Chapter 6: Learning (2) Flashcards
Define spontaneous recovery.
Spontaneous recovery is the reappearance of an extinguished response after a period of nonexposure to the conditioned stimulus.
What is the renewal effect?
The renewal effect—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
Define stimulus generalization.
Stimulus generalization 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.
Responding to a new stimulus as if it were the original.
ex: little albert being afraid of anything white and furry.
What is the basic law governing generalization?
The more similar new stimuli are to the original CS, the greater the generalization.
What concept of classical conditioning appears to contribute to the development of panic disorder?
Generalization.
Who did the little albert experiment?
John.B.Watson
Define stimulus discrimination.
Stimulus discrimination 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.
What is the law that governs stimulus discrimination?
The less similar new stimuli are to the
original CS, the greater the likelihood (and ease) of discrimination.
Define higher-order conditioning.
Higher-order conditioning, in which a conditioned stimulus functions as if it were an unconditioned stimulus.
When a conditioned stimulus becomes associated with a new unconditioned stimulus.
ex: if the bell was paired with a red light, the dog still salivates when the red light is presented alone even though it hasn’t been paired with the meat powder.
What were the basic principles of conditioning violated by the bernaise sauce syndrome?
- First, the lengthy delay of six hours between the CS (the sauce) and the UCS (the flu) should have prevented conditioning from occurring.
- Second, why was it that only the béarnaise sauce became a CS eliciting
nausea? Why not other stimuli that were present in the restaurant?
The riddle of Seligman’s sauce béarnaise syndrome was solved by whom? define conditioned taste aversion.
John Garcia. Conditioned taste aversion (CTA) occurs when you associate the taste of certain foods with symptoms of an illnes
They found that when taste cues were followed by nausea, rats quickly acquired conditioned taste aversions.
Define prepardness.
Preparedness a concept developed to explain why certain associations are learned more readily than others
Preparedness can explain why certain phobias are vastly more common than others. (ex: being scared of snakes but not of hot pans)
What does the evolved module for fear learning consist of ?
(1) preferentially activated by stimuli related to survival threats in evolutionary history
(2) automatically activated by these
stimuli
(3) relatively resistant to conscious efforts to suppress the resulting fears, and
(4) dependent on neural circuitry running through the amygdala.
(CS)
What is operant conditioning, what is it’s other name? Who developed it?
Operant conditioning is a form of learning in which responses come to
be controlled by their consequences.
It is also called instrumental condtioning.
Developed by B.F Skinner.
What is thorndike’s law of effect?
Thorndike’s law of effect states that behaviors followed by a reward or reinforcement are more likely in the futureand strengthens the association between the behaviour and stimulus, whereas behaviors followed by a punishment are less likely in the future.
