Week 11 Flashcards
What was the Nativist view of the origins of learning theory?
Rene Descartes argued almost all behaviour was reflexive and due to inborn ideas. This meant life experiences doesn’t shape behaviour.
What was the empiricist view of the origin of learning theory?
It argues learning occurs from repeated experience and infants are born with a blank slate.
What are the 3 main types of learning?
Association (classical conditioning), Consequences (operant learning) and Observation learning
What is classical conditioning?
- An unconditioned stimulus produces an unconditioned response
- After the neutral stimulus is repeated many times with the unconditioned stimulus, it becomes the conditioned stimulus and produces a conditioned response
- New stimulus comes before and at the same time as the unconditioned stimulus
- Repetition is important
What is delay conditioning?
Delay in onset of conditioned stimulus and the onset of the unconditioned stimulus
What is backward conditioning?
It is the least effect form of conditioning and involves presenting the unconditioned stimulus before the conditioned stimulus
What is simultaneous conditioning?
Presenting the conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus at the same time.
What is trace conditioning?
Presenting the conditioned stimulus and then presenting the unconditioned stimulus.
What is generalization?
Changing the conditioned stimulus that resembles the original will still prompt the same response
What is Discrimination training?
Training a subject to respond to only one stimulus and not others that are similar
What is habituation?
It is a very simple type of learning and involves learning not to respond to unimportant events that occur
What is contiguity?
It is the necessary condition, meaning it must be present for learning to happen.
What is contingency?
It is the degree to which the occurrence of some event (the unconditioned stimulus) is predicted by another event (conditioned stimulus). It is necessary for learning.
What is extinction?
A gradual weakening and loss of the conditioned response that results in the behaviour decreasing or disappearing as a result of the unconditioned stimulus being withheld after a presentation of the conditioned stimulus.
What is spontaneous recovery?
It is the reappearance of the conditioned response after a period or period of lessened responses.
Can spontaneous occur after extinction?
Yes if the unconditioned stimulus is brought back
What is behaviouralism?
it argues psychology is only a science that can be observed and focuses on observable qualities.
What is operant conditioning (instrumental learning)?
- Favourable outcomes lead to behaviours likely to be repeated
- Biologically significant event following a response (response is called operant)
- The consequence of the response is more important than the response itself
- Reinforcements encourage the behaviour in the future while punishment decreases it
- Extinction and spontaneous recovery can occur
What is law and effect?
Consequences of a behaviour determines how likely it will be repeated
What is instrumental learning?
It is a method of learning in which the reinforcement is made contingent on the learner’s response
What are the two types of reinforcement schedules?
Continuous reinforcement and partial reinforcement
What is an example of fixed interval reinforcement?
The next response occurs after one minute since the last reinforcement is reinforced.
What is an example of variable ratio reinforcement?
On every nth response, a reinforcement is given
What is an example of fixed ratio reinforcement?
response is reinforced after a specific number of responses. For example, advancing in a video game only after collecting a certain amount of tokens. This type of reinforcement has the highest level of response.
What is an example of variable interval reinforcement?
The next response to occur after, on average, one minute
What is partial reinforcement?
A schedule of reinforcement. It produces extremely high rates of responding compared to continuous reinforcement and it takes longer to extinguish a partially reinforced operant response.
What is continuous reinforcement?
Reinforcement that occurs after every response.
What are the two types of reinforcers?
They are negative and positive.
What is a positive reinforcer?
When presented after a behaviour, it increases the probability of that behaviour to occur again.
What is a negative reinforcer?
When something is removed, it increases the probability of a behaviour.
What is escape conditioning?
Organisms learns to perform a behaviour to escape
What is avoidance conditioning?
Organism learns a response to avoid an aversive stimulus
What is positive punishment?
When presented following a behaviour, decreases the probability that behaviour will occur again.
What is an example of positive punishment?
Applying a shock every time something is done wrong.
What is negative punishment?
When removed following a response, decreases the probability of that behaviour occurring again.
What is an example of negative punishment?
Confiscating someone’s cellphone for talking in class.
What is a reinforcement?
A consequence that increases the likelihood of the operant response to occur again
What is a punishment?
A consequence that decreases the likelihood of the operant response occurring again.
What is shaping?
It involves training complex behaviour and reinforcing any behaviour that successively approximates the desired response.
What is chaining?
It is the idea that animals can be trained to produce many operant responses one after another. It is useful in encouraging people to produce acceptable and desirable behaviours.
What is stimulus control?
A behaviour is under stimulus control when it is likely to be exhibited when the stimulus is presented and unlikely when the stimulus is absent. Subjects can be trained to discriminate between contexts so that they perform one action in one context and perform a different one in a different context.
What is intermittent reinforcement?
Occasional reinforcement of a particular behaviour which means slower acquisition but also slower extinction.
What is scalloping?
Effect produced as reinforcement in a fixed interval schedule is anticipated.
What is superstitious behaviour?
Operant behaviours that are accidentally reinforced.
What is learning?
A more or less permanent change in behaviour or behavioural potential resulting from experience.
What is Conditioning of Flavour Aversions?
It is a type of learning in which a substance is avoided because its flavour has been associated with illness
What is instinctive drift?
It is when an animal is unable to learn a desired response because they have drifted towards some instinctive behaviour. There are some limitations to operant conditioning as a form of learning.
When is learning more efficient?
When the conditioned stimulus is biologically relevant to the animal.
What is cognitive learning?
It focuses on the understanding of information and concepts separate from the behaviour itself. Animals learn a means-ends relationship between its behaviour and the outcome of that behaviour.
What is latent learning?
- When something is learned but not manifest as behaviour until later on
- Animals learn something, even though it isn’t necessarily a behaviour
- E.g., rats may wander around a maze looking lost for several days, but as soon as food was placed at the exit, they go there directly
What is a cognitive map?
A mental representation of a set of physical features, such as a mental representation of a map for rats in a maze.
What is observational learning?
It is learning through seeing the kinds of consequences others (models) experience as a result of their behaviour.
What are mirror neurons?
They are a type of neuron that fires when an animal performs a specific action. They also fire when observing another animal doing the same action and are essential for the brain to acquire observational learning.
What is imprinting?
It is a rapid form of learning that typically occurs in a limited time window after birth that allows an animal to recognize another animal, person, or thing as an object to be emulated or followed.
For example, baby geese following their mother.
What is behavioural analysis (ABC)?
It’s the idea that by observing an organism in an environment, we can observe the Antecedents (stimulus), the Behaviour (response) and the Consequence
What is discriminative stimulus?
The stimulus that permits the response, without the stimulus there is no response
