Psychology chapter seven

Question 1

Properties of observational learning

Answer 1

less effective at teaching then practice, however unlike practice if interupted learning levels do not decrease

Question 2

What is the intermittant reinforcement effect?

Answer 2

Refers to how extinction of behavior that is intermittently reinforced will occur much slower then the extinction of behavior that continuously reinforced. This is bc participants of intermittent ratio reinforcement expect behavior to be done several times without reinforcement causing them to take longer to realize that reinforcement is no longer occuring then individuals who are continuously reinforced who will notice immediatly that reinforcement has stopped. Praticularily individuals who experience variable ratio reinforcement will be less likely to know that reinforcement has stopped bc will not have count of repreated behaviors to determine weather or not it should have occured yet.

Question 3

What study methods are better?

Answer 3

Distributed studying is better then mass studying, maybe bc requires you to recall in greater difficulty, studying questions where concepts vary by question is better then studying all like concept questions together, and practice tests are best. /being tested on concepts during lesson increases attention paid.

Question 4

How does operant conditioning differ from classical conditioning in regards to learning process.

Answer 4

Patterns and determination
In classical conditioning the strength of an association is determined by the number of trails in which the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus are paired together. This is not the case for operant conditioning. In operant conditioning individuals repeat some behaviors even more frequently when they are not reinforced, ex a carsales man will still do test drives even if they do not always result in cars being bought as he expects this and has established that reinforcement is dependenet on this and is determined to get reinforcement.
Patterns, operant behaviours can also be done in patterns based on when reinforcement occurs, (rather then with classical conditioning where reinforcement occurs during every trail to learn response)

Question 5

What are the structures involved in implicit learning

Answer 5

Not hypothalamus or areas on medial temporal lobe bc damage to them causese amnesia, implicit learning of artificial grammer associated with broccas node and implicit learning of serial sequence associated with motor coretex

Question 6

What is chain diffusor learning

Answer 6

When a modle models out using a tool for a new task and getting a reward and then the observers inturn become new models for new observers leading each prev observed learner to become the next model.

Question 7

What is observational learning

Answer 7

When a behavior is learned through watching another individual perform a behavior and be reinforced

Question 8

What do reinforcement and punishment mean and positive and negative for each mean?

Answer 8

Reinforcement is something that increases likelihood of repeating a behavior
Punishment is something that decreases the likelihood of repeating a behavior
think of positive and negative as meaning adding or taking away not good or bad
Positive Reinforcement - adding something to environment to increase likelihood of repeating behavior ex. giving a treat
Negative Reinforcement - taking something away from the environment to increase the likelihood of repreating a behavior ex. a baby reinforces its parents behaviors through the negative reinforcement of taking away its crying when they do the correct behavior to increase the likelihood of them doing it
Positive punishment - adding something to the environment to decrease the likelihood of a certain behavior
Negative punishment - taking something away from the enivronment to decrease the likelihood of a certain behavior

Question 9

What is implicit learning

Answer 9

Implicit learning is when we learn how to do a task without recognizing that we have learned how to do the task, or being able to explain why task is performed how it is performed, ex. rules of grammer can often tell when a sentence is off and what will fix it but cant remember how we know it or what principle of the english language the original sentence violates
Participants asked to click a key that correlated with a certain box flashing boxes flashed in a pattern which participants appeared to learn over time as they could click keys faster, however if asked participants would unlikely report having recognized a pattern or be able to say what it was

Question 10

What are the 3 elements of classical conditioning

Answer 10

NEC
Cognitive - Although Pavlov was present each time the bell rang his dogs did not salivate when they saw him. According to Watsons ideas this occurred bc Pavlov came in to do things apart from feeding the dogs so he was not a reliable indicator that the dogs would be fed and thus they did not display conditioned responses to him. According to Watson a conditioned response would only occur if they had grown to see unrelated stimulus as predictor of unconditioned stimulus -> was based on expectation, therefore the more unfamilliar a stimulus the easier it would be to be a conditioned stimulus as no prior associations would conflict the creation of new ones/would only be shown to reliably associated with unconditioned stimulus.
Evolutionary - for things like food RLSN
Rapid learning, if someone gets sick from eating something once they may instantly get an aversion to it, evolutionary response as getting sick indicates a toxic substance so by establishing this association the risk of dying from ingesting a toxic substance is decreased - demonstrated by John Garcia with the rats gaining aversion to the last meal they ate before they were given radiation poisioning
Long periods between stimulus and unconditioned response can result in gaining an aversion to all food that is the same type as stimulus as being able to least restrictedly create the link between potentially dangerous substances and the response of avoiding them is increases chances of survivial
Scent, even scent and inital taste can trigger aversion evolutionary bc decreases risk of ingestion
Not familliar- this does not happen with familliar foods as thoose have already been established as safe so no evolutionary reason to avoid them.
Neural - Cerebellum associated with learning and motor skills - activity found in for people who were being classically conditioned to blink in response to conditioned stimulus. If amygdala is severed automatic fear responses can not occur and therefore can not be classically conditioned.

Question 11

Bottom up influences

Answer 11

Percpetions that are defined by less complex details ie sensory info processing

Question 12

Describe Watson and Raynors experiment

Answer 12

Watson in Sherlock holmes hounds of baskerville examines a conditioned fear response, psych watson also examines a conditioned fear response, only difference is he also tries to create it. Watson and Raynor took a baby little Albert who was not previously afraid of mice, (conditioned stimuli) and paired the mouse with a loud noise, (unconditioned stimuli) found that not only did albert display a fear response to the rat alone, (conditioned response) he also displayed a fear response to strucutres that were the same color and texture, ex. Santa beard - shows generalization

Question 13

What are the components of operant conditioning?

Answer 13

NEC
Neural - forebrain medial pathway hna pathway between the hypothalamus and the neucleus acumen’s (like a come ends bc is end of pathway) contains neurons that are the most susceptible to pleasure stimulus and that secreate dopamine, associated with eating, drinking and sex
Evolutionary - when racoons were trying to be conditioned to drop coins into a box and food was used as a reinforcer the racoons demonstrated that they did associate the coins with food however that they had made the coins a standin for food and were rubbing them between their paws to clean off dirt- behavior they would do with food. This proves that some associations are made more easily then others and organisms response to stimulus is related to their evolutionary history
Cognitive - Tolman like man will learn a behavior but will not do it until is told, (until recieves motivation -> reinforcemnt to do so)
Latent learning
Tolman split rats into 3 groups, in group one the rats would be placed in a maze and recieve no reward for completing it for a period of 17 days, found that group one rats only navigated maze slightly faster by the end of the experiment
in group two rats were given food (reinforcement) each time they completed the maze, this lead to them navigating the maze much, much more quickly at the end of the experiment
in group three the rats were given no reinforcement for navigating the maze for the first 10 days of the experiment and then given reinforcement for the last 7 days. After being given reinforcement for the first time the rats navigated the maze much more quickly suggesting that they knew how to perform the behavior (navigate the maze) they were just unmotivated to do so until given reinforcement - introduces idea of latent learning
Latent learning - organisms will learnn a behavior but will not often demonstrate learning by enacting behavior until are given motivation to do so (reinforcement)
Cognitive map
Tolman placed rats in a maze that had a reward box in the upper left corner, (which the rats could not see due to the walls of the maze) after 4 days of being in the maze the rats had learned the pathway to the reward box. Then put the rats in a different maze where the pathway identical to the one that they had previously used to reach the reward boc was blocked off and there were multiple new pathways, (most of which lead to dead ends and one of which led to the rewards box) according to behaviorism the rats should have generalized the conditioned stimulus of the path wand choosen the one closest to where the original was - resulting in them not reaching the reward box, instead the rats went to the right option path suggesting that they had learned where the reward box was generally located - not just to associate reaching it with a specific path. This lead Tolman to conclude that organisms form cognitive maps of their physical environment.

Question 14

What structures of the brain are involved in observational learning

Answer 14

Mirror neurons activated when doing activity and when seeing others do activity
Motor coretex for motion?

Question 15

What is operant conditioning

Answer 15

Operant conditioning is the idea that when an organism engages in active, intentional behavior its behavior will operate on its environment. The organisms environemnt will then respond according to the effect of the behavior and this will determine if the organism repeats the behavior.

Question 16

What is shaping

Answer 16

shaping - something being shaped refers to how components of other influences have worked together to create a whole, shaping in terms of behavior refers to how one larger behavior is ususally learned through reinforcements of the steps needed to complete it. Skinner found rats were very unlikely to be naturally inclined to click a lever - therefore made it so reaserchers might have to wait a very long time before they could reinforce desired behavior. In order to speed up learning Skinner therefore gave the rats treats when they looked at the lever, then when they walked over to it, leading to them to engage more with lever until they eventually performed desired behavior.

Question 17

Bandura

Answer 17

Band like Ban reaserch led people to argue that violant media should be banned. Bobo the clown experiment involved having an adult model aggressive behavior to inflatable clown, in order to detect which aggressive behavior was a result of observational learning and not age related or being due to anger at not being able to play with more desirable toys, adult modeled behaviors at clown children unlikely to have seen. If adult’s behavior was reinforced children would be more likely to copy it however if was not reinforced children would be less likely to copy it.

Question 18

What was Watson hoping to find through the little Albert experiment

Answer 18

CEH
Complex responses could be classically conditioned
Emotional responses particularily fear responses were a result of classical conditioning rather then unconcious and past experiences - this was the conclusion he drew
Humans could be classically conditioned too

Question 19

What is a reinforcment shedule

Answer 19

There are two types of reinforcement shedules: ratio and interval
Interval reinforcement shedules - give reinforcement based on time with the stipulation that behavior must occur once within interval
fixed interval - give reinforcement at a fixed ammount of time within which the behavior must be completed, (ex give reinforcement every two minutes)
Variable interval - give reinforcement at an average but not exact interval of time within which behavior must be completed, (ex. give reinforcement on average every two minutes)
Found rats were unlikely to push button right after recieving reinforcement instead watied until closer to the end of the time interval, and that since would recieve reinforcement if they clicked the button once during interval they would not be motivated to click the button more frequently
Continuous ratio - gives reinforcement each time after behavior is completed
Fixed Ratio - give reinforcement based on a fixed number of times in which a behavior is completed, (ex give reinforcement every four times the behavior is completed)
Variable ratio - give reinforcement based on an average number of times in which a behavior is completed, does not mean that each response to reinforcement ratio will be the same. Ex a slot machine that advertises that it gives out 10 000$ at an average of 100 plays since last win may give out $10 000 2 or 200 plays after last win bc both numbers when added with many other possibilities can average to = 100.

Question 20

Top down influences

Answer 20

Perceptions that are defined by more complex details ie memories emotions etc

Question 21

Delayed v.s instant reinforcement

Answer 21

The longer the ammount of time between the consequence and the behavior the less strong an association between behavior and consequence will be formed. Ex. If reinforcement is given longer after behavior subject may have already performed other behaviors and may not know which behavior is being reinforced and therefore which one to repeat. The law of effect with reinforcement can also explain why some people end up choosing immediate reinforcement with long term risk over long term reinforcement. In order to make punishments that occur a long time after the behavior more effective punishments either need to be made more severe or described as behavior is occuring to strengthen associaiton.

Question 22

What is second order conditioning

Answer 22

Second like second degree, second degree away from unconditioned stimuli. When an organism has a conditioned response created without direct contact with unconditioned stimuli, as uses an already conditioned stimuli which has been paired with an unconditioned stimuli to associate a new stimuli with the unconditioned stimuli.
Ex showed dogs a black square and paired it with bell they had the conditioned response of salivating to due to the bell being paired with the unconditioned stimuli of food which creates the unconditioned response salivating. Resulted in dog salivating when they saw black square even though it had never been paired with unconditioned stimuli- food.

Question 23

What is operant behavior

Answer 23

Active, intentional behavior

Question 24

What is classical conditioning

Answer 24

When a conditioned stimulus-a stimulus that reaserchers are trying to make produce a response in participants that it would not naturally by pairing it with an unconditioned stimulus - a stimulus that would naturally create the response they are looking to have the conditioned stimulus create. The subjects will repeat many trails where the unconditioned stimulus and conditioned stimulus are paired together, the process of the subject learning to associate the two is called acquisition, (like acquire bc are acquiring associations and subsequently responses), eventually the subject will produce the conditioned response when presented with the conditioned stimuli, bc they now associate the conditioned stimuli with the unconditioned stimuli. Ex. in Pavlovs dog experiment the unconditioned stimuli was the food as it was the stimuli that naturally produced the unconditioned repsonses, (salivating) and the conditioned stimuli was the bell which produced the conditioned response of salivating after being associated with the unconditioned stimuli food.

Question 25

What is encultured hypothesis

Answer 25

Chimpanzees raised by chimpanzee mothers if having the behavior of using a rake to move food modeled out for them using two different one more and one less effective method will learn general purpose of using rake to move food but will not learn specific methods of use, (unlike children who learn general purpose of using rake and best method) however chimpanzees raised with humans also learned the method suggesting that being raised around humans heavily impacted their cognitive abilities

Question 26

What are the properties of implicit learning

Answer 26

Not affected by age, psychosis or amnesia, does decrease with dyslexia

Question 27

What is the law of stimulus control

Answer 27

In following with Thorndikes idea that behaviors will be done based on context, Skinner theorized that stimulus descrimintation, (individuals ability to tell stimulus apart) would allow the individual to determine weather stimulus would reinforce their behavior, and then enact the response to this, (the individuals behavior) in order to get said reinforcement.

Question 28

Explain Thorndikes findings

Answer 28

Placed hungry cats in puzzle boxes with levers that would allow them to open the box and reach the food, cats would initially paw at the walls of the box and meow, behaviours that would usually bring them to their goal of freedom and food, however when they clicked the lever and it opened caused them to click the lever more frequently in subsequent trials and to descrease the enactment of other behaviours previously assoicated with food and freedom. Thorndike concluded that organisms would repeat a behavior if more frequently if it resulted in a pleasant state of affiars, and would not repeat/decrease the frequency of a behavior if it resulted in an unpleasant state of affairs, - what is this law called?