PSYCH 1101: Psychology of Learning Review

Learning

change in behavior as result of experience

Behaviorism

collection of theories that emphasize learning

Unscientific

desires, wishes, goals, beliefs, emotions, etc

Scientific

observables: stimulus, responses, environment, etc

Habituation

non-associative learning

decline in tendency to respond to familiar stimuli due to repeated exposure, focusing on new objects & events

• clock ticking, traffic noise, trains

• doesn’t requre pairing two different stimuli

Sensory Adaptation

neural mechanism where cells no longer fire response to same stimuli

Classical Conditioning

associative, pavlovian

learning of an association based on repeated presentation of paired stimuli

• adaptive response, predict & prepare for survival

Unconditioned Stimulus

automatically & naturally triggers response without any prior learning

• food or reflexes

Conditioned Stimulus

paired with neutral stimulus that doesn’t normally cause reflexive response

• sound of bell

Conditioned Response

neutral stimulus becomes associated with unconditioned stimulus

• salivating at the sound of a bell

Extinction

CS occurs repeatedly without UCS, extinguish conditioned response

Stimulus Generalization

stimuli similar to CS predictable causes CR, more dissimilar less likely to cause CR

Operant Conditioning

associative, instrumental

organism changes behavior as a function of the consequences that follow from their behavior

• increase or decrease response

learn the relationships between actions & rewards/punishments

Law of Effect

behaviors followed by satisfying state of affairs tend to be repeated & unpleasant state of affairs less likely to be repeated

Reinforcer

thing that increases the behavior

• primary (food) or secondary (money)

Positive Reinforcement

rewarding positive behavior to encourage it to happen again

• child putting away toys and parents say good job

Negative Reinforcement

removing something unpleasant after a behavior to make it happen again

• putting seatbelt on to stop beeping

Punishment

negative consequences in response to an unwanted behavior

Fixed Ratio

reward every nth response

Variable Ratio

reward on avg once in every n responses

Fixed Internal

reward after every x seconds (mins or hours)

Variable Interval

reward once in every x seconds (mins or hours)

Spontaneous Recovery

surprising return of previously extinguished learned behavior or response after rest period

Stimulus Generalization

learned response trigged by similar but different stimuli, learning transferred to new situation without complete relearning

Garcia Effect

conditioned taste aversions develop after specific food becomes associated with negative reaction (nausea or vomiting)

• exceptions to classical conditioning