Lecture 1: Basic biological processes/ Introduction to learning

Question 1

What is learning?

Answer 1

enduring change(s) within organism(s) making a behavioural change possible

Question 2

What does performance depend on

Answer 2

Opportunity, motivation and sensory/motor capabilities

Question 3

what is learning not?

Answer 3

1) reflexes, 2) instincts, 3) maturation and 4) fatigue

Question 4

describe the factors which learning is not

Answer 4

1) reflexes are innate changes in behaviour not brought about by experience but by genetics. 2) instincts are also genetic but are more complex than reflexes. 3) maturation is behavioural changes brought about by ageing. 4) fatigue is not a stable behavioural change

Question 5

Explain the relationship between motivation, performance and knowledge

Answer 5

A rat may not perform but that does not mean it does not have the knowledge required to perform

Question 6

what is a reflex

Answer 6

a reflex is an automatic response which is usually fast and does not require any learning

Question 7

Air puff –> eye blink is an example of what? give more examples and their terms if applicable

Answer 7

Eliciting stimuli –> corresponding response.
food > salivation
touch on baby’s cheek > head turn = rooting reflex
touch on knee > leg jerk = patellar reflex
movement > eye turn =
pain > withdrawal (of e.g. limb)

Question 8

what is the startle reflex?

Answer 8

The Moro reflex is an infantile reflex normally present in all infants/newborns up to 4 or 5 months of age as a response to a sudden loss of support, when the infant feels as if it is falling. E.g. baby will spread out its arms

Question 9

What happens if the firing rate goes above threshold?

Answer 9

this triggers a response → reduces the stimulation of the primary afferents, reduces the input signal to spinal cord → the response ceases.

Question 10

Give example of maturation

Answer 10

learning to walk is not actually learning in the psychological meaning of the term. Rather it is maturation. i.e. babies do not have the physical capacity to walk so have to mature to do it –> 5 months and older children are able to, and helped by innate reflexes to walk they can begin to do so.

Question 11

Describe a reflex arc. What is an example? what is important to note?

Answer 11

A reflex arc is a neural pathway that controls a reflex action. In higher animals, most sensory neurons do not pass directly into the brain, but synapse in the spinal cord. This characteristic allows reflex actions to occur relatively quickly by activating spinal motor neurons without the delay of routing signals through the brain, although the brain will receive sensory input while the reflex is carried out.

Example is When the patellar tendon is tapped just below the knee, the patellar reflex is initiated and the lower leg kicks forward (via contraction of the quadriceps). The tap initiates an action potential in a specialized structure known as a muscle spindle located within the quadriceps. This action potential travels to the spinal cord, via a sensory axon which chemically communicates by releasing glutamate (see synapse) onto a motor nerve. The result of this motor nerve activity is contraction of the quadriceps muscle, leading to extension of the lower leg at the knee. The sensory input from the quadriceps also activates local interneurons that release the inhibitory neurotransmitter glycine onto motor neurons of antagonist muscles, blocking the innervation of these antagonistic (hamstring) muscles. The relaxation of the opposing muscle facilitates (by not opposing) the extension of the lower leg.

NB: Analysis of the signal takes place after action has been taken.

Question 12

What is an instinct? give an example

Answer 12

An instinct is a complex behavioural sequence made up of units which are largely genetically determined, therefore learning is not required. E.g. mating rituals

Question 13

What is the difference between instinct and reflex

Answer 13

Difference is in complexity not type

Question 14

what is maturation

Answer 14

changes to body and behaviour as a result of growing in age, for which learning is not required

Question 15

what is fatigue. Extended definition.

Answer 15

fatigue is a usually transient state of discomfort and loss of efficiency as a normal reaction to emotional strain, physical exertion, boredom or a lack of rest. The muscles become incapacitated so the organism can no longer perform the response.

Question 16

Describe the effects of fatigue

Answer 16

may lead to physical inability to perform a learned response. This however is not evidence for no need for learning

Question 17

give four simple reasons for using animals in studies

Answer 17

1) simpler conditions 2) easily controlled 3) less expensive 4) wider scope (deprivation, stress, aversive events)

Question 18

expand on the simple conditions of animal experiments

Answer 18

It is easier or simply possible to control what conditions an animal has been exposed to since birth. This is useful if learning is driven by the prior history of the organism. , so we can know, control, and measure ALL the conditions the animal is exposed to.

Question 19

Give an example of an observation gathered through animal experimentation. What was a limitation of this expt.?

Answer 19

someone found activity based anorexia. Allowed them to feed only 2 hours a day and gave them access to a running wheel before eating –> the rats did not eat as much.

However, it turned out to be the rat’s different motives that drove this behaviour, so could not generalise to humans.

Question 20

Which animal is normally used and why

Answer 20

Rats - they exhibit similar types of learning apart from language.

Question 21

What is habituation

Answer 21

decreased responding created by repeated stimulation

Question 22

Give examples of habituation regarding rats and babies respectively. What is important to note about each instance

Answer 22

A rat will jump less with each presentation of a loud noise. (measure how much pressure it is putting with a sensor).

N.b. If the rat’s ears were damaged by the loud sound, that would be sensory adaptation. ALSO, fatigue can be apprehended and controlled for by adding a new sound which will determine whether the rat is simply too tired to respond to the other repeated loud noise.

Babies and children when brought to a new display will be fascinated and look intently. Upon repeated exposure to the display, they lose interest in it.

Question 23

What is sensory adaptation

Answer 23

sense organs become temporarily desensitised to stimulation (by bright light or loud noise)

Question 24

what is sensitisation

Answer 24

increased responding produced by repeated stimulation

Question 25

Give examples of sensitisation. What is important to note about these examples.

Answer 25

Rats run around more for the same dose of cocaine after repeated stimulation (when they are pre-exposed to cocaine). It is important to note that this behaviour is not indicative of human reaction to cocaine.

Another example is that in the presence of background noise, there are more vigorous startle reactions to a tone.

Question 26

Why habituate and sensitise? i.e. what purposes do they serve.

Answer 26

1) help us sort out what stimuli to ignore and what to respond to. This is important as we do not have the resources to attend to ALL stimuli, if we attended to ALL of them we would probably miss the significant ones, which is what we need. 2) help us to organise and focus our behaviour in a world of meaningless stimuli.

Question 27

Explain disorders in habituation and when they arise.

Answer 27

In people with no mental illness, the neural response in the hippocampus decreases with repeated presentations of pictures of emotional or neutral faces.

Question 28

What were the results of the experiments on habituation with people with mental illness. Describe experiment.

What is the implication of this?

Answer 28

Compared the neural activity of the 40s periods of mentally ill and not mentally ill. In normal patients, early on hippocampal firing but later on not so much. Response for both types of patient is much the same in early period. However in last 40s phase there is a marked difference in response. The schizophrenic people had the same response strength for late phase as the early phase.

Schizophrenic people may have problems with habituation and are too attentive to objectively unimportant stimuli

Question 29

Explain the clinical applications of habituation disorders.

Answer 29

Diagnosing mental illnesses is difficult. However early detection facilitates treatments and leads to better outcomes. –> improving diagnoses is impt.

Disordered habituation can improve diagnoses. This may be by a diagnostic test which makes use of the difference in habituation between schizophrenic and normal people.

–> may enable detection even before symptoms