Psychology Chapter 6 Flashcards
Learning
is any relatively durable change in behaviour or knowledge that is due to experience.
Behavioural Theories
- attempt tor elate units of behaviour, called responses, to units of the environment, called stimuli (the plural of stimulus)
- focusing upon explaining the behaviour and predicting further behaviour (relating future stimuli to future responses)
- “earning is an adaptive process..”
Evolutionary Theories
- would focus on the adaptive aspects of learning to survival
* organisms that were able to "learn" (i.e. determine relations among events)were able to survive in a changing environment * but learning still occurs even if the environment is not changing-- the organism "learns " that the environment has not changed (the bear and the stream)
the Orienting Response-
our attention is drawn to novel stimulus
• Operant Conditioning – Focusing on the learning that occurs when we pair environmental stimuli with our own behaviour (“operant behaviour” – the organism learns by “operating” on the environment)
Habituation
- learning not to respond to an unimportant even that occurs reportedly
* (whistle vs. Baby's cru) * ignoring unimportant stimuli is adaptive for survival
is essentially a form of Classical Conditioning – where the stimulus is not paired with any meaningful event, thus we learn to ignore it.
Classical Conditioning
- Pavlov & his dogs (Jim and Dwight)
- Classical Conditioning involves learning about the conditions that predict that a significant even will occur
- also called “Pavlovian conditioning”
- wasn’t even a psychologist, he was doing his research on how we eat and react to food – dogs produce saliva (salivate) in participation for the food.
focuses on learning about events in our environment. Specifically, relations between events (i.e. so that we can predict future events).
UN-condition Stimulus (UCS)
- stimulus that naturally elicits some response
* we didn’t need to be taught the meaning of it
UN-conditioned Response (UCR)
- a response that is naturally elicited by the stimulus
- dust in the eye–blink because eye is irritated .
- the salivary response is a natural reflex response.
- a response that is naturally elicited by the stimulus
Pavlov’s dogs- naturally salvage in the presence of food.
Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
- some stimulus that was previously neutral ( i.e. it did not automatically elicits the response ) –through reported pairings with the UCS – becomes a “cue” for the response (what was previously know as the UCR) -i.e. the CS now elicits the response,
- But this response is no longer referred to as the UCR
Conditions Response (CR)
the response that was previously referred to as the UCR, when it is elicited by the CS, is now referred to as the CR (but it’s still the same response).
Pavlov’s Discovery
- Originally studying the mechanisms underlying digestion (not psychology)
- Realized that the dogs had learned to anticipate the food based on environmental stimuli (the presence of the dish or the person doing the feeding)
natural reflex action
Without Prior Learning
UCS (food) naturally elicits UCR (salivation)
a neutral stimulus
The Bell
Acquisition
– “the learning phase” – during which conditioning occurs – the organism learns that the CS is reliably paired with the UCS, and learns to exhibit the CR to the CS.
Three factors affect the strength of the CR (“strength” = the ability of the CS to elicit the CR and/or can refer to the intensity of the CR )
– Timing of the CS & UCS (contiguity)
– Reliable pairings (contingency)
– Intensity of the UCS
Extinction
when the CS is repeatedly presented without being followed by the UCS
• Spontaneous Recovery
almost as if we have forgotten the extinction.
• Timing
the order and timing of the presentation of the CS & UCS
-optimal delay
• Intensity
the intensity of the UCS that the CS is paired with will have an impact on the ability of the CS to elicit the CR.
– A weaker UCS will not produce a strong relation between the CS and the CR.
• Discrimination
being able to determine the CS and similar conditional stimuli (CSsimilar), and dissimilar conditional stimuli (CSdissimilar).
– The CS and CSsimilar will elicit the CR, but the CSdissimilar will not.
• Generalization
when a stimulus that is similar to the CS will also elicit the CR
Blocking
- What happens when a second neutral stimulus (CSB) is presented together with a previously conditioned CS (CSA)?
- Blocking – The previously conditioned CSA will interfere with the organism’s ability to pair the new CSB with the UCS – hence the CSB will not elicit the CR.
Types of CRs
- Excitatory Conditioned Response \
* Inhibitory Conditioned Response
• Excitatory Conditioned Response
(what we have typically been discussing thus far) – The CS signals that the UCS is about to occur.
– Pavlov’s assistant walking into the room (the CS), prior to feeding the dogs (the UCS)
• Inhibitory Conditioned Response
when the CS signals the absence of the UCS
– Imagine if Pavlov had a second lab assistant – who’s job it was to observe the dogs in between feedings – thus, when this assistant entered the lab, it would signal a period of “no food”
Conditioned Emotional Responses
• Many stimuli are able to arouse emotional responses
• Phobias are probably an example of a conditioned emotional response
• Phobias are an unreasonable fear of specific objects or situations, learned through classical conditioning
– Either through direct experience, or through observation of the experience of another (seeing, hearing about, reading)
The Development of Fears & Phobias • Watson & Rayner (1920) – “Little Albert B” – Demonstrated the establishment of a conditioned emotional response • white rat alone - not afraid • white rat paired with loud noise • white rat alone - afraid • rabbit alone - afraid • fur coat alone -afraid
Operant Conditioning Thorndike’s Law of Effect
– The consequences of a behaviour effect whether that behaviour will be repeated or not.
• Behaviour that leads to positive outcomes has a greater tendency of being repeated.
• Behaviour that leads to negative outcomes is less likely to be repeated.
Operant Conditioning
• Skinner
– Pioneering work on Operant Conditioning
– The Operant Chamber (the Skinner Box) & the Cumulative Recorder were immensely valuable to being able to study animal behaviour
Operant ConditioningThe Three-Term-Contingency
The presence of the Discriminative (or Antecedent) Stimulus indicates that our RESPONSE will elicit a particular CONSEQUENCE.
The consequence could be positive or negative.
NOTE – the changed meaning of “response” (Previously, the organism’s reaction. Now, the organism’s behaviour, which leads to the consequences)