Conditioning Flashcards
What is “learning” in the context of psychology?
Long-term or relatively permanent change in behaviour based on experience
Operant conditioning explains changes in what kind of behaviour, as a result of what?
Changes in voluntary behaviour as a result of consequences
W/ Pavlov’s dog, what is the unconditioned response?
Salivating
Pavlov’s bell went from (a) to (b)
a) neutral stimulus
b) conditioned stimulus
Conditioned stimulus was generated from what pairing?
A previously neutral stimulus (bell) with unconditioned stimulus (salivating)
What do you call the two main components in operant conditioning?
- Reinforcement
- Punishment
Reinforcement does what?
Makes it more likely you’ll do something again?
Punishment does what?
Makes it more likely you won’t do something
Positive and negative mean what?
The addition and removal of stimulus, respectively
True or false: positive and negative in the context of operational conditioning means good and bad, respectively.
False
Pigeons choosing impressionistic paintings because they have been conditioned to pick monet paintings (even when it’s not by monet) is an example of what?
Stimulus generalization
A situmulus that naturally brings about a particular response without having been learned is…
Unconditioned stimulus
A response that is natural and needs no training is called _____
Unconditioned response
***Responses that lead to satisfying consequences are more likely to be repeated. This phenomena is called _____________ Law of _________
Thorndike’s Law of Effect
***True or False? Removal of a positive stimulus will decrease the frequency of a behaviour.
True (? check ?)
True or false: The conditioned response and unconditioned response are the same behaviour.
True
They are triggered by different stimuli
When does “extinction” occur?
When a previously conditioned response decreased in frequency and eventually disappears.
True or false: extinction is always permanent.
False.
What is spontaneous recovery?
The re-emergence of an extinguished conditioned response after a period of rest
What is stimulus generalization?
when stimuli that are similar to the original conditioned stimulus produce the same response
p. 183
Psychologist Martin Seligan’s theory that we are primed to learn certain kinds of associations over others based on our ancestors is called _________
biological preparedness theory
What is operant conditioning?
Learning in which a voluntary response is strengthened or weakened, depending on favourable or unfavourable circumstances.
In operant conditioning, what is reinforcement, and what is reinforcer?
Reinforcement: the process where a stimulus increases the probability that a preceding behaviour will be repeated (eg. the action of rats pressing a lever to get food)
Reinforcer: any stimulus that increses the probability the preceding behaviour will occur again (eg. the food)
What are primary and secondary reinforcers?
Primary: a reinforcer that satisfies a biological need. (eg: food, warmth)
Secondary: a stimulus that becomes reinforcing because of its association with a primary reinforcer (eg. money, because we have learned that it helps us obtain valuable objects)
p. 177
What is Shaping?
The process of teaching a complicated behavour by rewarding closer and closer approximations of the desired behaviour. (eg. teaching someone to fix a transmission perfectly -they’d never spontaneously do the whole thing on their own)
p. 176
What is a positive reinforcer?
a stimulus added that causes increase in a preceding response
(eg. getting a paycheque at the end of each week increases peoples’ chance of coming back to work next week)
What is a negative reinforcer?
An unpleasant stimulus whose removal leads to an increase in preceding response in the future.
> Take an action to remove an unpleasant condition/stimulus
(eg. if you have an itchy rash that goes away when you apply a certain ointment, you are more likely to use that ointment again. Using the ointment is negatively reinforcing, because it removes the itch.)
True or false: negative reinforcement is the same as punishment.
FALSE
True or false: negative reinforcement is the same as punishment.
FALSE. Punishment is a stimulus that decreases a behavior.
What is positive vs negative punishment?
Positive punishment = punishment by application: adding an unpleasant consequence that will make people not do something. (eg. spanking a child)
Negative punishment = punishment by removal: involves removing something pleasant. (eg. confiscating a teen’s cell phone)
The frequency and timing of reinforcement that follows desired behaviour is called ______
schedules of reinforcement
p 181
Behaviour that is reinforced every time is called _____ reinforcement schedule
continuous reinforcement schedule
p. 181
Behavour that is reinforced some of the time but not all, is called __________ reinforcement schedule
partial (intermittent) reinforcement schedule
p. 181
Does learning occur more rapidly under continuous or intermittent reinforcement schedule?
Continuous
Why does partial reinforcement scheduling maintain performance longer?
Because you’re not expecting it to work all the time so you’ll keep trying before extinction (giving up).
Eg. vengind machine vs casino slot maching. If both are broken, people will stop trying with the vending machine before the slot machine.
Fixed-ratio schedule is…
Reinforcement given only after specific number of responses
A reinforcement that occurs only after a varying number of responses rather than after a fixed number is called ______
variable-ratio schedule
Ratio schedules are centered around ___(a)___, while interval schedules focus on the ___(b)___
a) number of responses
b) time elapsed since reward
Do variable-interval schedules or fixed-interval schedules tend to maintain desired behaviour more consistently throughout the interval?
variable-interval
[eg. with pop quizzes]
p. 183
Learning cues that someone’s friendliness is more than friendliness, but rather romantic interest, is an example of the process of ____(a - 3 words)____, where people learn to ____(b)____ stimuli. Those cues are called ___(b)-tive____ stimulus.
a) stimulus control training
b) discriminate
c) discriminative stimulus
p. 184
A raccoon being able to be trained to put one disk in a piggy bank but not two -because it keeps just naturally rubbing them together instead as if cleaning it, refusing to put it in the piggy bank- is an example of _________
biological constraints
p. 184
True of false: In classical conditioning, new behavour is learned.
False.
In classical conditioning, a new trigger is learned for a behaviour that was already part of an organism’s repertoire. (p. 185)
