The Mind - Learning

Question 1

What are the categories of behavior

Answer 1

Reflexes: involuntary and inevitable response to stimuli

Produces fast and reliable responses that promote welfare

that is the way we respond to stress or cold with goose bumps - remnants of hairy ancestors

Instincts: inborn patterns of behavior obtained by by environmental stimuli, also known as fixed action patterns

• once they begin, instinctive behaviors run to completion
  Require more neurons than reflexes
• that is contagious yawning, which may be related to empathy

Learned Behaviors: relatively permanent changes in behavior ( or the capacity for behavior ) due to experience

Question 2

What are the 3 main types of learning

Answer 2

Associative learning: the formation of connections among stimuli and behaviors

• helps predict the future based on past experiences
• Classical Conditioning: connections formed between 2 stimuli that occur sequentially in time
• Operant Conditioning: connections formed between behaviors and their outcomes

Question 3

What are the 3 main types of learning - Part 2

Answer 3

Non-associative learning: learning that involves changes in the magnitude of responses to a stimulus

• Habituation: reactions to repeated stimuli that are unchanging and harmless decrease
• Sensitization: an increased reaction to many stimuli following exposure to one strong stimulus for example exaggerated responses to movement and noise following an earthquake

Observational Learning: occurs when one organism watches another also known as social learning / modeling

Question 4

What is Classical Conditioning in detail

Answer 4

Conditioned means something that must be learned while unconditioned refers to factors that occur without learning

Conditioned stimulus: an environmental event whose significance us learned through classical conditional

Unconditioned stimulus: a stimulus that obtains a response without prior experience

Conditioned response: a response learned through classical conditioning

Unconditioned response: response to an unconditioned stimulus that requires no previous experience

Question 5

Pavlov’s Study

Answer 5

Before conditioning, food (unconditioned stimulus) produces salvation, (unconditioned response) and the metronome no reliable responding

During conditioning the sound of the metronome followed by the food which produces salvation

After conditioning, the metronome sound (conditioned stimulus) by itself produces salvation (conditioned response). Learning had occurred.

Question 7

Classical Conditioning Phenomena

Answer 7

Acquisition is when we learn a new response to something. It happens when the thing we’re learning about (the conditioned stimulus, or CS) is close in time to something that already causes a response (the unconditioned stimulus, or UCS).

Extinction is when a learned response gets weaker. This happens when the conditioned stimulus is presented without the unconditioned stimulus.

For people who are addicted to drugs, it might be helpful to teach them to associate the feeling of not getting the drug with something else. This could be a more powerful way to help them get better.