Module 29: Biology, Cognition, and Learning

preparedness

a biological predisposition to learn associations, such as between taste and nausea, that have survival value.

John Garcia

John Garcia was among those who challenged the prevailing idea that all associations can be learned equally well. While researching the effects of radiation on laboratory animals, Garcia and Robert Koelling (1966) noticed that rats began to avoid drinking water from the plastic bottles in radiation chambers.

Taste aversion

If you became violently ill after eating oysters, you would probably have a hard time eating them again. Their smell and taste would have become a conditioned stimulus for nausea. This learning occurs readily because our biology prepares us to learn taste aversions to toxic foods

instinctive drift

the tendency of learned behavior to gradually revert to biologically predisposed patterns.

rescorla

The rescorla - Wagner model of associative learning empathized the associations between unconditioned and conditioned stimuli

Predictability

the likelihood at which an event is going to occur (enables someone to know what to expect so they can organize their behavior to be successful)

expectancy

the anticipation of future events or relationships based on past experiences

latent learning

learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it

cognitive map

a mental representation of the layout of one’s environment. For example, after exploring a maze, rats act as if they have learned a cognitive map of it.

insight (learning)

a sudden realization of a problem’s solution; contrasts with strategy-based solutions.

intrinsic motivation

a desire to perform a behavior effectively for its own sake.

extrinsic motivation

a desire to perform a behavior to receive promised rewards or avoid threatened punishment.

problem-focused coping

attempting to alleviate stress directly—by changing the stressor or the way we interact with that stressor.

emotion-focused coping

attempting to alleviate stress by avoiding or ignoring a stressor and attending to emotional needs related to our stress reaction

personal control

our sense of controlling our environment rather than feeling helpless.

learned helplessness

the hopelessness and passive resignation an animal or person learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive events.

external locus of control

the perception that chance or outside forces beyond our personal control determine our fate.

internal locus of control

the perception that we control our own fate.

self-control

the ability to control impulses and delay short-term gratification for greater long-term rewards.

depletion effect

a theory based on the idea that a person only possess so much self-control over their urges, and that self-control can get used up