Introduction to Learning Flashcards
what is a stimulus?
an event that happens to you e.g. sight, sound, smell, taste, touch. could be internal e.g. itch, pain, cold
what is a response?
something you do voluntary-under your control or involuntary e.g. breathing
can be in response to a stimulus
what is learning?
the process of acquiring new knowledge. ‘Persistent change in behaviour (responses) as a result of experience’
what is innate behaviour?
behaviour that is not learned, it is hardwired and comes from evolution. It is adaptive fro species to deal with fixed features of environment
examples of innate behaviour not being learned
- Goose continues with behaviour even if egg removed and replaced by a novelty object that don’t even look like eggs e.g. a snooker ball, Russian doll or volleyball
- Stickleback fish responds to most stimulus that at least look like a fish
what is happening in the mind mental represetations
- when experiencing a stimulus forming a response to accompanied by some neural activity
- which is activating the neurones u need to respond
- the mental state accompanying experience of stimulus is the round object
- the mental state accompanying performance of response if the egg-rolling
- unlearned association meaning experiencing stimulus can automatically trigger response
what did Tinbergen’s experiement?
- Aim: examine whether presence, colour and position of red patch were important to induce chicks to peck
- presented chicks with models with a red, black, blue or white patch, and a model with no patch and one with a red patch on the forehead
- The model with a black patch received most pecks, followed, in decreasing order, by a model with a red, blue, white or no patch, with fewest pecks towards the model with the patch on its forehead
- The preference for black surprised Tinbergen, as he expected that the red patch would receive most pecks. He concluded that the chicks responded primarily to a contrasting spot on the beak
what is a supernormal stimulus?
stimuli more effective than naturally occurring sign stimuli; the snooker ball, model fish
what is a fixed action pattern?
stereotyped response triggered by sign stimulus; e.g. egg-rolling
what is habituation?
reduction in response to a stimulus after repeated exposure
unconditioned stimulus gets weaker with repeated presentation
what’s the difference between short-term and long-term habituation?
- after short-term habituation the response is recovered after a reduction in responses
- after long-term habituation the response remains reduced and doesn’t return
what is classical conditioning?
- process of pairing an US and CS to produce a CR
- Can be used to condition fear/anxiety
- For example Watson and Rayner (1920) fear conditioned Little Albert to be scared of white rat toy by pairing the toy with a loud bang
classical conditioning with pigeons
- Key followed by grain regardless of whether bird pecks it or not but bird pecks
- pecking prevented bird from receiving all his grain – irrational, not-goal directed
- this suggests classical conditioning response
- Classical conditioning evolutionarily sensible
e.g. salivation prepares you for eating food; this can make them appear rational; but it is
inflexible – can’t adapt to circumstances in
a rational way
what operant (instrumental) conditioning?
when behaviours are modified based on reinforcement or punishment
what is Omission training
- Keylight S predicts food but pecking R prevents food
- First two trials show the bird pecking at the key and not receiving grain.
- Eventually, the bird learned to stop pecking, but note that orientation toward the key continues.
- He can override the classically conditioned response with a voluntary instrumental response to get the food
- Pigeon can be rational and do instrumental conditioning, but classical conditioning interferes with expressing it
