LM-Principles of Learning

What happens through repition?

You may learn not to respond to a particular event, even if you originally responded with great excitement.

Define Habituation

A decrease in the strength of occurrence of a behavior after repeated exposure to the stimulus that produces that behavior

• At first, you notice the sounds of cars driving by and get distracted. As time goes by you tend to not notice it anymore because you got used to it.

What are some general features of habituation?

1. Acoustic Startle Reflex

2. Orienting Response:

What is the Acoustic Startle Reflex?

A defensive response (such as jumping or freezing) to a startling stimulus (such as a loud noise)

What is an Orienting Response?

An organism’s innate reaction to a novel stimulus

Does habituation to one event cause habituation to every other stimulus in the same sensory modality?

No, this is not ture

What is dishabituation?

The renewal of responding after a new stimulus has been presented

What are some of the factors influencing the rate and duration of Habituation?

1. How startling the stimulus is

2. The number of times it is experienced

3. The length of time between repeated exposures

What happens in spontaneous recovery?

A response that has been weakened by a habituation period of no stimulus presentation reappears

What is sensitization?

A phenomenon in which experiences with an arousing stimulus lead to stronger responses to a later stimulus

• Imagine u hear the sound of a bug flying around and that startles you. Now even after the buzz, you become more alert to the sounds around you.

How is sensitization studied in humans?

Electrodermal Activity (EDA)

What is EDA?

It is a measure of changes in the skin’s electrical conductivity that are caused by fluctuations in the activity of the PNS

What is Dual Process theory?

The theory that habituation and sensitization are independent of each other but operate in parallel

What is priming?

A phenomenon in which prior exposure to a stimulus can improve the ability to recognize that stimulus later

How is priming in humans studied?

Word-Stem completion task

When can priming occur?

Even in the absence of any feelings of familiarity or recognition that a stimulus was previously experienced

Do priming effects persist much longer or shorter than recognition of past encounters?

Much Longer

What is perceptual learning?

Learning in which repeated experiences with a set of stimuli makes those stimuli easier to distinguish

• At first you struggle to distinguish normal Xrays with poor ones. Then after constantly looking at poor ones, you are easily able to tell the differences.

How is perceptual learning similar to priming?

In the fact that it leads to more effective processing on subsequent encounters with the stimuli

Can perceptual learning happen even if the learner is not aware?

Yeah

What is spatial learning?

The acquisition of information about one’s surroundings

• Like when animals explore, they learn how to get from one place to another and what to expect when visiting places

Difference between priming and perceptual learning?

Priming is like a temporary boost in recognition because your brain has just been nudged

Perceptual learning is like training your senses so you become better at noticing or distinguishing over the long term

What is generalization?

The transfer of past learning to novel events and problems

• If you are already scared of german sheperds so you start getting nervous and scared of every other dog breed too even though they did not bite you like the German did

What is discrimination learning?

The process by which animals or people learn to respond differently to different stimuli

• The child is afriad of dogs, but after learning that only germans are bad, he onloy becomes afraid of germans

What is concept formation?

The process by which we learn about new categories of entities in the world, usually based on common features

• A child soon learns about what classifies as a bird

Similar vs Dissimilar Stimuli | Same vs Different Outcome chart

What is the relationship between behavioral properties of auditory generalization and physical properties of the auditory cortex?

Direct

What is stimulus control?

The influence of cues in the world on an organism’s behavior

• Imagine there were two buttons: red and green. Green gives food and Red gives nothing. Rat learns over time that Green gives food, so it tends to select that option

What is errorless discrimination learning?

A training procedure in which a difficult discrimination is learned by starting with an easy version of the task and proceeding to incrementally harder versions as the easier ones are mastered

• Intensity of Red light to show task got harder

What is negative patterning?

A behavioral paradigm in which the appropriate response to individual cues is positive, whereas the appropriate response to their combination (pattern) is negative (no response)

• Nutella on bread is good. Cream Cheese on bread is good. Nutella and Cream Cheese on bread is bad.

What is a concept?

An internal psychological representation of a real or abstract entity

What is a category?

A division or class of entities in the world

What is a prototype?

The central tendency or idealized version of a category

What is a sterotype?

A set of beliefs about the attributes of the members of a group

What is confirmation bias?

The idea when we have formed a negative stereotype about members of another group, so we look for more examples that confirm this stereotype.

When does a stroke occur?

When blood flows to some region of the brain stops or when an artery bursts lack of blood and swelling of brain tissue cause neurons to die, creating a brain lesion

What is constraint-induced movement therapy?

A motor-rehabilitation technique in which unaffected limbs are restrained to increase usage of dysfunctional limbs