week 3 learning theories Flashcards
(50 cards)
individual differences in behavior are the result of
different learning experiences
who came up with classical conditioning
pavlov
what is an unconditioned stimulus
a stimulus that elicits an automatic response in the absence of learning
neutral stimulus
a stimulus that does not elicit any response in the absence of learning
conditioned stimulus
an initially neutral stimulus that elicits a response because it is associated with an unconditioned stimulus
conditioned response
a learned response that is elite by a conditioned stimulus
delayed conditioning
conditioned stimulus occurs shortly before unconditioned stimulus and both stimuli last together
trace conditioning
conditioned stimulus occurs and ends before unconditioned stimulus so US may be associated only with a memory trace of CS.
backward conditioning
conditioned stimulus occurs after UCS
simultaneous conditioning
both CS & UCS occur at the same time
what is food aversion an example of
naturally conditioned reflex
describe John Garcia’s study into food aversions on rats
radiation leads to nausea and notices rats avoided drinking water from plastic bottles when in radiation chamber, but back at their cages they drink normally where water was in glass
rats associated “plastic tasting” water with sickness radiation triggered.
how is what Garcia discovered different to regular taste aversion
conditioned taste aversion is different because the rats become nauseous after eating a certain food but their nausea is unrelated to the food they ate.
describe Garcia and Koelling’s 1966 study into preparedness
rats were given (at the same time) three different stimuli: saccharin-flavoured water, bright light and loud sound. Later half of the rats would be exposed to radiation that would make them sick and vomit. Other rats would be given an electric shock.
the rats that had experienced nausea showed an aversion to sweet water but not to the light or sound. In contrast, the rats exposed to electric shock avoided the light and sound but not the taste of sweet water. Thus, the animal learned to associate being sick with taste, and they learned to associate shock with light and sound.
What Garcia found makes sense because one would associate contaminated food most often with a taste. So there is a biological readiness to associate some stimuli together, but not others. This is an example of the phenomenon known as preparedness.
extinction
unlearning the stimulus
if CS is still present but no longer followed by UCS, extinction occurs
spontaneous recovery
sometimes, after responding is extinct, the CR would reappear after conditioned stimulus
if CS is followed by UNS, the CR occurs faster than the first time
how does John Watson describe personality
a collection of learned habits
what is Watson and Rayner’s 1920 study
little Albert - white object and loud noise association
generalisation
a response produced by a particular CS will also occur when a similar stimulus is present
the more similar the stimulus, the more likely the CR occurs
discrimination
learning the difference between stimuli
4 types of therapies based on classical conditioning
aversion therapy, flooding, systematic desensitisation and counter-conditioning
what is counter conditioning
pairing the stimulus (CS) that elicits fear with a stimulus (US) that elicits positive emotion (UR). For example, a person who is afraid of snakes, but loves vanilla ice-cream is shown a snake and then given the ice-cream. While the person is busy eating the ice cream, classical conditioning helps associate the snake with good feelings.
who came up with operant conditioning
skinner
what did skinner believe about how we behave
heavily influenced by the conditioning experiences we have throughout our lives
