Learning psychology

Question 1

What is classical conditioning?

Answer 1

learning by association, natural reflexes are paired with a neutral stimuli

Question 2

What did Pavlov do?

Answer 2

studied salvation in dogs. The dogs were kept in a special room to eliminate extraneous variables, the dog was strapped into a harness to restrict movement and glass tubes were attached to each side of the dogs mouth to collect saliva. The experimenter would sound a buzzer present food and measure salvation

Question 3

What is an unconditioned stimulus?

Answer 3

Innate stimulus that causes an automatic reflex response. The food

Question 4

What is an unconditioned response?

Answer 4

Innate response to a specific stimulus which is automatically produced. Salvation

Question 5

What is a neutral stimulus?

Answer 5

Elicits no response. Buzzer

Question 6

What is a conditioned stimulus?

Answer 6

A stimulus that originally produced no reflexive response. Paired with the unconditioned stimulus to produce a response. Buzzer

Question 7

What is a conditioned response?

Answer 7

A learnt response to a stimulus. Occurs when conditioned stimulus is presented. Salvation

Question 8

What is forward conditioning?

Answer 8

the NS/CS is presented before the UCS

Question 9

What are the two types of forward conditioning?

Answer 9

Delayed conditioning and trace conditioning

Question 10

What is delayed conditioning?

Answer 10

This is where the NS/CS keeps going (buzzer keeps going) when UCS (food) is introduced

Question 11

Wat is trace conditioning?

Answer 11

this is where the NS/CS starts and ends (the buzzer is rung and then stops ringing) before the UCS (food) is introduced

Question 12

What is spontaneous conditioning?

Answer 12

the means simultaneous presentation of NS/CS (buzzer) and UCS (food)

Question 13

What is backwards conditioning?

Answer 13

this means that the UCS (food) is presented first and then the NS/CS (buzzer) appears. So the NS is presented after the UCS

Question 14

What is extinction - classical conditioning?

Answer 14

If a conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without the US then the CS disappears (buzz without giving food the dog starts salivating)

Question 15

What is spontaneous recovery?

Answer 15

Temporary return of an extinguished response after a day

Question 16

What is stimulus generalisation - classical conditioning?

Answer 16

Extension of the conditioned response from the original response from the original stimulus to similar stimuli. (Use buzzer causes salivation, other things also sounding like the buzzer also results in salivation)

Question 17

What is stimulus discrimination?

Answer 17

Conditions response to a specific stimulus

Question 18

What was the aim of Pavlov’s study?

Answer 18

Investigate the reflex response of salivation and to see if associating a reflex with a neutral stimulus producing a conditioned reflex

Question 19

What was the procedure of Pavlov’s study?

Answer 19

• Built a special chamber room to prevent all extraneous variables
• Baseline condition - put meat in the dog’s mouth to measure the salivation reflex
• Control condition - Pavlov presented the dog with food
• Experimental condition - Pavlov presented the dogs with a metronome, an electric buzzer and a tuning fork, the dogs did not salivate to any of these sounds
• He paired the arrival of food with the sound of the metronome
  -Pavlov also investigated wether order of conditioning had an effect on learning

Question 20

What were the findings of Pavlov’s study?

Answer 20

• In baseline condition - he found secretion began after 1-2 seconds
• In control condition - secretion started after 5 seconds and 6 drops of saliva collected after 15 seconds
• In experimental condition - when presented with metronome salivation started after 9 seconds and by 45 seconds 11 droplets of saliva produced
• Forward conditioning produced salivation but backward conditioning did not work

Question 21

What did Pavlov conclude?

Answer 21

‘Signalisation’ in the brain links the metronome to food and gives the reflex response of salivation when the metronome is presented but food is not

Question 22

What was the aim of Watson and Rayner’s study?

Answer 22

Demonstrate classical conditioning could be used to create an irrational fear in humans

Question 23

What was the procedure of Watson and Rayner’s study?

Answer 23

• 1 participant named ‘Little Albert’
• First assessed at nine months and was emotionally stable and showed no fear of several objects. A white rat (NS/CS)
• They also banged a hammer against a steel bar (UCS) to make a loud noise and found a feared response: lips puckered and trembled (UCR)
• At 11 months they began the procedure - Whenever the rat was in ‘Little Albert’s’ lap Watson made a loud noise banging the steel are behind his back. This was carried out twice then 5 times the following week
  -12 days after the experiment had begun they realised they could condition a boy to have a feared response to a white rat an decided to introduce other objects with white fur

Question 24

What was the findings of Watson and Rayner’s study?

Answer 24

They could create an irrational fear in humans using classical conditioning to a specific object as well as other objects similar to it - stimulus generalisation

Question 25

What was the conclusion of Watson and Rayner's study?

Answer 25

A conditioned emotional response can occur in humans after only a few pairings of stimuli. The conditioned response can be transferred to similar objects

Question 26

What is operant conditioning?

Answer 26

- learning by consequences, 'trial and error learning'

Question 27

How did Thorndike use operant conditioning?

Answer 27

He put a cat into a puzzle box and then recorded how long it took the time to escape. When it had escaped it was put in again and again and recorded time taken to escape. Thorndike said that operant conditioning is so named because the subject operates on the environment to produce an outcome

Question 28

What was Thorndike's law of effect?

Answer 28

A response that is followed by pleasant consequences becomes more probable

Question 29

What was the work of Skinner?

Answer 29

He mainly used rats and placed them in a 'skinner box' the rat had to open a food tray by pressing a lever, therefore pressing the lever is reinforced by the arrival of food

Question 30

What is positive reinforcement?

Answer 30

Something pleasant is given when a desirable behaviour is shown

Question 31

What is negative reinforcement?

Answer 31

something unpleasant is taken away when a desirable behaviour is shown

Question 32

What is punishment?

Answer 32

decreased likelihood of behaviour by reducing negative behaviour

Question 33

What is positive punishment?

Answer 33

something unpleasant is given when an undesirable behaviour is sown

Question 34

What is negative punishment?

Answer 34

something pleasant is taken away when any undesirable behaviour is shown

Question 35

What are primary reinforcers?

Answer 35

anything that satisfies a basic need

Question 36

What are secondary reinforcers?

Answer 36

things that are given in exchange for a primary reinforcer

Question 37

What is extinction - operant conditioning?

Answer 37

The conditioned response is no longer reinforced the behaviour will then gradually weaken and disappear

Question 38

What is stimulus generalisation - operant conditioning?

Answer 38

If a person or animal is reinforced for making a particular response to a certain stimulus, likely to make same response to similar stimulus

Question 39

What are the two types of schedules of reinforcement?

Answer 39

- Interval schedules - Ratio schedules

Question 40

What are interval schedules?

Answer 40

- Reinforcement is provided after a period of time - Fixed interval schedule - Variable interval schedule

Question 41

What's a fixed interval schedule?

Answer 41

A reward is given after specified amount of time

Question 42

Whats variable interval schedule?

Answer 42

Rewarding behaviour on a random length of time

Question 43

What are ratio schedules?

Answer 43

- Reinforcement is provided after a number of correct behaviours - Fixed rato schedules - Variable ratio schedules

Question 44

What is a fixed ratio schedules?

Answer 44

reinforcing a response only after a specified number of correct responses

Question 45

What is variable ratio schedules?

Answer 45

Rewarding behaviour after a random number of correct responses

Question 46

What are the six different types of observations?

Answer 46

- Naturalistic - in their own environment - Controlled - ofte in a lab - Participant - researcher is part of research - Non-participant - observer chooses not to take part in research - Overt - aware they are being observed - Covert - researcher's status not made known to the group

Question 47

What is event sampling?

Answer 47

deciding before conducting the observation what behaviours you expect to see

Question 48

What is time sampling?

Answer 48

deciding before conducting observation what time periods behaviours will be recorded down from

Question 49

What did Bandura suggest about learning?

Answer 49

learning could occur via observation of others

Question 50

What type of people do we observe and imitate?

Answer 50

role models

Question 51

What makes a good role model?

Answer 51

- model is same sex - model is liked, respected - model is reinforced for behaviour

Question 52

What are the four parts of the ARRM model?

Answer 52

- Attention - the behaviour of the role model must be noticed and watched - Retention - the behaviour that has been observed must be remembered - Reproduction - the previously observed behaviour will be imitated by the observer - Motivation - we need the desire to imitate the behaviour

Question 53

What are the three types of motivation?

Answer 53

Vicarious reinforcement - you see the role model reinforced for their behaviour and so will imitate the behaviour to receive the same positive reinforcement Internal reinforcement- feeling a sense of pride or belonging for behaving like a role model