Chapter 5 Learning Flashcards
What is learning?
-any relatively permanent change in behavior brought about by experience or practice
maturation
changes controlled by a genetic blueprint and due to biology, not experience
what is a reflex?
an unlearned, involuntary response that is not under personal control or choice
how is stimulus defined?
any object , event, or experience that causes a response that is not under personal control or choice
what is the definition of a response
the reaction of an organism
what is the stimulus and and response in Pavlov’s dog story?
the food is the stimulus and the salvation is the response.
Classical conditioning definition
learning to elicit an involuntary, reflex-like, response to a stimulus other than the original, natural stimulus that normally produces the response.
What is the definition of the unconditioned stimulus (UCS)?
-the original, naturally occurring stimulus
-its unlearned
-it is the stimulus that ordinarily leads to the involuntary response
-an unlearned stimulus
• A stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers a response
-the food in Pavlov’s
What is the unconditioned response (UCR)?
- the automatic and involuntary response to the unconditioned stimulus
- it is unlearned and occurs because of genetic “wiring” in the nervous system
- salivation to the food is the UCR in Pavlov;s
What is a conditioned stimulus?
any kind of neutral stimulus that is repeatedly paired with the unconditioned Stimulus begins to cause the same kind of involuntary response, learning has occurred
What is a neutral stimulus?
a stimulus that have no affect on salivation in the dog story—the dish in the beginning
What are the three (3) ways of learning?
o Classical (Pavlovian) conditioning o Operant (Skinnerian) conditioning o Observational (Social) learning
What is acquisition?
the repeated pairing of a NS and the UCS because the organism is in the process of acquiring knowledge.
What is the simplest form of learning? Other examples?
- classical conditioning
- mouth water when see an advertisement
- anxious at a dentist drill
What are the few basic principles about the classical conditioning process that Pavlov formulated?
- the CS must con Before the UCS
- the CS and UCS must come very close together in times (usually no more than 5 seconds apart) (there are newer exceptions)
- the neutral stimulus must be paired with the UCS several times, often many times, before conditioning can take place
- the CS is usually some stimulus that is distinct or stands out from other competing stimuli. (e.g. metronome not usually found in a lab.)
What is the interstimulus interval?
- time between the CS and UCS
- it can vary depending on the conditioning task and organism.
- current studies found that less than 500 milliseconds are ideal
Did similar sounds produce similar conditioned responses?
Yes-the more similar the sound, the greater the response.
What is stimulus generalization?
-the tendency to respond to a stimulus that is similar to the original conditioned stimulus
what is stimulus discrimination?
- when an organism learns to respond to different stimuli in different ways
- dogs could be conditioned to not respond to similar sounds…only the correct sound
what is extinction?
-when the CS was repeatedly presented in the absence of the UCS, the CR “died out” in this process
Why does extinction occur?
-Multiple theories: the presentation of the CS alone leads to new learning, the CS-UCS association is weakened and the CS no longer predicts the UCS; REmoving the UCS as the reinforcer and the CR disappears at least for awhile.
What is spontaneous recovery?
-the conditioned response can briefly reappear when the original CS returns, even if the response is usually weak and short-lived.
What is higher-order conditioning?
-it occurs when a strong conditioned stimulus is paired with a neutral stimulus. the strong CS can actually play the part of the UCS and the previously neutral stimulus becomes a second conditioned stimulus.
What is a conditioned taste aversion?
-not eating a food anymore because of a bad experience with the food
what is a conditioned taste aversion called?
a biological influence on conditioning
What is stimulus substitution?
-a process where pavlov believed that the conditioned stimulus, through its association close in time with the unconditioned stimulus, came to activate the same place in the animal’s brain that was originally activated by the unconditioned stimulus. but this does not explain conditioning failed to happen when the CS is presented immediately after the UCS.
what did robert rescorla find?
that the CS has to provide some kind of information about the coming of the UCS in order to achieve conditioning-the CS must predict that the UCS is coming.-this creates an expectancy
What is the cognitive perspective?
the mental activity of consciously expecting something to occur
what is vicarious conditioning?
when classical conditioning occurs by simply watching someone else respond to a stimulus
Which conditioning is involuntary? voluntary?
Classical conditioning is involuntary/automatic
Operant conditioning is voluntary
what is the law of effect and who developed it?
- if an action is followed a pleasurable consequence, it will tend to be repeated; if an action is followed by an unpleasant consequence, it will tend not to be repeated.
- Thorndike
What was the work of Edward Thorndike about?
-tried to outline the laws of learning voluntary responses. He placed a cat in a box with a lever that opened the door to a bowl of food. The first time the cat accidentally opened the box. (lever=stimulus, pushing of lever is the response, and consequence is escape and food. he moved the lever, and although that cat did not “figure it out”, he repeated behavior that worked the previous time.
Who named “operant conditioning”?
B.F. Skinner
What is operant conditioning?
- learned behavior
- voluntary behavior=operant behavior and learning that behavior is operant conditioning.
- the heart of it is the effect of consequences on behavior
- it depends on what happens AFTER the response-consequence.
what is reinforcement?
- the concept of “what is in it for me”
- anything that, when following a response, causes that response to be more likely to happen again; something that is pleasurable to the organism
- “to strengthen”
What is the key to operant conditioning?
-the reinforcement-skinner believed the only reason that learning occured
What is a reinforcer?
-items or events that when following a response will strengthen it
what is a primary reinforcement?
- a reinforcer such as a candy bar that fulfills a basic need like hunger
- pain is also considered a primary reinforcement when removed
what is a secondary reinforcement?
- it gets its reinforcing properities from being associated with primary reinforcers in the past, such as money, or praising a dog while petting the dog
- petting is a UCS, pleasure at being touched is a UCR, and praise from happening at the same time becomes a CS
The main points of operant conditioning.
- end result is an increase in the rate of an already occurring response
- responses are voluntary, emitted by the organism
- consequences are important in forming an association
- reinforcement should be immediate
- an expectancy develops for reinforcement to follow a correct response
the main points of classical conditioning
- end result is the creation of a new response to a stimulus that did not normally produce that response
- responses are involuntary and automatic, elicited by a stimulus
- antecedent stimuli are important in forming an association
- CS must occur immediately before the UCS
- an expectancy develops for UCS to follow CS
what is positive reinforcement?
- following a response with some kind of pleasurable consequence (like a reward) will lead to an increase in the likelihood of that response being repeated
- response by the addition or experience of a pleasurable consequence
what is negative reinforcement?
-following a response there is the removal or escape from something unpleasant will also increase the likelihood of that response being repeated
what is the partial reinforcement effect?
- a response that is reinforced after some, but not all, correct responses
- more resistant to extinction and more like real life
what is a continuous reinforcement
-a reinforcer for each and every correct response
what is an interval schedule?
-when the timing of the response is more important
what is a ratio schedule?
-when the number of responses is more important
what is a fixed interval schedule of reinforcement?
- when a reinforcer is received after a certain, fixed interval of time has passed; e.g. a paycheck
- there is no fast rate of responding; the rat will respond near the end of the end of the interval, therefore causing a scalloping effect on the graph.
what is a variable interval schedule of reinforcement?
- where the interval of time after which the individual must respond in order to receive a reinforcer changes from one time to the next
- e.g. pop quiz, fishing, dialing and dialing b/c of a busy signal
- the response time is unknown, therefore the action is more continuous so the graph is a smooth line up
what is a fixed ratio schedule of reinforcement?
- the number of responses required to receive each reinforcer will always be the same number
- the rate of responding is very fast because the rat wants to get to the next reinforcer (food) as fast as possible, so it is a steep graph
what is a variable ratio schedule of reinforcement?
- the number of responses changes from one trial to the next
- the graph is as rapidly going up as a fixed ratio scedule of reinforcement but is smoother because the rat does not know when it is going to occur and therefore must continue to push the level
- it the unpredictability that makes the responses more or less continuous e.g. gambling
what are the two factors that make reinforcement as effective as possible?
- timing-the reinforcer should be given as immediately as possible after the desired behavior
- reinforce only the desired behavior
what is the definition of punishment?
- it is the opposite of reinforcement
- it weakens responses instead of strengthening responses
what are the two kinds of punishment?
- punishment by application
2. punishment by removal
what is punishment by application?
- when something unpleasant (spanking, scolding, or other unpleasant stimuli) is added to the situation or Applied
- recommended to strongly avoid
what is punishment by removal?
- most often confused with negative reinforcement, but remember negative reinforcement removes and “unpleasant stimulus” while this removes a “pleasant” stimulus
- the removal of something pleasurable or desired after the behavior occurs (grounding, time-outs, privileges)
- more acceptable b/c it does not include physical aggression
How to make punishment more effective
- punishment should immediately follow the behavior it is meant to punish
- punishment should be consistent
- punishment of the wrong behavior should be paired, whenever possible reinforcement of the right behavior
what is a discriminative stimulus
-any stimulus that provides an organism with a cue for making a certain response in order to obtain reinforcement-specific cues lead to specific responses and discriminating between the cues leads to success. (police car=slow down, red stoplight=stopping, doorknob=how to open the door)
what is shaping?
- in which small steps toward some ultimate goal are reinforced until the goal itself is reached
- the goal is achieved by reinforcing each successive approximation
what about extinction, generalization, and spontaneous recovery in operant conditioning?
- extinction involves the removal of the reinforcement
- responses can also be generalized to stimuli that are only similar to the original stimulus
- spontaneous recovery will also happen with operant responses
can any animal be taught anything?
-no, it was found that animals will revert to a behavior that was instinctual for them that is genetically determined and not under the influence of learning. (pig and raccoon)
what is instinctive drift?
- a tendency to revert to genetically controlled patterns
- examples include: the animal does come into the lab with a blank slate (or tabula rasa) able to learn any behavior; differences between species of animals matter in determining what behavior can or cannot be conditioned; not all responses are equally able to be conditioned to any stimulus
what is behavior modification?
- it refers to the application of operant conditioning (and sometimes classical conditioning) to bring changes in behavior
- used in school with positive reinforcement for desired behavior
- often uses tokens and creates a token economy or uses time-out
what are tokens in behavior modification?
-secondary reinforcers that can be traded in for other kinds of reinforcers
what is a token economy?
–the use of tokens to modify behaviors (e.g. gold stars traded in for something, our money economy-get paid for work)
what about time-outs?
- it is a form of mild punishment by removing the misbehaving animal, child, or adult in a special area away from the attention of others
- should be a maximum of 10 min. with 1 minute per year of age
what is ABA?
- Applied behavior analysis
- a modern term for a form of behavior modification that uses both analysis of current behavior and behavioral techniques to address a socially relevant issue
- skills are broken down to their simplest steps and then taught to the child through a system of reinforcement
- prompts are given until the child can perform independently
- began by Dr. O. Ivar Lovaas
what is biofeedback?
the traditional term used to describe the use of feedback from a person’s biological information (e.g. heart rate) to create a state of relaxation.
what is neurofeedback?
- trying to change brain activity
- traditionally based on recording the electrical activity of the brain or EEG
- modern amplifiers are often connected to a computer that records and analyzes the physiological activity of the brain and then individuals can use to learn how to produce brain waves or specific types of brain activity associated with specific cognitive or behavioral states (> attention, staying focused, relaxed awareness)
- changes are learned through operant conditioning
- used EEG for ADHD, controlling chronic pain
- can incorporate MRI to examine effects of EEG-based neurofeedback on the brain or fMRI as a neurofeedback method in and of itself
what type of psychologists were interested and integral in developing cognitive learning theory?
-gestalt psychologists (studying the way in which the mind tried to force a pattern on stimuli in the world around the person)
what defines cognition?
-the mental events that take place inside a person’s mind while behaving.
what are the 3 important people in developing cognitive learning theory?
Edward Tolman, Wolfgang Kohler, and Martin Seligman
What is Latent Learning? Who is it associated with? How did he discover it?
- learning of information without a reinforcer that was not demonstrated until there was a need to do so; the cognitive map was hidden, or latent, until the rats had a reason to demonstrate their knowledge by getting to the food
- Gestalt psychologist Edward Tolman
- the second rat was not reinforced until the 10th time and therefor wandered around until found the exit. When it was reinforced, the rat then had a desire to get there faster the time after and demonstrated learned behavior.
What was Wolfgang Kohler’s contribution to cognitive elements of learning?
- another gestalt psychologist
- stranded on an island and studied the learning of chimpanzees
- when the chimpanzee was given two seperate sticks, the chimp displayed and ‘insight’ and put the sticks together to get the banana. This shows that insight requires a sudden “coming together” of all the elements of a problem in a kind of ‘a-ha’ moment that is not predicted by traditional animal learning studies.
What is Martin Seligman famous for?
- developing positive psychology
- discovering learned helplessness in dogs
What is positive psychology?
-a new way of looking at the entire concept of mental health and therapy that focuses on the adaptive, creative, and psychologically more fulfilling aspects of human experience rather than on mental disorders
Learned helplessness?
- the tendency to fail to act to escape from a situation because of a history of repeated failures in the past
- harnessed dogs that experienced a shock did not get away from the shock later when they had the opportunity. they just sat there, experiencing distress but not moving.
What are the new insights on learned helplessness?
- focusing on a part of the brain stem, dorsal raphe nucleus, that releases serotonin and activating the amygdala that triggers the fight or flight. the combination of > fear/anxiety with non-escape or freezing may because this older part of the brain cannot determine which what type of stressors are controllable
- but the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in the frontal lobe can determine what is controllable and therefore inhibits the brain stem and calm the amygdala’s response causing a control in actions.
- therefore the dogs in early studies may not be learning to be helpless but not learning how to relax and take control of the situation.
What is observational learning?
Who did the classical study in observational learning?
- learning new behavior through watching the actions of a model
- Bandura-the preschool and the model that either ignored the clown or beat up the clown. The children learned without reinforcement
What is learning/performance distinction?
–the fact that learning can take place without actual performance ( a kind of latent learning)
What about if the model in Bandura’s experiment was rewarded or punished for the behavior?
-the children modeled the rewarded behavior, but when asked to act out the actions of the model that was punished and would receive a reward, they did so. Therefore, consequences do matter when in motivating a child
What four elements must be present for for observational learning as Bandura saw it?
- Attention
- Memory
- Imitation
- Desire or motivation to perform the action
