Learning Theory Flashcards
What is learning?
when an experience produces a relatively enduring change in an organism’s behaviour/capabilities
What can learning theory be divided into?
Antecedents (cues) – environmental stimuli that exist before the behaviour of interest
Behaviours – behaviour (future behaviours may be influenced by both antecedents and consequences)
Consequences – a stimulus change that follows a behaviour of interest
What do basic learning processes include?
Non associative learning - response to repeated stimuli
Classical conditioning - learning what events signal a consequence (innate responses)
Operant conditioning - learning one thing leads to another
Observational/modelling learning - learning from others
What is habituation?
a decrease in strength of a response to a repeated stimulus
What is sensitisation?
an increase in the strength of the response to a repeated stimulus
Define the following:
- unconditioned stimulus
- unconditioned response
- conditioned stimulus
- conditioned response
- Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) – a stimulus that elicits an innate response
- Unconditioned Response (UCR) – an innate response elicited by a stimulus
- Conditioned Stimulus (CS) – a stimulus, through association with an UCS, comes to illicit a CR (or UCR if paired with a UCS)
- Conditioned Response (CR) – a response elicited purely by a CS
When is classical conditioning strongest?
- Repeated CS-UCS pairings
- More intense UCS
- Forward pairing – CS followed by the UCS
- Short time interval between CS and UCS
How do you get rid of conditioned learning (extinction)?
reduction in UCR/CR over time without pairing
Just the CS alone will lead to a gradual “extinction”
There can however be “spontaneous recoveries” with the CS alone after periods of rest but the effect of these wanes with chronic use
What is stimulus generalisation?
a tendency to respond to SIMILAR stimuli (not identical) to a CS e.g a dog salivating to a buzzer (similar-CS) when the CS was a bell
Similar-CS will also elicit a CR, but in a WEAKER form (i.e. less drops of saliva to a lower frequency tone)
What is stimulus discrimination?
the ability to respond differently to various stimuli e.g a fear of dogs might only include certain breeds
What are some clinical examples of classical conditioning?
- Patients undergoing chemotherapy experienced anticipatory nausea and vomiting – see below for links
- Chemotherapy (UCS) -> nausea (UCR)
- Sight of chemotherapy unit (CS) -> Anticipatory nausea (CR)
- The same effect was also seen to supress immune function - “Little Albert” experiment paired a fluffy rat (UCS making the child happy (UCR)) to a loud bang of a hammer (UCS causing fear and so rat caused the fear)
- Experiment also displayed the effect of stimulus generalisation
What is overshadowing?
when two or more CS are present but one provides a stronger response than the other as its more relevant
Two groups of cancer patients, one given unpleasant, novel drink and the other given water
Patients with unpleasant drink showed reduced nausea to the original CS (sight of the chemotherapy unit)
CS had been altered
What is an example of two-factor theory of maintenance?
Trauma (UCS) from a traumatic needle injection and the needle (CS) leads to a fear response (UCR)
- Trauma (UCS) + needle (CS) -> fear response (UCR)
- Avoiding injections -> fear reduction -> tendency to avoid is reinforced
Negative reinforcement
What is operant conditioning?
Operant conditioning – a behaviour is learned and maintained by its consequences
Thorndike’s law of effect and operant conditioning - reinforcement:
- A response followed by a satisfying consequence will be more likely to occur
- A response followed by an aversive consequence will become less likely to occur
What are positive and negative reinforcement?
Positive reinforcement:
- response is strengthened by PRESENTATION of a reinforcer
- Primary reinforcers – needed for survival, e.g. food, water
- Secondary reinforcers – stimuli that acquire reinforcing properties through association with primary reinforcers, e.g. money or praise
Negative reinforcement:
- response is strengthened by REMOVAL of an aversive stimulus e.g. the use of painkillers is reinforced by removing pain
What are positive and negative punishment?
Positive punishment:
- response is weakened by the PRESENTATION of a stimulus e.g spraying a cat with water when it jumps on the dining table
Negative punishment:
- response is weakened by the REMOVAL of a stimulus e.g confiscating a phone
Which is more potent - reinforcement or punishment?
Reinforcement is much more potent on influencing than punishment
Punishment can only make responses less frequent and you can’t teach new behaviour
What is operant extinction?
weakening and eventual disappearance of a response as it is no longer reinforced
“Resistance to extinction” – the degree to which non-reinforced responses persist
What are different types of reinforcement schedules?
Which schedule produces the best response?
What is the clinical application of this?
Fixed interval schedule – reinforcement occurs after fixed time
Variable interval schedule – reinforcement occurs at random around an average
Fixed ratio schedule – reinforcement is given after a fixed number of responses
Variable ratio schedule – reinforcement is given after a variable number of responses (based around an average)
- Fixed ratio produces the best response
- Continuous reinforcement produces more rapid learning than partial reinforcement BUT the reinforced responses extinguish more rapidly than partially reinforced responses.
- The shift to no reinforcement is sudden and easier to understand (from partial reinforcement)
How can operant conditioning be applied in medicine?
people in chronic pain could be in a chronic state due to the reinforcement by family, society and staff etc. giving sympathy. This creates a cycle where the patient receives positive consequences for “being in pain” so pain is more likely to occur in frequency
What is Bandura’s social learning theory?
Social/Observational/Vicarious Learning
Observational/Vicarious learning – we observe the behaviours and consequences of those behaviours
Vicarious reinforcement – if their behaviours are reinforced, we tend to imitate
Steps to successful modelling:
- Pay attention to model
- Remember model
- Reproduce modelled behaviour
- If behaviour rewarded, more likely to recur
e.g Bobo doll experiment (non-aggressive vs. aggressive play)
According to social learning theory, when is behaviour more likely to be imitated?
- Reward is seen
- High status – i.e. doctor carries out the behaviour
- Similarity – i.e. colleagues
- Friendly behaviour – i.e. peers
