Learning Flashcards
Define learning.
Learning = a change in behavior based on experience (acquiring behavior) that outlasts the experience (memory).
Define instinctive behavior, fixed action patterns, and reflexes. What are the differences between these?
- Instinctive Behavior = behaviors that are fully functional without prior experience with a cue (particular stimulus).
- Fixed Action Patterns = invariant (stereotyped) instinctive behaviors that go to completion once started.
- Reflexes = Very simple neural circuits because they don’t involve much processing and a lot of neurons. They sometimes don’t even go to the brain. It’s involuntary behavior.
Describe the various parts of Tinbergen and Lorenz’s instinct theory (sign stimulus, innate releasing mechanism, fixed action pattern).
- Instinct Theory = looks at the relationship between stimuli, what’s happening in the nervous system of the organism, and what their actual behavior looks like.
- Sign Stimulus = This is the trigger (key stimulus) that’s going to lead to the production of this behavior.
- Innate Releasing Mechanism = Sensory neurons send information from the sense organs to the interneurons, which process that information and send it out to the motor neurons.
- Fixed Action Pattern = Movements that produced this coordinated stereotyped series of actions/motions.
Define and compare sensitization and habituation learning. What do they have in common and how do they differ? What type of situations are each useful for?
- Sensitization = responses grow stronger with subsequent presentations over time.
- Habituation = responses grow weaker with subsequent presentations over time.
Differences: Sensitization will have a repeated stimulus, but the responses get stronger. The more stimuli present (the more you experience them), the stronger the response will be. Habituation is where the same stimulus is no longer evoking the same responses as it once did - the organism is becoming habituated to that repetitive stimulus.
What are the neural mechanisms for these simple types of learning in the short term vs long term?
What is classical conditioning? How does it work?
What is operant conditioning? How does it work? How is it different from classical conditioning?
Could you tell me about all combinations of positive/negative reinforcement/punishment?
Distinguish between the different types of reinforcement schedules. How do they relate to the speed of learning, the increase in the desired behavior, and the speed of extinction of that behavior?
Define and give examples of spatial learning and insight learning.
What’s the difference between social learning and teaching? Give examples of each.
What is a sensitive period? How could you identify the sensitive period for a behavior? How does this relate to the idea of the organizational vs activational effects of hormones on behavior?
What is imprinting? What are the various types of imprinting?
How flexible is learning? Are there limits on what can be learned? Are there costs to learning?
