L1 - What is learning

Question 1

Learning

Answer 1

An enduring change within an organism brought about by experience that makes a change in behaviour possible

Question 2

Associative Learning

Answer 2

An organism changes its behaviour with regard to a stimulus as a consequence of associating it with a second stimulus. Two forms of associative learning are classical and instrumental conditioning.

Question 3

What two types of relationship fall under association?

Answer 3

1. A temporal correlation between events - one stimulus is continuous and contiguous with the other, e.g. occurs simultaneously or soon after the other.
2. statistical relationship between their occurrence - when one stimulus appears the other is more or less likely to follow.

Question 4

Instrumental Conditioning

Answer 4

Reinforcement or punishment are used to either increase or decrease the probability that a behaviour will occur again in the future. Your actions lead to consequences. US is response dependent.

Question 5

Classical Conditioning (Pavlovian)

Answer 5

Occurs when two stimuli are repeatedly paired: a response which is at first elicited by the second stimulus is eventually elicited by the first stimulus alone. US is response independent.

Question 6

Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

Answer 6

Stimulus with inherent biological importance to animal e.g food

Question 7

Unconditioned Responce (UR)

Answer 7

Response automatically elicited by US (e.g consumption or salivation)

Question 8

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

Answer 8

Initially neutral cue (e.g. sound) that acquires significance through conditioning

Question 9

Conditioned Response (CR)

Answer 9

Response elicited by CS following conditioning

Question 10

Experimental Paradigms

Answer 10

Sets of commonly used procedures to compare conditioning across:

• different species (difficult because they all respond differently)
• USs with different affective consequences
• Different response requirements

Question 11

Appetitive

Answer 11

Activity that increases the likelihood of satisfying a specific need (e.g. predator searches for food if hungry).

Question 12

Aversive

Answer 12

Causing avoidance of a thing, situation, or behaviour by using an unpleasant or punishing stimulus. (fear conditioning, freezing rat to shock). Also called conditioned suppression.

Question 13

Habituation

Answer 13

With repeated or continued exposure to a stimulus, an organism’s response to that stimulus may diminish e.g. startle reaction to a loud noise

Question 14

Sensitization

Answer 14

With repeated or continued exposure to a stimulus, an organism’s response to the stimulus may increase. E.g. if noise is very loud, responding may first increase before eventually habituating.

Question 15

Examples of conditioning paradigms for animals

Answer 15

Conditioned salivation, fear conditioning, conditioned suppression, taste aversion, conditioned magazine approach, eyeblink conditioning.

Question 16

What two types of change are not learning? Give examples.

Answer 16

Changes at the sensory and motor levels, e.g. fatigue, change in fitness.

Question 17

Describe the conditioned salivation paradigm.

Answer 17

A dog is placed into a harness. A CS (e.g. tone, light) is presented along with food (US). Eventually the dog will begin to salivate (CR) when the CS is presented.

Question 18

Describe the fear conditioning paradigm.

Answer 18

Typically used with rats. A rat is presented with a CS (tone, light) followed by a US (shock). Eventually the rat reacts with fear to the CS. Duration of freezing (CR)is a measure of learned fear.

Question 19

Describe the conditioned suppression paradigm.

Answer 19

Stage 1: Instrumental baseline. A rat is taught to produce a response (e.g. press a lever for food) through operant conditioning on a variable interval (VI) schedule of reinforcement.

Stage 2: Pavlovian conditioning. CS (tone or light) presented, followed by shock (US).

Rat learns to stop pressing lever when CS is presented.

Question 20

Describe the taste aversion paradigm.

Answer 20

A rat is given a flavoured solution (CS, e.g. sucrose water). After drinking the solution, the rat is made sick with an injection of LiCl (US). Afterwards the rat dramatically reduces its intake of solution.