Week 4 Flashcards
Nativists
Born the way we are, experiences play little or no role in shaping our behaviour
Empiricists
Born with no ideas or knowledge of behaviour
Unconditioned stimulus produces
produces unconditioned response
Unconditioned stimulus elicits…
A behaviour prior to any learning
Unconditioned response is
A reflexive response of the conditioned stimulus
Neutral stimulus
Stimulus that doesn’t elicit the response of interest
Conditioned stimulus
A stimulus that initially evokes no response, but after conditioned now revokes a response
Conditioned response
A response that is similar, but not often identical to the unconditioned response that is evoked by the conditioned stimulus
Five general factors in any conditioned response
- Acquisition
- Generalization
- Discrimination training
- Contiguity
- Contingency
Acquisition
The time during which a CR first appears and increases in frequency and in intensity, becoming more and more like the UCR
Delay conditioning
Where there is a delay between onset of the CS and onset of the UCS (MOST EFFECTIVE)
Backward conditioning
Changing the order of events so that UCS is presented before CS
Simultaneous conditioning
Occurs when both the UCS and the CS are presented at the same time
Trace conditioning
Occurs when the CS is presented and removed just before the UCS is presented
Memory trace
An impression, sensory or short term memory of a stimulus left in the brain
Generalization
CR elicited by stimuli that resemble but are not identical to the CS used in training
Discrimination training
Training the animal/subject to respond selectively to only one stimulus and not others that are similar
Habituation and adaption
Involves diminished response to a stimulus after repeated exposure. It is a slow process
Contiguity
A continuous series of frequent pairings
Contingency
The degree to which the occurrence of some event is predicated by another event
Extinction
The gradual weakening and loss of the conditioned response that results in the UCS being withheld after presentation of the CS
Spontaneous recovery
The reappearance of the conditioned response after a rest period of lessened response
Thorndike
Law of Effect: The consequences of a behaviour determine whether is is likely to be repeated
Instrumental recovery: Method of learning in which the reinforcement is made contingent on the learners response
BF Skinner
Proposed instrumental and classical conditioning were two very different processes
Operant
Any behaviour that results in either a good consequence (reinforcement) or bad consequence (punishment)
Escape conditioning
Form of learning in which the organism learns to preform a behaviour to escape from an aversive stimulus
Shaping
Reinforcement of behaviour that successively approximates the desired response until that response is fully acquired
Chaining
Refers to the idea that animals can be trained to produce many different operant responses on after the other, like links in a chain
EX: getting depressed people out of bed
Stimulus control
A behaviour is under stimulus control when it is likely to be exhibited when that stimulus is present, and unlikely to be exhibited when that stimulus is absent
Schedules of reinforcement
Continuous reinforcement
Intermittent reinforcement
Variable schedule of reinforcement (ratio and interval)
Continuous reinforcement
Reinforcement of a desired behaviour provided each time the desired behaviour is shown
Intermittent reinforcement
Occasional reinforcement of a particular behaviour; produces responding that is more resistant to extinction. Produces slower acquisition and slower extinction than continuous reinforcement
Variable schedule reinforcement
Reinforcement is delivered after a variable # of behaviours or to the first behaviour exhibited after a variable amount of time has elapsed
Ratio schedules
Especially those with high ratios, encourage organisms to exhibit lots of the desired behaviour
Interval schedules: don’t encourage high rates of response
Scalloping
Effort produced as reinforcement in a fixed schedule is anticipated
Partial reinforcement effect
Extinction occurs slowly as there have been many trails without reinforcement followed by trials with reinforcement
Superstitious behaviour
Operant behaviours that have been accidentally reinforced
