Learning Conditioning and Reinforcement Flashcards
What are the terms of classical conditioning (reference Pavlov’s dogs study)?
neutral stimulus: the bell, before conditioning, provokes no response from the dog
unconditioned stimulus: food
unconditioned response: salivation to food
conditioned stimulus: bell
conditioned response: salivation to bell
extinction: previous conditioned response disappears gradually after being presented the conditioned stimulus many times
after conditioning, when presented meat and bell at the same time, the dog salivated at the meat still, it’s important that the meat is presented after the bell
What is generalisation (reference the Little Albert study)?
Albert was conditioned to be afraid of rats and similar stimuli due to generalisation
Albert afraid of both white rats and rabbits
Conditioned response (fear) to stimuli similar to the original conditioned stimuli (the white rat) where he was also afraid of the white rabbit (new, unconditioned stimuli)
Greater the difference between the new and original stimuli, the weaker the conditioned response, but the more similarities means the greater the conditioned response
Generalised this conditioned response to other stimuli
What is habituation?
Decline in responsiveness to a stimulus once it has become familiar
Tells us whether it’s worth paying attention to a stimuli
Pay attention to unfamiliar stimuli, without scrutinising every stimuli you come across
What is dishabituation?
An increase in responsiveness when something new is presented, following a series of presentations of something familiar
Calls attention to new information
Is there a physiological reaction to the conditioned stimulus?
physiological reaction with the conditioned stimulus
e.g. getting a cup of tea, physiologically aware you’re thirsty, when presented with the conditioned stimuli
What is discrimination?
An aspect of learning which the organism learns to respond differently to the stimuli that have been associated with a US (or reinforcement) and stimuli that have not
e.g. you’ll feel fear if you see an angry face, too much generalization means you may feel fear to other facial expressions. So your response should be guided by the stimuli in your view
What is spontaneous recovery?
After extinction
The reappearance of an extinguished response after a period in which no further conditioning trials have been presented
After a 24 hour rest, dogs salivated to the sound of the bell again
What is an example of spontaneous recovery?
Exposure therapy treats phobias using the classical conditioning principle of extinction
When treatment ends, phobia often comes back
This is spontaneous recovery
What is contiguity?
The optimum time by which the CS precedes the US
It’s about ‘when’ the US comes after the CS
e.g. meat needs to follow the bell pretty quickly, if you wait too long, dog won’t associate the two stimuli
What is contingency?
CS must provide information about the arrival of the US
It isn’t just when they are paired, but whether they were ever not paired
Is the US contingent on the CS?
What is taste aversion?
Example of classical conditioning in real life
Association between the taste of food with symptoms of gastrointestinal illness
What is aversion therapy?
Another example of classical conditioning in real life
Undesirable behaviour is paired with an aversive stimulus
Can treat alcoholism, addiction, smoking
With alcoholism: drugs (US) used to induce nausea (UR), with alcohol as the CS
What is the difference between operant and classical conditioning?
Operant: behaviours are voluntary, learning via consequences, behaviours originate from within. Also known as instrumental learning
Classical: behaviour elicited by the US
What is the law of effect?
By Thorndike
If a behaviour is followed by a reward, the behaviour will be strengthened (likely to be repeated)
If not, the behaviour will be weakened (unlikely to be repeated)
Study: cat presses lever, to open door leading out of the cage, to access the food
What happened in BF Skinner’s study?
Correct responses reward through food pellets
Punished when the rats performed the incorrect responses
Pull lever to stop the electric shocks in the cage