Conditioning Flashcards
1
Q
What is cognition?
A
- Encompasses the activities of “the mind”
-
Acquisition and use of knowledge
- Mental Representation → Format in which information is encoded, stored and reconstructed
- Thinking about things despite them not being physically there
2
Q
What is the perceptual-cognitive cycle?
A
-
Current experiences are a product of integrating the perceptual present and the cognitive past (current + prior knowledge)
- Implies a sentient being with emotions
- Actual World (modified) → Schema (directs) → Perception exploration (samples) → (back to actual world)
3
Q
What is learning?
A
- Any long-lasting change in the way an organism responds based on its experience
- Make meaning from their experiences
- Predicting the future from past experience → Use to guide behaviour
4
Q
What is a reflex?
A
- Behaviour that is elicited automatically by an environmental stimulus
5
Q
What is a stimulus?
A
- Something in the environment that elicits a response
6
Q
What is habituation?
A
- Decreasing strength of a reflex response after repeated presentations of the stimulus
- Neurons dampen signal → Enable you to tend to other things
- Driven by antecedent stimuli
- Smell of cafe = Positive emotions of pastries
Non-associative
7
Q
What is sensitisation?
A
-
Temporary state of heightened attention and responsivity that accompanies sudden events
- Alert to potentially threatening stimuli
- Increased response to subsequent stimuli
Non-associative
8
Q
What 3 assumptions do learning theories usually share?
A
- Experiences shape behaviour
- Learning is adaptive
- Careful experimentation can uncover laws of learning
9
Q
What is conditioning?
A
- Learning predictive relationships
- Associations between stimuli that reliably predict biologically significant events → Adaptive responses
- Involves learning the causal structure of environment
- “If X (CS), then Y (UCS)”
Associative
10
Q
What are biologically significant stimuli?
A
- Unconditioned stimuli → Naturally produce an autonomic - involuntary - unlearned response
- Stimuli that naturally cause responses that are…
- Defensive (FFF)
- Appetitive → Approach
- Reflexive
- Stimuli that are inherently punishing/ rewarding
- Affect physiology (e.g. loud noise)
11
Q
What are the laws of association?
A
- Conditions under which one thought becomes connected with another → To account for learning and memory
- Law of Contiguity - 2 events experienced close together will become connected
- Law of Similarity - Objects that resemble each other will likely be associated
12
Q
What are the components of classical conditioning?
A
- Before
- UCS → Produces UCR without learning
- NS → No response
- During
- Acquisition - UCS repeatedly paired with NS
- Simultaneous or NS no more than 0.5s before UCS
- After
- NS → CS
- CS produces CR without UCS
13
Q
What are 3 types of conditioned responses?
A
- Conditioned taste aversions
- Conditioned emotional responses
- Psychoneuroimmunology and conditioned immune responses
14
Q
Describe conditioned taste aversions
A
- Learned aversion to a taste associated with an unpleasant feeling (e.g. nausea)
- Crucial to survival
-
Does not require cortical involvement
- But must be conscious during CS presentation
- Involves basolateral amygdala
- Can develop rapidly → One or two exposures
-
Can be negative
- Food aversions before catching a flu
15
Q
Describe conditioned emotional responses
A
- NS paired with stimulus that evokes an emotional response
-
Phobias
- Negative because knowledge doesn’t help → Fear response activated in pathway not in cortex’s control
- Can also condition empathy
16
Q
Describe psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) and conditioned immune responses
A
- PNI → Study of the interaction between psychological processes and the nervous and immune systems of the body
- Chemotherapy → Side-effect of suppressing activity of cells that fight off infection
- Stimuli associated with chemotherapy (CS) provokes a weakened immune response (CR)
17
Q
What is stimulus generalisation?
A
- Association formed → Learn to have CR’s to things similar to the CS
- More similar = More likely to generalise
- Principle of similarity
18
Q
What is stimulus discrimination?
A
- Learned tendency to respond to a restricted range of stimuli/ only to the stimulus used during training
19
Q
What is extinction? (CC)
A
-
CR is weakened overtime by the presentation of the CS without the UCS
- Learned inhibition NOT unlearning
- Effective when in multiple sessions → Spaced apart → Multiple contexts
- Occurences earlier in life are less likely to be subject to spontaneous recovery
20
Q
What is spontaneous recovery?
A
-
Re-emergence of a previously extinguished CR
- Similar context to original learning experience - Cues
- Typically short-lived
- Will rapidly extinguish again without renewed pairings of the CS and UCS
21
Q
What is rapid reacquisition?
A
- Re-learning the CR after sustained extinction
- Would learn more quickly
22
Q
What is the difference between spontaneous recovery and rapid acquisition?
A
- Spontaneous Recovery
- CS presented alone
- Unintentional
- Rapid Acquisition
- Both NS/CS and UCS
- Intentional retraining
23
Q
What are factors that affect classical conditioning?
A
- Interstimulus Interval
- Time between presentation of CS and UCS
- Maximal conditioning when NS before UCS → Predicting
- Individual’s Learning History
- Previously extinguished response more likely to come back
- Blocking → CS2 cannot produce CR because of previous pairing with CS1
- Latent Inhibition → NS presented alone hinders acquisition
- Preparedness to Learn
- Prepared Learning → Readiness to learn some associations more easily (survival)
24
Q
What is the law of prediction?
A
- Proposed to replace the law of continguity
- Suggests that CS-UCS association will form when the presentation of the CS predicts the UCS
- In line with evolutionary theory → Connect stimuli in ways that are adaptive
25
What is paradoxical conditioning?
* **CR** is the body's **attempt to counteract** the **effects of a stimulus** that is **about to occur**
26
What is the law of effect?
* Edward Thorndike
* An animal's tendency to **reproduce** a behaviour depends on...
* **Behaviour's effect on the environment**
* **Consequent effect on the animal** → *Behaviour is controlled by its consequences*
27
What does operant conditioning mean?
* Learning to **operate on the environment** to **produce a consequence**
28
What are the components of OC?
* **Antecedent**
* **Environmental stimulus** that **signals upcoming rewarding/ punishing** stimuli
* Antecedent-Reinforcer = CS-UCS
* ∴ **CC associations** become **cues for operant behaviours**
* **Behaviour**
* **Voluntary** behaviour → Operant
* **Needs to occur** for **consequence to happen**
* **Consequence**
* Reinforcement/ Punishment
* **Influences *likelihood* of *future* behaviour**
29
When does an antecedent become a discriminative stimulus?
* When it **signals which of 2+ behaviours will be rewarded** in a particular context
30
What is a discriminative stimulus?
* Stimulus that **signals** that **within certain conditions consequences will apply**
* Contextual signal of a classroom for a teacher
31
What is a reinforcer?
* **Environmental consequence** that **increases the likelihood** of a response
32
What are the types of reinforcers?
* Positive (+)
* **Adding** a **reward/ pay-off** to make **behaviour more likely** to reoccur
* Negative (-)
* **Eliminating** an **aversive** consequence to make **behaviour more likely** to occur
33
What is superstitious behaviour?
* When a **link** forms between an **operant** and something from the **environment *unintentionally***
* E.g. (Skinner) Pigeons given *food at regular intervals* = **Created their own responses** such as turning counterclockwise
34
What is escape learning?
* Behaviour **reinforced by the elimination of something aversive** that **already exists**
* E.g. Sunscreen to relieve existing sunburn pain
35
What is avoidance learning?
* Organism ***learns*** to ***prevent* an *expected* aversive event**
* E.g. Putting on sunscreen before going out into the sun to avoid sunburn
36
What is punishment?
* **Environmental** consequence that **decreases the likelihood** of a response
37
What are the types of punishment?
* Positive (+)
* **Exposure** to an **aversive event** following a behaviour to make behaviour **less likely to occur**
* Negative (response cost) (-)
* **Losing or not obtaining** a **reinforcer** as a consequence to make behaviour **less likely to occur**
38
How can punishment be used effectively? (Three C's)
* **Contingency**
* **Relationship** between **behaviour** and **punisher** is **clear**
* **Reasoning**
* **Contiguity**
* **Punishment** must **closely follow behaviour**
* **Consistency**
* **Punishment** must **occur for every occurrence** of behaviour
* **Otherwise** it turns into a **partial reinforcement schedule**
39
What are problems with using punishment? (6)
* Animals and young children may have **difficulty distinguishing what operant is being punished**
* Learner may come to **fear the person** (CC) **rather than the action** (OC) → **No change in behaviour** but **have fear** instead
* Punishment **may not eliminate existing rewards** for a behaviour
* Punishing one behaviour may **reinforce another**
* When an individual is **angry** they may have **poor judgment** when it comes to the **punishment they are using** → Potential for *abuse*
* **Does not teach** a **more desireable behaviour**
* **Does not promote *long-term* change**
40
What are alternatives to punishment?
* **Stop reinforcing** the **problem behaviour** (extinction)
* **Reinforce** an **alternative behaviour** that is both...
* **Constructive**
* **Incompatible with the undesirable behaviour**
* **Reinforce** the **non-occurrence** of the **undesirable behaviour**
41
What is extinction? (OC)
* When **enough conditioning trials pass** in which the **operant is *not* followed by the consequence previously associated** with it
* **Not immediate** → Sometimes **brief increase in responding** = **Extinction Burst**
* *Followed* by *decrease in trained behaviour*
* **Spontaneous recovery** sometimes occurs → Need to **repeat extinction process**
42
What are the types of reinforcement schedules?
* **Continuous**
* Consequence is the **same** each time
* **Partial/ Intermittent**
* Behaviour is **reinforced only part of the time/ intermittently**
43
Is a continuous or intermittent reinforcement schedule better?
* **Continuous** tends to be **better during initial acquisition** phases → Makes the **connection clear and predictable**
* **Intermittent reinforcement is usually better for *maintaining***
* More **resistant to extinction**
44
What are the types of intermittent schedules?
* **Ratio**
* Consequences tied to the **number of responses emitted**
* **Only a fraction** of 'correct' behaviours **receive reinforcement**
* **Interval**
* Consequences tied to **time**
* **Number of responses *does not change frequency***
45
What are the types of ratio schedules?
* **Fixed-Ratio** (FR)
* Consequence distributed for a **fixed proportion of the responses** it emits
* **Rapid** responding
* **Brief pause after each reinforcement**
* **Variable-Ratio** (VR)
* Consequence for **some % of responses** → But **number of responses required is *unpredictable***
* **Averages** out to a **certain number**
* **Rapid, constant** responding
* Most common in daily life
46
What are the types of interval schedules?
* **Fixed-Interval** (FI)
* Consequence for responses **only after a fixed amount of time**
* **At least one** behaviour **within the set time**
* Subject **learns to stop responding until *last second* of interval**
* **Variable-Interval** (VI)
* Consequence for responses within an **unpredictable interval**
* **Averages** out to a **certain number**
* **More effective than FI** at ***maintaining consistent* performance**
47
What is response contingency?
* **Connection** existing between a **behaviour and a consequence**
* **Consequence** is **dependent on behaviour**
48
How are reinforcements considered in the real-world? (3)
* **Attaining one reinforcer** may **affect both its future availability** and the **availability of other reinforcers**
* Some reinforcers are **substitutable**
* Either or
* Some can be **complementary**
* **Can't have one without the other**
49
Distinguish between CC and OC
* **Order** - **Environment and Organism**
* CC → **Environmental** stimulus **initiates response**
* OC → **Behaviour/operant produces** an **environmental response**
50
What is shaping?
* **Reinforcing each closer approximation to the desired response** → Creates novel behaviour
* Begin - **Reinforce response** that is **readily produced**
* **Successive Approximations** → Reward behaviours that are *closer to the desired*
* Use when **desired behaviour is not natural**
51
What is chaining?
* **Paired with *shaping***
* Putting together a **sequence of existing responses** in a **novel order**
* When **behaviours are known** but want to be **done in a *particular* order**
52
How do enduring characteristics of the learner influence OC?
* **Differing in the ease** by which they **can be conditioned**
* Psychological and personality factors
53
How do species-specific characteristics affect OC?
* Some species **may be inclined to perform behaviours adapted to their survival** rather than preemptive **ones that are trying to be conditioned**
* Pigs using snout to drag coin rather than dropping it
