Unit 6: Learning (Chapter 6) Flashcards
Learning
An enduring change in behaviour resulting from prior experience.
Associative learning
A form of learning that involves making connections between stimuli and behavioural responses.
Nonassociative learning
A form of learning that involves a change in the magnitude of an elicited response with repitition of the elicited stimulus.
Habituation
A form of nonassociative learning by which an organism becomes less responsive to a repeated stimulus.
Brain’s version of the “cry wolf” effect.
Sensitization
A form of nonassociative learning by which an organism becomes more sensitive, or responsize, to a repeated stimulus.
Dishabituation
The recovery of a response that has undergone habituation, typically as a result of presentation of a novel stimulus.
Classical conditioning
A passive form of learning by which an association is made between a reflex-eliciting stimulus (ex: a shock) and other stimuli (ex: a sound).
Unconditioned stimulus (US)
A stimulus that produces a reflexive response without prior learning.
Ex: Food.
Unconditioned response (UR)
The response that is automatically generated by the unconditioned stimulus (US).
Ex: Salivation.
Conditioned stimulus (CS)
A stimulus that has no prior positive or negative association but comes to elicit a response after being associated with the unconditioned stimulus.
Ex: Sight of Pavlov/food.
Conditioned response (CR)
A response that occurs in the presence of the conditioned stimulus after an association between the conditioned and the unconditioned stimulus is learned.
Ex: Salivation (same as UR in this case).
Aquisition
The initial learning of an association between the unconditioned stimulus and the conditioned stimulus during classical conditioning.
Generalization
The tendancy to respond to stimuli that are similar to the conditioned stimulus, so that learning is not tied too narrowly to specific stimuli. Can be adaptive.
Ex: Pavlov’s dogs salivating at. sound that is similar to the original CS, but louder, longer, or lower in pitch.
Discrimination
Learning to respond to a particular stimulus but not to others, thus preventing overgeneralizations.
Extinction
An active learning process whereby the conditioned response is weakened in response to the conditioned stimulus if it is frequently presented in the absece of the unconditioned stimulus.
Ex: Pavlov continuing to ring the bell (CS) but no longer bringing the food (US) would result in the dogs no longer salivating at its sound.
Spontaneous recovery
The reappearence of an extinct behaviour after a delay.
Ex: Smokers’ addiction related to daily cup of coffee; if they drink coffee after having quit smoking, they might cave in and smoke again.
Contiguity
Closeness in time.
Contingency
Predictiveness.
Contingent reinforcement
Reinforcement is only given when a spcific behaviour occurs.
Noncontingent reinforcement
Reinforcement is delivered on a fixed-interval schedule independant of the actions the organism is engaging in.
Blocking
A classical conditioning phenomenon whereby a prior association with a conditioned stimulus prevents learning of an association with another stimulus because the second one adds no further predictive value.
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Previously learned association to one stimulus prevents the learning of a new association to a second stimulus because the second stimulus adds no predictive value
- Adaptive because helps us learn true causal association of events and filter out irrelevant stimuli. Associations are only made to events that are informative!
Ex: Rats conditioned to shock, then shown light after having been shocked.
Schizophrenia = lack of blocking ability (sensory overload).
Preparedness
The species-specific biological predisposition to learn some associations more quickly than other associations.
Conditioned taste aversion
A classically conditioned response where individuals are more likely to associate nausea with food than with other environmental stimuli.
Ex: Rats avoiding food they had consumed before having been made sick by reaserchers.
Operant conditioning
A mechanism by which our behaviour acts as an instrument or a tool to change the environment and, as a result, voluntary behaviours are modified.