chapter 6 - learning (slide 1-20)

Question 1

Define reflexes.

Answer 1

Reflexes: motor/neural reactions to a specific stimulus.
- Simpler than instincts.
- Involve activity of specific body parts.
- Involve primitive centers of the CNS (e.g., spinal cord and medulla).

Question 2

Define instincts.

Answer 2

Instincts – behaviours triggered by a broader range of events (e.g., aging,
change of seasons).
- More complex.
- Involve movement of the organism as a whole (e.g., sexual activity,
migration).
- Involve higher brain centers.

Question 3

Summarize the main difference between reflexes and instincts.

Answer 3

Reflexes = quick and automatic reactions
Instincts = complex behaviours driven by innate (natural) biological programming

Question 4

Define learning.

Answer 4

Learning: Experience that
results in a relatively
permanent change in the
state of the learner (neurons affected by it, brain changes)

Question 5

Name the three different types of learning (behaviourism).

Answer 5

1. classical conditioning
2. operant conditioning
3. observational learning

Question 6

Explain the development of classical conditioning by defining Pavlov’s experiments.

Answer 6

Classical conditioning
* When a previously neutral
stimulus produces a reflexive
response after being paired
with a stimulus that naturally
produces a response (has to involve reflex, e.g. salivation, blinking - smt no thought put into it)

Question 7

Define neutral stimulus.

Answer 7

At first, something (like a sound or a light) doesn’t make you react at all. It’s neutral.

Question 8

Define natural stimulus.

Answer 8

There’s something else (like food) that naturally makes you react (like feeling hungry or excited).

Question 9

Define pairing of these two.

Answer 9

Pairing: If you repeatedly show the neutral stimulus (the sound) right before the natural stimulus (the food), over time, the neutral stimulus starts to make you react even when the natural stimulus isn’t present.

Question 10

True or false? Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) in 1904 won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.

Answer 10

True!

Question 11

Define a stimulus.

Answer 11

Anything in the environment that is
detectable through the senses.
* Elicits action

Question 12

Define a behaviour.

Answer 12

Response of an organism to a
stimulus
* Reflexive (for Classical Conditioning-smt that does not evolve higher thinking)

Question 13

Define associative learning.

Answer 13

Associative learning occurs when an organism makes connections between stimuli or events that occur together in the environment.

Question 14

Was Pavlov a psychologist?

Answer 14

No, he was a physiologist. His area of interest was digestion.

Question 15

What was Pavlov’s study with dogs?

Answer 15

Pavlov measured the amount of saliva produced in response to various foods. Over time, Pavlov (1927) observed that the dogs began to salivate not only at the taste of food, but also at the sight of food, at the sight of an empty food bowl, and even at the sound of the laboratory assistants’ footsteps

Question 16

Through his experiments, Pavlov realized that an organism has two types of responses to its environment: …

Answer 16

(1) unconditioned (unlearned) responses, or reflexes, and (2) conditioned (learned) responses.

Question 17

BEFORE CONDITIONING
Define unconditioned stimulus (UCS).

Answer 17

A stimulus that elicits a reflexive response in an organism. (e.g. food - born knowing what food is, no learning)

Question 18

BEFORE CONDITIONING
Define unconditioned response (UCR).

Answer 18

A natural (unlearned) reaction to a given stimulus. (e.g. salivation in response to food - naturally happens with stimulus, no learning)

Question 19

DURING CONDITIONING
Define neutral stimulus.

Answer 19

-Neutral stimulus (NS) – stimulus that does not naturally elicit a
response (metronome does not cause salivation by itself before
conditioning). - means absolutely nothing!
-the neutral stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus are paired repeatedly

Question 20

AFTER CONDITIONING
What happens after conditioning?

Answer 20

Neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned
stimulus.

Question 21

AFTER CONDITIONING
Define conditioned stimulus.

Answer 21

Conditioned stimulus (CS) – stimulus that elicits a response
after repeatedly being paired with an unconditioned stimulus.

Question 22

AFTER CONDITIONING
Define conditioned response.

Answer 22

• Conditioned response (CR) – the behaviour caused by the
  conditioned stimulus.

Question 23

Give an example of this.

Answer 23

Bell (CS) to Salivation (CR)

Question 24

Define Higher-Order/ Second-order Conditioning.

Answer 24

In higher-order conditioning, an established conditioned stimulus is paired with a new neutral stimulus (the second-order stimulus), so that eventually the new stimulus also elicits the conditioned response, without the initial conditioned stimulus being presented.

Question 25

Explain the example with the cat and the squeaky cabinet door.

Answer 25

The cat is conditioned to
salivate when it hears the
electric can opener.
2. The squeaky cabinet door
(second-order stimulus) is
paired with the can opener
(CS).
3. The cat salivates (CR) when it
hears the squeaky cabinet
door (CS)

Question 26

Do conditioned reflexes on third and above order exist?

Answer 26

Third is the last we will study. Anything above that is tricky. We use something more primal in the third order. (essential/fundamental)

Question 27

Describe the three stages of the third order conditioning.

Answer 27

HONESTLY GO REVIEW PHOTO

Question 28

Can we condition an aversive response? (causing strong dislike or disinclination)

Answer 28

Yes.
Apomorphine (unconditioned stimulus) followed by
tone (neutral stimulus)
elicits
nausea (unconditioned response

Tone (conditioned stimulus)
elicits
Nausea (conditioned response)

Question 29

Can you give me an example of this.

Answer 29

Chemo therapy
-makes you ill (throw-up)
-some ppl eat their fav foods right before
-what ended up happening is that they started to hate their fav foods.
-can’t unlearn it - can find mechanisms to cope with it