Module 2 Flashcards
What is instrumental behaviour?
Action performed to reach a goal
What is learning?
The enduring changes in behaviour as a result of previous experience
What are the 3 key elements of instrumental learning, and what are 4 factors that can influence instrumental learning?
3 Key Elements:
- Environment
- The instrumental behaviour
- The consequence
4 Influencing Factors:
- Timing of the reward delivery
- Rules of reward delivery
- Type of rewards
- Other stimuli associated with rewards
What was Thorndike’s experiment for discovering the law of effect?
- Created a puzzle box, where the door will open if the lever is pressed
- Placed cat within box to escape over many trials
- Concluded a connection is formed between lever (S) and the response (R)
- Learning is incremental, not insightful (for stimuli based learning)
What is the Law of Effect?
Responses that produce a satisfying effect are more likely to occur again.
Responses that produce a discomforting effect are less likely to occur again.
Argues for connectionism in learning
S-R learning does not hold for all forms of instrumental conditioning.
What is the perspective of rewards as incentives?
The anticipation or expectancy of reward arouses incentive motivation
What is Premack’s Principle?
If two responses are arranged in an operant conditioning procedure, the more probable response will reinforce the less probable response; the less probable response will NOT reinforce the more probable response
What is momentary probability?
The probability of the behaviour at a given time in a given situation
- May reflect the “value” of the behaviour
- Can be manipulated by deprivation or size of the reward
What is the drive reduction theory (Hull, 1943)?
Any behavioural outcomes that reduce the drive is reinforcing.
Based on the homeostatic model: drive arises from need and energizes behaviour to reach goal.
Need -> Drive -> Activity -> Goal -> Reduced Drive -> Reduced Activity
What are 3 pieces of evidence for drive reduction theory and what are 3 pieces of evidence against it?
For drive reduction:
- Milk vs. Saline
- Pain reduction: press bar to avoid shock
- Fear reduction: escape in fear-eliciting environment
Against drive reduction:
- events that do not reduce drive are still reinforcing
- self-stimulation of the brain
- monkeys work for “sensory experience”
What are the 2 assumptions for the idea that rewards act as reinforcers?
- Learning is an associative process (S-R association)
- The role of rewards is to form and/or strengthen associations
(if learning is not assoicative or reinforcement is not necessary for learning to occur, then these theories are challenged)
What is latent learning?
Learning has occurred, but was not manifested until reward was introduced
Describe Tolman and Henzik’s (1930) experiment for latent learning
1 group rewarded continously
1 group not rewarded at all
1 group rewarded after 10 days -> showed the least amount of errors out of all the groups right away!
Explain the Yerkes-Dodson Law
There exists an optimal level of arousal for the performance of tasks. The optimal level of arousal depends on the complexity of the task (easy, medium, hard)
What is the Easterbrook Hypothesis?
Increase of arousal leads to a decrease in attention of peripheral environmental cues. This may or may not impede performance, depending on whether relevant cues are in the periphery or not
How can previous learning affect goal-directed action, as described by Balleine and Dickinson’s experiment (1991)?
Rats learn to devalue sugar by associating sugar with illness
The experience of discomfort with sugar reduced incentive value and hence performance
What is latent extinction?
Extinction of a previously rewarded response can occur without performance of the response in the absence of reward
How do rewards function as reinforcers?
Rewards can strengthen the association between certain environmental conditions and the response, therefore acting as reinforcers
How do rewards function as incentives?
The anticipation/expectancy of reward arouses incentive motivation, a drive state which prompts us to engage in activities that lead to rewards
Explain the different stages of decision making and the processes involved
- Sensory stimulus + Sensory noise -> Perceptual decision making (analyze the sensory info to recognize objects)
- Percept + Metabolic needs+/ Cognitive limitations -> Cognitive decision making (compare the alternatives and make a plane of action)
- Action goal + Biomechanical constraints -> Motor decision making (carry out the action w/ a proper motor program)
Which system in the brain is responsible for reward encoding?
The DA system: substantia nigra, VTA and basal ganglia (striatum)
What are the brain structures associated with impulsivity?
2 NAcc projections: DA and 5-HT in NAcc + PFC-NAcc projections -> Produce waiting and risky choice impulsivities (NE reuptake blocker can reduce impulsivities here)
Dorsal striatum + orbitofrontal cortex + dorsal prelimbic cortex -> Stopping impulsivity