Learning Flashcards
Learning
the way in which we acquire new behaviors
Stimulus
anything to which an organism can respond
Habituation
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
Dishabituation
(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.
Associative learning
is a way of pairing together stimulus and responses, or behaviors and consequences
Classical conditioning
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)
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 :
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.
Operant conditioning
behavior is changed through the use of consequences
Reinforcement
increases the likelihood of a behavior
Punishment
decreases the likelihood of a behavior
Add a Stimulus, Behavior continues
What's occurring: Positive Reinforcement Negative Reinforcement Positive Punishment Negative Punishment
Positive Reinforcement
Removes a Stimulus, Behavior continues
What's occurring: Positive Reinforcement Negative Reinforcement Positive Punishment Negative Punishment
Negative Reinforcement
Add a Stimulus, Behavior stops
What's occurring: Positive Reinforcement Negative Reinforcement Positive Punishment Negative Punishment
Positive Punishment
Removes a Stimulus, Behavior stops
What's occurring: Positive Reinforcement Negative Reinforcement Positive Punishment Negative Punishment
Negative Punishment
Escape Learning
To reduce the unpleasantness of something that already exists
Avoidance learning
prevent the unpleasantness of something that has yet to happen
type of (-) reinforcement in which a behavior increased to prevent an unpleasant response consequence.
Fixed - ratio (FR) schedules
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)
Variable - ratio (VR) schedules
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)
Fixed - interval (FI) schedules
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)
Variable - interval (VI) schedules
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.
Latent Learning
learning that occurs without a reward but that tis spontaneously demonstrated once a reward is introduced
classic experiment: rat running a maze
Problem - solving
another method of learning
Instrintive Drift
the difficulty in overcoming instrinctual behaviors
Observational Learning (or modeling)
process of learning a new behavior or gaining information by watching others
- Bobo doll experiment
Mirror neurons
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
Generalization
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.
Controlled Processes
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
Automatic Processes
processes that utilize few mental resources, and several of these may take place at the same time.
Extinction
a decreased response to a conditioned stimulus when it is no longer paired with an unconditioned stimulus
Punishment
lead to decreased behaviors in open conditioning
Positive punishment
when something unpleasant is added in order to decrease the behavior
Shaping
a method of training by which successive approximations toward a target behavior are reinforce
usually teacher complicated, multistage behaviors
