Chapter 7 - Learning Flashcards
What is learning?
The process of acquiring new and relatively enduring information and behaviors.
How does classical conditioning work?
After repeated exposure to two stimuli occurring in sequence, we associate those stimuli with each other. As a result, our natural response to one stimulus now can be triggered by the new predictive stimulus.
How does operant conditioning work?
A child associates his “response” with consequences.
The child learns to repeat their behaviors (saying please, etc.) when it’s followed by desirable results (cookie).
The child learns to avoid behaviors (yelling “gimme”) when it’s followed by an undesirable response (no cookie / scolding).
What is cognitive learning?
Acquiring new behaviors and information mentally rather than through direct experience.
Occurs by: observing the events and behaviors of others and using language to acquire information about events that happened to others.
What is a fundamental belief of behaviorism?
Skinner and Watson believed that the mental life was much less important than behaviors.
What was Pavlov’s discovery?
While studying salivation in dogs, Pavlov found that salivation from eating food was eventually triggered by what should have been a neutral stimuli such as just seeing the food / dish / researcher.
What is a neutral stimulus?
A stimulus that does not trigger a response.
What is an unconditioned stimulus / response?
A stimulus which triggers a response naturally without any conditioning.
What was Pavlov’s experiment?
He repeatedly presented a bell tone (neutral stimulus) with food (unconditioned stimulus) to dogs. After the conditioning, the dogs began to salivate upon hearing the bell tone - the neutral stimulus became the conditioned / learned stimulus.
The same response was triggered by different events.
What is acquisition?
The initial stage of learning / conditioning or the association between the neutral stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus.
For association to be acquired, the neutral stimulus needs to be repeatedly presented before the unconditioned stimulus - about 1 / 2 second before, in most cases.
The strength of the conditioned response grows with conditioning.
What is extinction?
The diminishing of a conditioned response. If the unconditioned response (the food, in Pavlov’s experiment) stops appearing with the conditioned stimulus (the bell tone), the conditioned response decreases.
What is generalization?
Ivan Pavlov conditioned dogs to drool when rubbed, but they began to drool when scratched as well. The dogs began to respond to other similar stimuli.
Ex. If a kid is bitten by a dog, he may begin to fear all four-legged animals.
MORE STUFF MAKES YOU DO THE RESPONSE BASICALLY.
What is discrimination?
Pavlov conditioned dogs to drool at bells of a certain pitch; slightly different pitches did not trigger drooling.
Learned ability to respond only to a specific stimuli; preventing generalization. The ability to become more and more specific in what situations trigger a response.
LESS STUFF MAKES YOU DO THE RESPONSE.
Ex. dogs, rats, and spiders can be trained to search for very specific smells, from drugs to explosives.
What was Pavlov’s legacy?
It gave insights about conditioning in general - it occurs in all creatures and is related to biological drives and responses.
It also gave insights about science - learning can be studied objectively from specific applications.
What was Watson’s experiment with classical conditioning?
Little Albert was a nine month old baby who was not afraid of white rats before the experiment began.
Watson clanged a steel bar every time a rat was presented to Albert. He acquired a fear of rats and generalized this fear to other soft and furry things.
Watson believed that humans were born as blank slates and he prided himself in his ability to shape people’s emotions. He later went into advertising.
