Week 6 Lecture

Question 1

What is learning

Answer 1

Relatively permanent change in behaviour or cognition brought about by repeated experiences in that situation.

Question 2

Classical conditioning

Answer 2

Neutral stimulus acquires the ability to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus Classical Conditioning = associations

Question 3

Observational Learning

Answer 3

Acquiring Knowledge by observing the environment and other peoples behaviours

Question 4

Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

Answer 4

A stimulus that has biological relevance to the learner such as food

Question 5

Unconditioned Response (UR)

Answer 5

• A response that occurs to an unconditional response because it is biologically relevant
• Usually a naturally occurring reflex such as salivation

Question 6

Conditional Stimulus (CS)

Answer 6

A cue or stimulus that does not have a natural response associated with it. Ie. Smell of baking bread

Question 7

Conditional Response (CR)

Answer 7

A learned behaviour or response that is triggered by the conditional stimulus (CS)

Question 8

Conditional Response (CR)

Answer 8

A learned behaviour or response that is triggered by the conditional stimulus (CS)

Question 9

(US)

Answer 9

Unconditioned Stimulus

Question 10

(UR)

Answer 10

Unconditioned Response

Question 11

(CS)

Answer 11

Conditional Stimulus

Question 12

(CR)

Answer 12

Conditional Response

Question 13

Phase 1: Before Conditioning

Answer 13

a) UCS (Food in mouth) paired with UCR (Salivation)
b) NS (bell tone) not connected with a response

Question 14

Phase 2: During Conditioning

Answer 14

c) NS (bell tone) plus UCS (Food in mouth) leads to UCR (salivation)

Question 15

The Process of Classical Conditioning

Answer 15

1. Acquisition
2. Extinction
3. Spontaneous Recovery
4. Generalisation
5. Descrimination

Question 16

Classical Conditioning Phases: Acquisition

Answer 16

• Initial stage of learning
• Measure the strength of the response
• Response stronger with repeated pairings of the stimulus
• Response usually levels off at high levels
• Strength of conditioning influenced by
  
  • Strength of pairing
  • Timing
  • Intensity of the unconditioned stimulus
• Repeated pairings of Neutral Stimulus and Unconditioned Stimulus are required
• NS and US must be associated in a timely fashion and occur together

Question 17

Classical Conditioning Phases: Extinction

Answer 17

Removing the pairing of two stimuli that has created a conditioned response, will eventually lead to the acquired conditioned response to disappear with time

Question 18

Types of classical conditioning

Answer 18

• Simultaneous conditioning
• Short delayed conditioning
• Taste aversions

Question 19

Classical conditioning and phobias

Answer 19

• Seligman: humans are more prepared to develop fears than other organisms
• Excessive fear and avoidance creates the response of extreme anxiety
• 10-11.3% possibility of lasting for a lifetime
• Wolpe – thought systematic desensitisation or graduated exposure therapy and flooding or exposure therapy could cure phobias

Question 20

What is learning by association

Answer 20

• Classical Conditioning
• Pavlovian Conditioning

Question 21

The three types of learning

Answer 21

• Classical conditioning
• Operant conditioning
• Observational learning

Question 22

Phase 3: After Conditionting

Answer 22

Conditioned Stimuli (S) leads to Conditioned Response (Salivation)

Question 23

The Steps of Classical Conditioning

Answer 23

1. Acquisition
2. Extinction
3. Spontaneous Recovery
4. Generalisation
5. Descrimination

Question 24

Classical Conditioning: Acquisition

Answer 24

• the initial stage of learning
• beggining to acquire learning
• the conditioned response grows stronger with more pairings
• the more we pair CS and US the stronger the CR will be
• NS and US must occur together
• Law of contiguity

Question 25

Simultaneous Conditioning

Answer 25

• the CS and the UCS begin and end together

Question 26

Short Delayed Conditioning

Answer 26

• US (needle) leads to UR (pain)
• if NS (doctor) is presented just before US (needle) an association is now being developed
• ultimatley the NS (doctor) becomes CS (Doctor)
• leads to CS (doctor) creates association CR (Pain/Fear)

Question 27

Classical Conditioning: Taste Aversion

Answer 27

• US (chemotherapy) leads to UR (nausea)
• NS (food eaten - icecream) plus US (chemotherapy) leads to US (nausea)
• CS (food eaten - icecream) leads to CR (nausea)

Question 28

Taste Aversion

Answer 28

• a certain type of conditioning because it breaks two cardinal rules of the process:
  
  • may occur after a single pairing of CS-Us
  • presentation of US (chemo) and CS (food eaten - icecream) may be separated by a period of hours
• clearly a survival response that allows us to learn to avoid foods that may make us sick
• eg becoming sick after drinking too much of a type of alcohol

Question 29

Can taste aversion be retrained

Answer 29

Yes. Exposure therapy can gradually build up to create a different state of conditioning

Question 30

Classical Conditioning: Extinction

Answer 30

• exposing subject to our CS (Bell tone) but not providing the UCS (Food)
• over time the CR (salivation) will not be triggered by the CS (bell tone)

Question 31

Classical Conditioning: Spontaneous Recovery

Answer 31

• a learned association has become extint
• no longer displays the CR (salivation)
• the CR (salivation) will suddenly return when once again presented with the NS (bell tone)

eg: Taz - Stop, sit example