Learning Flashcards
What is learning?
acquisition, from experience, of new knowledge, skills, or responses that results in a relatively permanent change in the state of the learner.
What are the 3 principle of learning?
- based on experience
- produces changes in the organism
- changes are relatively permament
What is habituation?
- a general process in which repeated or prolonged exposure to a stimulus results in a gradual reduction in responding
- occurs in even simplest organisms
What is sensitizing?
when presentation of a stimulus leads to an increased response
What are 2 fundamental laws of behaviour?
- Motivation: selection of actions
- Learning & memory: the ability to use information that’s not currently present
What are the 3 ways we learn?
- Through association
- Through consequences
- Through acquisition of info that guides behaviour: observational
What is Classical conditioning?
pairing a neutral stimulus with a meaningful event or stimulus
What are the 3 ingredients of classical conditioning?
- Unconditioned stimulus: stimulus that leads to a response w/o prior learning
- Unconditioned response: automatic, reflexive response w/o prior learning
- Neutral stimulus: stimulus that doesn’t innately provoke a response
What is eye blink conditioning?
- tone followed by puff of air administered to one eye (US)
- puff of air causes eye to blink (UR)
- Eventually tone alone causes eye blink (CR)
What is operant conditioning?
- form of learning that uses reinforcement and punishment
- reinforcement: increases likelihood of behaviour
- punishment: reduces likelihood of a behaviour
What are the cognitive components of operant conditioning?
- organisms behave as though they have clear expectations about the outcomes of their actions & adjust actions accordingly
- associative mechanisms that underlie operant conditioning have their roots in evolutionary biology
What is acquisition?
- Linking a neutral stimulus to an unconditioned stimulus
- Neutral stimulus begins triggering the conditioned response
What is extinction?
gradual weakening of a conditioned response that results in the behaviour decreasing or disappearing
What is spontaneous recovery?
reappearance after a pause of an extinguished conditioned response
What is generalization?
Tendency, once a response has been conditioned, for stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses
Who illustrated the concept of generalization?
Pavlov: attached vibrators to various parts of dogs body
What is associative bias?
We have innate preference for forming associations that can override statistical correlations
eg. tone + taste paired with poison > taste provokes CR
tone+taste paired with shock> tone provokes CR
What is discrimination?
the capacity to distinguish between similar but distinct stimuli
What is classical conditioning?
- created by Pavlov and explained by Watson
- learning through association of 2 stimuli to create a response
- demonstrated learning process can be studied objectively
- applies to all species
Who applied Pavlov’s concept to their study?
Watson in his study of Little Albert
What is Thorndike’s law of effect?
behaviours that are followed by a “satisfying state of affairs” tend to be repeated, and those that produce an “unpleasant state of affairs” are less likely to be repeated.
How do drug overdoses occur with classical conditioning?
- When drug is injected, the entire setting functions as the CS, and the addict’s brain reacts to the heroin by secreting neurotransmitters that counteract its effects.
- Over time, protective physiological response becomes part of CR occurs in the presence of the CS but prior to the actual administration of the drug
- If the drug is consumed in a new
setting, much of the conditioned tolerance will disappear and the addict will be more likely to overdose
What is Hebb’s rule?
the act of sending a NT to a neuron strengthens the bond between the 2, making it easier for them to transmit to each other next time
What is long term potentiation?
a process whereby repeated communication across the synapse between neurons strengthens the connection, making further communication easier
What happens after long-time potentiation in the neuron?
the receptor sites increase to allow for easier communication
What is post-synaptic depolarization?
- excitatory postsynaptic potential (EPSP) occurs when sodium channels open in response to a stimulus.
- electrochemical gradient drives sodium to rush into the cell.
- When sodium brings positive charge into cell > cell’s membrane potential becomes more positive, or depolarizes
What is shaping in operant conditioning?
Gradually guiding toward closer and
closer approximations of the desired
behaviour
What is a reinforcement schedule?
pattern that defines how often a desired response will be reinforced
What is continuous reinforcement?
reinforcing desired response every time it occurs
What is partial/intermittent reinforcement?
- reinforcing a response only some of the time
- results in slower acquisition of response & greater resistance to extinction than continuous
What are the 4 types of Intermittent reinforcement schedules?
- Fixed ratio
- Variable ratio
- Fixed interval
- Variable interval
What is fixed interval ratio?
reinforcement every nth behaviour
What is Variable ratio?
reinforcement after random number of behaviours
What is Fixed interval?
reinforcement for behaviour after fixed time
What is Variable Interval?
reinforcement for behaviour after a random amount of time
What are the 2 ways of reinforcing?
- connection to reward (primary/conditioned)
- connection to timing (immediate/delayed)
What is positive reinforcement?
change in behaviour probability by presenting a reinforcer
What is negative reinforcement?
change behaviour probability by stopping or reducing a stimulus
What are some limits on operant conditioning?
- Nature limits species’ capacity for operant
conditioning - Biological constraints predispose organisms
to learn associations that are naturally
adaptive - Instinctive drift occurs as animals revert
to biologically predisposed patterns
What are mirror neurons?
-frontal lobe neurons that fire when performing actions or observing another doing so
- may enable imitation and empathy
What are prosocial effects of observational learning and mirror neurons?
- behaviour modelling enhances learning of comm, sales, service in new employees
- modelling nonviolent behaviour prompts similar behaviour in others
What are antisocial effects of observational learning and mirror neurons?
- abusive parents may have aggressive kids
- watching media may influence kids
- violence-viewing effect
What kinds of learning techniques have low/high utility according to research?
low: highlighting, underlining and rereading
high: practice tests, distributed practice
What is latent learning?
something that is learned but not manifested as behavioural change until sometime in the future
