exam 2

Question 1

what are the two possibilities of what is stored in learning

Answer 1

1) stimulus -> response association (habit)

2) stimulus -> stimulus association (expectation of the future)

Question 2

what are the two possibilities of what is stored in learning in an example in terms of 1) T-> food and 2) stop sign -> brake

Answer 2

T -> food

1) S-R possibility: T -> salivation
2) S-S possibility: T -> food

stop sign -> brake

1) S-R: stop sign -> “hit brake”
2) S-S: stop sign -> cars coming, could hurt people, etc

Question 3

why can dogs learn the L-T association (evidence for S-S learning)

Answer 3

sensory preconditioning: learning the relationship between two sensory things before ever presenting a US

dogs are not blind reflex beasts they can look forward to future events and learn L-T

Question 4

why can pigeons learn the different color light associations (evidence for S-S learning)

Answer 4

US devaluation study: taking away the value of something to reveal the understanding of two sensory stimuli associations

Question 5

what is natural to think happens during extinction in terms of T-food

Answer 5

1) T -> food
2) T -> nothing
so people think that T does not = food (loss of association/connection)

THIS IS WRONG

Question 6

what are the examples of evidence that show associations survive extinction

Answer 6

1) spontaneous recovery: response comes back after time apart
2) reinstatement: adding the US back in after some time
3) disinhibition: changing the setting
4) renewal: changing the context

Question 7

what are the two theories that answer the question: if extinction doesn’t erase CS-US association what does it do?

Answer 7

1) loss of attention to the CS, in other words habituation, there is recovery of attention when aroused (association is never broken)

T-food | T-nothing | food | T?
reminds you of last time you got food or arouses you

2) competing memory theory (two memories stored at once)

T-food & T-nothing

Question 8

what are some psychopathies attributed to classical conditioning

Answer 8

1) specific phobias: something happens to you and you’re always afraid of that thing
2) relapse after drug use: you previously associated certain CS with drugs, then you go through recovery, after seeing CS you relapse
3) child sexual abuse: most predators suffered abuse too
4) PTSD: certain CS remind you of US
5) mood disorders

Question 9

what are the conditioned based treatments for drug relapse

Answer 9

1) lab extinction
2) give med that blocks drug addiction
3) aversion therapy
4) substitution therapies
5) teach new competing CRs

Question 10

what are the problems with lab extinction

Answer 10

responses could recover, real world is not context of extinction

Question 11

what are the problems with giving a med that blocks drug addiction

Answer 11

when people got an implantable naltrexone pellet they try to take it out themselves

Question 12

what is aversion therapy

Answer 12

instead of drug cues -> nothing, drug cues -> bad things

Question 13

what are some examples of aversion therapy and some problems

Answer 13

1) cigarette cessation: sit in room filled with cigarette stuff and smoke until sick
Problems: people have to volunteer for this, real world is also not context of extinction

2) alcohol abuse: antabuse, a chemical that reacts with alcohol to make you nauseous
problems: you have to voluntarily take the tablet

Question 14

what is the substitution theory

Answer 14

CS-> crave, so take a different US

Question 15

what are some examples and problems with substitution theory

Answer 15

1) heroin: methadone is an opiot like heroin but less powerful
2) nicotine: chantix, some action on receptor site as nicotine but is less powerful

problems: don’t really get rid of addiction

Question 16

what are the three ways to teach new competing CR’s

Answer 16

1) behavior alternative: teach things to do in response to craving a drug (crave and run)
2) imagery: teach that every time you think of a cigarette you think of diseased lungs and people
3) waiting: want cigarette, but wait 5 minutes, then wait 5 more to eventually thin out use

Question 17

what are the two theories that can explain the translation of knowledge into behavior

Answer 17

1) stimulus substitution

2) CS allows you to adapt or prepare for the US

Question 18

what is stimulus substitution

Answer 18

CS just “stands in” for US, causes same response

ex. T-> food -> salivate

T-> (T) -> salivate (tone takes place of food)

Question 19

what are the examples of CS allowing you to adapt or prepare for the US (CR’s help you prepare)

Answer 19

1) fighting fish (show on paper)
2) conditioned mating (show on paper)
3) conditioned snuggling (show on paper)

Question 20

what is compensatory conditioning

Answer 20

form of the conditioned response, the CR is adaptive
shows association is made (drug opposite response)
homeostasis: maintaining constant internal conditions

Question 21

what is an example of conditioned opposite response in Pavlov with dogs and with drinking in the real world

Answer 21

show on paper

Question 22

what are CRs technically

Answer 22

the “withdraw symptoms”
ex. a hangover is a mini withdraw from alcohol and that is why drinking the next morning makes you feel better

withdrawal systems are the exact opposite of the drug symptoms

Question 23

what is tolerance

Answer 23

tolerance = UR + CR

Question 24

what is operant conditioning and how is it different than classical conditioning

Answer 24

classical: stimulus -> stimulus association
operant: réponse -> stimulus association, your response or behavior is the cause of a stimulus coming (your behavior controls the outcome)

Question 25

define positive, negative, reinforcement, punishment

(will be on test!!!!)

Answer 25

positive: behavior making something more likely to happen
negative: behavior makes something less likely to happen
reinforcement: anything you do to make response go up
punishment: anything you do to make response go down

Question 26

what are examples of all of the types of reinforcements and punishments in terms of rats BP for food

Answer 26

1) positive reinforcement: BP -> food
2) positive punishment: BP -> shock
3) negative punishment: free food, BP -> no food
4) negative reinforcement: free shock, BP -> turns shock off

Question 27

what are real life examples of all the types of reinforcements and punishments

Answer 27

1) positive reinforcement: good behavior -> cookie
2) positive punishment: misbehave -> yell
3) negative punishment: bad behavior -> take phone away
4) negative reinforcement:
escape: bad date, safety call -> leave, so you set up safety call next time
avoidance: ask friends about boy, they say no -> avoid bad date

Question 28

what are the techniques for studying instrumental conditioning

Answer 28

1) discrete trial: counting trial 1, trial 2…

2) free operant techniques: rat BP, pigeon pecking at light

Question 29

what are some examples of discrete trials

Answer 29

1) straight runway: rat is in a straight runway with hidden food at the other side, collecting your data by measuring speed or time to get to end
2) T-maze: rat is in a T shaped maze with food in one of the corners, collecting your data by looking at where the rat turns, % of correct turns

Question 30

what are the pros of using free operant techniques (Skinner)

Answer 30

1) more applicable to scenarios in real life, the species can make choice freely
2) define behavior base don how it operates in the environment, behavior is defined by the effect it has on the world (outcome)

Question 31

how do you get the rat to press the first time?

Answer 31

reward the rat when he does behaviors close to the desired behavior (shaping by successive approximations)
ex. facing food (reward), walking towards food (reward), sniffing level (reward) etc.

Question 32

what is a real life example of operant responses

Answer 32

the tenure system
when you’re done grad school you need publications on your resume so you do small, safe studies not big risky ones
this is an operant contingency

Question 33

what are the two developed theories to explain reinforcements (neither of these are right)

Answer 33

drive reduction theory: reinforcers are events that satisfy biological needs/drives (hunger, thirst, sexual arousal, pain avoidance)
or the “pleasure theory” that says reinforcements are stimuli; released dopamine in the “pleasure center”

Question 34

what is the study that disproves the drive reduction theory

Answer 34

if reinforcers are events that satisfy needs, punishers are events that make needs worse
put male rat in straight line cage with receptive female rat on the other side, have the rat run across and start mating with the female but take him out in the middle of mating
drive reduction theory says that the rat will eventually stop running but he actually runs faster
sometimes increases in drive states are rewarding (drive reduction is not right)

Question 35

what are some examples of studies that disprove the “pleasure theory”

Answer 35

problem with “pleasure theory” is sensory reinforcement

1) monkeys press button to open a shade and look at lab even though its not pleasurable
2) rats will press a bar to run through an empty maze, no biological pleasure
3) infants will suck a pacifier harder to view vacation slides which are pleasurable
4) humans will spend money to solve crosswords or go to horror films, none of these are pleasurable

Question 36

what does the relative reinforcer theory (Premack Principle) consider compared to the dual process and pleasure theory

Answer 36

considers preferences between events
BP -> food
-given choice between bar pressing and eating, rats would pick eating
-bar pressing is less probable behavior and eating food is more probable behavior
-so reinforcement is when something you’re less likely to do leads to something you’re more likely to do
-punishments are when something you’re more likely to do leads to sometimes you’re less likely to do (BP -> shock)

Question 37

what is an example of the relative reinforcer theory in rats choosing eating > running > grooming

Answer 37

1) teach rat grooming (less) -> running (more), this is reinforcement so grooming will go up
2) teach rat eating (more) -> running (less), this is punishment so eating will go down

Question 38

what is a key principle of the relative reinforcer theory

Answer 38

the same event can be either reinforcing or punishing (depends on the situation)

Question 39

what are some examples of the relative reinforcer theory in real life

Answer 39

1) reinforcing autistic children to complete math problems complete math problems (less) -> cookies (more)
* *in order to find out what kids like to be used as reinforcer do a “free observation”**

2) training preschoolers to sit still
sit still (less) -> run and scream like savage (more)

Question 40

how does social comparison influence the reward value of something

Answer 40

expectation: its not what you get its what you get compared to what you expect
this is the intrinsic nature of all creatures to react this way to reward

Question 41

what is a humans study that shows the effect of social comparison

Answer 41

humans placed in FMRI (measures brain activity), they were tasked with counting how many dots were on a screen and told another person is doing the same thing. a participant gets told how well both of you are doing and everyone gets paid different amounts for performance (even though everyone gets paid the same)

results: biology of reward, when someone did better than the other person BIG increase in pleasure center, small increase for same completion, and decrease in pleasure center when someone did worse than the other person

Question 42

what is a monkeys study that shows the effect of social comparison

Answer 42

monkeys give stone to experimenter to get food
when both monkeys get a cucumber they are equally happy
when one monkey gets a cucumber and the other one gets a grape the cucumber monkey is not happy at all and throws the cucumber at experimenter

Question 43

what do people use in the real world to try and guide social behavior and what are the problems with it

Answer 43

punishment

1) creates anger/ aggression
2) hard to deliver on-time punishment (if you want behavior to be controlled by punishment, the punishment needs to happen right away)
3) promotes punishment- avoidance not behavior of interest (ex. not picking up dog poop when its dark so no one can see)

Question 44

how can we use reinforcement to guide social behavior (and examples)

Answer 44

sensory reinforcement
Volkswagen Fun Theory
1) walking up stairs: make the stairs “piano” and people will take the stairs more than escalator
2) using the bottle bank (recycling): made it look like arcade game and people get points for putting in bottles
3) not littering in park: made the trash can sound extremely deep, people threw out trash and began to pick up other peoples trash

Cancun
1) underwater museum, people go underwater to look at the sculptures rather than go to the coral reef and damage it

Question 45

what is a condition for learning choice

Answer 45

timing delay between response and reward, long delays reduce the effectiveness of reward

Question 46

show the experiment of the pigeons with the timing delay between response and reward

Answer 46

show experiment on paper
if pigeons were rational creatures they would choose the light where out of 8 seconds, 4 seconds were food compared to 2 seconds, but they choose the other light because the initial delay affects their ability to make choices

Question 47

why does initial delay affect the ability to make choices (2 wrong reasons, 1 right)

Answer 47

1) maybe associated the food with something in the four second delay
2) maybe forgot they pecked green, STM

right:
3) delay discounting: rewards in the future have less value

Question 48

what are the two ways to bridge the delay gap in delay discounting

Answer 48

conditioned reinforcement and immediacy

Question 49

what is an example of a conditioned reinforcer when it comes to rats and BP

Answer 49

L-> food | BP -> food OR BP-> light
both of these will work because L is the conditioned reinforcer (it gets its value by being associated with food)

money is the conditioned reinforcer in humans

Question 50

what is an example of conditioned reinforcement and immediacy in the real world (Toyota Prius (hybrid))

Answer 50

Prius -> pay 5k more —–> better world, fuel savings
Corolla-> pay 5k less —–> worse pollution, spend more

conditioned reinforcement or social reward: Toyota gave Prius social reward so that people would buy it right away even though the positive effects (better world, fuel saving) are not seen right away (eg. distinct shape and says HYBRID)
immediate feedback: car shows MPG depending on MPH, so get rewarded for behavior of good driving (braking, accelerating slower, etc)

Question 51

so, what are the two conditions in order for bridging the delay gap to be successful

Answer 51

1) delay: responses need immediate consequences

2) pattern of reward that comes after response

Question 52

what are the two kinds of schedules of reinforcement

Answer 52

ratio schedules: theres a direct relationship between number of responses and number of rewards
interval schedules: reward available only after time passes

Question 53

what are the two kinds of ratio schedules

Answer 53

1) fixed ratio: constant or fixed number of responses = 1 reward
ex. FR1 = 1 behavior = 1 reward
2) variable ratio: theres an average # of responses needed to get a reward, but changes trial to trail
ex. VR50 = average of 50 behaviors needed for 1 reward

Question 54

explain fixed ratio schedule

Answer 54

draw on paper
post reinforcement pause: rats don’t feel like continuously lever pressing so they’ll take breaks before next food pellet (same with humans when they have four papers due)

FR schedules are used to test strength of drug reward
ex. using drug as reward for BP, slowly increase FR requirement and ask what is the highest ratio you get to before the animal gives up

Question 55

explain variable ratio schedule

Answer 55

draw on paper
high rates of responses that are continuous, instead of knowing FR50 the reward could be right there so the rats are more motivated to do behavior

applicable to humans using slot machines because the reward could be right there

Question 56

what are the two kinds of interval schedules

Answer 56

1) fixed interval: the amount of time that passes is always the same from reward to reward
2) variable interval: on average some amount time has to pass but it changes reward to reward

Question 57

explain fixed interval schedule

Answer 57

draw on paper
less responding overall (compared to FR and and VR) because theres no relationship between response and reward
lever pressing increases as it gets close to one minute (FI scallop)
ex. us in class after test, don’t study right away until it gets close to test

Question 58

explain variable interval schedule

Answer 58

draw on paper
unsure when the reward is, it could be right there so they’re more motivated to do behavior
applicable to us because of pop quizzes

Question 59

how are the interval schedules related to money

Answer 59

interval schedule: salary (biweekly, monthly)

ratio schedule: commission

Question 60

what are the three principles of schedules of reinforcement

Answer 60

1) more responding on ratio than interval
2) fixed schedules produce pauses, variable schedules produce continuous behavior
3) interval schedules are not the same as delay to reward
BP -> (30 sec) food (delay to reward)
time between rewards but BP-> food immediately (interval schedules)

Question 61

what is partial reinforcement

Answer 61

all schedules represent it except for FR1
ex.
FR1 BP -> food
FR10 BP -> food
then, switch everyone to extinction
FR1 notices change immediately
FR10 doesn’t notice extinction until 10th BP
** in general, partial reinforcement makes you resistant to extinction (maintain long term behavior)**

Question 62

what is the matching law for quantity

Answer 62

your amount of behavior should match the amount of reward
in other words, if two options A + B on interval schedules then % responses to A = % reward available on A (straight line graph)

Question 63

what is an example of the matching law for quantity in real life

Answer 63

reduce teen drug use or pregnancy
create other options to draw people away from dugs and sex
-> after school programs, every hour spend on B is not spent on A

Question 64

what is the matching law for delay

Answer 64

longer delay matched with less behavior and shorter delay matched with more behavior
creatures should match behavior to the inverse of delay (3x delay = 1/3 behavior)
in essence creatures are maximizing reward/unit time (pay rate)

Question 65

how does the matching law explain the pigeons original choice and then their preference reversal after added 10 second delay

Answer 65

original: matching law says this happened because of the minimal delay, 2 seconds with no delay at all feels better than 4 seconds delay then 4 seconds food
preference reversal: matching law says this happened because their perception of pay rate has changed with the longer added delay

Question 66

how to get people to save $ for retirement

Answer 66

1) provide immediate reward: positive reinforcement (if i put in 6%, Arcadia puts in 8%) & negative reinforcement (money goes in pretax so you avoid tax)
2) precommitment: choose to put the money aside at the beginning of the year through automatic deduction

Question 67

how to use precommitment to save money for retirement

Answer 67

show experiment on paper

social security system takes out 6% of gross pay and goes to government, given back to people when they retire

Question 68

explain optimal foraging research in terms of VI and VR intervals

Answer 68

foraging is searching for resources
in a VI VI schedule it pays to switch back and forth but in a VR VR schedule its better to stay with the better alternative (exclusive choice for lower ratio)

Question 69

demonstrate optimal foraging in terms of the ideal free duck study

Answer 69

draw study on paper
evolution should have built creatures that maximize energy/time
two people throw same size bread in a pond at 10/min and 5/min ratios and the prediction is that groups of ducks should be allocated in ratio of those rewards
results: the ducks match as group reward rates (22 & 11) within two minutes and when the ratios switch sides the ducks switch sides too

Question 70

what was the second study with the ducks where the bread is different sizes at the same throwing rate as experiment 1

Answer 70

same throwing rate but 2:1 ratio of bread sizes
step 1: ducks first allocated 50/50
step 2: ducks later reallocated 2/3:1/3

ducks first pay attention to throwing rate but then they look at food/ unit time and can readjust

Question 71

what are the questions and answers squirrels ask when foraging in “patchy” environments (for nuts)

Answer 71

1) which patch should i enter next?
- the one that has the higher than average return rate

2) when I’m in a patch when should i leave?
- when expected return drops below average

Question 72

draw the guppy experiment and explain it

Answer 72

draw it on paper
there are two foods to choose from (ratios in calories), the food ratios flip and then the # of guppies flip

there are some guppies who only eat worms and some who only eat fruit flies, so they don’t switch
-these guppies with food preferences gain less weight because they give up going to the higher return weight

Question 73

explain the sunfish on lake Michigan study

Answer 73

sunfish eat vegetation mats and plankton
early summer: vegetation > plankton
late summer: plankton > vegetation
in general, sunfish eat more vegetation in early summer and more plankton in late summer but…
large sunfish change preference, small sunfish stay with vegetation for predator avoidance (big fish get bigger because they can change to the optimal choice, small fish cannot)

Question 74

what is the endowment effect and the hoodie example

Answer 74

people place more value on things they already own

people who own the hoodie would sell it for $45
people who just picture a random hoodie would sell it for $30

Question 75

what is the relationship between optimal foraging and travel time

Answer 75

a patch is depleting
scenario 1: next patch is far away
scenario 2: next patch is close by
the closer the next patch the sooner you should leave the current patch

Question 76

explain the bees foraging in a “patchy” meadow experiment

Answer 76

draw on paper
two meadows one with massed flowers one with spaced flowers
you can predict how much nectar bees will leave per flower if you know things about bees
in the meadow where the flowers are close bees leave more nectar in the flower compared to where the flowers are spaced far apart
this is because its harder to get the last bit of nectar out so the bees won’t suck all of it out they’ll just move to next flower

Question 77

what are the three important takeaways (components) from choice

Answer 77

1) reward amount (matching law for quantity)
2) reward delay (matching law for delay)
3) expected alternatives (decisions made by present self are not the same as decisions made for your future self)

Question 78

what are the two sides of 20th century economics

Answer 78

1) people are selfish and competitive: humans are built to maximize reward/time, so people work harder in capitalist societies because they’re working for themselves
2) selfishness is a product of capitalism and can be trained away… “ideal socialist man”: people trained to no longer work for themselves but for society

Question 79

show what happened in USSR when the state was trying to nationalize livestock

Answer 79

1) turn cows to state -> nothing -> small unknown reward
2) try to keep cows -> nothing & punishment -> small unknown reward

3) kill all animals -> food and $ now -> everyone starves later
people chose this option

this caused Lenin to create the New Economic Policy: people chose what they did because of the concept of reward (immediate reward)

Question 80

whats an example in the USSR that shows how people are more willing to work for themselves

Answer 80

97% of land was held by government and 3% was allocated to private farming
25% of agricultural output came from private farming because people worked hard for the immediate reward, whereas in land owned by government people got nothing

Question 81

what are the four aspects of behavioral economics

Answer 81

1) open vs. closed economies
2) elastic v. inelastic rewards/ goods
3) effect of substitutes
4) effect of constraints on wealth/income

Question 82

what are open v. closed economies

Answer 82

closed: no source of reward other than what you earn
open: there are sources of reward you don’t work for (unemployment insurance, welfare, etc)

the more closed a system, the harder one should work for reward

Question 83

show open v. closed economies with rats on FR schedule for food

Answer 83

if open: breaking point = FR50 (rate of responding decreases)
if closed: breaking point = FR250

Question 84

explain elastic v. inelastic rewards/goods and give an example

Answer 84

1) inelastic: as price changes, demand does not
ex. gas, food in closed economy
2) elastic: as price goes up, you consume less
ex. luxury items in open economy (clothes, car, etc.)

Question 85

explain elastic v inelastic goods in terms of rats pressing for food or for stimulation of pleasure center

Answer 85

(closed) press left-> stimulation of pleasure center
(open) press right -> food

people used to say that stimulation > food, but this is not true because the food is in an open economy

to make this study better:
make both economies closed
increase price (FR)
rats do end up favoring food, we just did this experiment wrong

Question 86

are drugs inelastic or elastic

Answer 86

government policy acts as though they are elastic, but they are actually inelastic

Question 87

what is the effect of substitutes

Answer 87

lack of substitutes produces inelasticity

Question 88

show the effect of substitutes in rat experiment

Answer 88

press R -> water
press L -> food

slowly raise the FR requirement for food, but because food is inelastic (no substitutes) they will never stop working for it

press R-> root beer
press L -> Tom Collins mix
slowly raise the FR requirement for Tom Collins, but because there is a substitute they’ll stop working for it

Question 89

show the effect of substitutes in terms of buying cigarettes in Philly

Answer 89

buy in Philly –(price & tax)–> cigs
buy suburbs –(price)–> cigs

people will switch and buy suburbs because its cheaper (those who can afford transportation) so cigs are elastic

but for people who are poor and cant afford transportation they have to buy cigs in city so they’re inelastic

Question 90

show the example of heroin in humans (partial substitute and perfect substitute)

Answer 90

on paper
partial: methadone
some people switch to methadone but others don’t

perfect: legal heroin
some countries have done this

Question 91

what are the effects of constraints on wealth/ income

Answer 91

income constraints should reveal elasticity

at high incomes, everything is inelastic but at low incomes elasticity is revealed

Question 92

show the effects of constrains on wealth/ income in terms of the rat experiment with food and pleasure center stimulation

Answer 92

press R-> food
press L-> pleasure center stimulation
when you can press as much as you like the pleasure center is more inelastic, but when presses are restricted rats switch to food

the inelasticity of food is revealed by:

1) raising price (FR)
2) reducing income (presses allowed)

Question 93

explain loss aversion and the control of behavior and an example in terms of using plastic bags

Answer 93

consider whether you want positive or negative reinforcement
loss aversion is when losses of size x hurt more than gains of size x feel good

use plastic -> nothing
use own bag -> 25 cent reward

use plastic -> charged 25 cents
use own bag -> nothing

the latter is more powerful because losses loom larger than gains