Learning And Memory Flashcards
What is habituation and dishabituation
Habituation is when your response to a stimulus weakens over time.
Dishabituation is the recovery of a response after habituation has occurred.dishabituation usually occurs after a different stimulus has been presented
What are the two types of associative learning?
Classical and operant conditioning
Unconditioned stimulus and response
In classical conditioning, an unconditioned Stimulus is one that causes an innate or physiological response.
The innate or reflexive response is the unconditioned response
Neutral stimuli
In classical conditioning a neutral stimuli is one that does not cause a reflexive or unconditioned response
Conditioned stimulus and response
A normally neutral stimulus that through association will cause an innate response.
The innate response is then called a conditioned response
Extinction
When an organism becomes habituated to the conditioned stimulus and no longer has a conditioned response.
Spontaneous recovery
When a weakened conditioned response occurs after the extinct conditioned stimulus is presented.
Generalization
When a different stimulus is similar enough to the conditioned stimulus, it will cause a conditioned response.
Discrimination
When an organism learns to distinguish (discriminate) between two similar stimuli.
What is operant conditioning
Links voluntary behavior with consequences to change the frequency of the behavior. This involves reinforcements and punishment.
What is behaviorism?
This the the theory that all behaviors are conditioned
A child is given more time at recess for completing all her class work. Is this a positive or negative reinforcement
This is a positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcement increases a behavior by adding a positive consequence or incentive following the desired behavior.
You smoke weed when you felt stressed in college and when you feel stressed again you start smoking. Is this positive or negative reinforcement.
This is negative reinforcement. Negative reinforcement increases the frequency of a behavior by removing something unpleasant (stress in this case)
What is escape learning?
A type of negative reinforcement that reduce the unpleasantness of something that already exists (i.e. smoking weed to reduce stress)
What is avoidance learning
A negative reinforcer that is meant to prevent the unpleasantness of something that hasn’t happened yet. I.e. studying in advance to avoid making an F.
Conditioned or secondary reinforcer
When classical conditioning is paired with a reinforcer. I.e. a dolphin does a trick when it hears a clicker after the clicker has been paired with a fish (a treat the dolphin innately responds to.
A celebrity is dragged on twitter after making racists remarks. Is this an example of positive or negative punishment?
This is an example of positive punishment. Positive punish adds an unpleasant consequence in order to reduce a behavior.
A teenager sasses her mother and gets her cellphone taken for two weeks. Is this an example of positive or negative punishment?
This is an example of negative punishment. Negative punishment is the reduction of a behavior when a stimulus is removed.
What are the reinforcement schedules? Which is less prone to extinction?
Fixed ration reinforce a behavior on a set number of performances. I.e. every a dog gets a treat every 3rd time it sits
Variable ratio reinforce a behavior on a varying number of performances (3rd time then 8th time then 11th time then 5th time)
Fixed interval reinforces a behaviour after a specified time period. I.e. I get paid every two weeks
Variable interval reinforces a behavior on varying interval of time (i.e. every 2 weeks then every day then every month)
Variable ratio works the fastest and is less prone to extinction.
What is shaping?
This is a type of operant conditioning that rewards increasingly specific behaviors. I.e. if you want your dog to rollover you start by giving him a treat when he lays down. Then give a treat to turn on his back. Then give him a treat to rollover. Eventually the dog only gets a treat if he rolls over.
Observational learning
When you learn by watching the behaviors of others. This involves mirror neurons.
Latent learning
Learning that spontaneously presents after a positive reinforcement is presented
Instinctive drift
The difficulty in overcoming instinctual behaviors to learn something new
Encoding
Putting new information into memory
