Learning Flashcards
What is learning?
A change in an organism’s behaviour or thought as a result of experience
What is habituation?
The process of responding less strongly over time to repeated stimuli (i.e. the feeling of our clothes on our skin)
What is classical conditioning?
A form of learning in which animals (including humans) come to respond to a previously neutral stimulus that had been paired with another stimulus that elicits an automatic response
Who discovered classical conditioning?
Ivan Pavlov
What is the unconditioned stimulus?
Stimulus that elicits an automatic response
What is an unconditioned response?
An automatic response to a non-neutral stimulus that does not need to be learned
What is a conditioned response?
Response previously associated with a non-neutral stimulus that is elicited by a neutral stimulus through conditioning
What is a conditioned stimulus?
The neutral stimulus following conditioning
What is acquisition?
A learning phase during which a conditioned response is established
What is extinction?
Gradual reduction and eventual elimination of the conditioned response after the conditioned stimulus is presented repeatedly without the unconditioned stimulus
What is spontaneous recovery?
Sudden reemergence of an extinct conditioned response after a delay in exposure to the conditioned stimulus
What is the renewal effect?
The sudden re-emergence of a conditioned response following extinction when an animal is returned to the environment in which the conditioned response was acquired
What is stimulus generalisation?
Process by which conditioned stimuli similar, but not identical, to the original conditioned stimulus elicits a conditioned response
What is stimulus discrimination?
Displaying a less pronounced conditioned response to conditioned stimuli that differ from the original conditioned stimulus
What is higher-order conditioning?
Developing a conditioned response to a conditioned stimulus by virtue of its association with another conditioned stimulus
What applications does classical conditioning have to everyday life?
Advertising
The acquisition of fears and phobias
The acquisition of fetishes
Disgust reactions
What is latent inhibition?
Difficulty in establishing classical conditioning to a conditioned stimulus we have repeatedly experienced alone; that is, without the unconditioned stimulus
Who conducted the Little Albert experiment?
John B. Watson
What is pseudoconditoning?
An apparent conditioned response that actually turns out to be an unconditioned response to the conditioned stimulus
True or False: habituation to meaningless stimuli is generally adaptive
True
True or False: in classical conditioning, the conditioned stimulus initially yields a reflexive, automatic response
False
True or False: conditioning is most effective when the CS precedes the UCS by a short period of time
True
True or False: extinction is produced by the gradual decay of the CR over time
False
What is operant conditioning?
Learning controlled by the consequences of the organism’s behaviour
What is the difference between operant and classical conditioning in relation to the nature of the target behaviour, reward and behaviour?
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
Target behaviour is… elicited automatically
Reward is… provided unconditionally
Behaviour depends primarily on… autonomic NS
OPERANT CONDITIONING
Target behaviour is… emitted voluntarily
Reward is… contingent on behaviour
Behaviour depends primarily on… skeletal muscles
What is the law of effect?
Principle asserting that if a stimulus followed by a behaviour results in a reward, the stimulus is more likely to elicit the behaviour in the future
Who put forth the law of effect?
E. L. Thorndike
What is insight?
The sudden realisation of the solution to a problem
What is a Skinner box?
Small animal chamber constructed by B. F. Skinner to allow sustained periods of conditioning to be administered and behaviours could be recorded unsupervised
What is reinforcement?
Outcome or consequence of a behaviour that strengthens the probability of the behaviour
What is positive reinforcement?
Positive outcome or consequence of a behaviour that strengthens the probability of the behaviour
What is negative reinforcement?
Removal of a negative outcome or consequence of a behaviour that strengthens the probability of the behaviour
What is punishment?
Outcome or consequence that weakens the probability of the behaviour
What are the disadvantages of punishment?
- Only tells the organism what not to do; doesn’t give a replacement behaviour
- can create anxiety which interferes with future learning
- can promote subversive behaviour, prompting people to become sneakier with their actions
- may provide a model for children’s aggressive behaviour
What is the discriminative stimulus?
Stimulus associated with the presence of reinforcement
What is a schedule of reinforcement?
A pattern of reinforcing a behaviour
What is partial reinforcement?
Only occasional reinforcement of a behaviour, resulting in slower extinction than if the behaviour had been reinforced continually
What is a fixed ratio schedule?
Pattern in which we provide reinforcement following a regular number of responses
What is a variable ratio (VR) schedule?
Pattern in which we provide reinforcement after a specific number of responses on average, with the number varying randomly
What is a fixed interval (FI) schedule?
Pattern in which we provide reinforcement for producing the response at least once following a specified time interval
What is a variable interval (VI) schedule?
Pattern in which we provide reinforcement for producing the response following an average time interval, with the interval varying randomly
What is shaping?
Conditioning a target behaviour by progressively reinforcing behaviours that come closer and closer to the target
Which schedule of reinforcement yields the highest rate of responding?
Variable ratio
What is chaining?
Linking a number of behaviour together to form a series so that each behaviour becomes a cue for the next
What is the Premack principle?
Principle that a less frequently performed behaviour can be increased in frequency by reinforcing it with a more frequent behaviour
What are secondary reinforcement?
Neutral objects that people can trace in for reinforcers themselves (I.e. Gold stars)
What are primary reinforcers?
Items or outcomes that are naturally pleasurable (I.e. Bag of lollies)
True or False: in classical conditioning, responses are emitted; in operant conditioning, they are elicited.
False
True or False: negative reinforcement and punishment are superficially different, but they produce the same short-term effects on behaviour
False
True or False: the principle of partial reinforcement states that behaviours reinforced only some of the time extinguish more rapidly than behaviours reinforced continuously
False
True or False: we can reinforce less frequent behaviours with more frequent behaviours
True
What is latent learning?
Learning that is not directly observable
What is S-R psychology?
Looking at how stimuli elicits certain responses but not addressing the cognitive processes that occur
What is S-O-R psychology?
Looks at how the organism’s response to a stimulus depends on what this stimulus means to it.
What is cognitive conditioning?
Individual interpretation of the situation affects our responses to stimuli
What is a cognitive map?
Mental representations of how physical space is organised
What is observational learning?
Learning by watching others and copying their behaviour
What are mirror neurons?
Cells in the brain that become activated by specific motions when an animal both performs and observes an action
True or False: according to Skinner, animals do not think or experience emotions
False
True or False: proponents of latent learning argue that reinforcement is not necessary for learning
True
True or False: research on observational learning demonstrates that children can learn aggression by watching aggressive role models
True
True or False: there is no good evidence for insight learning
False
What is equipotentiality?
The assumption that any conditioned stimulus can be associated equally well with any unconditioned stimulus
What is preparedness?
The evolutionary predisposition to learn some pairings of feared stimuli over other things owing to their survival value
True or False: many conditioned taste aversions are acquired in only a single trial
True
True or False: most research suggests that the assumption of equipotentiality is false
True
True or False: the phenomenon of preparedness helps explain why virtually all major phobias are equally common in the general population
False
Julie is expected to cut the lawn weekly. Her parents only give her money once in a while after she cuts the lawn. Julie is big conditioned using a _____________________ schedule of reinforcement
Partial
