Lecture 1 Flashcards
Define learning, including the three main elements.
Learning is an enduring change within an organism, brought about by experience, that makes a change in behaviour possible.
What two types of change are not learning? Give examples.
Changes at the sensory and motor levels, e.g. fatigue, change in fitness.
Define association, which is the basis of conditioning.
An organism changes its behaviour with regard to a stimulus as a consequence of associating it with a second stimulus.
What two types of relationship fall under association?
- Temporal correlation - one stimulus is continuous and contiguous with the other, e.g. occurs simultaneously or soon after the other.
Statistical relationship - when one stimulus appears the other is more or less likely to follow.
List the six paradigms used in animal studies.
Conditioned salivation, fear conditioning, conditioned suppression, taste aversion, conditioned magazine approach, eyeblink conditioning.
Describe the conditioned salivation paradigm.
A dog is placed into a harness. A CS (e.g. tone, light) is presented along with food (US). Eventually the dog will begin to salivate (CR) when the CS is presented.
Describe the fear conditioning paradigm.
Typically used with rats. A rat is presented with a CS (tone, light) followed by a US (shock). Eventually the rat reacts with fear to the CS. Duration of freezing (CR)is a measure of learned fear.
Describe the conditioned suppression paradigm.
Stage 1: Instrumental baseline. A rat is taught to produce a response (e.g. press a lever for food) through operant conditioning on a variable interval (VI) schedule of reinforcement.
Stage 2: Pavlovian conditioning. CS (tone or light) presented, followed by shock (US).
Rat learns to stop pressing lever when CS is presented.
Describe the taste aversion paradigm.
A rat is given a flavoured solution (CS, e.g. sucrose water). After drinking the solution, the rat is made sick with an injection of LiCl (US). Afterwards the rat dramatically reduces its intake of solution.
