Learning

Question 0

What is classical conditioning?

Answer 0

animals acquiring reflective behaviours (involuntary) through a process of association

Question 1

What is learning?

Answer 1

learning is the change in an organism’s behaviour or thought as a result of experience

Question 2

Describe pavlov’s experiment with the dogs and the association that was made

Answer 2

pavlov used classical conditioning to turn a neutral stimulus such as turning on a light into a conditioned stimulus which was salivation in dogs. the reason why the dogs did this was because they made an association between the light and food. they learned that whenever the light goes off, they will shortly be getting food

Question 3

What is classical conditioning used alot in? why is it so powerful?

Answer 3

classical conditioning is used alot in advertisements to associate a pleasurable feeling or feeling of happiness towards some sort of stimuli (product theyre trying to sell) for example, coca cola commercials associating their drink with feelings of happiness. its powerful because its involuntary and we dont realize we are being conditioned this way

Question 4

What is the idea behind blink conditioning?

Answer 4

to compare how quickly humans acquire a behaviour versus other animals

Question 5

How does blink conditioning work? what is involved?

Answer 5

you present a neutral stimulus (sound, light..etc), and you present a stimulus which causes the animal to naturally blink. Once this is done a couple of times, the animal will associate the neutral stimulus with the stimulus that causes it to blink and therefore will blink to the neutral stimulus

Question 6

What does the result of blink conditioning tell us about classical conditioning?

Answer 6

That its universal amongst species if the behaviour produced is the same as well (e.g. animals that blink, will present the same classical conditioning results as all other animals that blink)

Question 7

What are the 4 factors that play a key role in classical conditioning?

Answer 7

1. The UCS (unconditioned stimulus)
2. the UCR (unconditioned response)
3. The CS (Conditioned stimulus) … was previously a neutral stimulus
4. The CR (Conditioned response)

Question 8

What is acquisition?

Answer 8

acquisition is the period of time where the association between a CS and UCS is being learned by the animal

Question 9

What is the term used to describe each pairing attempt to the CS (neutral stimulus) and the UCS?

Answer 9

learning trials

Question 10

How can someone turn a neutral stimulus into a conditioned stimulus?

Answer 10

By pairing it with an unconditioned stimulus multiple times

Question 11

Why is there 2 kinds of salivation occurring in UCR and CR?

Answer 11

in UCR, salivation is natural and unconditoned (not learned) by the animal. But, when salivation (or the same behaviour produced from a UCR) gets produced as a result of association with a neutral stimulus, THEN its considered to be a CR, because its learned and not natural. One key difference is the quantity of the response, for example, in Pavlov’s dogs, they will salivate at food (as a UCR) and salivate at a sound of a bell before the food (CR), but the amount of saliva produced differs when they’re exposed to the food (UCS) directly than when they’re only hearing sound or anticipating food

Question 12

What is forward-short delay pairing and what is forward trace pairing?

Answer 12

Forward short delay is presenting the CS (e.g. tone) shortly before presenting the UCS (eg. food)
Forward trace pairing is presenting the CS on and off until the UCS is presented

Question 13

What is the most effective method of learning and what is the least?

Answer 13

The most effective method of learning is the simultaneous pairing which is presenting the CS and the UCS at the same time. the least effective is backwards pairing where the UCS is presented first and then the CS is presented after

Question 14

What is habituation and what is its adaptive significance?

Answer 14

Habituation is the decrease in strength of a response to a repeated stimulus. By not responding to uneventful or familiar stimuli, organisms conserve energy and can attend to more important stimuli

Question 15

What is sensitization and why would you want to sensitize to the repeated presentation of a stimulus?

Answer 15

Sensitization is the increase in strength of a response to a repeated stimuli… it occurs in strong stimuli (for example, extremely loud sounds). Its purpose is to increase responses to potentially dangerous stimuli

Question 16

Explain the key factor in producing extinction of CR?

Answer 16

Extinction trials is trying to get rid of the CR. It is done when a CS is presented repeatedly in the absence of a UCS which results in the weakness and eventual disappearance of the CR. Extinction trials are a series of trials that are done by presenting the CS without the UCS

Question 17

Explain the adaptive significance of stimulus generalization and discrimination?

Answer 17

Generalization is when an animal responds or produces a CR to a stimuli that is similar to the initial CS. Its beneficial for preventing danger in some animals.
Discrimination is when the CR is limited to only one stimulus but not to others. Its best if the animal learns to distinguish between stimulus that can harm or cause danger and stimulus that dont

Question 18

Explain the process of higher order conditioning?

Answer 18

Higher order conditioning is when a neutral stimulus becomes a CS after being paired with a CS that has already been established. Example: if you already paired a sound going off (CS1) with getting food (UCS), then you can apply higher order conditioning and turn on the light (CS2), and then apply the sound (CS1) and then present the food (UCS) and soon the animal will associate the light going off for food. However, Higher order conditioning produces a weaker CR than the initial CS and is easily extinguished

Question 19

how does classical conditioning explain fear acquisitions?

Answer 19

Fear can be explained by classical conditioning as pairing an unpleasant UCS with a CR. For example, if you develop a fear of driving after you have gotten into a car accident, you are actually pairing an unpleasant event with a neutral stimulus like cars or driving.

Question 20

What are some methods used to prevent or distinguish phobias?

Answer 20

methods like exposure therapies which is when patients are slowly and incrementally exposed to the stimuli, over a long period of time until they are fully comfortable with it.

Question 21

How do behaviourists define phobias?

Answer 21

they define them as learned behaviours and believe that because they are learned, they can be unlearned (extinguished)

Question 22

How is Classical conditioning used in society to decrease or increase our arousal or attraction to stimuli?

Answer 22

Attraction therapy is pairing a neutral stimulus with happiness and joy causing the person to feel happy and joyful towards the neutral stimulus. E.g. feeling happy and excited when you see christmas decorations around, those decorations are just objects and are neutral, but once associated with christmas and happiness, they cause feelings of joy.
- Aversion therapy is the opposite, where you pair an illness or a really upsetting UCS with a CS

Question 23

What is operant conditioning?

Answer 23

operant conditioning is learning through consequences.

Question 24

What are 2 key differences between operant and classical conditioning?

Answer 24

• In classical conditioning, the organism learns to associate between two stimuli (the CS and the UCS). In operant conditioning, the organism learns an association between a behaviour and its consequences, which in turn change because of the events that occur after.
• Classical conditioning responses are triggered by involuntary actions (like a reflex). Operant conditioning focuses on emitted behaviours like generating a response

Question 25

Briefly describe Thorndike’s experiment with the puzzle box. What evidence led Thorndike to propose “Law of Effect”?

Answer 25

he built a puzzle box, that can be opened with a lever inside, and he placed a hungry animal in the box and watched to see how long it would take for it to realize that the lever opens the gates and leads to the food. He noticed that the animal accidentally stepped on the lever and the gate opened. So after repeated trials, the animal learned to step on the lever to open the ate for food. The result is that animals learned this behaviour by trial and error which Thorndike stated as ‘insturmental learning’. Thorndike proposed the law of effect which states that in a given situation, a response will become more likely to occur if it has a satisfying consequence, and a response followed by an unsatisfying consequence will become less likely to occur.

Question 26

What is reinforcement and what is punishment?

Answer 26

• In reinforcement, a response is strengthened by an outcome that follows it (the response increases in frequency). The outcome that increases the frequency is called the reinforcer.
• In punishment, a response is weakened by an outcome that follows it (response decreases in frequency). The outcome that decreases the frequency is called the punisher

Question 27

What are 3 events that occur in operant conditioning?

Answer 27

1. Antecedents (stimuli that is presented before a behaviour)
2. Behaviours (organism emits in response to the antecedents
3. Consequences (follows depending on the behaviours)

relationship between (1) and (2), and (2) and (3) are called contingencies

Question 28

What are discriminative stimulus?

Answer 28

A discriminative stimulus (DS), is a signal that a particular response will produce a certain consequence. They set the occasion for operant responses (so the context within learning). Examples include classroom bells, seeing a friend..etc

Question 29

Why are antecedent stimuli important for operant conditioning?

Answer 29

because they identify when to respond to a situation

Question 30

What is the difference between positive and negative reinforcement and how do they differ from punishment?

Answer 30

• Positive reinforcement is when a response is strengthened by presenting a stimulus to the situation. The stimulus that follows the response is called the positive reinforcer. (e.g. praise, money, attention, food, drinks…etc)
• Negative Reinforcement is when a response is strengthened by removal or avoidance of a stimulus (i.e. taking advil to remove headaches, cleaning up room to avoid nagging of parents… etc…). The stimulus being removed is called the negative reinforcer.
• They differ from punishment in a way that they actually STRENGTHEN responses and do not weaken them like punishment does

Question 31

Explain operant extinction, positive and negative punishment. How do they differ?

Answer 31

• Operant extinction is weakening and eventual disappearance of a response because it is no longer reinforced. If a previously reinforced behaviour no longer pays off, we are likely to abandon and replace them with successful ones.
• Positive punishment, is weakening a response by adding a stimulus (eg. spanking child when they do something wrong)
• Negative punishment, is weakening a response by removing a stimulus (i.e. taking away child’s phone for talking back)

Question 32

What is resistance to extinction? What is the difference between high resistance and low resistance? and What is it strongly influenced by?

Answer 32

The degree to which non reinforced responses persist is called resistance to extinction. High resistance is when a non reinforced response occurs hundreds of times. Low resistance is when on reinforced responses stop quickly.
- Resistance to extinction is strongly influenced by the pattern of reinforcement that has previously maintained that behaviour

Question 33

Describe some advantages and disadvantages of using punishment to control behaviour?

Answer 33

Advantage: it works quickly in cases where it will stop a dangerous behaviour from reoccurring
Disadvantage: Suppresses behaviour but does not cause the organism to forget how to make the response or provide a different more appropriate response, and causes negative emotions

Question 34

How do secondary reinforcers become reinforcers?

Answer 34

Through associations with primary stimuli such as food, water…etc that a organism needs to survive

Question 35

Why would a fin or ticket that is payable later not as effective for changing behaviour?

Answer 35

This is because reinforcement or punishment that occurs immediately after a behaviour has stronger effects than if its delayed

Question 36

What is delay of gratification?

Answer 36

its the ability to forego an immediate smaller reward for a delayed but more satisfying outcome

Question 37

How would you shape a child by successive approximation to clean their room when they never do?

Answer 37

You can use shaping. Everytime child gets close to dirty clothes, you reward them. Then dont reward them until they pick up the dirty clothes. Then reward them when they put away the dirty clothes. Until the child gets the hang of it and learns

Question 38

What is chaining?

Answer 38

used to develop a chain of responses by reinforcing each response with the opportunity to preform the next response

Question 39

What is operant generalization?

Answer 39

When an operant response occurs to a new antecedent stimulus or situation similar to the original one

Question 40

What is operant discrimination?

Answer 40

When an operant response will occur to one antecedent stimulus but no other one

Question 41

Describe the four major schedules of partial reinforcement and their effects on behaviour

Answer 41

1. Fixed ratio schedule: reinforcement given after a fixed number of responses. They produce high rates of responding and result in greater output work
2. Variable ratio schedule: reinforcement is given after a variable number of correct responses, based on an average (the number is not fixed). So a VR 3 means that ON AVERAGE, 3 responses are required for reinforcement but that could not be the case. These also produce high rate of responding and are highly resistant to extinction because periods of no pay off eventually are followed by reinforcement (person doesn’t know when)
3. Fixed- Interval schedules: when the first correct response that occurs after a fixed interval is reinforced
4. Variable interval schedule: reinforcement is given for first response that occurs after a variable time interval (time is not known and calculated on average)

Question 42

Which are more resistant to extinction … variable or fixed schedules? Why?

Answer 42

Fixed schedules are more resistant to extinction because we expect and KNOW that there will be reinforcement after a certain amount of responses or time, therefore if it suddenly stops, we catch on and do not continue with the behaviour. However, with variable schedules, since the person expects a reinforcement but does not know after how many tries or how long they will receive it, they will always be waiting and will continuously preform the behaviour in order to obtain that reinforcement, even if its completely gone, because they’re expecting a chance of it reappearing again

Question 43

what is the difference between continuous reinforcement and partial reinforcement? what is the best way of using them in conjunction to create lasting behaviour?

Answer 43

• continuous reinforcement produces more paid learning than partial because the association between behaviour and its consequence is easier to perceive. However, a downside of continuous reinforcement is that it extinguishes more rapidly because the shift to no reinforcement is sudden and easier to perceive.
• Partial reinforcement produces behaviour that is learned more slowly but is more resistant to extinction especially f the behaviour is reinforced in a variable schedule

The best way to promote fast learning and high resistance to extinction is to begin reinforcing a desired behaviour on a continuous schedule until its well established, and then shift it to partial schedule that is gradually made more demanding

Question 44

What is tolerance and how does it occur?

Answer 44

tolerance is when the CS causes a decreased effect in the CR. Once the CS is changed, then the CR will produce higher effects.

Question 45

Using classical conditioning, explain how overdoses happen?

Answer 45

Overdoses occur when people are in new locations (change in CS) because the body develops tolerance to the drug if its taken in the same place everytime. For example, if someone takes a drug like heroine in the same spot, every time they head to that spot, their body automatically adjusts to the effects of heroine (e.g. decreasing blood pressure) due to the association between that CS and the drug, which causes the person to take MORE of that drug in order to feel a ‘high’. However, if that person decides to go somewhere else to do heroine, their body will not recognize that place, therefore enormous amounts of that drug will enter their body and cause overdose

Question 46

List 3 flaws with classical conditioning

Answer 46

1. can never account for permanent learning
2. if a CS is never presented, then classical conditioning cannot describe how things can be learned
3. Classical conditioning cannot explain higher order cognition like language learning

Question 47

What is satiation and when does it happen?

Answer 47

when a value of a stimulus goes down with repeated exposure.

Question 48

describe the role of salience in punishment and reinforcement?

Answer 48

Salience is being aware. Animals get punished or reinforced for behaviours that are salient to them (or things that they are aware of). Behaviours and outcomes need to be closer in time because as they get more separated, the animal will be salient to a completely different behaviour and they will get the wrong outcome for it

Question 49

In what case is punishment useful?

Answer 49

when you can reliably punish every instance of the undesired behaviour (not just at a specific context)