Chapter 7: Learning Flashcards
Learning
the acquisition of new knowledge, skills, or responses from experience or practice that results in a relatively permanent change in the state of the learner
Habituation
a general process in which repeated or prolonged exposure to a stimulus results in gradual reduction in responding
Sensitization
presentation of a stimulus leads to an increased response/sensitivity to a later stimulus
What period did most of the work on learning theory take place?
Behaviorism (30s-50s) viewed learning as a purely behavioral activity requiring no mental activity
Classical conditioning
when a neutral stimulus produces a response after being paired with a stimulus that naturally produces a response e.g. Ivan Pavlov’s experiment
Unconditioned stimulus (US)
something that reliably produces a naturally occurring reaction in an organism e.g. food
Unconditioned response (UR)
a reflexive reaction that is reliably produced by an unconditioned stimulus e.g. dog’s salivation
Acquisition
phase of classical conditioning when CS (sound of metronome) and the US (food) are presented together
Conditioned stimulus (CS)
a previously neutral stimulus that produces a reliable response in an organism after being paired with a US
Conditioned response (UR)
a reaction that resembles an unconditioned response but it is produced by a conditioned stimulus
Second-order conditioning
a type of learning whereby a CS is paired with a stimulus that became associated with the US in an earlier procedure
What explains why people desire money?
Through second-order conditioning, money can become linked with desirable rewards like a new sports car
Extinction
gradual elimination of a learned response that occurs when the CS is repeatedly presented without the US
Spontaneous recovery
the tendency of a learned behavior to recover from extinction after a rest period without any additional associations between CS and US, may even take place after a second extinction and rest period
Generalization
CR is observed even though the CS is slightly different from the CS used during acquisition; Tendency of CR to occur in the presence of a stimulus similar to CS
Discrimination
the capacity to distinguish between similar but distinct stimuli, displaying a diminished response to new and different stimulus; Tendency for a response to be elicited by one stimulus and not another
Expectation in classical conditioning
a conditioned stimulus sets up a cognitive state of expectation because it has a reliable link with the US
Rescorla-Wagner Model
predicts that conditioning would be easier when the CS is an unfamiliar event because it is not yet associated with expectations
Part of the brain that is critical in eyeblink conditioning
cerebellum, part of the hindbrain and plays a role in motor skills (reflexive behavior) and learning
Part of the brain critical in fear and emotional conditioning
amygdala, particularly the central nucleus, through its links with other areas of the brain for both behavioral (e.g. freezing) and physiological (e.g. increased heart rate and bp) responses
Evolutionary/adaptive value of classical conditioning
1 or 2 trials of rapid learning is enough so one can learn to avoid food that once made it ill; conditioning between US and CS should be able to take place over long interval (e.g. toxic substances often don’t cause illness immediately); aversion should be developed by perceptual qualities like smell or taste rather than ingestion itself and learned aversions should occur more with novel foods
Biological preparedness
a propensity for learning particular kinds of associations over other kinds; each species is biologically predisposed to learn some things more easily than others in ways consistent with their evolutionary history
Operant conditioning
the consequences of an organism’s (active/voluntary) behavior determine whether it will repeat that behavior in the future
Instrumental behaviors (Thorndike)
behavior that requires an organism to do something like solve a problem or manipulate elements of its environment
Law of effect (operant conditioning)
behaviors that are followed by a “satisfying state of affairs” or a reward tend to be repeated, whereas those that produce an “unpleasant state of affairs” or a punishment (no reward) are less likely to be repeated
Operant behavior (Skinner)
behavior that an organism performs that has some impact on the environment
Operant conditioning chamber or Skinner box
allows a researcher to study the behavior of small organisms in a controlled environment
Reinforcer
any stimulus or event that increases the likelihood of the behavior that led to it
Punisher
any stimulus or event that decreases the likelihood of the behavior that led to it
What do positive and negative situations refer to (Skinner)?
situations in which a stimulus was presented and situations in which it was removed
Positive reinforcement
any stimulus or event presented that increases the likelihood of the behavior that led to it
Negative reinforcement
a stimulus is removed which increases the likelihood of a behavior
Positive punishment
a stimulus is administered which reduces the likelihood of a behavior
Negative punishment
a stimulus is removed that decreases the likelihood of a behavior
Is reinforcement or punishment more effective in promoting learning?
Reinforcement because punishment signals that an unacceptable behavior occurred but doesn’t specify what desirable behavior should be done instead; one thing people learn from punishment is how to avoid it (Skinner)
Primary reinforcers
help satisfy biological needs or desires e.g. food, comfort, and shelter
Secondary reinforcers
derive their effectiveness from their associations with primary reinforcers through classical conditioning e.g. money (CS) and food/shelter (US)
What determines the effectiveness of a reinforcer or a punisher?
the amount of time between the occurrence of a behavior and a reinforcer/punisher: the more time elapses, the less effective the learning
Learning takes place in context
Most behavior is under stimulus control: when a particular response occurs only when an appropriate discriminative stimulus (one that indicates a response will be reinforced) is present
Three-term contingency
in the presence of a discriminative stimulus, a response produces a consequence; the same response in a different context would likely produce a very different outcome
Stimulus control
develops when a particular response occurs only when an appropriate discriminative stimulus is present; fosters stimulus discrimination and generalization
Difference of extinction in operant conditioning compared to classical
depends on how often (the pattern) reinforcement is received
Schedules of reinforcement
interval schedules and ratio schedules
Interval schedules
based on the time intervals between reinforcements; produce slow and methodical responding (independent of how many responses occur)
Ratio schedules
based on the ratio of responses to reinforcements
Fixed interval schedule
reinforcers are presented at fixed time periods, provided that the appropriate response is made; little responding at first then a burst as next time interval draws to a close
Variable interval schedule
a behavior is reinforced on the basis of an average time that has expired since the last reinforcement (hard to predict when); steady and consistent responding
Fixed ratio schedule
reinforcement is delivered after a specific number of responses have been made (the more you do, the more you get)
Continuous reinforcement
special case of presenting reinforcement after each response or reinforcing a behavior each time it occurs; leads to fast learning but the behaviors don’t last (extinction)
Variable ratio schedule
the delivery of reinforcement is based on a particular average number of responses; produces higher rates of responding than fixed ratio schedules; higher ratio=higher response rate e.g. gambling at a casino
Intermittent reinforcement
only some of the responses made are followed by reinforcement, either in an interval or a ratio schedule
Intermittent reinforcement effect
the fact that operant behaviors that are maintained under intermittent reinforcement schedules resist extinction better than those maintained under continuous reinforcement; when the behavior is reinforced only some of the time, the learner has to repeat the behavior more times to detect the absence of the reinforcement
Shaping
learning that results from the reinforcement of successive steps (that get more complex) to a final desired behavior e.g. animal training
Latent learning
condition in which something is learned but it isn’t manifested as a behavioral change until sometime in the future
Cognitive map
a mental representation of the physical features of the environment
What are the brain’s pleasure centers?
areas in the limbic system that produce intensely positive experiences or rewards (nucleus accumbens, medial forebrain bundle, hypothalamus); neurons involved in the reward centre are dopaminergic (DA)
Medial forebrain bundle
a pathway that meanders its way from the midbrain through the hypothalamus, into the nucleus accumbens are most susceptible to stimulation that produces pleasure, wherein dopamine is secreted (they are dopaminergic)
Observational learning
an organism learns by watching the actions of others, especially effective when people observe both experts and novices perform a task because they can learn to avoid novices’ errors
Diffusion chain
individuals initially learn a behavior by observing another individual perform that behavior and then become models from which other individuals learn the behavior
Enculturation hypothesis
being raised in a human culture has profound effect on the cognitive abilities of chimpanzees, especially in understanding intentions, which increases their observational learning
What is the neural component of observational learning?
mirror neurons (in subregions of frontal and parietal lobes, close to language networks) fire to produce observational learning or the imitation and prediction of behavior
Implicit learning
learning that takes place largely independent of awareness of both the process and the products of information acquisition; less variation among people compared to explicit learning, unrelated to IQ, less affected by aging, resistant to some disorders that affect explicit learning like amnesia
Brain regions affected in explicit vs. implicit learning
explicit: increased activity in prefrontal cortex, parietal lobe, hippocampus; implicit: decreased activity in occipital lobe; damage to the hippocampus and medial temporal lobe impairs explicit memory but not necessarily implicit memory
Massed practice
repeatedly studying information to be learned with little or no time between repetitions
Distributed practice
spreading out study activities so that more time intervenes between repetitions of the information to be learned
Interleaved practice
a practice schedule that mixes different kinds of problems or materials within a single study session
Judgements of learning (JOL)
people typically devote more time to studying items that they judge they have not learned well
Unconditioned
unlearned, naturally occurring, or hardwired
Conditioned emotional response
emotional response classically conditioned to occur to learned stimuli, may lead to phobias or irrational fear responses
Acquisition
phase of classical conditioning when the CS and the US are presented together
Little Albert experiment
Initially, Albert has no fear for white rats. Through classical conditioning, the rat (CS) is paired with a loud and scary sound (US), which then produces fear responses to the rat (CR) from Albert. This generalizes to all things white and furry.
Response and consequence
a response produces a certain consequence, which serves to either increase (reinforcer) or decrease (punisher) the future probability of that response
Successive approximation
a behavior gets incrementally closer to the overall desired behavior
Superstitious behavior
rare or odd behavior can be repeated if they are accidentally reinforced, which may lead to mistaken beliefs regarding causal relationships
