Conditioning

Question 1

What is “learning” in the context of psychology?

Answer 1

Long-term or relatively permanent change in behaviour based on experience

Question 2

Operant conditioning explains changes in what kind of behaviour, as a result of what?

Answer 2

Changes in voluntary behaviour as a result of consequences

Question 3

W/ Pavlov’s dog, what is the unconditioned response?

Answer 3

Salivating

Question 4

Pavlov’s bell went from (a) to (b)

Answer 4

a) neutral stimulus

b) conditioned stimulus

Question 5

Conditioned stimulus was generated from what pairing?

Answer 5

A previously neutral stimulus (bell) with unconditioned stimulus (salivating)

Question 6

What do you call the two main components in operant conditioning?

Answer 6

• Reinforcement

- Punishment

Question 7

Reinforcement does what?

Answer 7

Makes it more likely you’ll do something again?

Question 8

Punishment does what?

Answer 8

Makes it more likely you won’t do something

Question 9

Positive and negative mean what?

Answer 9

The addition and removal of stimulus, respectively

Question 10

True or false: positive and negative in the context of operational conditioning means good and bad, respectively.

Answer 10

False

Question 11

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?

Answer 11

Stimulus generalization

Question 12

A situmulus that naturally brings about a particular response without having been learned is…

Answer 12

Unconditioned stimulus

Question 13

A response that is natural and needs no training is called _____

Answer 13

Unconditioned response

Question 14

***Responses that lead to satisfying consequences are more likely to be repeated. This phenomena is called _____________ Law of _________

Answer 14

Thorndike’s Law of Effect

Question 15

***True or False? Removal of a positive stimulus will decrease the frequency of a behaviour.

Answer 15

True (? check ?)

Question 16

True or false: The conditioned response and unconditioned response are the same behaviour.

Answer 16

True

They are triggered by different stimuli

Question 17

When does “extinction” occur?

Answer 17

When a previously conditioned response decreased in frequency and eventually disappears.

Question 18

True or false: extinction is always permanent.

Answer 18

False.

Question 19

What is spontaneous recovery?

Answer 19

The re-emergence of an extinguished conditioned response after a period of rest

Question 20

What is stimulus generalization?

Answer 20

when stimuli that are similar to the original conditioned stimulus produce the same response

p. 183

Question 21

Psychologist Martin Seligan’s theory that we are primed to learn certain kinds of associations over others based on our ancestors is called _________

Answer 21

biological preparedness theory

Question 22

What is operant conditioning?

Answer 22

Learning in which a voluntary response is strengthened or weakened, depending on favourable or unfavourable circumstances.

Question 23

In operant conditioning, what is reinforcement, and what is reinforcer?

Answer 23

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)

Question 24

What are primary and secondary reinforcers?

Answer 24

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

Question 25

What is Shaping?

Answer 25

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

Question 26

What is a positive reinforcer?

Answer 26

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)

Question 27

What is a negative reinforcer?

Answer 27

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.)

Question 28

True or false: negative reinforcement is the same as punishment.

Answer 28

FALSE

Question 29

True or false: negative reinforcement is the same as punishment.

Answer 29

FALSE. Punishment is a stimulus that decreases a behavior.

Question 30

What is positive vs negative punishment?

Answer 30

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)

Question 31

The frequency and timing of reinforcement that follows desired behaviour is called ______

Answer 31

schedules of reinforcement

p 181

Question 32

Behaviour that is reinforced every time is called _____ reinforcement schedule

Answer 32

continuous reinforcement schedule

p. 181

Question 33

Behavour that is reinforced some of the time but not all, is called __________ reinforcement schedule

Answer 33

partial (intermittent) reinforcement schedule

p. 181

Question 34

Does learning occur more rapidly under continuous or intermittent reinforcement schedule?

Answer 34

Continuous

Question 35

Why does partial reinforcement scheduling maintain performance longer?

Answer 35

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.

Question 36

Fixed-ratio schedule is…

Answer 36

Reinforcement given only after specific number of responses

Question 37

A reinforcement that occurs only after a varying number of responses rather than after a fixed number is called ______

Answer 37

variable-ratio schedule

Question 38

Ratio schedules are centered around ___(a)___, while interval schedules focus on the ___(b)___

Answer 38

a) number of responses

b) time elapsed since reward

Question 39

Do variable-interval schedules or fixed-interval schedules tend to maintain desired behaviour more consistently throughout the interval?

Answer 39

variable-interval

[eg. with pop quizzes]
p. 183

Question 40

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.

Answer 40

a) stimulus control training
b) discriminate
c) discriminative stimulus

p. 184

Question 41

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 _________

Answer 41

biological constraints

p. 184

Question 42

True of false: In classical conditioning, new behavour is learned.

Answer 42

False.

In classical conditioning, a new trigger is learned for a behaviour that was already part of an organism’s repertoire. (p. 185)