Midterm 2

Question 1

Habituation

Answer 1

A decrease in the strength or occurrence of a behaviour after repeated exposure to the stimulus that produces that behaviour

Question 2

Acoustic startle reflex

Answer 2

A defensive response to a startling stimulus

Question 3

Orienting response

Answer 3

An organism’s innate reaction to a novel stimulus

Question 4

Dishabituation

Answer 4

A renewal of a response, previously habituated, that occurs when the organism is presented with a novel stimulus

Question 5

Spontaneous recovery

Answer 5

Reappearance (or increase in strength) of a previously habituated response after a short period of no stimulus presentation

Question 6

Sensitization

Answer 6

An increase in the strength or occurrence of a behavior due to exposure to an arousing or noxious stimulus

Question 7

Dual process theory

Answer 7

The theory that habituation and sensitization are independent of each other but operate in parallel; For any type of stimulus you’re exposed to, it can be processed along two processing paths - reflex pathway and state system

Question 8

Reflex pathway

Answer 8

• Low threshold pathway
• Responds to just about anything
• Weakens with use
• Accounts for habituation

Question 9

State system

Answer 9

• High threshold system
• Very difficult to trigger activity
• Globally boosts responding throughout reflex pathway when activated (sensitizes the reflex pathway)

Question 10

Skin conductance response (SCR)

Answer 10

A change in the skin’s electrical conductivity associated with emotions such as anxiety, fear, or surprise

Question 11

Novel object recognition

Answer 11

An organism’s detection of and response to unfamiliar objects during exploratory behaviour

Question 12

Synaptic depression

Answer 12

A reduction in synaptic transmission; a possible neural mechanism underlying habituation

Question 13

Homosynaptic

Answer 13

Occurring in one synapse without affecting nearby synapses

Question 14

Heterosynaptic

Answer 14

Occurring in several nearby synapses simultaneously

Question 15

What happens during gill-withdrawal reflex in sea slugs?

Answer 15

Touching the siphon excites sensory neuron S, which releases glutamate, which excites motor neuron M, which drives the withdrawal response. With repeated stimulation, neuron S releases less glutamate, decreasing the chance that neuron M will be excited enough to fire

Question 16

What are the properties that make the sea slug interesting to study?

Answer 16

• Only about 20,000 neurons
• Some neurons are visible to the naked eye
• Consistent layout

Question 17

Fun facts about sea slugs

Answer 17

• Can grow to be 2.5 feet long (75cm)
• Can grow to be as heavy as 15lbs
• Get their red colouring from eating red algae
• Accumulate toxins from algae which makes them toxic to predators
• Can release ink when approached by predators
• When mating, they form chain of many sea slugs

Question 18

Stroke

Answer 18

When blood flow to some region of the brain stops or when an artery ruptures, causing neurons in the affected region to die

Question 19

Constraint-induced movement therapy

Answer 19

A motor rehabilitation technique in which unaffected limbs are restrained to increase usage of dysfunctional limbs

Question 20

Unconditioned stimulus (US)

Answer 20

A cue that has some biological significance and in the absence of prior training naturally evokes a response

Question 21

Unconditioned response (UR)

Answer 21

The naturally occurring response to an unconditioned stimulus (US)

Question 22

Conditioned stimulus (CS)

Answer 22

A cue that is paired with an unconditioned stimulus (US) and comes to elicit a conditioned response (CR)

Question 23

Conditioned response (CR)

Answer 23

The trained response to a conditioned stimulus (CS) in anticipation of the unconditioned stimulus (US) that it predicts

Question 24

Appetitive conditioning

Answer 24

Conditioning in which the US is a positive event (such as food delivery)

Question 25

Aversive conditioning

Answer 25

Conditioning in which the US is a negative event (such as a shock or an air puff to the eye)

Question 26

Eyeblink conditioning

Answer 26

A classical conditioning procedure in which the US is an air puff to the eye and the conditioned and unconditioned responses are eyeblinks

Question 27

Tolerance

Answer 27

A decrease in reaction to a drug so that larger doses are required to achieve the same effect

Question 28

Homeostasis

Answer 28

The tendency of the body to gravitate toward a state of equilibrium or balance

Question 29

Extinction

Answer 29

The process of reducing a learned response to a stimulus by ceasing to pair that stimulus with a reward or punishment

Question 30

Compound conditioning

Answer 30

The simultaneous conditioning of two cues, usually presented at the same time

Question 31

Overshadowing

Answer 31

An effect seen in compound conditioning when a more salient cue within a compound acquires more association strength, and is thus more strongly conditioned, than does the less salient cue

Question 32

Blocking

Answer 32

A two-phase training paradigm in which prior training to one cue blocks later learning of a second cue when the two are paired together in the second phase of the training

Question 33

Prediction error

Answer 33

The difference between what was predicted and what actually occurred

Question 34

Error-correction learning

Answer 34

A mathematical specification of the conditions for learning that holds that the degree to which an outcome is surprising modulates the amount of learning that takes place

Question 35

Associative weight

Answer 35

In the Rescorla-Wagner model of conditioning, a value representing the strength of association between a conditioned stimulus (CS) and an unconditioned stimulus (US)

Question 36

Latent inhibition

Answer 36

A conditioning paradigm in which prior exposure to a CS retards later learning of the CS-US association during acquisition training

Question 37

US modulation theory

Answer 37

Any of the theories of conditioning that say the stimulus that enters into an association that is determined by a change in how the US is processed

Question 38

CS modulation theory

Answer 38

Any of the theories of conditioning holding that the stimulus that enters into an association is determined by a change in how the CS is processed

Question 39

Trial-level model

Answer 39

A theory of learning in which all of the cues that occur during a trial and all of the changes that result are considered a single event