Learning Theory and Behavior Therapy Flashcards
Classical conditioning
type of learning in which a stimulus acquires the ability to elicit the response that is naturally elicited by another stimulus
Operant conditioning
type of learning in which responses become controlled by their consequences
Unconditioned stimulus (US)
naturally produces the target response - without conditioning trials
Conditioned stimulus (CS)
does not naturally produce the target response and prior to conditioning, is referred to as a neutral stimulus. When repeatedly presented with US, the CS produces a conditioned response (CR)
Factors that affect conditioning
- number of trials
- order and timing: delay conditioning (CS precedes and overlaps US), trace conditioning (CS starts/stops, then US), simultaneous conditioning (together) - delay is most effective at 0.5 sec
Classical extinction
CS is repeatedly presented without US, CR gradually disappears
Spontaneous recovery
CR that had been extinguished would sometimes suddenly return - extinction trials don’t eliminate CR, but weaken it
Stimulus generalization
stimuli similar to CS elicit CR
Stimulus discrimination
ability to discriminate between a CS and stimuli similar to CS and only respond to CS with CR
Experimental neurosis
when required to make difficult discriminations between very similar stimuli, unusual behaviors exhibited
Higher-order conditioning
second level of conditioning in which the CS1 becomes the US and another neutral stimulus becomes the CS2
John Watson and Little Albert
father of modern behaviorism
Little Albert
an unusually calm baby was conditioned to fear a white rat paired with an unexpected loud noise, with only a few conditioning trials, exhibited stimulus generalization and feared other white furry objects
Implosive therapy
type of exposure in imagination in which the therapist exaggerates the scenes being imagined by the client so that they elicit max anxiety and embellishes the scenes with psychodynamic themes that are believed to be the source of the client’s anxiety
Counterconditioning
eliminate an anxiety or fear response by pairing CS associated with that response with an US that naturally produces an incompatible response (ie systematic desensitization and behavioral sex therapy)
Systematic desensitization
1 - training in relaxation
2 - anxiety hierarchy
3 - desensitization
In vivo aversive counterconditioning
the undesirable behavior or stimuli associated with the behavior are paired with a stimulus that naturally elicits pain, nausea, or other unpleasant reaction so that the undesirable behavior or stimuli produce the unpleasant reaction and are avoided
Covert sensitization
conducted in imagination and may include alternating scenes in which the client engages in the target behavior with scenes in which the client engages in alternative behavior
Thorndike
- cats in a puzzle box
- trial and error learning
- focused on the connection between responses and their consequences - referred to as connectionism and instrumental learning
Thorndike’s laws of learning: law of effect
responses that are following by a satisfying consequence are more likely to be repeated in the future, while responses that are followed by an unsatisfying consequence are less likely to be repeated
Thorndike’s laws of learning: law of exercise
repeated practice strengthens the connection between response and consequence
Thorndike’s laws of learning: law of readiness
an organism must be ready/motivated to act in order to form a connection between a response and its consequence
Skinner and operant conditioning
- operant behaviors are acquired through operant conditioning and are voluntarily emitted or not emitted as the result of their consequences
Operant extinction
occurs when reinforcement is withheld from a previously reinforced behavior and as a result the behavior decreases or is eliminated
Response burst
termination of reinforcement produces a response burst, temporary increase in the behavior before it begins to decrease
Spontaneous recovery
after a behavior has been extinguished, it may reappear after a period of time
Behavioral contrast
when two different behaviors have been reinforced separately and reinforcement is withdrawn from one of the behaviors, there is a temporary increase in the other behavior
Primary reinforcers
inherently valuable - food, water, comfort, sexual pleasure
Secondary reinforcers
acquire value by being linked to a primary reinforcer - verbal message
Generalized reinforcer - secondary reinforcer linked to multiple primary and/or secondary reinforcers - money
Schedule of reinforcement: fixed ratio (FR)
- reinforcement after a fixed number of responses
Schedule of reinforcement: variable ratio (VR)
- reinforcement is provided after a variable number of responses - gambling
- produces the fastest and steadiest rate of responding during acquisition trials and the greatest resistance to extinction when reinforcement is no longer provided
Schedule of reinforcement: fixed interval (FI)
- after a fixed period of time - biweekly paycheck
Schedule of reinforcement: variable interval
- after an unpredictable amount of time - pop quizzes
Stimulus control
when the subject emits a response in the presence of one stimulus, but not another stimulus; stimulus A is the discriminative stimulus, stimulus B is the extinction or S-delta stimulus
Stimulus generalization
similar stimuli elicit the same response (mama for all women)
Response generalization
stimulus elicits similar responses (mama, mother, mommy for mom)
Escape learning
learning to escape an undesirable stimulus by engaging in a particular behavior
Avoidance learning
learning to avoid and undesirable stimulus by engaging in a behavior
Shaping
successive approximation conditioning, reinforcing responses that come closer and closer to the desired behavior
Chaining
establish complex behaviors that consist of a sequence of responses that must be linked together to form a behavioral chain
- compared to shaping: in shaping, the final behavior is the goal - chaining, each response is important
Premack Principle
high-frequency behavior as reinforcement for low-frequency behavior (ie child can play games after she finishes chores/hw)
Differential reinforcement
combine extinction and positive reinforcement by removing reinforcement from the undesirable behavior and reinforcing desirable behaviors (ie reducing child’s head banging by giving praise/stars for each period child abstains)
Effectiveness of punishment
- immediate, consistent
- moderate in intensity
- verbal clarification of the relationship between behavior and punishment
- combined with reinforcement for an alternative behavior
Time-out
positive punishment, temp loss of access to reinforcers, most effective when relatively brief, child is reminded of duration and reason
Response cost
negative punishment, removes a specific reinforcer (privilege, item)
Overcorrection
positive punishment
1 - restitution phase: individual corrects the consequences of the undesirable behavior
2 - positive practice phase: practices an alternative behavior
Contingency contract
behavioral contract, written agreement, identifies behaviors to be modified, ST and LT goals, measurable goals, consequences for noncompliance, procedures
Token economy
environment in which tokens are used as generalized reinforcers; involves specifying bx, token exchange/reinforcers, plan for reducing tokens and replacing with other reinforcers
Function-based interventions/functional behavioral analysis (FBA)
- determine the function of the problem behavior, antecedents and consequences
- develop bx plan to target appropriate replacement bx
Insight learning
aha experience due to mental restructuring of a problem
- the learner perceives the situation as a whole
- perceives and tries to understand the various elements of the situation
- learner grasps the solution
Tolman’s latent learning
learning can occur without reinforcement; rats learned layout of maze (cognitive maps) without reinforcement
Observational learning
Bandura's social learning theory, social cognitive theory 1 - Attention 2 - Retention 3 - Motor Reproduction 4 - Motivation
Sensory memory
iconic memory: visual info
echoic memory: auditory info
Short-term memory
- Without rehearsal, STM fades in 30 sec
- Primary memory: capacity ~ 7+/-2 bits (5-9); chunking can extend
- Working memory: ability to mentally manipulate info in STM
Long-term memory
sufficiently rehearsed - transferred to LTM
Serial position effect
primary v recency effect
distracting task - words at beginning are well-remembered
Levels of processing
Structural processing: shallowest level and involves encoding the physical properties of stimulus
Phonemic processing: involves encoding the sound properties (ie rhyming)
Semantic processing: deepest level, encoding the meaning, leads to greatest retention and recall
Working memory components
1 - Central executive: control center, directs attention to relevant aspects
2 - Phonological loop: processes and temporarily stores verbal info
3 - Visuospatial sketchpad: processes and temporarily stores visual info
4 - Episodic buffer: integrates verbal and visual info and transfers info to LTM
Procedural v declarative memory
Procedural memory: knowing how
Declarative memory: knowing what; Semantic memory: factual knowledge, Episodic memory: personal experiences
Implicit v explicit memory
Implicit memory: recalled automatically and without conscious awareness
Explicit memory: deliberate and conscious effort to be recalled
Encoding specificity
- the more similar the learning and recall conditions, the easier it is to retrieve information from LTM
- Context-specific memory: tendency to retrieve info more easily when recall occurs in the same environment in which learning occurred
- State-dependent memory: tendency to retrieve info more easily when in the same physical or psychological state during learning and recall
Yerkes-Dodson law
optimal level of arousal for performance on tasks; relationship between arousal and performance is an inverted U
Anterograde v retrograde amnesia
Anterograde: unable to retain info exposed to after trauma, recall info acquired before trauma
Retrograde: cannot recall info acquired before trauma (generally recent past more than remote), able to retain info after trauma
Maintenance v elaborative rehearsal
Maintenance: simply repeating info, most useful for maintaining STM
Elaborative: making info meaningful through different strategies, transfers to LTM
Mnemonic devices
- verbal and visual techniques for enhancing memory
- acronym
- acrostic: phrase or sentence in which each word begins with the first letter of an item in the list (We just like Rushmore - Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Roosevelt)
- method of loci: memorizing a list of items imagining walking through a familiar room and visually associating each item with a different place/item in the room
- keyword method: memorizing a pair of items and forming a visual image that represents both
Decay theory
memory involves a physiological change in the brain that decays over time if the memory is not accessed (subjects who slept recalled more than those awake/distracted)
Interference theory
forgetting occurs when the ability to recall particular info is affect by info learned before or after
Proactive: learned before, forward effect
Retroactive: new info learned, backwards effect
Cue-dependent forgetting
forgetting is often result of inability to access info stored in LTM due to retrieval cues - resulting in tip of tongue, multiple choice > free recall
Attention
Sustained attention: ability to direct and focus cognitive activity on a specific stimulus over an extended period of time
Divided: ability to focus attention on more than one stimulus simultaneously
Selective: focusing on one stimulus while filtering out irrelevant stimuli, cocktail party phenomenon
Feature integration theory (FIT)
- the processing of visual stimuli involves 2 stages:
- Detection of features (pre-attention) stage: occurs rapidly and automatically and involves parallel processing
- Integration of features (attention) stage: features are processed serially and slowly, focused visual attention and perception of stimulus as an integrated whole
Filter Theory of Selective Attention
- bottleneck theories of attention
- when two or more sensory stimuli are presented simultaneously, they are maintained in a sensory buffer, one is allowed to pass through a selective filter, other remains in the buffer to be lost or processed later, the stimulus that passes through enters STM, where it is analyzed for semantic content and enters conscious awareness
Dichotic listening task (filter theory of selective attention)
- subjects listen to different auditory stimuli delivered to each ear simultaneously and repeat what they heard
- brain processes one ear then the other, not integrated
