Chapter 6 Learning

Question 1

Learning

Answer 1

A relatively permanent change in behavior brought about by experience

Question 2

Classical conditioning

Answer 2

First type of learning to be discovered and studied within the behaviorist situation

Question 3

Learning by association

Classical conditioning

Answer 3

Our minds naturally connect events that occur in sequence (learning that two events go together)

Question 4

Classical conditioning

Learning by association

Answer 4

Learning process that occurs when two stimuli are paired together repeatedly

The first stimuli doesn’t evoke a natural response (it is neutral)

After enough pairing together, the second stimuli is conditioned and causes a response to happen

Question 5

Ivan Pavlov

Answer 5

Russian physician
Studied digestive secretions of dogs
Noticed the dogs would drool in anticipation of food. They eventually salivated when they heard the researchers footsteps or saw the bowl.
The footsteps and the bowl have been classically conditioned to evoke the drooling response.

Question 6

Before learning

Answer 6

Neutral stimulus: evokes no response before learning/conditioning
Unconditioned stimulus: naturally and automatically triggers a response
Unconditioned response: an unlearned, natural,y occurring response to an unconditioned stimulus

Question 7

After learning

Answer 7

Conditioned stimulus: an originally irrelevant stimulus that after association with an unconditioned stimulus, comes to trigger a conditioned response. In other words, the neutral stimulus is now the conditions stimulus.

Conditioned response: a learned response to a previously natural(but now conditioned) stimulus.

Question 8

Little Albert experiment

Answer 8

Conducted by John B Watson and Rosalie Rayner.
9 month old exposed to various animals and had no reaction
The next time, he was exposed to a white rat and Watson made a loud noise, Albert cried.

After repeated times, Albert began crying after just seeing the white rat.

Experiment was unethical and poorly constructed.

Question 9

Classical conditioning

Extinction

Answer 9

A previously conditioned response decreases in frequency and eventually disappears

Question 10

Classical conditioning

Spontaneous recovery

Answer 10

The reappearance of a previously extinguished response after time has elapsed without exposure to the conditioned stimulus

Extinction just SUPPRESSES spontaneous recovery

Question 11

Classical conditioning

Stimulus generalization

Answer 11

Conditioned response follows a stimulus that is similar to the original conditioned stimulus

Question 12

Operant conditioning

BF Skinner

Answer 12

American psychologist known for a type of behaviorism known as operant conditioning.
He looked for objective means of studying behavior
Created an apparatus known as the Skinner Box
Used the to study animals interacting with their environment. Used to teach animals to modify their behavior.

Question 13

Operant conditioning

Answer 13

Learning in which an organism learns via the consequences of its behavior

Question 14

Reinforcement

Answer 14

Anything that increases the likelihood of a voluntary response

Question 15

Types of reinforcement

Answer 15

Positive: something added to increase the tendency for a behavior to reoccur.
Negative: something taken away to increase the tendency for a behavior to reoccur.

Question 16

Positive reinforcement

Answer 16

Adding a positive or pleasant stimulus to reinforce behaviors
This means that if you engage in a certain behavior and this behavior gets something that you wanted, then you are more likely to engage in that same behavior again when you want the same outcome in the future.

Question 17

Negative reinforcement

Answer 17

The removal of something unpleasant to increase the likelihood of future behavior

Skinner added electricity to their boxes, the only time the electricity would stop is when the mouse hit the lever.

Question 18

Punishment

Answer 18

Punishment is given after a behavior and decreases the likelihood of it happening again.
Punishment can either be positive or negative
Punishment doesn’t guarantee that the behavior will stop in the future. It simply suppresses it.

Question 19

Positive punishment

Answer 19

After a behavior you are given something unpleasant or bad

The easiest way to remember this is to note that an aversive stimulus is added to the situation, such as a speeding ticket.

Question 20

Negative punishment

Answer 20

The most recognized of the two types of punishment.
A negative punishment decreases behavior by taking away something desirable as a consequence of the undesirable behavior.

Such as taking away electronics after not completely chores.

Question 21

How to tell between reinforcement and punishment

Answer 21

Look at the consequences of the behavior.

If it most likely to make the behavior occur, it is reinforcement.
If it makes behavior less likely to occur, it is punishment.

Question 22

Is it positive or negative

Answer 22

Positive does not mean good and negative does not mean bad.

If something is given, then it is positive.
If something is taken away, it is negative.

Question 23

Schedules of reinforcement

Answer 23

Continuous reinforcement: behavior that is reinforced every time it happens

Partial reinforcement: behavior that is reinforced some, but not all the time.

Question 24

Schedules of partial reinforcement.

Answer 24

Fixed rate: reinforcement is given only after a certain number of responses are made

Variable ratio: reinforcement occurs after a varying number of responses rather than after a fixed number

Fixed interval: provides reinforcement for a response only if a fixed time period has elapsed, making overall rates of response relatively low

Variable interval: time between reinforcements is around some average rather than being fixed

Question 25

Albert Bandura

Answer 25

American psychologist who studies observational learning
Studies the consequences a model has on subjects
Conducted bobo doll experiments.

Question 26

Observational learning

Answer 26

Learning by observing and watching others

The model: the person whose behavior is observed and imitated
Modeling: the process of observing and imitating a specific behavior

Question 27

Bobo doll experiments 1961

Answer 27

Children watched an adult model show aggressive behavior toward a bobo doll
The findings showed that what the children saw, is what they did
When we see violence, we tend to imitate it

Question 28

Vicarious learning

Answer 28

By watching a model, we vicariously experience what they are going through

Through this type of learning, we can anticipate the consequences if we perform a similar behavior

We are more likely to learn from models who are like us

Question 29

Impacts of Bandura’s study

Answer 29

Behaviorists believe that learning is based only on conditioning/association or rewards/punishments

Bandura showed that learning can occur through observing and imitating someone else’s behavior without reward or punishment

This study helped transition psychology from pure behaviorism into social-cognitive learning