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Flashcards in Chapter 6 // Learning Deck (61)
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1
Q

Understand how John Locke and his “tabula rasa” support his view.

A

“Humans are like a Tabula Rasa, or a blank sheet of paper.” - John Locke. The are born knowing nothing and must learn from the world around them. They set about this task immediately.

2
Q

Involved behaviour - we learn not to startle or to pay attention to a repetitive stimulus such as a loud sound like slamming a door.

A

Habituation

3
Q

No longer orienting to a particular stimulus

A

Orienting Response

4
Q

Getting scared by loud noises

A

Startle Response

5
Q

Involves changes in the sense organs themselves and a decrease in the sense organ - an adaptation repeated exposure causes sense organs not to respond to stimulus.

A

Adaptation

6
Q

Realize why any other learning would be impossible without these basic types of learning.

A

It would be too hard to focus on other things when we couldn’t ignore things such as the clock ticking, A/C, etc.

7
Q

Know that Ivan Pavlov is the big name in classical conditioning with his salivating dogs. Be able to explain his experiment in general terms in everyday language and also identify the terms listed below.

A
  • Pavlov used food as an unconditioned stimulus to measure salivation
  • Used a bell and presented food after it rang and the dog would salivate
  • After a while, ringing a bell alone caused salivation
  • A neutral stimulus develops the ability to produce an automatic response
8
Q

A previously neutral stimulus develops the ability to produce an autonomic or reflexive response—controls our behaviour.
Examples: Twitmyer and Pavlov

A

Classical Conditioning

9
Q

A stimulus, which initially produces no specific response other than focusing attention

A

Neutral Stimulus

10
Q

Unconditionally, naturally, and automatically triggers a response– the food is the unconditioned stimulus.

A

Unconditioned Stimulus

11
Q

(The bell) because it does not do anything unless it is paired—previously neutral stimulus that, after becoming associated with unconditioned stimulus, eventually comes to trigged a condition response—previously neutral stimulus that has, through conditioning, acquired the capacity to evoke a conditioned response.

A

Conditioned stimulus

12
Q

(If salvation is caused by food) the unlearned response that occurs naturally in response to the unconditioned stimulus

A

Unconditioned response

13
Q

(If salvation is caused by bell) the learned reaction to a conditioned stimulus that occurs because of previous conditioning

A

Conditioned response

14
Q

The gradual weakening and disappearance of a conditioned response tendency– when the conditioned stimulus (bell) is repeatedly presented without unconditioned stimulus being present (food), looses its ability to cause the response (salvation). Occurs when the occurrence of a conditioned response decreases (this happens when a conditioned stimulus is no longer paired with an unconditional response)

A

Classical Conditioning Phenomena: Extinction

15
Q

Occurs when an extinguished response develops that ability to produce a response again without any further training- the only requirement is the passage of time with exposure to the conditioned stimulus

A

Classical Conditioning Phenomena: Spontaneous Recovery

16
Q

Occurs when an organism that has learned a response to a specific stimulus responds in the same way to new stimuli that are similar to the original stimulus. Example: a child is bitten by a yellow cat and becomes afraid of all yellow cards; if a rat has been conditioned to fear a stuffed white rabbit, it will exhibit fear of objects similar to the conditioned stimulus.
Example: Little Albert

A

Classical Conditioning Phenomena: Generalization

17
Q

Occurs when an organism that has learned a response to a specific stimulus does not respond in the same way to new stimuli that are similar to the original stimulus. Example: your dog salivates only when he hears the Alpo Bag being opened and fails to salivate at the sound of any other bags being opened– almost the exact opposite of Generalization. The ability to differentiate between a conditioned stimulus and other stimuli that have not

A

Classical Conditioning Phenomena: Discrimination

18
Q

New conditioned stimulus to control an _____ behaviour.

A

Old

19
Q

The initial state of learning something / New responses are just beginning to form.

A

Classical Conditioning Phenomena: Acquisition

20
Q

Be able to explain why classical conditioning is important to humans and involves far more than just drooling dogs.

A

So many of our behaviours are influenced by classical conditioning.

21
Q

Conditioning that controls our voluntary behaviours.

A

Operant Conditioning / Instrumental Conditioning

22
Q

When we do something and there is a good result, we are going to repeat the behavior. When we do something and there is a bad result, we are not going to repeat the behavior

A

Thorndike’s Law of Effect

23
Q

When an event following a response increases an organism’s tendency to make that response.

A

Reinforcement

24
Q

Know the changes that Skinner made when he defined reinforcement by its effect on behavior.

A

If you have to use punishment you failed. Organisms tend to repeat those responses that are followed by favourable consequences.

25
Q

Anything that increases the rate of a behavior. Even if something really bad happens but it increases the rate of behavior, it is still a positive reinforcement

A

Positive Reinforcement

26
Q

Events that are inherently reinforcing because they satisfy biological needs (food, sleep, drink)—works well until Satiation.

A

Primary Reinforcers

27
Q

Events that acquire reinforcing qualities by being associated with primary reinforcers. NOT BORN WITH
Loss of effectiveness: satiation, unpaired with Backup

A

Secondary Reinforcers

28
Q

Any reinforcer that makes a conditioned or generalized reinforcer effective.
Exampled: Being rewarded for good grades.

A

Backup Reinforcers

29
Q

A learned behaviour; Special case of secondary reinforcers—learned, unlimited backup reinforcers to go along with it

A

Generalized Reinforcer

30
Q

The removal of an aversive stimulus and a resulting increase in a rate of behavior. Example: Pressing a button that stops sending shocks over and over, Nagging stops when a person gets what they want.

A

Negative Reinforcement

31
Q

Experience some of the aversive stimulus.

Example: You’ll always hear a little nagging before the person gets what they want

A

Escape Conditioning

32
Q

If you make a response in time, you can avoid the aversive stimulus altogether.
Example:Lying to your mother about finishing your homework, changing the oil in your car.

A

Avoidance Conditioning

33
Q

The box that was used in the study with rats and lever pressing.

A

Skinner Box

34
Q

Connected to the Skinner Box, keeps the record of the responses and reinforcers.

A

Cumulative Recorder

35
Q

Gradual weakening and disappearance of a response tendency because the response is no longer followed by reinforcers. Example: when the experimenter stops delivering food when the rat presses the lever.
Resistance to extinction occurs when an organism continues to make a response after delivery of reinforcer has been terminated.

A

Operant Conditioning Phenomena: Extinction

36
Q

An organism’s responding to stimuli other than the original stimulus used in conditioning- responding increases in the presence of new stimulus that resembles original discriminative stimulus

A

Operant Conditioning Phenomena: Generalization

37
Q

Cues that influence operant behavior by indicating the probable consequences (reinforcement or nonreinforcement) of a response. Example: birds learn that hunting for worms is likely to be reinforced after a rain, children learn to ask for sweets when they parents are in a good mood.

A

Operant Conditioning Phenomena: Discriminative

38
Q

Consists of reinforcement of closer and closer approximations of desired response—necessary when an organism does not, on its own, emit the desired response. Example: when a rat is first placed in the Skinner Box, it may not press the lever at all but then when the rat moves towards the level the experimenter will release food, then only releases food when the rat touches the lever, etc.

A

Operant Conditioning Phenomena: Shaping

39
Q

Occurs when an event following a response weakens the tendency to make the response. Example: a rat presses a bar in its cage and receives a mild electrical shock on its feet (the shock= negative condition) the rat’s behavior of pressing the bar is weakened by the consequence of receiving a shock.

A

Operant Conditioning Phenomena: Punishment

40
Q

Know how people are punished even if their parents are total not punishers.

A

Natural consequences of your behavior /Other punishing agents.

41
Q

Know when Dr. B. considers punishment to be appropriate.

A
  • Stop bad behaviors in the bud

- Eliminate dangerous behaviors (like aggression to parent or sibling)

42
Q

Happens every time the response is reinforced.

A

Schedules of Reinforcement: o Continuous

43
Q

When a response is reinforced only some of the time.

A

Schedules of Reinforcement: o Intermittent

44
Q

The reinforcer is given after a fixed number of nonreinforced responses.
Example: a rat is reinforced for every tenth lever press; salesperson receives a bonus for every fourth shirt is sold.

A

Four Intermittent Schedules: Fixed Ratio

45
Q

The reinforcer is given after a variable number of non-reinforced responses. Example: a rat is reinforced for every tenth lever press on the average; the exact number of responses varies around a predetermined average.

A

Four Intermittent Schedules: Variable Ratio

46
Q

The reinforcer is given for the first response that occurs after a fixed time interval has elapsed.
Example: a rat is reinforced for the first lever press after a 2-minute interval has elapsed and then must wait 2 minutes before being able to earn the next reinforcement.

A

Four Intermittent Schedules: Fixed Interval

47
Q

The reinforcer is given for the first response after a variable time interval has passed. Example: a rat is reinforced for the first lever press after a 1- minute interval has elapsed, but the following intervals are 3 minutes, 2 minutes, 4 minutes, and so on- with an average length of 2 minutes

A

Four Intermittent Schedules: Variable Interval

48
Q

Know both the expected effects of punishment and the side effects.

A
  • Those who administer punishment expect the bad behavior to end
  • May cause anxiety, anger, resentment, etc.
  • Poor parent-child relations
49
Q

Removing something pleasant with the goal of decreasing a behavior (removing TV watching privileges when a child hits their siblings- the goal is to reduce the hitting behavior- you are reducing hitting behavior by removing something the child likes).

A

Negative Punishment

50
Q

Removing something unpleasant with the goal of increasing the target behavior (allowing a child to skip eating their vegetables when they come home from school with a good grade- the goal is to increase the behavior of getting good grades by relieving the child of something he doesn’t like).

A

Negative Reinforcement

51
Q

Evolution has programmed organisms to acquire certain fears more readily than others, because of a phenomenon called preparedness: involves species-specific predispositions to be conditioned in certain ways and not others. Example: slides of “prepared” phobic stimuli (snakes and spiders) and neutral or modern fear-relevant stimuli (flowers, mushrooms, guns, knives) have been paired with shock.
Key elements of what they call “evolved module for fear learning”:
1. Preferentially activated by stimuli related to survival threats in evolutionary history
2. Automatically activated by these stimuli
3. Relatively resistant to conscious efforts to suppress the resulting fears
4. Dependent on neural circuitry running through the amygdala

A

Be able to define and recognize examples of situation that suggest evolutionary influence on conditioning : PREPAREDNESS AND PHOBIAS

52
Q

Many people develop aversions to good that has been followed by nausea from illness, alcohol intoxication, or food poisoning. In the studies they found that it was almost impossible to create certain associations, whereas taste- nausea associations were almost impossible to prevent.

A

Be able to define and recognize examples of situation that suggest evolutionary influence on conditioning: CONDITIONED TASTE AVERSION

53
Q

Learning that is not apparent from behavior when it first occurs. Learning can take place in the absence of reinforcement- at a time when learned responses were thought to be stamped by reinforcement.

A

Be able to define and recognize examples of situation that suggest evolutionary influence on conditioning: LATENT LEARNING

54
Q

A mental representation of the spatial layout.

A

Be able to define and recognize examples of situation that suggest evolutionary influence on conditioning: COGNITIVE MAPS

55
Q

When response is influenced by the observation of others.

A

Observational Learning

56
Q

Know Bandura’s 4 basic processes in observational learning.

A
  • Attention – you must pay attention to another person’s behavior and the consequences
  • Retention – storing a mental representation of what has been witnessed
  • Reproduction – converting the mental images stored into overt behavior
  • Motivation – using the response when you think that it is going to pay off for you
57
Q

Understand that difference between acquisition and performance.

A

Having the knowledge of a learned response does not necessarily mean that you have learned it

58
Q

Know the methodology, results and interpretation of the Famous “Bobo Doll” discussed in the Featured Study on the power of modeling.

A
  • Method – 80 children from a nursery school were used, they watched a video showing aggressive behavior with toys or nonaggressive behavior, then they were let into the toy room and their results were studied
  • Results – Aggressive/model/rewarded showed the most aggression towards the toys, no model showed the least
  • Interpretation – Observers are more likely to imitate behavior when it leads to positive consequences
59
Q

Know and understand The Illustrated Overview of the Three Types of Learning on pages 264-265.

A

Classical Conditioning: Ivan Pavlov— Procedure: a neutral stimulus (a tone) is paired with an unconditioned stimulus (food) that elicits an unconditioned response (salvation). Result: the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus a conditioned stimulus that elicits the conditioned response (tone triggers salivation). Typical Responses: involuntary reflexes and visceral responses. Examples: (in animals) dogs learn to salivate to the sound of a tone that has been paired with meat powder; (in humans) Little Albert learns to fear a white rat and other white furry objects through classical conditioning
Operant Conditioning: B. F. Skinner— Procedure: in a stimulus situation, a response is followed by favorable consequences (reinforcement) or unfavorable consequences (punishment). Result: if reinforced, the response is strengthened (emitted more frequently); if punished, the response is weakened (emitted less frequently). Typical Responses: voluntary, spontaneous responses. Examples: (in animals) trained animals perform remarkable feats because they have been reinforced for gradually learning closer and closer approximations of responses they do not normally emit; (in humans) casino patrons ten to exhibit high, steady rates of gambling, as most games of chance involve complex variable- ratio schedules or reinforcement
Observational Learning: Albert Bandura— Procedure: an observer attends to a model’s behavior (aggressive bargaining) and its consequences (a good buy on a car). Result: the observer stores a mental representation of a modeled response; the observer’s tendency to emit the response may be strengthened or weakened, depending on the consequences observed. Typical Responses: voluntary responses, often consisting of novel and complex sequences. Examples: (in animals) a dog spontaneously learns to mimic a human ritual; (for humans) a young girl performs a response that she has acquired through observation (putting on makeup).

60
Q

Know the Personal Application “Achieving Self-Control Through Behavior Modification”.

A

Behavior modification: is a systematic approach to changing behavior through the application of the principles of conditioning
Specifying your target behavior:
1. Specifying Your Target Behavior
2. Gather Baseline Data
a. Identify possible controlling antecedents
b. Determine initial level of response
c. Identify all possible controlling consequences
3. Design Your Program
a. Select strategies to increase response strength
b. Select strategies to decrease response strength
4. Execute and Evaluate Your Program
5. Bring Your Program to an End
To identify target responses, you need to ponder past behavior or closely observe future behavior and list specific examples of response that lead to the trait description
Gathering baseline data: to systematically observe your target behavior for a period of time (usually a week or two) before you work out the details of your program—determine the initial response level of your target behavior, you need to monitor the antecedents (events that typically precede the target response) of your target behavior, you need to monitor the typical consequences of your target behavior (try to identify the reinforcers that are maintaining an undesirable target behavior or the unfavorable outcomes that suppressing a desirable target behavior)
Designing your program: your program will be designed either to increase or decrease the frequency of a target response. Increasing: efforts to increase the frequency of a target response depend largely on the use of positive reinforcement- selecting a reinforcer: to use positive reinforcement, you need to find a reward that will be effective for you- arranging the contingencies: you have to set up reinforcement contingencies that will describe the exact behavioral goals that must be met and the reinforcement that may then be awarded. Decreasing: reinforcement, control of antecedents, punishment
Executing and evaluating your program: behavioral contract: a written assignment outlining a promise to adhere to the contingencies of a behavior modification program

61
Q

Any relatively durable change in behaviour or knowledge that is due to experience.

A

Learning