Rudimentary Learning
- learning that’s built into the organism
- habituation- repetition of a neutral stimulus causes a decreased response
- sensitization- become more sensitive after a threatening stimulus
- imprinting- attachment of younger animals to older animals. Happen with birds 12-18 hours
Classical Conditioning
- learning through association. Can take place in womb
Pavlov experiment and terminology
- unconditioned stimulus- meat
- unconditioned response- saliva
- conditioned stimulus- bell
- unconditioned response- saliva
Unconditioned Stimulus
stimulus that provokes an unconditioned response
Unconditioned response
an unlearned reaction that occurs without conditioning
Conditioned Stimulus
a previously neutral stimulus that has acquired meaning through conditioning and the capacity to evoke a response
Conditioned response
a learned reaction due to previous conditioning
What makes the strongest association?
- contiguity- onset of conditioned stimulus (bell) before unconditioned stimulus (meat)
- novelty- newer stimuli lead to faster learning because we don’t know any other associations
- biological preparedness- we are prepared to associate certain stimuli with things
Explain Garcia’s Rats
- easier to condition taste or smell with nausea than light or sounds with nausea
- more biologically prepared to pair internal threats to internal stimuli (taste, smell)
Explain Mineka’s Monkeys
- example of biological preparedness
- monkey’s saw other monkeys scared of snake and flower- learned fear
- easier to teach monkey to fear snake than flower
- both stimuli neutral and novel
- we’re hardwired to be afraid of snakes
What are 4 ways conditioned responses can change over time?
- spontaneous recovery
- extinction
- discrimination
- generalization
What is extinction in classical conditioning?
if conditioned stimulus is repeated too many times without unconditioned stimulus, there will be no conditioned response - it will stop
What is spontaneous recovery?
when the conditioned response reappears after a time of no exposure to conditioned stimulus
What is discrimination in classical conditioning?
Learning becomes super specific. Not all bells signal meat, this tone does
What is generalization in classical conditioning?
When a conditioned response to a conditioned stimulus generalizes to other similar objects.
Ex- Little Albert was conditioned to be afraid of a white rat. Now, he’s afraid of all white fuzzy objects
Operant Conditioning
learning from consequences and association
What is reinforcement?
When the consequences of a response increases an organism’s tendency to make that response
- there’s positive and negative reinforcement
What is positive reinforcement?
- behavior continues because you there’s a presence of something good
- ex- cleaning room and getting allowance
What is negative reinforcement?
- behavior continues because there’s an absence of something bad/ you remove a negative
- Ex- if you clean room, nagging stops
What is punishment?
When presence of something negative decreases tendency to make that response
Positive punishment
presence of something bad decreases behavior
- spank if room isn’t clean
Negative Punishment
absence of something good
- take away TV if room not clean to decrease behavior
What does Skinner believe about reinforcement and punishment?
Skinner believed reinforcement was preferable to punishment. Favored positive punishment. He thought it’s better to reinforce desired behaviors than to punish unwanted ones.
- If you punish too much, you can associate punisher with fear and anxiety= abuser
In what ways does operant conditioning change over time?
- shaping
- chaining
- extinction
