Learning

Question 1

Learning

Answer 1

Acquisition from experience of new knowledge, skills, or responses that result in a relatively permanent change in the state of the learner

Question 2

Habituation

Answer 2

Repeated or prolonged exposure to a stimulus results in gradual reduction in responding

Question 3

Sensitization

Answer 3

A simple form of learning that occurs when presentation of a stimulus leads to an increased response to a later stimulus

Question 4

Classical Conditioning

Answer 4

When a neutral stimulus produces a response AFTER being paired with a stimulus that naturally produces a response ; Ivan Pavlov

Question 5

Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

Answer 5

Something that reliably produces a naturally occurring reaction in an organism. i.e. food

Question 6

Unconditioned Response (UR)

Answer 6

Reflexive reaction that is reliably produced by an unconditioned stimulus. i.e. drooling/salivating

Question 7

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

Answer 7

Stimulus that is initially neutral and produces a reliable response in an organism. i.e. ringing of bell

Question 8

Conditioned Response (CR)

Answer 8

Reaction that resembles an unconditioned response, but is produced by the conditioned stimulus. i.e. salivating at sound of bell (previously neutral stimulus)

Question 9

Associative Learning

Answer 9

!!!

Question 10

Acquisition

Answer 10

Phase of classical conditioning when the CS and the US are presented together. i.e. conditioning starts to begin taking place

Question 11

Second-Order Conditioning

Answer 11

The conditioned stimulus (neutral) is paired with a new conditioned stimulus to observe if the previous (original) conditioned response occurs

Question 12

Extinction

Answer 12

Gradual elimination of a learned response that occurs when the US is no longer presented. i.e. eventually salivation decreases from bell because food doesn’t get presented after it

Question 13

Spontaneous Recovery

Answer 13

Tendency of a learned behaviour to recover from the extinction after a rest period

Question 14

Generalization

Answer 14

Process by which the CR is observed, even though the CS is slightly different from the original one used during acquisition. i.e. little change will still illicit response

Question 15

Discrimination

Answer 15

Capacity to distinguish between similar but distinct stimuli. i.e. similar but different stimuli are distinguishable

Question 16

Watson and Rayner - Conditioning Example

Answer 16

Baby Albert - conditioned to be afraid of small white rats because of loud bang in the background.
Showed an example of stimulus generalization because eventually he became afraid of ALL small white animals

Question 17

Rescorla-Wagner Model

Answer 17

Suggests that classical conditioning only occurs when an organism already has an expectation.

A CS serves to set up an expectation, which in turn leads to an array of behaviours associated with the presence of CS. i.e. CS of bell –> Expectation of food –> Salivation, Tail Wagging, Looking for food after bell ring

Question 18

Eyeblink Conditioning Research

Answer 18

argues that classical conditioning draws upon IMPLICIT but not EXPLICIT memory.

Pair auditory or visual stimulus (CS) with an eyeblink-eliciting US.

Question 19

Neural Components

Answer 19

Hippocampus - Trace Conditioning.
- a form of classical conditioning in which presentation of CS (bell) and the US (food) is separated by time in an interstimulus interval, requires an intact hippocampus

Amygdala - Central Nucleus: Fear Conditioning
- Behavioural and physiological (autonomic nervous system) responses

Question 20

Adaptive Behaviours and Survival

Answer 20

Taste Aversions:

• rapidly and in few trials
• over long conditioning periods
• because of perceptual qualities, such as smell or taste
• more often with novel foods

Question 21

Operant Conditioning

Answer 21

Edward Thorndike: focused on instrumental behaviours; created a puzzle box to show the law of effect.

Question 22

Law Of Effect

Answer 22

Principle that behaviours that are followed by a “satisfying state of affairs” tend to be repeated and those that produce an “unpleasant state of affairs” are LESS likely to be repeated

Question 23

Operant Behaviour

Answer 23

Behaviour that an organism produces that has some impact on the environment. - B.F. SKINNER
ex: Operant Chamber/Skinner’s Box/Cat Box

Question 24

Reinforcer

Answer 24

Any stimulus or event that functions to increase the likelihood of the behaviour that led to it; more effective than punishment in promoting learner.
Positive (gives something good)/Negative (Takes away something bad)

Question 25

Punisher

Answer 25

Any stimulus or event that functions to decrease the likelihood of the behaviour that led to it.
Positive (stimulus presented; ex: speeding ticket)/Negative (stimulus removed; taking away a toy) punishment

Question 26

Primary Reinforcers

Answer 26

Satisfy biological needs.

ex: food, drinks, comfort, etc.

Question 27

Secondary Reinforcers

Answer 27

associated (linked) with primary reinforcers.

ex: verbal approval, trophies, money, etc.

Question 28

Overjustification Effect

Answer 28

Circumstances when external rewards can undermine the intrinsic satisfaction of performing a behaviour

Question 29

Immediate vs. Delayed

Answer 29

Reinforcers LOSE effectiveness as time passes.
Delayed reinforcement renders it almost completely INEFFECTIVE. (links positive reinforcement to the new/next behaviour occurring)

Question 30

Discrimination, Generalization, Context

Answer 30

Learning takes place in contexts.
Discriminative Stimulus: A stimulus that indicates a response will be reinforced.
Context can produced similar results in similar situations

Question 31

Extinction

Answer 31

Depends on how often reinforcement is received (in operant).

Question 32

Schedules of Reinforcement

Answer 32

Interval Schedules - Time intervals between reinforcements.

Ratio Schedules - Ratio of responses to reinforcements. (frequency)

Question 33

Schedules of Reinforcement

Answer 33

Fixed Interval (FI): Get paid every 2 weeks at a job no matter what. (creates a Scalloped response pattern).
Variable Interval (VI): Reinforcement at unpredictable intervals regardless of performance.
Fixed Ratio (FR): Get paid for completing a set number of items. (post-reinforcement pause)
Variable Ratio (VR): Slot machine (pull an unspecified amount of times before getting reinforced). [High and steady response rate]

Question 34

Shaping

Answer 34

Learning that results from the reinforcement of successive steps to a final desired behaviour. (reinforce/promote any behaviour moving towards the desired behaviour)

Question 35

Superstitious Behaviour

Answer 35

Rare or odd behaviours may be repeated if they are accidentally reinforced, which may lead to mistaken beliefs regarding causal relationships

Question 36

Cognitive Elements of OC

Answer 36

Latent Learning: Condition in which something is learned but not manifested in a behavioural change until sometime in the future. (mice making less mistakes once they finally get food as a reward in maze)
Cognitive Map: Mental representation of the physical features of the environment.
(mice can maintain a constantly updated mental map during foraging)

Question 37

Intermittent Reinforcement

Answer 37

Operant behaviours that are maintained under intermittent reinforcement schedules resist extinction better

Question 38

Neural elements of OC

Answer 38

Pleasure centres: discovery of structures and pathways in the brain that deliver rewards through stimulation.
Behaviour that involves multiple types of pleasure

Question 39

Observational Learning

Answer 39

Condition in which learning takes place by watching the actions of others.
- Alberta Bandura

Question 40

Diffusion Chain

Answer 40

Process in which individuals initially learn a behaviour by observing another individual perform that behaviour, and then serve as model from which other individuals learned the behaviour

Question 41

Observational Learning in Animals

Answer 41

Pigeons: reinforced for pecking behaviour
Rhesus monkeys: fear snakes through observational diffusion chain; also biological predisposition
Chimps: !!! learned to use tools; enculturation hypothesis

Question 42

Mirror Neurons

Answer 42

Fire to produce observational learning in humans as well as other animal species: frontal and parietal lobe.
If appropriate neurons fire when another organism is seen performing an action, it could indicate an awareness of intentionality/animal is anticipating a likely course of future actions

Question 43

Implicit Learning

Answer 43

Learning that takes place largely without the awareness of the process or products

Question 44

Habituation

Answer 44

!!!

General reduction in response

Question 45

Implicit Learning studies

Answer 45

Memorize artificial grammar letter strings; participants learned group rules without being aware of it

Question 46

Serial reaction time tasks

Answer 46

Shows that participants got faster in reaction time but were unaware that there was a pattern

Question 47

Amnesiacs

Answer 47

Show intact implicit learning, but impaired explicit learning.
Visual information is still going into the processing centre but not being explicitly recognized (patterns)

Question 48

Distinct Neural Pathways

Answer 48

Implicit learning: Occipital Lobe

Explicit: Temporal, Frontal, Parietal

Question 49

Distributed Practice

Answer 49

Spreading studying with repetition across time.

Question 50

Cramming

Answer 50

Learned less than distributed practice

Question 51

Massed Practice

Answer 51

Studying information with little or no time between repetition

Question 52

Interleaved Practice

Answer 52

A practice schedule that mixes different kinds of problems or materials within a single study session.
Student must choose strategy according to nature of each problem

Question 53

Practice Testing

Answer 53

Beneficial when difficult and considerable retrieval is required

Question 54

Control of Learning

Answer 54

Judgments of learning !!!