Learning and Cognition Unit 4 Flashcards
What is learning?
Relative permanent changes in behavior (including skills) and knowledge
‘Permanent’ means that the behavior/knowledge must be stored in our LMT
3 main types of learning
- Associative
- Classical conditioning
- Operant conditioning - Observational
- Cognitive
Classical conditioning
Unconditioned stimulus (US) leads to Unconditioned response (UR)
Pair a neutral stimulus (NS) with the US … at this time NS does not elicit UR
Pair the NS with the US over and over, they are associated together
The NS will eventually bring the same response alone as the US did, NS has become conditioned stimulus (CS)
Response caused by CS alone is now the condition response (CR)
Operant conditioning
Focus relationship between voluntary behaviour and their consequences
2 types of consequences
- Reinforcement- increases the likelihood of behaviour
Positive: good is provided
Negative: something bad is removed - Punishment - decreases likelihood of behaviour
Positive: something bad is provided
Negative : something good is removed
What is the difference between classical and operant conditioning?
Operant conditioning involves an association between a voluntary behavior and its consequence
Classical conditioning involves associating a naturally occurring stimulus (us) with a neutral stimulus (ns) that becomes the CS
Observational learning
Watching and picking up behaviours
Cognitive learning
How perceptions are interpreted in relation to what’s in our memory
Can relate to people, behaviors or concepts
Piaget view on cognitive learning
Piaget: believed in a stage theory→ their learning develops as a result of abrupt in what they understand
1. Sensorimotor (0-2 years)
2. Preoperational (2-7 years)
3. Concrete operations (7-11 years)
4. Formal operations (11+ years)
Formal operations (11+ years)
Focus on concept and schema development- develop when we encounter something unfamiliar to us
Develop in two ways
- Assimilation
adapting existing concepts and schemas when confronted with new information - Accomodation
New concepts and schemas created to manage new information
What slows children’s cognitive learning down ?
Children’s thinking hampered by limitations and misconceptions
- Object permanence
- Conservation
- Egocentrism
Object permanence (Piaget)
Understanding that objects continue to exist even when not in sight
Conservation (Piaget)
Failure to understand the properties of matter (ex. #, Mass, volume) stay the same even when shape or appearance change
Ex. which glass has more water or are they the same?
Egocentrism
Inability to see the world from others point of view
- Egocentrism physical
Cannot consider what the physical world looks like to others
Testing using piglets 3 mountain problem - Cognitive egocentrism
Fail to recognize other people have thoughts and feelings different from our own
Theory of mind: psychologists use false beliefs tasks to test for TOM
Representation change task
Theory of mind (TOM)
Typically emerging around the age of 4, should be able to understand that the person will look for the object where they initially believed it to be, even though the child knows it has been moved.
is linked to a child’s growing understanding of others as individuals with their own thoughts, beliefs, and perspectives. It plays a crucial role in social interactions, communication, and the development of empathy.
Why does memory matter for cognitive learning?
We store past learning (prior knowledge) in LTM
Prior knowledge facilitates new cognitive learning by improving the ability to understand information and remember new information
Experts (lots of prior knowledge) think better, faster, better decision making and problem solving, why?
Prior knowledge is ‘chunked’ as larger elements in LTM (schemas)
Why does expertise matter for cognitive Learning?
when drawn back to WM , chunks provide lots of useful information to
mate sense of new material, but they take up very little space
CIA / FBI / KGB example
Stimulus generalization
tendency to respond to a stimuli similar to a conditioned stimulus
Stimulus discrimination
the learned ability to respond differently to similar stimuli
Name three factors that impact the effectiveness of reinforcement and punishment
Intensity, timing, and consistency
Continuous reinforcement schedule
a pattern in which a reinforcer follows every correct response
Partial reinforcement schedule
a pattern in which only a portion of all responses are inforced
Fixed ratio schedule - after a set # of responses
Variable ratio schedule - after an unpredictable # of responses
Fixed interval schedule - after a set amount of time has passed
Variable interval schedule - after an unpredictable amount of time has passed
Connection between observational learning and operant conditioning
When the children were frustrated they were more likely to act aggressively when they saw the model have no consequences for being aggressive than the children who saw consequences given to the model
Two main dimensions of blooms taxonomy
What we learn: types of knowledge
How we learn: cognitive processes
Extinction
weakening of a learned response by repeatedly presenting the conditioned stimulus without the unconditioned
