6 - Learning Flashcards
Learning
Change in behaviour based on experience
Nonassociative Learning
Responding after repeated exposure to a single stimulus or event (ex. not waking up to the sounds of trains passing your house after living there for a while)
Associative Learning
Linking two stimuli or events that occur together (ex. associating work with getting paid)
Social Learning
Acquiring or changing behaviour based on exposure to other people’s behaviour or verbal instruction
Q: The sound of a dentist’s drill makes you nervous. What type of learning produced your fear?
Associative learning
Habituation
(common form of nonassociative learning)
Decrease in behavioural response after repeated exposure to a stimulus (ex. once you realize that sirens around you aren’t important to you, you likely won’t pay attention to them anymore and are less likely to respond)
How is habituation different from sensory adaptation?
Sensory adaptation means you no longer perceive the stimuli whereas habituation simply means you are able to ignore the stimuli
Sensitization
(common form of nonassociative learning)
Increase in behavioural response after exposure to a stimulus (ex. if you smell something burning you will likely pay closer attention to it and are more likely to notice if smoke starts to appear)
Q: What is the primary difference between habituation and sensitization?
Habituation decreases bevavioural responses and sensitization increases them
Classical Conditioning (Pavlovian Conditioning)
(common form of associative learning)
When we learn that a stimulus predicts another stimulus
Unconditioned Response (UR)
(classical conditioning)
A response that doesn’t have to be learned (ex. reflex; automatic)
Unconditioned Stimulus
(classical conditioning)
A stimulus that elicits a response, such as a reflex, without any prior learning (ex. food makes the dog salvate without learning about the metronome yet)
Conditioned Stimulus
(classical conditioning)
A stimulus that elicits a response only after learning has taken place (ex. the metronome makes the dog salvate once it has learned it is associated with food)
Conditioned Response
(classical conditioning)
A response to a conditional stimulus - a response that has been learned
Acquisition
(in conditioning responses)
The gradual formation of an association between the conditioned stimulus (ex. a metronome) and an unconditioned stimulus (ex. food)
Extinction
(in conditioning responses)
A process in which the conditioned response (CR) is weakened when the conditioned stimulus (CS) is repeated without the unconditioned stimulus (US)
(ex. when pavlovs dog stops receiving food when he hears the metronome, eventually the salivary response (CR) to the metronome (CS) will go away)
Spontaneous Recovery
(in conditioning responses)
When a previously extinguished conditioned response reemerges after the presentation of the conditioned stimulus
- recovery is temporary
Q: What leads to the extinction of a conditioned response?
Repeated presentation of the conditioned stimulus (CS) without the unconditioned stimulus (US)
What are two important principles of classical conditioning?
- it is a way animals can predict events
- the strength of a CR is determined by how accurately the CS predicts the US
Rescorla-Wagner Model
(model of classical conditioning)
Learning is determined by the extent to which a US is unexpected or surprising
- an animal learns that some predictors are better than others
Rescorla-Wagner Model
What is a positive prediction error?
- association between CS and US is stronger than expected
(presence of something unexpected)
Rescorla-Wagner Model
What is a prediction error?
After a stimulus appears, something surprising happens
- the outcome wasn’t predicted properly
Rescorla-Wagner Model
What is a negative prediction error?
- association between CS and US is weaker than expected
(absense of something expected)
Q: What produces a prediction error?
a difference between the expected outcome and the actual one
(strenthening or weakening the CS-US association)
Stimulus Generalization
- learning when stimulus that are similar but not identical to the CS produce the CR
Stimulus Discrimination
- differentiation between two similar stimuli when one of them is consistantly associated with the US (ex. differentiating between different tones of voice) (ex. knowing which plants are safe and which are poisonous)
Q: Which learning process helps you react differently toward flying insects that sting than toward those that do not sting while hiking in the woods?
Stimulus Discrimination
Second-Order Conditioning
When a second CS develops
ex. Michael Jordan (CS) evoked positive feelings because of his talent (US). Then, Air Jordans (new CS) also became popular (CR) because they were associated with Michael Jordan (old CS)
Operant Conditioning (instrumental conditioning)
association of voluntary action and a consequence
What is Thorndike’s Law of Effect theory of learning?
- likelihood of the occurrance of a behaviour is influenced by its consequences
- behaviours that lead to reward are more likely to occur again as opposed to behaviours that lead to punishment or frustration
Shaping
(process of operant conditioning)
reinforcing behaviours that are increasingly similar to the desired behaviour
(ex. if you want to teach your dog to roll over, you initially reward any behaviour that even slightly resembles rolling over)
What determines the value of a reinforcer according to the Premack Principle?
time
- how much time someone willingly spends engaging in an activity associated with a reinforcer (ex. kids would likley enjoy eating ice cream for longer than spinach)
Partial reinforcement:
Variable Interval Schedule (VI)
reinforcement after the irregular passage of time (ex. not knowing when the next pop quiz will be)
What are mirror neurons?
activated when observing others performing an action
What did Lev Vygotsky believe about social learning?
(instructed learning)
leads to increased levels of knowlegde but also changes a child’s thoughts and behaviours
