Introduction to Learning 1 and 2

Question 1

What kind of conditioning did Pavlov demonstrate?

Answer 1

Classical.

Question 2

What is autoshaping?

Answer 2

A conditioning procedure used to analyse behaviour.

Question 3

How is a conditioned emotional response (CER) produced?

Answer 3

1. Baseline response (measurable activity)
2. Pair UCS with NS until NS becomes CS and produces CR
3. Test of learning strength - present CS

Question 4

What is a suppression ratio?

Answer 4

A = time to do CR x times before CS
B = “ after CS
A/(A+B) (proportion of total time before CS)
If SR = 0.5, A and B are the same = no learning.
If SR is close to 0, learning has occurred.

Question 5

What did Resorcla-Wagner’s (1972) model show about acquisition?

Answer 5

Faster with high UCS (e.g. food?)

Question 6

What did Resorcla-Wagner’s (1972) model show about extinction?

Answer 6

Steep decline.

Question 7

What is temporal contiguity?

Answer 7

The time separating the conditioned stimulus and outcome event. Contiguous = close, trace = separated.

Question 8

What did Watson do to ‘little Albert’?

Answer 8

11mo, no fear of animals but didn’t like loud noises, presented white rat with steel bar strike. After 6 pairings, Albert cried at sight of rat. Also became afraid of rabbits, fur coats and dogs (stimulus generalisation).

Question 9

What did Guttman and Kalish (1956) study?

Answer 9

Stimulus generalisation to different wavelengths in pigeons.

Question 10

How is CC linked to eating and drinking?

Answer 10

Mostly anticipatory rather than deficit signals - environmental CSs like time of day lead to eating (CR) (Weingarten, 1983). On exposure to CS, satiated rats eat within 5s. Birch et al (1989) saw similar effect in nursery school children.

Question 11

How can CC be applied to advertising as shown by Stuart et al (1987)?

Answer 11

Ratings of an item increase the more it’s paired with a positive scene.

Question 12

What is instrumental learning/ operant conditioning?

Answer 12

The signal a stimulus is paired to is provided by a self-generated response.

Question 13

How did Thorndike’s kitten learn to get out of the box?

Answer 13

Pulling the string once, learns to do this as it results in the door opening. The P(Rcorrect) increases over trials.

Question 14

Outline problems with the ‘Law of Effect’?

Answer 14

• Latent learning - Tolman found that rats familiar with complex mazes could adjust their behaviour when routes were blocked off, suggesting they have created a cognitive map.
• Stimulus chaining, e.g. Barnabus the rat.
• Reinforcer devaluation

Question 15

What is the ‘Law of Effect’?

Answer 15

The idea that behaviors are selected by their consequences.

Question 16

What did Dickinson and Dawson (1987) find regarding reinforcer devaluation?

Answer 16

• Trained rats to press lever either for sugar water or dry food, found that SW rats made the same number of responses regardless of hunger or thirst, whereas F rats made fewer responses when thirsty than when hungry.
• Suggests that rats had a conception of what reinforcer their response would produce.

Question 17

What is autoshaping?

Answer 17

A type of conditioning which occurs when an animal learns to respond to a stimulus without reinforcement of the response but with associative learning of a contingency between a conditioned stimulus and the reinforcement.
Instrumental learning is easier if the response is an automatic reaction to the UCS.
E.g. pigeons pecking illuminated response keys.

Question 18

What is the difference between positive and negative reinforcement?

Answer 18

Positive = reinforcing stimulus, negative = stimulus removed.

Question 19

What is biofeedback?

Answer 19

Sensors record scalp muscle movements and finger temp - tension and cold indicate tension, controlling this physiological reaction can reduce tension headaches.

Question 20

What is token economy?

Answer 20

Used to manage people in institutions - tokens reward good behaviour, can be exchanged for goods. Secondary reinforcement.

Question 21

What is an example of partial reinforcement?

Answer 21

Gambling.

Question 22

What are the different schedules of partial reinforcement?

Answer 22

• Fixed-ratio (every nth response)
• Variable-ratio
• Fixed-interval (every X seconds)
• Variable-interval

Question 23

Ratio schedules produce…

Answer 23

Higher response rates than interval schedules.

Question 24

Variable schedules produce…

Answer 24

Greater resistance to extinction than fixed schedules.

Question 25

What does tool use offer the potential for?

Answer 25

Observational learning, e.g. chimps cracking nuts with rocks.