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PSYCH 101 > 6 - Learning > Flashcards

6 - Learning Flashcards

1
Q

Learning

A

Change in behaviour based on experience

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2
Q

Nonassociative Learning

A

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)

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3
Q

Associative Learning

A

Linking two stimuli or events that occur together (ex. associating work with getting paid)

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4
Q

Social Learning

A

Acquiring or changing behaviour based on exposure to other people’s behaviour or verbal instruction

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5
Q

Q: The sound of a dentist’s drill makes you nervous. What type of learning produced your fear?

A

Associative learning

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6
Q

Habituation

(common form of nonassociative learning)

A

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)

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7
Q

How is habituation different from sensory adaptation?

A

Sensory adaptation means you no longer perceive the stimuli whereas habituation simply means you are able to ignore the stimuli

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8
Q

Sensitization

(common form of nonassociative learning)

A

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)

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9
Q

Q: What is the primary difference between habituation and sensitization?

A

Habituation decreases bevavioural responses and sensitization increases them

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10
Q

Classical Conditioning (Pavlovian Conditioning)

(common form of associative learning)

A

When we learn that a stimulus predicts another stimulus

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11
Q

Unconditioned Response (UR)

(classical conditioning)

A

A response that doesn’t have to be learned (ex. reflex; automatic)

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12
Q

Unconditioned Stimulus

(classical conditioning)

A

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)

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13
Q

Conditioned Stimulus

(classical conditioning)

A

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)

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14
Q

Conditioned Response

(classical conditioning)

A

A response to a conditional stimulus - a response that has been learned

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15
Q

Acquisition

(in conditioning responses)

A

The gradual formation of an association between the conditioned stimulus (ex. a metronome) and an unconditioned stimulus (ex. food)

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16
Q

Extinction

(in conditioning responses)

A

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)

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17
Q

Spontaneous Recovery

(in conditioning responses)

A

When a previously extinguished conditioned response reemerges after the presentation of the conditioned stimulus
- recovery is temporary

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18
Q

Q: What leads to the extinction of a conditioned response?

A

Repeated presentation of the conditioned stimulus (CS) without the unconditioned stimulus (US)

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19
Q

What are two important principles of classical conditioning?

A
  • it is a way animals can predict events
  • the strength of a CR is determined by how accurately the CS predicts the US
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20
Q

Rescorla-Wagner Model

(model of classical conditioning)

A

Learning is determined by the extent to which a US is unexpected or surprising
- an animal learns that some predictors are better than others

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21
Q

Rescorla-Wagner Model

What is a positive prediction error?

A
  • association between CS and US is stronger than expected

(presence of something unexpected)

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22
Q

Rescorla-Wagner Model

What is a prediction error?

A

After a stimulus appears, something surprising happens
- the outcome wasn’t predicted properly

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23
Q

Rescorla-Wagner Model

What is a negative prediction error?

A
  • association between CS and US is weaker than expected

(absense of something expected)

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24
Q

Q: What produces a prediction error?

A

a difference between the expected outcome and the actual one
(strenthening or weakening the CS-US association)

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25
Stimulus Generalization
- learning when stimulus that are similar but not identical to the CS produce the CR
26
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)
27
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
28
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)
29
Operant Conditioning (instrumental conditioning)
association of voluntary action and a consequence
30
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
31
Behaviourism | (B. F. Skinner)
psychological approach that emphasizes environmental influences on observable behaviours
32
Reinforcer | (B. F. Skinner)
stimulus that occurs after a response and increases the likelihood that the response will be repeated
33
how does Positive Reinforcement impact response rates? | (B. F. Skinner)
Response rate increases because responding causes the stimulus to be given | response > reward > likely to respond again
34
Negative Reinforcement | (B. F. Skinner)
Response rate increases because responding causes the negative stimulus to be removed (ex. put on a coat to avoid being cold, pick up a baby to stop them from crying) - engaging in the behaviour to try and avoid or escape an unwanted stimulus | response > negative stimulus removed > likely to respond again
35
Punishment | (B. F. Skinner)
stimulus that follows a behaviour and decreases the likelihood of it repeating
36
Positive Punishment | (B. F. Skinner)
administration of a stimulus to decrease the probability of a behaviour's recurrence | respond > negative stimulus > less likely to repeat behaviour
37
Negative Punishment | (B. F. Skinner)
removal of a stimulus to decrease the probability of a behaviours recurrence | respond > positive stimulus removed > less likely to repeat behaviour
38
Q: What do the terms *positive* and *negative* mean in relation to learning through reinforcement or punishment
Positive = something added Negative = something removed
39
Q: If you take away a child's toy because the child is banging it against the wall, what kind of punishment is this?
Negative punishment | kid stops banging it against the wall because it will be taken away
40
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)
41
What are primary reinforcers?
stimuli that satisfy biological needs like food and water - needed for survival so it makes sense because the unconditioned response is automatic
42
What are secondary reinforcers?
stimuli that serve as reinforcers but do not satisfy biological needs - established through classical conditioning
43
What is the Premack Principle?
a more valued activity can be used to reinforce the performance of a less valued activity (ex. eat your broccoli and then you can have the ipad)
44
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)
45
Temporal Discounting
the tendency to discount the subjective value of a reward when it is given after a delay (in order to associate a CS with a CR, the reinforcer must be given right after the response so they appear connected and are therefore more valuable)
46
Q: Why might delaying positive reinforcement be less effective?
Temporal discounting | if a reward is given after a delay, it is less likely to seem connected
47
Continuous Reinforcement
reinforcing behaviour every time it occurs - best for fast learning
48
Partial Reinforcement
intermittent reinforcement
49
# Partial reinforcement: Fixed Interval Schedule (FI)
reinforcement after a certain amount of time has passed (ex. dog learns that after a specific amout of time they will likley be fed which is why they paw at you)
50
# Partial reinforcement: Variable Interval Schedule (VI)
reinforcement after the irregular passage of time (ex. not knowing when the next pop quiz will be)
51
# Partial reinforcement: Fixed Ratio Schedule (FR)
reinforcement after a certain number of responses have been made (ex. tree planting, mcdonalds punch cards)
52
# Partial reinforcement: Variable Ratio Schedule (VR)
reinforcement after an unpredictable number of responses (ex. why gambling becomes addictive)
53
Partial-reinforcement extinction effect
greater peristence of behaviour under partial reinforcement than under continuous reinforcement
54
What is the best way to condition behaviour so that it persists? | (considering types of reinforcement)
first reinforce it continuously but slowly switch to partial reinforcement (ex. why snapchat crushes hurt so fuckin bad)
55
Q: What type of partial reinforcement produces the most persistent responses?
variable ratio schedule | (reinforcement after unpredictable number of responses)
56
Equipotentiality
The principle that any conditioned stimulus paired with any unconditioned stimulus should result in learning
57
Q: Your friend was frightened when she was on a tall bridge and found an unusual flower. She is now afraid of heights and tall bridges but not of unusual flowers. Why?
Biological preparedness: biologically prepared to be afraid of danger such as heights but not so much of flowers
58
Q: How does wanting something differ from liking it?
Wanting: desire or craving to consume a substance Liking: sense of pleasure gained from consuming a substance
59
What is a phobia?
fear that is out of proportion to the real threat
60
What is Fear Conditioning?
a type of classical conditioning that turns neutral stimuli into threatening stimuli
61
Why do addicts often relapse when they return home?
cues to craving associated with that environment (conditioned craving)
62
What is social learning?
Learning through observation and instruction
63
Modeling
Imitation of observed behaviour (ex. teens smoking in movies makes other teens think it must be cool so they do it)
64
What are mirror neurons?
activated when observing others performing an action
65
What is the role of intention? | (of mirror neurons)
different intentions lead to activation of different sets of mirror neurons
66
What is Bandura's first study?
a group of preschoolers watched an adult playing with a doll "Bobo" nicely and another group watched an aggressive video. When the kids were given the chance to play with Bobo, they modeled the type of behaviour they saw in the video.
67
Vicarious learning
learning the consequences of actions by watching others be rewarded or punished for performing the action | (learning vicariously through someone else)
68
What are the two types of observational learning?
modeling and vicarious learning
69
What was Bandura's follow-up study?
Kids shown videos of adults being aggressive with Bobo but in the end they either got punished or rewarded. Kids that observed reward modeled the behaviour and kids who observed punishment were less likley to be aggressive
70
Instructed Learning
learning associations and behaviours through verbal communication
71
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
72
Q: When you see another student suspended for cheating, you are less likely to cheat. Why?
Your behaviour has been learned through viarious learning
73
What did Mineka et. al's study discover about the social learning of fear? (lab monkeys vs wild monkeys)
Lab monkeys don't fear snakes but when they see a wild monkey that is afraid of snakes, they start to show a fear of snakes
74
What are 3 ways that humans learn fear? | (types of learning)
Observational learning Classical conditioning Instructed learning

PSYCH 101 (13 decks)

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