Learning Theory Flashcards
What is systemic desensitition?
Treatment of phobias where the phobia will slowly be introduced and then paired with an relaxtion response to replace the fear with relaxation.
What is flooding therapy?
A treatment of phobias based where you expose the fear to the person for a prolonged time so that they reach peak fear and then start to relax. Also they can’t espace to prevent reinforcment by avoiding or escaping the phobia.
What is some supporting and critical evidence of systemic desensitisation?
Mcgrath found that 75% of individuals repsonded to this treatment
However Evolutionary theory of phobias suggest SD will be less effective with evolution phobias like fear of the dark.
What is some supporting and critical evidence of flooding therapy?
Wolpe, treated girl with a fear of cars by driving her around for hours until she calmed down.
However cognitive psychology suggests phobias like social phobia is due to to irrational thinking and only treats the behaviour of the phobia not the thinking.
What were the 5 stages of the Little Albert study?
Stage 1: pair rat and loud noise twice
Stage 2: week later paired rat and noise 5 times and exposed to blocks as control
Stage 3: paired noise with rat as well as things like rabbits
Stage 4: tested in lecture theatre w 4 ppl
Stage 5: paired noise with many objects eg Santa mask
What is the process of classical conditioning?
We have unconditioned stimulus that produces an unconditioned response
The unconditioned stimulus is paired with the neutral stimulus to create a conditioned stimulus
This leads to a conditioned response
What is extinction in classical conditioning?
Occurs when the association between the unconditioned stimulus and the conditioned response stops as they are separated over time.
What is spontaneous recovery in classical conditioning?
The reappearance of the conditioned response after some time. Usually association diminishes quickly.
What is stimulus generalisation in classical conditioning?
A stimulus similar to the specific stimulus that evokes the conditioned response can be generalised to other things eg fear of one shop can be generalised to fear of shopping.
What was the procedure of Pavlovs study?
Attached tubes to dogs saliva glands. Dogs in isolated soundproof room in a harness.
He fed them meat with the metronome being heard for a few seconds or the metronome started with no food being given.
At first food lead to salivation with metronome having no response then the food is paired with metronome and then the metronome led to salivation.
What were the results and conclusions of Pavlovs dogs study?
Metronome led to salivation on its own.
After 45 secs dogs made 11 drops of saliva.
Concluded you could condition automatic reflex (salivation) with neutral stimulus (metronome)
What was the sample and controls in the little Albert study?
Sample: Little Albert 9 month infant raised mostly in hospital environment and was ‘stolid and unemotional’ Before the experiment he went through tests and was found to not show any fear response to any situation.
What were the results of Little Albert study?
Session 1: responded to loud louse and fell forward,
Session 2 didn’t reach out to the rat and then began to cry and crawl from the rat, Session 3: he generalized fear to white furry objects like rabbit,
Session 4,5: fear remained but became less in different environments and over time.
What was the conclusion of Little Albert study?
Conditioning phobia response like the rat was easy as only took 2 sessions- stimulus generalisation occurs as he scared of similar white furry objects.
Conditioned response extinction can happen as he didn’t cry at the rabbit over a year later.
What are the types of reinforcement and punishment under Operant Conditioning?
Positive reinforcement: reward is given for a desired behavior
Negative reinforcement: something undesired taken away in response to behavior
positive punishment: something undesired given as response to unwanted behavior
Negative punishment:something is taken away in response to unwanted behaviour
What are secondary and primary reinforcement in Operant Conditioning?
Primary reinforcement: a reward that meets basic need e.g food/drink
Secondary reinforcement: using rewards that satisfy basic needs e.g money to buy food.
What are the 4 types of schedules of reinforcement in Operant Conditioning?
Fixed ratio: reinforcer given after number of specific behaviors shown
Variable ratio: reinforcer given after unpredictable number of desired behaviors
Fixed Interval: time between reinforcer constant when desired behavior shown
Variable interval: time between reinforcer is varied after desired behaviour shown
What did Skinners rat study find?
When rat placed in box it learned to associate and press lever for food pellet showing positive reinforcement leads to behavior being learnt.
What is behavior modification?
Way to change or increase behavior through making someone aware of consequences of their actions and slowly changing their behavior.
Can be done using ‘token economy’ by giving secondary reinforcer of tokens to be exchanged for primary reinforcement like money.
What is shaping behavior?
Desired behavior broken down into simple steps with each successive approximation of the final behavior being reinforced until the overall complex desired behavior is achieved.
What are the stages of social learning theory?
Attention: we pay attention to role models behavior
Retention: we retain the important info about role models behavior
Reproduction: if behavior in memory we reproduce if its reinforced
Motivation: Motivation determines whether behavior imitated. There’s intrinsic motivation (comes internally) and extrinsic motivation (from other people)
Vicarious reinforcement: Seeing someone be rewarded or punished for the behavior.
What was the procedure of Banduras study?
Group of 36 boys and 36 girls, 3-6 years old in Stanford uni nursery. Matched on pre-existing aggressiveness by nurses on 5 point scale.
Study was independent measures design with 3 groups.
What was stage 1: modelling, in Banduras study?
In experimental condition individual children shown into a room with toys.
In aggressive condition they watched male or female role model be aggressive to bobo doll
And in control they didn’t watch a model and only did next two stages
What was stage 2: aggression arousal, in Banduras study?
All children subject to aggression arousal by going into a room and told the good toys were for other children.
