MIDTERM I - CHAPTER 1 Flashcards
T or F
Learning can be seen in many species
True
What kind of process is learning?
Biological
What is it called when animals use their adjustments to adapt to their environment?
Biological definition of Learning
“Learning is the process of accumulating knowledge”
corresponds to which definition of learning?
Philosophical Definition
What is knowledge?
Knowledge is internally stored information about the world and about how things work.
Implicit Knowledge is also known as ________________
Procedural Learning
What kind of knowledge of learning looks at how to memories, skilled actions and cognitive abilities ?
Implicit Knowledge or Procedural Learning
True or False :
Procedural knowledge differentiates itself because we cannot properly discuss how to do these things.
True
T or F :
This is the biological definition of learning:
“Learning is a biological process that make difficult the adaptation to one’s environment”
False. Learning is a biological process that facilitates adaptation to one’s environment
The biological definition suggest what two things?
1) Biology dictates learning
2) Experience alters biology
What rule of the biological definition does this refer to in learning :
Never taught children how to turn on a light switch or turn to open a door. They observe you but cannot display their knowledge of it until they are tall enough.
Biology dictates learning
What rule of the biological definition does this refer to in learning :
Study in rats that good mothers and the experience of being a good mother are more likely to have offspring that are likely to become good mothers.
Experience alters biology
What is the psychological definition of learning?
Learning is the acquisition of new behaviour due to exposure to a similar situation in the past.
What are the two problems with the psychological definition of learning?
1) Not always the acquisition of new behaviour
2) Changes in behaviour may not always be due to learning
What does this scenario demonstrate:
“if I bring out a pizza, and they start eating the pizza and finally stop eating. My interpretation is that they stopped liking pizza, or maybe they just don’t want to eat anymore because they are full. Their physiology has gotten away (full).”
We display behaviours for a multitude of reasons and learning is just one of them.
What is the argument to : Learning is not always the acquisition of a new behaviour.
Stopping a behaviour can be displaying learning.
Define short-term changes in behaviour.
Short-term changes are changes in behaviour that are too short-lasting to be considered instances of learning
Give three examples of short-term changes.
1 - Fatigue
2 - Change in stimulus condition
3 - Alteration in physiological-motivation state
What do we call a long-term change in behaviour that occurs because you are grown?
Maturation
When does maturation occur?
In the absence of specific training or practice
T or F:
The behavioural perspective believes the function of learning to be to facilitate an organism’s interactions with its environment.
True
What does this definition refer to :
Refers to all of the actions of an organism at a particular time.
Performance
T or F :
We control as many factors as possible to confirm that observed behavior reflects learning and not performance
True
T or F
Performance and learning are completely similar
False. Similar but not the same.
Describe latent behaviour.
Involves an individual making a delayed response to a presented stimulus.
What did the Tokman & Honzik study in 1930 demonstrate?
We have to rely on the behavioral change but, we must ensure that the organism wants to display the behavioral change to indicate learning.
All rats were capable of learning the maze at the same speed; the only difference was their display of that performance. If there is no motivation for a group to display what they learnt, they will not display it, but learning has still occurred.
What three groups were in the Tokman & Honzik (1930) study?
HNR (Hungry not reinforced)
HR (Hungry Reinforced)
HNR-R (Hungry not Rewarded, then Rewarded)
In Tokman & Honzik (1930) study, what changed in the HNR-R group causing them to rapidly improve?
Motivation
What is the behavioural definition of learning?
“Learning is a relatively long-lasting change in the mechanism of behaviour, or behaviour potential, that occurs as a result of practice or experience”
T or F:
Definition of learning was modified to reflect findings like latent learning?
True
What study reflected findings of latent learning?
Tokman & Honzik (1930)
T or F:
Animal models mimic human behaviour.
False.
Animal models do not mimic human behaviour but can observe similarities.
In this study, how does this help use animal models of behaviour to generalize to humans?
“Researchers give the rat a very basic behaviour (lever pressing). When they press the lever they get the nicotine, when they don’t, they don’t receive any nicotine. We will measure how many times they press the lever.”
Self-administration in the rats, accurately reflecting smoking behaviour in humans.
What kind of science is learning ?
Experimental Science
Who created the General-Process Approach ?
Thorndike
What does the general-process approach tell us about learning?
We can study any animal because they behave similarly within their environment.
They differ only by what stimuli they specifically respond to.
What replaces Thorndike’s view now on universal rules of learning?
Laws of Exercise and Effect
What two types of validity constitute a good animal model?
Construct Validity
Criterion Validity
Define construct validity
How accurate are your measurements measuring what you want to measure
Define criterion validity
How good we are at taking what we learnt in the laboratory setting and generalizing it to apply to real-world situations.
True or False:
Criterion validity refers to the generalizability of results.
True
If you are doing research on animals that are not treated well, what validity does it affect?
Criterion Validity
List the empirical advantages of using non-human animals in expirements
1) Can study the neurobiological substrates of learning and memory
2) Can ask questions about human behaviour that cannot be studied in humans
“All that matters is experience” refers to what concept in philosophy?
Empiricism
What do we call the belief that humans are shaped primarily by their biological inheritance?
Nativism
Who proposed that knowledge and talent are matters of training and experience, not inheritance?
And what concept does this refer to?
Aristotle, Empiricism
Who proposed that we are born with innate differences in skill and talent, and suggested sorting by quality soon after birth?
And what concept does this refer to?
Plato, Nativism
Who proposed that most of our knowledge in innate, the mind did not function in a predictable and orderly manner and that voluntary and involuntary behaviour existed?
Descartes
Was Descartes a nativist or empiricist ?
Nativist
Who proposed that we are born a blank slates (tabula rasa), completely equal and without innate knowledge, and that all our habits and skills are due to experience?
John Locke
Who took issue with Descartes’ and suggested that all ideas are acquired through experiences after birth?
John Locke
Who accepted the distinction between voluntary and involuntary while believing that the mind operated like a reflex?
Hobbs
Who believed that behaviour was governed by principle of hedonism?
Hobbs
T or F:
Descartes believed that humans and animals have reflexes but out voluntary behaviour set us apart.
True
Who considered free will and voluntary behaviour are uniquely human attributes because humans have a mind or soul.
Rene Descartes
Who was the first to suggest reflex ?
Descartes
Involuntary behaviour was described as an automatic reaction to external stimuli and is mediated by a special mechanism called a reflex, according to what?
cartesian dualism
T or F
According to Cartesian Dualism, voluntary behaviour had to be triggered by external stimuli and occurs because of the person’s conscious intent to act in that particular manner
False. It does not have to be triggered.
True or False
Descartes suggested the reflex arc we know today.
False.
He believed that sensory messages going from sense organs to the brain and motor messages going from the brain to the muscles travelled along the same nerves
Who suggested that the stimulus in a reflex is detected by sense organs, and it then agitates ‘animal spirits’ that travel up the nerves to the ‘mind’ via the pineal gland?
Descartes
Who considered all reflexive movements to be innate and to be fixed by the anatomy of the nervous system, and was wrong?
Descartes
What do we call any kind of behaviour (innate or learned) that is demonstrated by (or drawn out of an organism) in response to a stimulus?
Elicited behaviour
The Top-Down Processing demonstrates what form of behaviour?
elicited behaviour
What are the three types of reflexes
1) simple reflexes
2) Complex Behavioural Sequences
3) MAPs
Can elicited behaviour be innate or learned?
Yes
What defines a reflex?
When the presentation of the stimulus reliably triggers the response, and the response rarely occurs without the stimulus.
What reaction does a baby have in the moro reflex ?
Arms and legs go out
What is the eliciting stimulus in the baby when they have moro reflex?
The feeling of falling
What is rooting?
Head turning
What do we call the reflex when you touch a baby’s palm and they clench their fist?
Grasp
What do we call the reflex where we stroke a baby’s foot, and their toes curl?
Babinski
Why don’t we have anything in crib with the baby?
Respiratory Occlusion Reflex