Week 10 - Learning

Question 1

Define learning

Answer 1

The modern definition of learning stems from the learning theory and originated within the field of psychology specifically within the area of experimental behavioural analysis.
“A relatively permanent change in behaviour as the result of experience” Fred Skinner

Question 2

Define memory

Answer 2

The modern definition originated from the information processing theory in the context of cognitive psychology and computational science.

“. The faculty of the mind by which it retains the knowledge of previous thoughts impressions or events” (cognitive psychology)

“The capacity to store and retrieve of information” (computational science)

Question 3

Functions of the nervous system

Answer 3

Allow the organism to respond adequately to external stimuli. Continuously adapt to changing environmental conditions.

• find water
• find food
• find sexual partners
• avoid danger (predators, toxins)
• In general find optimal environmental conditions for survival

Question 4

Are reflective responses sufficient to achieve adaptation?

Answer 4

Reflex is a simple allow a little flexibility and typically associate with invariable forms of external stimuli

Question 5

Why might reflective responses not be enough?

Answer 5

Reflective responses may be sufficient to sustain basic forms of survival but complex and changing environments require specific adaptations.

A system that is fixed and immutable is not capable of learning. Think of robots or computers (allthough recent technological advance suggest we can create robots that may be able to learn from experience).

Our environment changes consistently.

Neural plasticity is the set of Physiological mechanisms that allow the modification of behavioural responses based on previous experiences. Plasticity sustains learning

Question 6

The concept of plasticity

Answer 6

Learning depends on the plasticity of the circuits within the brain. The ability of the neuron’s to make lasting changes in the efficacy of their synaptic transmission.

The brain is thought to store information in networks on modified synapses and to retrieve this information by activating these networks.

Our understanding of the rules that govern association and the networking of neurons goes back to the groundbreaking work done by Donald Hebb in the 1950s

Hebb had the intuition that if two neurons Are active at the same time the synapsis between them strengthened.

Question 7

Hebbian synapses

Answer 7

Donald Hebb postulated:

“When an axon of cell A is near enough to excite cell B and repeatedly or persistently takes part in firing it, some growth processes or metabolic changes take place in one or both cells such that A’s efficiency as one of the cells firing B, is increased”

The organisation of behaviour, 1949

Question 8

What is the Hebbs Law often paraphrased as?

Answer 8

Neurons that fire together wire together

Question 9

Aplysia Californica As a model system to study learning

Answer 9

Aplysia Has been used to study the physiological and molecular basis of learning and memory.

Aplysia has a respiratory organ (GILL) and a tube like organ used for taking up and expelling water (SIPHON).

In Aplysia, the Gill withdrawal reflex can be elicited both from the siphon and the mantle shelf, a structure that lies next to the siphon.

Repetitive stimulation of the siphon produces habituation of the withdrawal reflex.

There is no change in the sensitivity of the receptors for glutamate (an excitatory transmitter), but diminished release of the transmitter. Can last several weeks.

If the stimulus applied is inocuous Aplysia shows habituation. What happens, however, if the stimulus is aversive? For example, repeated electrical stimulation of the tail.

In this case, sensitisation occurs, a process whereby the response becomes progressively enhanced. This process may actually increase the responsiveness to innocuous stimulation (eg tactile stimulation of the siphon).

Question 10

What are the four types of learning that Carlson postulated?

Answer 10

Perceptual
Motor
Relational
Stimulus response learning

Question 11

Describe perceptual learning

Answer 11

Refers to the capacity to learn to recognise and learn about stimuli perceived previously and differentiate them from other similar stimuli.

The main function is to identify and categorise stimuli, such as objects in context or situations.

Question 12

Define motor learning

Answer 12

Motor learning is a special type of stimulus response learning because it requires both exteroceptive sensory stimulation and propioceptive Sensory stimulation.

It requires feedback between the environment and the actions we perform.

Question 13

What is relational learning?

Answer 13

Includes various forms of learning that is required to establish specific associations between stimuli.

For example, spatial learning involves the association between different stimuli present in a given context and allows the organism to respond adequately. Effective, we create a cognitive may of the environment to help us navigate through it.

Question 14

What happens in habituation and sensitisation?

Answer 14

It is straightforward. We experience a stimulus, respond innately to it and then either stop responding or respond more strongly after repeated exposure. We have learned something significant, namely, what matters and what does not matter.

Question 15

What is stimulus response learning (S-R) learning, and how does it make a connection between two stimuli or between our behaviour and its consequences?

Answer 15

Refers to the capacity to perform a learned behaviour is response to a specific stimulus with which the behaviour has been associated previously.

The responses can be mere reflexes or complex sequences of actions. The main forms of S-R learning are:
Classical conditioning
Instrumental (operant) conditioning

Question 16

Classical conditioning - Ivan Pavlov

Answer 16

Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936), a Russian physiologist, discovered classical conditioning (also known as Pavlovian conditioning).

Earned the Nobel prize in 1904 for his discovery.

Question 17

Does classical conditioning require consciousness?

Answer 17

Classical conditioning does not require consciousness and can occur even among people who are in a vegetative state. Bekinschtein et al. (2009) repeatedly delivered a musical note, followed by a puff of air to the eyes - a UCS that produces an UCR of blinking - to 22 patients in a vegetative or minimally conscious states. Eventually, the musical note became a CS, producing eye blocking in these largely or entirely unconscious patients.

Question 18

What is one principle of classical conditioning; acquisition?

Answer 18

Learning phase during which a conditioned response is established.

Question 19

What is one principle of classical conditioning; extinction?

Answer 19

Gradual reduction and eventual elimination of the conditioned response after the conditioned stimulus is presented repeatedly without the unconditioned stimulus.

Question 20

What is one principle of classical classical conditioning; spontaneous recovery?

Answer 20

In a phenomenon whereby a seemingly extinct CR reappears (often in a somewhat weaker form) if the CS is presented again.

Question 21

What is one principle of classical conditioning; renewal effect?

Answer 21

A related phenomenon to the spontaneous recovery is the renewal effect. This occurs when we extinguish a response in a setting different from the one in which the animal acquired it. When we restore the animal to the original setting, the extinguished response often reappears.

Thus extinction does not delete memories, memories seem to become “doormant” and can be reinstated.

Question 22

What is a principle of classical conditioning; stimulus generalisation?

Answer 22

The process by which conditioned stimuli are similar, but not identical, to the original CS elicit a conditioned response.

The tendency to respond to stimuli similar to the CS is called generalisation. Pavlov conditioned the dogs salvation (CR) by using miniature vibrators (CS) I’m the thigh m. When he subsequently stimulated other parts of the dogs body, salivation dropped.

Question 23

What’s a principle of classical conditioning; discrimination?

Answer 23

Discrimination is the ability to differentiate between a CS and other stimuli that have not been paired with an UCS.

Question 24

The importance of classical conditioning:

Answer 24

Classical conditioning is not limited to salivating laboratory dogs or full withdrawal responses in Aplysia- it has important implications for everyday life.

The trick is to elicit a positive affective response and create a lasting association (eg present an attractive person and a product together at the same time = a positive emotional response).

Question 25

Conditioned fear:

Answer 25

Fear is a natural and adaptive behaviour.

But it can be learned via classical conditioning. When a neutral stimulus, something that doesn’t cause fear, is associated with an unconditioned aversive stimulus, something that causes fear, the process can lead to the response of fear towards the previously neutral stimulus.

In the temporal lobe lies the amygdala, and the amygdala is key for fear responses and conditioning, but also for positive emotional associations (eg advertising and drug addiction).

Question 26

What is conditioned place preference?

Answer 26

Explains positive affective reactions to stimulus and places previously paired with drugs.

Question 27

What is reinstatement?

Answer 27

Reinstatement (relapse) of drug seeking behaviour can be elicited by cues previously paired with drugs through Pavlovian conditioning.

Question 28

What is operant conditioning?

Answer 28

We learn through the consequences of our actions.
This is different from classical conditioning.

Early studies on operant conditioning originated at the turn of the XXth century and laid the foundations of behaviourism and learning theory.

Question 29

Key difference in classical conditioning and operant conditioning in target behaviour:

Answer 29

Target behaviour is elicited automatically in CC, however it is emitted voluntarily in OC.

Question 30

Key difference in classical conditioning and operant conditioning in reward:

Answer 30

Reward is provided unconditionally in CC, and contingent on behaviour in OC.

Question 31

Key difference in classical conditioning and operant conditioning in what behaviour depends primarily on:

Answer 31

In CC, behaviour depends primarily on the autonomic nervous system. In OC, behaviour depends on skeletal muscles.

Question 32

The law of effect

Answer 32

The famous law of effect, put forth by psychologist Edward Thorndike, forms the basis of operant conditioning: if a response, in the presence of a stimulus, is followed by a satisfying state of affairs, the bond between stimulus and response will be strengthened.

Thorndike believed that cats were able to solve the problem through trial and error, not through the consequences of their behaviour (in the puzzle box).

Question 33

Thorndikes pioneering discoveries laid the groundwork for research on operant conditioning. B. F. Skinner developed new technology and new concepts.

Answer 33

The concept of reinforcement:
Reinforcement is any outcome that strengthens the probability of a response. It differs from the motion of reward, which reflects the subjective experience of pleasure.

Question 34

Schedules of reinforcements

Answer 34

Skinner (1938) found that animals behaviours differ depending on the schedule of reinforcement - that is, the latter of delivering reinforcement.

In continuous reinforcement, we reinforce a behaviour every time it occurs. In partial reinforcement, also names intermittent reinforcement, responses are reinforced only some of the time.

Question 35

Skinner (1969) noted that continuous reinforcement allows animals to learn new behaviours more quickly, but that partial reinforcement leads to a greater resistance to extinction.

Answer 35

S exiles of reinforcement can be modified according to the number of responses emitted or the time elapsed on the schedule:

Ratio fixed: completion of a consistent number of responses.

Ratio variable: completion of a changing number of responses.

Interval fixed: reinforces the first realise after a couple stand amount of time.

Interval variable: reinforces the first response after a changing amount of time.

Question 36

Cognitive models of learning:

Answer 36

Behaviourist model (only study observable/external behaviour)

Stimulus in the environment -> black box can’t be studied -> response behaviour

Cognitive model (can scientifically study internal behaviour)

Input in the environment m-> mediational process mental event -> output behaviour

Skinner was an advocate of radical behaviourism because he believed that observable behaviour, thinking and emotion are all governed by the same laws of learning.

However, the majority of psychologists now agree that the story of learning in humans is incomplete without at least some role for cognition, for thinking.

Question 37

Psychology over the past 30-40 years:

Answer 37

Had moved away form simple stimulus response psychology to a more complex S-O-R psychology (where O stands for organism).

It is increasingly recognised that cognitive processes, such as internal evaluation of cognitive consequences, should be incorporated.

Cognitive conditioning: out interpretation of the situation affects conditioning, suggesting that conditioning is more than an automatic process.

Question 38

Observational learning

Answer 38

One important variant of latent learning is observational (vicarious) learning: learning by watching others - allows us to learn without direct reinforcement m.

This research gave rise to social learning theory

Initially described by Albert Badura et al - famous bobo doll experiment

Found that children who watched an adult being aggressive were more aggressive themselves

Question 39

Pavlovs research with dogs

Answer 39

Pavlov’s primary research was on digestion in dogs - not learning!

Pavlov places dogs in a harness and inserted a cannula - a collection tube - into their salivary glands to study their digestive responses to meat.

He observed something unexpected: the dogs began salivating, not only at the meat itself, but at previously neutral stimuli that had become associated with it, such as the bell the research assistant who brought in the powder used to ring or his footsteps.

One key point is that the animal does not