Week 12: Biological Dispositions in Learning

Question 1

Taste Aversion Conditioning

Answer 1

Form of classical conditioning in which a food item has been paired with gastrointestinal illness becomes a conditioned aversive stimulus.

Question 2

Major differences between taste aversion conditioning and classical conditioning

Answer 2

Form associations over long delays, one trial conditioning, specificity of associations.

Question 3

CS-US Relevance

Answer 3

An innate tendency to more readily associate certain types of stimuli with each other.

Question 4

Instinctive Drift

Answer 4

An instance of classical conditioning in which a genetically based, fixed action pattern gradually emerges and displaces the behaviour that is being operantly conditioned.

Question 5

Sign Tracking

Answer 5

An organism approaches a stimulus that signals the presentation of an appetitive event.

Question 6

AutoShaping

Answer 6

A type of sign tracking in which a pigeon comes to automatically peck at a key because the key light has been associated with non-contingent delivery of food.

Question 7

Negative Auto maintenance

Answer 7

Sign tracking persists despite the resultant less of a reinforcer.

Question 8

Displacement Activity

Answer 8

An apparently irrelevant activity sometimes displayed by animals when confronted by conflict or thwarted from attaining a goal.

Question 9

Activity Anorexia

Answer 9

Abnormally high levels of activity and low levels of food intake generated by a restricted schedule of feeding.

Question 10

Behaviour Systems Theory

Answer 10

An animal behaviour is organized into certain innate systems with each system becoming activated in relevant situations.