L4: INSTRUMENTAL LEARNING & HABIT FORMATION Flashcards
define instrumental
lab training using only operant conditioning
what did Thorndike say about stimulus outcome relationships?
stimuli and outcomes are not connected and neither are responses and outcomes - the learner doesn’t acquire knowledge about the outcomes of responses
what is the present explanation of stimulus outcome relationships?
stimulus / response outcome connections are involved
- response produced due to association with an outcome
define reinforcer devaluation
making a reinforcer less desirable - the value of the outcome is reduced
describe how rats show evidence for response outcome theory
choose to push lever left or right to sugary of savoury reward, one of the reinforcers is devalued with taste / smell aversion & then returns to no reinforcement
- when the reinforcer is devalued, there is no response
define habitual behaviour
instrumental behaviour whose production is insensitive to the value of its outcome or associated reinforcer
- stimulus response behaviour
define goal guided behaviour
instrumental behaviour whose production is sensitive to value of its outcome or associated reinforcer
describe training by successive approximation in the Skinner box
rat has to learn to press a lever (not a natural action to get food) to get a food reward
- press the lever by chance
- target behaviour is gradually arrived at by reinforcing responses that approximate it
define guided discovery
guided towards the desired behaviour by rewarding similar behaviours
define observational learning
learning to do new things by observing and imitating
state 5 ways of assembling new behaviours
- blind trial and error
- shaping
- observation & imitation
- problem solving (trial & error)
- given verbal instruction
state the 4 performance characteristics
- speed
- fluency
- consistency
- dual tasking
define the cognitive stage
- high attention demand
- explicit working memory use
- performance relies on cognitive processes
define fixation stage
- action components are grouped into chunks
- fewer decisions
- less explicit memory demand
- partially automatic
define autonomous stage
- no demand or explicit working memory
- low attention demand
- maximally automatic
define dual task interference
performance on one task is worse when another is performed at the same time
- same mechanisms / processes used
state the 4 ways in which cognitive processes are involved in performance
reasoning
decision making & volitional initiation
attention
holding in working memory
