Ch. 7: Learning

Question 1

What is learning, and what are its 3 key ideas?

Answer 1

Involves the acquisition, from experience, of new knowledge, skills, or responses that results in a relatively permanent change in the state of the learner; emphasizes 3 keys ideas:

1. Learning is based on experience
2. Learning produces changes in the organism
3. These changes are relatively permanent

Question 2

What is habituation?

Answer 2

A general process in which repeated or prolonged exposure to a stimulus results in a gradual reduction in responding

Question 3

What is sensitization?

Answer 3

Occurs when presentation of a stimulus leads to an increased responses to a later stimulus

Question 4

What is an unconditioned stimulus (US) in classical conditioning?

Answer 4

Something that reliably produces a naturally occurring reaction in an organism

Question 5

What is an unconditioned response (UR) in classical conditioning?

Answer 5

A reflexive reaction that is reliably produced by an unconditioned stimulus

Question 6

What is acquisition?

Answer 6

The phase of classical conditioning when the CS and US are presented together

Question 7

What is a conditioned stimulus (CS) in classical conditioning?

Answer 7

A previously neutral stimulus that produces a reliable responses in an organism after being paired with a US

Question 8

What is a conditioned response (CR) in classical conditioning?

Answer 8

A reaction that resembles an unconditioned responses but is produced by a conditioned stimulus

Question 9

What is second-order conditioning?

Answer 9

A type of learning whereby a CS is paired with a stimulus that became associated with the US in an earlier procedure

Question 10

What is extinction?

Answer 10

The gradual elimination of a learned responses that occurs when the CS is repeatedly presented without the US

Question 11

What is spontaneous recovery?

Answer 11

The tendency of a learned behaviour to recover from extinction after a rest period

Question 12

What is generalization?

Answer 12

The CR is observed even thought the CS is slightly different from the CS used during acquisition

Question 13

What is discrimination?

Answer 13

The capacity to distinguish between similar but distinct stimuli in the context of classical conditioning

Question 14

What were the goals of the Little Albert experiment?

Answer 14

• To show that a relatively complex reaction could be conditioned using Pavlovian techniques
• To show that emotional responses could be produced by classical conditioning, and therefore need not be the product of deeper unconscious processes
• To confirm that classical conditioning can be applied to humans

Question 15

What is the Rescorla-Wagner model?

Answer 15

Introduced a cognitive component that accounted for a variety of classical conditioning phenomena that were difficult to understand from a simple behaviourist point of view (ex. conditioning is easier when the CS is unfamiliar, since familiar events already have expectations associated with them)

Question 16

What is biological preparedness?

Answer 16

A propensity of learning particular kinds of associations over other kinds; some behaviours are relatively easy to condition in some species but not in others because conditioning works best with stimuli that are biologically relevant to the organism

Question 17

What is operant conditioning?

Answer 17

The consequences of an organism’s behaviour determines whether it will repeat that behaviour in the future

Question 18

What are instrumental behaviours?

Answer 18

Behaviours which require an organism to do something (solve a problem, manipulate the environment, etc.)

Question 19

What is Thorndike’s Law of Effect?

Answer 19

Behaviours that are followed by a satisfying state of affairs tend to be repeated, whereas those that produce an unpleasant state of affairs are less likely to be repeated

Question 20

What is operant behaviour?

Answer 20

A behaviour that an organism performs that has some impact on the environment; the environment responds by providing events that either reinforce or punish the behaviour

Question 21

What is a reinforcer when it comes to operant conditioning?

Answer 21

Any stimulus or event that increases the likelihood of the behaviour that led to it

Question 22

What is a punisher when it comes to operant conditioning?

Answer 22

Any stimulus or event that decreases the likelihood of the behaviour that led to it

Question 23

What does positive mean when it comes to operant conditioning?

Answer 23

A situation in which a stimulus is presented as a reward or punishment

Question 24

What does negative mean when it comes to operant conditioning?

Answer 24

A situation in which a stimulus is removed as a reward or punishment

Question 25

Is reinforcement or punishment more effective in operant conditioning? Why?

Answer 25

Reinforcement is more effective than punishment; punishment signals that an unacceptable behaviour has occurred, but it doesn't specify what should be done instead

Question 26

What are primary reinforcers when it comes to operant conditioning?

Answer 26

Reinforcers which help satisfy biological needs/desires (food, comfort, shelter, warmth)

Question 27

What are secondary reinforcers when it comes to operant conditioning?

Answer 27

Reinforcers which derive their effectiveness from their associations with primary reinforcers through classical conditioning (ex. money starts out as a neutral stimulus, and is then associated with acquiring food/shelter)

Question 28

How can the effectiveness of delayed punishment be increased?

Answer 28

- Increasing the severity of the punishment | - Attempting to bridge the gap between behaviour and punishment with verbal instructions

Question 29

What is stimulus control?

Answer 29

Develops when a particular response occurs only when an appropriate discriminative stimulus is present (ex. if a person always watches tv when they eat, eating will lead a person to turn on the TV)

Question 30

What is a discriminative stimulus?

Answer 30

A stimulus that indicates that a response will be reinforced (ex. a child knowing their parent will let them watch TV when they are working from home, so the child then always asking to watch TV when the parent works from home)

Question 31

What is Three-Term Contingency?

Answer 31

In the presence of a discriminative stimulus, a response produces a reinforcer; a different context would likely produce a very different outcome Example: in a coffee shop with friends (discriminative stimulus), a joke about a professor (response) will likely be met with reinforcement (laughter); in the absence of the discriminative stimulus (ex. in the professor's office), the same response/reinforcement would likely not happen

Question 32

What are the 2 most important schedules of reinforcement?

Answer 32

- Interval schedules: based on time between reinforcements | - Ratio schedules: based on the ratio of responses to reinforcement

Question 33

What is a fixed interval (FI) schedule, and what kind of behaviour patterns does it produce?

Answer 33

- Reinforcers are presented at fixed time periods, provided that the appropriate response is made - Subjects produce predictable patterns of behaviour under these schedules; they show little responding right after the presentation of the reinforcement, but as the next time interval draws to a close, they show a burst of responding

Question 34

What is a variable interval (VI) schedule, and what kind of behaviour patterns does it produce?

Answer 34

- A behaviour is reinforced on the basis on an average time that has expired since the last reinforcement (not every 2 minutes exactly, but every 2 minutes on average) - Typically produces steady, consistent responding because the time until the next reinforcement is less predictable

Question 35

What is a fixed ratio (FR) schedule?

Answer 35

Reinforcement is delivered after a specific number of responses has been made

Question 36

What is continuous reinforcement?

Answer 36

A special case of fixed ratio (FR) schedule where reinforcement is presented after each response

Question 37

What is a variable ratio (VR) schedule, and what kind of behaviour patterns does it produce?

Answer 37

- The delivery of reinforcement is based on a particular average number of responses - Produces slightly higher rates of responding that fixed ratio (FR) schedules because the organism never knows when the next reinforcement is going to appear

Question 38

What is intermittent reinforcement, and what kind of behaviour patterns does it produce?

Answer 38

- A special type of variable ratio (VR) schedule; only some of the responses made are followed by reinforcement - Produces behaviour much more resistant to extinction than a continuous reinforcement schedule because the more irregular and intermittent a schedule, the more difficult it is for an organism to detect when it has actually been placed on extinction

Question 39

What is the intermittent reinforcement effect?

Answer 39

The fact that operant behaviours that are maintained under intermittent reinforcement schedules resist extinction better than those maintained under continuous reinforcement

Question 40

What is shaping?

Answer 40

Learning that results from the reinforcement of successive steps to a final desired behaviour

Question 41

Who was one of the first researchers to question Skinner's strictly behaviourist interpretation of learning? What approach did they advocate for instead?

Answer 41

Edward Chance Tolman; early advocate for a cognitive approach to operant conditioning

Question 42

What is a means-end relationship, and how is it related to operant conditioning?

Answer 42

- The conditioning experience produces knowledge or a belief that, in a particular situation, a specific reward/end state will appear, and so a specific response is made - In contrast to behaviourist operant conditioning, this suggests that the stimulus does not directly evoke a response, but instead the response is evoked by an internal cognitive state

Question 43

What is latent learning, and how does it challenge the behaviourist position on learning?

Answer 43

- When something is learned, but is not manifested as a behavioural change until sometime in the future - Occurs without any obvious reinforcement and challenges the behaviourist position that all learning requires reinforcement

Question 44

What is a cognitive map?

Answer 44

A mental representation of the physical features of the environment (ex. a rat being able to navigate a maze that has been changed slightly based on the general direction they found food in last time)

Question 45

What are pleasure centres in the brain? Which are the most susceptible to stimulation?

Answer 45

- Some brain areas, particularly those in the limbic system, that produce intensely positive experiences - Neurons in the medial forebrain bundle, especially the nucleus accumbens

Question 46

What is the reward prediction error?

Answer 46

The difference between the actual reward received and the amount of predicted/expected reward

Question 47

What is a positive prediction error?

Answer 47

A type of reward prediction error where a better than expected outcome makes the repetition of the behaviour more likely, due to increase dopamine neuron activity

Question 48

What is a negative prediction error?

Answer 48

A type of reward prediction error where a worse than expected outcome reduces the chances that the behaviour will be repeated, due to decreased dopamine neuron activity

Question 49

What is observational learning, and who first investigated it?

Answer 49

- An organism learns by watching the action of others | - Albert Bandura

Question 50

What is a model in observational learning?

Answer 50

Someone whose behaviour might be a guided for others

Question 51

What is a diffusion chain?

Answer 51

Individuals initially learn a behaviour by observing another individual, and then become models from which other individuals learn the behaviour

Question 52

Is observational learning more effective when a novice or an expert is the model?

Answer 52

Observational learning is actually most effective when watching both, because you are able to learn from the novice's mistakes and the expert's technique

Question 53

What is the enculturation hypothesis?

Answer 53

In observational learning, being raised in a human culture has a profound effect on the cognitive abilities of chimpanzees, especially their ability to understand the intentions of others when performing tasks such as using tools, which in turn increases their observational learning capacities

Question 54

What are mirror neurons?

Answer 54

A type of cell found in the brains of primates which fire when an animal performs an action or when it watches another perform an action

Question 55

What is implicit learning?

Answer 55

Learning that takes place largely independently of awareness of both the process and the products of information acquisition; some forms of learning start out explicit and become implicit over time (ex. driving)

Question 56

How are learning and memory linked?

Answer 56

Learning produces memories and the existence of memories implies that knowledge was acquired

Question 57

What regions of the brain are activated in explicit learning?

Answer 57

- Prefrontal cortex - Parietal cortex - Hippocampus - Other areas associated with processing explicit memory

Question 58

What kind of brain activation takes place in implicit learning?

Answer 58

Decreased brain activation, primarily in the occipital region

Question 59

Who said, "Neurons that fire together wire together"?

Answer 59

Donald Hebb, Montreal psychologist