Chapter 5 - Learning Flashcards

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1
Q

What is learning?

A

Any relatively permanent change in behavior brought about by experience or practice. Any change in the way an organism behaves.

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2
Q

What happens to the brain when people learn something?

A

It is physically changed to record what was learned.

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3
Q

What is classical conditioning?

A

Classical conditioning is a type of learning where object/situations become associated or linked with other kinds of situations. More specifically it is learning to make a reflex response to a stimulus other than the original, natural stimulus that normally produces the reflex.

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4
Q

Who was the father of classical conditioning?

A

Ivan Pavlov, who was not a psychologist, he was a physiologist. He was studying the digestive tracts of dogs. He discovered, almost by accident, about classical conditioning.

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5
Q

What is a stimulus?

A

An object, event or experience that causes a response.

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6
Q

What is a response? What is a reflex response?

A

A reaction of an organism to a stimulus. A reflex response is a response that is involuntary or uncontrolled.

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7
Q

What did Pavlov’s dog demonstrate?

A

In Pavlov’s experiments on dogs digestive tracts he put food in front of the dog and the dog salivated. In this example food is the original natural stimulus, and the salivation is the natural reflex response. Because Pavlov wanted to control the experiment he had to keep many variables the same, so he fed the dogs at the same time everyday, and to indicate this he had a buzzer sound every time he was going to feed the dog. Pavlov soon noticed that the dog began to salivate to the buzzer, before the food even entered the picture. The buzzer became the new stimulus, that the dog associated with the reflex response, salivation.

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8
Q

What are the elements of classical conditioning?

A
Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) - Naturally occurring stimulus that leads to an involuntary stimulus. In the Pavlov's dog experiment, this was the food.
Unconditioned Response (UCR) - Involuntary response to a naturally occurring or unconditioned stimulus, which is genetically wired into the nervous system. In the Pavlov's dog experiment, this was the salivation.
Neutral Stimulus (NS) - A stimulus that has no effect on the desired outcome. In the Pavlov's dog experiment this was the buzzer, initially. At first the buzzer meant nothing to the dog, there's no reason to salivate to it.
Conditioned Stimulus (CS) - Stimulus that becomes able to produce a learned reflex response by being paired with the original unconditioned stimulus. In the Pavlov's dog experiment, this was the buzzer after the dog had been conditioned to associate the buzzer with the food.
Conditioned Response (CR) - Learned reflex response to a conditioned stimulus. In the Pavlov's dog experiment, this is the salivation in response to the buzzer. The dog has been conditioned to respond to the buzzer by salivating.
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9
Q

Demonstrate the relationships between the elements of Classical conditioning before, during, and after conditioning.

A
Before:
Unconditioned Stimulus (Food) --> Unconditioned Response (Salivation)
Neutral Stimulus (Buzzer) --> No Effect (No salivation)
During:
Neutral Stimulus (Buzzer) & Unconditioned Stimulus (Food) --> Unconditioned Response (Salivation)
After: 
Conditioned Stimulus (Buzzer) --> Conditioned Response (Salivation)
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10
Q

What are some rules that must be followed before classical conditioning can occur?

A
  • The conditioned stimulus must come before the unconditioned stimulus (buzzer then food, not food then buzzer).
  • The conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus must be close together in time (seconds apart)
  • Neutral stimulus must be paired with unconditioned stimulus several times before conditioning can occur.
  • Conditioned stimulus is usually distinctive or stands out from other stimuli.
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11
Q

What is stimulus generalization?

A

A tendency to respond to stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus. For example if Pavlov sounded a slightly different buzzer, the dog might still salivate. However the farther and farther away it gets from the original buzzer sound, the less likely the dog will be to associate that stimulus with the conditioned response.

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12
Q

What is stimulus discrimination?

A

A tendency to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and a similar stimulus because the similar stimulus is never paired with the unconditioned stimulus. For example two tones, one that meant food, and another that didn’t. When the food tone was sounded, the dog would salivate, when the other tone was sounded the dog did not salivate, it was able to discriminate between the two tones.

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13
Q

What is extinction?

A

A disappearance or weakening of a learned response following the removal or absence of the unconditioned stimulus. Not reacting to a previously powerful stimulus is extinction.

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14
Q

What is spontaneous recovery?

A

Reappearance of a learned response after extinction has occurred. Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior.

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15
Q

What is a conditioned emotional response?

A

An emotional response classically conditioned to occur to learned stimuli. Phobias, or irrational fears, are an example. This is also used in advertising.

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16
Q

Who was Little Albert?

A

Little Albert was a toddler, who was put in an experiment by John B. Watson. Watson introduced Albert to a lab rat, which he was not scared of. After a while Watson would create a loud noise right after Little Albert was shown the rat. This would of course cause Little Albert to be scared, and cry. Soon Watson removed the loud noise, and Little Albert would still cry when he was introduced to the rat, even without the noise. Little Albert was now scared of the rat, even though he wasn’t initially.

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17
Q

How is fear associated with Classical conditioning?

A

A person can learn to fear almost anything if it is paired with something that causes pain, surprise or embarrassment. Humans are biologically predisposed to acquire some fears easier than others (for example heights, snakes, spiders, water). Getting shots when you are a kid can condition a fear of needles or injection in the future.

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18
Q

What is taste aversion?

A

A biological predisposition to associate sickness with taste more readily than with sights or sounds. Can develop after one pairing of food with illness even after time delay. Survival value, when our ancestors were hunter-gatherers if they found some food, and tasted a little bit of it, and then they got really sick, they needed to remember that that food was not good for eating, taste aversion is the bodies way of doing this. Rats learn to avoid poison through taste aversion.

19
Q

What is operant conditioning?

A

Operant conditioning is a type of learning focused on forming associations between voluntary behaviors and the consequences that follow.

20
Q

What was Thorndike’s Experiment?

A

This experiment was the root of Operant Conditioning. Thorndike built as small wooden box, and put a cat in it. In order for the cat to get out of the box it had to solve a puzzle. That cat had to activate 3 mechanisms in the box in a certain order. When first put in the box it had no idea how to get out, and just through frantically moving around the cat happened to hit the mechanisms in the right order. However as Thorndike continued to put the cat in the box, slowly the average amount of time the cat took to get out of the box went down. It was learning how to solve the puzzle.

21
Q

What is the law of effect?

A

The law of effect states that behaviors followed by positive consequences are strengthened, and those followed by negative consequences are weakened.

22
Q

What were Skinner’s Experiments?

A

Skinner was a behaviorist, so he wanted to study only observable, measurable behavior. He developed the Skinner box to study operant conditioning. In the Skinner box there was a lever, that a rat or a pigeon might have to pull when a light in the box turns on or a sound from the speaker plays. If the animal in the box did it correctly the animal could get rewarded by a food dispenser and/or a water dispenser. If the animal in the box was doing it incorrectly, the floor of the box was electrified, allowing Skinner to distribute a shock to the animal.

23
Q

What is reinforcement?

A

A consequence to a behavior that increases the probability that the behavior will occur again.

24
Q

What is positive reinforcement?

A

Reinforcement of a behavior by the addition or experiencing of something pleasurable, like a reward.

25
Q

What is negative reinforcement?

A

Reinforcement of a behavior through the removal, escape from, or avoidance of something unpleasant. For example the cat getting out of Thorndike’s puzzle box was negative reinforcement.

26
Q

What is a primary reinforcer?

A

Event or stimulus that is naturally reinforcing by meeting a basic biological need (food, water, sex etc.)

27
Q

What is a secondary reinforcer?

A

Event or stimulus that becomes reinforcing after being paired with a primary reinforcer (Everything else that is not a biological need. For example money)

28
Q

What are the two categories of reinforcement schedules?

A

Continuous Reinforcement and partial reinforcement.

29
Q

What is continuous reinforcement?

A

A reinforcement schedule where every response results in delivery of the reinforcer. The subject of the reinforcement will likely learn the behavior quite quickly, however this is not always feasible in the long term. One reason it may not be feasible is because of time/financial requirements to deliver a reinforcement every time a behavior occurs. Another reason is because ultimately your goal is to get the behavior to continue without the reinforcement, but with continuous reinforcement once you cease the reinforcement the behavior may stop as well.

30
Q

What is partial reinforcement?

A

Partial reinforcement is a reinforcement schedule where a response is reinforced only some of the time. This results in a slower acquisition at first, but show greater resistance to extinction later on.

31
Q

What are the types of partial reinforcement and what do each mean?

A
Fixed-Ratio schedule - Reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses. A lot of agricultural work uses piecework pay, which is an example of this, for example they get paid for every box of carrots the fill.
Variable-Ratio schedule - Reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses. This is hard to extinguish because of unpredictability. Gambling is an example of this, you don't know how many times you have to play before you win.
Fixed-Interval schedule - Reinforces a response only after a specified amount of time has elapsed. For example giving students a break from class every hour, if they are working hard, or getting a paycheck at your job every week.
Variable-Interval schedule - Reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals. Produces slow, steady responses. For example catching a fish after 2 minutes, and then having to wait 20 minutes to catch the next one.
32
Q

What is punishment?

A

A consequence to a behavior that decreases the probability that the behavior will occur again.

33
Q

What are the types of punishment and how do they work?

A

Punishment by Application - Presenting something unpleasant following unwanted behavior, like spanking or a speeding ticket.
Punishment by Removal - Removing a reinforcing stimulus, like a time-out.

34
Q

What are the keys to effective punishment?

A
  • The punishment should be immediately after the behavior
  • The punishment should be consistent
  • The punishment should be paired with reinforcement of desired behavior.
35
Q

What are the problems with punishment?

A
  • Causes recipient to avoid punisher instead of undesired behavior
  • Encourages lying to avoid punishment
  • Creates fear/anxiety, not learning.
  • Provides model for aggression (children whose parents beat them are more likely to beat their children in the future)
  • Only temporarily effective
  • Action intended to punish may instead be reinforcing (For example if a child only gets attention from a parent when that parent is lecturing them on their poor behavior)
36
Q

What is cognitive learning?

A

Cognitive learning is a type of learning which occurs through thoughts, feelings & expectations.

37
Q

What is cognition?

A

Mental events that take place inside a person’s mind while performing a behavior.

38
Q

What is latent learning?

A

Learning that remains hidden until application is useful.

39
Q

Who was Edward Tolman and what did he do?

A

Edward Tolman was a psychologist who did an experiment on latent learning in the 1930s with rats in a maze. In the maze there were curtains, that blocked the rats view of what was ahead, as well as one way doors which the couldn’t go back through.

He had 3 groups of rats go through the maze. Group 1 was rewarded every day when they got through the maze, Group 2 was rewarded for the first time on day 11, and Group 3 was never rewarded.

Group 1 quickly improved their maze solving skills and reduced the number of mistakes they made. Group 3 improved, but after not getting rewarded at all their improvement was slight. Group 2, at first, was similiar to group 3, slight improvement but not as significant as group 1. Then when they began getting food on day 11 they immediately went from an average of 6 mistakes to an average of 1 mistake, even better than group 1.

Group 2 demonstrates that the rats knew how to solve the maze the whole time, they just didn’t have a reason to demonstrate their knowledge. Once the motivation to do it correctly was introduced however, the rats began displaying their knowledge.

40
Q

What is learned helpless?

A

Learned helplessness is not trying to escape from a situation because of repeated failures in the past.

41
Q

Who was Martin Seligman and what did he do?

A

In 1975 Seligman did an experiment to study learned helplessness. In this experiment he put dogs in a box, where the floor was electrified, and a barrier that the dog could jump over to get to the other side of the box. If the dog was able to jump over the barrier to avoid the shock, that is only one side of the box was electrified, the dog would learn to jump over the barrier. But if in the past the dog was unable to avoid the shock, for example if both sides of the box are electrified, the dogs would not attempt to avoid the shock when the opportunity became available. They learned helplessness and would not even attempt to avoid the shock.

42
Q

What is observational learning?

A

Observational learning is a type of learning that occurs from observation, imitation and modeling. Observational learning may not involve external rewards.

43
Q

In observational learning what is the difference between learning and performance?

A

Just because something is learned, does not mean that that behavior will be performed. For example if a child learns a swear word he might not say it out loud, for fear of punishment.

44
Q

Who was Bandura and what did he do?

A

Bandura did a study on observational learning in 1961, where he had a group of kids observe adults in a toy room with a bobo doll in it. The adults in the room either played with other toys, or beat up the bobo doll. Once the adults came out the kids observed them either being rewarded, punished, or having nothing done to them for their actions in the toy room. Then the kids were allowed to go in the toy room. The kids who observed adults beat up the bobo doll and get rewarded for it, or have nothing happen to them, were more likely to go in and beat up the dolls themselves. The kids who observed adults beat up the doll, and get punished for it, were unlikely to go in and beat up the doll themselves. When these kids were asked if they knew how to beat up the doll, they said yes, but they didn’t because they didn’t want to get punished.