chapter 5 textbook Flashcards
spatial learning (cowbrids)
cowbirds, females that face the more challenging spatial learning tasks, and females who have a larger hippocampus than males. Cowbirds are obligate nest parasites, meaning that females always lay their eggs in the nests of other species. Females spend time and energy locating nests
where they will lay their eggs. females and males spent the same amount of time trying to locate the food but the females made fewer errors
phenotypic plasticity
the ability of an organism to produce different phenotypes
depending on environmental conditions.
ex: bryozoan developing spines to defend against a new environmental change (a predator)
phenotypic plasticity can produce different phenotypes
These results suggest that flushing insects under branches does represent a case of phenotypic plasticity—the ability of an organism to produce different phenotypes depending on environmental conditions (whether under trees or not)
sensitization
become more sensitive to the stimulus over time
appetitive stimulus
Any stimulus that is considered positive, pleasant, or rewarding
aversive stimulus
any stimulus that is unpleasant—shock, noxious odors
latent inhibition
a cognitive process that involves ignoring irrelevant stimuli and learning not to associate them with consequences
blocking
occurs when a conditioned stimulus (CS) fails to produce a conditioned response (CR).
overshadowing
occurs when one stimulus is more noticeable than another
second-order conditioning
a learning process where a neutral stimulus becomes associated with a conditioned stimulus
excitatory conditioning
positive relationships
inhibitory conditioning
negative relationships
instrumental conditioning
also known as operant or goal-directed learning, occurs when the response that is made by an animal is reinforced (increased) by the presentation of a reward or the
termination of an aversive stimulus, or when the response is
suppressed (decreased) by the presentation of aversive stimulus or the termination of a reward
difference between classical and instrumental learning
One of the most fundamental differences between Pavlovian and instrumental learning is that, in instrumental learning, the animal must undertake some action or response in order for the conditioning process to produce learning
law of effect
if a response in the
presence of a stimulus is followed by a positive event, the association
between the stimulus and the response will be strengthened.
Conversely, if the response is followed by an aversive event, the
association will be weakened
Who finds food faster, animals in groups or solitude?
groups, ex: doves
Does learning have a cost?
yes there is always a cost to learning, even if its small
damselfly and associating predator with environment
they were scared of pike who ate minnows and other damselflies but not scared of pike that ate mealworms because mealworms are not in their ecological niche
what happened in the second round of the damselfly experiment?
they were scared of all pike, even the ones that ate mealworms, because they were previously exposed to that in the first round and they learned it meant danger
why do male quails learn better than females
where there is no parental investment on the part of males, males show greater learning abilities than do females, though the extent of differences in learning between males and females may be specific to certain mating contexts
cross-fostering experiment
a procedure where offspring are raised by foster parents other than their biological parents, ex: long-tailed tits
facial learning
the process of perceiving and interpreting facial features to understand others’ emotions and intentions, ex: paper wasps have this to recognize other wasps from their colony and it only works if they mimic actual paper wasp faces
conditioned stimulus
a stimulus that fails initially to elicit a particular response but comes to do so when it becomes associated with a second (unconditioned) stimulus.
