p+o chapter 3 and notes exam 2

What are the 3 criteria to know whether learning has occurred? 

1. Change in behavior 

2. Change is relatively permanent 

3. The experience of having 2 things change together 

Which is more important to learning: contiguity or contingency?

Contiguity is most important to learning because the number of pairings matters more than how many times something happens

Why do researchers prefer experiments over other research methods? 

Because experiments help them determine whether two things cause each other or have an effect on each other  

Why are reversal designs better than A-B designs for determining functional relations (ie. Cause and effect) between a stimulus and response? 

Reversal designs are better than A-B designs for determining function relations because the researcher is able to test whether the outcomes were related to the IV, and it wasn’t just a conincidence  

What is associate learning? 

The ability to relate one event to another (ex- being wary of insects that resmble waps (bees or hornets) because we know wasps sting

What is classical conditioning and why is this form of learning important in our lives?

Classical conditioning: a stimulus comes to elicit a response because it has been paired (or associated) with another stimulus 

It's important in our lives because it leads back to survival – learning how different things go together in our enviornment helps us anticipate and survive 

Who conducted the first systematic investigations on the phenomenon of classical conditioning?

Pavlov conducted the first investigations about classical conditioning--> he first studied this with dogs and salivating to sounds

What is temporal conditioning?

Any time  the time of day comes into conditioning (times of day associated with some important biological cue)--> ex: when you eat lunch every day at 12:30, your body soon begins to get hungry around then OR Jenny knowing exactly when 5pm comes around 

What is counterconditioning?

We use this to get over negative experiences  

Ex: you get bit by a dog, and now the sight of a dog (CS) is eniught to elicit fear (CR) 

NS (dog): US (ice cream) à UR ( happy and relaxed) 

CS (dog)à Cr (haooy and relaxed) 

Sp now the sight of the dog is no longer associated w a dog bite 

What is appetitive conditioning?

The unconditioned stimulus (US) is an appetitive event (one that an organism approaches or seeks out) ex- food, water, addictive drugs, sex 

What is aversive conditioning? 

The unconditioned stimulus (US) is an aversive event (one that an organism avoids) ex- electric shock, painful bite/sting, unpleasant odor—this happens more quickly becuse it’s linked to our susrivial 

Delay conditioning:

CS is presented before the US< then US is then presented, and then they overlap to some extent (ex- CS (tone): the dog hears the tone for a bit, then food is presented (US) and they overlap for a bit and then they’re both taken away at the same time  

Trace conditoning: 

CS comes on first, US comes on later, but there os no overlap between the two (EX: tone (CS) comes on and then goes away and then food (US) is presented and then goes away

Simultaneous conditioning: 

The CS and US are turned on and off at the same time (tone (CS) and food (US) are presented at the same time and leave at the same time 

Backward conditioning: 

The US is presented first and then turned off and the the CS is turned on and then off (ex: the dog gets food (US) and then afyer he hear the tone (CS) (there can be overlap or there cannot be overlap—it doesn’t really matter, the only thing that matters is that the CS follows the US) 

What kind of conditioning produces the strongest conditioned response? 

1. Delayed (this elicts the strongest conditonoed response): because the dog learns that the tone is the last thing before the food, and because the tone comes first it can anticipate that the food is coming 

2. Trace: the absence allows for something random to happen in between that becomes a slightly better predicter than the tone (it is the last thing it’s experiencing before food instead of the last thing being the tone) 

3. Simultanous: this gives the dog no time to anticipate and prepare for the food (no time to prepare to salivate) 

4. Backware (this elicits the weakest conditioned response): it’s telling them that nothing is happening next (why saliuvate to something that is telling you that the important thing already happened before)à you would probably never use this