Operant and classical conditioning Flashcards

1
Q

What is the psychology of learning?

A

study of how behavioural principles are responsible for the learning and unlearning of behaviour.

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2
Q

What are the two main types of learning?

A
  • Behaviour changes because of stimulus presentations ( Stimulus and response)
  • Behaviour changes because of stimulus-response contingencies = S and R and consequence
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3
Q

What is habituation?

A

repeated presentation of an unconditioned stimulus leading to a reduction in unconditioned response

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4
Q

What are some studies demonstrating habituation

A

Snail tapping - will stop to withdraw head into shell
Epstein et al (1992) : after trail two salivation response to taste of lemon or lime juice decreased.

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5
Q

What are the pros and cons of habituation

A

Pros: we can start to zone out any unimportant sensory input
Cons: may miss important sensory input.

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6
Q

What processes is habituation involved in?

A

stress (increased tolerance to stressors)
Pain (increased tolerance)
eating (getting use to strong flavours)
drug use (drug tolerance)
fear (desensitisation)

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7
Q

What is classical conditioning?

A

Pavlov showed how learning can occur : Unconditioned stimulus causes a natural response, this is the unconditioned response, the conditioned stimulus produces a conditioned response which is the same response as the unconditioned response.

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8
Q

What are three key factors in the process of classical conditioning?

A

Discrimination, contingency awareness, extinction

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9
Q

What is the role of extinction in classical conditioning?

A

the conditioned response will reduced then cease if the unconditioned and conditioned stimuli are not occasionally presented together. Conditioned stimuli returns to neutral. not permanent. Spontaneous recovery.

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10
Q

what is the role of discrimination in classical conditioning

A

need to ability to discriminate between conditioned, other or absence of stimuli. E.g. discriminating between bell sound vs other sounds or appearance cs+ (red light for food) vs cs- ( green when no food) - Pavlovian discrimination training.

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11
Q

what is the role of contingent awareness in classical conditioning?

A

awareness of the pairing between two stimuli, Pps can verbalise the link. When masked (by distractor task), conditioning is not seen. Pairing creates expectancy.

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12
Q

how does classical conditioning relate to fear and anxiety?

A

a fear to the a previously neutral stimulus can be conditioned resulting in a conditioned response (fear) when paired with a previous fear (unconditioned stimulus).

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13
Q

What is the difference between fear and anxiety?

A

fear : emotional response to real or perceived imminent threat, adaptive
anxiety : anticipation of future threat, maladaptive.

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14
Q

what is the study that demonstrate how fear can be classically conditioned, and evaluate it.

A

watson and rayner (1920) : little albert. fear generalisation.
unethical, lacks experimental control, poor population validity.
Beck et al (2009) : douglas merritte, not healthy, neurological issues, claims of normality
Powell et al (2014) : albert barger, long healthy life, consistent with study.

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15
Q

in terms of classical conditioning, why can fear be generalised

A

Other stimuli that have similar features to the conditioned stimuli can elicit the same conditioned response.
Adaptative for survival
maladaptive if non-threatening stimuli.

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16
Q

What studies demonstrate generalisation of conditioned stimulis?

A

Dunsmoor et al (2009) : cs+ (ambiguous face) paired with us (electric shock) neutral face not reinforced cs-. Fear to type of expression not the appearance of the face. more predisposed to generalised to things for survival.
Lissek et al (2008) : panic disorder vs control , ring size and startle blink refelx, stronger generalisation in panic patients - 3 rings.

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17
Q

evaluate the theory of how fear and anxiety can be conditioned?

A

A lot of research evidence
Individual differences : internal evolution of even effects contingency awareness, explains why some develop fears and others do not.
Davey 1995 : enhanced predisposition to associate certain stimuli with trauma
Spontaneous remission : there may be a revaluation of the unconditioned stimulus and fear symptoms may rapidly disappear with no treatment.

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18
Q

Explain how taste aversion can be classically conditioned?

A

Bad experience with food (e.g. food poisoning) no longer like the food.
Garcia effect: nausea does not come to later, we biologically still make the conditioning for survival purposes.

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19
Q

How can classical conditioning also be applied?

A

Acquisition of clinical disorders and treatment
substance abuse
consumer activity
studying brain functioning
development and application of therapies.

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20
Q

How can classical conditioning be applied to addiction/ substance misuse.

A

classical less strongly implicated then operant
cues : relapse of addiction.

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21
Q

what is evaluative conditioning

A

forming or change of an attitude due to the pairing of neutral stimulus with a positive or negative stimulus.

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22
Q

what study demonstrate evaluative conditioning

A

Staats and Staats, 1958: exp 1 dutch and Swedish, exp 2, tom and bill, names paired 18 times with either postive or negative words (us), names with positive words viewed more positively.

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23
Q

How does systematic desensitisation help with phobias

A

relaxation techniques gradually paired with stressor. start of slowly exposing the stressor.

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24
Q

How does flooding help with phobias

A

exposing individual to maximum- intensity, relaxation techniques to calm down, neutralising the fight or flight response.

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25
Q

Why has there been a decline in use of systematic desensitisation and flooding?

A

bandura 1971 - modelling is another example of exposure therapy.
Marks (1975) common factor to all these therapies is exposure. rise of CBT.

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26
Q

How is Virtual reality exposure therapy used for treating phobias?

A

useful for uncontrollable or difficult to access or inaccessible.

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27
Q

Evaluate exposure therapy for treating phobias

A

A lot of evidence.
flooding can be distressing and difficult to administer
systematic desensitisation less distressing. VRT offers modern alternative.

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28
Q

how is aversion therapy use to treat addiction

A

break a negative habit, paired with something aversive e.g. nausea medication, used unethically in mid 20th century to cure homosexuality,

29
Q

what is the evaluation of aversion therapy?

A

unethical use in the past
work well for certain addictions where behaviours have become very risky.

30
Q

what are the three term contingency for how environment affects behaviour

A

antecedent - behaviour - consequence

31
Q

what is behaviour?

A

what people do and say, measured objectively,

32
Q

what is a consequence

A

stimulus that follows behaviour, affects the probability that behaviour will occur again. reinforcement or punishment

33
Q

Explain the role of reinforcer on behaviour

A

increases chances of behaviour happening again
positive - something added as
negative- something removed

34
Q

positive reinforcement

A

addition of a stimulus
directly after behaviour
results in an increase in probability of behaviour happening again

35
Q

what is the role of motivation in reinforcement

A

An motivator establishes operations, it provides a motive for the antecedent to occur in the first place and therefore the behaviour.

36
Q

How is superstitious behaviour reinforced

A

when reinforcement ‘ accidentally’ follow a behaviour that did not produce the reinforcement. Skinner (1948) : reinforcement at regular intervals with no reference to the birds behaviour.

37
Q

negative reinforcement

A

removal, termination, reduction or postponement of a stimulus, resulting in an increase of that behaviour happening again.

38
Q

what two types of responding negative reinforcement are there?

A

escape contingency : response terminates stimuli
response prevents or postpones stimuli

39
Q

positive vs negative reinforcement

A

+ produces a stimulus that was absent prior to behaviour
- terminates a stimulus that was present prior to behaviour

40
Q

what factors affect reinforcement

A

time : stimulus needs to be delivered immediately after behaviour
contingent : reinforcement needs to follow behaviour we want to increase. should not be general.

41
Q

as with contingency awareness for classical conditioning, we need to be aware of reinforcing for it to occur, what is the experiment?

A

Bradshaw and Reed (2012) : 6 experiments, performance on schedules of reinforcement, (positively reinforced) significantly related to awareness of performance which produced reinforcement.

42
Q

what are the guidelines for applying reinforcement

A

positive : learner needs to know about programme, describe desired behaviour, use lots of praise a physical contact. Slowly go from tangible reinforcers to natural.

43
Q

Evaluate good things about positive and negative reinforcement

A
  • evidence for reinforcers on behaviour (skinner)
  • ethical compared to punishment
  • helps develop good practices
    -specific about response that are being conditioned
  • effective in long term, intrinsic motivation occurs
44
Q

evaluate bad things about positive and negative reinforcement

A
  • have to be immediate and consistent
  • could reinforce non-target behaviour
    can be used unethically
  • can be lengthy to implement
  • not useful to prevent harmful behaviours
45
Q

when does extinction occur?

A

reinforcer no longer occurs. or for classical CS consistently shown without paired US

46
Q

What are some studies that demonstrates extinction in terms of reinforcement?

A

Williams (1959) : duration of crying out babies measured in two extinction sessions
Lovaas and simmons (1969) : head hitting decreased from 2500 hits per hour to zero within 10 sessions.
Hasazi and Hasazi (1972) : effect of teacher attention on digit reversal.

47
Q

what are the side effects of extinction?

A

extinction burst : behaviour may increase in frequency, duration or intensity
novel behaviour may occur
emotional responses or aggressive behaviour may occur

48
Q

evaluate extinction for real life conditioning

A
  • more ethical alternative to punishment
  • take a while
  • behaviour could come back more entrench if there is not full commitment
  • can be difficult if reinforcement is not specified
49
Q

In operant conditioning terms what is meant by punishment

A

process of reducing behaviour by adding or removing a consequence

50
Q

whats an unconditioned punisher

A

stimulus whose presentation functions as punishment without having been paired with any other punishers. Pain, odours, taste

51
Q

Provide some research support demonstrating positive punishment

A

Sajwaj et al (1974) : decreased life threatening rumination in 6 month old infant with contingent delivery of a small amount of lemon juice into child’s mouth.

52
Q

list some positive punishment procedures

A

contingent exercise
Overcorrection:
resituational,positive practice

53
Q

explain how contingent exercise is a form of positive punishment

A

required to perform a effortful response that is not related to the problem behaviour
Luce et al (1980) : decreased aggressive behaviour by requiring the child, contingent on hitting someone to stand up and sit down ten times

54
Q

explain how overcorrection is used as a form of positive punishment

A

client is required to engage in effortful behaviour directly related to the problem.
resistutional: client must correct the environmental effects of the problem
positive practice: client ha to engage in correct form of relevant behaviour.

55
Q

how does response cost work in regards to negative punishment

A

removal of a specified amount of reinforcer contingent on the occurrence of a problem behaviour, results in a decreased future probability. number of stickers, money given, time listening to music.

56
Q

what factors influence the power of a stimulus to function as a punisher

A

contingency, immediacy and magnitude

57
Q

what are the risks associated with punishment

A

emotional reactions
escape and avoidance
negative reinforcement of the punishers behaviour
negative modelling
fails to teach an appropriate replacement behaviour

58
Q

what are the pros of using punishment

A

works fast and effectively
can prevent harmful behaviours
can sometimes be the most ethical option

59
Q

what are the cons of using punishment

A

more potential for unethical use
shouldn’t be used as an easy option
doesn’t indicate which behaviours are desirable
risk of punisher accierdtally reinforcing own behaviour in an unethical way

60
Q

what types of intermittent reinforcement schedules are there

A

ratio schedules: reinforcement is delivered based on number of responses emitted
interval schedules: reinforcement is delivered based on the first response emitted after a specified period of time.
both can subdivided into fixed or variable.

61
Q

`what is fixed schedules in regards to reinforcement

A

fixed interval : response ratio on time requirement remains constant.
fixed ratio : response ratio after specified number of responses

62
Q

what is variable schedules in regards to reinforcement

A

Variable ratio: the reinforcer is delivered after an average number of responses
Variable interval: the reinforcer is delivered for the first response after an average period of time

63
Q

Typical responses for fixed ratio reinforcement

A

first response is completed with little pause, post reinforcement pause follows.

64
Q

Pickens and Thompsons , 1968

A

cocaine reinforcement in rats, press lever for cocaine, response varied directly as function of size of fixed ratio,

65
Q

typical response for variable ratio reinforcement

A

ratio requirements are completed with very high rate of response and little hesitation, rate of response depends on size of ratio requirment

66
Q

provide some real life research demonstrating Variable ratio reinforcement

A

VR vs continuous scale in mountain beaver trappers.
Paid an extra 1 dollar per beaver trapped or 4 dollar per 4 beavers, in continuous group it increased by 50% but for VR4 group increased by 108%

67
Q

typical response for fixed interval reinforcement

A

typically produces a post reinforcement pause, gradually accelerating rate of response at the end of the interval is called FI scallop.

68
Q

typical response for variable interval reinforcement

A

steady response rate, few if any post reinforcement pause, constant and stable.

69
Q

what research demonstrates variable interval reinforcement

A
  • presses on one buttons reinforced with VI30
  • presses on another concurrent button never reinforced
  • superstitious responding often maintained on second button due to proximity of responding on that button with reinforcement delivered after press on first button