Learning and Conditioning

Question 1

What is learning?

Answer 1

Any relatively permanent change in the behaviour, feelings or thoughts as a consequence of prior experience.
Adaptation of the individual to the environment.

Question 2

What are the three types of learning?

Answer 2

Auditory
Visual
Kinesthetic

Question 3

Explain auditory learning.

Answer 3

Auditory learners learn best by hearing the concept explained to them. These learners are also adept at remembering pitches andlearning coupled with music.

Question 4

Explain visual learning.

Answer 4

These individuals learn by seeing the material or by observing behaviours. E.g those with photographic memories.

Question 5

Explain kinesthetic learning.

Answer 5

These people learn best by doing something tactile - touching things and doing things with their hands.

Question 6

What behaviours aren’t learned?

Answer 6

Reflexes

Orienting reflexes (facilitate our ability to learn from our environment e.g. we turn towards the source of an abrupt noise to see if we are in danger)

Habituation (we tune out familiar stimuli)

Question 7

What occurs in dishabituation?

Answer 7

We tune into a novel stimuli

Question 8

What is an instinct?

Answer 8

A complex pre-programmed behaviour. However, it might involve some degree of learning, e.g. imprinting. It is normally irreversible.

Question 9

What is classical/Pavlovian conditioning?

Answer 9

Type of learning - a stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a reflexive response that was originally evoked by a different stimulus.

Question 10

Define an unconditioned stimulus and an unconditioned response.

Answer 10

Stimulus that already elicits a response

Response that doesn’t have to be learned

Question 11

Define an conditioned stimulus and a conditioned response.

Answer 11

Previously neutral stimulus

Learned response elicited by conditioned stimulus

Question 12

What are the phases in classical conditioning? (4)

Answer 12

Acquisition – learning phase during which a CR strengthens and occurrence of response increases

Extinction – gradual weakening of the CR tendency. i.e. Multiple presentations of CS without the US.

Spontaneous recovery – reappearance of a response that has been extinguished, and without any environmental promoting.

Savings – response comes back if US and CS coupled again

Question 13

What are the different types of timings in classical conditioning? (5)

Answer 13

Standard pairing
Delay conditioning
Simultaneous conditioning
Trace conditioning
Backward conditioning

Question 14

What is stimulus generalization?

Answer 14

Response to a specific stimulus is associated with other similar stimuli

Question 15

What is stimulus discrimination?

Answer 15

Response to one stimulus and not another

Question 16

What are conditioned emotional responses?

Answer 16

Classically conditioned feelings that an individual experiences in association with particular events, e.g. anxiety with public speaking, even thinking about it makes you nervous.

Question 17

What psychological treatments are based on classical conditioning?

Answer 17

Counter-conditioning (positive association between US and CS replaced with a negative one)

Aversion therapy (taught to experience negative feelings in the presence of stimulus)

Systematic desensitization (replacing one response with another i.e. anxiety with relaxation, antithesis of aversion therapy)

Extinction procedures (weaken maladaptive responses, e.g. anxiety) e.g. flooding (client placed into situation inducing anxiety, BUT where no harm can happen to him so they realise)

Question 18

What is the Garcia effect?

Answer 18

Where you avoid eating certain food/drink because of a past unpleasant experience

Question 19

Where are new excitatory connections formed as fear learning takes place through long term potentiation?

Answer 19

Within the amygdala (between the lateral nucleus and the central nucleus) as fear learning takes place

Question 20

How are the signs and symptoms of fear/anxiety produced?

Answer 20

Fear producing cue –> basal nucleus and central nucleus of amygdala –> activates brain regions that produce signs/symptoms

Question 21

What does activation of the lateral hypothalamus lead to?

Answer 21

Changes in blood pressure and heart rate

Sweating

Question 22

What does activation of parabrachial nucleus lead to?

Answer 22

Panting and respiratory distress

Question 23

What transmitter and receptor are known to be involved in learning and memory?

Answer 23

Glutamate acting on NMDA receptors

Question 24

What is operant conditioning?

Answer 24

An individual’s behaviour is modified by its antecedents and consequences. Learning occurs as a result of reinforcement/reward (these behaviours are strengthened) or punishment.

Question 25

What are the two types of reinforcement?

Answer 25

Positive (give a pleasant stimulus when the operant response is made)
Negative (take away an unpleasant response when the operant response is made)

Question 26

What are the different types of reinforcement schedules?

Answer 26

Fixed ratio (reinforcement after every response)
Variable ratio (not stable)
Fixed interval (time must pass before reinforcement)
Variable interval (time interval varies)

Ratio = amount of times behaviour must be performed before it is reinforced
Interval = the amount of time that has passed before reinforcement occurs

Question 27

What are the two types of punishment?

Answer 27

Positive (the application of an unpleasant stimuli)

Negative (the removal of a pleasant stimulus)

Question 28

What part of the brain is particularly important in operant conditioning?
What transmitter?

Answer 28

Nucleus accumbens in the basal forebrain

Dopamine

Question 29

Describe the idea of a token economy.

Answer 29

Tokens are given to reward behaviours e.g. children with autism. These tokens can then be exchanged for access to desirable items or activities.

Question 30

What is social learning?

Answer 30

The result of observing others behaviour and its outcomes.

Question 31

What did Albert Bandura do/what is the Bobo doll experiment?

Answer 31

Adults kicked the doll and then left - they wanted to see if the child would copy the behaviour. They found that if the children witnessed another person being rewarded for a particular behaviour, the children were more likely to copy the behaviour (and vice versa with punished behaviours).

Question 32

What is modelling (in terms of learning)?

Answer 32

People can change simply by watching other people successfully coping with a problem/situation (an application of Bandura’s theory).