Learning Theory- Classical conditioning Flashcards
Learning is a ____.
process
You learn with _____.
experience
Learning is ____ but can ____.
enduring, change
Who was behaviourism founded by?
John Watson in 1913
Define behaviourism
psychology as the study of behaviour
behaviourist view: learning as the ______ of psychology
centrepiece
Watson focused on the relationship between ______ and _______ and events in the environment.
behaviour and stimuli
define habituation.
learning as the attenuation of a current response
what is attenuation?
reduction
what does habituation require?
repetition of a single harmless stimulus
Give 2 examples of habituation :)
- humans- loud noise eventually forget it’s there
2. snail- poke it continuously and will stop contracting into its shell
Dishabituation is also known as _______.
Sensitisation
Define Sensitisation
An increase in strength of response to a repeated stimulus
Give 2 examples of sensitisation.
human- water torture or tap dripping, snail- contracts more body parts
It is important to respond in some way to ______ stimuli but not expend ______ on reacting to _____ events.
harmful, energy, safe
What did Groves and Thomson (1970) believe regarding habituation and sensitisation?
That they both happen at the same time.
Groves and Thomson (1970) said that is the amount of arousal produced is high then sensitisation occurs ___ than _____ and so the overall behavioural response is an ____ response to the stimulus.
more, habituation, increased
What psychologist was associated with associate learning?
Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)
what is classical conditioning?
The association of 2 stimuli such that one stimulus becomes associated with the response normally given to the other
What did original classical conditioning research examine?
Examined digestion in dogs
What did Pavlov’s classical conditioning research measure and what did they notice?
Measured salivary response to food and they noticed that saliva production began to happen before the presentation of the food.
Pavlov testes his idea with ____.
tones
A tone was sounded every time the dogs got _____.
food
What did the dogs then eventually do (after getting tone then food)?
They salivated to the tone even when there wasn’t any food
Therefore Pavlov concluded in his research that ___ and ____ became ______ to produce the same _____.
tone, food, associate, response
Name the four types of stimulus/response terminology
unconditioned stimulus (UCS) conditioned stimulus (CS) Unconditioned Response (UCR) Conditioned response (CR)
use the Pavlov experiment to assign an object to each type of response/stimulus eg. UCS, CR, UCR,CS
Unconditioned stimulus= steak
Unconditioned response= dog produces saliva
conditioned stimulus= tone
conditioned response= dog produces saliva
With the tone and the steak, stimulus _____ occurred.
substitution
Is the conditioned response weaker or stronger than the unconditioned response?
The CR is weaker than the UCR
Associative learning/classical conditioning is a basic ___ process that occurs across species.
learning
What is the function of associative behaviour/ classical conditioning?
to alert organisms to an important upcoming event
Acquisition= ______ pairing of UCS (food) with CS (tone) is usually necessary to elicit a strong ____.
continued, CR
What might a particularly intense UCS result in, even after one CS-UCS pairing?
Strong conditioning
When the CS (tone) is continually presented without the UCS (food) the strength of the CR reduces until it disappears, what is this known as?
extinction
Define spontaneous recovery
When the organism performs the CR after extinction.
Extinction isn’t about ____ the association but rather about _____ the response
unlearning, inhibiting
The principle of temporal contiguity- what’s the most effective conditioning method?
When the CS predicts the onset of the UCS.
When does a slower learning happen (in conditioning)?
during simultaneous pairing
The slowest learning is with backward pairing, define backward pairing
when the UCS precedes the CS
Define Generalisation in terms of Pavlov.
A similar stimulus to the CS will also elicit a CR, the greater the similarity the more likely it is to occur.
Define discrimination in terms of pavlov.
A stimulus that is markedly different to the CS wont elicit a CR
Define high-order conditioning and give an example
When a whole chain of items become associated with a response eg. black square shown prior to tone, then get food= dogs salivate to black square
Name one application of classical conditioning.
Phobias
what happened to little albert? (Watson and Rayner 1920)
no reaction when rat alone, after several rat and loud noise pairings, started crying whenever he saw the rat alone
Little Albert’s fear _____ to similar creatures.
generalised
Define exposure therapy.
Exposure to the CS without the UCS allowing extinction to occur
Exposure therapy can involve real life, ____, mental imagery or _____ ______.
hypnosis, virtual reality
what is flooding?
Flooding is intense exposure to trigger stimulus, causing anxiety at the maximum level
A graduated exposure to the trigger stimulus is known as _______ _______.
systematic desensitisation
As well as phobia, classical conditioning has also been linked to _____.
fetishism
Similar conditioning parings can occur with those who have an ______. Give an example.
allergy, plastic fish gave same allergic reaction as real gold fish allergen
people receiving Chemotherapy often get _____ ______ as a result of associative learning.
anticipatory nausea
even the immune system response can become paired with a ______ stimulus.
neutral
