Learning Conditioning and Reinforcement Flashcards

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1
Q

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

A

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

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2
Q

What is generalisation (reference the Little Albert study)?

A

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

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3
Q

What is habituation?

A

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

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4
Q

What is dishabituation?

A

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

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5
Q

Is there a physiological reaction to the conditioned stimulus?

A

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

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6
Q

What is discrimination?

A

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

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7
Q

What is spontaneous recovery?

A

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

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8
Q

What is an example of spontaneous recovery?

A

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

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9
Q

What is contiguity?

A

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

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10
Q

What is contingency?

A

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?

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11
Q

What is taste aversion?

A

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

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12
Q

What is aversion therapy?

A

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

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13
Q

What is the difference between operant and classical conditioning?

A

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

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14
Q

What is the law of effect?

A

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

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15
Q

What happened in BF Skinner’s study?

A

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

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16
Q

What is reinforcement and punishment?

A

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)

17
Q

What is shaping?

A

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

18
Q

What is partial reinforcement?

A

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

19
Q

What did Tolman suggest?

A

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

20
Q

What is learned helplessness?

A

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

21
Q

How is gambling an example of operant conditioning?

A

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

22
Q

Can addiciton be explained using operant conditioning?

A

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

23
Q

What are the criticisms of behaviourism?

A

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

24
Q

What is Bandura’s bobo doll study?

A

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.

25
Q

What is observational learning?

A

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

26
Q

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

A

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

27
Q

What is an inhibitor?

A

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.

28
Q

What is a primary reinforcer?

A

e.g. food, water
biological
important for survival

other reinforcers are social e.g. smiles, praise

29
Q

What is a conditioned reinforcer?

A

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