Learning Conditioning and Reinforcement

Question 1

What are the terms of classical conditioning (reference Pavlov’s dogs study)?

Answer 1

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

Question 2

What is generalisation (reference the Little Albert study)?

Answer 2

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

Question 3

What is habituation?

Answer 3

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

Question 4

What is dishabituation?

Answer 4

An increase in responsiveness when something new is presented, following a series of presentations of something familiar
Calls attention to new information

Question 5

Is there a physiological reaction to the conditioned stimulus?

Answer 5

physiological reaction with the conditioned stimulus
e.g. getting a cup of tea, physiologically aware you’re thirsty, when presented with the conditioned stimuli

Question 6

What is discrimination?

Answer 6

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

Question 7

What is spontaneous recovery?

Answer 7

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

Question 8

What is an example of spontaneous recovery?

Answer 8

Exposure therapy treats phobias using the classical conditioning principle of extinction
When treatment ends, phobia often comes back
This is spontaneous recovery

Question 9

What is contiguity?

Answer 9

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

Question 10

What is contingency?

Answer 10

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?

Question 11

What is taste aversion?

Answer 11

Example of classical conditioning in real life
Association between the taste of food with symptoms of gastrointestinal illness

Question 12

What is aversion therapy?

Answer 12

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

Question 13

What is the difference between operant and classical conditioning?

Answer 13

Operant: behaviours are voluntary, learning via consequences, behaviours originate from within. Also known as instrumental learning
Classical: behaviour elicited by the US

Question 14

What is the law of effect?

Answer 14

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

Question 15

What happened in BF Skinner’s study?

Answer 15

Correct responses reward through food pellets
Punished when the rats performed the incorrect responses
Pull lever to stop the electric shocks in the cage

Question 16

What is reinforcement and punishment?

Answer 16

Reinforcement: positive (presenting new stimuli- food)
negative (remove something negative- stop the electric shock)

Punishment: positive (give something bad- pain) negative (remove something good- driving privileges)

Question 17

What is shaping?

Answer 17

The process of eliciting a desired response by rewarding behaviours that are increasingly similar to that response
Used in animal training

Question 18

What is partial reinforcement?

Answer 18

Ratio schedule: reward occurs after a set number of responses
variable vs fixed

Interval schedule: reward occurs after a set period of time
variable vs fixed

Don’t reward them every time they establish a good behaviour, otherwise they only establish that behaviour for a reward, they know if they accomplish the desired behaviour that there’s a chance they can be rewarded

Question 19

What did Tolman suggest?

Answer 19

Latent learning: learning without any corresponding behaviour change

Study: rats explore a maze, before parts are blocked off. Rats gain knowledge about how to navigate the maze and building a mental map

Question 20

What is learned helplessness?

Answer 20

Type of Operant conditioning in real life
Control over an aversive stimulus gives a sense of mastery
e.g. voluntary response modifies the environment
A lack of control leads to experiences of helplessness
Learned helplessness is in politics, weight loss programme, studying

Question 21

How is gambling an example of operant conditioning?

Answer 21

Type of operant conditioning in real life
Rely on variable reinforcement schedule
Resistance to extinction even after multiple losses

Question 22

Can addiciton be explained using operant conditioning?

Answer 22

Type of operant conditioning in real life
Negative reinforcement is a key motive for drug use
Continued use insulates from the aversive effects
Falling levels of drug in the body leads to withdrawal effects (aversive) then they take the drug to remove these aversive effects

Question 23

What are the criticisms of behaviourism?

Answer 23

Too environmentally deterministic
Ignores the role of genetics and personality traits
Experiments done on animals, which isn’t applicable to most humans
Humans also learn through social interactions, vicarious and self reinforcement

Question 24

What is Bandura’s bobo doll study?

Answer 24

Two groups of children. Both shown different video of an adult playing with the doll.
In one video, the adult played quietly with the doll. In other the adult kicked the doll.
When the child was allowed to play with the doll, if they watched the aggressive video, they were more likely to kick the doll as well.

Question 25

What is observational learning?

Answer 25

The process of watching others behave and learning from their example
Some animals can learn to fear a stimulus simply by seeing other animals fear it

Question 26

What is second order conditioning? How does this differ from first order?

Answer 26

NS is made meaningful through classical conditioning
That stimulus (now the CS) is paired with a new, neutral stimulus until this new stimulus also produces the conditioned response
e.g. the bell is paired with the light, so when the bell alone is presented (which hasn’t been paired with the meat) can trigger salivation

First order: the light is paired with the meat, when the light is present salivation occurs

Question 27

What is an inhibitor?

Answer 27

A stimulus signalling that an event is not coming, which elicits the opposite response to the one the event usually elicits
e.g. US is a noise blast, CS elicits fear to this blast, the other CS that doesn’t come with a loud noise can take on the role as the inhibitor.

Question 28

What is a primary reinforcer?

Answer 28

e.g. food, water
biological
important for survival

other reinforcers are social e.g. smiles, praise

Question 29

What is a conditioned reinforcer?

Answer 29

initially neutral in value
become meaningful due to the individual’s experiences
established with another reinforcer
e.g. money