Final exam woohoo Flashcards
Learning
Any relatively permanent change in performance potential that is brought through experience
Performance potential
Learned how to do something but have not engaged in the behavior yet
Types of learning
Associative learning (classical conditioning and operant/instrumental learning) and Observational learning
Associative learning
basic form, occurs when an organism makes a connection/association between stimuli. Can be classical conditioning or operant/instrumental learning
Observational learning
Conscious and unconscious processes, learning by observing other people engage in behavior, more complex cognitive activity
Classical Conditioning
Animal is going to learn to associate 2 stimulate that repeatedly happen together
Unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
a stimulus that elicits a reflexive response in an organism, example: meat for doggos
Unconditioned response (UCR)
UCS naturally produces UCR, a natural or unlearned reaction to a given stimulus, example: salivation from meat
Conditioned stimulus (CS)
stimulus that elicits a response after being paired repeatedly with the UCS, initially produces no response, example: ringing bell
Conditioned response (CR)
The behavior caused by the CS, similar if not identical to UCS, example: salivation from the bell (CS)
Habituation
occurs when we learn not to respond to a stimulus that is presented repeatedly without change. As the stimulus occurs over and over we learn to not focus our attention on it
Interstimulus interval
Amount of time that elapses between CS and UCS. Should be pretty short, the longer, the less likely there will be an association
Apparent contingency
the occurrence of one stimulus seems to depend on the occurrence of another
Delay conditioning
Most effective, close together and simultaneous, close in time and overlap bc CS starts before UCS and end together, CS predicts UCS
Trace conditioning
2nd most effective, effectiveness depends on length of interstimulus, CS is before UCS and doesn’t overlap, CS predicts UCS
Simultaneous and backward conditioning
Least effective methods, not going to produce long lasting learning, backward is after the UCS and simultaneous CS is during UCS
Stimulus generalization
The tendency for the CS to evoke similar responses after the response has been conditioned. The more similar a stimulus is to the conditioned stimulus, the more likely the organism is to give the CR. Example: if the bell (CS) is similar in sound to the microwave, the microwave may make the dog salivate (CR)
Generalization gradient
Shows the relationship between the degree of change in the original conditioning stimulus and response strength. Strongest with the original CS, weakening of the response the further away you get from the original CS, adaptive to different stimuli
Stimulus discrimination
we try to get an individual to emit conditional response only in the presence of certain stimuli. Example: dog conditioned to hear the bell (CS) and no other noises to salivate (CR) so this discriminates against other noises
Higher order conditioning
When you pair a second CS with the initial CS in the absence of USC.
Blocking
When you pair a second CS so that it predicts USC. CS2 then CS1 then USC. Over a number of trials, turn on CS2, CS2 does not produce CR, CS2 provides no additional predictive value
Extinction
the decrease in CR when the USC is no longer presented with the CS. If you don’t bring food but still ring the bell, doggos become sad
Spontaneous recovery
the return of a previously extinguished CR following a rest period
Operant/instrumental conditioning
Associating 2 stimuli: behavior and its consequence (reinforcement or punishment). We learn to do things that bring about desired outcomes
Behaviorism and black box approach
only things we can study scientifically are the things we can only directly observe (no internal processes like cognition), all behavior is learned
Thorndyke’s law of effect
link an action to a pleasant experience, the organism is likely to repeat that action
Skinner’s box paradigm
Special cage with a rat, food dish, lever
Rat will push lever down to give food pellet
Response (r) → reinforcing stimulus (sr)
Rat repeats action, eventually knows the lever equals food
Postitive reinforcement
occurrence of a stimulus increases the probability of a response in the future (subjectively pleasant), depends on who organism is. Example: you get a toy when you clean your room, best way to teach a person
Negative reinforcement
sensation of a noxious stimulus increases probability of a response (disappearance of a negative stimulus). Taking an aspirin for a headache, putting a blanket on when you’re cold.
Reinforcement vs. punishment
Reinforcement always increases the probability of response and produces desired outcome for organism. Punishment decreases the prob of response occurring in future, does so by making noxious stimulus occur
Positive punishment
something added to decrease response (you get a scolding for texting in class)
Negative punishment
something removed to decrease response (taking away a toy for being bad)
Primary reinforcements
stimuli that are innately reinforcing; satisfy basic physiological need (food, warmth, water, social acceptance)
Secondary reinforcements
organism learned to value via classical conditioning (test grades, money)
Premack
reinforcer doesn’t have to be actual stimulus. any activity can bring about another activity that is performed less frequently.
Reinforcement hierarchy
Top of the hierarchy are things most engaged in, low are low-performed activities. Example: you want to watch tv? do your homework (tv higher than hw). Any activity in a hierarchy can be used to reinforce activities lower in the hierarchy, can be reinforced by activities higher in hierarchy
Timing of reinforcing stimulus
reinforcement or punishment must occur in a short amount of time following response. If time delay learning is slow if at all.
Superstitious behavior
person engages in string of irrelevant behavior because they think that’s what is reinforcing the behavior
Reinforcing stimulus
what is used as reinforcing stimulus must be reinforcing- what is used as a reinforcer must be reinforcing (we must be cognizant of what is reinforcing to some isn’t for others, how do we know what is going to be reinforcing beforehand?)
Consistency of delivery of reinforcing stimulus
we need to reinforce the response every time it occurs, produces most efficient learning. After conditioning is set in, we don’t want to necessarily consistently reinforce behavior - we want to do partial reinforcement
Continuous reinforcement
every response that occurs is reinforced
Partial reinforcement
reinforced only some of the time
Fixed interval schedule
passage of time between reinforced behaviors. Predetermined amount of time must elapse before response is reinforced (5 min, 10 min, 15 min…) Example: taking pills, getting paycheck. Moderate responses with big pauses after reinforcement
Variable interval schedule
Based on passage of time, interval between reinforced responses is varied (average intervals). Example: watching shooting stars, random drug test, checking Facebook. Moderate responses yet steady response rate (straight linear line)
Fixed ratio schedule
Based on # of responses emitted, after x responses occurred, next responses reinforced (if ratio is 1/5 every 5th response is reinforced). Example: frequent flier program. High response rate with pauses after reinforcement
Variable ratio schedule
of responses that have to be made, average # of responses that have to be made before reinforcement. On average every 5th response is rewarded. Example: slot machines and golf. High and steady response rate
Gambling
example of variable ratio schedule, Specifically, gambling may activate the reward centers of the brain, much like cocaine does. Some research suggests that pathological gamblers use gambling to compensate for abnormally low levels of the hormone norepinephrine, which is associated with stress and is secreted in moments of arousal and thrill
Shaping
rewarding successive approximations toward a target behavior
Successive approx
we reinforce behaviors that are more and more similar to desired behavior
Timeout
form of negative punishment, recommend one min for each year of child’s age. He or she is removed from a desirable activity in an effort to decrease the unwanted behavior present
Setting of reinforcement
there are environmental stimuli all around us, most behaviors are most likely to occur in the presence of some stimuli than in the presence of other stimuli (constance does’t teach psych at home), Sd → R → Sr:
Discriminating stimulus → response → reinforcing stimulus
Discrimination training
we have to condition an animal to engage in behavior when discriminating stimulus is present but not when other stimulus is present
Stimulus generalization
tendency to respond to similar stimuli (not having to relearn driving a car every time you enter)
Extinction
stop reinforcing behaviors. behaviors that are the easiest to extinguish are the ones being continuously reinforced - won’t take long to realize the absence of reward. Fixed schedules: more difficult (not every response is rewarded, but they know about how long until next)
Variable schedules: difficult for animal to realize reinforcement has stopped (could be very long interval)
Simply removing reinforcement will stop behavior but could be hard
Dangers and difficulties in using punishments
- Punishment is often reinforcing to punisher
- It can have a generalized inhibitory effect
- Model for aggression
- Can be reinforcing to organism
- Doesn’t teach appropriate behaviors
Cognitive perspectives
go beyond simple associations to understand how organisms represent, store, and use info. How do we mentally represent past experiences?
Latent learning
learning that occurs but is not observable in behavior until there is a reason to demonstrate it
Cognitive maps
mental picture of the layout of the maze
Learning v performance
learning is a change in performance potential. We can go to new building knowing where it is without having a class there yet, problematic for behavioralists
Observational learning
process of watching others and then imitating what they do
Vicarious reinforcement
individual is not reinforced, see someone else getting reinforced and get the message
Components to observational learning process
attention, retention, reproduction of behavior, motivation
Attention
individual has to pay attention to model’s behavior
- -model characteristics: is the model competent at the behavior, social power, relationship of model to observer (parent than stranger)
- observer characteristics: extend to which observer perceives similarity to model, self esteem, interest in activity
Retention
we have to store a mental representation of what we have witnessed in our memory. You might not have an occasion to engage in behavior for quite some time, store in memory and do later.
Imaginal representation system
we store and retrieve a sensory image
Verbal representation system
we translate what we see into verbal labels or words in essence instructions
- best encoding into memory with these
- if we ask children to talk about the model did they learn better than just watching the model
Reproduction of behavior
convert mental images into our own overt behavior may not be easy (watching Tiger woods play golf). we can only achieve rough approx of model’s behavior
Motivation
Unlikely to reproduce a behavior unless there is a motivated reason to do so, depends on whether you encounter a situation where the behavior would pay off, vicarious reinforcement affects motivation - if you see model reinforce we do behavior to get reinforcement
Effects of direct reinforcement
a lot of our learning we do via observational learning. does not mean that direct experience does not play a role in shaping behaviors. When you do engage in the observed behavior, your personal experience of reinforcement starts to determine likelihood of engaging in behavior again. Reinforcement helps with reproduction of behavior (getting feedback)
Encoding
acquisition of memorizing - converting incoming sensations in a form that can be stored as memory you at least temporarily store memories.
Automatic vs effortful encoding
sometimes encoding is effortful (studying) other times it automatic (no conscious effort). You need to remember what you ate for lunch temporarily so you don’t get sick
Levels of processing memory
elaboration, visualization, self-referecning
Elaboration
creation of more and more associations between the new info and info already existing in memory. More associations, deeper processing
Visualization
very effective, thinking creatively about new info