Chapter Six & Seven - Learning & Memory Flashcards
What are types of non-associative learning?
- Habituation
2. Sensitization
What is learning?
a relatively enduring change in behavior, resulting from experience
-innate (unlearned) vs. learned (experience)
What are associative types of learning?
- Classical Conditioning
2. Operant Conditioning
What is Habituation?
decreased response to a stimulus that is repeatedly presented (ex. birds and scarecrows)
-occurs when stimulus isn’t threatening/doesn’t provide info
What is Sensitization?
increased response to stimulus (ex. getting a text)
-occurs when stimulus is potentially threatening/informative
What is Associative Learning?
associating two things/stimulus’, more complex
What is Classical Conditioning? (a.k.a. Pavlovian Conditioning)
learning association between two stimuli, learn that one reliably predicts the other (ex. cat hearing can opener –> thinks they will get fed)
Pavlov’s Experiment
- Baseline: tone along –> no salivation from dog, food presentation –> salivation
- Conditioning Trial: tone + food presentation –> salivation
- Test Trial: tone along –> salivation
What is the unconditional response?
a response that doesn’t have to be learned (ex. salivation at food presentation)
What is the unconditional stimulus?
a stimulus that elicits a response such as a reflex, without any prior learning (ex. food)
What is the conditioned stimulus?
a stimulus that elicits a response only after learning has taken place (ex. tone)
What is the conditioned response?
a response to a conditioned stimulus that has been learned (ex. salivation to a tone)
What is acquisition?
the gradual formation of an association between the CS and the US (best results = short delay between the two)
What is stimulus generalization?
stimuli that are similar but not identical to the CS but also produce the CR (ex. same response to Surge as Mtn Dew)
What is stimulus discrimination?
different response to stimulus that is sufficiently different from CS (ex. different response to milk than Surge)
What is extinction?
CS is repeated without the US, and eventually decreases, learning that the prior association no longer holds true
What is spontaneous recovery?
following extinction, re-introduction of the CS produces a smaller response - shows that association is just suppressed, not forgotten
What is a phobia?
an acquired fear out of proportion to the real threat of an object or situation
Who was John Watson?
Father of Behaviorism
-believed we are born as “blank slates” and everything is learned (no innate behavior –> not actually true)
Little Albert Experiment
experiment by Watson (classical conditioning)
CS (sight of rat) –followed by–> US (loud noise) –> UR severe distress
-baby gained a learned phobia to rat
What is exposure therapy?
extinction: presenting CS without US (ex. rat with no loud noise)
What is counterconditioning?
reversing a learned response
- take CS, pair with new US, that produces opposite response (ex. exchange rat/loud noise with rat/ice cream)
- US must outweigh CS (ex. love ice cream but only mildly afraid of rats)
What is systematic desensitization?
type of counterconditioning
- replaces anxiety with relaxation
- starts with exposure to least scary version of feared thing
- instruct person to relax while exposed to stimulus
- gradually move to progressively stronger versions until full/normal exposure is reached
What are conditioned cravings?
- environmental drug cues (CS): rooms, friends, drug apparatus
- cravings (CR)
- sight of drug cues: activation of reward centers in brain, in expectation that the drug high will follow
Treatment for drug addiction
- exposure therapy: extinction of CR (cravings) to environmental cues (ex. friends without doing drugs)
- counterconditioning: giving drug that when people drink alcohol it makes them feel sick
What is conditioned tolerance?
environmental stimuli associated with drug produce compensatory CR
–> ex. heroin (US) leads to decreased heart rate
needle/room (CS) leads to increased heart rate
–> body is compensating to keep HR up and if person were to go into a different room they could die because HR drop could kill them
What are the implications of drug overdose?
?
Thorndike and The Law of Effect
Thorndike studied whether nonhuman animals showed signs of intelligence
-“puzzlebox” with trapdoor that only opened to a certain action
-used food-deprived cats and put food outside of box
Law of Effect: any behavior that leads to a “satisfying state of affairs” is likely to occur again, any behavior that leads to an “annoying state of affairs” is less likely to happen again
Skinner and the Shaping of Behavior
Skinner Box: put rats in chamber and see how long it took them to push a lever with different rewards/punishments