Chapter 7: Learning and Adaptation Flashcards
Describe learning
Having experience change behavior or performance capabilities
Tabula Rasa
Organisms start with a blank slate and are shaped by how they interact with their environment
Give an example of personal adaptation
Seeing that being aggressive gets you your way, so acting that way more often
Habituation
Decrease in response to a repeated stimulus
Sensitization
Increase in response to repeated stimulus (eg. focusing on what someone is saying)
Explain classical conditioning
Associating two stimulus so one stimulus elicits the same reaction as the other
Unconditioned stimulus(UCS)
Producing a response to a stimulus without prior training.
Conditioned stimulus(CS)
Through learning, having a stimulus produce a reaction similar to that from the unconditioned stimulus.
Unconditioned response
Response from unconditioned stimulus
Conditioned response
The response from the conditioned stimulus
Acquisition
Refers to the time period in which classical conditioning is learned.
What are the 4 types of acquisition?
- Forward-short delay (CS presented, then UCS)-Fastest
- Forward-trace (CS presented, then taken away, then UCS appears)-2nd fastest
- Simultaneous-(Both CS and UCS at the same time)-3rd fastest
- Backward-(UCS then CS)-Slowest
Extinction
Unlearning a CR associated with a CS by not providing the CS with the UCS
Spontaneous recovery
The reappearance of a previously extinguished CR
Generalization
Extensions of associations to other stimuli.
Discrimination
CR is provided to one stimulus but not another
Higher-order conditioning
Adding a neutral stimulus to a CS and making it into a CS as well
Exposure therapy
Associating something someone is afraid of with something good so they lose that fear
Aversion therapy
Making someone afraid of a poor tendency so they cease to carry it out
Describe Edward Thorndike’s puzzle box
He would place a cat into a box, and by trial and error the cat would escape by pressing a lever. When places in the box again, the cat is more likely to press the lever.
Law of Effect
Responses with favored consequences are more likely to occur
Operant Conditioning
A type of learning where behavior is made up by how its rewarded/punished
Reinforcement
Response strength by the outcome that follows.
Punishment
Response less likely to happen again because outcome is unfavorable
Describe Skinner’s ABC
Antecedent(Stimuli before behavior)+ Behavior= Consequence(What happens after behavior)
What’s the difference between classical and operant conditioning
Classical focuses on automatic behavior while operant focuses on controlled behavior
Positive reinforcement
Response strengthened by favored outcome
Negative reinforcement
Response strengthened by removal of unfavorable
Positive punishment
Response weakened by adding something unfavorable
Negative punishment
Response weakened by removal of something valued
Primary reinforcers
Stimuli that are reinforced because they are biological needs
Secondary reinforcers
Reinforcing properties because they are associated with primary reinforcers
Delay Gratification
Giving a reward later than the action is committed, which may cause the action to not be repeated
Shaping
To perform a desired action, perform a smaller action and build up to the desired action
Chaining
A sequence of actions are reinforced in steps
Fixed Schedule
Reinforcement is predictable
Fixed ratio-Reinforcing occurs after completing a certain amount of tasks
Fixed interval- Reinforcement happens in time intervals
Variable schedule
Reinforcement isn’t predictable
Continuous reinforcement
Reinforcement is constant and learning is quick but so is extinction
Partial reinforcement
Only sometimes reinforced and learning is slower but extinction is less likely to occur
Escape conditioning
Terminating harmful stimuli (aloe to sooth sunburn)
Avoidance conditioning
Learning to avoid stimuli before it happens
Token economy
Reinforcing behavior with tokens that can be exchanged for any item
Biological preparedness
Evolution has prewired us to learn based on survival
Instinctive drift
Drifting back to instinctive behavior
What does the cerebellum do in terms of learning
Acquires classical conditioning
Hippocampus
Memories
Amygdala
Fear anticipation
Dopamine
Feeling of reward
Fear conditioning
Learning avoidance associated with stimulus. Quantified by measuring freezing behavior
Cognitive maps
Non-human species creating maps in new environments based of known ones
Insight learning
Sudden realization of key piece to solving a problem
Latent learning
Learning that occurs without being demonstrated
