1
Q
Learning
A
- process through which experience (any effect of the environment that we can sense) can affect behaviour at a future time
- An enduring change in behavior resulting from prior experience.
- Allows us to adjust to our environments
2
Q
associative learning
A
- form of learning that involves making connections among stimuli and behaviours
- A form of learning that involves making connections between stimuli and behavioral responses.
3
Q
Nonassociative learning
A
- a type of learning where the strength of a response to a stimulus changes with repeated exposure to the same stimulus
- A form of learning that involves a change in the magnitude of an elicited response with repetition of the eliciting stimulus.
4
Q
habituation
A
- A form of nonassociative learning by which an organism becomes less responsive to a repeated stimulus.
- reduction in response to a repeated stimulus that is unchanging and harmless
- not sensory adaptation, habituation occurs at a higher-level brain process
5
Q
dishabituation
A
- reappearance of a response that had diminished due to habituation, usually triggered by the introduction of a new stimulus
- the recovery of a response that has undergone habituation, typically as a result of the presentation of a novel stimulus
6
Q
sensitization
A
- form of nonassociative learning by which a stimulus leads to an increased response over time
- during this, an organism’s reflexive response to a repeated stimulus becomes stronger
- May have evolved to help us notice and focus on potentially harmful stimuli in our surroundings
7
Q
dual-process theory of nonassociative learning
A
- explains how organisms adapt to repeated stimuli through two distinct but simultaneous processes: habituation and sensitization
- Habituation and sensitization are both always at work
- Which one will “win out” will depend on factors like our state of arousal
- When aroused, sensitization is more potent than habituation
- When relaxed, habituation is more potent than sensitization
8
Q
classical conditioning
A
- associative learning
- A passive form of learning by which an association is made between a reflex-eliciting stimulus (e.g., a shock) and other stimuli (e.g., a sound)
- form associations between pairs of stimuli
- where an involuntary response—such as a reflex—becomes associated with a new stimulus. Here, the brain learns to change behavior as a response to something in the environment.
operant conditioning:
- forms associations between behaviors and their consequences
9
Q
classical conditioning: key terms
A
- unconditioned stimulus: stimulus that produces a reflexive response without prior learning
something that naturally triggers a reaction - unconditioned response: response automatically generated by unconditioned stimulus
The natural reaction to the unconditioned stimulus - conditioned stimulus: stimulus that comes to elicit a reflexive response only because of its previous pairing with the unconditioned stimulus
Something that starts off neutral but becomes associated with the unconditioned stimulus - conditioned response: reflexive response elicited by the conditioned stimulus due to the prior pairing of the conditioned stimulus with the unconditioned stimulus
The learned reaction to the conditioned stimulus
10
Q
acquisition
A
- initial learning of an association between the unconditioned and conditioned stimuli during classical conditioning
11
Q
extinction
A
- An active learning process in which there is a weakening of the conditioned response to the conditioned stimulus in the absence of the unconditioned stimulus.
- Extinction is not forgetting—it is the brain learning to not respond because the CS is no longer associated with the US.
If a dog is trained to salivate when it hears a bell because the bell was always followed by food, but then the bell rings repeatedly without food, the dog will stop salivating to the bell over time.
12
Q
spontaneous recovery
A
- reappearance of CR (conditioned response) after periods of rest during extinction training
- reappearance of an extinct behavior after a delay
13
Q
generalization
A
- tendency to respond to stimuli similar to the original CS
- More likely to occur when the similarity between the two stimuli is greater (e.g., tones of similar frequency)
- so that learning is not tied too narrowly to specific stimuli
- all car horns sound different, but this allows you to respond to all of them bc you know they are similar and mean the same thing
14
Q
discrimination
A
- learned ability to distinguish between stimuli
- learning to respond to a particular stimuli, but not similar ones, preventing overgeneralizations
- learn to stop and look when you hear a car horn, but not a trombone
15
Q
contiguity and contingency
A
- closeness in time of CS and US
- CS has to consistently precede the US
Contiguity: This refers to the idea that for learning to happen, the stimulus and the response need to occur close together in time.
Example: A dog hears a bell and immediately gets food. The close timing of the bell (stimulus) and food (response) helps the dog learn to associate them.
Contingency: This means the stimulus must reliably predict the response. The response only happens if the stimulus is present.
Example: A dog only gets food when it hears the bell, so it learns to expect food after hearing the bell. The bell is contingent upon food being given.
16
Q
blocking
A
- previously learned association to one stimulus prevents the learning of a new association to a second stimulus because the second stimulus adds no predictive value
- Adaptive because helps us learn true causal association of events and filter out irrelevant stimuli
- A classical conditioning phenomenon whereby a prior association with a conditioned stimulus prevents learning of an association with another stimulus because the second one adds no further predictive value.
- blocking is often absent or compromised in ppl who experience hallucinations, such as schizophrenia, bc the disorder disrupts a person’s ability to attend to environmental stimuli in a predictive manner, they are bombarded by excess info, which results in a hyperassociative tendency to learn connections between events that are not connected in reality, potentially serving as the basis for delusional beliefs
If a dog has already learned to associate a bell (CS1) with food (US), and then a light (CS2) is introduced along with the bell, the dog may not learn to associate the light with food because the bell already signals the food. The bell blocks the dog from learning the new connection with the light.
- how does blocking occur
17
Q
Little Albert study
A
- john watson
- his idea: Behaviour should be understood in relation to observable events in environment, rather than in terms of unobservable mental processes
- Demonstrated how an 11-month-old infant (“Little Albert”) could be conditioned to fear a white rat
- every time albert touch the rat, they would make a loud noise (US), took only seven pairings to successfully condition him to fear the rat, showed generalization of his fear to other white furry objects
- fear can be conditioned
18
Q
counterconditioning
A
- technique used to replace undesirable response to a stimulus with more desirable one
19
Q
fear conditioning, neural substrates
A
- fear conditioning involves the amygdala
- recall amygdala is responsible for processing emotional significance of stimuli
- well-positioned for creating CS-US links
- Connections to memory-related brain structures as well as structures involved in mediating reflexes and autonomic responses
20
Q
adaptive value of classical conditioning
A
- Classical conditioning allows organisms to learn to prepare for biologically significant events
- E.g., conditioned stimulus (CS) preceding a painful or startling event can trigger fear or bodily reactions that help avoid or brace for the event
21
Q
drug tolerance
A
- decline in physiological and behavioural effects of a drug taken repeatedly
- conditioning plays a role in drug overdoses due to the influence of learned associations between environmental cues and drug use
- If a drug is taken in an unfamiliar environment or without the usual conditioned cues, the body does not produce the anticipatory compensatory response.
- Explains why overdoses more common in unfamiliar environments
22
Q
preparedness
A
- organisms are biologically predisposed to learn some associations more quickly than others
- Predisposition to learn certain associations is species-specific—shaped by natural capacities of the species
23
Q
Operant conditioning
A
- type of associative learning process wherein the consequence of a behavioral response affects the likelihood of that response being repeated
- A mechanism by which our behavior acts as an instrument or tool to change the environment and, as a result, voluntary behaviors are modified.
24
Q
Law of effect
A
- behaviors followed by satisfying outcomes are more likely to be repeated, whereas behaviors followed by unsatisfying outcomes are less likely to be repeated
- that behavior is a function of its consequences. Actions that are followed by good outcomes are strengthened, and vice versa
25
ABCs of operant conditioning
Antecedents: situation or stimulus that precedes the behavior and sets the stage for the behavior to happen (like light signals availability of food)
Behavior: the voluntary action that takes place (the operant response)
Consequences: the stimuli presented after the behavior that either increase or decrease the likelihood that the behavior will be repeated
26
Reinforcement (key term in operant conditioning)
A consequence that increases the likelihood that a behavior will be repeated
27
Punishment (key term in operant conditioning)
- A consequence that decreases the likelihood that a behavior will be repeated
- subtract something
28
Positive (key term in operant conditioning)
- Stimulus is added
- Addition of stimulus that leads to an increase in the frequency of a behavior
- teacher giving you a good job sticker
- add something
29
Negative (key term in operant conditioning)
- Stimulus is moved
- Removal of a stimulus that leads to an increase in the frequency of a behavior
- Like tylenol or mom's nagging or unpleasant sound of alarm clock
30
Primary reinforcers, reinforcement
- consequences that are innately pleasurable because they satisfy some biological need and contribute to survival/reproduction
- trying to increase a behavior
- things we naturally enjoy
- like food, drink, warmth, sex
31
Secondary reinforcers, reinforcement
- learned pleasures that acquire value through experience because of association with primary reinforcers (e.g., can be used to exchange for primary reinforcers
- trying to decrease a behavior
- things we have to learn to enjoy
- money, etc
32
Positive punishment
- Addition a stimulus leading to a decrease in the frequency of a behavior
- add a consequence to a unwanted behavior, do this to make it less appealing
33
Negative punishment
- Removal a stimulus leading to a decrease in the frequency of a behavior
- removing something decreases a behavior, like speeding ticket, or parents taking away a toy after bad behavior
34
Shaping (of operant responses)
- The process by which random behaviors are gradually changed into a desired target behavior.
- operant conditioning procedure in which successively closer approximations to the desired response are reinforced until the desired response finally occurs (reinforcement of successive approximations)
- too generous, animals won't respond the right way to learning, but not enough, discourages as well
- used to teach complex behaviors, but not all animals can do complex things
35
Instinctive drift
- animal’s reversion to evolutionarily derived instinctual behaviors instead of demonstrating behavior learned through conditioning
- An animal’s reversion to evolutionarily derived instinctive behaviors instead of demonstrating newly learned responses.
- ex. raccoons washing coins they had been taught to place in the piggy bank
36
Immediate reinforcement
- timing matters
- reinforcing behavior immediately after it occurs helps establish strong association between response & consequence
37
Delayed reinforcement
- timing matters
- if there is a delay between response & reinforcement, association will be weaker
38
delay discounting
- tendency to devalue delayed outcomes
- explains why we would do impulsive things instead of studying before a midterm
- explains the immediate pleasure is much more powerful than the delayed pleasure of getting a good grade in the future
39
continuous reinforcement
- reinforcement schedule in which a behavior is rewarded every time it is performed
- leads to rapid acquisition of behavior
- but learned behavior is subject to rapid extinction
40
partial reinforcement
- reinforcement schedule in which a behavior is rewarded only some of the time
- dog may not be trained as well, since they won't associate getting treat with doing the behavior the owner wants
41
fixed-ratio schedule
- Reinforcement occurs following the first response that takes place after a set (fixed) period of time
- Response rate takes on distinctive “scallop” shape
- Reinforcement followed by pause in responding, responding increases sharply as the end of the interval approaches
42
variable-ratio schedule
- Reinforcement occurs after some variable number of behaviour
- Less predictable than fixed-ratio schedule
- Effective schedule for eliciting consistently high level of behaviour because it lacks predictability
43
fixed-interval schedule
- Reinforcement occurs following the first response that takes place after a set (fixed) period of time
- Response rate takes on distinctive “scallop” shape:
- Reinforcement followed by pause in responding, responding increases sharply as the end of the interval approaches
44
variable-interval schedule
- Reinforcement occurs after variable amount of time
- Leads to slow and consistent responses because the time to the next reinforcer is relatively unpredictable
45
contingent reinforcement
- Reinforcement is only given when a specific behaviour occurs
- which a specific response is reinforced because it yields some desired change to the environment.
- means that a reward or positive outcome is given only when a specific behavior occurs. In other words, the reinforcement depends on the behavior.
46
noncontingent reinforcement
- Reinforcement is delivered on a fixed-interval schedule independent of the actions the organism is engaging in
- this leads to supersitious conditioning
- when a reward or positive outcome is given regardless of the individual’s behavior, meaning it is not tied to any specific action.
47
supersitious conditioning
- individuals learn a behavior that has no actual relationship with reinforcement
- hard to shake this
- wearing a specific shirt, you get good grades, you will then always want to wear that shirt
48
Latent learning
- learning that is not immediately demonstrated in animal’s behaviour
- Edward Tolman: rewards affect what animals do more than what they learn
- Edward Tolman believed that rewards influence performance rather than learning, suggesting that organisms form cognitive maps and learn even without immediate rewards. In contrast, Skinner and operant conditioning theorists argued that rewards are essential for learning, as they directly shape behavior through reinforcement.
49
observational learning
- We do not always require direct personal experience to learn: we can also learn by observing others
- A form of learning in which a person observes and imitates a behavior from a model
50
social learning theory
- Albert Bandura: learning is a cognitive process derived from social observation rather than direct reinforcement of one’s own actions
- learn by observe and imitating
51
attention (social learning)
- models that get our attention are more likely to elicit imitation
- trainer you paid a lot of money for, kids to parents bc they look up to them, etc
52
retention (social learning)
- must be able to retain a memory of what the model did
53
reproduction (social learning)
- must be able to reproduce (re-create) what the model did
54
vicarious punishment (motivation, social learning)
decrease in a behavior due to the observer witnessing the model being punished for that behavior
55
vicarious punishment (motivation, social learning)
decrease in a behaviour due to the observer witnessing the model being punished for that behavior
56
"Bobo doll" study
- Preschool children observed an adult behaving aggressively toward a large inflatable doll
- When frustrated, children mimicked the adult’s aggressive behavior without any instruction to do so
57
mirror neurons
- neurons found in several areas of the cerebral cortex that are active both when performing an action and when observing that same action being performed by someone else
- Although some broad initial claims about the role of mirror neurons in mentalizing (understanding others’ mental statements) and autism have been called into question, there is more consensus they contribute to imitation and observational learning
58
cultural transmission
- transfer of information from one generation to another through teaching and learning
- Allows innovations to spread widely and rapidly, affording much faster adaptation than genetic change allows
59
vertical transmission
transmission of skills from parent to offspring
60
horizontal transmission
the transmission of skills between peers
61
insight learning
- form of learning that occurs without trial and error and therefore without reinforcement (like an “a-ha moment”)
62
diffusion chain
- process in which individuals learn a behavior by observing a model and then serve as models from whom other individuals can lear
PSYC 100
flashcards
Decks in class (13)
# Cards
-
U06 - Learning62
-
U01 - Introduction17
-
U02 - Research Methods55
-
U03 - Genetics & Evolutionary Foundations of Behavior23
-
U04 - Biological Bases of Behavior56
-
U05 - Sensation & Perception38
-
U07 - Consciousness47
-
U08 - Memory63
-
U09 - Motivation & Emotion73
-
U10 - Social Psychology59
-
U11 - Personaility28
-
Unit 12 - Psychological Disorders and Treatment41
-
Unit 13 - Stress & Health21
