week 10 Flashcards
(39 cards)
What does “Learning” mean?
Learning: Process by which experiences change our nervous system and hence our behaviour
What are the 4 theories of learning?
Classical Conditioning
Operant Conditioning
Perceptual Learning
Relational Learning
Explain classical condition, before, during and after learning.
Classical Conditioning: Before Learning
- Presented with food (unconditioned stimulus) ➡ automatic salivation(unconditioned response) ➡ involuntary to something that smells good
- Ring the bell (conditioned stimulus) ➡ nothing happens with the dog
Classical Conditioning: During Learning
- If we pair food with the bell, can we eventually get the salivation response to bell
Classical Conditioning: After Learning
- Bell becomes CS and dog has a CR to the bell
Who is the father of Behaviourism? And what does he suggest about behaviours?
John B. Watson (Father of Behaviorism):
Behaviorists suggest that all behaviors are acquired through conditioning and conditioning occurs through interactions with the environment
What is the Little Albert Experiment, 1920?
Fear Response: Little Albert Experiment, 1920
Albert playing with white rat
Loud bang(US) → Crying (UR)
Rat (CS) → Bang (US) → Crying (UR)
Rat (CS) → Crying (CR)
Generalization → bunny, white fur coat, Santa mask
Once a behavior is conditioned, can it be de-conditioned? I.e., Extinction, Follow-up of Little Albert
Mary Cover Jones (Mother of Behavior Therapy)
Follow-up to Little Albert: A Laboratory Study of Fear: The Case ofPeter (1924)
Rabbit(US) → Fear (UR)
Rabbit (US) → tasty food(CS) → → fear reduction(CR)
Direct conditioning (a.k.a., desensitization)
Explain Operant Conditioning, using the B.F Skinner,1937 study. hint ; reinforce + punishment
B. F. Skinner, 1937
Noticed that the effects of a particular behaviour (i.e., the reinforcers) in a particular situation increase or decrease the probability of the behaviour in the future
Modification of voluntary (or “operant”) behaviour
Use of punishment (to decrease future behavior) or reinforcement (to increase future behavior)
Animal would press lever, depending on if the light flashes red, green or a voice
The reinforcer in this box is food pellets
The punishment would be the electrical grid to shock the rats paws
Say the experimenters want the rat to learn to press the lever when the light flashes green
Green light to pressing lever = food(reinforce)
Redlight to pressing lever = shock(punish)
In relation to operant conditioning, briefly explain the difference between positive/negative reinforcement and positive/negative punishment.
➕ Reinforcement = a consequence that causes a behaviour to occur with greater frequency
➕ Punishment = a consequence that causes a behaviour to occur with decreased frequency
➖ Reinforcement = removing something to increase behaviour
➖ Punishment = remove something to decrease behaviour
What is Continuous and Intermittent Reinforcement?
Continuous Reinforcement: The desired behavior is reinforced every single time it occurs.
Best used when first learning to create a strong association between the behavior and response.
E.g., training your dog to sit with biscuits
Intermittent Reinforcement: Once the response is established. The response is reinforced only part of the time.
Learned behaviors are acquired more slowly, but the response is more resistant to extinction.
Fixed-ratio or Variable ratio (# responses)
Fixed interval or Variable interval (amount of time)
What are the two main differences between Operant and Classical Conditioning?
The “type of behavior” behaviour
Responsive vs. voluntary behaviour
Presentation of the stimulus
CS presented first vs. after behaviour
What does Perceptual learning involve?
Perceptual Learning involves learning to recognize things;
it involves perceptual changes from practice or experience.
Differentiation(differentiating two things); unitization (perceiving individual units); stimulus imprinting(recognizing that perhaps you do not need to identify the units to understand); attentional weighting (learning through experience)
What is Relational Learning?
Most learning is more complex than simple S-R associations
Involves learning the temporal and spatial relationships among objects and events
Memory allows you to travel back in time (see a Fir tree, associate with presents, santa, cookies i.e., christmas)
What are 6 types of memory?
Short-term memory: memory of events that have just occurred
Long-term memory: memory of events from times further back
Working memory: manipulating information in ST
Explicit Memory/ Declarative: memory of facts and events
Episodic (personal) vs. Semantic (general, factual information)
Implicit Memory/ Procedural: motor memory
What are the differences in STM(short term memory) and LTM(long term memory)?
Short-term memory has a limited capacity; long-term memory does not
Short-term memory fades quickly without rehearsal; long-term memories persist
Long-term memory can be stimulated with a cue/ hint; retrieval of memories lost from STM do not benefit from the presence of a cue
STM usually described in more contextual detail than LTM
How is LTM understood through a physiological point of view?
Physiologically, it is thought that long term memories are formed through long-term potentiation (LTP)(long-term potentiation is a persistent strengthening of synapses based on recent patterns of activity)
The hippocampus seems to play a role in converting memories from STM to LTM
Emotionally significant information is more likely to be stored in LTM
Locus coeruleus (NE) and DA projection to the HC.
Flashbulb memories
What is an Engram?
physical representation of what has been learned
How does pavlov explain Learning?
The UCS excites the UCS center in the brain which excites the UCR center. The CS excites the CS center, which elites no response of interest. After training, excitation int he CS flows to the UCS center, thus electing the same response as the UCS
How did Karl Lashley study the idea that memories were connected to parts of the brain? Did his hypothesis work?
Reasoned that if memories were connections between brain areas, they could be severed with a knife along the cortex
Trained rats on mazes and tasks, then made cuts to the cortex to try to disrupt performance
Findings?
Knife cuts did not impair performance
What were the two key principles Karl Lashely proposed about how the nervous system works ?
Equipotentiality: all parts of the cortex contribute equally to complex functioning behaviors (e.g., learning) and any part can substitute for any other
Mass action: the cortex works as a whole, and more cortex is better
What are some critiques of Karl Lashleys work?
Lashley first faulty assumption is that memory is stored in the cortex, because we know that a lot of learning is dependent on the hippocampus
suggested that all learning is created equal by studying one type of learning so, for example, visual spatial learning that we can extend this to other forms of learning (not the case)
Theories of memory, Thompson study (eye blink) ; deactivations to LIP, Red Nucleus. What happens when LIP and red nucleus are active again, results suggest learning occur in…?
Tone (CS)
Air-puff (UCS)
Eye-blink (UCR – CR)
Lateral interpositus nucleus (LIP) of the cerebellum
Playing the tone as well as the air puff ->
Rabbits learn to blink their eye when a tone is played
Lateral interpositus nucleus – in cerebellum (lesion LIP, learning to blink does not occur)
Performance (everytime there is a tone, they blink)
Red nucleus – midbrain motor area receiving input from cerebellum (Lesion red nucleus, learning to blink does not occur)
once Lip is active again, learning needs to occur from starch. They are learning as if learn was never experience between
one red nucleus is active agin, we see that they were learning the whole time, they could not express it.
Results suggest that learning occurs in LIP
Red nucleus is required to demonstrate the learning (i.e., execute the eye-blink)
How is the Hippocampus relevant in memory?
Vital for declarative/episodic memory Active during: Memory formation Memory recall Imagining future events Important for visual spatial memory Morris Water Maze (spatial memory)
How are cells responsible for spatial memory?
Cells responsible for spatial memory
Place and Time cells located in the HC = fire in response to spatial locations and temporal information
Grid cells located in the ERC = hexagonal grid forming a coordinated system that allows for spatial navigation
Envisioning going down one road or the other
How is he Basal Ganglia relavant in memory?
Basal ganglia involved in implicit learning of patterns and habits
Implicit learning
Striatum = caudate nucleus & putamen
Riding a bike… just getting back on the bike, you will remember how to peddle
