Week 2 Flashcards
1
Q
Instrumental learning – cat box
A
- Thorndike
- Put cat inside boxes
- Cat must escape the box – placed food outside of the box
- Cats will act as if they are trying to escape
- Cats will eventually learn how to escape
- Transition between random escape behaviour to directed behaviour
- Measure time cat took to escape over and over again
- Time taken to escape decreases over time
- The harder the task – the longer it takes to learn
2
Q
Cat changes of behaviour
A
- Some behaviours became more likely over repeated experiences
- Some behaviours became less likely over repeated experiences
- No new actions are acquired – the cats could already do what was necessary
- They just needed to direct these actions at the right things
- Trial and error learning
- No reasoning behind the actions
- It is able to select the effective behaviours and discard the ineffectual ones
3
Q
Law of effect – hypothesis (allows us to question)
A
- Satisfaction and dissatisfaction are evoked by certain events
- Connections between stimuli and behaviour
- Satisfaction and dissatisfaction changes the strength of the connections
4
Q
Is it true that instrumental learning is just the strengthening and weakening of stimulus response connections?
A
- Stimulus response theory – animals do not do things in order to achieve specific outcomes, they do them because the stimulus present elicited them
- No, can also involve learning about response to outcome association
5
Q
Is it true that animals do things in a reflex fashion without any intent or aim to achieve a specific outcome?
A
- No, animals can learn to do things to achieve outcomes
- Can show goal-guided behaviour
- Habits may be elicited however animals can do this for the outcome
6
Q
If all that learning does it select between existing behaviours, how can animals learn how to do something new?
A
- Rat needs to learn to press on lever in skinner box
- Without training the rat is unlikely to do it
- Involves reinforcement of successive approximations
- Reward lever proximity – reward when rat is close to lever
- Reward rearing near lever
- Reward only when facing lever
- Reward only lever contacts
- Reinforcing a sequence
7
Q
What are satisfaction and dissatisfaction? Are they feelings of some kind? What evidence do we have for their existence?
A
- Hypothetical internal condition that it critical for strengthening and weakening
- Unobservable
- No way of knowing if they do play a role in instrumental learning
- Replaced by reinforcement and punishment
8
Q
Reinforcement
A
- The act or process of strengthening a connection in the nervous system that mediates the link between two things such as a stimulus and a response
- The production of a situation that has reinforcing effects as a consequence of a behaviour
9
Q
Reinforcer
A
- Something (usually a stimulus) that leads to the strengthening of a connection when it is delivered/produced as a consequence of behaviour
10
Q
Positive reinforcement
A
- Delivery or production that results in strengthening of a connection/behaviour
11
Q
Negative reinforcement
A
- Removal of something from an organism’s environment that results in strengthening of a connection/behaviour
12
Q
Punishment
A
- The delivery or production of a situation that has punishing effects as a consequence of a behaviour
13
Q
Instrumental conditioning procedure
A
- Also known as operant conditioning
- Skinner
- Situational stimuli – stimuli of the situation
- Responses of the participant
- Outcomes of the responses
- Stimulus response connections
- Response outcome connections
- Stimulus outcome connections
14
Q
Law of effect and outcomes
A
- Should not form connections
- Only stimulus response connections should form
- No R-O or S-O connections
15
Q
Outcome connections
A
- Outcome itself motivates the behaviour rather than being elicited by the stimuli
- The organism makes the response because it desires the outcome
16
Q
Outcome or reinforcer devaluation
A
- No reinforcer – only devalued reinforce – response declines
- Fail to provide the outcome and behaviour declines
- Animals rarely press what it associated with devalued stimuli
- Value of the outcome effects the responding
17
Q
Habitual behaviour
A
- An instrumental behaviour whose production is insensitive to the value of its outcome or associated reinforce
18
Q
Goal-guided behaviour
A
- An instrumental behaviour whose production is sensitive to the value of its outcome or associated reinforcer
19
Q
Shaping
A
- Reinforcement / learning using a sequence
- Eg with Skinner box
- Reward lever proximity
- Reward rearing near lever
- Reward only when facing lever
- Reward only lever contacts
20
Q
Observational learning
A
- Copying someone else to learn
21
Q
Learning something new
A
- Method of successive approximations – getting closer and closer to desired outcome (shaping)
- Observation and imitation
- The method of combining components
22
Q
The method of combining components
A
- Putting together a sequence of components we know what to do
- Creates a new sequence
- Eg being near level, rearing near the lever, facing lever then contacting lever
- Need to be carried out in the correct sequence order or outcome won’t occur
- High attention when learning – impossible to dual task, not fluent, not consistent (may omit an element)
- Low attention when expert – can do dual task, fluent and consistent
23
Q
Chunking
A
- Process of individual elements are combined into one chunk
24
Q
Three stage theory of skill acquisition
A
- Cognitive stage – involves the use of cognitive processes: reasoning, attention, goal-monitory, working memory
- Fixation stage – person knows what they have to do – less cognitive demand – chunks are established
- Autonomous stage – performance is skilled, flexible, minimally dependent on cognitive processes, automatic
25
Q
When punishment causes increase in frequency of the unwanted behaviour?
A
- The punishment acts as a reinforcer
