7. Learning Flashcards
(49 cards)
What is learning?
Acquisition of knowledge that results in a permanent change of state in the learner
What is habituation?
Repeated exposure to a stimulus results in a gradual response in responding
What is sensitization?
Presentation of a stimulus leads to an increased response to a later stimulus
What is classical conditioning?
Neutral stimulus produces a response after being paired with a stimulus that naturally produces a response
What are: Unconditioned stimulus Conditioned stimulus Unconditioned response Conditioned response
US: produces a natural reaction
CS: previously neutral stimulus that produces response when paired with US
UR: reflexive reaction produced by US
CR: resembles UR but produced by CS
What is acquisition?
Phase of CC when CS and US are presented together
Learning starts low, rises rapidly, tapers off
What is second order conditioning?
CS is paired with a stimulus that became associated with the US in an earlier procedure
What is extinction?
Elimination of a learned response that occurs when the CS is repeatedly presented without the US
What is spontaneous recovery?
Learned behaviour recovers from extinction after a rest period and second rest period
What is generalization?
CR is observed even when the CS is slightly different from the CS used during acquisition
What is discrimination?
Capacity to distinguish between similar but distinct stimuli
Little Albert?
No fear of rat until paired with steel bar struck
Goal: complex reaction can be conditioned, and emotional responses need not be product of deeper unconscious processes
Why didn’t Pavlov’s dog salivate for Pavlov?
Didn’t have a reliable link with food
What is Rescorla-Wagner model?
Conditioning is easier when the CS is an unfamiliar event than when it is familiar
Conditioning occurs when there is an expectation
What happens when link between midbrain and amygdala cut?
No fear response
What part of brain lights up during eyeblink test?
Cerebellum
How is conditioning evolutionary?
Any species foraging for food needs to develop a quick mechanism by which it can learn to avoid food
Why isn’t it easy to produce food aversion in birds?
They are insensitive to taste and smell
What is biological preparedness?
A propensity for learning particular kinds of association over others.
Cancer patients eat unusual foods before treatment and develop aversion to them instead of regular food
What is operant conditioning?
A type of learning in which the consequences of an organism’s behaviour determine whether it will be repeated in the future
Active behaviours
Why did Thorndike create a puzzle box?
Studying instrumental behaviours: behvaiour that required an organism to do something.
Developed law of effect: behaviours that are followed by a satisfying state of affairs tend to be repeated and the opposite, no
What is operant behaviour?
Behaviour that an organism produces that has some impact on the environment
Most organisms actively engage the environment to get benefits
What is a reinforcer?
What is a punisher?
What is negative reinforcement?
What is negative punishment?
Pos reinforcement?
Pos punishment?
A stimulus that increases the likelihood of the behaviour that led to it
A stimulus that decreases that likelihood
Removing the unpleasant stimulus
Removing the rewarding stimulus
Presenting rewarding stimulus
Presenting unpleasant stimulus
Why is reinforcement more effective than punishment for learning?
Punishment doesn’t specify what should be done instead
