Chapter Twelve - Biological Dispositions in Learning Flashcards
Activity Anorexia?
An abnormally higher level of activity of low level of food intake generated by exposure to a time-restricted schedule of feeding.
When an animal becomes overly active and eats less because of a schedule where food is only available at certain times.
Adjunctive Behavior?
An excessive pattern of behavior that emerges as a by-product of certain types of intermittent schedules of reinforcement for some other behavior.
You’re playing a game where you get a reward after every level you finish. While you’re waiting for the next level to load, you start tapping your fingers on the desk or humming. Those extra actions you do while waiting are adjunctive behaviors. They happen because you’re waiting for the reward, even though they aren’t part of the game itself.
Autoshaping?
A type of sign tracking in which a pigeon comes to automatically peck at a response key because the key light has been associated with the response-independent delivery of food.
When an animal automatically starts performing a behavior (like pecking a key) because it has been paired with getting food, even if it’s not necessary
Behavior Systems Theory?
A theory proposing that an animal’s behavior is organized into certain systems or categories, with each category containing a set of relevant responses that can becomes activated in certain situations.
The idea that animals have different types of behaviors organized into systems, and each system is triggered in specific situations.
CS-US Relevance?
An innate tendency to easily associated certain types of stimuli with each other.
The natural tendency to easily connect certain types of stimuli with each other (like food and a smell).
Displacement Activity?
An apparently irrelevant activity sometimes displayed by animals when confronted by conflict of thwarted from attaining a goal.
A behavior that seems out of place, done by animals when they’re confused or frustrated by not reaching a goal.
Instinctive Drift?
A type of classical conditioning in which an innate, fixed action pattern gradually emerges and displaces a behavior that is being operantly conditioned.
When an animal starts to do something naturally (like a fixed action) instead of the learned behavior it was supposed to do.
Preparedness?
An innate tendency from an organism to more easily learn certain types of behaviors or to associate certain types of events with each other.
Animals are naturally better at learning certain behaviors or connecting certain events, like associating specific things together.
Sign Tracking?
A type of elicited behavior in which an organism approached a stimulus that signals the presentation of an appetitive event.
When an animal approaches a signal (like a light) that means something good (like food) is coming.
Taste Aversion Conditioning?
A form of classical conditioning in which a food item that has been paired with gastrointestinal illness becomes a conditioned aversive stimulus.
When an animal starts avoiding a food that made them sick after being paired with illness.
Example of taste aversion?
Feast on cheeseburgers.
Drink way too much vodka.
Nausea around midnight.
Even the smell of McDonald’s brings up nausea.
Implications of CTA?
Some associations are learned much faster than others.
Species-specific stimuli.
Three species-specific defense reactions?
- Fleeing
- Freezing
- Fighting
Adjunctive behavior is usually seen with which type of schedule of reinforcement?
Fixed interval
