Week 6 Flashcards
Give 2 examples of innate unlearned behaviours
Instincts and reflexes
Reflexes
automatic, involuntary
responses to specific stimuli
* Protective & essential for survival
* Involve primitive parts of CNS (i.e.,
brainstem)
* Pupillary light reflex, startle reflex,
withdrawal reflex, scratch reflex
Instincts
innate drives
or tendencies that lead to
particular patterns of
behaviour
* More complex
* Involve movement of
the organism as a whole
(e.g., sexual activity,
migration)
* Involve higher brain
centers
What is learning
a relatively permanent change in behaviour or knowledge that
results from experience
* Involves acquiring skills/knowledge through experience
* Involve conscious &unconscious processes
Name the 2 types of learning
Habituation
Sensitization
Name the 2 types od responses to environment
- Unconditioned (unlearned)
- Conditioned (learned)
What is classical conditioning
Process by which we learn to associate
stimuli & consequently to anticipate events
* Pavlov’s research on digestive system of
dogs led to discovery of CC
Name the components of classical conditioning
Neutral Stimulus: a
stimulus that initially
doesn’t elicit a specific
response
Unconditioned Stimulus: stimulus that naturally triggers a
response (becomes CS after acquisition)
Unconditioned response:the natural, automatic reaction to the
UCS (becomes CR after acquisition)
Dog classical conditioning example
Before conditioning
Dog salivates (UCR) in
response to food (UCS).
Dog does not salivate in response
to the bell (NS).
During conditioning
The bell (NS) and food (UCS) are paired.
After conditioning
The bell (CS) causes salivation (CR).
What is extinction
Conditioned response decreases & eventually dissapears
Spontaneous recovery
Conditioned response reappears
Renewal effect
Response reappears when brought back to original environment
Explain little albert experiment
- John B. Watson applied principles of classical conditioning in the study of human emotion
- Believed that all behaviour could be studied as stimulus-response reaction
- Applied classical conditioning to study human emotions
- “Little Albert” study
Stimulus generalization
after a response has been conditioned, stimuli that are similar to the original produce the same response
E.g., fear of dogs (all dogs)
Stimulus discrimination
IF two stimuli are sufficiently distinct from one another that one triggers a conditioned response but the other doesn’t
Fetishes & classical conditionning
- Sexual attraction to nonliving things (e.g., shoes, stuffed
animals…) - Arousal + stimulus
- Researchers have been able to classically condition fetishes in the lab!
- 1970s- showed male ps pictures of naked women, and then boots, after time, men showed arousal to
boots - Stimulus generalization: sandals and high heels!
- 2006 – quails developed fetish to cylindrical objects
What is conditioned taste aversion
Develops After One Trial: Unlike other forms of learning that may require multiple exposures, taste aversion can occur after just one pairing of a taste and illness.
Learning Possible After Long Delays: Taste aversion learning can occur even if the illness (such as nausea) happens several hours after the taste was consumed, unlike typical classical conditioning which requires shorter intervals.
Shows Little Generalization: This means that the aversion tends to be specific to the particular taste that caused the illness, rather than generalizing to other similar tastes.
Biological Preparedness: This concept explains that animals, including humans, are biologically primed to make certain associations more easily than others. For example, we are more likely to associate illness with something we ate (taste) rather than with unrelated events like an opera performance.
What is operant conditioning
Organisms learn to associate a
behaviour and its consequences
(reinforcement or punishment)
Law of effect
- Reward –> behaviour more likely
to occur - Punishment –> behaviour less likely to occur
Positivity in operant conditioning
Add something
NEgative operant conditioning
Take something away
Reinforcement operant conditioning
increases a behaviour
Punishment operant conditioning
Decrease a behaviour
Positive reinforcement
Something is added to increase the likelihood of a behaviour
ex; high grades, paychecks, praise
Negative reinforcement
Something is removed to increase the likelihood of a behaviour
ex; beeping sound w seatbelt
Positive punishment
something is added to decrease the likelihood of a behaviour
* E.g., scolding students for talking in class
NEgative punishment
something is removed to decrease the likelihood of a behaviour
* E.g., confiscating a toy when a child misbehaves
Do punishments work ?
Punishment…
* Only tells us what not to do
* Creates anxiety, which interferes with learning
* May encourage subversive behaviour (ppl get sneakier)
* Modeling aggressive behaviour for children
NAme the two concepts in OC
Stimulus Discrimination: This is when an organism learns to respond differently to various stimuli based on their differences. For example, pigeons could distinguish paintings by Monet from those by Picasso. They learned to recognize the specific styles of each artist.
Stimulus Generalization: This occurs when an organism responds similarly to stimuli that are alike. For example, pigeons learned to distinguish art similar to Monet, like works by Renoir. They generalized their response to similar styles.
Biological influences on learning
- Biology places limits on what kinds of behaviours we can learn through
reinforcement - Evolutionary predisposed to be more afraid of certain things
- Snakes and spiders vs. cars & guns
Instinctive drift
Tendency for animals to return to innate behaviours following repeated reinforcement
Explain continous reinforcment and partial reinforcement
Continuous reinforcement:
reinforcing a behaviour every time it
occurs
* Faster learning BUT faster extinction
Partial reinforcement: only
occasional reinforcement of a behaviour
* Slower extinction, better maintenance
BEhaviours differ depenidng on what ?
Behaviours differ depending on schedule or reinforcement
Explain the link between partial reinforcement & IPV
- Operant learning principles may contribute to stay-leave decisions
- Relationship partners provide intermittent reinforcement to
significant others (e.g., occasionally buying flowers after episodes of
abuse)
What is fixed vs variable in partial reinforcement schedules
- Fixed – the # of responses between reinforcements or the amount of time between reinforcements is set and unchanging
- Variable – the # of responses between reinforcements or amount of time between reinforcements varies or changes
What is interval vs ratio in partial reinforcment schedules
- Interval – schedule is based on the time between reinforcements
- Ratio – schedule is based on # of responses between reinforcements
Fixed interval
Variable interval
Fixed ratio
Variable ratio
- Fixed interval – reinforcement is delivered at predictable time
intervals (patients take pain relief medication at set times). - Variable interval – reinforcement is delivered at unpredictable
time intervals (checking facebook). - Fixed ratio – reinforcement is delivered after a predictable
number of responses (factory workers being paid for every x
number of items manufactured). - Variable ratio – reinforcement is delivered after an unpredictable
number of responses (getting a big tip).
- Learning that occurs without
immediate reinforcement &
becomes apparent only when
there’s a reason to use it - E.g.,Tolman’s rats learned the
maze without reinforcement - Developed cognitive maps,
didn’t demonstrate the learning
until incentivized!
Explain observational learning
- Learning by watching the
behaviour of another person or
model
(1) paying attention & perceiving
the critical features (2) remembering the behaviour (3)
reproducing the action (4) being
motivated to carry it out
- Negative & positive behaviours
learned - E.g., fearless Peer, Bandura’s
Bobo dolls
Link between media violence & real world violence
- Violence is rampant in the media- by grade 8 graduation, average US child will have viewed more than 8000 murders & 800,000 violent acts on network TV
- Surette, 2002 – ¼ of violent offenders incarcerated in FL had tried to commit a media-inspired copycat crime
- Anderson et al 2004;2009 – players of violent video games more likely to be involved in delinquent behavior and aggression – also lower academic achievement
(1) lowers inhibitions to carry out violence (2) distorts our understanding – see nonaggressive acts as aggressive (3) desensitized to violence
