Learning & Motivation

Question 1

Stimulus

Answer 1

A detectable change in the internal or external environment

Can be neutral, appetitive, aversive

Question 2

Appetitive Stimulus

Answer 2

Attracts subject

Question 3

Aversive Stimulus

Answer 3

Repels subject

Question 4

Response

Answer 4

Quantifiable reaction to a stimulus

Question 5

Behaviour

Answer 5

Set of responses of an organisms, usually in reaction to a stimuli

2 types= learned and instinctual

Question 6

Instinctual Behaviour

Answer 6

Genetically programmed behaviours that occurs when circumstances are appropriate and require no learning

Question 7

Learned Behaviour

Answer 7

Behaviours adapted to environment, relatively flexible and open to modifications

Question 8

Psychological Instinct Theory

Answer 8

Developed by William James

Influenced by natural selection

System of instincts that could be overridden by experience and by other instincts (many instincts conflict with each other)

Instincts are motivators of behaviour (not behaviour itself)

Instincts are impulses coming from within organism that lead to the initiation of behaviour

Question 9

William James

Answer 9

1842-1910
Philosopher and psychologist
Also known as the “Father of American Psychology”
Developed Psychological Instinct Theory

Question 10

Biological Instinct Theory

Answer 10

Also known as ethology
Developed by Kondrad Lorenz & Niko Tinbergen

Instincts are behaviours that exists because they have or had survival value

Instincts are controlled by genes, therefore not learned (but differ in degree of sensitivity due to changes in environment)

All behaviours need a stimulus and energy

Question 11

Appetitive instincts

Answer 11

Early components of a behaviour sequence
Searching behaviours that are flexible, adapted to environment, and subject to modification through learning
Bring organism in contact with stimuli that will release consummatory behaviour
i.e. male chasing female, looking for food (many ways to do it)

Question 12

Consummatory Instincts/ Fixed Action patterns

Answer 12

End components of a behaviour sequence
Fixed patterns of responding to specific stimuli
Rigid behaviours, insensitive to environment, highly stereotyped and independent from learning
Can continue if you remove the stimulus
i.e. rats mating- act of copulating, chewing (only one way to do it)

Question 13

Sign (Key) Stimuli

Answer 13

Stimulus is an object
i.e. Roll egg out of nest, bird goes to retrieve the egg (fixed action pattern), only occurs when you roll something that looks like an egg out of the nest (will go after the biggest “egg” even if it isn’t their egg)

ie. Dog sees deer, demonstrates hunting/stalking behaviour

Question 14

Social Releasers

Answer 14

See someone or see them doing something is the stimulus (not an object)
i.e. yawning- see someone else yawn, you yawn too

Question 15

Drive

Answer 15

Motivational construct associated with maintenance of the homeostatic balance of an organism

General pool of energy that can activate innate and learned behaviours

Several sources of drive, but drive itself is nonspecific and non directive

Question 16

Process of Drive

Answer 16

Disturbance of homeostasis–> need

Need induced motivational state-> drive

Drive energizes behaviours to reduce need

Reduction of need reduces drive

Question 17

Drive Theory

Answer 17

Introduced by Clark Leonard Hull
Mechanistic and based on homeostatic drive reduction

Stimulus response associations (habits) become stronger as a function of how often they are followed by satisfying events

Reduction of a drive is satisfying

SR association will be repeated if they are effective at reducing drive

Question 18

Stimulus Response associations

Answer 18

Habits

Question 19

Hull’s Model

Answer 19

sER= sHR x D

sEr- strength of behaviour
sHR- strength of learned response
D- strength of drive

Question 20

Incentive Motivation

Answer 20

Hull modified his model- characteristics of the goal object influence the motivation of the organism

sEr= sHr x D x K

K- incentive value of the goal object (i.e. cheese or pellets)

Question 21

Incentive Learning

Answer 21

Value of K is learned

Question 22

Incentive Relativity/ Central Motive State

Answer 22

Value of K is relative

Question 23

Yerkes- Dodson Law

Answer 23

Optimal level of motivation

Inverse relationship between task difficulty and optimum motivation
(simple problems, increasing motivation enhances learning, difficult problems, high motivation imparts learning)

Question 24

Latent Learning

Answer 24

Developed by Edward Tolman

Learning can occur in the absence of drive reduction, but remain unused until a stimulus provides incentive for using it

i.e. send rat in maze (no food or other incentive. Take rat out. Couple days later, put rat in one corner with a piece of cheese. Remove rat and place in opposite corner. Rat goes through maze and goes to get cheese even though it wasn’t taught to get to the cheese by going through the maze. Therefore, learning took place without drive reduction (no cheese) until it later need it (when the cheese was present)

Question 25

Clark Leonard Hull

Answer 25

1884-1952

American psychologist who sought to explain learning and motivation by scientific laws of behaviour

Question 26

Habituation Effect

Answer 26

Decrease in strength of response after repeated presentation of a stimulus that elicits the response

* Stimulus specific, easily reversed by changing stimulus
* If attention is on something else, less habituation occurs
* Occurs in CNS (neurotransmission involving interneurons disrupted)

i.e Something interesting in room, pay attention at first, then lose interest

Fire alarm- annoying at first, but then you get used to it and it doesn’t bother you anymore

Wearing clothes- can feel it when you first put it on, then can’t feel it after a while

Question 27

Sensitization Effect

Answer 27

Refers to the increment in response (increase in response) occurring upon repeated presentation of a stimulus that reliably elicits the response

* i.e. 2 groups of rats, one exposed to quiet background noise, one exposed to loud background noise (but not louder than the tone)
* Repeated presentation of tone resulted in habituation for rats exposed to quiet background noise, sensitization for rats exposed to loud background noise

Question 28

Neurotransmitters and Calcium

Answer 28

Ca in presynaptic cleft allows docking of synaptic vesicle and release of neurotransmitter

Question 29

Habituation of the Gill Withdrawal Reflex

Answer 29

Touch siphon of sea slug, gill is pulled inside

If you keep poking it, eventually it will habituate to touch and gill will be pulled inside slower and slower

Habituation is caused by a decrease in release of neurotransmitters from sensory neuron due to reduction of pool of synaptic vesicles and inactivation of Ca channels by Ca itself (self regulated system- detects lots of calcium, so Ca channels work at a reduced rate)

Question 30

Sensitization of Gill Withdrawal Reflex

Answer 30

Involves facilitatory interneurons (serotonin)

Shock slug, go away, come back, touch slug, gill retreats super fast because it is now hyper sensitive

Facilitatory interneuron releases serotonin which is a neuromodulator (regulates activity of other systems) to sensory neuron, inactivates K channels, allows action potential to last longer, more Ca+ enters, increases neurotransmitter release

One shock- more Ca+, more vesicles in the sensory neuron (lasts minutes)

Five shocks- growth of new synapses in the sensory neuron (can last days)