Chapter 6: Learning Flashcards
If a soccer player thinks they need to wear new shoes every game in order to do well, what type of learning has occurred?
Operant conditioning
What is learning?
any relatively durable change in behaviour or knowledge that is due to experience
Are phobias the result of classical or operant conditioning? Why?
Classical.. Stimulus linked with anxiety reaction (environment has control)
They’re maintained by operant conditioning (you have control)
Does learning only happen to humans?
no, animals as well
True or false, the principles that explained learned responses in animals explain much of human learning
True
What is conditioning?
learning connections between events that occur in an organisms environment (eg. Drinking coffee and doing well in school)
What level do psychologists research conditioning?
Fundamental
What happens in classical conditioning?
Where a stimulus has the ability to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus (think: Pavlov)
Who first described classical conditioning, and when?
Pavlov, 1900
What is another name for Classical conditioning?
Pavlovian Conditioning
Where does the term “conditioning” come from?
Pavlov’s determination to discover the “conditions” that produce that type of learning
Who was responsible for turning psychology from research focusing on subjective accounts (introspection) to more objective and scientific ideas?
Pavlov
Who’s work showed how stimuli in the external world controlled our actions and behaviour?
Pavlov
Who de-emphasized the mind and showed how learning was under the influence of experience
Pavlov
What is a neutral stimulus?
does not elicit a response (think: in pavlov’s study, the bell was neutral)
Does Pavlov have a lasting effect on societies idea of learning?
yes, his work is still influential today
What is a trial in classical conditioning?
any presentation of a stimulus or pair of stimuli
Think: psychologists are interested in how many trials are required to establish a conditioned bond
Does classical conditioning happen gradually or rapidly?
typically, CC happens gradually, but it can happen rapidly as well
What do experiments on classical conditioning typically focus on besides salivation?
eyelid closure, knee jerks, and fear responses
Does classical conditioning play a key role in shaping emotional responses (think: fear)
yes
What is an unconditioned association?
think: pavlov’s study:
bond between meat powder and salivation didn’t have to be created through conditioning
What is the unconditioned stimulus?
a stimulus that evokes an unconditioned response without previous conditioning
What is an unconditioned response?
an unlearned reaction to an unconditioned stimulus that occurs without previous conditioning
What is a conditioned association?
think: pavlov’s study– link between the tone and salivation
the link is established through conditioning
What is a conditioned stimulus?
a previously neutral stimulus that has, through conditioning, acquired the capacity to evoke a conditioned response
think: a snake, after biting you, becomes scary
What is a conditioned response?
a learned reaction to a conditioned stimulus that occurs because of previous conditioning
think: anxiety from being around a snake, because it bit you
Can Pavlovian conditioning also influence peoples attitudes?
yes
What is evaluative conditioning?
changes in the liking of a stimulus that result from pairing that stimulus with other positive or negative stimuli
think: a good song elicits a positive reaction to an unknown root beer
or a bad song elicits a negative reaction to an unknown root beer
Can evaluative conditioning shape peoples attitudes?
yes
True or false, the functioning of the immune system can be influenced through conditioning?
true, think: being sick, having antibodies fighting
Can classical conditioning effect allergy responses?
yes
Conditioning effects drug tolerance, is it true that the greater the compensatory response, the greater amount of drugs one needs to keep feeling a change?
yes
Does classical conditioning aid in the development of fetishes for inanimate objects?
yes
Drug tolerance studies by Shepard Siegel state that…?
classical conditioning also contributes to drug tolerance in unexpected ways
What are compensatory conditioned responses?
conditioned responses are physiological reactions that are the opposite of the normal effects (of a drug)
help maintain homeostasis, counteract some responses to drugs effects
What are the limits of a compensatory condition response?
if a drug is taken in a different way, or in a different enviornment
What can happen with a person that is not using drugs, but is in the area or surrounded by people who are doing them? (think: compensatory conditioned responses)
Drug cravings or withdrawal symptoms
Is classical conditioning always inevitable?
no
What is acquisition?
the initial stage of learning something
When is a stimulus contiguous? (Pavlov)
When they occur together in time and space
Does contiguity automatically produce conditioning?
no
What type of stimuli is more easily conditioned?
stimuli that are:
novel
unusual
or intense
What is extinction?
gradual weakening and disappearance of a conditioned response tendency
What leads to extinction of conditioned responses?
the conditioned presentation of the conditioned response alone, without the unconditioned stimulus
think: pavlov, sounding only the tone, without food will decrease the response of salivation because the meat powder was not given
Does extinction happen fast or gradually?
could be either
Can conditioned responses come back if extinct?
yes
What is spontaneous recovery?
the reappearance of an extinguished response after a period of no exposure to the conditioned response
pavlov: sending the dogs for rest in a cage after extinction, when they return to the study area, the salivation returns
What is 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
Does extinction erase a conditioned response or suppress it?
extinction suppresses the conditioned response
How is extinction related to drug abuse or eating disorders?
if they do stop their conditioned responses, they may re-occur and cause relapse
What is stimulus generalization?
when you’ve learned a response to a specific stimulus and you respond the sane way to the new stimuli that is similar to the original stimulus
Ie. A drill in a dentists office, or a drill in a jewlers
Is generalization adaptive? Why or why not?
yes, because people rarely encounter the exact same stimulus more than once
What does the likelihood of generalization depend on?
the similarity between the new stimulus and the original conditioned stimulus
What is the “basic law” of generalization?
the more similar the new stimuli are to the CS– the greater the generalization
What did Watson and Rayner’s study focus on, what did they conclude, and what were they criticized for?
focused on generalization of “little Albert’s” fear of rats/loud noise
they concluded that Little Albert’s fear of the rat could be generalized to white and fuzzy things
they were criticized for not assuring there were continual effects on Albert as he grew up
What is stimulus discrimination?
When an organism that has learned a new response to a specific stimulus does not respond to new stimuli that are similar to the original
think: a dog hearing your car in the driveway CS, (your arrival) responds only to your car because it is paired with an UCS (your arrival)
What 5 things motivate us to learn?
1: Intent, we have pressure of conscious intent to learn
2: Rewards and punishment
3: Knowledge of results, MARKS ARE UP
4: Stress, anxiety will enhance performance to a certain extent
5: Life goals: if you wanna pursue something, you’ll do well
Who coined classical conditioning?
Pavlov
True or false, in classical conditioning, the response is elicited/controlled by the experimenter
True
True or false, in operant conditioning, you control your response
True
What are Watson and Raynor associated with?
Little Albert study
What does adversive conditioning do?
Elicits a negative response to the conditioned stimulus
Can Pavlovs classical conditioning impact immune systems? How?
Yes,
eg. former chemo patients immune system being less active around hospital stimuli
True or false, according to the Skinnerian/Operant conditioning perspective, peoples responses aren’t always directed or restricted
True
What does Instrumental mean when referring to skinnerian or operant conditioning?
You are involved in achieving your award
What does operant mean when referring to skinnerian or operant conditioning?
You manipulate your environment to achieve your award
What does emit mean when referring to skinnerian or operant conditioning?
You emit your response, opposed to it being elicited
What is escape conditioning?
You are conditioned to escape shock
eg. learned helplessness
What is avoidant conditioning?
You are able to ignore or pay attention to something if you want
eg. paying a parking meter, you can ignore it and not pay or you can not ignore it and avoid the shock
What are the 2 effects any drug has?
The effect of the drug and the compensatory effect
What is the compensatory effect of a drug?
What happens when your body tries to maintain normal body functions after being given a drug
What is the major criticism of classical conditioning?
It’s often artificial
What is spontaneous recovery of a conditioned response?
When the conditioned response comes back after a period of non-exposure to the conditioned stimulus
comes back after it has been extinguished
Can conditioned responses be extinguished?
yes!
What has been learned can be unlearned
True or false, if you reconditioned an extinguished conditioned response, it’d come back quicker
True
What are temporal arrangements?
How much time elapses between the conditioned response and the unconditioned stimuli.. How long should it be for the best conditioning?
What is forward conditioning?
When the conditioned response comes before the unconditioned response
What is simultaneous conditioning?
Interstimulus interval is 0
the CR and UCS overlap and occur at the same time
What is the Interstimulus interval? What happens if it is 0?
It is the time between the CR and UCS
If it is 0, then simultaneous conditioning occurs
What is backward conditioning?
UCS occurs before CS
What is trace conditioning?
Like lighting and thunder..
the CS goes OFF before the UCS goes ON
What is the unconditioned stimulus?
thee stimulus that evokes an unconditioned response without previous conditioning
What is the unconditioned response?
an unlearned reaction to an unconditioned stimulus that occurs without previous conditioning
What is a conditioned stimulus?
a previously neutral stimulus that has (through conditioning) been able to evoke a conditioned response
What is a conditioned response?
a learned reaction to a conditioned stimulus that occurs because of previous conditioning
Can a phobia be a result of classical conditioning?
Yes
Can pavlovian conditioning influence peoples attitudes?
Yes
What is evaluative conditioning?
involves acquisition of likes and dislikes through classical conditioning
pairs something with something that elicits positive or neg emotions
eg. rootbeer with different types of music
Can classical conditioning affect psychological processes?
yes
eg. immunosuppression
Can classical conditioning underlie the development of fetishes?
yes
What are the three basic processes in classical conditioning?
Acquisition: forming new responses
Extinction: weakening conditioned responses
Spontaneous recovery: resurrecting responses
True or false, according to Pavlov, acquisition of a conditioned response depends on _________
Stimulus contiguity
constant reinforcement of the two stimuli being present at the same time
True or false, evidence suggests that stimuli that are novel, unusual, or intense have more potential to become conditioned stimuli
True
What is the renewal effect?
if a response is extinguished in a different env than it was acquired, the extinguished response will reappear if the animal is returned to the original enviornment where it was acquired
True or false, extinction only suppresses a conditioned response, meaning that it hasn’t been fully unlearned
True
True or false, the reason why conditioned phobias are so hard to fully extinguish permanently is because of the renewal effect/spontaneous recovery
True
it randomly comes back at times
True or false, after conditioning has occured, organisms often show a tendency to respond not only to the exact conditioned stimulus used but also to other, similar stimuli
Yes
Think little albert being afraid of white fluffy things
What is stimulus generalization?
When an organism that has learned a response to a specific stimulus responds in the same way to similar stimuli
What is stimulus discrimination?
when an organism that has learned a response to a specific stimulus doesn’t respond to similar stimuli..
think: dog responding to your car only
True or false, the development of stimulus discrimination requires the original conditioned stimulus (your car) continues to be paired with the unconditoned stimulus (your arrival)
True
True or false, the less similar new stimuli are to the original conditioned stimulus (car) the greater likelihood of discrimination
True
What is high-order conditioning?
a conditioned stimulus functions as if it were an unconditioned stimulus
think: tone being paired with a light elicits the same response
In what type of conditioning does the organism operate on the environment?
Operant conditioning
True or false, in operant conditioning, learning occurs because responses come to be influenced by the outcomes that follow them
True
What does the term, “instrumental learning,” introduced by Thorndike mean?
operant conditioning
What does Thorndikes “law of effect” mean?
if a response in the presence of a stimulus leads to satisfying effects, the association between the stimulus and the response is strengthened
think: cat in the box with food
What is reinforcement?
when an event following a response increase an organisms tendency to make that response
behaviour –> response to behaviour +/- —–> effect on beh. tendency
True or false, because operant responses tend to be voluntary, they are said to be emitted rather than elicited
True
What is the cumulative recorder in a skinner box?
pencil dragged along a piece of paper that creates a graphic record of responding and reinforcement in a skinner box as a function of time
What are the 3 basic processes in operant conditioning?
Acquisition/shaping: learning by reinforcement of desired response
Extinction: gradual weakening/dissapearance of resp. b/c lack of reinf.
Generalization and Discrimination
What is shaping? (operant conditioning)
the reinforcement of closer and closer approximations of a desired response
think: rewarding a puppy everytime he gets closer to the bell in order to teach him how to ring the bell
How is operant conditioning extinction different from classical conditioning extinction?
in operant conditioning, extinction happens because reinforcement does not follow the response tendency (desired behaviour)
What is resistance extinction? (operant conditioning)
When an organism continues to make a response after delivery of the reinforcer has been terminated
Can the renewal effect occur with operant conditioning?
Yes
What is a discriminative stimulus? (operant conditioning)
Cues that influence operant behaviour by indicating the probable consequences of a response.
eg. birds pecking ony when the disk is lit, because they know the chances they’ll get reinforcement are high
Operant theorists make a distinction between primary reinforcers and secondary reinforcers.. what is the difference?
Primary: events that are inherently reinforcing b/c they satisfy bio needs
Secondary: events that require reinforcing qualit. by being associated with primary reinforcers (eg. money, good grades) people learn to find good clothing and travelling reinforcing
What is continuous reinforcement?
when every instance of a designated response is reinforced
eg. telling a child they’re good every time they do something good
What is intermittent reinforcement?
When a designated response is reinforced only some of the time
leads to extinction resistance
What are the 2 main types of reinforcement schedules?
Ratio Schedules
Interval Schedules
What are the two types of ratio schedules?
Fixed ratio: server gets a bonus for every 4th dessert sold
Variable ratio: a server is reinforced for every 10th desert, on avg… the exact number of deserts sold required for reinforcement varies from one time to the next
What are the two types of interval schedules?
they require time to pass between the presentation of reinforcers
Fixed interval: rat is reinforced for the first lever press after 1 min interval has passed but must wait another minute to get the next rein.
Variable interval: a person repeatedly dials a busy phone number, getting through is the reinforcer.. you don’t know how long it’ll take
True or false, ratio schedules tend to produce more rapid responding than interval schedules.. if so, why?
True
because faster responding leads to reinforcement sooner
What is the difference between positive and negative reinforcement?
Positive: response is strengthened bc it is followed by rewarding stimul
Neg: response is strengthened bc it is followed by removal of an unpleasant stimulus. it IS reinforcement
eg. you clean your come to get rid of a big mess
What is escape learning?
when an organism acquires a response that decreases or ends some adversive stimulation
eg. turning on the ac when the apartment is ridiculously hot
What is avoidance learning?
a response that prevents some aversive stimulation from occurring
think: rat seeing light before shock happens.. response would be running to a safe room
What does punishment do to an organisms tendency to make a particular response?
decreaes/weakens the tendency to make a particular response
What 5 things make punishment effective?
applying it right away make it just severe enough make it consistent explain it non-physical
What type of reinforcement is used when someone gets a speeding ticket and is fined?
Punishment
Identify 3 biological constraints on conditioning
instinctive drift
conditioned taste aversion
preparedness and phobias
What is instinctive drift?
when an animals innate response tendencies interfere with conditioning processes
eg. giving coins to raccoons.. associated with the food reward brought out its innate food washing habit
What is conditioned taste aversion?
When nausea follows eating a particular food, it is considered conditioned to that particular food
What is preparedness?
predisposition to be conditioned in certain ways and not others
being prepared to be afraid of snakes
Explain the 4 points of Ohman and Mineka’s elaboration of the preparedness theory
activated by stimuli related to survival threats in history
automatically activated by these stimuli
relatively resistant to to conscious efforts to suppress fears
dependent on neural circuitry running through amygdala
Explain the evolutionary perspective on learning
basic mechanisms of learning are similar across species but have been modified in the course of evolution, as species have adapted to the demands of their own environment
What is Tolman known for?
developed one of the first major cognitive theories of learning
True or false, today, theorists have shifted towards more cognitive explanations of conditioning
True
What is latent learning?
learning that is not apparent from behaviour when it first occurs
think: the different groups of rats had been learning all about the maze, but they didn’t have motivation until the reinforcement was present
Why did the latent learning theory present a challenge for the other types of learning?
1- suggested learning can happen without reinforcement
2- introduced a cognitive component (mapping out the maze) when cognitive processes were considered irrelevant to understand conditioning
What is Rescorla known for?
Signal Relations
manipulates the predictive value of a conditioned stimulus
introduced predictions and expectations into the models of learning
True or false, in response-outcome relations, organisms try to figure out what leads to what leads to what
True
Are there species specific biological constraints on classical conditioning?
yes
What is observational learning?
when an organisms responding is influenced by the observation of others, who are called models
What theorist studied observational learning the most in depth?
Bandura
True or false, according to Bandura, both classical and operant conditioning can take place through observational learning
True
What are the 4 basic processes of observational learning?
attention: you must pay attention to someones behav + consequences
retention: you must store the memory
reproduction: you need to be able to reenact it
motivation: you must be motivated to reproduce an observed response
What do mirror neurons do?
neurons that are activated by performing an action or by seeing another monkey or person perform the same action
True or false, observational learning can account for the influence of mass media on behaviour
True
What is inhibition?
As we split wood, we are building up inhibition to OPPOSE said activity.If you’re highly motivated you will ignore inhibition.
True or false, if something has a steep learning curve, it will have a very low extinction curve
True
What are the 4 measures of habit strength?
1- magnitiude of response (eg. amt of saliva)
2- latency–> the time that expires between the presentation of CS and CR
3- probability of the CR occuring
4- resistant to extinction
What did Clark Hull identify as the 2 major components of learning?
1- associative component: knowing material, “if this occurs, then that occurs”
2- drive/motivation: how motivated are you?
What 3 things does Bandura believe that contribute to who we choose who me model from?
1- how much prestige the model has
2- how much affection we have for the model
3- how attractive the model is (very respected, not how “pretty they are”
What is vicarious learning?
Vicarious learning: you observed what happened to your siblings after they misbehaved, this allowed you to avoid thier concequences
What is Tutelage?
Tutelage: didactic learning. Formal tutoring. Direct form of observational learning, through instruction
What is implosion therapy?
1- implosion therapy: counterconditioning.. “imagine what you fear”
often referred to “in-vitro” therapy. After imagining the worst that could happen, NOTHING HAPPENS IN REAL LIFE, so eventually the maladaptive behaviour is extinguished.
What type of extinction therapy is often referred to as “in-vitro” therapy?
implosion therapy
What is flooding?
flooding therapy: repeated exposure to what they’re afraid of. Should be very carefully done. “In-vivo” therapy.
What is generational continuity?
You will often use the same disciplinary techniques on your own children that your parents have used on you.
True or false, reward training is more effective than any form of punishment training?
True
Why is punishment ineffective?
- children don’t understand what it is aimed at
- childrens parents emotions cause it, no rhyme or reason
- unpredictable
