learning exam 1

Question 1

What is the a-process in habituation?

Answer 1

• Innate
• Response to a stimulus
• Always occurs at full strength

The a-process is a fundamental component of the opponent process theory in habituation.

Question 2

What is the b-process in habituation?

Answer 2

• Innate
• Response to a-process, working in opposite direction
• Starts weak and lags behind a-process
• Increases in strength and decreases in lag-time after repeated presentations
• Weakens over rest period
• Requires a-process to occur first

The b-process is crucial for understanding how habituation develops over time.

Question 3

What is habituation?

Answer 3

A decrease in the strength of a response after repeated presentations of its eliciting stimulus

Habituation reflects a learning process where responses diminish over time with repeated exposure.

Question 4

List the six characteristics of habituation.

Answer 4

• Each trial shows smaller decrements in responding
• Response recovers over time between blocks of trials
• Habituation occurs faster in next block of trials
• Less habituation when stimulus is more intense
• Habituation continues even when response seems to be gone
• Habituation is stimulus-specific, but generalizes to other stimuli

These characteristics illustrate the dynamics of habituation in response to stimuli.

Question 5

What is extinction?

Answer 5

A decrease in the strength of a conditioned response after repeated presentations of the CS without the US

Extinction is a key concept in classical conditioning, indicating the weakening of learned responses.

Question 6

List the six characteristics of extinction.

Answer 6

• Each trial shows smaller decrements in responding
• Response recovers over time between blocks of trials (spontaneous recovery)
• Extinction occurs faster in next block of trials
• Extinction proceeds more slowly when CS is more intense
• Extinction continues even when response seems to be gone
• Conditioning is stimulus-specific, but generalizes to other stimuli

These characteristics highlight how extinction modifies conditioned responses over time.

Question 7

What is the Latent Inhibition / CS Pre-Exposure Effect?

Answer 7

Familiarity with CS makes a subsequent conditioning procedure less effective

This effect indicates that prior exposure to a stimulus can hinder its ability to serve as a predictor in future learning.

Question 8

True or false: Habituation is a process of learning to ignore stimuli.

Answer 8

TRUE

Habituation biases behavior or attention in favor of novel stimuli, which may be more significant.

Question 9

What does inhibitory association refer to in extinction?

Answer 9

• Learned during extinction phase
• Response to CS when it predicts absence of US
• Starts from nothing, reaches full strength over the course of extinction
• Cancels out excitatory association
• Dissipates during rest period, leaving slight ‘residue’ of inhibition

Inhibitory associations are essential for understanding how extinction occurs and its effects on conditioned responses.

Question 10

What does excitatory association refer to in extinction?

Answer 10

• Learned during acquisition phase
• Response to CS when it predicts appearance of US
• Starts from nothing, reaches full strength and is permanent

Excitatory associations form the basis for conditioned responses and their persistence over time.