Module 6 - Learning and Conditioning

Question 1

what is learning?

Answer 1

any relatively durable change in behaviour or knowledge due to experience (semantic information, skills, conditioning, phobias)

Question 2

habituation

Answer 2

decrease in a response after repeated presentations

Question 3

sensitization

Answer 3

increase in response after repeated presentations

Question 4

stimulus generalization

Answer 4

another stimulus (other than the CS or US) elicits the CR

Question 5

stimulus discrimination

Answer 5

do not respond to new stimuli in the same way as the CS

Question 6

what is the process of blocking?

Answer 6

1. a CS is paired with an US
2. a second CS is added - compound CS
3. the two CSs are tested separately - there is a lack of conditioned response to the second CS

Question 7

stimulus-substitution

Answer 7

• Pavlov believed that you were not learning a new behaviour - just applying an old behaviour to a new stimulus
• CS substitutes for the US

Question 8

conditioned hunger

Answer 8

signals that predict a meal can increase feelings of hunger (increase of digestive juices in stomach, hormonal changes in the bloodstream)

Question 9

classical conditioning

Answer 9

through association, a neutral stimulus becomes associated with an unconditioned stimulus and elicits the same response

Question 10

operant conditioning

Answer 10

through association, a behaviour becomes more or less probable based on its consequences

Question 11

primary reinforcers

Answer 11

biological needs

Question 12

secondary reinforcers

Answer 12

acquired through conditioning

Question 13

what does the rate of conditioning depend on?

Answer 13

• satiety (how much of something you already have)
• immediacy (how quickly the reward comes after the behaviour)
• contingency
• size

Question 14

mechanistic view of conditioning

Answer 14

conditioning is a low-level process that does not involve higher order cognition

Question 15

cognitive view of conditioning

Answer 15

conditioning does, at least sometimes, involve higher order cognition

Question 16

informed pairing

Answer 16

telling participants CS-US relationships or reinforcement contingencies changes behaviour

Question 17

informed unpairing

Answer 17

after conditioning, extinction can occur if participants are told the contingencies no longer apply

Question 18

instructed extinction

Answer 18

after conditioning, participants can stop producing the learned response if they’re told not to

Question 19

awareness of contingency

Answer 19

when we are aware of the contingencies we are more likely to produce the behaviours

Question 20

response expectancies

Answer 20

participants’ response expectancies can be manipulated by the instructions they are given

Question 21

reinforcement expectancy

Answer 21

responses are correlated with information given about intensity of reinforcers, or about the meaning/purpose of ambiguous stimuli/reinforcers

Question 22

observational learning

Answer 22

learning through observing a model, rather than direct experience

Question 23

basic processes in observational learning

Answer 23

• attention
• retention
• reproduction
• motivation