Learning Test Flashcards
Learning
Any relatively permanent change in behavior brought about by experience or practice.
Maturation
Changes controlled by a genetic blueprint
Reflex
An unlearned, involuntary response to something not under personal control
Stimulus
Anything that causes a response
Ivan Pavlov
Got dogs to salivate even when food wasn’t present
Classical Conditioning
Learning to elicit an involuntary response to a stimulus different from the stimulus that normally produces the response
What are the “rules” for classical conditioning?
CS must come before the UCS, CS and UCS most come close together in time, NS and UCS must be paired several times, and CS must be distinct in the environment
Stimulus generalization
The tendency to respond to stimuli similar to the CS
Stimulus discrimination
Learning to respond differently to different stimuli
Extinction
removal of UCS entirely will gradually lead to the CS no longer occurring (although the CR is still in the brain)
Spontaneous recovery
When a specific stimulus leads to the recovery of a previously “extinct” CS
Higher-order conditioning
A strong conditioned response is paired with an NS (and that NS becomes a secondary CS)
John B. Watson
Behavioralist who conditioned little Albert to fear rats
Conditioned emotional response
Being conditioned to feel emotions at certain stimuli (like fear)
Vicarious conditioning
Becoming classically conditioned from watching someone else respond to a stimulus
Conditioned taste aversion
Being conditioned not to like eating something (even if the UCR doesn’t happen immediately afterwards)
Stimulus substitution
Pavlov’s idea that CS are associated with UCS, and therefore activate nearby brain areas
Robert Rescorla
Found that the CS had to provide info about all the upcoming UCS in order to achieve conditioning
Operant conditioning
Learning voluntary behaviors
Edward Thordike
Studied operant conditioning by putting cats in a box and letting them learn how to “solve” the box and get out, also discovered law of effect
Law of Effect
Discovered by Thorndike; states that if an action is followed by a pleasurable consequence it will be repeated, and if it’s followed with a negative consequence it will not be.
Skinner
Coined the name “operant conditioning”, defined reinforcement as anything that increases behavior. Had the “turn” and “peck” experiment.
Primary reinforcer
A reinforcer that fulfills a basic need (like food!)
Secondary reinforcer
Works because of associations with past primary reinforcers (like money!)
Partial reinforcement effect
A response that is reinforced after only some responses will take longer to learn but take more time to fade, while a response reinforced each time will be faster to learn but also undergo extinction faster.
Positive reinforcement
Increases behavior by adding something desireable
Negative reinforcement
Increases behavior by taking away something undesirable
Positive punishment
Decreases behavior by adding something undesirable
Negative punishment
Decreases behavior by taking away something pleasurable
Fixed interval
The same reinforcer is received after a fixed amount of time, no matter how often the correct behavior is exhibited (like a salaried pay check)
Variable interval
The same reinforcer is received after a random amount of time no matter how often the correct behavior is exhibited (like waiting for a wave while surfing)
Fixed ratio
The reinforcer is determined by how often the behavior is exhibited, and is directly proportional to how often/how much the behavior is (like an hourly pay check)
Variable ratio
The reinforcer is determined by how often the behavior is exhibited, but the amount of behavior to get the reinforcer is random (like gambling)
What are the problems with punishment?
Often doesn’t follow the behavior, teaches the person to avoid the wrong things, can lead to lying, can create fear, anxiety, and aggression, and can lead to learned helplessness.
Learned helplessness
Being more willing to give up and stop trying after a history of failures
Discriminitave stimulus
Provides a person with a cue for a particular response (a police car is a discriminative stimulus to slow down while driving)
Shaping
Small steps towards a goal are reinforced at each step
Behavior modification
Application of operant conditioning to change behavior in therapy
Token economy
Use of money to modify behavior
Applied behavior analysis (ABA)
uses analysis of current behavior with behavioral techniques to address a socially relevant issue
Biofeedback
Information like heart rate that shows a person’s mood
Neurofeedback
Information about the brain from an EEG to show a person’s mood
Important Gestalt psychologists studying learning
Tolman (rats), Kohler (chimp), and Seligman (sad dogs)
Edward Tolman
Gestalt psychologist who discovered latent learning through rats in a maze
Latent Learning
learning that happens without reinforcement and effects later behavior.
Cognitive map
Being aware of your surroundings even when you aren’t directly seeing them
Wolgang Kohler
Had a chimp get a banana with a stick, learned about insight
Insight
The “ah-ha!” moment!
Martin Seligman
Discovered helplessness in dogs
Observational learning
Learning new behavior through watching someone else demonstrate behavior
Albert Bandura
Demonstrated observational learning with the weird bobo doll
Learning/performance distinction
The fact that learning can take place without actual performance
What four things does observational learning require?
Attention, Memory, Imitation, and Desire (AMID)
