AP Psych Chapter 6: Learning – Flashcards
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Learning
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-A long-lasting change in behavior resulting from experience -Although this is not the same as behavior, most psychologists accept that it can best be measured through changes in behavior.
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Ivan Pavlov
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-A Russian physiologist who inadvertently discovered a kind of learning while studying digestion in dogs. -Found that the dogs learned to pair the sounds in the environment where they were fed with the food that was given to them and began to salivate simply upon hearing the sounds. -Deduced the basic principle of classical conditioning. People and animals can learn to associate neutral stimuli (e.g. sounds) with stimuli that produce reflexive, involuntary responses (e.g., food) and will learn to respond similarly to the new stimulus as they did to the old one (e.g., salivate)
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Classical Conditioning
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-Type of learning first described by Ivan Pavlov -The process begins when a stimulus elicits a response. This is known as the unconditioned stimulus (US or UCS) -A US is something that elicits a natural, reflexive response. This response is called the unconditioned response (UR or UCR). -Through pairings with a neutral stimulus (CS), animals will come to associate the two stimulus together. -When the CS elicits a response without the US, a conditioned response (CR) occurs.
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Unconditioned Stimulus (US or UCS)
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-An element of classical conditioning. -The classical conditioning process begins when a stimulus elicits a response. This is known as the _____. -Something that elicits a natural, reflexive response. In the classic Pavlovian paradigm, it is food. -Food elicits the natural, involuntary response of salivation, which is called the unconditioned response.
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Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
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-An element of classical conditioning. -a ______ (originally neutral stimulus like a bell) is paired with an unconditioned stimulus (elicits a reflexive response, such as food eliciting salvation). -Eventually, ______ (e.g. a bell) alone elicits a conditioned response.
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Unconditioned Response (UR or UCR)
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-An element of classical conditioning. -In classical conditioning, a conditioned (originally neutral stimulus like a bell) is paired with an unconditioned stimulus (elicits a reflexive response, such as food eliciting salvation) -This reflective response elicited by the unconditioned stimulus is the _____.
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Extinction (classical conditioning)
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-Has taken place when the conditioned stimulus no longer elicits the conditioned response. Is achieved by repeatedly presenting the conditioned stimulus without the unconditioned stimulus, thus breaking the association between the two. -If one rings the bell over and over again and never feeds the dogs, the dogs will ultimately learn not to salivate when the bell rings.
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Spontaneous Recovery (classical conditioning)
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Sometimes, after a classically conditioned response has been extinguished and no further training of the animals has taken place, the response briefly reappears upon presentation of the conditioned stimulus.
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Generalization (classical conditioning)
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-Often animals conditioned to respond to a certain stimulus will also respond to similar stimuli, although the response is usually smaller in magnitude. -For example, dogs might salivate to a number of bells, not just the one with which they were trained. -The tendency to respond to similar conditioned stimuli is known as ________.
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Discrimination (classical conditioning)
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-Occurs when an organism responds only to specific conditioned stimuli instead of similar conditioned stimuli. -For example, to train dogs to do this between different bells, we would repeatedly pair the original bell with presentation of food, but we would intermix trials where we presented other bells that we did not pair with food.
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Aversive Conditioning
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-Classically conditioning an organism to have this response to a conditioned stimulus -For example, to stop biting their nails, some people paint them with horrible-tasting materials. Nail biting is then associated with a terrible taste, and the biting should cease.
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Second-order (or higher-order) Conditioning
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-Once a CS elicits a CR, it is possible, briefly, to use that CS as a US in order to condition a response to a new stimulus. -By using a dog and a bell as example, after the dog salivates to the bell (first-order), the bell can be paired repeatedly with a flash of light, and the dog will salivate to the light alone (this), even though the light has never been paired with the food.
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Learned Taste Aversions (Garcia Effect)
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-If you ingest an unusual food or drink and then become nauseous, you will probably develop an aversion to the food or drink. -Can result in powerful classically conditioned avoidance responses on the basis of single pairing. -Animals, including people, seem biologically prepared to associate strange tastes with feeling of sickness.
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Operant Conditioning
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-A kind of learning based on the association of the consequences with one's behavior. -Edward Thorndike was one of the first people to research this kind of learning. -Thorndike put forth the law of effect.
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The Law of Effect
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-Edward Thorndike, one of the first people to research operant conditioning, explained this kind of learning through _____. -States that if the consequences of a behavior are pleasant, the stimulus-response (S-R) connection will be strengthened and the likelihood of the behavior will increase. However, if the consequences of a behavior are unpleasant, the S-R connection will weaken and the likelihood of the behavior will decrease.
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B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)
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-Coined the term operant conditioning -Best-known behaviorist psychologist -Invented a special contraption, aptly known as a Skinner box, to use in his research of animal learning. -A skinner box usually has a way to deliver food to an animal and a lever to press or disk to peck in order to get the food. -The food is called a reinforcer, and the process of giving the food is the reinforcement.
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Reinforcement
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-An element of operant conditioning -Defined by its consequences; anything that makes a behavior more likely to occur is a reinforcer. Two kinds exist: -Positive+refers to the addition of something pleasant. -Negative-refers to the removal of something unpleasant. -For instance, if a rat is giver a Skinner box when it presses a letter, there is positive. If we terminate a loud noise or shock in response to pressing a lever, we are using negative.
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Positive Reinforcement
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-An element of operant conditioning -Defined by its consequences; anything that makes a behavior more likely to occur is a reinforcer. Two kinds exist: -This one refers to the addition of something pleasant. -For instance, if a rat is giver a Skinner box when it presses a letter, there is this.
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Negative Reinforcement
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-An element of operant conditioning -Defined by its consequences; anything that makes a behavior more likely to occur is a reinforcer. Two kinds exist: -This refers to the removal of something unpleasant. -If we terminate a loud noise or shock in response to pressing a lever, we are using this.
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Punishment
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-An element of operant conditioning -Affects behavior by using unpleasant consequences. -By definition, is anything that makes a behavior less likely. -Two types of this: Positive and Omission.
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Positive Punishment
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-An element of operant conditioning. -Affects behavior by adding unpleasant consequences. -By definition, is anything that makes a behavior less likely. -This (usually referred to simply punishment) which is the addition of something unpleasant. -If we give a rat an electric shock every time it touches lever, we are using this.
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Negative Punishment (or Omission Training)
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-An element of operant conditioning. -Affects behaviors by using unpleasant consequences. -This is the removal of something pleasant. -If we remove the rat's food when it touches the lever, we are using this.
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Shaping
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-Associated with operant conditioning -Reinforcing the steps used to reach the desired behavior. -For example, first the rat might be reinforced for going to the side of the box with the lever. Then we might reinforce the rat for touching the lever with any part of its body. By rewarding approximations of the desired behavior, we increase the likelihood that the rat will stumble upon the behavior we want.
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Chaining
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-Associated with operant conditioning. -Teaching subjects to perform a number of responses successively in order to get a reward. -The goal of shaping is to mold a single behavior; the goal in this is to link together a number of separate behaviors into a more complex activity(like an obstacle course)
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Extinction (operant conditioning)
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-When an organism stops a response because the reinforcer ceases. -For example, when a rat ceases to press the lever because the reward no longer results from the action.
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Spontaneous Recovery (operant conditioning)
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-Occurs when a response begins again after extinction. -For example, a rat begins to press the bar after having extinguished the bar response without providing any further reinforcement.
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Generalization (operant conditioning)
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-Occurs when an organism responds in similar ways in order to elicit a reinforcer. -For example, a rat begins to press other things in the Skinner box or the bar in other boxes.
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Discrimination (operant conditioning)
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-Occurs when an organism responds in only a very specific way to elicit a reinforcer. -For example, a rat presses only a particular bar or presses a bar only under certain conditions (e.g., when a tone is sounded).
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Primary Reinforcers
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-Reinforcers that are, in and of themselves rewarding. -They include things like food, water, and rest, whose natural properties are reinforcing.
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Secondary Reinforcers
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-Reinforcers that are rewarding because we have learned that they are reinforcing. -Things we have learned to value such as praise or the chance to play a video game.
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Token Economy
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-An example of a practical use of operant conditioning. -Every time people perform a desired behavior, they are given a token. -Periodically, they are allowed to trade their tokens for an one of various reinforcers. -Have been used in prisons, mental institutions, and even schools.
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Reinforcement Schedules
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-Used to determine when a reinforcer is administered. -Continuous is reinforcing a behavior each time it is performed. -Can be based on two factors. -The number of responses made (ratio schedules) -The passage of time (interval schedules)
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Fixed Ratio (FR) Schedule
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-A type of reinforcement schedule. -Provides reinforcement after a set number of responses. -For example, if a rat is on this, it will be rewarded after the certain number of bars are pressed.
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Variable Ratio (VR) Schedule
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-A type of reinforcement schedule. -Provides reinforcement based on the number of bar presses, but that number varies. -A rat on this might be rewarded after the second press, the ninth press, the third, the sixth, and so on; the average number of presses required to receive a reward will be five. -These are more resistant to extinction than fixed schedules.
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Fixed Interval (FI) Schedule
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-A type of reinforcement schedule. -Requires that a certain amount of time elapse before a bar press will result in a reward. -In an 3 minute, the rat will be reinforced for the first bar press that occurs after 3 minutes.
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Variable Interval (VI) Schedule
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-A type of reinforcement schedule. -Varies the amount of time required to elapse before a response will result in reinforcement. -In a 3 minute schedule, the rat will be reinforced for the first response made after an average time of 3 minutes. -More resistant to extinction than fixed.
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Instinctive Drift
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-The tendency for animals to forgo rewards to pursue their typical patterns of behavior. -Researchers have found that animals will not perform certain behaviors that go against their natural inclinations -For example, rats will not walk backward. In addition, pigs refuse to put disks into a bank-like object and tend to bury the disks in the ground
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Observational Learning (modeling)
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-People and animals learn many things simply by observing others. -Watching children play house gives us an indication of all they have learned from watching their families and other families. -Studied by Albert Bandura in formulating his social-learning theory. -This type of learning is said to be species-specific; it only occurs between members of the same species.
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Latent Learning
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-Studied extensively by Edward Tolman. -Latent means hidden, and this is learning that becomes obvious only once a reinforcement is given for demonstrating it. -Behaviorists had asserted that learning is evidenced by gradual changes in behavior, but Tolman conducted experiments illustrating that sometimes learning occurs but is not immediately evidenced.
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Insight Learning
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-Occurs when one suddenly realizes how to solve a problem. -You have probably had the experience of skipping over a problem on a test only to realize later, in an instant how to solve it. -Wolfgang Kohler is known for his studies of this in chimpanzees.
