learning and behaviour Flashcards
(132 cards)
1
Q
What is classical conditioning?
A
Classical conditioning is when a US is paired with a neutral stimulus to create a conditioned response.
2
Q
What is a US in classical conditioning?
A
US is the stimulus event that has biological significance.
3
Q
What is a CS in classical conditioning?
A
CS is the neutral stimulus event in a conditioning paradigm.
4
Q
What is a CR in classical conditioning?
A
CR is the learned response.
5
Q
What is a UR in classical conditioning?
A
UR is the response that has biological implications.
6
Q
What is instrumental learning?
A
A response in a specific context that produces a specific outcome.
7
Q
What is the difference between classical and instrumental learning?
A
In classical learning, the subject has no control over events but responds to them, while in instrumental learning, the subject has to respond to change the circumstances.
8
Q
What is positive reinforcement?
A
Positive reinforcement increases response from producing an appetitive outcome, such as praise.
Also known as giving something good.
9
Q
What is negative reinforcement?
A
Negative reinforcement increases response from removal of an aversive outcome, such as painkillers.
Also known as removing something bad.
10
Q
What is positive punishment?
A
Positive punishment decreases response from producing an aversive outcome, such as getting spanked.
Also known as giving something bad.
11
Q
What is negative punishment?
A
Negative punishment decreases response from removal of an appetitive outcome, such as time out.
Also known as removing something good.
12
Q
What is behavior and why is it important?
A
Behavior is something an organism does and is important for satisfying biological needs, including feeding, fighting, and sexual behavior.
13
Q
What are Tinbergen’s 4 questions about the causes of behavior?
A
Causation/Mechanism, Development/Ontogeny, Evolution/Phylogeny, Function/Adaptive value.
14
Q
What is the dual process theory?
A
The dual process theory describes two systems: an automatic/implicit system and a controlled/explicit system.
15
Q
What are the three simple processes for complex behaviors?
A
Separation, alignment, and cohesion.
16
Q
What is positive feedback?
A
Positive feedback is a self-amplifying cycle where A causes B and B causes A.
17
Q
What is negative feedback?
A
Negative feedback is a dampening cycle where A causes B and B reduces A.
18
Q
What are iterations in relation to learning?
A
Iterations are the formation of structures by applying the same rules with a bit of noise to create a sequence of outcomes.
19
Q
What is the ABC of behavior?
A
The ABC of behavior includes Antecedent, Behavior, and Consequence.
20
Q
What do S, R, and O stand for?
A
S = stimulus, R = response, O = outcome
21
Q
What is instrumental learning?
A
Instrumental = S-S or S-O learning
22
Q
What is classical learning?
A
Classical = R-O or R-S* learning
- = biologically significant stimulus
23
Q
What is the importance of studying behaviors?
A
It allows the development of techniques that modulate environmental causes of behavior.
24
Q
What are some applications of studying behaviors?
A
Behavioral therapies, advertising techniques, and sociocultural change through manipulating environmental variables.
25
What is contingency?
The relationship between response and outcome (does R cause O, or R prevent O).
26
What are discrete trial procedures?
Single trial procedures that measure objective dependent variables (time/error).
27
What is the free operant procedure?
An individual is allowed to respond naturally within the environment without specific prompts.
28
What is needed for effective reinforcement?
Immediacy/contiguity, contingency, and value.
29
What are primary rewards?
Things that have inherent value, such as food, drugs, status, and social interactions.
30
What are the problems with primary rewards?
Heavily dependent on motivational state and can suffer poor contiguity.
31
What are activity rewards?
Activities themselves can be rewarding, but are contextual.
32
What are secondary rewards?
Things that have acquired value by associating with primary rewards.
33
What are the problems with secondary rewards?
Must be established via classical conditioning and can extinguish or be counter conditioned.
34
What are token economies?
Using tokens as reinforcers that can be exchanged for other rewards.
35
How do you train complex behaviors?
Break down complex responses into smaller components and teach sequentially.
36
What is extinction?
When the contingency between R and O is removed, leading to a decline in the established response.
37
What are the methods of extinguished response relapse?
Renewal, spontaneous recovery, and reinstatement.
38
What are the different schedules of reinforcement?
Fixed ratio, variable ratio, fixed interval, and variable interval.
39
What makes effective reinforcement?
Immediacy/contiguity, contingency, and value.
40
What is the Premack principle?
Increase performance of the less preferred activity by pairing it with a more desirable activity.
41
What is the paradox of partial reinforcement?
Partial reinforcement leads to more vigorous and resistant responses during extinction.
42
What is the explanation of the PREE?
The unpredictable nature makes it harder for the learner to detect when reinforcement stopped.
43
What is stimulus control?
Discriminative stimuli control behavior, leading to observable differences in behavior.
44
What is the Law of Effect?
Behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely to occur again.
45
What is generalization?
Conditioned performances occur in the presence of cues similar to the original stimuli.
46
What is the requirement for stimulus control of instrumental behavior?
Cues must signal whether the response will be reinforced.
47
What is the peak shift effect?
People tend to overgeneralize away from the negative cue towards the positive direction.
48
What occurred in Herrnstein et al., 1974 and 1976?
Pigeons were trained in discrimination learning and showed sensitivity to reinforcement contingencies.
49
What is learning by exemplars?
Expertise develops from multiple experiences across wide variations.
50
How can stimuli be used to control behaviors?
Manage antecedents, link behaviors to specific times/places, and rearrange behaviors.
51
What is an example of stimulus control with insomnia?
Restoring the association between bed and sleep by reducing non-sleep activities in the bedroom.
52
What are the two factors that determine the likelihood of a response according to Thorndike?
1. Whether the response is followed by a pleasant or unpleasant event. 2. Whether cues present during reinforcement or punishment are still present.
53
What is stimulus-response learning?
Learning from creating associations between stimuli and responses, leading to the formation of habits.
54
What is Hull's definition of reinforcement?
Reinforcement is the reduction of the drive, which acts as a reinforcement for behavior.
55
What is the relationship between reinforcement and drive reduction?
Reinforcement = drive reduction; actions that coincide with the reduction of drive are reinforced.
56
What are the problems with stimulus-response learning?
1. Drive reduction is not necessary for behavior reinforcement. 2. Learning can occur without reinforcement. 3. Contingency learning exists.
57
What is contingency learning?
Learning the causal relations between behavior and outcomes, assessing the probability of outcomes based on responses.
58
What is the delta P rule?
Delta P is the difference in probabilities of an outcome following a response versus not following a response.
59
What are associations in learning?
Learning is the process where new associations are formed between stimuli through thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.
60
What is latent learning?
Learning that occurs without performance and does not correspond to behavior; reinforcement incentivizes performance.
61
What is goal-directed learning?
Trial and error learning where tasks are selected to maximize rewards based on the relative value of outcomes.
62
What is the outcome devaluation effect?
Reducing the value of an expected outcome can decrease motivation to perform behaviors that led to that outcome.
63
What is the belief-desire model of motivation?
Motivation is based on knowing an action leads to an outcome, desiring that outcome, and therefore performing the action.
64
How do goal-directed and habit systems of behavior differ?
Goal-directed behavior considers outcomes before responses, while habit systems provide straight stimulus-response regardless of outcomes.
65
How do motivational states affect goal-directed learning?
High motivational states increase attention to cues and outcomes, modulating expected value of outcomes.
66
What was the Amphetamine and rats study about?
Rats trained to press levers for rewards showed preference for unaccessed rewards after being given free access to one.
67
What is the difference between escape and avoidance?
Escape is reacting to an ongoing unpleasant stimulus, while avoidance is trying to prevent the unpleasant stimulus from occurring.
68
What is the paradox of avoidance?
Avoidance prevents aversive events from happening, making the absence of an event the reward.
69
What is the two-process theory solution?
It combines classical conditioning and instrumental learning to explain avoidance through conditioned fear and fear reduction.
70
What are the problems with the two-process theory?
It assumes classical conditioning must come first and a strong relationship between fear and avoidance.
71
What did Kamin's 1963 study find about avoidance and fear?
Well-trained animals showed avoidance behavior with low levels of fear towards the warning signal.
72
What are safety signals?
Cues that signal a period of safety, improving acquisition and maintenance of avoidance.
73
What is superstitious avoidance?
Rituals or objects believed to ward off negative events, despite lacking proven causality.
74
What is flooding in the treatment of avoidance?
Making the individual experience the warning signal while preventing avoidance responses to extinguish fear.
75
What is systematic desensitization?
A treatment for conditioned fear, gradually exposing individuals to fear-provoking aspects.
76
What is the fear avoidance model in chronic pain?
Individuals avoid movement to prevent pain, which hinders recovery; confronting pain is necessary for recovery.
77
What makes punishment effective?
Contiguity, contingency, stimulus control, availability of alternate responses, intensity.
78
What is contiguity in punishment?
Rapid punishment is more effective than delayed punishment.
79
What is contingency in punishment?
A partial punishment schedule is not as effective as consistent punishment.
80
What is stimulus control in punishment?
Putting punishment under control of a discriminative stimulus enables the stimulus to also reduce response rates.
81
How does the availability of alternate responses affect punishment?
Having an alternative option makes punishment more effective, as it is more likely for individuals to not engage in the punished behaviors.
82
What is intensity in punishment?
Intensity refers to the severity of punishment.
83
How does intensity affect punishment?
Starting with weak to severe punishment produces weak punishment; more severe punishments are needed for the same effect.
84
What is the Yerkes-Dodson study?
Rats had to choose a door for rewards or shocks; weak to moderate shocks improved performance, but intense shocks led to stress and poor choices.
85
What is the Yerkes-Dodson Law?
There is an optimal level of arousal that improves performance and learning; too little leads to lack of motivation, too much impairs performance.
86
How does punishment reduce behaviors?
Through the reverse Premack principle and aversive consequences that create fear.
87
What is the reverse Premack principle?
When an individual must do a less preferred activity after a highly preferred one, decreasing the preference for the highly preferred activity.
88
What are the major negative effects of punishment?
1. Suppression of all behaviors, 2. Risk of aggression, 3. Modeling of violence, 4. Avoidance of the punishing agent, 5. Indiscriminate punishment.
89
What is learned helplessness?
A condition where individuals feel they have no control over outcomes due to non-contingent exposure to stressors.
90
What is transituationality?
The transfer of learned behaviors or responses from one domain to another.
91
What is inoculation?
Prior experience with control reduces the impact of loss of control.
92
What are the concerns when using time out?
Emotional distress, effects on attachment, does not teach desirable behaviors, can be reinforcing, models ostracism.
93
How can time out be made safer and more effective?
Make it rare, brief, monitored, explain reasons clearly, ensure not reinforcing, and reconnect afterwards.
94
What is concurrent choice?
Situations where individuals have two or more response options available at the same time.
95
What is the Matching Law?
The principle that the distribution of behaviors can be predicted by the history of reinforcement.
96
What is Differential Reinforcement of Other Responses (DRO)?
A technique that reinforces alternative behaviors instead of punishing unwanted ones.
97
What is intertemporal choice?
Making decisions between current and future outcomes.
98
What is temporal discounting?
The tendency to devalue rewards as the delay to receiving them increases.
99
What are methods for improving self-control?
Control antecedents and control the value of competing choices.
100
What is stimulus guided choice?
Decision making controlled primarily by external stimuli rather than internal values.
101
What is Pavlovian Instrumental Transfer?
A phenomenon where classical conditioning influences operant behavior.
102
What is cue induced craving?
Desire for a substance triggered by environmental cues associated with rewards.
103
What is the incubation effect?
Cravings become stronger the longer the abstinence period, then drop off.
104
What are the two factor processes in drug seeking behavior?
Avoidance and cue induced craving.
105
What is extrinsic motivation?
Behavior driven by external rewards.
106
What are the negative effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation?
Extrinsic rewards can undermine intrinsic motivation, leading to dependency on rewards.
107
How does intrinsic motivation develop?
Through competence, relatedness, and autonomy as described by Self Determination Theory.
108
What is learned industriousness?
The habit of persistence and effort developed through reinforcement.
109
What are attributional styles?
How people attribute causes and stability of events in their lives.
110
What is Expectancy value theory?
The anticipated benefit or satisfaction from choosing a particular option.
111
What is efficacy?
The ability to complete a task, reflecting the probability of success.
112
What are the motivational effects of a sense of efficacy and locus of control?
Higher efficacy leads to greater effort and persistence; internal locus of control promotes proactive behavior.
113
What is optimism bias?
The overestimation of positive events and underestimation of negative events.
114
What is the Dunning-Kruger effect?
A cognitive bias causing people to overestimate their knowledge or abilities.
115
What is behavioral analysis?
Analyzing behaviors to assess factors driving them for improvement.
116
What considerations are made for changing behaviors?
What is the reward, what is the alternative, what are the costs.
117
Why do we focus on behaviors?
Behaviors contribute to distress; understanding causes allows for effective change.
118
What are overt vs covert events?
Overt = can be observed by another person. Covert = internal events that are important to behaviour, e.g., cognitive, emotions.
119
What are the steps for creating a behaviour change plan?
1. Decide that the behaviour should be changed. 2. Decide which aspect of the behaviour is problematic. 3. Decide how to measure the problematic aspect of the behaviour. 4. Observe and measure contingencies between the behaviour, antecedents, and its consequences. 5. Develop hypotheses about which antecedents and consequences are important drivers of the behaviour. 6. Devise a behaviour change plan where antecedents or consequences are changed or in which you establish new antecedents and consequences. 7. Implement the intervention and measure the behaviour. 8. If behaviour does not change, return to step 4 and evaluate. 9. If behaviour does change, then successful.
120
What is the importance of measurement for accurately measuring behaviours?
- Allows to see what causes behaviours. - Allows you to determine if intervention is successful. - Identifying operant and measuring it carefully allows us to set up new contingencies. - Represents specific outcome trying to achieve.
121
What are the methods for measuring behaviour, pros and cons?
Observation: Pros: excellent accuracy, reliability, quantitative, qualitative and contextual info. Cons: expensive, intrusive, artificial. Questionnaire: Pros: quick, easy, can measure quality and qualitative data. Cons: relies on accurate recall and meta cognition. Daily diaries: Pros: accurate about daily activities, no need for recall, measure quality. Cons: onerous on participant. Momentary assessment: Pros: reduce necessity of recall. Cons: accuracy requires frequent prompts. Smartphone apps: Pros: no need for recall and not onerous. Cons: cannot record contextual or qualitative info.
122
What are the social cognitive models of behavioural change?
Theory of reasoned action and theory of planned behaviour.
123
What is the theory of reasoned action?
Looks at how an individual's behaviour is primarily driven by the intention to perform the behaviour, which is then influenced by attitudes and subjective norms.
124
What is the theory of planned behaviour?
Builds upon the theory of reasoned action, taking into account how perceived behavioural control is also considered alongside attitudes and subjective norms when forming intentions and influencing behaviours.
125
What is the case study about Ann?
Ann isolated herself from other children and sought attention from teachers. The plan was to make formal interventions by rewarding her when she played with other kids instead of responding to her calls for attention. This helped her interact more with children.
126
What is involved in empirical assessment?
1. Observation and data collection. 2. Interpretation. 3. Intervention. 4. Assessment.
127
What are triggers and how to manage them?
Triggers are important temporal or physical stimuli or context that precede the behaviour. To manage triggers, manage antecedents using techniques like linking behaviour to specific time and place, rearranging behaviour to make it easier to begin, and highlighting long-term benefits.
128
What are the types of incentives, and how do they help behaviour change?
Types of incentives: primary rewards, activity rewards, token rewards, intrinsic rewards (progress, mastery, achievement). Use of rewards: immediate, contingent, and valuable.
129
How to use goal setting/design goals to shape behaviours?
Goals need to assist development of intrinsic motivation and habit formation. They should be immediate, well defined, achievable, and meaningful.
130
What is the protection motivation theory (Rogers, 1975)?
Model that shows how we evaluate whether or not the behaviour is worth changing. It includes fear appraisal (severity, vulnerability, maladaptive response rewards) and coping appraisal (response efficacy, self efficacy, response cost).
131
What happens when fear appraisal does not work?
If a campaign just highlights fear or the message is too much, it can result in maladaptive coping. Effective campaigns give both an appeal to fear and a call to action.
132
What is behavioural prepotency and how do we establish this?
Refers to the automaticity of a behaviour, like habit strength. To establish habits: establish clear triggers, protect these triggers, repetition, and sweeten effort with rewards.
