in order for it to acquire associative strength
AKA - learning phase; AKA - acquisition phase
How long does the conditioning phase typically take?
- Note: this has to happen a lot of times over an extended period of time (i.e., weeks)
What occurs after conditioning in classical conditioning?
The neutral stimulus alone evokes the response
the neutral stimulus becomes the CONDITIONED STIMULUS
the unconditioned response now officially becomes the conditioned response
Learning involves ____.
learning involves prediction
What is an example of classical conditioning?
Unconditioned stimulus of hot water causes an unconditioned response of pulling hand away from hot water.
Note: these are unconditioned because they do not need to be learned (it is a natural response and we don’t have to learn to do that)
Why is pulling hand away in a reflex away from hot water considered an unconditioned response instead of conditioned response?
Because they do not need to be learned (it is a natural response and we don’t have to learn to do that)
What happens over the acquisition phase with the metronome and dog salivation?
over this phase the metronome becomes predictive of salivation
What is the extinction phase?
When the conditioned stimulus is no longer paired with the unconditioned stimulus
Occurs when the metronome (CS) is no longer paired with food (US), causing the salivation to no longer be predicted by the presence of the metronome
- This happens because the dog learns that the metronome is no longer predictive of food (ending of CR in the presence of the CS = extinction)
What happens in spontaneous recovery?
Re-emergence of the conditioned response in the presence of the conditioned stimulus after extinction
Like a long-lost memory being recovered and he associates the metronome with the food again
What happens when the association between conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus becomes less and less frequent?
Note: if this association is not continued, then the association will be less and less, and the instances of spontaneous recovery will decrease
Will the dog salivate as much during spontaneous recovery as it would when the association is strongest?
No, during spontaneous recovery, the dog may salivate, but it won’t salivate as much as when the association was much stronger (response would be naturally reduced)
Is extinction in classical conditioning evidence for forgetting?
No, extinction is not evidence for forgetting
Learned associations are not really forgotten (like they become dormant)
Why is it thought that associations are not really forgotten, just dormant?
They can re-emerge even years later – explaining drug and alcohol relapse after years of abstinence
We know that they are not forgotten because they can re-emerge years after the original associations have been made (addiction relapse)
What is the renewal effect?
Happens if extinction occurs in a different environment than where the behaviour was initially learned in
Ex. When a person learns to stop using drugs and alcohol in a hospital, they are likely to re-elicit cravings for a drug if they are put back into an environment where they learned to indulge in the drug
What is the compensatory conditioned response?
All the elements that are associated with a particular kind of drug addiction
* I.e., smoking = in addition to the drug interacting with the nervous system (ex. nicotine engaging with neurotransmitters in the brain), there are many other compensatory responses (holding the package and unwrapping it, holding a lighter, seeing these things)
