Week 4- Learning Flashcards
Define “learning” and list 4 types
Learning: more or less permanent change in behaviour or behaviour potential that results from experience (ex. reading book, watching vid, solving math problems)
4 types: habituation, classical conditioning, operant conditioning, conditioning of complex behaviours
Define habituation long+short term habituation
Simplest form of learning, learn not to respond to unimportant events that occur repeatedly so you can focus on what is important
Short term: Occurs with many rapid stimuli where you won’t respond for short period of time
Long term: when stimuli is spread out over time and you stop responding for a long time period
Describe how behaviours are acquired (and extinguished) through classical conditioning
Behaviours are acquired because unconditioned stimulus = unconditioned response. conditioned stimulus = conditioned response
ex. pavlovs dog (CS (bell)=UCS(food)=UCR(saliva) therefor after conditioning CS=UCR)
types: delay conditioning, backward conditioning, simultaneous conditioning, trace conditioning
describe the basic principles of acquisition, extinction, generalization for classical conditioning
acquisition: learning phase, first responds to CS then CR gradually increases
extinction: responding stops (bell presented with no food, dog will stop salivating after a while with bell noise)
generalization: dog may salivate when any bell (of different tone) is rung
Describe the basic principles of spontaneous recovery, discrimination for classical conditioning
Spontaneous recovery: salivation to bell stopped for awhile but then starts appearing again
Discrimination: when 2 CS can be told apart (dog salivates to only one specific bell)
Contrast contingency and contiguity, describe importance of these for conditioning to occur
Contingency: degree to which the CS predicts the UCS and is necessary for conditioning to occur (bell presented before food comes EVERY TIME) (not contingency if this does not happen every time)
contiguity: the CS and UCS must occur close in time for learning to occur (so connection can be made)
Describe and contrast classical and operant conditioning
-both theories explain certain aspects of learning
-both use experience of stimuli and reinforcement or punishment to produce responses
operant conditioning: teaches us relationship between environmental stimuli and our own behaviour (learn through operating environment) (punishment and reinforcement)
classical conditioning: UCS UCR CS CR
Describe how behaviours are acquired through operant conditioning, including shaping and chaining
-Behaviours with favourable outcomes are likely to be repeated
Operant conditioning: organism learns contingency between a particular behaviour (operant) and the consequence (good or bad)
Shaping: reinforcement of behaviour until desired response is acquired
Chaining: reinforcing each response with opportunity to perform the next response
B.F. Skinner= Operant conditioning
Describe operant conditioning’s positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, negative punishment
positive reinforcement: stimulus increases behaviour when present (ex. parents give money for doing well in school)
negative reinforcement: stimulus increases when behaviour is absent (ex. when you finish chores to avoid parents nagging)
positive punishment: decreases probability of behaviour if presented after response (ex. getting extra chores when not finishing your chores)
negative punishment: decreases probability of behaviour if something is removed after a response (ex. getting phone taken away for not doing chores)
describe observational learning, imprinting, indistinctive drift, flavour aversion
observational learning: seeing through consequences of others experiences as a result of their behaviour
imprinting: animal able to recognize other animal, person, thing
indistinctive drift: animal unable to learn desired response because they drifted towards an instinctive behaviour (goal is to train animal to do what you desire)
flavour aversion: food avoided because it has been associated with illness in the past
describe cognitive approaches to learning, including the concepts of latent learning and cognitive maps
cognitive approach to learning: understanding info and concepts separate from behaviour itself (ex. animal learned to expect outcome given its behaviour)
latent learning: when something is learned but does not turn into behaviour later on
cognitive map: mental representation of set of physical features
describe intermittent reinforcement and its types of schedules
intermittent reinforcement: occasional reinforcement of particular behaviour
fixed-ratio schedule: reinforcement that occurs after fixed # of responses (ex. every 5th lever pull gets a reinforcement)
variable-ratio schedule: reinforcement that occurs after a random # of responses
fixed-interval schedule: reinforcement that occurs after fixed amount of time (ex. treat every 3 mins)
variable-interval schedule: reinforcement occurs after a random time (ex. 3 mins, then 10 mins)
