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PSY100 > Chapter 6 > Flashcards

Chapter 6 Flashcards

1
Q

What is learning?

A

It is a change in behavior through experience and its usually permanent

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2
Q

What does the Behaviorism theory of learning focus on?

A

It focuses on observable behaviors while ignoring mental activity (thinking, wishing, hoping)

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3
Q

Associative learning?
Its divided into 2 parts, what are they?

A

Is when an organism makes an association between 2 events. Conditioning is the processes of learning these associations.
Classical conditioning and operant conditioning

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4
Q

Observational learning? Why is it different from associative learning?

A

When a person observes and imitates another’s behavior. It is different from associative learning because it relies on mental processes.

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5
Q

What is classical conditioning?
What are the 4 main elements in classical conditioning?

A

It is when a neutral stimulus is associated with a meaningful stimulus and acquires the capacity to elicit a meaningful response.
1) Unconditioned Stimulus: produces response w/o learning
2) Unconditioned Response: involuntary action, elicited by the unconditioned stimulus
3) Conditioned Stimulus: previously a neutral stimulus that now elicits a conditioned response after being pair with the US enough times. (CS-US) pairing.
4) Conditioned Response: learned response to CS

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6
Q

What is Acquisition (in classical conditioning)?

A

It is the first step in classical conditioning. It is the initial learning of the connection between the US & CS when they are paired.

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7
Q

For CS-US pairing to work, 2 things must be present. What are they?

A

Contiguity, which says that the CS and US are presented very close in time.
Contingency, which says that the CS must precede the US closely in time AND serve as a reliable indication that the US is coming.

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8
Q

What is Generalization (in classical conditioning)?

A

Is is the idea that new stimulus that is similar to the conditioned stimulus can also elicit a conditioned response. Note that the CR is weaker.

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9
Q

What is Discrimination (in classical conditioning)?

A

The process of learning to respond to certain stimuli and not others.

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10
Q

What is Extinction (in classical conditioning)?

A

It is the weakening of the CR due to the US not being present

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11
Q

What is Spontaneous Recovery (in classical conditioning)?

A

When an extinct CR comes back without further conditioning. An example could be remembering your S/O based on the area you’re in or what you are doing

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12
Q

What is Renewal (in classical conditioning)?

A

It is the recovery of a CR when the organism is placed in a novel context. (It is a problem for drug addicts coming back from rehab to their old living conditions)

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13
Q

What are 2 ways to break habits?

A

Counterconditioning, which is a classical conditioning procedure that breaks the CS-CR relationship (the association of the stimulus and positive feelings)
Aversive conditioning, which consists of repeated pairing of stimulus (habit) with a very unpleasant stimulus (shock).

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14
Q

What is a shocking accidental discovery about classical conditioning?

A

Classical conditioning can produce immunosuppression, which is the decrease in the production of anti-bodies.

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15
Q

What is Taste Aversion? What are the U/C/S/R in this case?
What is a strange fact about them?

A

it is a special kind of classical conditioning that involves learned association between a taste and nausea.
Flavor (CS), the agent that got you sick (US), nausea or vomiting (UR), taste aversion is the (CR).
Taste aversion can occur even if the person has been sickened by something completely different than what they ate (such as being spun around in a chair).

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16
Q

Why do scapegoats in taste aversion work?

A

Its because your body considers the ratios involved. You got sick while eating 2 things, 1 is new the other is common. Even if the new taste isn’t what got you sick, your body believes that.

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17
Q

What is Habituation? Explain Drug Habituation.

A

It is the decreased responsiveness to a stimulus after repeated presentations.
Drug habituation is when the US (the drug) and the CS (the appearance of the drug or the room that the drug is usually taken in) elicit a CR that is the opposite of the UR (CR is a slowed heart rate to prepare the body).

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18
Q

What is Operant (instrumental) Conditioning? Give an example.

A

It is a form of associative learning which the consequences of a behavior change the likelihood of that behavior occurring again. The “operant” is the organisms behavior.
If you take a different route to school and arrive their faster, you have been rewarded for your behavior, which will make you more likely to repeat it.

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19
Q

Thorndike’s Law of Effect?

A

States that behaviors followed by pleasant stimulus are strengthened while those followed by negative stimulus are weakened.

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20
Q

What is Shaping? Give an example.

A

It is rewarding successive approximations of a desired behavior. For example, if you want a dog to carry your clothes to the washing machine, instead of expecting them to do so on their first try, you rewards the small steps such as carrying your clothes, walking with them etc.

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21
Q

What is Reinforcement?

A

It is the process of when a stimulus (the reinforcer) following the behavior increases the likelihood of that behavior reoccurring.

22
Q

What are the 2 types of Reinforcement?

A

Positive Reinforcement: frequency of behavior increases because its followed by a positive stimulus
Negative Reinforcement: frequency of behavior increases because its followed by taking away a negative stimulus.

23
Q

What is a special response to Negative Reinforcement? Give an example/

A

Avoidance learning, which is learning that by a certain response, the negative stimuli can be avoiding all together.
If you got a bad grade, you make sure to study better in order to avoid getting bad grades in the future.

24
Q

What is Learned Helplessness?

A

It is when the organism has learned that is has no control over negative outcomes.

25
Q

What are 2 Types of Reinforcers? Give example of both.

A

Positive Reinforcer: does not need learning to be pleasurable (food, water, sex).
Secondary Reinforcer: earns positive value through experience. It is a conditioned reinforcer. (Pairing a whistle with food in order for animal to do the trick will later turn into the animal doing the trick because of the whistle, expecting the food after.)

26
Q

What is Token Economy?

A

A type of secondary reinforcer, where behaviors are rewarded with tokens that can be exchanged for desired rewards.

27
Q

What is Generalization (in operant learning)? Give an example

A

It is performing a reinforced behavior in a different, but similar situation.
Pigeons picking at a circle with a similar color than the one they were trained with.

28
Q

What is Discrimination (in operant conditioning)? Give an example

A

It is responding appropriately to stimuli that signal a behavior will or will not be rewarded. Seeing a sign saying student discount so you enter and flash your ID. If the sign was not there, you would not have done that.

29
Q

What is Extinction (in operant conditioning)? Give an example.

A

When a behavior is no longer reinforced and the behavior decreases in frequency. If your regular soda machines eats your coins, you stop and use another one.

30
Q

What is Spontaneous Recovery (in operant conditioning)? Give an example

A

Is the revival of the behavior without further conditioning. The example would be returning to your soda machine after some time thinking it has been fixed.

31
Q

What is Continuous Reinforcement? What are the pros and cons?

A

It is rewarding a behavior every time it occurs. Organisms learn rapidly but if stopped, extinction also occurs rapidly.

32
Q

What is a type of Reinforcement that is Resistant to Execution? Give an example

A

Partial Reinforcement. It is a reinforcer that follows a behavior a portion of the time. You cannot win every tournament, but you still join & try your best in hopes to win

33
Q

What are Schedules of Reinforcement. State 4 ways in which they can be Classified.

A

They are specific patterns that determine when a behavior will be reinforced.
Ratio Schedules: involves the number of behaviors performed that are needed to earn the reward.
Interval Schedules: refers to the amount of time that must pass before a behavior is rewarded.
Fixed Schedules: the ratio and intervals are always fixed.
Variable Schedules: ratio or interval are unpredictable.

34
Q

What are the 4 types of Schedules of Reinforcements (not how they are classified)

A

Fixed-Ratio Schedule: reinforces behavior after a fixed number of behaviors.
Variable-Ratio Schedule: behaviors are rewarded an average number of times, but on an unpredictable basis. (1:20)
Fixed-Interval: reinforces behavior after a fixed amount of time has passed.
Variable-Interval: reinforces behavior after random amount of time has passed (fishing).

35
Q

What is Punishment?

A

It is a consequence that decrease the likelihood of a behavior reoccurring.

36
Q

What are the 2 types of Punishment?

A

Positive Punishment: behavior decreases when it is followed by the presentation of an unpleasant stimulus (spanking).
Negative Punishment: behavior decreases when it is followed by taking away a positive stimulus (time-outs).

37
Q

What is the relationship between the timing of Reinforcers and Punishment? (which one wins)

A

Immediate Punishment is more effective than Delayed Punishment.
Immediate Reinforcers win over Delayed Punishment (drinking although you know you will have a hangover).
Immediate Punishments win over Delayed Reinforcers. It is the reason why many of us are reluctant to take on new hobbies (we might look stupid vs being good at it later).

38
Q

What is Observational Learning and why do we need it?

A

Bandura’s Observational Learning is learning that occurs when a person observes and imitates the behavior.
If all learning was trial and error, we would all be dead.

39
Q

What are the 4 Main Processes of Observational learning?

A

Attention: the first process. In order to reproduce a model’s actions you must attend to what the model is doing.
Retention: second process. To reproduce the actions, you must hold the information in memory.
Motor Reproduction: imitating the model’s actions.
Reinforcement: final process. Asks whether the model’s behavior was rewarded or not to see if the behavior should be repeated.

40
Q

What are the 2 Types of Reinforcement in Observational learning?

A

Vicarious reinforcement. It is the action of repeating the behavior if the model was rewarded.
Vicarious punishment. It is the action of NOT repeating the behavior if the model was punished.

41
Q

True or False. Relatedness to the model influences their effectiveness in changing our behavior.

A

True

42
Q

What did E. C. Tolman emphasize on?

A

the purposiveness of a behavior: the idea that much of our behaviors are goal directed.

43
Q

What is one study that proves that cognitive factors play a role in learning?

A

A rat was conditioned by pairing a tone with a shock. Continued to do so but with light flashing with the tone. When the tone stopped, the light by itself produced no CR.
This means that conditioning was not governed by contiguity of CS and US, but rather the rats history & informational value of stimuli encountered.

44
Q

What is Latent (implicit) Learning? Give an example

A

Unreinforced learning that is not immediately reflected in our behavior. The example with the rats recalling what they knew about mazes once given a reason to clear them quickly
Their learning was latent: meaning it was cognitively stored in memory but not yet expressed behaviourally.

45
Q

What is Insight Learning?

A

A form of problem solving in which the organism develops a sudden understanding of a problems solution after spending time thinking about it. It requires thinking outside the box. (monkey example)

46
Q

What is Instinct Drift?

A

It is the tendency for animals to revert to their instinctive behavior that interferes with learning.

47
Q

What is Preparedness? Give an example.

A

It is the species-specific bias to learn something in certain ways but not others. Pictures of snaked were paired with shocks, resulted in fear of snakes. However, when reenacted with flowers, the shock produced much weaker associations.
This association is related to the amygdala (part in limbic system related to emotion) and is hard to change.

48
Q

What is a Mindset and what are 2 types of mindsets?

A

A mindset describes the way our beliefs dictate what goals we set for ourselves.
Fixed mindset: believe their qualities cannot change
Growth mindset: believe their qualities can change and imporve.

49
Q

What is the relationship between Stress and Predictability?

A

Having good experiences on a predictable schedule is less stressful than it being random. An example would be receiving a random gift would make you think “what is this person up to?”

50
Q

What is the relationship between Stress and Control?

A

Feeling in control/ being in control of negative events is a key to help avoiding stress. An example is when a rat has been trained to press down a level to avoid shock. Even when lever is not related to the shock, the rat will continue holding the lever thinking it will be much worse if it didn’t.

51
Q

What is the relationship between Stress and Improvement?

A

Imagine having 2 mice. 1st gets shocked 50 times an hour while the other only 10. One day the mice are both shocked 25 times an hour. For the first mouse, although it has been shocked more times, things got better. So it is less stressed.
The perception of improvement, even in a worse situation, is related to lowered stress.

PSY100 (11 decks)

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