Ch.7 "Learning"

Question 1

Learning involves…

Answer 1

the acquisition of new knowledge, skills, or responses from experience that result in a relatively permanent change in the state of the learner.

Question 2

What ideas does learning emphasize?

Answer 2

: it’s based on experience
: it produces changes in the organism
: the changes are relatively permanent

Question 3

How did behaviorists view learning?

Answer 3

as purely behavioral; does not incite any mental activity

Question 4

Pavlov’s main work:

Answer 4

classical conditioning; salivation of dogs

Question 5

what is classical conditioning?

Answer 5

when a neutral stimulus produces a response after being paired with a stimulus that naturally produces a response; learning to salivate to a sound, conditioned through food

Question 6

What are the four basic elements of classical conditioning?

Answer 6

: unconditioned stimulus
: unconditioned response
: conditioned stimulus
: conditioned response

Question 7

What is an unconditioned stimulus?

Answer 7

something that produces a naturally occurring reaction in an organism

Question 8

What is an unconditioned response?

Answer 8

a reflexive reaction that is reliably produced by an unconditioned stimulus

Question 9

What is a conditioned stimulus?

Answer 9

a stimulus that is initially neutral and produces no reliable response in an organism

Question 10

What is a conditioned response?

Answer 10

a reaction that resembles an unconditioned response but is produced by a conditioned stimulus.

Question 11

What is acquisition?

Answer 11

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

Question 12

What are cue exposure therapies?

Answer 12

exposing drug addicts to a familiar CS without being given the drug; results in extinction of the association between CS and the effects of drugs

Question 13

What is second-order conditioning?

Answer 13

associating a totally different stimulus, through an earlier CS to produce the same conditioned response; black square with the tuning fork, black square will eventually elicit salivation alone

Question 14

What is extinction?

Answer 14

the gradual elimination of a learned response that occurs when the unconditioned stimulus is no longer presented.

Question 15

What is spontaneous recovery?

Answer 15

the tendency of a learned behavior to recover from extinction after a rest period.

Question 16

What is generalization?

Answer 16

when the conditioned response is observed even though the conditioned stimulus is slightly different from the original one during acquisition.

Question 17

What is discrimination?

Answer 17

the capacity to distinguish between similar but distinct stimuli

Question 18

Who was Watson?

Answer 18

Huge behaviorist, supported Pavlov; “Little Albert” experiment

Question 19

What are the elements of classical conditioning?

Answer 19

: cognitive
: neural
: evolutionary

Question 20

What is the Rescorla-Wagner model?

Answer 20

introduced a cognitive component to classical conditioning; predicted that conditioning would be easier when the conditioned stimulus was an unfamiliar event.

Question 21

What is delay conditioning?

Answer 21

the conditioned stimulus followed immediately by the unconditioned stimulus, the CS overlaps the US, then end at the same time

Question 22

What is Trace conditioning?

Answer 22

same procedure as delay conditioning, except the conditioned stimulus ends before the unconditioned stimulus begins.

Question 23

Does Trace conditioning require awareness?

Answer 23

yes

Question 24

People in vegetable and minimally conscious states show…

Answer 24

Trace conditioning

Question 25

What part of the Amygdala is responsible for emotional conditioning?

Answer 25

the central nucleus

Question 26

What is freezing?

Answer 26

a defensive reaction that includes behavioral and physiological responses

Question 27

What neural elements is the central nucleus connected to?

Answer 27

: Midbrain | : Hypothalamus

Question 28

What happens if the link between the central nucleus and the midbrain is severed?

Answer 28

the freezing response stops

Question 29

What happens if the link between the central nucleus and the hypothalamus is severed?

Answer 29

the autonomic (physiological) responses associated with fear stop.

Question 30

What is biological preparedness?

Answer 30

learning certain kinds of associations over others.

Question 31

The cerebellum is involved with...

Answer 31

delay conditioning

Question 32

The hippocampus is involved with...

Answer 32

trace conditioning

Question 33

the amygdala involved with...

Answer 33

fear conditioning

Question 34

What is operant conditioning?

Answer 34

a type of learning in which the consequences of an organism's behavior determine whether it will be repeated in the future; involves active behaviors

Question 35

Thorndike...

Answer 35

examined instrumental behavior

Question 36

What is instrumental behavior?

Answer 36

behavior that requires an organism to do something

Question 37

What is the law of effect?

Answer 37

states that behaviors that are followed by a "satisfying state of affairs" tend to be repeated as opposed to those that have an "unpleasant state of affairs"

Question 38

What is operant behavior?

Answer 38

behavior that an organism produces that has some impact on the environment

Question 39

Positive reinforcement...

Answer 39

a rewarding stimulus is presented

Question 40

Negative reinforcement...

Answer 40

an unpleasant stimulus is removed

Question 41

Positive punishment...

Answer 41

unpleasant stimulus is administered

Question 42

Negative punishment...

Answer 42

rewarding stimulus is removed

Question 43

Primary reinforcers...

Answer 43

Food, comfort, shelter, warmth, etc.

Question 44

Secondary reinforcers...

Answer 44

verbal approval, grins, trophies, money

Question 45

What is the overjustification effect?

Answer 45

when external rewards undermine the intrinsic satisfaction of performing a behavior.

Question 46

Stimulus control...

Answer 46

develops when a particular response only occurs when an appropriate discriminative stimulus is present; learning takes place in contexts

Question 47

What are the three-term contingencies?

Answer 47

a discriminative stimulus produces a response that produces a reinforcer

Question 48

Interval schedules:

Answer 48

based on the time intervals between reinforcements

Question 49

Ratio schedules:

Answer 49

based on the ratio of responses to reinforcements

Question 50

Fixed interval schedule (FI):

Answer 50

reinforcers are presented at fixed time periods, provided that the appropriate response is made

Question 51

Variable interval schedule (VI):

Answer 51

a behavior is reinforced based on an average time that has expired since the last reinforcement

Question 52

Fixed ratio schedule (FR):

Answer 52

reinforcement is delivered after a specific number of responses have been made.

Question 53

Continuous reinforcement:

Answer 53

presenting reinforcement after each response; produces less responses

Question 54

Variable ratio schedule (VR):

Answer 54

the delivery of reinforcement is based on a particular average number of responses; produces more responses

Question 55

Intermittent reinforcement:

Answer 55

when only some of the responses made are followed by reinforcement; hard to extinguish

Question 56

Intermittent-reinforcement effect:

Answer 56

the relationship between intermittent reinforcement schedules and the robustness of the behavior they produce; the fact that operant behaviors that are maintained under intermittent reinforcement schedules resist extinction better than those maintained under continuous reinforcement.

Question 57

What is shaping?

Answer 57

learning that results from the reinforcement of successive steps to a final desired behavior.

Question 58

Delusions and superstitious behaviors are based on...

Answer 58

mistaken beliefs regarding casual relationships

Question 59

What is latent learning:

Answer 59

something is learned but it is not manifested as a behavioral change until sometime in the future.

Question 60

What is a cognitive map?

Answer 60

a mental representation of the physical features of the environment

Question 61

Pleasure centers reside mostly in the...

Answer 61

limbic system

Question 62

The medial forebrain bundle meanders its way from...

Answer 62

the midbrain through the hypothalamus into the nucleus accumbens.

Question 63

Dopaminergic:

Answer 63

the neurons in the medial forebrain bundle, especially the nucleus accumbens; they release dopamine

Question 64

Observational learning is:

Answer 64

learning something based on watching someone else do it

Question 65

What is a diffusion chain?

Answer 65

the passing down of a behavior originally learned through observational learning

Question 66

What is implicit learning?

Answer 66

learning that takes place largely independent of awareness of both the process and the products of information acquisition

Question 67

What is habituation?

Answer 67

the process of responding less to prolonged stimuli