Chapters 1-4 Flashcards
What is learning
Biological mechanism
how we interact w/ our world
survival meachanism
adapting to a change
a change in behavior due to previous experience
modifies behavior
How does natural selection relate to learning
- natural mutations that are beneficial for survival get passed down to the next generation
- mutation need to interact w/ the environment; the environment determines random mutation
human behaviors that came about w natural selection are…..
innate
adaptive
& help us cope w/ our environment
what are reflexes?
involuntary relationship b/t an event and a response to that event
some presnt @ birth, other develop w/ time
characteristics of reflexes
- involuntary
- found in almost all species
- protect us from injury
what are Modal Action Patterns (MAPs)
“instincts”
- a more complicated series of actions/reflexes
- series of related acts found in almost all members of a species
- **Releaser: stimulus that triggers a MAP
Ex: ant trail, bear hibernation, opossum playing dead
human usually don’t have MAPs
characteristics of a MAP
- they evolve w/ Natural Selection (survival mech)
- involuntary
- everyone does them the same way
- every time you do a MAP, you do it the same way
what makes a MAP different than a reflex
- MAPs involve the whole body rather than a part
- MAPs are more complicated than reflexes
what are general behavior traits?
a tendency to engage in a certain typr of behavior
- response can vary; voluntary
- occur in a variety of situations (no stimulus required)
- can be influenced by hereditary/genetics
- vary w/i a species
problems w/ Natural Selection
- inefficient
- mutations occur by chance
- it happens very SLOWLY
- good for a species, but not necessarily for an individual in that species
what are the two major components of learning?
Experience & Behavior
what is “experience?”
- any change in the environment
- involves stimuli:
- any physical items/ changes in the enviro.
- they effect each other, making the world complicated
what is “behavior?”
- anything a person does that can be measured
- changes the can be measured
what are the 4 measurable changes in behavior?
learning is a change in:
- frequency
- intensity
- speed
- form
does a change in behavior have to last?
NO, the change does not have to be lasting
learning is not memory
are all changes learning?
No, some changes in behavior are attributed to other factors such as responses to….
- injuries
- other physical limitations
- aging
- intoxication
- illness
why measure behavior when you could just measure brain changes?
- brain changes can occur w/o learning
- they are physiological & complex
- a small brain change may not cause a change in behavior–> not ADAPTING
- however, brain changes can be related to behavior
what is habituation?
- most simple example of learning
-
reflex adapts to a stimulus
- decr. your rxn to a stimulus; get used to it
Ex: after hearing a book fall repeatedly, you no longer have a response to it
- decr. in strength or occurence of a behavior (reflex response) after repeated exposure to a stimulus that produces the behavior
benefits of habituation
survival value
helps conserve energy/resources by realizing you don’t need to respond as strongly or at all to a stimulus
characteristics of habituation
it’s stimulus specific
- after being habituated to one stimulus you may still experience a new stimulus
- Ex: book slamming + fire alarm
** the less intense the stimulus, the easier it is to become habituated to it, the *more * intense, the harder it is (low beep = easy vs. loud siren = hard)
what is stimulus generalization?
the closer the new stimulus is to the old stimulus , the less the reflex will “bounce back” or recover
what is dishabituation?
renewal/recovery of responding in a habituated stimulus after presentation of a new stimulus
demonstrates that habituation does not occur simply due to fatigue or disinterest in the stimulus
ex: book falls, startled again
how quickly habituation happens depends on…
- how arousing the stimulus is
- how many times it is experienced
- time b/t exposure to the stimulus
-
learn through repeated exposure that a stimulus is not dangerous
- shorter time pds b/t = quicker habituation
-
learn through repeated exposure that a stimulus is not dangerous
how long does habituation last?
- short term habituation: seconds or minutes
- long term habituation: anything longer than a few minutes
what is spontaneous recovery?
reappearance or increase in strength of a response after a period w/o stimulus presentation
more likely to occur for habituation created by more frequent stimulus presentation
what is sensitization?
(opposite of habituation)
- experiences w/ an arousing stimulus lead to a stronger response to that stimulus
- ex: electric shock w/ a loud noise
- increase reflex response
- can amplify response to other types of stimuli presented after the sensitizing stimulus*
what are the 7 measures of learning?
- Topography
- Fluency
- Latency
- Intensity
- Error
- Rate
- Speed
what is topography?
a change in a behaviors form
ex: learning to use a mouse clicker
what is fluency?
measure of learning that combines error and rate
number of responses per minute
what is latency?
how long it takes one to react to a stimulus
a change in time before a behavior occurs
what is intensity?
measure of learning noting changes in intensity of a behavior/response to a stimulus
what is error?
measure of learning noting a reduction in the number of errors
what is rate?
a change in the rate at which a behavior occurs
number of occurences per unit of time
***allows us to see _subtle changes in behavior _***
what is speed?
a measure of learning noting a change in speed in which a behavior occurs
3 sources of data
Anecdotes
Case Studies
Experiments
what is an anecdote?
1st/2nd-hand report of personal experiences
common wisdom
**good starting point; get general ideas of how others think
criticisms of anecdotes
tend to be vague
misremembered
no control over the situation
what is a case study?
in depth studies of ONE individual in detail
better than anecdotes b/c they have actual data that was obtained in a systematic way
criticisms of case study
take a long time to conduct
cannot infer causality (no way to determine cause & effect)
individuals may not represent the whole population
verbal reports are not as reliable as quantitative data
what is an experiment?
a type of study that has an **INDEPENDENT & DEPENDENT **variable, and a control group
independent variable
the variable that is manipulated
ex:
physical properties of stimuli
of stimuli
time of testing
drug vs. placebo
dependent variable
the variable that is measured
the outcome variable that measures behavior
ex:
reaction time
accuracy
brain activity
2 types of experiments
between subjects
within subjects
within subject experiments
one BIG group, but experimenter manipulates the IV to fit each individual
each person is in both the experimental & control group
requires fewer participants
between subject experiments
- experiments where the IV changes across groups of participants
- experimental group: exposed to variable
- control group: NOT exposed to variable
- assume people in the 2 groups are similar; avoid group differences
- use random assignment
- use matched sampling
**benefits **of experiements
have control of the situation
CAN determine causality (b/c of variables)
**limitations **of experiments
not a lot of ecological validity
(not really how it happens in reality)
it’s simplistic compared to the real world
what is the baseline period in within subject experiments?
the initial period of the experiment
the CONTROL
provides basis for comparison
what is the treatment period in within subject experiments?
time where IV varies within the same period
ABA reversal design
average the control & treatment periods to balance
return to the baseline period after the treatment period
it eliminates the practice/fatigue effects
why use animal models for human learning?
- animals & humans are similar in how we learn
- “unethical” to study humans, but may be possible to study animals (depends)
- experimenter can control heredity & genetics
- experimenter can control learning history
benefits and ethical concerns of animal research
can benefit BOTH animal & human knowledge
practical effects on animal treatment
APA provides guidelines to prevent unecessary suffering or pain in animal subjects
what did Ivan Pavlov study?
“how do we break down food?”
salivary reflex vs. psychic reflex
what are unconditional reflexes?
reflexes that occur no matter what
they’re the same every time
present @ birth
fairly permanent and unchanging
- consists of:
- unconditional stimulus (US)
- unconditional response (UR)
what are conditional reflexes?
reflexes that are acquired through experience
depend on many conditions
impermanent; vary
ex: Pavlov’s dogs
- consists of:
- conditional stimulus (CS)
- conditional response (CR)
unconditional stimulus (US)
an event important to survival
creates UR
conditional stimulus (CS)
learned event
creates the CR
describe basic conditioning
- trial 1: present CS→present US→get UR
- trial 2: “ “
- trial N: present CS→present US→get CR
CR is some sort of reflex response
CS & US appear no matter what
higher-order conditioning
& second-order conditioning
present a **new stimulus **with an old stimulus
- trial 1: present CS2→present CS1→get CR
- repeat until {second-order conditioning}
- trial N: present CS2→get CR
*** the more intense the stimulus, the higher the conditioning can go; get better conditioning
what qualifies as LEARNING?
when latency gets short enough, the CR appears before the US (reflex trigger)
***when you get the conditioned response***
at first CS→US→CR …then CS→CR→US.
*** as the time b/t CS & CR decrease, we determine learning occurs
test trials/catch trials
usually CS→US→CR.
but every so often CS→…?
(will a CR appear w/o a US?)
measure learning by looking at the intensity of the response
if response get stronger over time
increase in the response over time
what is pseudoconditioning?
responding to a stimulus w/ a _conditioned response (CR) _ after a reflex has occured
similar to sensitization
learning hasn’t occured if indiv. becomes sensitized to the certain kind of stimulus
exp. group: CS & US consistently paired together
control group: CS & US sometimes paired together
VARIABLES affecting Pavlovian conditioning:
**how you present/pair the CS & US **
- trace conditioning
- when you experience the US, you no longer experience the CS over time
- delay conditioning
- some pverlap where you’re experiencing both the CS and US
VARIABLES affecting Pavlovian conditioning:
contingency
one thing will occur **only ** when another thing occurs
- “if X, then Y”
- if no X, then no Y”
greater contingency will help us learn faster
VARIABLES affecting Pavlovian conditioning:
contiguity
how close in time the CS and US are together when occurring
- Interstimulus Interval (ISI)
- time b/t when the CS starts and the US starts
- the bigger the ISI, the less contiguity there is
- time b/t when the CS starts and the US starts
VARIABLES affecting Pavlovian conditioning:
stimulus features
what is a compound stimulus?
some things are more likely to become a CS than others
a more intense US = better results/learn faster
-
compound stimulus
- 2 stimuli presented at the same time together as one
- overshadowing
- can occur when one part of the compund stimulus alone elicits the CR, but the other doesn’t
- one of them is more easily learned
VARIABLES affecting Pavlovian conditioning:
prior experience
what is l_atent inhabition_ & blocking?
person has experienced a stimulus before someone attempts to use it
Latent inhabition
- previous experience interferes w/ ability of a stimulus to become a CS
- impairs the ability to learn a new response
***using a new stimulus is best for learning
-
blocking: new stimulus compounded w/ a well-learned CS will not, its self, become a CS
- specific to compund stimuli
VARIABLES affecting Pavlovian conditioning:
# of trials
time b/t trials
the more trails there are, the better
- Intertrial Interval (ITI)
- time b/t trials
-
the longer the ITI, the more effective learning is
- more time to process & associate
-
the longer the ITI, the more effective learning is
- time b/t trials
what are some of the other variables that influence how you learn?
- age
- temperment/personality
- stress
what is extinction?
a way to “forget” learning
repeatedly presenting the CS alone, so eventually the CS gets *weaker *and will disappear
the CS doesn’t signal anything changing or new in the environment
how do you test if extinction worked?
by testing to see how fast you re-learn
after extinction, relearning the CS–>CR relationship occurs faster b/c there’s some assn to build on
what is spontaneous recovery?
- CR reappears after extinction (a pd. w/o CS presentation)
- shows that extinction is not really forgetting; the orig. learning is still there
***spontaneous recovery can be eliminated with multiple extinctions
what is the stimulus-substitution theory
“the CR is exactly the same, in the brain, as the UR”
connect CS & US
there’s a pathway linking the CS neuron path and the US neuron path before the US appears, triggering the UR before the US
problems with the stimulus substition theory
a CR will not always be the same as a UR
you are conditioned to expect one thing, so you’ll do something else if there is a different stimulus
what is the prepatory response theory?
- the UR is an innate response designed to deal w/ the US
- the CR is a learned response designed to prepare for the US
what did Watson want to know about fear?
if it was innate or learned
Little Albert
baby that had no fear response to a rat
Watson added a loud gong noise with presentation of the rat–> made Little Albert fear the rat
(pair rat w/ loud noise=think he fear the rat)
***shows that we can create fear/condition fear***
how can we eliminate fear?
Little Peter
naturally afraid of rabbits
Watson asso. positive feelings (food) w/ exposure to the rabbit–> he no loner feared the rabbit
^^^counterconditioning therapy/ exposure therapy^^
there’s also **Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy (VRET) **b/c not all fears are easy to obtain
systematic desensitization
what is systematic desensitization?
imagine/virtually recreate scene w/ VRET
often as effectinve as in vivo experimentation
helps w/ PTSD
helps prevent PTSD
(create latent inhabition), reduce contingency)
what is prejudice?
judging before having facts about an individual/situation
generalizations that are often inappropiate
pairing words about a certain race/ethnicity/religion w/ emotional words
ex: muslim/terrorism, women/weak
how can we get rid of prejudice?
with evaluative conditioning
** **pair words/images of groups with positive stimuli to reduce/eliminate prejudice
helps adjust views of a group w/ this type of conditioning
what is paraphilia?
“incorrect love”
sexual arousal often judged as unethical and/or immoral by society
ex: sexual offenders
conditioning may help explain wh it exists
how to get rid of paraphilia
use aversion therapy
break assn by re-conditioning negative stimuli, that the person sees as positive, to be negative again
CS–> noxious US–> unpleasant sensation
is treatment for paraphilia morally acceptable?
YES is they are harming others
NO if they are not harming others; if it’s their personal preference/desires
what is taste aversion?
conditioned taste avoidance
happens very quickly
its valuable for survival
(important to avoid dangerous substances)
problems with advertising
they NEED to present product (CS) first and more often
they often involve simultaneous or backward conditioning
***co-brandning helps (pair a new brand w/ an old favorite brand)
how does conditioning work in drug addiction?
drug = US
the high = UR
drug paraphernalia = CS
- our bodies naturally have physiological change that build tolerance to the drug
-
compensatory response
- reduce drugs effectiveness
- paraphernalia –> CR –> tolerance
-
compensatory response
what happens when the CS is missing in drug addiction?
the body doesn’t have time to **prepare **for the drug with the lack of a CS
often leads to an accidentla overdose
what happens when the CS appears w/ no drug in drug addiction?
the drug addicted person will experience withdrawl and cravings for the drug
how does conditioning help diagnose patients?
a poor response to condtioning can be an early sign of dementia
conditioning can help diagnoase deafness
(infant doesn’t turn toward a clap)
also helps diagnose autism^^^
