PSYU2236 Biopsychology and Learning Flashcards
What is the difference between non-associative and associative learning?
Non-associative learning: Non-associative learning is the simplest yet fundamental form of learning that does not require stimuli association or pairing. Habituation and sensitization constitute the two major forms of non-associative learning and are opposite to each other in terms of the elicited responses upon continual presentation of the stimulus.
Associative learning: any learning process in which a new response becomes associated with a particular stimulus.
Types of non-associative learning?
Habituation and sensitisation
What purpose does habituation serve? What are examples?
Habituation is the progressive decrease in response amplitude or frequency as a consequence of repeated experience with stimulus. ie a humming refrigerator. When exposed to one, you generally begin to desensitise to the humming. If you leave and come back it may be noticeable but then disappear. Other examples are traffic, voices, the world outside.
Habituation serves to weed out stimulus of little or no importance.
What purpose does sensitisation serve? What are examples?
Sensitisation is an increase in response to amplitude or frequency as a consequence of repeated experience with a stimulus. Sensitisation is typically NOT stimulus-specific. Happens when we are anticipating an important stimulus so that we are prepared for important cues.
Mosquito is an example vs a fan at night.
When does habituation versus sensitisation occur?
Sensitisation is thought to be a companion process to habituation that opposes the effects of habituation in many, but not all situations.
How does the dual process theory account for habituation and sensitisation?
The underlying processes of habituation and sensitisation can co-occur. The observable behaviour is the sum of these two processes.
This theory advocated that repeated stimulation would produce two independent processes that could both be active at the same time: decreased responsiveness (habituation) or increased responsiveness (sensitization). The authors believed that the two processes take place in different parts of the nervous system.
Is habituation sensory adaptation? And what is sensory adaptation, give example.
Habituation is not sensory adaptation. Sensory adaptation is the sensory receptors to fatigue and stop responding to an unchanging stimulus, they change their sensitivity to the stimulus. Sensory fatigue, physiological you are no longer responding. Spot on the eye, eventually you stop responding or seeing the spot as it means nothing to see it and it serves no purpose.
Jumping into cold water, sensory adaptation, you can never recapture the initial shock, you become sensitised to the water and the initial shock can not be experienced again to that degree. Whereas a noise can be tuned out through habituation, and then re-engaged with if you decide.
What is bottom up and top down processing?
Bottom-up and top-down processing are two different ways of making sense of stimuli. In bottom-up processing, we allow the stimulus itself to shape our perception, without any preconceived ideas. In top-down processing, we use our background knowledge and expectations to interpret what we see.
How do they test non-associative learning: sensitisation and habituation?
Usually tested through the startle response and orientating response.
What is dishabituation?
Dishabituation is when you start reacting to a stimulus again after habituating to it, because something about the stimulus has changed. For example, if you learn to ignore a loud sound, you may pay attention if the tone of the sound changes. This is why the sirens on emergency vehicles change.
What is desensitisation?
In psychology, desensitisation is a treatment or process that diminishes emotional responsiveness to a negative, aversive, or positive stimulus after repeated exposure.
What are the two cells types of the nervous system?
Although the nervous system is very complex, nervous tissue consists of just two basic types of nerve cells: neurons and glial cells. Neurons are the structural and functional units of the nervous system. They transmit electrical signals, called nerve impulses. Glial cells provide support for neurons
What are the 4 parts to most neurons?
Soma (cell body)
Dendrites
Axon
Presynaptic terminals
Afferent vs Efferent neurons?
AFFERENT TOWARDS Nerve cells that carry information toward the central nervous system (or farther centrally within the spinal cord and brain) are called afferent neurons
EFFERENT AWAY Nerve cells that carry information away from the brain or spinal cord (or away from the circuit in question) are called efferent neurons.
What are neurites?
Projections from the cell body of a neuron ie axons and dendrites
How are neurons classified?
Number of neurites
type of dendrites
axon length
neurotransmitter
synaptic connections
