Learning

Question 1

Learning

Answer 1

the way in which we acquire new behaviors

Question 2

Stimulus

Answer 2

anything to which an organism can respond

Question 3

Habituation

Answer 3

process of becoming used to a stimulus

repeated exposure to the same stimulus can cause a decrease in response

• example: many first year med students: students often have an intense physical reaction the first time they see a cadaver or treat a severe laceration, but as they get use to these stimuli, the reaction lessen until they are unbothered by these sights

Question 4

Dishabituation

Answer 4

(opposite from habituation)
the recovery of a response to a stimulus, usually after a different stimulus has been presented. Note that the term refers to changes in response to the original stimulus, not the new one.

Question 5

Associative learning

Answer 5

is a way of pairing together stimulus and responses, or behaviors and consequences

Question 6

Classical conditioning

Answer 6

type of associative learning

unconditioned stimulus that produces an instinctive, unconditioned response that is paired with a neutral stimulus. With a repetition, the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus that produces a conditioned response.

(Ivan Pavlov dogs and food experiment)

Question 7

Classical conditioning Ivan Pavlov dog experiment:

Unconditioned stimuli (food) causes an unconditioned response (salivation) AND Neutral stimulus (bell) causes no response…

add them together you will get :

Answer 7

a conditioned stimuli (bell) will cause a conditioned response (salivation)

Tip: on the MCAT, the key to telling conditioned and unconditioned responses apart will be to look at which stimulus is causing them: unconditioned stimuli cause an unconditioned response, while conditioned stimuli cause a conditioned response.

Question 8

Operant conditioning

Answer 8

behavior is changed through the use of consequences

Question 9

Reinforcement

Answer 9

increases the likelihood of a behavior

Question 10

Punishment

Answer 10

decreases the likelihood of a behavior

Question 11

Add a Stimulus, Behavior continues

What's occurring:
Positive Reinforcement
Negative Reinforcement
Positive Punishment
Negative Punishment

Answer 11

Positive Reinforcement

Question 12

Removes a Stimulus, Behavior continues

What's occurring:
Positive Reinforcement
Negative Reinforcement
Positive Punishment
Negative Punishment

Answer 12

Negative Reinforcement

Question 13

Add a Stimulus, Behavior stops

What's occurring:
Positive Reinforcement
Negative Reinforcement
Positive Punishment
Negative Punishment

Answer 13

Positive Punishment

Question 14

Removes a Stimulus, Behavior stops

What's occurring:
Positive Reinforcement
Negative Reinforcement
Positive Punishment
Negative Punishment

Answer 14

Negative Punishment

Question 15

Escape Learning

Answer 15

To reduce the unpleasantness of something that already exists

Question 16

Avoidance learning

Answer 16

prevent the unpleasantness of something that has yet to happen

type of (-) reinforcement in which a behavior increased to prevent an unpleasant response consequence.

Question 17

Fixed - ratio (FR) schedules

Answer 17

Reinforce a behavior after a specific number of performances of that behavior.

Example: in an operant conditioning experiment, researchers might reward a rat with a food pellet every third time it pressed a bar in its cage.

Has a continuous reinforcement: fixed - ratio schedule in which the behavior is rewarded every time it is performed

(have a brief moment of no responses after the behavior is reinforced)

Question 18

Variable - ratio (VR) schedules

Answer 18

Reinforce a behavior after a specific number of performances of that behavior, but such that the average number of performances to receive a reward is relatively constant.

Researchers would reward a rat first after two button presses, then eight, then four, then finally six.

(works the fastest; most resistant to extinction)
(has the fastest response rate)

Question 19

Fixed - interval (FI) schedules

Answer 19

Reinforce the first instance of a behavior after a specified time period has elapsed.

One rat gets a pellet, it has to wait 60 seconds before it can get another pellet. The first lever press after 60 seconds gets a pellet, but presses during those 60 seconds accomplish nothing.
Rat presses the level slowly at first, but with increasing frequency as the end of the interval approaches

(have a brief moment of no responses after the behavior is reinforced)

Question 20

Variable - interval (VI) schedules

Answer 20

Reinforce a behavior for the first time that behavior is performed after a varying interval of time.

Instead of waiting exactly 60 seconds, for example, our rat might have to wait 90 seconds, then 30 seconds, then 3 min. In each case, once the interval elapses, the next press gets the rat a pellet.

Question 21

Latent Learning

Answer 21

learning that occurs without a reward but that tis spontaneously demonstrated once a reward is introduced

classic experiment: rat running a maze

Question 22

Problem - solving

Answer 22

another method of learning

Question 23

Instrintive Drift

Answer 23

the difficulty in overcoming instrinctual behaviors

Question 24

Observational Learning (or modeling)

Answer 24

process of learning a new behavior or gaining information by watching others

• Bobo doll experiment

Question 25

Mirror neurons

Answer 25

neurons that are located in the frontal and parietal lobes that fire both when an individual performers an action and when that individual observes someone else performing that action.

Largely involved in motor processes

Related to empathy; fires when we experience an emotion

Question 26

Generalization

Answer 26

the process by which similar stimuli can produce the same conditioned response.

example of generalization: you get food poisoning after eating a spoiled lemon and later find that the smell of limes and other citrus fruits make you nauseous.

Question 27

Controlled Processes

Answer 27

processes in the mind that require a great deal of a person’s mental resources. Generally, controlled processing is best performed when only one controlled activity is taking place.

It always required active attention to the information being encoded

Question 28

Automatic Processes

Answer 28

processes that utilize few mental resources, and several of these may take place at the same time.

Question 29

Extinction

Answer 29

a decreased response to a conditioned stimulus when it is no longer paired with an unconditioned stimulus

Question 30

Punishment

Answer 30

lead to decreased behaviors in open conditioning

Question 31

Positive punishment

Answer 31

when something unpleasant is added in order to decrease the behavior

Question 32

Shaping

Answer 32

a method of training by which successive approximations toward a target behavior are reinforce

usually teacher complicated, multistage behaviors