Learning

Question 1

What is learning?

Answer 1

The development of new skills, acquisition of new knowledge

Question 2

What is Habituation?

Answer 2

The decline in an organism’s response to a stimulus once the stimulus becomes familiar

Question 3

What is the evolutionary beenfit to habituation

Answer 3

Paying attention to unfamiliar stimuli may signal new information, like either a threat or opportunity for food and habituation allows us to not waste energy and time on those that are familiar

Question 4

Dishabituation

Answer 4

the increase in resonse caused by a change in something familiar

Question 5

Why is disjabituation important

Answer 5

Same thing in that hey call attentont o new changes and potentially useful information

Question 6

What is an experiment that shows that there is habituation and dishabituation

Answer 6

Japanese babies and the distinction between l and r sounds. When they have habituated to Lalala they can notice the change to rarara but if the sound difference is not relevant to the language in the infant surround, they will stop paying attention and lose the ability by 12 years

Question 7

What is classical conditioning

Answer 7

Forming associations between different things in the world

Question 8

What is an unconditioned response

Answer 8

A biologically determined reflex, triggered by a certain stimulus indepedent of learning (like salivating)

Question 9

Unconditioned stimulus

Answer 9

A trigger for UR like food inside animal mouse that is instinctive and does not indicate any form of learning

Question 10

Conditioned response

Answer 10

Triggered by a stimulus that was neutral at the start of learning

Question 11

Conditioned stimulu

Answer 11

Stimulu that was neutral but became associated with the US duing the experiment

Question 12

What happens in classical conditioning

Answer 12

We need a US and UR that are bioloigcally ,linked and the pairing a CS with the US to later trigger a UR with CS (becoming a CR)

Question 13

Strength of the CR grows as the animal experiences more and more pairings of CS and US
T/F?

Answer 13

True

Question 14

What is second order conditioning?

Answer 14

Once the CS-US relationship is solidly established, the CS can be sued to establish other conditioned stimuli

Question 15

Con of second order conitioning

Answer 15

Can lead to phobias and fear of anythign related to the original stimulus: the sight of dentist (CS) can be paired with discomfort of her drill, leading to fear –> other things associated with dentist (office, voice, the word dentist) can also lead to fear

Question 16

What is a pro to second order conditioning

Answer 16

Can allow people and animals to develop fear and avoid things that might be potential threats

Question 17

What is extinction

Answer 17

The undoing of a previously learned response

Question 18

How does extinction happen

Answer 18

The CR will gradually disappear if the CS is presented several times by itseld and without the US

Question 19

Is extinction the same as forgetting?

Answer 19

No

Question 20

How do we know that extinction not the same as forgetting

Answer 20

If an animal is conditioned –> unconditioned –> re-conditioned again, the reconditioning usually takes less time, showing how extinction doesn’t completely erase the original learning

Question 21

What is spontaenous recovery

Answer 21

the reappearance of an extinguished response after a period where no further trials have been presented

Question 22

What is the theory for spontaenous recovery

Answer 22

the extinction trials lead the animal to recognise that the stimulus is no longer informative, but the animal still remembers that the CS used to be informative –> when new experiment happens, the animal checks to see whether the bell will be informative in this new setting

Question 23

What is generalization

Answer 23

The tendency for stimuli similar tot he original CS to elicit a reaction similar to the learned response

Question 24

What is the pro to generalization

Answer 24

If requirement for CR is so trict then it would be too specific: like if something were to indicate danger like a warning call but the warning call can differ slightly in tone, volume and length

Question 25

What is the generalization gradient

Answer 25

the greater the different between the new stimulus and the original CS, the weaker the CR

Question 26

What is discrimination

Answer 26

The organism learning to respond differently to stimuli that have been associated with a US and those that have not

Question 27

Why is discrimination important

Answer 27

ensure that we dont generalize too much and end up fearing everything for exampe

Question 28

True or False, both the CS+ and CS- can act as singals for thanimal

Answer 28

TRUE:

Sometimes the CS can tell the opposite of the CS+ in that it can act as a inhibitor and that US is unlikely to happen

Question 29

What is the optimal interval for CS and US

Answer 29

The CS must precede the US by a few seconds because if it is too early, one might not connect the CS to the danger/US and if it afterwards then US already is the one initiating the UR

Question 30

Why is it that we dont get conditioned y everything that is present during the event

Answer 30

There must be contingency and the CS must be only present when the US is present to successfully condition that is
the CS must provide information about the US arrival

Question 31

What happens in the absence of contingency

Answer 31

there is no CR

Question 32

o Conditioning is dependent on the whether the probability of the US after the CS is different from the probability of US without CS
T/F?

Answer 32

T

Question 33

How does an animal adjust for the probabilities

Answer 33

o The individual learns by making adjustments to those expectations when there is a surprise (unexpected occurrence or stimulus)
§ An increase in association between the CS and US is also an increase in expectation of US after CS

Question 34

What does heroin craving tell us about compensatory repsonse

Answer 34

Cravings reflect a type of preparation for the effect of heroin so that the body can maintain homeostasis. Conditioning in the form of substance dependence and cravings will create a CR that prepares the body to offset the bad effects of drug use
· Heroin is the US, UR is the natural bad effects while CS is anything that creates expectation of the drug and finally CR is the opposite of UR

Question 35

What is IC or OC

Answer 35

IC or OC is a form of learning where the participant receives a reinforcer after making a desired response

Question 36

What is the difference netween CS+ and S+

Answer 36

o CS+ tells the animsl about the events in the world: A US comes after CS
o But a S+ tells the animal about the impact of its own behaviour: responding will reap benefits

Question 37

What is shaping

Answer 37

• shaping – eliciting a desired response by rewarding behaviours that are increasingly similar response
  Using successive approximations