Chapter-7-Learning-and-Conditioning Flashcards
What are 3 basic forms of learning?
- Habituation
- Cognitive Learning
- Conditioning (classical and operant)
What is habituation?
Adaptation; very simple. When you stop paying attention to a constant stimulus.
What is cognitive learning?
When people start to think differently about behaviour and its relationship to environmental influence.
What is conditioning?
When behaviours are directly connected to specific stimulus in the in the environment. Associations between environmental stimuli and the organism’s response. Two types, Classical and Operant.
How is learning studied?
Through experiments to figure out cause and effect by observing overt behaviours and psychological changes.
What do people learn?
Associations.
What are associations influenced by? (3)
- Frequency
- Contiguity (timing)
- Contingency (prediction)
Who was the founder of classical conditioning and what experiment did he do to discover it?
Pavlov, tested what ways he could condition a dog to salivate.
What is classical conditioning?
Systematic procedure through which associations and responses to specific stimuli are learned.
What is a stimulus?
An event that has an impact on an organism
What is a response?
A reaction of an organism
What is an unconditioned stimulus?
A stimulus that is elicits and unconditioned response without an form of learning
What is an unconditioned response?
A response elicited by an unconditioned stimulus without any form of learning (reflex)
What is a neural (orienting) stimulus?
A stimulus that does not elicit the response of interest (unconditioned response)
What is a conditioned stimulus?
The stimulus which elicits a new response as a result of the conditioning process.
What is a conditioned response?
A response to a previously neural stimulus learned through association.
What are the 3 stages of classical conditioning? Describe stimulus and response.
- Before Conditioning- unconditioned stimulus and response.2. During Conditioning- conditioned stimulus, unconditioned response3. After Conditioning- conditioned stimulus and responsee.g. dog responds to bell with salivation after it is paired with food
What is extinction of classical conditioning?
The disappearance of the conditioned response. In operant conditioning it will disappear if there is not reinforcement.
What is spontaneous recovery of classical conditioning?
The sudden reoccurrence of a previously extinguished response.
What is second-order conditioning?
When the conditioned stimulus is paired with a neutral stimulus to elicit a conditioned response.
What is stimulus generalization?
Similar stimuli produce a conditioned response. (little Albert)
What is stimulus discrimination?
Response doesn’t occur when stimuli are too different from conditioned stimuli. In operant conditioning reinforcement is delivered when animal discriminated properly.
What is discrimination training often used for?
Used extensively in dogs (different whistle tones associated with specific behaviours)
What is counter conditioning?
Undesirable responses are replaced with desirable ones. e.g. giving someone who is afraid of something something pleasurable (cookie) whenever the stimulus that provokes fear is around (peter)
What is systematic desensitization?
Reduction of phobias by gradually exposing fear-provoking stimulus (very slow process)
What is flooding?
Client is exposed to fear-provoking stimulus until the fear response is extinguished (fast process but very unpleasant)
What are operant behaviours?
Behaviours that are spontaneously emitted and are non reflexive
What is operant conditioning?
Something which occurs when behaviour is associated with its consequence.
Who are key figures in the study of operant conditioning? (2)
Thorndike and Skinner.
What were Thorndike’s cat experiments for instrumental conditioning?
Hungry cats in cages learned to escape by hitting a lever.
What is the Law of Effect?
That rewards encourage useful responses and lack of reward discourages useless ones. (e.g. ignore child when they have a temper tantrum –> lack of reward)
Who introduced the word “operant”?
Skinner with his operant chamber (skinner box)
What was the skinner box?
An operant chamber with mice that contained a responding mechanism and delivered a consequence (food tray)
What is shaping of behaviour?
When successive approximations of behaviour are rewarded until final desirable behaviour is learned.
What are 2 types of consequences of behaviour?
Reinforcment and punishment
What do reinforcers do?
Increase the probability that a behaviour will occur.
What is a positive reinforcement?
Presentation of a pleasant stimulus to increase behaviour
What is negative reinforcement?
Removal of a aversive stimulus to increase behaviour.
What are primary reinforcers?
Reinforcers that have survival value and do not need to be learned.
What are secondary reinforcers?
Reinforcers that were initially neutral with no intrinsic value. (e.g. money and good grades)
What are superstitious behaviours?
Accidental reinforcement that leads to an increased behaviour
What is punishment?
A process by which a stimulus follows a response and reduces the frequency of a response.
What is positive punishment?
When an aversive stimulus is presented to decrease the frequency of a behaviour.
What is negative punishment?
When a pleasant stimulus is removed to decrease the frequency of a behaviour. (more effective)
What are 4 types of schedules of reinforcement?
- Fixed interval schedule2. Variable Interval schedule3. Fixed ratio schedule4. Variable ratio schedule
What is a fixed interval schedule?
One which reinforces the first response after a given amount of time has passed
What is a variable interval schedule?
One which reinforces the first response but the amount of time varies
What is a fixed ratio schedule?
Reinforcement comes after a set number of responses.
What is variable ratio schedule?
Reinforces after a number of response, but the number varies.
What does behavioural self-regulation assume?
That people will engage in behaviours that seem optimal.
What is Behaviour modification/ applied behaviour analysis?
The application of operant conditioning techniques to teach new responses or reduce problematic behaviour.
When is punishment most effective?
Immediately after undesirable behaviour occurs. Consistency is more important than severity.
Why isn’t punishment often affective? (6)
- Punishment administered inappropriately2. Recipient of punishment responds with fear/anxiety/rage3. Effectiveness of punishment is temporary4. Behaviour is hard to punish immediately5. Punishment conveys little information6. Punishment may mistakenly reinforce because it brings attention
What did Hebb believe about learning?
That the structure of the brain changes with learning and temporary changes in neurons occur with initial exposure to new stimulus.
What is consolidation?
The evolution of temporary changes in neurons into permanent circuits.
What is insight?
Discovering relationships between events.
What is latent learning?
non-visible learning that occurs without direct reinforcement. (e.g. rats developing mental maps of mazes without reinforcement for running maze)
Who is credited with social learning theory?
Albert Bandura
What did Bandura theorize about obervational learning?
Children who watched aggressive behaviour were significantly more violent when presented with ‘bobo doll’ –> kids learn through modelling
Does media violence make people more violent?
Meta-analyses show that the greater the exposure to violence in movies/TV, the stronger the likelihood of behaving aggressively but this could be because children and adults who are already aggressive are drawn to aggressive media and it therefore effects them more.
