Learning and Ethology

Question 1

Shaping, also known as Differential Reinforcement

Answer 1

Operant conditioning phenomenon in which you reinforce only the behavior (response) you wish to increase and extinguish all other behaviors (responses). For example, suppose you want to train your dog to fetch your slippers. So you reinforce successively closer approximations to the desired behavior. You might begin by reinforcing your dog every time she looks at your slippers. Once she’s doing that consistently, you stop reinforcing her for just looking at your slippers (i.e. you extinguish that behavior) and reinforce her only when she walks toward your slippers. And so on…

Question 2

The 5 consequences of operant conditioning,
as specified by B. F. Skinner

Answer 2

1. Positive reinforcement: occurs when a behavior (response) is rewarding, or the behavior is followed by another stimulus that is rewarding, thus increasing the frequency of the behavior.
2. Negative reinforcement: subtype escape occurs when a behavior (response) is followed by the removal of an aversive stimulus; subtype avoidance occurs when an organism gets a warning that an aversive stimulus will soon occur, and the appropriate response completely avoids the aversive stimulus.
3. Positive punishment, or punishment by contingent stimulation: occurs when a behavior (response) is followed by an aversive stimulus.
4. Negative punishment, or punishment by contingent withdrawal: occurs when a behavior (response) is followed by the removal of a rewarding stimulus.
5. Extinction: occurs when a behavior (response) that had previously been reinforced is no longer reinforced; the behavior eventually becomes extinguished.

Question 3

Acquisition

Answer 3

“Acquisition” is a term used in both classical and operant conditioning. In classical conditioning, it refers to the period during which an organism is learning to associate the CS with the UCS.

Question 4

Ivan Pavlov

Answer 4

Usually credited for the basic principles of classical conditioning. He noticed that through experience, stimuli that previously had no relation to a specific reflex could come to trigger that reflex. A reflex is simply an unlearned response that is elicited by a specific stimulus. The idea of classical conditioning is to cause a neutral stimulus (for example, the ringing of a bell) to become paired, or associated, with a stimulus that elicits a reflex (e.g., food powder placed into dog’s mouths). For classical conditioning to be successful, the neutral stimulus, or conditioned stimulus, must be presented before the unconditioned stimulus (the food powder). Presenting the CS before the UCS is known as “forward conditioning.”

Question 5

Karl von Frisch

Answer 5

(1886 - 1982) Austrian ethologist who received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1973, along w/ Nikolaas “Niko” Tinbergen and Konrad Lorenz, for their discoveries concerning organization and elicitation of individual and social behavior patterns in animals. Much of his personal work centered on investigations of the sensory perceptions of the honey bee. Von Frisch and others found that honey bees are able to communicate the direction and the distance of a food source to their fellow hive members by means of special movement patterns, often called “dances.”

Question 6

Ethology, past and present

Answer 6

As opposed to early ethologists, modern ethologists tend to deemphasize the instinctual bases of behavior and focus more on the question of why the animal behaves as it does and not in some other manner. To answer this question, ethologists attempt to discover the evolutionary significance of behavior.

Question 7

Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection,
in 3 steps

Answer 7

1. There are genetic differences between members of a species.
2. If a specific genetic variation increases the chances of reproduction, it will tend to get passed down to the next generation. If a specific genetic variation decreases the chances of reproduction, it will tend not to get passed down to the next generation.
3. Over time, more and more members of the species will tend to have the genetic variations that increase their chances of reproduction and less and less of the species will tend to have the genetic variations that decrease their chance of reproduction.

Question 8

Reproductive Fitness
(also called Individual Fitness or Personal Fitness)
vs.
Inclusive Fitness

Answer 8

Reproductive fitness means the number of offspring that live to be old enough to reproduce. If the currency of natural selection is reproductive fitness, then altruism (in this context, behavior that increases the reproductive fitness of other members of one’s species while decreasing one’s own) is difficult to understand. By contrast, the theory of kin selection suggests that animals act to increase their inclusive fitness, rather than their reproductive fitness. Inclusive fitness takes into account not only the number of offspring who survive to reproductive age, but also the number of relatives who survive to reproductive age. If the currency of natural selection is inclusive fitness, then altruism makes sense.

Question 9

Sociobiology

Answer 9

A field of biology that aims to examine and explain social behavior in terms of evolution. Sociobiology draws from the disciplines of psychology, ethology, anthropology, evolution, zoology, archaeology, and population genetics. The scientist most associated w/ sociobiology is E. O. Wilson. Wilson is adamant in his belief that behavior is due to a complex and dynamic interplay between genetics and the environment. Wilson’s biological specialty is myrmecology, or the study of ants.

Question 10

Fixed-Action Patterns (FAPs)

Answer 10

When you observe the behavior of animals in their natural habitat, you see that certain action patterns are relatively stereotyped and appear to be species-typical. These actions are called fixed-action patterns (FAPs). Because they are considered innate, it is perhaps easy to confuse a FAP w/ a Pavlovian unconditioned response, which is also considered to be innate. The difference is that a FAP tends to be more complex than a Pavlovian unconditioned response. So, for example, an unconditioned response might be something like salivation or an eye-blink whereas a FAP might be something like rolling an egg back to a nest, or a species-typical courtship ritual.

Question 11

Nikolaas “Niko” Tinbergen

Answer 11

(1907 - 1988) Dutch biologist, ornithologist, and ethologist who shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Karl von Frisch and Konrad Lorenz for their discoveries concerning organization and elicitation of individual and social behavior patterns in animals. He is regarded as one of the founders of modern ethology, and was one of those ethologists who introduced experimental methods into the field, enabling the construction of controlled conditions outside the laboratory. Tinbergen also conducted one of the most famous experiments in ethology–on aggression in male sticklebacks (a fish).

Question 12

Sign Stimuli and Releasers

Answer 12

Sign stimuli are features of a stimulus that are sufficient to bring about a particular FAP. Releasers are sign stimuli that function as signals from one animal to another. However, the two terms are often used interchangeably. In general, a specific FAP will be elicited by only one sign stimulus or releaser.

Question 13

Supernormal Stimulus

Answer 13

In his experiment on aggression in male sticklebacks, Tinbergen was able to design a model that elicited the aggressive response more reliably than an actual male stickleback. A stimulus that is more effective at triggering the FAP than the actual stimulus found in nature is called a supernormal stimulus.

Question 14

Garcia Effect

Answer 14

Conditioned taste or smell aversion associated w/ a negative reaction, such as nausea or vomiting. Discovered by John Garcia via a classical conditioning experiment w/ thirsty rats. The experiment was a 2x2 factorial design involving two unconditioned stimuli (a shock or a nauseating drug) and two conditioned stimuli (sweet water or bright-noisy water). Conditioning was successful only in two of the four conditions: when the nauseating drug was paired with the sweet water, and when the shock was paired with the bright-noisy water. These results are explained by a phenomenon called preparedness. Rats seem to have an inborn, biological tendency to associate illness w/ something they ingested and to pair sights and sounds w/ externally induced pain. Humans also are prone to associating illness with what they ingest.

Question 15

John Garcia

Answer 15

Studied taste-aversion learning and proposed that some species are biologically prepared to learn connections between certain stimuli.

Question 16

Biological Constraints

Answer 16

To challenge behaviorist theories, researchers point to evidence that different species have different inborn predispositions for how and what they are able to learn. These predispositions are called biological constraints, and they affect both classical and operant conditioning. One exaple is the Garcia effect, which illustrates the principle of preparedness and involves classical conditioning. Another example is instinctual drift, which can interfere with attempts to shape behavior through operant conditioning.

Question 17

Wolfgang Köhler on Problem Solving

Answer 17

Wolfgang Köhler (who cofounded Gestalt psychology) disagreed w/ Edward Thorndike (who conducted experiments w/ cats in puzzle boxes and formulated the law of effect). Thorndike argued that all problem solving is trial-and-error. Köhler argued that given the opportunity, some animals can learn by insight. Insight is the perception of the inner relationships between factors that are essential to solving a problem. Köhler placed chimps in enclosed play areas and suspended food high above (in their sight, but out of reach). Typically, chimps would begin by trying to get the food directly by reaching for it. When that failed, they would typically stop and survey the situation. After a period of time, and often suddenly, they would try a different approach based on a novel way of using items in the cage.

Question 18

Conditioned Aversion

Answer 18

Behavior therapy based on classical conditioning. May be used to help, among others, people with alcohol problems, people addicted to smoking, and people with problematic paraphilias. In conditioned aversion, the stimulus that attracts the client becomes paired w/ an aversive unconditioned stimulus associated with punishment. Negative feelings become associated with the undesirable behavior and the client stops being attracted to the behavior. In technical terms, conditioned aversion involves pairing a desired (but problematic) CS with an aversive UCS.

Question 19

Nikolaas “Niko” Tinbergen’s
famous experiment on aggression
in male sticklebacks

Answer 19

The stickleback is a fish whose males establish territories during the spring breeding season. If a male swims into the territory of another male, he’s likely to be attacked. Tinbergen and his associates found that the red belly of the invading stickleback was the most important element in triggering the aggressive behavior, since even a crude model with the belly painted red was apt to be attacked. Therefore, a red belly is a sign stimulus, and also a releaser, which triggers aggression in male sticklebacks during the spring.

Question 20

Innate Releasing Mechanism (IRM)

Answer 20

The FAP follows automatically once the organism perceives the sign stimulus. In fact, even if the stimulus is removed in the middle of the behavioral sequence, the animal will continue to perform the actions as if the stimulus was still present. Because of this, ethologists have suggested that there must be some mechanism in the animal’s nervous system that serves to connect the stimulus with the right response. They call this mechanism an innate releasing mechanism (IRM).

Question 21

Reproductive Isolating Mechanisms

Answer 21

Reproductive isolating mechanisms are behaviors that prevent animals of one species from attempting to mate with animals of a closely related species. They work by providing an animal with a way of identifying others of its own species. An example is the species-specific call given by male black-headed gulls, enabling female black-headed gulls to find them. Isolating mechanisms are found only in locations where closely related species share a common environment.

Question 22

Observational Learning

Answer 22

Albert Bandura demonstrated by his classic “Bobo doll” experiment that behavior can be learned by observation, or what he termed vicarious reinforcement. Vicarious reinforcement refers to the process of learning behaviors through observation of reward and punishment, rather than through direct experience.

Question 23

Keller Breland
and
Marian Breland Bailey

Answer 23

Behavioral psychologists who used shaping in an attempt to train a raccoon to pick up coins and deposit them into a piggy bank. They encountered a difficulty known as instinctual drift: the raccoon kept reverting to a species-specific behavior pattern. The raccoon never fully learned the desired procedure. Instinctual drift is a kind of biological constraint.

Question 24

How the Garcia effect, i.e. taste-aversion learning,
differs from the “standard” model of classical conditioning

Answer 24

Learned taste aversion can occur after only a single trial. One pairing of the CS and UCS is all it takes. This is unlike most classical conditioning where many trials are required for the conditioning to fully develop. What’s more, taste-aversion learning can take place even if the UCS occurs up to 24 hours after the CS. Usually, the optimal time period between the CS and UCS is several seconds after the CS. But typically, if you become ill up to 24 hours after eating a new food, you will probably be averse to eating any more of that food.

Question 25

Ethology

Answer 25

Ethology is the study of animal behavior under natural conditions, and is radically different from behaviorism. The evidence pointing to the effects of biological constraints on learning was of no surprise to ethologists. Ethologists tend to concern themselves with behaviors that are characteristic of a particular species: species-specific, or species-typical behaviors. Since species-specific behaviors tend to have an instinctual basis, the early ethologists tended to look at instinctual behavior. This contrasted with the behaviorists who concerned themselves with learned behavior. Ethologists also employ different research methods than other psychologists. They observe animal behavior in the animal’s natural habitat and tend to look at more complex behavior.

Question 26

Joseph Wolpe

Answer 26

Developed the method of systematic desensitization.

Question 27

E. O. Wilson

Answer 27

“Father of sociobiology”

Question 28

Robert Rescorla

(high-level)

Answer 28

Performed experiments which showed that temporal contiguity could not fully explain classical conditioning; proposed contingency theory of classical conditioning.

Question 29

Robert Rescorla

(thorough)

Answer 29

Proposed contingency theory of classical conditioning in the late 1960s. “Contingency” means “conditionality.” Rescorla pointed out that 3 kinds of contingency are possible.

• Positive contingency produces excitatory conditioning: the CS signals an increase in the probability that the UCS will occur (compared to before the CS).
• Negative contingency produces inhibitory conditioning: the CS signals a decrease in the probability that the UCS will occur (compared to before the CS).
• Zero contigency––the CS predicts neither an increase nor a decrease in the probability that the UCS will occur.

Contigency varies in degree as well as direction. Previous conceptions of classical conditioning merely emphasized the importance of temporal contiguity of CS and UCS, i.e. that the UCS appears soon in time after the CS.

Question 30

Generalization in the context of
operant conditioning

Answer 30

Generalization applies to both classical and operant conditioning. In the context of operant conditioning, let’s say we train an animal to peck for food when a green light is on (the green light is the SD, or discriminative stimulus). After training, the animal will peck not only when the green light is on, but also when similarly colored lights are on. In fact, the closer the color of the light is to green, the more likely it is that the animal will peck. This is known as generalization.

Question 31

Spontaneous Recovery

Answer 31

In classical conditioning, after extinction and a period of rest, presenting the CS without the UCS will again elicit a weak CR. (Of course, further extinction training can once again be employed.)

Question 32

Discriminative Stimulus

(abbreviated SD)

Answer 32

In operant conditioning, an antecedent stimulus that has stimulus control over a behavior because the behavior was reliably reinforced in the presence of that stimulus in the past. For example, we have a pigeon pecking at a key to get a food pellet. The food pellet functions as a positive reinforcement. Above the key, we place a light that illuminates periodically. When the light is on, the pigeon will get a food pellet whenever it pecks the key. However, regardless of how much the pigeon pecks the key when the light is off, it will not get a food pellet. So the pigeon’s actions can be reinforced only when the light is on. The illuminated light is a discriminative stimulus, or SD.

Question 33

Partial Reinforcement Effect

Answer 33

In operant conditioning, the emperical finding that resistance to extinction is greater following acquisition where some, but not all, responses are reinforced (PRF), compared to acquisition where all responses are reinforced (CRF). PRF stands for partial reinforcement; CRF stands for continuous reinforcement. Gambling provides a good example of the partial reinforcement effect.

Question 34

The schedule of reinforcement most resistant to extinction, which also produces the most rapid response rate, is…

Answer 34

…is the variable-ratio (VR) response schedule. A good way to remember this is by the abbreviation VR, which can stand for very resistant, as well as very rapid.

Question 35

Clarifying terminology for schedules of reinforcement

Answer 35

• In a fixed-ratio 5 schedule (FR 5), the animal receives reinforcement only after exactly five responses.
• In a variable-ratio 5 schedule (VR 5), the animal receives reinforcement after an average of five responses.
• In a fixed-interval 45-second schedule (FI 45-sec), the animal is reinforced on the first response after exactly 45 seconds have elapsed.
• In a variable-interval 45-second schedule (VI 45-sec), the animal is reinforced on the first response made after an average of 45 seconds have elapsed.
• A fixed-ratio 1 schedule (FR 1) is also known as a continuous reinforcement (CRF) schedule.

Question 36

The 4 basic types of partial reinforcement,
called schedules of reinforcement

Answer 36

(operant conditioning)

• ​Fixed-ratio (FR): the organism receives reinforcement only after a fixed number of responses
• Variable-ratio (VR): the organism receives reinforcement after a varying number of responses (with a particular average number of responses between reinforcements)
• Fixed-interval (FI): the organism is reinforced on the first response after a fixed period of time has elapsed
• Variable-interval (VI): the organism is reinforced on the first response after an average period of time has elapsed

Question 37

Examples of the 4 schedules of reinforcement (operant conditioning)

Answer 37

• Fixed-ratio: behavior will be reinforced after a fixed number of responses; example: p**iecework
• Variable-ratio: Behavior will be reinforced after an average (but varying) number of responses; example: slot machines
• Fixed-interval: Behavior will be reinforced for the first response after a fixed period of time has elapsed since the last reinforcement; example: going to the office to pick up bimonthly paycheck
• Variable-interval: Behavior will be reinforced for the first response after an average (but varying) period has elapsed since the last reinforcement; example: parent responding to crying child (from the child’s perspective)

Question 38

Second-Order Conditioning

Answer 38

In classical conditioning, a neutral stimulus is paired with a CS rather than an UCS. There are two stages involved in second-order conditioning. Stage 1 is regular classical conditioning; for example, conditioning a dog to salivate to a bell ring. In stage 2, we present a neutral stimulus––a flash of light, for example––just before presenting the CS (the bell ring) but without presenting the food powder. After several of these trials, the dog will salivate to the light flash alone. We could even do third-order conditioning by presenting the tick of a metronome followed by the light flash. Eventually the dog will begin to salivate to the ticking of the metronome.

Question 39

Konrad Lorenz

Answer 39

The 1930s, largely due to the work of Konrad Lorenz, marked the beginning of ethology as a recognized discipline. Lorenz rejected the idea that animal behavior could be understood in the laboratory. Instead, he believed that an understanding of animal behavior could be gained only out in the field. Ethology is the scientific and objective study of animal behavior, usually with a focus on behavior under natural conditions, and viewing behavior as an evolutionarily adaptive trait. Lorenz received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1973, along w/ Karl von Frisch and Nikolaas “Niko” Tinbergen, for their discoveries concerning organization and elicitation of individual and social behavior patterns in animals.

Question 40

What type of conditioning, classical or operant,
did John Watson emphasize?

Answer 40

classical conditioning

Question 41

Edward Thorndike

(high-level)

Answer 41

(1874 - 1949) One of the early psychologists to study learning. He is considered to be a part of the functionalist system of thought, focusing on how the mind functions in adapting to its environment. He is also considered to be an early behaviorist, since as a result of his study of the objective behavior of animals, he developed the law of effect, which formed the basis for a theory of operant conditioning.

Question 42

Edward Thorndike

(thorough)

Answer 42

(1874 - 1949) Functionalist, and the first to extensively study operant conditioning, sometimes called instrumental learning. Thorndike observed the behavior of cats trying to escape from puzzle boxes. With repeated trials, ineffective responses occurred less frequently and successful responses occurred more frequently, so the cats escaped more and more quickly. Thorndike generalized this finding in his law of effect, which states that behaviors followed by satisfying consequences tend to be repeated and those that produce unpleasant consequences are less likely to be repeated. By plotting escape time against trial number, Thorndike produced the first known animal learning curves.

Question 43

Phobias as classical conditioning gone wrong

Answer 43

A phobia is an irrational fear. One explanation for phobias is that they develop through classical conditioning as a learned association between an aversive US and a CS, the CS being what the person becomes afraid of. Therefore, one of the simplest ways to get rid of a phobia is through extinction. By repeatedly presenting the feared object, the CS, without the associated US that originally elicited the fear, the fear response to the CS will decrease and will eventually be eliminated. Of course, this is easier said than done. Three methods of extinction training may be used: flooding, implosion, or systematic desensitization (also called counter-conditioning).

Question 44

Flooding, Implosion, and Systematic Desensitization, also called Counter-Conditioning (for phobias and other anxiety disorders)

Answer 44

Behavior therapies based on classical conditioning. In flooding, the client experiences the CS without the US that originally elicited fear. The therapist might, for example, force the client to hold a cat. In implosion, the client is asked to imagine the anxiety-producing situation. In order to reduce the initial anxiety, Joseph Wolpe developed systematic desensitization. This process uses a hierarchy of anxiety-producing situations coupled with the use of relaxation techniques. The client, while in a deeply relaxed state, is asked to imagine the least anxiety-producing situation in the hierarchy. The principle is that an individual cannot experience relaxation and anxiety at the same time. The client proceeds up the hierarchy. This is also called counter-conditioning.

Question 45

Behavior Therapies
and/or
Behavior Modification

Answer 45

There are many psychotherapies based on conditioning models: they are called behavior therapies and/or behavior modification. We can divide these therapies into two groups: those based on classical conditioning and those based on operant conditioning. Therapies based on classical conditioning are used primarily with phobias, but can also be used with obsessive-compulsive disorders.

Question 46

B. F. Skinner’s disagreement with Edward Thorndike, and Skinner’s original contributions to theory of operant conditioning

Answer 46

B. F. Skinner (1904 - 1990) is often considered the father of operant conditioning. Skinner rejected Thorndike’s use of mentalistic terms like “satisfying” and “unpleasant,” instead focusing exclusively on observable behaviors. He created the Skinner box, a refinement of Thorndike’s puzzle box. And he specified the 5 consequences of operant conditioning:

1. Positive reinforcement
2. Negative reinforcement (two subtypes: escape and avoidance)
3. Positive punishment
4. Negative punishment
5. Extinction

Question 47

John Watson

Answer 47

(1878 - 1958) Behaviorist who said, “Give me a dozen healthy infants…” He conducted one of the original experiments that founded the behaviorist system of thought––in 1920, he used classical conditioning to make Little Albert afraid of white rats. (Watson would present Albert with a white rat, then make a startlingly loud noise behind Albert’s head. Eventually, Albert began to show a fear response to the white rat, a rabbit, and even a mink coat.) Watson’s experiment with Little Albert would be considered highly unethical today. After Watson, behaviorism became the dominant system of psychology in the U.S., and remained so until about 1960.

Question 48

Edwin Guthrie

Answer 48

(1886 - 1959) Behavioral psychologist who first worked as a mathematics teacher, and philosopher, but switched to psychology when he was 33. Guthrie is best known for his theory that all learning is based on a stimulus-response association. This was variously described as one trial theory, non-reinforcement, and contiguity learning. The theory goes as follows: “A combination of stimuli which has accompanied a movement will on its recurrence tend to be followed by that movement.” Guthrie’s theories went against those of Watson’s classical conditioning and Skinner’s operant conditioning due mainly to Guthrie’s insistence that their “desire for results of immediate practical applications” led to their theories being wrong. One word that his coworkers and students used to describe Guthrie and his theories was “simple”––his simple nature carried into his teachings where he took great pride in working with and teaching his students.

Question 49

4 Basic Terms of
Classical Conditioning

Answer 49

• Unconditioned stimulus (UCS): A stimulus that can reflexively elicit a response
• Unconditioned response (UCR): A response reflexively elicited by an unconditioned stimulus
• Conditioned stimulus (CS): A stimulus that, after conditioning, is able to elicit a conditioned response
• Conditioned response (CR): A response that, after conditioning, is elicited by a conditioned stimulus

Question 50

The importance of timing in classical conditioning

Answer 50

A crucial factor in the success of classical conditioning is the timing of the CS and UCS. Notice that in Pavlov’s experiment, the CS was presented before the UCS: the bell ring was presented before the food powder. This is called foreward conditioning. For classical conditioning to work, the CS has to be presented before the UCS. (Backwards conditioning means presenting the CS following the UCS; it is generally unsuccessful.)

Question 51

Extinction

Answer 51

A behavioral phenomenon observed in both operantly conditioned and classically conditioned behavior, which manifests itself by fading of non-reinforced conditioned response over time. In other words, if conditioned behavior is not reinforced, it becomes extinguished.

Question 52

Therapies based on operant conditioning

Answer 52

Therapies based on operant conditioning attempt to alter the consequences of the client’s behavior. The goal of these therapies is to change the client’s behavior by changing the reinforcement contigency associated with the behavior. The therapist utilizes the various kinds of operant conditioning: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, negative punishment, and extinction to modify client behavior. This approach is generally called contingency management. Specific examples include behavior contracts, time-out procedures, token economies, and the Premack principle.

Question 53

Time-Out Procedure

(form of contingency management)

Answer 53

The idea behind the time-out procedure is that the undesirable behavior occurs in situations that reinforce the behavior. Therefore, if you can remove the client from the reinforcing situation before he receives reinforcement for his behavior, the behavior will not be reinforced and will therefore eventually cease.

Question 54

Behavior Contracts

(form of contingency management)

Answer 54

A behavior contract is a negotiated agreement between two parties that explicitly states the behavioral change that is desired and indicates consequences of certain actions. Behavior contracts are most often used where the goal of the therapy is to improve various interpersonal situations. In these cases, behavioral contracts generally state that one person will perform the behaviors desired by the second person in return for the second person performing the behaviors desired by the first person.

Question 55

Token Economies

(form of contingency management)

Answer 55

Based on the systematic reinforcement of target behavior. Tokens are given for desirable behaviors and are taken away for undesirable behaviors. These tokens can later be exchanged by the client for a wide array of rewards and privileges. Token economies have been especially useful in mental hospitals where desirable behaviors might include aiding in self-care, making one’s own bed, interacting well with other patients or staff, and so on.

Question 56

Premack Principle

(form of contingency management)

Answer 56

The Premack principle, coined by psychologist David Premack (1925 - 2015), states that a more preferred activity can be used to reinforce a less preferred activity. This principle is often applied when parents require children to do homework before they can play. The parent is using the more preferred activity, playing, to reinforce the less preferred activity, studying.

Question 57

Edward Tolman

Answer 57

Like Wolfgang Köhler (who cofounded Gestalt psychology), Edward Tolman suggested an alternative to the simple conditioning model of problem solving. Tolman conducted experiments with rats in mazes and proposed the concept of a cognitive map, which is a mental representation of a physical space. Tolman was able to show that rats were able to form cognitive maps of various mazes. If a familiar path through the maze was blocked, the rats were able to utilize their cognitive map to adopt an alternative route through the maze.

Question 58

Generalization

(in classical conditioning)

Answer 58

In classical conditioning, generalization is the tendency for stimuli similar to the CS to elicit the CR. We see evidence of stimulus generalization in phobias. For example, if a child is bitten by a large dog, he is liable to fear not only large dogs, but also small dogs. The story of Little Albert provides another example.

Question 59

Sensory Preconditioning

Answer 59

In classical conditioning, two neutral stimuili are paired together and then one of the neutral stimuli is paired with an UCS. There are two stages involved in sensory preconditioning. In stage 1, we pair two neutral stimuli, say a flash of light and a bell ring. (Remember that both of these are neutral stimuli.) After several trials, we move on to stage 2, where we pair the bell with the UCS of food powder. After the animal salivates to the bell alone, we then test for the effect of sensory preconditioning by flashing the light without either ringing the bell or presenting the food. It turns out that even though the light flash and the food were never directly paired, the light flash elicits salivation.

Question 60

Leon Kamin

Answer 60

(1927 - 2017) American psychologist known for contributing several important ideas about conditioning, including the blocking effect. Kamin showed that conditioning an animal to associate a salient conditioned stimulus (CSb), such as a bright light, with a salient unconditioned stimulus (UCS) like a shock, is “blocked” when CSb is presented simultaneously with another conditioned stimulus (CSa) that was already conditioned to the UCS. In other words, the CS must provide non-redundant information about the occurrence of the UCS in order for conditioning to occur. Kamin used rats in most of his research, but the effect has been found in many animals, including humans. The blocking effect is one of the hallmark effects in the study of associative learning. However, subsequent research suggests it is not as robust as previously thought.

Question 61

Stimulus Control

Answer 61

Stimulus control is a phenomenon in operant conditioning that occurs when the consequences of a given behavior depend on the presence of a given stimulus. A stimulus that modifies behavior in this manner is either a discriminative stimulus (SD) or stimulus delta (S-delta). A discriminative stimulus (SD) is a stimulus in the presence of which a particular response will be reinforced. A stimulus delta (S-delta) is a stimulus in the presence of which a particular response will not be reinforced.

Question 62

Antecedent

Answer 62

An antecedent is a stimulus that cues an organism to perform a learned behavior. When an organism perceives an antecedent stimulus, it behaves in a way that maximizes reinforcing consequences and minimizes punishing consequences.