Cognitive Learning - The Psychology of Learning

Question 1

Defining Learning

Answer 1

Learning: a process by which knowledge or behaviour change as a result of experience
-a relatively permanent change
-not instinct, it is from our environment
-cannot be attributed to illness, injury, or maturation

Question 2

Defining Learning

-physical and chemical changes in the brain and dendrites

Answer 2

Chemical Aspects:
-Changes to chemical aspects of neurotransmission (Learning strengthens the connections between neurons by improving neurotransmission (how brain cells send signals).

-An example is long-term potentiation (LTP), where repeated stimulation makes neurons more likely to fire together, strengthening memories. Neurons link strengthen/connections, which causes the sending neuron to be more likely to easily trigger an action potential

Structural Aspects:
-changes to structural aspects of neurons (e.g. more receptor sites or structure increases the sensitivity of post synaptic dentrites)
-Learning can increase the number of receptor sites on neurons, making them more sensitive to signals

The number and thickness of dendrites affect how well neurons communicate:
More dendrites = More connections to other neurons, making it easier to receive signals.
Thicker dendrites = Stronger and faster signal transmission.
These changes help the sending neuron trigger an action potential (AP) in the next neuron more easily, improving learning and memory.

These changes help store new information and improve memory over time!

Question 3

How Do We Learn

Answer 3

-By Association
-By Condition
-By Observation

Question 3

How Do We Learn

-By Association

Answer 3

Learning by association means making connections between things, so that one thing predicts or influences another. There are two main types:

1. Classical Conditioning (involuntary): Learning happens when two things are repeatedly paired together.
2. Operant Conditioning (voluntary): Learning happens through rewards and punishments.

Question 4

How Do We Learn

By Cognition

Answer 4

Learning by Cognition means learning through thinking, understanding, and mental processes rather than just through direct experience or rewards. It involves forming mental representations of events, concepts, or problems.

Question 5

How Do We Learn

By Observation

Answer 5

-Watching others
-copying people’s actions

Question 6

Associative Learning

Answer 6

-When we associate two events together
-not our choice, it just happens to us
-certain events occur together
-e.g. you listen to a song and a flood of emotions come because you a song with a certain period in life

-two types: Classical Conditioning and Operant Conditioning

Question 7

Classical Conditioning

Answer 7

Classical Conditioning is a type of learning where an involuntary response happens because two stimuli are repeatedly paired together.

Key Features:
-Involuntary & Physiological (automatic responses, like salivation or fear)
-Not based on own behavior (happens naturally without conscious control)
-Association between two stimuli (one predicts the other)

Example:
Pavlov’s Dogs – A dog naturally drools when it sees food. If a can opener (neutral stimulus) is always used before feeding, the dog will start drooling just at the sound of the can opener:

-Before Conditioning: Food → Drool
-During Conditioning: Can Opener + Food → Drool
-After Conditioning: Can Opener → Drool

Real-Life Examples:
Feeling hungry when you hear the sound of popcorn at a movie theater.
Flinching when you hear thunder after seeing lightning.
Getting anxious when you hear a dentist’s drill because you associate it with pain.

Key Idea: Classical conditioning creates automatic responses by making connections between things that repeatedly happen together!

Question 8

Operant Conditioning

Answer 8

Operant conditioning is a type of learning where voluntary behavior is influenced by consequences—either rewards or punishments—which increase or decrease the likelihood of that behavior happening again.
-can choose behaviour and outcome
-behaviour can operate on environment/modify outcomes
-E.g. doing chores = allowance (reward)

Key Features:
-Voluntary behavior (you choose to do it)
-Reinforcement (increases behavior) and —-Punishment (decreases behavior)
-Learning from consequences

Key Idea:
In operant conditioning, behavior is shaped by its consequences, making you more or less likely to repeat it in the future!

Question 9

Classical Conditioning

Who was Ivan Pavlow, MD

Answer 9

Ivan Pavlov was a Russian scientist who won the Nobel Prize for his work on digestion, but he’s best known for his experiment with dogs, which demonstrated the process of classical conditioning.

Pavlov’s Experiment:
Sns that food was coming.

The Experiment:

Neutral Stimulus: He used a buzzer or bell, which normally would not cause any response from the dogs.
Before Conditioning: The bell (neutral stimulus) didn’t make the dogs salivate. But food would.
During Conditioning: Pavlov rang the bell before giving the dogs food, pairing the two together.
After Conditioning: Eventually, the dogs started to salivate just at the sound of the bell, even when no food was present. They had associated the bell with food.
Key Idea:
Through classical conditioning, Pavlov showed that dogs (and animals, including humans) can learn to associate a neutral stimulus (like a bell) with a stimulus that naturally causes a reaction (like food). Once the association is made, the neutral stimulus can trigger the response on its own. This is how classical conditioning works!

Question 10

Classical Conditioning

Ivan Pavlow, MD Experiment

Answer 10

Pavlov’s Experiment:
Studying Digestion:
Pavlov originally studied how dogs digest food, measuring salivation and other digestive responses by hooking the dogs up to a device.

Discovery:
He noticed that the dogs would start salivating before food even appeared, just by seeing the bowl, hearing footsteps, or sensing people—signs that food was coming.

The Experiment:

Neutral Stimulus: He used a buzzer or bell, which normally would not cause any response from the dogs.
Before Conditioning: The bell (neutral stimulus) didn’t make the dogs salivate. But food would.
During Conditioning: Pavlov rang the bell before giving the dogs food, pairing the two together.
After Conditioning: Eventually, the dogs started to salivate just at the sound of the bell, even when no food was present. They had associated the bell with food.

Key Idea:
Through classical conditioning, Pavlov showed that dogs (and animals, including humans) can learn to associate a neutral stimulus (like a bell) with a stimulus that naturally causes a reaction (like food). Once the association is made, the neutral stimulus can trigger the response on its own.

Question 11

Classical Conditioning
Ivan Pavlov Experiment (1-4)

Answer 11

1. Before Conditioning:
   -salivation (unconditioned response) in response to food (Unconditioned stimulus)
2. Before Conditioning
   -Whistle (neutral stimulus)
   -no salivation (no conditioned response)
3. During Conditioning (number of trials)
   -Whistle and food
   -response was salivation (unconditioned response because it is still an automatic behaviour, which is drooling to food)
4. After Conditioning
   -Whistle (conditioned stimulus)
   -Salivation (conditioned response)

-the whistle, which was before a neutral stimulus became a conditioned stimulus because it was conditioned to make the dog salivate)

Question 12

Classical Conditioning: 4 Elements

Answer 12

1. Unconditioned stimulus (US)
2. Unconditioned response UR)
3. Conditioned stimulus (CS)
4. Conditioned response (CR)

The conditioned response and the unconditioned response are usually the same behaviour

Question 13

Classical Conditioning: 4 Elements

1. Unconditioned stimulus (US)

Answer 13

-A stimulus that naturally elicits a response

-A stimulus that naturally triggers a response without any prior learning (e.g., food causing salivation).

Question 14

Classical Conditioning: 4 Elements

2. Unconditioned response UR)

Answer 14

The natural response to a stimulus

-The automatic, natural reaction to the unconditioned stimulus (e.g., salivation when food is presented).

-examples: smell of food triggers hunger, loud noises trigger fear

Question 15

Classical Conditioning: 4 Elements

3. Conditioned stimulus (CS)

Answer 15

-an originally neutral stimulus that, through repeated pairing, will eventually elicit a response

-A previously neutral stimulus that, after being paired with the unconditioned stimulus in many trials, triggers a response (e.g., the bell after being paired with food).

-Examples:
-the sound of a bell that causes a dog to salivate, after it has been repeatedly paired with the presentation of food
-meat is neutral at the beginning, but after getting extremely sick from eating meat, the smell of meet feels bad

Question 16

Classical Conditioning: 4 Elements

4. Conditioned response (CR)

Answer 16

-A learned response to a previously neutral stimulus

-The learned response to the conditioned stimulus after association with the unconditioned stimulus (e.g., salivation in response to the bell alone).

Question 17

Example of when this is not true: The conditioned response and the unconditioned response are usually the same behaviour

Answer 17

Baby vaccinations

-at first, the baby is not scared
-the baby feels the needle and feels pain (unconditioned response)
-the baby later becomes fearful (conditioned response) of the needle

-in this case the UR is pain and the CR is fear

Question 18

In the Altoid example, what was the US, UR, CS, CR

Answer 18

Unconditioned stimulus: offering of the mint (before rebooting noise)

Unconditioned response: reactivity and motor behaviour or, wanting the mint and the anticipation of the mint

Conditioned stimulus: the sound (reboot noise)

Conditioned response: reaches out hand and mouth taste (anticipation of the mint)

Question 19

Key Principles of classical conditioning:

Answer 19

-Intensity
-Generalization
-Discrimination
-Extinction and Spontaneous Recovery

Question 20

Key Principles of classical conditioning:

Intensity

Answer 20

-The strength of association depends on the vividness of the stimuli
-If particularly vivid, several pairings are not necessary

-the strength of the stimuli can impact how fast you learn (so strong only one trial is needed, like phobias)
-really loud noise - conditioning faster

Question 20

Key Principles of classical conditioning :

Generalization

Answer 20

Stimuli similar to Conditioned Stimulus can elicit the Conditioned Response

-overgeneralization
-generalize to other stimuli that is similar
-e.g. you fear water, so you will also fear baths, pools, lakes, oceans, and splashing water on your face

Question 21

Key Principles of classical conditioning:

Discrimination

Answer 21

-Learn not to respond to similar stimuli
-when an individual learns to respond to a specific stimulus but not to similar stimuli, such as a dog only salivating to the sound of a specific bell and not to a similar sound.

Question 22

Key Principles:

Extinction and Spontaneous Recovery

Answer 22

Conditioned stimulus no longer elicits a conditioned response if can then reappear

-Extinction in classical conditioning occurs when the conditioned response gradually disappears after the conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus (e.g., ringing the bell without food, and the dog stops salivating).
-Spontaneous recovery is the sudden reappearance of the conditioned response after a period of rest, even if the response had previously been extinguished. The response is typically less or weaker

Question 23

Applications to classical conditioning

Answer 23

-Emotional responses -Taste Adversions -Drug Tolerance

Question 24

Applications to classical conditioning: Emotional responses

Answer 24

Emotional responses (Little Albert): In the Little Albert experiment, a baby was conditioned to fear a white rat by pairing it with a loud, frightening noise, showing how emotional responses (like fear) can be learned through classical conditioning. Preparedness and fear conditioning (evolution): Humans are biologically predisposed to quickly learn to fear certain stimuli, such as snakes, because these fears may have had evolutionary survival benefits, whereas we are less likely to develop fears of non-threatening objects like bananas or flowers.

Question 24

Applications to classical conditioning Taste Adversions

Answer 24

Acquired dislike of a food/drink after it is paired with an illness -single pairing, no need to repeat the pairings

Question 24

Applications to classical conditioning Drug Tolerance

Answer 24

-Decreased reaction that occurs with the repeated use of a drug -compulsory response (the body maintains homeostasis and balance but drugs disrupts that balance so the body will try to slow down arousal/effect of the drug) -if your body is used to the context of what you take the drug (e.g. you do drugs with friends). your body is already producing that opposite effect to restore balance in your body so you will need more of the drug to feel the high)

Question 25

Classical Conditioning and Advertising

Answer 25

-Unconditioned stimulus (attractive person) leads to unconditioned response (positive emotions) -Neutral stimulus (product like a car) leads to no response initially -Neutral stimulus (car) paired with the unconditioned stimulus leads to unconditioned response (positive emotions) -Conditioned stimulus (car) leads to conditioned response (positive emotions)

Question 26

Operant Conditioning -1898 Thorndike and the Law of Effect and ABCs

Answer 26

1898 (Thorndike's Puzzle Box): Thorndike measured how long it took cats to escape from puzzle boxes. Initially, the cats would make random movements, but over time, they learned that pressing a lever or pulling a string would open the door, giving them freedom. Law of Effect: Thorndike's principle stating that behaviors are shaped by their consequences, meaning that behaviors followed by satisfying outcomes are more likely to be repeated, while those followed by annoying outcomes are less likely to be repeated. ABCs of Operant Conditioning: -Antecedent: The situation or context that must be in place for the behavior to occur and be followed by a reward. -Behavior: The action or response made by the individual. -Consequence: The result or outcome that follows the behavior, which can either reinforce or discourage the behavior.

Question 27

Operant Conditioning -1930s: B.F. Skinner and Skinner Boxes

Answer 27

Skinner Boxes: B.F. Skinner used these controlled environments to study animal behavior, particularly how animals like rats and pigeons learn through operant conditioning. In the Skinner box, animals could press a lever or peck a button to receive food, but the reward was only given when a specific condition (like a light being lit) was met, showing how behavior can be shaped by reinforcement. Reinforcement and Punishment: -Reinforcement: A process that increases the likelihood of a behavior being repeated. It can be positive (adding something pleasant, like a treat) or negative (removing something unpleasant, like stopping an annoying sound). -Punishment: A process that decreases the likelihood of a behavior being repeated. It can be positive (adding something unpleasant, like a shock) or negative (removing something pleasant, like taking away a toy).

Question 28

Reinforcement vs. Punishment Reinforcement

Answer 28

-consequence the increases the likelihood that behaviour will occur again -can be positive (adds something) or negative (takes something away) -can be positive or negative (not good or bad) -the net outcome is positive Example: -adding a pleasant thing or taking away an unpleasant thing

Question 28

Reinforcement vs. Punishment Punishment

Answer 28

consequence that decreases the likelihood that behaviour will occur again -can be positive (adds something) or negative (takes something away) -net effect is that they won't like it -example: -adding something unpleasant like yelling at a child -removing a pleasant/enjoyable thing

Question 29

Reinforcement vs. Punishment Reinforcer (increases behaviour) Punisher (decreases behaviour) Positive (add something) Negative (remove something) What is a Positive Reinforcement?

Answer 29

-give an allowance for doing chores -give a child paise when they show kindness

Question 30

Reinforcement vs. Punishment What is Negative Reinforcement?

Answer 30

-stop nagging roommate when they do dishes

Question 31

Reinforcement vs. Punishment What is Positive Punishment?

Answer 31

-Give a child a spanking when the child is disrespectful

Question 32

Reinforcement vs. Punishment What is Negative Punishment?

Answer 32

-take away dessert when you do not eat your veggies

Question 33

Shaping

Answer 33

Encouraging a new behaviour by reinforcing successive approximations -GRADUAL change -little behaviours close to the full thing they want -reward little behaviour/gradual changes to eventually do wanted/desired behavior -if you want someone to accomplish a goal you set small goals -e.g. training pets - train cat to jump through hoop and use a toilet -using clicker to show a pet when they are doing something right, so they do it again

Question 34

Reinforcement Schedules

Answer 34

-How often and under what circumstances does the individual receive the reinforcement or punishment? -continuous vs. partial reinforcement schedules (do they get a reward everytime or only sometimes when they do the behaviour) -the cons of continuous is that when they miss 1 reward the behaviour will stop -variable ratio schedules tend to generate high rates of responding

Question 35

Reinforcement Schedules Fixed Ratio

Answer 35

Reinforce behaviour after a set number of responses -ex. every 3rd toy picked up you get a reward (chocolate for example)

Question 36

Reinforcement Schedules Fixed Interval

Answer 36

Reinforce behaviour after a set amount of time -e.g. weekly, monthly

Question 36

Reinforcement Schedules Variable Ratio

Answer 36

Reinforce behaviour after an unpredictable number of responses -e.g. 2 toys, 4 toys, 10 toys picked up, get a reward

Question 37

Reinforcement Schedules Variable Interval

Answer 37

Reinforce behaviour after an unpreductable amount of time -2 mins, 10 mins, get a reward

Question 38

Associative Learning and Behaviourism

Answer 38

"Give be a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specific world to bring them in and i guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialists I ,might select - doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief, and yes, even beggarman, and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors." - John Watson, 1930 -belief that the only thing that matters about who we will become depends on the type of training or education or experiences we get -genes do not matter -focus on observable behaviour - no mental processes (does not matter what we think, all learning comes from what we see in our environment) -learning is a passive response to environmental stimuli (things just happen and we respond to them)

Question 39

Cognitive Revolution

Answer 39

Insight Learning Latent Learning Superstitious Conditioning

Question 40

Cognitive Revolution Insight Learning

Answer 40

-Koehlier: set up puzzles for chimps (e.g. handing a banana out of reach -they will spontaneuously come up with clever solutions and clever ways to get the banana, they came up with their own ideas) -developed insight (more than learning from reward)

Question 41

Cognitive Revolution Latent Learning

Answer 41

Tolman: Rats learn mazes without reward This refers to learning that happens without reinforcement or reward, where knowledge is gained passively and only becomes evident when it's needed. In Tolman’s experiment, rats were allowed to explore a maze without receiving any reward. Later, when they were given a reward, those who had previously explored the maze navigated it much faster than rats who hadn't, showing that they had mentally mapped the maze layout, even though they weren’t reinforced for doing so. This suggests that learning can occur without immediate rewards and can be stored for later use.

Question 42

Cognitive Revolution Superstitious Conditioning

Answer 42

-learning can happen based on what we believe -based on what you believe, not what actually happen -athlete wears socks and wins the game - the socks had no effect, but the brain formed a false association

Question 43

Observational Learning

Answer 43

Aka "Social Learning" (Learning by observing and imitiating others) -occurs in social environments - watch what other people do and learn from it -rats smell the breath of other rats to determine nearby food sources -monkeys learn fear of snakes by observing parental reactions

Question 43

Observational Learning Bobo Doll Study

Answer 43

1. Adult and child in room 2. Adult punches/does not punch Bobo doll 3. Child later made frustrated 4. Put child in room with Bobo doll. Child mimics adult's actions and phrases. -the child also punches the doll like the adult did not also comes up with own ways to hit the doll -however, children who did not see the adult hit the doll were not aggressive to the doll Vicarious reinforcement and punishment:(see someone else getting rewarded or punished, makes you want to do not not do that action)

Question 43

Observational Learning Mirror Neurons

Answer 43

Mirror Neurons: Mirror neurons are special brain cells that activate both when an animal performs an action and when it observes someone else performing the same action. These neurons help us understand and mimic behaviors by forming connections in our brain, even when we aren’t directly performing the action ourselves. For example, if you see someone smiling, the same neurons in your brain that would fire if you smiled are activated, allowing you to understand the action or empathize with it.