Chapter 8: Learning Flashcards

You may prefer our related Brainscape-certified flashcards:
1
Q

What is learning?

A

a relatively permanent change in behavior or knowledge as a result of experience

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2
Q

What is an experience?

A

an event in which you participated (as an actor or observer)

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3
Q

What is change?

A

loss or gain of behavior

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4
Q

What is habituation?

A

process by which we “tune out” & stop responding to irrelevant stimuli

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5
Q

What are contingencies?

A

“if-then” arrangement
-for learning to occur, a stimulus must provide the subject information about the likelihood that certain behaviors will occur

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6
Q

What is classical conditioning?

A

previously neutral stimuli comes to elicit autonomic responses

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7
Q

Who was Ivan Pavlov?

A

a Russian physiologist who was originally studying salvation in dogs

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8
Q

What made Pavlov study behavior?

A

he noticed that doing something that was associated with food (like ringing a bell) made the dogs salivate, even if the food was not present

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9
Q

What is an unconditioned stimulus?

A

stimulus that reflexively triggers an autonomic response

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10
Q

What is an unconditioned response?

A

behavior or response triggered by the unconditioned stimulus (UNLEARNED)

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11
Q

What is an example of an unconditioned stimulus and response?

A

Pavlov’s dogs salivating (response) to the sight of food (stimulus) [dogs don’t learn to salivate to food, it’s automatic]

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12
Q

What is a conditioned stimulus?

A

initially neutral stimulus that now elicits a similar response to one triggered by an unconditioned stimulus

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13
Q

What is a conditioned response?

A

same type of response originally elicited by the unconditioned stimulus (but now is elicited by the conditioned stimulus)

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14
Q

What is an example of a conditioned stimulus and response?

A

Pavlov’s dogs salivating (response) when a bell is rung (stimulus) (because it is associated to getting food)

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15
Q

What is acquisition?

A

period in which learning is happening, the response to the conditioned stimulus

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16
Q

What is extinction?

A

conditioned response weakens and then stops because it is no longer paired with an unconditioned stimulus

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17
Q

What is an example of extinction?

A

ringing a bell that is associated with food constantly, but not giving food to dogs will stop the salivation

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18
Q

What is spontaneous recovery?

A

conditioned response suddenly returns after extinction is complete

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19
Q

Will the conditioned response be weaker during spontaneous recovery compared to before?

A

yes

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20
Q

Is relearning during spontaneous recovery faster or slower than initial learning?

A

faster

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21
Q

What is stimulus generalization?

A

conditioned response is triggered by a stimulus similar to the original conditioned stimulus

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22
Q

What is stimulus discrimination?

A

conditioned response is not exhibited in the presence of other stimuli because they are sufficiently different from the original conditioned stimuli

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23
Q

What is one-trial learning?

A

conditioning occurs after a single experience involving relatively fear, pain, or sickness

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24
Q

What does one-trail learning help us do?

A

prevents us from getting into similar situations later

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25
Q

What is conditioned taste aversion?

A

(one trial) when getting sick paired with a food or drink leads to feeling nauseous in the presence of the same food/drink later

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26
Q

Who was John B. Watson?

A

a behaviorist that experimented with observable behavior and conditioned responses (with Little Albert)

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27
Q

What was the “Little Albert” experiment?

A

a rat was placed in front of Albert and originally he showed no fear towards the rat, but the scientists rang a loud bell when Albert was with the rat causing Albert to be startled and crying (they repeated this several times) and now Albert started crying every time he was presented with a rat (even if the bell wasn’t rung)

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28
Q

What happened to Albert after the experiment?

A

he started to portray stimulus generalization and became fearful of rabbits, a dug, fur coats (things that looked similar to the white rat)

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29
Q

What is operant conditioning?

A

voluntary behavior comes to be controlled by consequences following its occurrence (using rewards and punishments to modify behavior)

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30
Q

What is the Law of Effect?

A

behaviors producing pleasant consequences are likely to be repeated in similar situations and behaviors producing negative consequences are less likely to be repeated

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31
Q

Who was Edward Thorndike and what did he do?

A

he was a psychologist that worked with cats and he constructed a puzzle box in which cats where put inside with a lock that could only be opened from the inside. he put a bowl of food outside the box and measured how long it took the cat (through trial and error) to get out of the box (when he did repeated trials he noticed that the cats became faster and faster at getting out)

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32
Q

What is trial and success learning?

A

learning from repeated trials and successes (rather than failures)

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33
Q

Who was BF Skinner?

A

psychologist that designed equipment and methods to control and measure behavior more effectively than ever before

34
Q

What is an operant chamber?

A

enclosure that allows for an a precise recording of an animals responses to specific consequences that can be systematically manipulated

35
Q

What is a discriminative stimulus?

A

signals when to emit a particular behavior in order to obtain a certain outcome or consequence

36
Q

What are reinforcers?

A

consequences that make a behavior more likely to occur in a given situation (essentially motivation for behavior)

37
Q

What is positive reinforcement?

A

the frequency, intensity, and/or duration of a behavior increases because its occurrence results in the presentation of a desirable consequence

38
Q

What is a positive reinforcer?

A

any consequence that maintains or increases the behavior it follows

39
Q

What is negative reinforcement?

A

strengthening of a response or behavior by stopping, removing, or avoiding a negative outcome or aversive stimulus

40
Q

What are primary reinforces?

A

reinforces which are biologically based or necessary for survival (food, water, etc)

41
Q

What are secondary reinforcers?

A

things that become reinforced through learning (and are associated with primary reinforcers)

42
Q

What is an example of a secondary reinforcer

A

money, it has no value in itself but can be exchanged for things we desire such as food, clothes, etc

43
Q

What is schedules of reinforcement?

A

the timing and/or frequency of reinforcer delivery following a behavior

44
Q

What is continuous reinforcement?

A

each time a target behavior is performed, a reinforcing consequence is applied

45
Q

What is an example of continuous reinforcement?

A

giving a dog a treat every time he/she gives out their paw

46
Q

What is continuous reinforcement great for?

A

establishing a new behavior

47
Q

What is partial or intermittent reinforcement?

A

a reinforcing consequence is not applied each time a target behavior is exuded

48
Q

What is an example of partial reinforcement?

A

giving a dog a treat once in a while, when they give their paw

49
Q

When is partial reinforcement most effective?

A

when a behavior has been established and so the behavior is less likely to disappear

50
Q

What is a post-reinforcement pause?

A

the amount of time that passes after a behavior us reinforced and before the same behavior recurs

51
Q

What is a fixed interval schedule?

A

schedule where a reinforcer is only available after a certain amount of time has passed

52
Q

What is an example of a fixed interval schedule?

A

checking for the mail only after 5pm because there is no reinforcer (mail) before 5pm

53
Q

What kind of graph does a fixed interval schedule make?

A

scalloped

54
Q

What kind of extinction does interval schedules promote?

A

quick extinction when reinforcement is discontinued

55
Q

What is a variable interval schedule?

A

a reinforcer is available after varying amounts of time (intervals) have passed, regardless of how often a behavior is performed

56
Q

What is an example of a variable interval schedule?

A

pop quizzes, you never know when these happen so you are continuously studying, and those who pay attention and study are reinforced with an “A”

57
Q

What is a fixed ratio schedule of reinforcement?

A

a behavior must be performed a certain (fixed) number of times before it is reinforced

58
Q

What rate of behavior is exhibited by a fixed ratio schedule?

A

high and steady rate of behavior

59
Q

What is an example of a fixed ratio schedule?

A

piece work, where a worker gets paid based on how many products produced. if the number is 25 products, then the workers will produce 25 products and take a short break

60
Q

What is variable ratio schedule of reinforcement?

A

a reinforcement is only applied after a variable number of responses

61
Q

What is an example of variable ratio schedule of reinforcement?

A

continually buying lottery tickets in hopes of winning (the more lotto tickets, the more of a chance to win)

62
Q

What is positive punishment?

A

frequency, intensity, and/or duration of a behavior decreases because its occurrence results in the presentation of an undesirable consequence

63
Q

What is negative punishment?

A

behavior decreases in frequency, intensity, and/or duration because its occurrence results in the removal of a desired stimulus

64
Q

What is the premack principle?

A

performing a less preferred activity to gain access to a more preferred activity

65
Q

What is shaping?

A

stepwise reinforcement of relevant behaviors as they sequentially approach and build toward a target behavior

66
Q

What is instinctive drift?

A

tendency for animals to resist learning behaviors relatively far afield of their natural repertoire, favoring instead the performance of instinct related behaviors

67
Q

What is observational learning?

A

when behavior is learned by observing others’ behavior

68
Q

What is vicarious reinforcement?

A

learning from others’ actions and the reinforcement

69
Q

What is latent learning?

A

passive cognitive learning that is hidden because consequences are not available to support the behavior

70
Q

What is an example of latent learning?

A

we know how to rob a bank because of media, but we don’t do it because there is no consequence supporting the behavior

71
Q

What was the bobo doll experiment?

A

first to systematically study observational learning, preschoolers observed an adult being aggressive with the doll (kicking, punching) and the kids were then invited to play with the doll and they started doing the same things the adult had

72
Q

What is contingency management?

A

a treatment plan that gives immediate rewards for desired changes in behavior

73
Q

What is avoidance learning?

A

when an organism learns a response in order to avoid experiencing an unpleasant stimulus

74
Q

What is the differential reinforcement of Incompatible behavior?

A

reinforcing a behavior that serves as an alternative to inappropriate behavior

75
Q

What is the differential high rates of behavior?

A

reinforcement is provided to increase the rate of desired behavior

76
Q

What is differential low rates of behavior?

A

reinforcement is decreased in response to a behavior in order to decrease the rate of an undesired behavior

77
Q

Why is classical conditioning passive?

A

learner can’t choose to engage or not engage in a new behavior because the association is made through natural response

78
Q

Why is operant conditioning active?

A

requires learner to actively participate and perform some type of action in order to be rewarded or punished

79
Q

What does operant learning require?

A

trial-by-trial learning

80
Q

What are 4 things observational learning requires?

A

attention, retention, motivation, and behavior