Learning

Question 1

define learning

Answer 1

a relatively permanent change in state due to experience

Question 2

what is habituation

Answer 2

a general process in which repeated or prolonged exposure to a stimulus results in a gradual reduce in responding. usually isnt permanent, after time original response returns

Question 3

what is the experiment about habituation

Answer 3

leaton 1976. rats exposed to 700 tones in 5 mins. other group one loud tone each day over 11 day period. first group showed quick habituation but showed startle response again each day. second group showed slow continuous decline in startle response.

Question 4

describe classical conditioning

Answer 4

when a stimulus evokes a response because of being paired with a stimulus that naturally evokes a response.

Question 5

define the US, UR, CS,CR

Answer 5

unconditioned stimulus- reliably ptoduces naturally occurring reaction in an organism.
unconditioned response - reflexive reaction that is reliably elicited by US
conditioned stimulus- stimulus that at first does not produce the response that is eventually conditioned by pairing with a US
conditioned response - a reaction to a conditioned stimulus produced by pairing it with a US

Question 6

what is the process of acquisition

Answer 6

the phase of classical conditioning when the CS and the US are presented together - this starts slow rises rapidly then slowly tapers off

Question 7

describe second order conditioning

Answer 7

conditioning where the US is a stimulus that acquired its ability to produce learning from an earlier procedure in which it was used as a CS

Question 8

what is extinction

Answer 8

the gradual elimination of a learned response that occurs when the CS is no longer followed by the US

Question 9

what causes extinction

Answer 9

presenting the CS without the result of the US consistently.

Question 10

what is spontaneous recovery

Answer 10

the tendency of a learned behaviour to recover from extinction after a rest period. suggests extinction doesnt happen in one go needs multiple extinctions over days to eliminate association

Question 11

what are the two types of association suggested by pavlov

Answer 11

excitatory association = process that increases the likelihood of a response
inhibitory association = process that decreases the likelihood of a response

Question 12

what is generalisation

Answer 12

an increase in responding to stimulus because of its similarity to a CS that was paired with a US. prevents relearning for tiny changes.

Question 13

describe discrimination

Answer 13

the capacity to distinguish between similar but distinct stimuli

Question 14

little albert and heroin overdose pages

Answer 14

245 to 247

Question 15

what kind of associations does classical conditioning include

Answer 15

fear. both in little albert and the norwegian massacre. neural component is the amygdala

Question 16

define contingency in classical conditioning

Answer 16

the organism has an expectation about how well the CS signals the appearance of the US

Question 17

what features does a cc association need to be survival enhancing

Answer 17

rapid learning occurs in one or two trials. if takes more animal could die e.g from toxic food
take place over long intervals e.g toxic food doesnt make you ill straight away
develop aversion to smell or taste not ingestion of the thing
learned aversions should occur more often with novel foods than familiar ones - not adaptive to develop aversions to everything the animal ate on the day it got sick

Question 18

what is biological preparedness

Answer 18

a propensity for learning particular kinds of associations over others

Question 19

describe operant conditioning

Answer 19

a type of conditioning in which the consequences of an organisms behaviour determine whether it will be repeated in the future

Question 20

state the law of effect

Answer 20

behaviours that are followed by a satisfying state of affairs tend to be repeated and those that are followed by a negative state of affairs are less likely to be repeated

Question 21

what is operant behaviour

Answer 21

behaviour that an organism produces that has some impact on the environment which in turn changes because of that impact

Question 22

define a reinforcer and a punisher

Answer 22

reinforcer = stimulus or event that functions to increase the likelihood of the behaviour that led to it 
punisher = reduce likelihood of behaviour that led up to it

Question 23

primary vs secondary reinforcers

Answer 23

primary = link to innate survival e.g food warmth etc.
secondary = learned to be associated with a primary one

Question 24

what is the premack principle

Answer 24

discerning which of two activities someone would rather means that the preferred activity can be used to reinforce a non preferred one. e.g no tv until homework is done

Question 25

what is the overjustification effecr

Answer 25

circumstances when external rewards can undermine the intrinsic satisfaction of performing a behaviour

Question 26

what are the 4 schedules of reinforcement

Answer 26

fixed interval - reinforcement become available when a fixed time period has elapsed following the previous reinforcement
fixed ratio - reinforcement delivered after a specific number of responses have been made
variable ratio - reinforcement will be delivered after a specified average number of responses have been made
variable interval - reinforcement becomes available after a varied time period from the previous reinforcement

Question 27

why are ratio schedules better than fixed interval

Answer 27

provide intermittent reinforcement = an operant conditioning relationship in which only some of the responses made are followed by reinforcement.

Question 28

what is the intermittent reinforcement effect

Answer 28

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

Question 29

describe shaping

Answer 29

learning that results from the reinforcement of successive approximations to a final desired behaviour e.g rewarding rat for turning in direction of the bar

Question 30

describe superstition in operant conditioning

Answer 30

correlation doesnt mean causality e.g skinner pigeons received foos every 15 seconds left alone return and they were repeating random behaviours thinking it got them food

Question 31

neural elements of operant conditioning

Answer 31

pleasure centres - nucleus accumbens, medial forebrain bundle and hypothalamus. organisms work to stimulute these pathways

Question 32

describe neural element of operant conditioning

Answer 32

edward chance tolman - more to learning than stimulus response approach. proposed animal established a means-end relationship which is a belief that a behaviour will lead to a reward. a cognitive state is produced and then results in response

Question 33

describe latent learning

Answer 33

a condition in which something is learned but it is not manifested as a behavioural change until some time in the future.

Question 34

what is a cognitive map

Answer 34

mental representation of the physical features of the environment - tolmans rats in the maze

Question 35

evolutionary elements operant conditioning

Answer 35

e.g rats foragers, if find food in right arm of T maze go left as they believe they have found all the food to be had. need to overcome the evolutionary instincts to learn through operant conditioning

Question 36

why are rats so good at making cognitive maps

Answer 36

already have good spatial representations for foraging

Question 37

what is observational learning and an example

Answer 37

learning through watching the actions of others. e.g bandura bobo doll

Question 38

what is implicit learning

Answer 38

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

Question 39

ways to study implicit learning

Answer 39

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