What is learning?
The development of new skills, acquisition of new knowledge
What is Habituation?
The decline in an organism’s response to a stimulus once the stimulus becomes familiar
What is the evolutionary beenfit to habituation
Paying attention to unfamiliar stimuli may signal new information, like either a threat or opportunity for food and habituation allows us to not waste energy and time on those that are familiar
Dishabituation
the increase in resonse caused by a change in something familiar
Why is disjabituation important
Same thing in that hey call attentont o new changes and potentially useful information
What is an experiment that shows that there is habituation and dishabituation
Japanese babies and the distinction between l and r sounds. When they have habituated to Lalala they can notice the change to rarara but if the sound difference is not relevant to the language in the infant surround, they will stop paying attention and lose the ability by 12 years
What is classical conditioning
Forming associations between different things in the world
What is an unconditioned response
A biologically determined reflex, triggered by a certain stimulus indepedent of learning (like salivating)
Unconditioned stimulus
A trigger for UR like food inside animal mouse that is instinctive and does not indicate any form of learning
Conditioned response
Triggered by a stimulus that was neutral at the start of learning
Conditioned stimulu
Stimulu that was neutral but became associated with the US duing the experiment
What happens in classical conditioning
We need a US and UR that are bioloigcally ,linked and the pairing a CS with the US to later trigger a UR with CS (becoming a CR)
Strength of the CR grows as the animal experiences more and more pairings of CS and US
T/F?
True
What is second order conditioning?
Once the CS-US relationship is solidly established, the CS can be sued to establish other conditioned stimuli
Con of second order conitioning
Can lead to phobias and fear of anythign related to the original stimulus: the sight of dentist (CS) can be paired with discomfort of her drill, leading to fear –> other things associated with dentist (office, voice, the word dentist) can also lead to fear
What is a pro to second order conditioning
Can allow people and animals to develop fear and avoid things that might be potential threats
What is extinction
The undoing of a previously learned response
How does extinction happen
The CR will gradually disappear if the CS is presented several times by itseld and without the US
Is extinction the same as forgetting?
No
How do we know that extinction not the same as forgetting
If an animal is conditioned –> unconditioned –> re-conditioned again, the reconditioning usually takes less time, showing how extinction doesn’t completely erase the original learning
What is spontaenous recovery
the reappearance of an extinguished response after a period where no further trials have been presented
What is the theory for spontaenous recovery
the extinction trials lead the animal to recognise that the stimulus is no longer informative, but the animal still remembers that the CS used to be informative –> when new experiment happens, the animal checks to see whether the bell will be informative in this new setting
What is generalization
The tendency for stimuli similar tot he original CS to elicit a reaction similar to the learned response
What is the pro to generalization
If requirement for CR is so trict then it would be too specific: like if something were to indicate danger like a warning call but the warning call can differ slightly in tone, volume and length
