Week Two: Classical & Operant Conditioning Flashcards
Why does sensitisation occur?
This is an adaptive survival mechanism that manifests itself in causal reflexes of startling or adventitious events that may prove themselves harmful. Our responsivity, receptivity, and alertness become heightened as we ascertain the significance of the events in question.
What happens once the stimulus has now been identified as harmless, and persists in one’s field of experience?
Habituation has occurred. It is the gradual diminishing of alertness/attention and responsivity when a stimulus persists.
Why are association between environments important to learn?
It can be said to be our central mechanism for us to develop schemas in order of magnitude to our survival. This produces learnt adaptive behavioural responses to stimuli that predict threat or reward.
What qualifies as biologically significant stimuli?
Unconditioned stimuli or reinforces in CC nomenclature. These are stimuli that either evoke a defensive or appetitive response, about harm/aversion and reward, respectively.
Reward denotes positive emotional valence, pleasure or subsistence of the current status of the animal whereas aversion denotes punishment, injury, or death. This reliably dissuades any further engagement with the particular stimuli but rather, to give it a wide berth instead.
What are the parameters that are present prior to conditioning?
Reinforcers or unconditioned stimuli. These are characterized as the innate behavioural responses that are extant in all learners, that are naturally either appetitive (rewarding) or punishing (aversive or harmful.)\
What happens during conditioning
We experience a predicitve relationship between a neutral stimulus (NS) and a biologically relevant stimulus (initially UCS, soon to be CS).
What happens when the previously neutral stimulus becomes able to produce a learned reflex response in preparation for (anticipation, prediction, expectation) of a biologically relevant stimulus?
Conditioned is now complete.
Neutral stimuli refer to
Stimuli that do not elicit a reflex
Unconditioned stimuli/Reinforcer
Stimuli that elicit a biologically hardwired response (reflexive responsivity) be it. These may be appetitive (wanting more of something) or punishing
Conditioned stimuli/response
A conditioned stimulus has been encoded, inculcated or developed over an involuntary process of association between the neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus.
CONGUITY
The sequential occurrence or proximity of stimulus and response, causing their association in our minds.
REINFORCER
It is an environmental consequence that occurs after an organism has produced a response and makes the response more likely to recur.
We toss this word ‘environment’ around as if it’s already a given, so what exactly is the environment in the field of scientific method?
The surroundings or conditions, in which a human, animal, or plant operates.
Similar: Habitat, territory, domain, abode, home, surrounding, conditions, environs, circumstances
The settings or conditions a particular activity is carried on.
Similar: Situation, setting, milieu, medium, background, backdrop
- The natural world, as a whole, or in a particular geographical area, especially as affected by human activity.
OPERANTS
Behaviours that are emitted (spontaneously produced), rather than elicited by the environment.
“Behaviour operates on the environment to generate consequences hence …
Hence behaviours are controlled by their consequences. In other words, we are more likely to reproduce behaviours that are rewarded, and repress behaviours that have been punished.
