Chapter 6 -- Learning Flashcards
What is behaviourism?
A systematic method or approach to understanding changes in behaviour
- focuses solely on observable behaviours
- discounts the importance of mental activity such as thinking, wishing, and hoping.
What is non-associative learning?
A learned change in behaviour to a novel stimulus after repeated or continuous exposure to that stimulus.
What are the 3 types of non-associative learning?
- Habituation: Ignoring unnecessary, repeated low-intensity stimuli for our own well-being. (Ex: annoying clocks ticking, skin touching clothes)
- Sensitization: Increase in responses to repeated high-intensity stimuli. (Alarm clocks, sounds in your home after a horror movie)
- Imprinting: animals form a close and dependent bond with the first animal they see after being born and copy their mannerisms.
What is associative learning?
Learning that occurs when an organism makes a connection, or an association, between two stimuli or events.
What are the two types of conditioning associated with associative learning?
Classical conditioning: organisms learn the association between 2 stimuli and that makes up their knowledge.
Operant conditioning: organisms learn the association between behaviour and consequence.
What is observational learning?
Learning that occurs through observing and imitating another’s behaviour.
What is learning defined as?
a systematic, relatively permanent change in behaviour that results from cognitive experience.
What is an unconditional stimulus and a conditioned stimulus?
unconditioned stimulus (US): produces a response without prior learning. (FOOD)
conditioned stimulus (CS): previously neutral stimulus that eventually elicits a conditioned response after being paired with the unconditioned stimulus. (BUZZER)
What is an unconditioned response and a conditioned response?
unconditioned response (UR): unlearned reaction that is evoked by the unconditioned stimulus. (DOG SALIVATES WHEN IT SEES FOOD)
conditioned response (CR): learned response to the conditioned stimulus that occurs after conditioned stimulus–unconditioned stimulus pairing. (DOG SALIVATES WHEN IT HEARS BUZZER)
What is acquisition?
The initial learning of the connection between the unconditioned stimulus and the conditioned stimulus when these two stimuli are paired. Happens due to contiguity and contingency.
How do contiguity and contingency work?
contiguity: CS and US are presented close together in time.
contingency: CS must indicate that the US is on its way.
What is generalization in classical conditioning and why is it not always beneficial?
The tendency of a new stimulus that is similar to the original conditioned stimulus to evoke a response that is similar to the conditioned response.
- Cat responds to a harmless minnow and applies this same response when in the presence of a dangerous piranha.
How does discrimination work against the flaws of generalizations?
Individuals learn to respond to certain stimuli and not others.
What is extinction in classical conditioning?
The weakening of the conditioned response when the unconditioned stimulus is absent.
- Pavlov stopped giving his dogs food when the buzzer sounded and they stopped salivating
What is spontaneous recovery in classical conditioning?
An extinguished conditioned response can recur after a time delay, without further conditioning.
What is renewal?
The recovery of the conditioned response when the organism is placed in a novel context.
- Drug addicts may not crave drugs in the recovery facility, but experience them when they return to their homes.
How does classical conditioning explain fears in terms of John B. Watson’s Little Albert experiment?
Bad experiences create schemas and cause fears
- Rat turned into CS
- Loud noise was US and his reaction to it (as a baby) was the UR
- Pairing of rat (neutral/CS) and loud noise (US)
- Albert became afraid of the rat (CR)
What is counterconditioning?
A classical conditioning procedure that involves the conditioning of an undesired response to a stimulus into a desired response.
What is aversive conditioning?
A form of treatment that consists of repeated pairings of a stimulus with a very unpleasant stimulus.
How are the immune and endocrine systems affected by classical conditioning?
Immunosuppresion occurs: decrease in bodies production of antibodies