Learning Flashcards
Habituation
- Simplest form of learning
- Organism eventually stops/decreases responding to a stimulus that is repeated over and over
- Ex: living in a city and becoming used to noisy streets
Classical Conditioning
Pavlov: dogs learned an association between food and the person who brought the food (they would start salivating as soon as they saw the person)
Involves UCS and UCR
UCS and UCR
Unlearned response that occurs in reaction to the unconditioned (neutral) stimulus
- Ex: smell of food (unconditioned stimulus) –> feeling of hunger (unconditioned response)
CS and CR
Scenario: Dogs learned to associate the sound of the bell with the presentation of food and they began to salivate at the sound of the bell alone.
CS: sound of the bell (once neutral stimulus became associated with food)
CR: salivation at only the sound of the bell
Timing of stimuli in classical conditioning
Foward pairing: CS precedes the US (ex: bell precedes the food- easiest conditioning)
Simultaneous pairing: US (food) and CS (bell) occur together
Backward pairing: CS (bell) follows the US (food)
Extinction of stimulus
Gradual weakening of a CS that results in the behavior decreasing or disappearing
Spontaneous recovery
Occurs when a CR that was previously considered extinct reemerges
Generalization and discrimination
Generalization: response conditioned to a CS tends to be evoked by stimuli that are similar to the CS (ex: someone develops a fear of spiders and might generalize this fear to other small insects with multiple legs)
Discrimination: ability to differentiate between a CS and other stimuli that haven’t been paired with an US (ex: if bell tone was CS, you’d be able to differentiate between the bell sound and other similar sounds)
Little Albert Study
Little Albert and rabbit experiment- conditioned phobia
- Child was exposed to a rabbit and learned to fear it because they played a loud sound upon showing it to him (child associated rabbit with loud sound)
- Child became scared of anything with fur (was similar to rabbit’s appearance)
Phobias
Irrational fear of an object or situation
Systematic desensitization
Application of classical conditioning for the treatment of phobias
- Using UCS (relaxing image) to induce calm feelings (UCR)
- using CS (heights) while showing relaxing image (UCS) to induce calm feelings
- after training, subject will feel calm feelings (CR) after seeing heights (CS)
Limits of classical conditioning
- Can any two things be associated? Some associations are more easily learned by certain species.
Garcia and Koelling rat study: rats were easily able to avoid drinking sweetened water because it made them nauseous. This was easier for them because they are always eating trash
Biological preparedness
Organisms are evolutionarily predisposed to developing associations between certain stimuli and responses.
Ex: fear of heights, historically always a mortal threat to humans
Law of effect
Thorndike
- Behaviors followed by pleasant consequences are more likely to be repeated
Operant conditioning
Skinner
- Behavior followed by reinforcement increases chances of behavior
Operant chamber
Skinner box: device that isolates an animal and measures its behavior in response to rewards or punishments
Reinforcement
Always brings on a more pleasant state- increases target behavior
Positive reinforcement: behavior + pleasant stimulus
Negative reinforcement: behavior + no stimulus
Primary and secondary reinforcers
- Primary reinforcer: brings on more pleasant state/increases target behavior by fulfilling biological need to prompt subject to do things again for it
- Secondary/condition reinforcer: don’t fulfill a biological need but pleasing because of their association with some primary reinforcer
Punishment (limits of punishment)
Behavior + adverse stimulus (makes the behavior less likely to occur)
Shaping
Skinner
Type of conditioning technique:
- Break down target behavior into smaller steps
- Rewarding each step on the path toward the desired outcome
Chaining
Linking small behaviors into a complex sequence through reinforcement
Schedules of reinforcement- continuous vs partial
Continuous: reinforcement is provided every single time after desired behavior
Partial: only reinforce desired behavior occasionally (leads to slower learning)
Schedules of reinforcement- fixed ratio
Reinforces behavior after a specified number of correct responses
Schedules of reinforcement- variable ratio
Behavior is reinforced after a random number of responses
Schedules of reinforcement- interval schedules
Reinforces a behavior after a period of time has passed
Latent learning/cognitive map
Tolman
In Tolman’s experiment, he observed that rats seemed to develop a “mental map” of the maze even without direct rewards or pos reinforcers (latent learning)
Observational learning
New skills can be learned by observing others
Bandura Bobo study
Do children learn aggression from adults?
Fixed action patterns (gulls)
Evolutionary adaptation to ensure that a particular stimulus elicits an adaptive response.
