L10 - Classic Theories

Question 1

What is the difference between contiguity and contingency learning?

Answer 1

Contiguity: Stimulus-response and stimulus-stimulus associations

Contingency: Causal relationship between behaviour and outcomes

Question 2

What are the 4 key principles/debates occurring in learning theory?

Answer 2

Contiguity v Contingency

Drive Reduction v No Drive Reduction

Cognitions v No Cognitions

Learning v Performance (can learning occur without reward?)

Question 3

What type of theory did Thorndike believe in?

Answer 3

Association theory

(S-R bonds or contiguity-based explanation)

(Gradual learning process, trial and error learning)

Question 4

Who invented Stimulus-Response Theory?

Answer 4

Edward Thorndike

Question 5

What does ‘instrumental conditioning’ in Stimulus-Response Theory mean?

Answer 5

Consequences bind or connect responses to stimuli through association.

(Similar to contingency learning, but learning is done instead by association)

Question 6

What were Thorndike’s 3 elementary behavioural laws?

Answer 6

1. The ‘law of effect’
2. The ‘law of readiness’
3. The ‘law of exercise’

Question 7

Describe Thorndike’s ‘law of effect’

Answer 7

Any response that successfully influences the environment will have a greater probability of being repeated in the same situation.

(i. e. animal learns what response ‘works’ given a particular situation)
* (this is the only law that stuck)*

Question 8

Describe Thorndike’s ‘law of readiness’

Answer 8

Animals perform or repeat actions which are satisfying and avoid those which cause annoyance or discomfort.

Question 9

Describe Thorndike’s ‘law of exercise’

Answer 9

The connection between responses and outcomes becomes stronger over time.

(i.e. more dominant responses should come to dominate if the animal is repeatedly placed into the same situation)

Question 10

Which of Thorndike’s laws were abandoned?

Answer 10

The ‘law of readiness’ and the ‘law of exercise’

Question 11

What was Thorndike’s notion of ‘multiple response’

Answer 11

Animals who vary their responses a lot more are more likely to get the correct response

(Similar to Skinner’s notion of creativity)

Question 12

What was Thorndike’s notion of ‘associative shifting’

Answer 12

Animals responses can be shifted by gradually modifying small elements of the stimulus until it is a completely different one

(Skinner’s notion of ‘fading’ or ‘vanishing’)

Question 13

What was Thorndike’s ‘response by analogy’?

Answer 13

Animals work out what works in a particular type of situation and then apply it to other similar situations.

(similar to generalisation)

Question 14

What was Thorndike’s ‘response availability’?

Answer 14

The ability to modify responses in reaction to variations in the environment?

(similar to discrimination learning)

Question 15

What did Edwin Guthrie believe was wrong with Stimulus Response Theory and what did he believe was the most important thing described in his Contiguity Theory?

Answer 15

1. Argued that other theories were too complex
2. The only important thing was the contiguity of responses

Question 16

What sort of theorist was Guthrie?

How did he believe animals learnt?

Answer 16

Contiguity theorist

He thought that animals were ‘robots’ and the strength of learning was related to exposure and spatial-temporal linking of S-R.

Reinforcement cements S-R bonds.

Question 17

What is the contiguity of responses law in Guthrie’s contiguity theory?

Answer 17

Behavioural responses occurring in conjunction with stimuli will be repeated.

(e.g. hurdle-jump, cigarette-smoke etc.)

Question 18

How do you change behaviour according to Guthrie’s contiguity theory?

Answer 18

One needs to encourage other behaviours in conjunction with the stimuli.

Question 19

What are three kinds of treatments or therapies that are based on Guthrie’s principles?

Answer 19

1. Exhaustion or Flooding Technique
2. Threshold Method and Counter-Conditioning
3. Incompatibility Method

Question 20

1. Explain the exhaustion or flooding technique for changing behaviour.
2. Why does it work?

Answer 20

1. Making the person repeat the response until it is fatigued.
2. The stimulus no longer evokes any sort of interest or response. The stimulus and response connection is broken because other responses (e.g. irritation and frustration) start to intrude.

Question 21

1. Explain the threshold method for changing behaviour.
2. How does it work

Answer 21

1. Involves the gradual exposure of varying magnitudes or thresholds of a stimulus.
2. It starts with such a weak version that the person does not respond. The stimulus is gradually increased and hopefully, the person still doesn’t produce a response.

Question 22

How is counter-conditioning (systematic desensitisation) different from the threshold method?

Answer 22

Similar to the threshold method as you start with a weak stimulus and gradually grow stronger but the effect is strengthened by encouraging competing responses (e.g. relaxation)

Question 23

Describe the incompatibility method for changing behaviour.

Answer 23

Involves exposing a person to the stimulus in situations where it comes to be associated with other responses.

(e.g. tying a dead bird to the neck of a dog who was chasing birds so that they want to get away from birds rather than chase them)

Question 24

What determines the strength of learning according to stimulus-response associations.

Answer 24

Conditioning becomes stronger when the behaviour and stimuli are more complex.

(If the person or animal does more, and does it in the context of a richer array of stimuli, then the connection will be stronger.)

(e.g. it’s best to learn in a sequence rather than just an individual task, i.e. its easier to start at the beginning of a song rather than halfway through)

Question 25

How does reinforcement (reward) play a role in Guthrie’s theory?

Answer 25

Rewards are not essential for learning.

Reinforcement instead serves as ways of focussing the link between stimuli and responses (we remember circumstances leading to rewards better than other things).

Question 26

Describe the facilitative feedback effect

Answer 26

The associative strength of consumption is generalised back in various degrees to the stimuli which preceded it.

(The closer the organism is to reinforcement, the more important the stimuli becomes.)

Each response and stimulus combination acts as a trigger for the part of the overall response sequence.

(e.g. learning a piece of music until you finally get it and it ‘snaps’ into your knowledge in an associative chain)

Question 27

1. What is the ‘stop action principle’ described by Guthrie?
2. Which experiment led him to believe this?

Answer 27

Learning was an ‘all or nothing’ phenomenon and did not occur gradually.

The Guthrie-Horton Experiment

Question 28

What was the problem with the Guthrie-Horton Experiment that led Guthrie to believe in the ‘stop-action’ principle?

Answer 28

It was too easy for the cats to learn the task, and so when they found out how to accomplish it there was no need for more learning.

Question 29

What is the difference between Thorndike and Guthrie’s view of learning?

Answer 29

Thorndike = Gradual trial and error learning

Guthrie = Correct response is there all the time, just a matter of getting it produced in the right situation. The more stimuli involved, the more likely the response will be tied to the situation.

Question 30

How do Thorndike and Guthrie’s views differ when it comes to reinforcement?

Answer 30

Thorndike: Reinforcement serves to reward the animal and make the animal more likely to produce the behaviour because of its effect on the environment

Guthrie: Reinforcement focuses (welds) the behaviour to whatever stimulus conditions were prevailing at the time.

Question 31

Is Thorndike or Guthrie’s view of learning correct?

Answer 31

Thorndike as learning is not all or one but gradual.

Question 32

Responses are fixed to stimuli as Guthrie suggests

True or False

Answer 32

False

• (If you teach a rat a maze then flood the maze, the rat will swim to the food even though swimming has never been taught)*
• General movements tend to be reinforced rather than very specific behaviours (rats wont press the bar the same way each time)*

Question 33

Does more stimuli increase the amount of learning as Guthrie suggests?

Answer 33

Not necessarily, you can become overwhelmed with stimuli and that can cause learning to be slower.

Question 34

Describe the main tenants of Edward Tolman’s Purposive Learning Theory

Answer 34

1. Animals are purposeful, they are motivated to achieve goals.
2. Animals use ‘cognitive maps’ to navigate their environment (as well as just S-R connections)

Question 35

Describe Tolman’s T-maze experiment and it’s results.

Answer 35

There was a t-shaped maze with food hidden in the right-hand side of the maze behind a curtain to test if it was place learning (Tolman) or response learning (Thorndike and Guthrie).

If the rat was placed on the other side of the T and went to the food side again it was place learning, if it went right (to the wrong spot) it was response learning.

Place learning was supported.

Question 36

Could learning be done without reinforcement according to Tolman?

Answer 36

Yes, simply being exposed to a stimulus environment enhances learning.

Question 37

How did Tolman and Hoznik (1930) in their experiment with rats in a maze show that reinforcement was not required for learning?

Answer 37

Rats just placed within a maze without reinforcement were able to do better in a task vs rats without any pre-exposure.

Question 38

What is latent learning?

Answer 38

Learning that occurs prior to a reward (e.g. practice)

Question 39

How are learning and performance related according to Tolman?

Answer 39

Learning and performance are different. The desire for reinforcement only affects performance by increasing the motivation to respond.

(You can learn without reward, but reward will make you learn faster)

Question 40

Describe the three components of Tolman’s learning paradigm and how they are related.

Answer 40

S (Stimulus) —> R (Response –> Expectation

S-R = learning

R - Expectation = expected relationship between responses and reward