Learning

Question 1

What is non-associative learning and what types of this learning are there?

Answer 1

Result of repeated exposure of an animal to a single event
habituation - reduction in response to event
sensitisation - increase in response to event

Question 2

Give an example of a study into sensitisation?

Answer 2

Watkins et al 2010
study on sea hare - sea hare breathes through gills which are in an enclosure that opens via a siphon
- siphon is prodded and the sea hare withdraws it
- this withdrawal is a protective action
- sea hare will do this an indefinite number of times
- Watkins et al found that sea hare will always withdraw in response to sub lethal lobster attacks

Question 3

Why are some stimuli sensitised and others habituated?

Answer 3

stronger more significant stimuli tend to become sensitised whereas weaker stimuli become habituated

Question 4

What is associative learning and what is it comprised of?

Answer 4

Process of little significance takes on real meaning
Classical - if the event/process in a neutral stimulus
operant - animals own actions

Question 5

Describe classical conditioning and name an experment associated with it

Answer 5

Ivan Pavlov - Pavlovs dogs
A stimulus that initially does not illicit a response comes to do so by association with a stimulus that does ie. bell ringing indicating food
Unconditioned stimulus (food) > unconditioned response (salivating)
Conditioned stimulus (bell ringing with food) > conditioned response (salivating)

Question 6

Other than Pavlov name and describe an experiment associated with classical conditioning

Answer 6

Hollis et al 1997
Blue gourami (fish) are aggressive and males tend to attack females during breeding season
3 groups 1 trained with 10s light and 5m female with barrier, 1 with no light 5m with barrier and a control with no training
after 12 days barriers were removed and results showed that group 1 had little to no attacks on females while group 2 had medium amounts and control high and in terms of courtship group 1 exhibited extremely high amounts where as 2 and 3 showed none.

Question 7

What is reinforcement? give examples of positive and negative reinforcement

Answer 7

Any consequence that causes the preceding behaviour to increase -
positive - frog looks up catches fly - keeps looking up
negative - floor becomes electrified dog jumps - dog jumps more often

Question 8

What is punishment and extinction?

Answer 8

punishment - opposite of reinforcement, designed to weaken or eliminate response
extinction - behaviour that was previously reinforced is no longer effective

Question 9

What is operant learning and give an example of a study carried out on this

Answer 9

The delivery of the reinforcer is associated with animals performance of activity i.e. hungry animal wandering in search of food performs a number of behaviours - if one happens to lead to food enough time the behaviour is repeated often
BF Skinner

Question 10

What is latent learning?

Answer 10

exploratory learning - making associations without immediate reinforcement or reward
eg. knowledge of home, food sources, hiding places and escape routes

Question 11

What is insight learning?

Answer 11

The quick understanding of solution to problems

requires some kind of mental trial and error, but are animals capable of this?

Question 12

Give an example of an experiment that showed animals using insight learning

Answer 12

Epstein et al. 1984
Pigeons moving boxes and climbing on them
- rewarded for pushing box towards a green spot on the floor
- then trained to sit on a box and peck banana in the air
results showed that birds with both sets of training were successful while birds with only one set of training failed

Question 13

What are learning sets?

Answer 13

Past experience allows us to apply general rules despite problems differing in detail
eg 3 cups food under 1 monkeys check one then if no food check the other

Question 14

What is social learning?

Answer 14

Learning through social companions - saves time, energy, resources that would be invested in learning on their own
e.g finding food, avoiding predation choosing a mate, communication

Question 15

Describe an experiment that shows social learning in animals

Answer 15

Galef
Found that rats sniffed facial areas of other rats to see what they had eaten, rats would then choose the flavoured pellets that they had sniffed from the other rats

Question 16

What are the 5 types of learning?

Answer 16

Non-associative learning
Associative learning
Latent learning
Insight learning
Imprinting