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Introduction to Biological and Cognitive Psychology > Lecture 6: Learning > Flashcards

Lecture 6: Learning Flashcards

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1
Q

What are the three main statements of behaviourists?

A

1) The study of the mind is outside the remit of science.
2) Introspection about mental processes is hard to verify.
3) The only thing we can reliably measure is behaviour.

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2
Q

What are the two types of conditioning that explain how new behaviour is formed?

A

1) Classical conditioning

2) Operant conditioning

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3
Q

What is classical conditioning?

A
  • Watson (1913)
  • We are born with nothing onto which the environmentetches its stimulus-response relationship associations.
  • Fear is just a behaviour predisposition to cry, love a predisposition to kiss, hate a predisposition to attack.
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4
Q

What is operant conditioning?

A
  • Skinner (1938)
  • Stimulus-response relationships can be strengthened or weakened by the addition and removal of positive and negative outcomes.
  • Reward and punishment can form new behaviours (consequences).
  • This concept takes away the concept of humans having free will.
  • Behaviour depends on consequences of responses.
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5
Q

What was Ivan Pavlov’s field of interest?

A
  • (1849-1936)
  • digestion
  • initially considered the foundation of behaviourism to just be an annoyance.
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6
Q

How do unconditioned stimuli (UCS) and responses (UCR) interact?

A

-We already have a number of unconditioned associations with our environment.
-e.g. Dog presented with food:
Prior to training, the presentation of food stimuli will lead to salivary responses.

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7
Q

How do conditioned stimuli (CS) and responses (CR) interact?

A
  • There are other stimuli that surround the UCS that, with training, can be conditioned with the same response.
  • e.g. Dog associates the footsteps of researcher/noise of bowl being placed on floor with food and so has the same salivary response.
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8
Q

What type of reflex is being initially startled?

A

Unconditioned Reflex

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9
Q

What type of reflex is learnt through association?

A

Conditioned Reflex

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10
Q

What does the study of Albert show about the application of classical conditioning?

A
  • Loud gong noise startled Albert, bringing about fear.
  • Gong noise was then associated to furry animal, establishing a US-CS link.
  • Albert then had the same fearful reaction to furry animals through this association (fear behaviour is the unconditioned response and conditioned response).
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11
Q

What did the study of Albert show about the limits to classical conditioning?

A
  • It showed stimulus discrimination.

- e.g. The fear associated with furry objects did not extend to cotton balls.

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12
Q

What are four aspects of classical conditioning to consider?

A

1) Acquisition
2) Extinction
3) Spontaneous Recovery
4) Stimulus Generalisation

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13
Q

What is Acquisition?

A
  • US-CS associations are not always natural and so take time to develop.
  • The close temporal proximity of the US-CS strengthens the acquisition of the bond.
  • Temporal proximity: close=more likely association.
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14
Q

What is Extinction?

A
  • If the CS stops predicting the US then the association (and hence the CR) will be extinguished.
  • However, the association is replaced rather than forgotten.
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15
Q

What is Spontaneous Recovery?

A
  • If the CS-US relationship starts up again, then the CR can return.
  • in a weaker form.
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16
Q

What is Stimulus Generalisation?

A
  • Maybe the exact CS is missing but a similar kind of CS might elicit the same CR.
  • The organism has generalised.
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17
Q

What is the basic idea of the Rescorla-Wagner (1972) model?

A

-learning occurs between the UCS and CS when the CS predicts the UCS.

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18
Q

What is backwards conditioning?

A

If the conditioned stimulus appears after the unconditioned stimulus then learning will not occur.

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19
Q

What is blocking?

A

A second conditioned stimulus does not add anything to a prior conditioned-unconditioned relationship.

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20
Q

What two factors of classical conditioning experiments are important to consider?

A

1) Replicability

2) Ad-Hoc Immunisation

21
Q

What is replicability?

A

Findings must be capable of being duplicated following the same methodology.

22
Q

What is Ad-Hoc Immunisation?

A

A loophole or additional argument that protects a theory from being rejected.

23
Q

What does chemotherapy reveal in terms of classical conditioning?

A
  • Chemotherapy and food intake represent a complex interaction between unconditioned and conditioned stimuli and responses.
  • Side effect of chemotherapy (US) is nausea (UR).
  • The association between drug stimulus and sickness response does not have to be learned.
  • Normal food intake (CS) around the time of chemotherapy (US) can lead to the same response of vomiting (CR), but in a conditioned way.
24
Q

What did Broberg and Bernstein (1987) establish that helped chemotherapy patients with nausea?

A
  • Development of food aversions can be reduced if a scapegoat food is administered at the time of therapy.
  • does not generalise other food.
25
Q

What is second-order conditioning?

A
  • occurs in advertising
  • previous (and assumedly positive associations) we have with celebrities is exploited.
  • Advertisers rely on our previously learned conditioned associations.
    e. g. like the actor - actor associated with product - like the product.
26
Q

What are 3 common applications of classical conditioning?

A

1) Celebratory endorsement: rely on principals if classical conditioning, specifically conditioned stimulus-response relationships.
2) Fears, phobias and fetishes: partly explained by the previous associations between stimulus and response.
3) Drug tolerance: contributed to individual differences in drug tolerance. The environment serves as the stimulus that can moderate drug effects.

27
Q

What is the the target behaviour and behaviour function of classical conditioning?

A

Target behaviour: Automatic

Behaviour function of: Preceding stimuli

28
Q

What is the target behaviour and behaviour function of operant conditioning?

A

Target behaviour: Voluntary

Behaviour function of: Consequences

29
Q

What is the Law of Effect (Thorndike)?

A

“If a response, in the presence of a stimulus, is followed by a satisfying state of affairs, the bond between stimulus and responses will be strengthened”.

30
Q

What type of relationship is important to consider in operant conditioning?

A

-Temporal relationships.
e.g. Dog pees - you shout “COME HERE” - You tell off the dog
-Dog association: Punished because I went towards the owner.
Human association: Punished because he peed.

This attempt at positive punishment may well fail because of the confusion experienced by the dog regarding event association.

31
Q

What are the four types of operant conditioning?

A

1) Positive reinforcement
2) Negative reinforcement
3) Positive punishment
4) Negative punishment

32
Q

What is positive reinforcement?

A

Introducing something positive into environment.

33
Q

What is negative reinforcement?

A

Removing something negative from environment.

34
Q

What is positive punishment?

A

Introducing something negative into environment.

35
Q

What is negative punishment?

A

Removing something positive from environment.

36
Q

What is vital to remember when trying to eliminate bad behaviour?

A
  • Trying to eliminate bad behaviour does not necessarily mean that it will be replaced by good behaviour.
  • Therefore, reinforcement and punishment are techniques towards two different goals.
37
Q

What are two types of schedules of reinforcement?

A

1) Continuous

2) Partial

38
Q

What is a continuous schedule of reinforcement?

A

Reinforcement follows response all the time.

39
Q

What is a partial schedule of reinforcement?

A

Reinforcement follows response some of the time.

40
Q

Which type of schedule of reinforcement gives the most successful responses?

A

Partial and variable schedules give more successful responses than fixed schedules.

41
Q

What are 4 aspects of schedules of reinforcement to consider?

A

Ratio vs Interval

Fixed vs Variable

42
Q

What is a schedule of reinforcement with a fixed ratio?

A

Reinforcement delivered after a set number of responses.

43
Q

What is a schedule of reinforcement with a variable ratio?

A

Reinforcement delivered after a changing number of responses.

44
Q

What is a schedule of reinforcement with a fixed interval?

A

Reinforcement delivered for first response after a set period of time.

45
Q

What is a schedule of reinforcement with a variable interval?

A

Reinforcement delivered delivered for first time after a changing period of time.

46
Q

What do variable schedules lead to?

A

Lead to consistent responding.

-Fixed ‘scallops’ represent pause in responding.

47
Q

What is a flaw of the purely behaviourist perspective according to Tolman (1938)?

A
  • He observed that stimulus-response relationships were not sufficient to explain the search behaviour of rats in mazes.
  • Rather the appeal was to a cognitive map.
    e. g. Rats in an x shaped maze.
    1) Rats explore maze freely.
    2) Rats placed at bottom of x and food to the right so rat knew they had to go the the right to get food.
    3) Yet when placed at the top of the maze, the rat knew to turn left and not right to get the food.
48
Q

What is important to remember in terms of learning?

A

-There are other levels of explanation.

49
Q

What do Stimulus Organism Response (S-O-R) theories acknowledge?

A

-Stimulus Organism Response (S-O-R) theories of learning acknowledge different thought processes (or at least different learning histories) where the same stimulus gives rise to different responses in different organisms..

Introduction to Biological and Cognitive Psychology (8 decks)

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