Chapter 6

Question 1

What is learning?

Answer 1

• -Learning is an adaptive process in which the tendency to perform a particular behaviour is changed by experience.
• -Making connections (associations) between events
• -Learning can not be observed directly, only inferred from changes in behaviour.
• -Learning can occur even when there is no noticeable change in behaviour

Question 2

What are superstitions?

Answer 2

• -often the result of obtaining a reward after engaging in some behaviour, even if the behaviour and reward are not really linked
• -the subject of scientific learning
• -type of operant conditioning

Question 3

What is conditioning?

Answer 3

• -involves learning connections between events that occur in an organism’s environment
• -Four key elements: the conditioned stimulus (CS)/conditional response (CR), unconditional stimulus (UCS)/unconditional response (UCR)

Question 4

What is a more complex form of learning?

Answer 4

–learning by observation

Question 5

What is classical conditioning?

Answer 5

• -a type of learning in which a stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke an automatic/involuntary response that was originally evoked by another stimulus
• -first introduced by Ivan Pavlov so it was called the Pavlovian conditioning in tribute to him

Question 6

What are phobias?

Answer 6

• -irrational fears of specific objects or situations

- -acquired through classical conditioning

Question 7

How did Pavlov demonstrate “psychic reflexes”?

Answer 7

• -Pavlov would present meat powder to a dog ad collect the resulting saliva by means of a surgically implanted tube in the salivary glands
• -he noticed that the dogs accustomed to the procedure would start salivating before the meat powder was presented (would salivate in response to a clicking sound made by the device that was used to present the meat powder)
• -Pavlov decided to investigate further so he paired the presentation of meat powder with various stimuli that would stand out in the lab (for instance, he used a simple auditory stimulus -the presentation of a tone)
• -after the tone and the meat powder had been presented together a number of times, the tone was presented alone and what happened was that the dogs responded by salivating to the sound of the tone alone
• -the tone started out as neutral stimulus (it did not originally produce the response of salivation) but Pavlove managed to change that by pairing the tone with the stimulus (meat powder) which produced the salivation response

Question 8

What is the unconditional stimulus (UCS) and unconditional response (UCR)?

Answer 8

• -UCS is a stimulus that evokes an unconditioned response without previous conditioning
• -UCR is an unlearned reaction to an unconditioned stimulus that occurs without previous conditioning
• -meat powder (UCS) would trigger salivation (UCR)

Question 9

What is the conditional stimulus (CS) and conditional response (CR)?

Answer 9

• -CS is a previously neutral stimulus that has, through conditioning, acquired the capacity to evoke a conditioned response
• -CR is a learned action to a conditioned stimulus that occurs because of previous conditioning
• -the tone (CS) presented in Pavlov’s study would trigger salivation (CR) in the dogs

Question 10

What are trials in classical conditioning?

Answer 10

• -a trial consists of any presentation of a stimulus or pair of stimuli
• -psychologists are interested in how many trials are required to establish a particular conditioned bond (which varies considerably)

Question 11

What is evaluative conditioning?

Answer 11

• -subtype of classical conditioning
• -refers to changes in the liking of a stimulus that result from pairing that stimulus with other positive or negative stimuli
• -the acquisition of likes/dislikes or preferences through classical conditioning

Question 12

How is evaluative conditioning done?

Answer 12

• -typically, a neutral stimulus is paired with unconditioned stimuli that trigger positive reactions so that the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus that elicits similar positive reactions ex. in one study, funny cartoons (unconditioned stimuli that triggers positive reactions) paired with two types of energy drinks (neutral stimulus) increased participants’ liking of the drinks
• —other studies have found that this can be used to reduce prejudicial attitudes towards the homeless, to foster more favourable attitudes about recycling, and to create more negative attitudes toward beer drinking

Question 13

How is evaluative conditioning used in advertising campaigns?

Answer 13

• -advertisers often pair their products with UCSs that elicit positive emotions ex. presenting a product in association with an attractive person or enjoyable surroundings
• -advertisers hope that these pairings will make their products conditioned stimuli that evoke good feelings
• -politicians know this too and they often have pictures taken with popular people or with babies in an attempt to boost their own popularity

Question 14

How does classical conditioning contribute to drug tolerance?

Answer 14

• -stimuli that are consistently paired with the administration of drugs can acquire the capacity to elicit conditioned responses
• -in many instances, the conditioned responses are physiological reactions that are just the opposite of the normal effects of the drugs (these are called compensatory CRs because they partially compensate for some drug effects and help to maintain homeostasis)
• -most drug users have routines that lead to consistent pairing of drug administration and certain stimuli
• -these environmental cues eventually begin to elicit compensatory CRs that partially cancel out some of the anticipated effects of the abused drug
• -as these compensatory CRs strengthen, they neutralize more and more of a drug’s pleasurable effects, producing a gradual decline in a user’s responsiveness (drug tolerance)
• -if drugs are taken in new ways or new settings, the usual compensatory CRs may not occur and the drugs may have a much stronger impact than usual (this is why heroin addicts seem more prone to overdose when they shoot up in unfamiliar settings)
• -another problem is that when people try to quit drugs, exposure to drug-related cues in the absence of actual drug administration may trigger compensatory CRs that increase drug cravings and fuel addiction and relapse and can also produce withdrawal symptoms

Question 15

What is acquisition in classical conditioning?*

Answer 15

• -refers to the initial stage of learning something during which conditioning occurs
• -depends on stimulus contiguity (occur together in time and space) and stimuli that are novel, unusual, or intense have more potential to become CS because they are salient (more likely to stand out among other stimuli)

Question 16

What is extinction in classical conditioning?*

Answer 16

• -the gradual weakening and disappearance of a conditioned response tendency
• -the consistent presentation of the conditioned stimulus alone, without the unconditioned stimulus leads to extinction
• -the strength of the conditioned bond when extinction begins affects the time it takes for it to extinguish

Question 17

What is spontaneous recovery?

Answer 17

• -classical conditioning
• -the reappearance of an extinguished response after a period of non-exposure to the conditioned stimulus
• -ex. Pavlov completely extinguished a dog’s CR of salivation to a tone but after the dog’s “rest interval” (a period of non-exposure to the CS) the salivation response appeared again when the tone played but this time the salivation was weak
• *kept playing tone (CS) without the meat powder (UCS) after leading to extinction. Normally, the tone comes before you get the meat powder so the dogs got conditioned to salivating earlier because they expected the meat powder to come after. But over time when the meat powder didn’t come after the tone, they stopped salivating . Then they had a rest-interval where there was no extinction. When brought back and the tone played again, they salivated again**

Question 18

What is the renewal effect?

Answer 18

• -classical conditioning
• -if a response is extinguished in a different environment than it was acquired, the extinguished response will reappear if the animal is returned to the original environment where acquisition took place
• -the renewal effect along with spontaneous recovery suggests that extinction somehow suppresses a conditioned response rather than erasing a learned association
• -even if you manage to get rid of an unwanted conditioned response, there is an excellent chance it may make a surprise reappearance later

Question 19

What is stimulus generalization in classical conditioning?*

Answer 19

• -classical conditioning
• -occurs when an organism that has learned a response to a specific stimulus responds in the same way to new stimuli that are similar to the original stimulus
• -the likelihood and amount of generalization to a new stimulus depend on the similarity between the new stimulus and the original CS
• -This principle can be quantified in graphs called generalization gradients
• -contributes to the development of panic disorders as panic patients have a tendency to overgeneralize

Question 20

What was the study conducted by John B Watson on behaviourism?

Answer 20

• -conditioned emotional response
• -examined the generalization of conditioned fear in an 11 month old baby named “Little Albert”
• -Albert was initially unafraid of a live white rat but then Watson and Rayner paired the presentation of the rat with a loud, startling sound and Albert showed fear in response to the sound though
• -After 7 pairings of the rat and the sound, the rat was established as a CS eliciting a fear response
• -five days later, Watson and Rayner exposed Little Albert to other stimuli that resembled white and furry rat like a rabbit, a dog, a fur coat, a Santa Claus mask, and Watson’s hair

Question 21

What is stimulus discrimination in classical conditioning?*

Answer 21

• -classical conditioning
• -occurs when an organism that has learned a response to a specific stimulus does not respond in the same way to new stimuli that are similar to the original stimulus
• -the less similar new stimuli are to the original CS, the greater the likelihood (and ease) of discrimination
• -this requires that the CS continues to be paired with the UCS while similar stimuli not be paired with the UCS
• -the generalization gradient naturally narrows around the original CS, which means that the organism is generalizing to a smaller and smaller range of similar stimuli

Question 22

What is higher-order conditioning?

Answer 22

• -when a conditioned stimulus functions as if it were an unconditioned stimulus
• -this shows that classical conditioning does not depend on the presence of a genuine, natural UCS - an already established CS will do just fine
• -the new CS predicts/is a CS for the old CS (chime predicting the presence of light which is a conditioning stimulus for food)
• -Ex. Using Pavlov’s research, you condition a dog to salivate in response to the sound of a tone by pairing the tone with meat powder. Once the tone is firmly established as a CS, you pair the tone with a new stimulus –let’s say red light for 15 trials. You then present the red light alone, without the tone. The dog will then salivate in response to the red light even though it had never been paired with the meat powder
• -many human conditional responses are the product of higher-order conditioning

Question 23

What did Robert Rescorla show?

Answer 23

• -asserts that environmental stimuli serve as signals and that some stimuli are better and more dependable than others
• -signal relations in classical conditioning: CS-UCS relations that influence whether a CS is a good signal (“good” signal meaning it allows accurate predictions of the UCS)
• -Rescorla thus manipulates the predictive value of a conditioned stimulus and he does this by varying the proportion of trials in which the CS and UCS are paired
• -ex. a tone (CS) and a shock (UCS) are paired 20 times for one group of rats so they are paired in 100 percent of the experimental trials
• -another group of rats also receive 20 pairings of the tone and a shock but they also receive 20 more shocks that are not preceded by a tone. Thus the CS and UCS are paired in only 50 percent of the trials
• -the two groups of rats had an equal number of CS-UCS pairings, but the CS is a better signal or predictor of shock for the 100 percent CS-UCS group than for the 50 percent CS-UCS group
• -in essence, the rats were responding to the probabilities that the shock would or would not follow from the tone

Question 24

What is the conditioned taste aversion: the “sauce bearnaise syndrome”?

Answer 24

• -Martin Seligman ate steak with sauce bearnaise and six hours later developed the stomach flu and severe nausea
• -after this experience, the aroma of the sauce bearnaise alone nearly made him throw up
• -at first, Seligman realized it was a straightforward case of classical conditioning because a neutral stimulus (the sauce) had been paired with an unconditional stimulus (the flu), which caused an unconditional response (the nausea)
• -however, Seligman realized that this violated certain basic principles of conditioning because the delay of 6 hours between the CS (sauce) and the UCS (the flu) should have prevented conditioning from occurring
• -also, why was it only the bearnaise sauce that became a CS eliciting nausea? Why not other stimuli like the plates, knives, etc?

Question 25

Who was John Garcia?

Answer 25

• -solved Seligman’s bearnaise sauce syndrome
• -Group 1: buzzing noise with flashing light and shocks to feet Group 2: buzzing noise with flashing light and nausea Group 3: saccharine flavour and shocks to feet Group 4: saccharine flavour and nausea
• -Results: rats in group 1 and group 4 had reduced levels of drinking in a follow up test
• -found that when taste cues were followed by nausea, rats quickly acquired conditioned taste aversions but when taste cues were followed by a shock, rats did not develop conditioned taste aversions
• -visual and auditory stimuli followed by nausea also failed to produce conditioned aversions
• -Learning is facilitated when the CS and the UCS make sense together proving that not just any CS can be paired with any UCS.
• -this is a by-product of evolution: animals that consume poisonous foods and survive must learn not to repeat their mistake so natural selection favoured organisms that quickly learnt what not to eat

Question 26

What is preparedness?

Answer 26

• -classical conditioning
• -preparedness involves a species-specific predisposition to be conditioned in certain ways and not others
• -this can explain why certain phobias (snakes, spiders, heights, darkness, etc) are vastly more common than others
• -these common phobic objects were once threats to our ancestors

Question 27

What is operant conditioning and how is it different from classical conditioning?

Answer 27

–operant conditioning is a form of learning in which responses come to be controlled by their consequences
– The consequences of a behaviour affect whether that behaviour will be repeated or not.
—->Behaviour that leads to positive outcomes has a greater tendency of being repeated.
—->Behaviour that leads to negative outcomes is less likely to be repeated.
–the organism “operate” on the environment instead of simply reacting to stimuli like in classical conditioning
–classical conditioning regulates reflexive involuntary responses whereas operant conditioning governs voluntary responses

Question 28

What is Thorndike’s Law of Effect (instrumental learning)?

Answer 28

• -Thorndike wanted to determine if animals could think
• -he placed a hungry cat in a small cage or puzzle box with food available just outside
• -the cat could escape by performing a specific response like pulling a wire or depressing a lever
• -after each escape, the cat was rewarded with food and then returned to the cage for another trial
• -if the cat could think, Thorndike reasoned that there would be a sudden drop in the time required to escape when the cat recognized the solution to the problem
• -instead of a sudden drop, there was a gradual, uneven decline in the time it took cats to escape from his puzzle boxes
• -this showed that the cats were learning, but this learning did not depend on thinking or understanding
• -Thorndike attributed this learning to something he called the law of effect
• -according to law of effect, if a response in the presence of a stimulus leads to satisfying effects, the association between the stimulus and the response is strengthened
• -this learning is called instrumental learning which is another name for operant conditioning

Question 29

What is reinforcement?

Answer 29

• -operant conditioning
• -reinforcement occurs when an event following a response increases an organism’s tendency to make that response
• -Thorndike’s law of effect: Skinner demonstrated that organisms tend to repeat those responses that are followed by favourable consequences

Question 30

What is an operant chamber?

Answer 30

“Skinner box”

• -a small enclosure in which an animal can make a specific response that is recorded while the consequences of the response are systematically controlled
• -reinforcement contingencies: the circumstances or rules that determine whether responses lead to the presentation of reinforcers (the experimenter manipulates whether positive consequences occur when the animal makes the designated response)
• -the main positive consequence is delivery of a small bit of food because the animals are deprived of food for a while prior to the experimental session, their hunger virtually ensures that the food serves as a reinforcer

Question 31

What is the cumulative recorder?

Answer 31

• -creates a graphic record of responding and reinforcement in a Skinner box as a function of time
• -a roll of paper that moves at a steady rate underneath a moveable pen
• -no responding:pen stays still and draws a horizontal line reflecting the passage of time
• -responding: pen moves upward a notch
• -reinforcer: pen makes slash marks to record delivery of each reinforcer

Question 32

How are studies on operant conditioning recorded/analyzed?

Answer 32

• -the subjects’ response rate over time (measured by a cumulative recorder)
• -these are portrayed in graphs: the horizontal axis is used to mark the passage of time while the vertical axis is used to plot the accumulation of responses
• -a rapid response rate produces a steep slope while a shallow response rate produces a shallow slope
• -because the response is cumulative, the line never goes down -it can only go up as more responses are made and flatten out if response rate slows to zero

Question 33

What are primary reinforcers?

Answer 33

• -operant conditioning
• -unlearned, or primary reinforcers, are events that are inherently reinforcing because they satisfy biological needs
• -there are only a limited number of primary reinforcers because they are closely tied to physiological needs
• -in humans, the primary reinforcers are food, water, warmth, sex, and perhaps affection

Question 34

What are secondary reinforcers?

Answer 34

• -operant conditioning
• -conditioned, or secondary reinforcers, are events that require reinforcing qualities by being associated with primary reinforcers
• -these vary among members of a species because they depend on learning
• -in humans, secondary reinforcers are money, good grades, attention, flattery, praise, etc

Question 35

What is acquisition in operant conditioning (shaping)?*

Answer 35

• -as in classical conditioning, acquisition in operant conditioning refers to the initial stage of learning however it is different from classical conditioning which is the typical conditioned response. In operant conditioning, the response is established through a gradual process called shaping
• —shaping: consists of the reinforcement of closer and closer approximation of responses
• -ex. a rat first placed in the Skinner box may not press the lever so the experimenter begins shaping by releasing food pellets whenever the rat moves toward the lever. As this response becomes more frequent, the experimenter requires a closer approximation of the desired response (pressing the lever) and releasing food only when the rat spontaneously touches the lever allowing the researcher to reinforce that behaviour

Question 36

What is resistance to extinction?*

Answer 36

• -while in classical conditioning extinction occurs when the conditioned stimulus is presented alone without the unconditioned stimulus. However, in operant conditioning extinction occurs when the response is no longer followed by a reinforcer
• -in rats, when extinction process starts there is a brief surge in the rat’s responding followed by a gradual decline until it reaches 0
• -resistance to extinction: when an organism continues to make a response after delivery of the reinforcer has been terminated

Question 37

How did Bouton and colleagues test for the renewal effect in operant conditioning?

Answer 37

• -modified two Skinner boxes to create very different contexts
• -they found that if acquisition of lever pressing occurred in one context and subsequent extinction in another context, responding recovered when the rats were returned to the original context or placed in a new, neutral context
• -thus, it appears that the result of extinction is that the organisms learn not to make a specific response in a specific context, as opposed to any and all contexts
• -this can explain why maladaptive responses that are successfully extinguished in a behaviour therapists’ offices can reappear in other contexts

Question 38

What are discriminative stimuli?

Answer 38

• -cues that influence operant behaviour by indicating the probable consequence (reinforcement or non-reinforcement) of a response
• -ex. pigeon’s disk pecking may be reinforced only when a small light behind the disk is lit. When the light is out, pecking does not lead to reward. The light that signals the availability of reinforcement is called discriminative stimulus
• -governed by a process of stimulus generalization and stimulus discrimination

Question 39

What is stimulus generalization in operant conditioning?*

Answer 39

• -responding increases in the presence of new stimulus that resembles discriminative or antecendent stimulus
• -ex. cat running into the kitchen when it hears the sound of a can opener (discriminative stimulus) but if the cat also runs into the kitchen when it hears another sound similar to the can opener (discriminative stimulus), like a blender, then that will be stimulus generalization

Question 40

What is stimulus discrimination in operant conditioning?

Answer 40

• -responding does not increase in the presence of new stimulus that resembles the original discriminative stimulus
• -ex. cat learns only to respond to the can opener and not the blender

Question 41

How did Skinner study superstitious behaviours?

Answer 41

• -in the case of superstitious behaviours, the reinforcement is most likely accidental
• -pigeons were placed in an experimental cage into which Skinner introduced a reinforcer (food) which had no reference to the bird’s behaviour
• -Skinner observed that the birds would tend to repeat any behaviour they had been engaged in when the food was presented (behaviour that was accidentally reinforced)
• -however, some contemporary research ascribes this to normal cognitive biases and errors that promote irrational reasoning rather than solely on accidental reinforcement

Question 42

What is the difference between continuous and intermittent reinforcement?

Answer 42

• —>continuous reinforcement: occurs when every instance of a designated response is reinforced
• —>intermittent/partial reinforcement: occurs when a designated response is reinforced only some of the time

Question 43

What type of reinforcement makes a response more resistant to extinction?

Answer 43

• -the longer the delay between the designated response and the delivery of the reinforcer, the more slowly the conditioning proceeds so continuous reinforcement increases the conditioning processes
• -however, intermittent reinforcement makes a response more resistant to extinction than continuous reinforcement does because the organism is more willing to keep repeating the response even when not reinforced

Question 44

What are the four types of intermittent reinforcement?

Answer 44

Ratio schedules: requires the organism to make the designated response a certain number of times to gain each reinforcer

• ->fixed-ratio (FR) schedule: the reinforcer is given after a fixed number of non-reinforced responses (ex. a rat is reinforced for every 10th lever press)
• ->variable-ratio (VR) schedule: the reinforcer is given after a variable number of non-reinforced responses and the number of reinforced responses varies around a predetermined average. (ex. a slot machine in a casino pays off once every six tries on the average meaning it can pay off less than 6 tries or more than that but it varies around that predetermined average of 6)

Interval Schedules: requires a time period to pass between the presentation of reinforcers

• ->fixed-interval (FI) schedule: the reinforcer is given for the first response after a fixed-time interval has elapsed (ex. a rat is reinforced for the first lever press after 2 minutes and then it must wait another 2 minutes before it is able to earn the next reinforcement)
• ->variable-interval schedule: the reinforcer is given after a variable time interval has elapsed. The interval length varies around a predetermined average (ex. a person repeatedly dials a busy phone number -getting through is the reinforcer)

Question 45

Why do ratio schedules produce more faster responses than interval schedules?

Answer 45

• -because faster responding leads to reinforcement sooner

- - Variable Ratio schedules (i.e. casino slot machines) tend to produce the highest steady-state responding.

Question 46

What type of intermittent reinforcement produces a greater resistance to extinction?

Answer 46

–variable schedules tend to generate stealer response rates an greater resistance to extinction than their fixed counterparts

Question 47

You want to increase employee productivity, what do you do?

Answer 47

–shift to a higher fixed-ratio schedule which can also lead to faster responses

Question 48

What is positive reinforcement?

Answer 48

• -Reinforcement: increases the likelihood that a response will be repeated
• -occurs when a response is strengthened because it is followed by a rewarding stimulus
• -ex. tasty meals, good grades, money, etc

Question 49

What is negative reinforcement? What are the types?

Answer 49

• -occurs when a response is strengthened because it is followed by the removal of an aversive (unpleasant stimulus)
• -ex. rat in a Skinner box is getting an electric shock through the floor of the box but when it presses a lever the shock stops for a period of time
• —>escape-learning: an organism acquires a response that decreases or ends some aversive stimulation (ex. running inside the house cause it is raining outside)
• —>avoidance-learning: an organism acquires a response that prevents some aversive stimulation from occurring (an experimenter gives a rat a simple signal like a light that a shock is forthcoming. At first, the rat runs only when shocked so it is escape learning but gradually the animal learns to escape as soon as the light comes on demonstrating avoidance learning. The warning light that goes on becomes a CS through classical conditioning eliciting reflexive conditioned fear in the animal but the response of fleeing to the other side is operant behaviour which is strengthened through negative reinforcement because it reduces the animal’s conditioned fear. So the fear response is acquired through classical conditioning and the avoidance response is maintained through operant conditioning)

Question 50

Why is it hard to get rid of phobias?

Answer 50

• -if you have a phobia of elevators, you acquired this phobia through classical conditioning because at some point in your past, elevators became paired with a frightening event (the CS is the elevator that was once a neutral stimulus but became a CS through repeated negative stimuli associated with it and the fear response is the CR because it is involuntary)
• -if your phobia is severe, you probably take the stairs instead. This is an avoidance response that leads to consistent negative reinforcement by relieving the conditioned fear
• -It’s hard to get rid of phobias because of this for two reasons. 1) the avoidance-response is a negative reinforcement because each time it is strengthened and it continues 2) this avoidance response prevents any opportunity to extinguish the phobic conditioned response because you’re never exposed to the conditioned stimulus (elevator)

Question 51

What is punishment?

Answer 51

• -type of operant conditioning
• -occurs when an event following a response weakens the tendency to make that response (ex a rat presses a lever and it shocks it weakens his tendency to do that again)
• -positive punishment: involves the presentation of an aversive stimulus
• -negative punishment/response cost: the removal of a rewarding stimulus
• -ex. you go to a restaurant and you have a horrible meal

Question 52

What is corporal punishment associated with in children? What have critics said about this?

Answer 52

• -associated with elevated aggression, delinquency, and behavioural problems
• -also associated with slowed cognitive development, increases in criminal behaviour, and mental health problems
• -not very effective in ensuring children’s obedience
• -some critics have said that this evidence is correlational and correlation does not equal causation

Question 53

How did Tolman show the potential role of cognition in conditioning

Answer 53

• -three groups of food deprived rats learned to run a complex maze over a series of once a day trials
• -the rats in Group A received a food reward (positive reinforcement) when they got to the end of the maze each day and because of this their performance increased over the course of 17 days
• -the rats in Group B did not receive any food reward and because of this the group only showed modest improvement in performance
• -Group C was the critical group so they did not get any reward in the first 10 trials (just like Group B) but once reinforcement began on the 11th trial, they showed sharp improvements on subsequent trials
• -Group C’s performance was even a little better than Group A’s so Tolman concluded that the rats in Group C had just been learning about the maze all along just as much as the rats in group A, but they had no motivation to demonstrate this learning until a reward was introduced
• -Tolman called this latent learning: learning that is not apparent from behaviour when it is first occurs
• -this suggested that learning can take place in the absence of reinforcement (at a time that thought learning could only be done through reinforcement) and it suggested that the rats who displayed latent learning had formed a cognitive map of the maze (mental representation of the spatial layout) at a time when cognitive processes were thought to be irrelevant to understanding conditioning

Question 54

What is instinctive drift?

Answer 54

• -occurs when an animal’s innate response tendencies interfere with conditioning processes
• ->the Brelands (operant psychologists trained by Skinner) were training a racoon to put coins in a piggy bank and they were successful in shaping the racoons to pick up a coin and put it into a small box by using food as a reinforcer.
• –>However, when they gave the racoons a couple of coins, they wouldn’t give up the coins in spite of the reinforcers. Not only did the racoon not give it up, he spent seconds/minutes rubbing them together
• –>This happened because associating coins with food brought out the racoons’ innate food-washing behaviour (racoons often rub things together to clean them)

Question 55

What is the evolutionary perspective on learning?

Answer 55

• -species-specific biological constraints on learning
• -the basic mechanism of learning are similar across species but these mechanisms have been modified in the course of evolution as species have adapted to the specialized demands of their environments
• -Ex. the ability to recognize stimuli that signal important events (food, predators, etc) is probably adaptive to virtually any organism, but different organism confront different adaptive problems to survive and reproduce so learning has evolved in somewhat different paths in different species

Question 56

What is the role of cognitive processes in conditioning ?

Answer 56

• -people actively reason out the relationships between responses and the outcomes that follow
• -if a response is followed by a desirable outcome, the response is more likely to be strengthened if the person thinks the response caused the outcome
• -even pigeons, under right circumstances, can learn to recognize causal relationships between responses and outcomes
• -organisms are actively trying to figure out what leads to what in the world around them

Question 57

What is observational learning and how does it include conditioning?

Answer 57

• -observational learning occurs when an organism’s responding is influenced by the observation of others, who are called models
• -observational learning involves being conditioned indirectly by virtue of observing another’s conditioning
• -Learning through observation is not a simple matter of observation. It is an active judgmental and constructive process. Through observation, observers acquire symbolic representations of different ways of doing things, and these ideas serve as guides for their own behaviour
  ex. you observe a friend behaving assertively with a car salesperson and this assertive behaviour is reinforced by the exceptionally good buy she gets on the car. Your own tendency to behave assertively with salespeople might well be strengthened as a result. The reinforcement is experienced by your friend, not you. The good buy reinforces your friends tendency to bargain assertively, but your tendency to do so may also be strengthened indirectly

Question 58

What are the four key processes that are crucial in observational learning?

Answer 58

1) Attention: to learn, you must pay attention to another person’s behaviour and it’s consequences
2) Retention: you may not have the occasion to use an observed response for a while so you must be able to store it in your memory
3) Reproduction/Motor Production processes: enacting a response depends on your ability to reproduce the response by converting your stored mental images into overt behaviour and this may not be easy for some responses (learning how to do a backflip after watching someone else)
4) Motivation: you are unlikely to reproduce an observed response unless you are motivated to do so and this motivation depends on whether you encounter a situation in which you believe that the response is likely to pay off

Question 59

What does Bandura say about learned responses?

Answer 59

• -people have many learned responses that they may or may not perform based on the situation
• -he maintains that reinforcement influences performance rather than learning per se

Question 60

What is the “Bobo doll” experiment?

Answer 60

–study by Albert Bandura
–Bandura showed that children would imitate aggressive behaviour directed towards a bobo doll by an adult model
–Three conditions:
––>control: kid brought into a room full of toys and the researchers watch their behaviour towards the toys
––> aggressive models,
––>non-aggressive models - model is not aggressive towards bobo doll
–In order to clearly demonstrate observational learning, the models performed sufficiently novel patterns of aggressive behaviour and verbal aggression
–Children who saw the model rewarded were more likely than children who saw the model punished for aggression to aggress themselves toward the Bobo doll when left alone with it
–this early research by Bandura suggested a connection between children watching violence on television and their own aggressiveness
– forms the basis of his Social Learning Theory (that we learn social behaviour by observing, imitating and being rewarded/punished for our behaviour)
–More recent research focuses on creating pro-social models for creating collective action for social change (ex. soap operas in developing countries)

Question 61

How can media violence desensitize people?

Answer 61

• -desensitization means people show muted reactions to real violence
• -one study showed that subjects who had played violent video games for a mere 20 minutes showed smaller physiological reactions to video recordings of real-life aggression than those who played non-violent video games. This also changed participants’ perceptions of aggression (they rated specific acts of aggressive behaviour as being less aggressive than control subjects did
• -another study found that the “numbing effect” of media violence makes people less sensitive to the suffering of others and less likely to help others in need. In this study, participants who had just played a violent or nonviolent game overheard a stage fight (just outside the door of the lab) in which one person was injured and the aggressive actor had clearly left the scene so there was no perceived danger to the participants. Participants who had just played a violent video game took much longer to help than the ones who had just played a non-violent game

Question 62

What have critics said about the media violence controversy?

Answer 62

• -critics pointed out that high aggressiveness in children causes an increased interest in media violence but studies have controlled for initial levels of subjects’ aggressiveness and still found that media violence promotes increased aggression
• -critics have also argued that the effects of media violence on aggression are weak. This assertion is accurate. Like other aspects of complex behaviour, aggression is surely influenced by a host of factors, such as genetic predispositions, prenatal modelling, and peer influences. Exposure to media violence is just one factor
• -However, media violence has far reaching effects. Suppose that 25 million people watch an extremely violent movie, even if only 1 in 1000 viewers become a little more prone to aggression, that is 25 000 people who are a bit more likely to wreak havoc

Question 63

How can video games be good?

Answer 63

• -studies have found that a number of benefits can be derived from playing video games, including the first person aligned shooter games
• -improvements in attention allocation, visual-spatial processing, and problem solving
• -payoffs in terms of enhancing social skills
• -rewards of persistence in the face of setbacks (more resilient)

Question 64

What are mirror neurons?

Answer 64

• -neurons that are activated by performing an action or by seeing another monkey or person perform the same action
• -internally represent an action
• -humans have mirror neuron circuits in the frontal lobe and parietal lobe
• -these neurons may underlie our ability to understand others, to understand what is going on in the minds of others (theory of mind), ability to emphasize with others

Question 65

What are the adaptive aspects of learning?

Answer 65

• -Organisms that were able to “learn” (i.e. determine relations among events) were able to survive in a changing environment.
• -But learning still occurs even if the environment is not changing; the organism “learns” that the environment has not changed (the bear and the stream)

Question 66

What is habituation?

Answer 66

–Habituation–learning not to respond to an unimportant event that occurs repeatedly
–Short-term Habituation: Temporary
––>The result of stimuli that are presented quickly in a short period
– Long-term Habituation: Lasting
––> Results when stimuli are spread over a longer period
–is essentially a form of Classical Conditioning (inhibitory classical conditioning)

Question 67

What is the orienting response?

Answer 67

our attention is drawn to a novel stimulus

Question 68

What is sensitization?

Answer 68

–Sensitization–based on some prior stimulus,we become more responsive (more sensitive) to a subsequent stimulus. Not necessarily the same stimulus. (horror movie → creaking floor)

Question 69

What is the biological significance of classical conditioning?

Answer 69

• -The ability to learn to recognize stimuli that predict the occurrence of an important event allows the learner to make the appropriate response faster and more effectively
• -Stimuli that were previously unimportant acquire some of the properties of the important stimuli and can now modify behaviour

Question 70

What three factors affect the strength of the CR?

Answer 70

• -“strength” = the ability of the CS to elicit the CR and/or can refer to the intensity of the CR
  1) timing of the CS & UCS (contiguity) -0.5 seconds
  2) Reliable pairings (contingency): always pairing them together. This doesn’t mean they won’t learn, it just slows down acquisition process
  3) Intensity of the UCS (more food instead of tiny bit)

Question 71

How does timing and intensity affect classical conditioning?

Answer 71

–Timing: the order and timing of the presentation of the CS & UCS
– Optimal delay (half of a second). As you move away from this optimal delay, they acquisition will take longer
–Intensity: the intensity of the UCS that the CS is paired with will have an impact on the ability of the CS to elicit the CR.
– A weaker UCS will not produce a strong relation between the CS and the CR

Question 72

What is blocking?

Answer 72

• • The previously conditioned CSA will interfere with the organism’s ability to pair the new CSB with the UCS – hence the CSB will not elicit the CR.
• -this happens when the new CS is presented at the same time as the previously conditioned CS instead of before (higher-order conditioning)

Question 73

What is the difference between excitatory conditioned response and inhibitory conditioned response?

Answer 73

• -Excitatory: The CS signals that the UCS is about to occur. ex Pavlov’s assistant walking into the room (the CS), prior to feeding the dogs (the UCS)
• -Inhibitory: when the CS signals the absence of the UCS
  ex. Imagine if Pavlov had a second lab assistant – who’s job it was to observe the dogs in between feedings – thus, when this assistant entered the lab, it would signal a period of “no food”

Question 74

What is the three term contingency (operant conditioning)?

Answer 74

1) The presence of the Discriminative (or Antecedent) Stimulus
2) indicates that our RESPONSE will elicit a particular CONSEQUENCE.
- -response is the organisms behaviour which leads to a consequence
3) The consequence could be positive or negative.

Question 75

What is the difference between appetitive and aversive stimulus?

Answer 75

1) Appetitive Stimulus – any stimulus that is good or desirable
2) Aversive Stimulus – any stimulus that is unpleasant or painful

Question 76

What three factors influence the effectiveness of a model?

Answer 76

1) Characteristics of the model – we are more likely to be influenced by someone who we believe is similar to ourselves
2) Attributes of the observer – people who are low in self- esteem, highly dependent, or highly motivated are more likely to follow a model
3) Reward consequences associated with a behaviour – people are more likely to emulate a model if they believe that such actions will lead to positive results

Question 77

What four types of reinforcement facilitate observational learning?

Answer 77

• -In Observational Learning, the learning occurs without any necessary External reinforcement of the learning (not dependent on reinforcement)
• -However, reinforcement can facilitate the learning process – the individual’s anticipation of reward or punishment influences how they behave
  1) Extrinsic reinforcement – (external) usually arbitrary or socially arranged rather than a natural outcome of the behaviour (giving child candy for reading)
  2) Intrinsic reinforcement – naturally related to the behaviour (i.e. some behaviours produce a natural physiological effect), or our emotional response to the behaviour (engaging in an activity for pleasure instead of having to be rewarded for it)
  3) Vicarious reinforcement – when we learn appropriate behaviour from the successes or mistakes of others (ex. not yelling at parents because the sibling who did that got grounded)
  4) Self-reinforcement – we can regulate our own behaviour by setting our own standards for conduct and responding to those in self-rewarding or self-punishing ways (treating yourself to dessert if you finish studying a chapter)

Question 78

What are the effects of stress on learning?

Answer 78

• Stress has an impact on our ability to recall learned information
– Example: veterans with PTSD were unable to recall information learned earlier
• Stress has an effect on our ability to focus our attention (a necessary step in learning)
– Using a modified Stroop test, where people are presented with threatening or neutral words in various colours, subjects are asked to name the colour of the words
– People suffering from PTSD responded slower to words that were threat-related – indicating that their attention was focused on threat related cues instead of on the task