Cognitive Basis of Behavior Flashcards
Reinforcement
- overview and associated theorists
- Primary vs secondary reinforcers
- Positive vs negative reinforcement
- Positive vs negative punishment
Behaviorism (Skinner, Thorndike, etc) term referring to a process by which the likelihood of a behavior occurring is increased either by giving a pleasant stimulus (+) or removing an unpleasant stimulus (–)
- Primary reinforcers are biological (e.g. food/drink, pleasure)
- Secondary reinforcers get their power from the history of association with primary reinforcers
- most human reinforcers are secondary
(e. g. money, tokens) - Positive reinforcement adds something to increase a response (e.g. do the dance, get the treat)
- Negative reinforcement removes something to increase a response (e.g. remove discomfort, increase engagement)
- Positive punishment (e.g. add discomfort)
- Negative punishment (e.g. remove reward)
Rewards
- overview
- Primary & secondary rewards
- rewards vs reinforcers
- A positive value that an individual ascribes to an object, behavioral act, or internal physical state;
- Appetitive stimulus given to a human or animal to influence behavior.
-Rewards may serve as reinforcers (but not always)- a reward is only a reinforcer if its delivery increases the probability of the desired behavior
- Primary rewards: necessary for survival (food, sex, etc)
- Secondary rewards: derive their value from primary rewards
Types of Learning
- 4 main types
- Where does the majority of learning happen?
- Watson’s Theory of Learning
- Law of Excercise
- Classical Conditioning 2. Operant Conditioning 3. Observational Learning 4. Associate Learning
- Both classical and operant conditioning are forms of associative learning, in which associations are made between events that occur together.
- Majority of learning takes place in the central nervous system
- Watson’s Theory of Learning: Refers to concept learned from his behaviorism experiments where rats learned automatic motor behaviors to help them solve mazes simply by finding rewards on the correct paths
- Law of Excercise: We learn by doing, we forget by not doing
Interference
- general overview
- Proactive interference vs retroactive vs output
When the learning of new material interacts with the “old learning” of memories, thoughts, and behaviors. Serves as an explanation of forgetting long-term memory, asserting that forgetting occurs because memories interfere with and disrupt one another.
- Proactive: old memories disrupt the new memories
- (e.g. phone numbers) - Retroactive: new memories disrupt old memories
- (e.g. running into an ex and accidentally calling them by your current s/o name) - Output: when retrieving something interferes with the retrieval of the actual information needed
- (e.g. made grocery list, left it at home, and by trying to remember a few items on the list you forget the rest of the items)
Classical Conditioning
A learning process that occurs when 2 stimuli are repeatedly paired: a response that is initially only elicited by another stimulus will eventually be elicited by the 1st stimulus alone. (Thanks Pavlov)
-This process facilitates our learning to associate events (etc) that frequently happen together, and as a result, we learn to anticipate events (etc).
Operant Conditioning
- general overview
- types of operants
- main precursory theory
A learning process by which behaviors are reinforced or punished and thus strengthen or weaken a response.
-modifying behavior through positive/negative reinforcement to make an association between a particular behavior and consequence (Thanks Skinner)
-3 types of operants: neutral, reinforcers, punishers
- Precursory theory is Thorndike’s Law of Effect
- behaviors followed by consequences that are satisfying to the organism are more likely to be repeated, while behaviors followed by unpleasant consequences are less likely to be repeated
Types of Memory
- 3 main types, what differentiates them
- Miller’s Magic Number
- Memory subtypes
- declarative types vs nondeclarative
-Sensory
-the shortest-term element of memory, decays
quickly (1 sec)
-retains impressions of sensory information after
stimulus ends and serves as a buffer for stimuli
received
-Short-term
-temporary recall for information being processed
(AKA “Brain’s Post-It”), 10-15 secs, 7 items or less
-Gives us the ability to remember and process
information simultaneously
-Long-Term
-storage of long-term information, decays very
little over time and seems to store unlimited
amounts of information, memories, etc
-Miller’s Magic #- we can remember 7(+/- 2) things at a
time from a single exposure
- Explicit memory-conscious, long-term
- Implicit- unconscious
- Episodic- events & experiences
- Procedural- skills & tasks
- Semantic- facts & concepts
-Declarative: semantic, episodic -Nondeclarative: Procedural, skeletal musculature, emotional response
Premack Principle
-principle of operant conditioning where some behavior
happens reliably (with or without interference from
the researcher)
-Pairing an undesired activity with a preferred activity
-can be used as a reinforcer for behavior that occurs less reliably
-(e.g. “finish your vegetables if you want dessert”)
Shaping
-Method of operant conditioning by which
approximations of the desired response are
selectively reinforced (e.g. potty training)
-involves gradually molding or training an organism to
perform a specific response/behavior by reinforcing
any responses that are similar to the desired response
Types of Exposure
-Flooding: a form of exposure therapy involving rapid
exposure to feared situations
-Systematic Desensitization: (aka progressive exposure)
involves gradual exposure coupled with relaxation
exercises when anxiety levels become too high
- in vivo: real in the moment
- in vitro: pictures, not real present life
Extinction
When a reinforced behavior is extinguished entirely. This occurs at some point after reinforcement stops, though the speed at which this happens depends on the reinforcement schedule
Chunking
A way of organizing information into familiar groupings.
-done with all types of information including numbers
& multiple-word phrases collapsed into a single word
to create mnemonic acronyms which enhance
retention and memory
B.F. Skinner
- Father of radical behaviorism and developer of operant conditioning theory; he believed consciousness and free-will are an illusion and that only behavior matters
- set out to identify the processes which made certain operant behaviors more or less likely to occur
Variable vs Fixed
- which builds highest response rate
- which leads to better performance
-Fixed Interval: behavior is rewarded after a set amount
of time (e.g. Paycheck schedule)
-Variable Interval: reinforcement based on varying,
unpredictable amounts of time (e.g. fishing)
-Fixed Ratio: set number of responses that must occur
before the behavior is rewarded (e.g. cafe punch
card) builds highest response rate
-Variable Ratio: delivery of reinforcement will “vary” but
must average out at a specific number (e.g. lottery
games)
variable mostly leads to better performance, but not ALWAYS
Consequences
General Point: The rate at which a behavior occurs is determined not by what precedes it but by the consequence that follows it.
-related to behavioral reinforcement in that if
consequences are bad the behavior is less likely to
occur
