Introduction to Learning

Question 1

what is a stimulus?

Answer 1

an event that happens to you e.g. sight, sound, smell, taste, touch. could be internal e.g. itch, pain, cold

Question 2

what is a response?

Answer 2

something you do voluntary-under your control or involuntary e.g. breathing
can be in response to a stimulus

Question 3

what is learning?

Answer 3

the process of acquiring new knowledge. ‘Persistent change in behaviour (responses) as a result of experience’

Question 4

what is innate behaviour?

Answer 4

behaviour that is not learned, it is hardwired and comes from evolution. It is adaptive fro species to deal with fixed features of environment

Question 5

examples of innate behaviour not being learned

Answer 5

• Goose continues with behaviour even if egg removed and replaced by a novelty object that don’t even look like eggs e.g. a snooker ball, Russian doll or volleyball
• Stickleback fish responds to most stimulus that at least look like a fish

Question 6

what is happening in the mind mental represetations

Answer 6

• when experiencing a stimulus forming a response to accompanied by some neural activity
• which is activating the neurones u need to respond
• the mental state accompanying experience of stimulus is the round object
• the mental state accompanying performance of response if the egg-rolling
• unlearned association meaning experiencing stimulus can automatically trigger response

Question 6

what did Tinbergen’s experiement?

Answer 6

• Aim: examine whether presence, colour and position of red patch were important to induce chicks to peck
• presented chicks with models with a red, black, blue or white patch, and a model with no patch and one with a red patch on the forehead
• The model with a black patch received most pecks, followed, in decreasing order, by a model with a red, blue, white or no patch, with fewest pecks towards the model with the patch on its forehead
• The preference for black surprised Tinbergen, as he expected that the red patch would receive most pecks. He concluded that the chicks responded primarily to a contrasting spot on the beak

Question 6

what is a supernormal stimulus?

Answer 6

stimuli more effective than naturally occurring sign stimuli; the snooker ball, model fish

Question 7

what is a fixed action pattern?

Answer 7

stereotyped response triggered by sign stimulus; e.g. egg-rolling

Question 8

what is habituation?

Answer 8

reduction in response to a stimulus after repeated exposure
unconditioned stimulus gets weaker with repeated presentation

Question 9

what’s the difference between short-term and long-term habituation?

Answer 9

• after short-term habituation the response is recovered after a reduction in responses
• after long-term habituation the response remains reduced and doesn’t return

Question 10

what is classical conditioning?

Answer 10

• process of pairing an US and CS to produce a CR
• Can be used to condition fear/anxiety
• For example Watson and Rayner (1920) fear conditioned Little Albert to be scared of white rat toy by pairing the toy with a loud bang

Question 11

classical conditioning with pigeons

Answer 11

• Key followed by grain regardless of whether bird pecks it or not but bird pecks
• pecking prevented bird from receiving all his grain – irrational, not-goal directed
• this suggests classical conditioning response
• Classical conditioning evolutionarily sensible
  e.g. salivation prepares you for eating food; this can make them appear rational; but it is
  inflexible – can’t adapt to circumstances in
  a rational way

Question 11

what operant (instrumental) conditioning?

Answer 11

when behaviours are modified based on reinforcement or punishment

Question 12

what is Omission training

Answer 12

• Keylight S predicts food but pecking R prevents food
• First two trials show the bird pecking at the key and not receiving grain.
• Eventually, the bird learned to stop pecking, but note that orientation toward the key continues.
• He can override the classically conditioned response with a voluntary instrumental response to get the food
• Pigeon can be rational and do instrumental conditioning, but classical conditioning interferes with expressing it