Chapter 6 Learning Flashcards
Ivan Pavlov
While studying digestion in dogs inadvertently founded principles of classical conditioning
- dogs associated ringing of a bell with food coming so they learned to salivate simply upon hearing the bells
Learning
Long lasting change in behavior from experience
Classical conditioning
Learning to associate a neutral stimulus with a stimulus that produces a reflexive natural response, so that you have the same reaction to both.
Unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
Stimulus that produces a non learned reflexive reaction.
- food
Unconditioned response (UCR)
Non learned reflexive response
- salivation to food
Conditioned response (CR)
Learned reaction to a once-neutral stimuli thru classical conditioning
- salivating to bell
Conditioned stimuli (CS)
Once-neutral stimuli that now elicits a learned reaction
- bell
Acquisition
Classical- Once the subject responds to the CS without the presence of the UCS, learning the new behavior
- dogs salivating to only bells
Operant- learning a favorable behavior in order to be reinforced or avoid punishment
Methods of classical conditioning
- delayed
- trace
- simultaneous
- backward
Delayed conditioning
- most effective method of classical conditioning
Presenting the CS and then introducing the UCS while the CS is still present - short delayed conditioning is when the UCS is brought .5 seconds after the CS
Trace conditioning
Presenting of the CS followed by a short break, then introduce the US
Simultaneous conditioning
CS and UCS are presented at the same time
Backward conditioning
- least effective method of classical conditioning
- UCS stimulus is presented first followed by the CS
Extinction
Process of unlearning a behavior
- in classical conditioning, when the CS no longer elicits a CR
- in operant, when a behavior is no longer emitted b/ no reinforcement will result from it
- spontaneous recovery- learned behavior will briefly appear again at a random point after extinction
Generalization
- Classical- When a CR is elicited from stimuli similar to CS
- operant- being reinforced for behaviors similar to the original
Discrimination
Classical- Teaching subjects to only respond to a certain correct CS in a plethora of other similar stimuli
Operant- only reinforcing a specific behavior
Discriminative stimulus- behavior made only under certain conditions
John Watson
Conditioned a little boy named Albert to fear a white rat
- at first like rat
- repeatedly paired rat(CS) with loud noise(UCS) that caused fear(UCR)
- then began to associate fear with rat, taught Albert to cry when seeing rat(CR)
- generalized fear to other white fluffy things
Aversive conditioning
Conditioning subjects to have a negative response to stimuli
- like bad tasting nail polish to stop biting nails
Higher order conditioning
Once a CS elicits a CR, you can use that CS as a UCS to associate it to new stimuli.
- after the dog salivates to the bell alone, the bell can be paired with a flash of light so that the dog can salivate to the light alone
Rosalie rayner
Helped John Watson condition Albert to fear his white rat
Biology viewpoint of classical conditioning
Humans and animals seem biologically inclined to associate certain US and CS more than others
- ex: learned taste aversions
Learned taste aversions
- powerful connections humans and animals are very biologically inclined to make
- taste aversions can be learned in a single pairing even if the food and sickness (CS and CR) are separated by many hours
- even more inclined if the food is salient (strong and unusual taste)
- adaptive behavior helps with the survival of the species to avoid eating dangerous things in the future
Salient
Easily noticeable stimuli that create a more powerful CR
John Garcia
Performed famous experiment illustrating how rats are inclined to make certain associations more than others (classical conditioning)
- could easily associate noise with shock and unusual water with nausea but not noise with nausea and unusual water with shock
- made the Garcia effect
Garcia effect
Biological standpoint classical conditioning- The ease with which animals learn taste aversions
Robert Koelling
Helped John Garcia in his experiments with animals and taste aversions
Operant conditioning
Kind of learning based on the association of consequences with one’a behavior
Edward thorndike
One of the first to research operant conditioning
- experiments with cat in a puzzle box led him to believe that animals learn things without mental activity but rather connect a stimulus and a response that gradually strengthens
- made the law of effect and called his research ‘instrumental learning’
Law of effect
If the consequences of a behavior are pleasant the stimulus response connection is strengthened while if it is nagative the connection is weakened
- made by thorndike
Instrumental learning
- made by thorndike
- how the consequence of a behavior is instrumental in shaping future behavior
BF skinner
Coined the term operant conditioning
- invented Skinner box to study operant conditioning in animals
- expanded behaviorism to include pinishment and reinforcement
- used food as a reinforcer
Reinforcement
Anything that makes a behavior more likely to occur
- positive and negative
Punishment
Anything that makes a behavior less likely to occur
- positive and negative
Positive reinforcement
Addition of something pleasant after favorable behavior
Negative reinforcement
Removal of something negative after favorable behavior, results in escape learning
Escape learning
Doing a behavior so that you can ‘escape’ an aversive stimulus
Avoidance learning
Doing a behavior so as to Prevent an aversive stimulus
Positive punishment
Addition of something unpleasant after an unfavorable behavior
Negative punishment
- aka omission training
- removal of something pleasant after an unfavorable behavior
Shaping
Instead of waiting for subject to stumble upon favorable behavior, reinforcing behavior that is very similar to or approximate to the goal
- used to speed up the process
Chaining
Teaching subject to Link together a number of separate behaviors into a more complex activity
Primary reinforcers
Food water rest, natural non learned reinforcers
Secondary reinforcers
Unnatural Reinforcers we have learned to value
- video game
- money- special generalized reinforcer b/ you can trade it for virtually anything
- token Economy- generalized reinforcer also, accumulating tokens that can be used to choose from a variety of reinforcements
Premack principle
Idea that reinforcing properties depend on the situation
Ex: food is not a powerful reinforcer if you are not hungry
Continuous reinforcement
Rewarding a favorable behavior every time
Partial reinforcement effect
Behaviors are more resistant to extinction if the animal has not been reinforced continuously
Partial reinforcement schedule
Rewarding a favorable behavior only sometimes instead of every single time 4 types: - fixed ratio - fixed interval - variable ratio - variable interval
Fixed ratio schedule (FR)
Gives reinforcement to a favorable behavior only after a set number of responses
- reinforcement after 5th response (FR-5)
Variable ratio schedule (VR)
Reinforces behavior after a random amount of responses that averages out to a set number
- reinforcing after the 2nd, 4th, and 6th responses (VR-4)
Fixed interval schedules (FI)
Reinforcement is given for a favorable behavior after a set amount of time has passed
- reinforcing a behavior 3 minutes after it happens (FI-3)
Variable interval (VI)
Reinforcing favorable behavior only after a varied random amount of time has passed which averages out to a certain time
- reinforcing behavior only after 2 minutes has passed, 6 minutes, 10 minutes (VI- 6)
Reinforcement schedule uses
- partial reinforcement schedules more resistant To extinction, variable schedules even more resistant
- ratio schedules encourage higher responding rates than interval schedules
Biological standpoint to operant conditioning
Instinctive drift
How animals, no matter what reward they are to be given, will not do certain behaviors that go against instinctive patterns of behavior
Cognitive standpoint to conditioning
Radical behavioralists think learning happens without thought. Instead Cognitive psychologists believe
Classical- they have the response to the CS because subjects have just developed the expectation that it will be followed by the UCS (Robert rescorla’s continency model)
Operant- subjects are cognizant of the consequences to their behavior and act to maximize reinforcement
Contiguity model
The more 2 things are paired the greater the learning that will take place (Pavlovian model) in classical conditioning
Robert rescorla
Revised the Pavlovian contiguity model to make the contingency model of classical conditioning which is a more cognitive pov. Even though Rocco had the same amount of trials as sparky, some additional instances were made when the CS and UCS were not connected for Rocco and Rocco ended up salivating less. This shows that the responses are built on cognizant expectation- not simple stimulus response mechanisms
Contingency model
Subjects have responses to a CS because they are cognizant and expecting the UCS
Types of cognitive learning
Observational
Latent
Abstract
Insight
Observational learning
- aka modeling, cognitive learning
- observation and imitation
- Albert bandura’ bobo doll experiment
Albert bandura
- studied observational learning,
- bobo doll experiment showed how easily children learn violent behavior from adult models or television programs
- children exposed to video of adults violently hitting the bobo doll were a lot more violent towards the bobo dolls than their nonexposed peers
Latent learning
- Edward tolman
- learning that only becomes obvious once a reinforcement in given for demonstrating it indicating that the subjects cognitively store the info
Edward tolman
- proved learning doesn’t have to be immediately evidenced through gradual behavior changes (latent)
- 3 groups of rats
- 1- no reward for doing a maze, performance speed improved only slightly
- 2- reward for doing the maze, performance speed improves steadily
- 3- no reward in the first half, reward in the 2nd, performance at first like the 2nd group, then speed completely skyrockets after rewards begin to be given (stored a cognitive map)
Abstract learning
How subjects are not simply just forming a s-r connection but can understand whole concepts and apply them
- ex: pigeons can recognize and peck at a certain shape even if the actual context of the shape is diff than the original
Insight learning
Suddenly realizing how to solve a problem instead of gradual s-r strengthening
- Wolfgang Koehler
Wolfgang Koehler
- studied insight learning
- chimps put in a room full of boxes with a banana at the ceiling
- spent time unproductively until suddenly realized how to get banana and piled boxes ontop of one another to get it
