PSYC2050

Flashcards for the majority of lecture content in PSYC2050

Lecture 1

What is learning?

• A fundamental, adaptive process in living animals where the tendency to perform a specific behaviour, emotion and / or thought is changed by experience

• The learning must be lasting (experience & practice helps reinforce and make it last longer)

Lecture 1

What is experience?

• Any information of our environment that can be detected by our sensory systems

Lecture 1

What is habituation (non-associative)?

Habituation is a ‘getting used to it’ response, whereby an organism naturally becomes used to a novel stimulus overtime e.g. becoming used to a loud noise outside whilst studying

• An orientating response may initally be displayed e.g. turning our head to look at the stimulus, but after prolonged exposure we learn that this is not significant because there is no need to be distracted by it.

• This is when habituation has taken place.

• Habituation is the simplest form of learning found in nearly every animal

Lecture 1

What is sensitisation (non-associative)?

Lecture 1

What is associative learning?

• Forming connections between stimuli

• As a child in QLD, you were told to avoid leaf piles as snakes like to nest in them. However, when moving to the UK, the connection and fear of leaf piles remains as the association between leaves and snakes is still attached.

Lecture 1

What is cognitive psychology?

The study of mental processes such as perceiving, attending, remembering and reasoning

Lecture 1

What is low cognition?

Reliant on our senses and environment only (vision, hearing etc.)

Lecture 1

What is high cognition?

Abstract, mental representations derived from individual experience

Lecture 2

What are the two different types of associative learning?

• Classical Conditioning

• Operant Conditioning

Lecture 2

Define Classical Conditioning

• Classical conditioning refers to learning that occurs when a neutral stimulus (e.g., a tone) becomes associated with a stimulus (e.g., food) that naturally produces a behaviour.

• After the association is learned, the previously neutral stimulus is sufficient to produce the behaviour.

Lecture 2

Explain Ivan Pavlov’s dog experiment

• Certain stimuli elicits a response: Give a dog food → innate response is to salivate

• Other stimuli don’t elicit response: Blow a whislte at dog → no salivation

• However, when pairing the food and whistle together, the dog learns the association, thus salivating at only the sound of a whistle

Lecture 2

What are the 4 elements of classical conditioning?

• Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

• Unconditioned Response (UR)

• Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

• Conditioned Response (CR)

Lecture 2

What is an Unconditioned Stimulus (US)?

A stimulus that elicits an unlearned response

• e.g. Food elicits salivation

Lecture 2

What is an Unconditioned Response (UR)?

• The unlearned response to the US

  • e.g. Dog salivating at food

Lecture 2

What is an Conditioned Stimulus (CS)?

• A stimulus to which an organism must learn to respond

  • e.g. Whistle

Lecture 2

What is an Conditioned Response (CR)?

• The response to a CS (which is learned)

  • e.g. Dog salivating at sound of whistle

Lecture 2

Explain the Little Albert experiment (Watson & Rayner, 1920)

• A loud noise was made around Little Albert (US), making him cry (UR)

• In further trials, the researchers then paired the loud noise with seeing a white mouse (CS)

• When Little Albert saw only the white mouse (with no loud noise), he cried (CR)

• This lead to a generalised fear in Little Albert, whereby similar characteristics to the white mouse would cause him to cry e.g. a white rabbit, a fluffy white beard etc.

Lecture 2

Give another example of Classical Conditioning (not including Pavlov’s Dogs or Little Albert)

Similar examples of Classical Conditioning include:

• Clinical Applications

  • Acquisition of fears, phobias, and other maladaptive behaviours

  • E.g. having a phobia of leaf piles since snakes could be hiding in it, but still being scared when moving to the UK, where this phobia doesn’t make sense (the association between leaves and snakes is still attached)

  • Treatment required such as flooding

• Eyeblink Conditioning

  • Blowing a puff of air into a human eye causes us to naturally blink. However, if a tone is played prior to the air puff, we will associate the two, and thus only blink at the sound of a tone.

  • CS = Tone, US = Air Puff, UR = eye blink before conditioning, CR = eye blink after conditioning

Lecture 2

What are the 3 stages of a typical classical conditioning experiment?

• Stage 1: Habituation

• Stage 2: Acquisition

• Stage 3: Extinction

Lecture 2

Explain Stage 1 of a typical classical conditioning experiment

• Stage 1: Habituation

  • CS presented alone

  • This is to see if the organism will respond in any why we have not expected or measured for

  • e.g. whistle alone is presented to dogs

Lecture 2

Explain Stage 2 of a typical classical conditioning experiment

• Stage 2: Acquisition

  • CS presented along with US

  • This is to create the association for the organism

  • e.g. whistle with food presented to dogs → dogs salivate

Lecture 2

Explain Stage 3 of a typical classical conditioning experiment

• Stage 3: Extinction

  • CS presented alone

  • This is to see if the assocation was created and successful (CR)

  • Can also be used in the example of phobias and to see if the organism still reacts to the CS alone

  • e.g. Dogs hear whistle → Dogs salivate

  • e.g. Human sees leaf pile → Human does not react with fear and the thoughts of a snake hiding inside

Lecture 2

Explain the attached graph.

• This graph illustrates a typical classical conditioning experiment, where there is an increase in CR strength over time due to the association between the US and the CS.

• However, during the extinction stage, where the CS is presented alone, the strength of the CR slowly decreases as more trials are performed.

Lecture 2

What two factors can influence the acquisition curve of a typical classical conditioning experiment?

• A more intense US can result in a stronger CR

  • e.g. a more flavourful food or more traumatc event

• The order and timing

  • The CS coming before the US is better