PSYCH 104 - Chapter Seven

learning

an enduring or durable change in behaviour or mental processes due to experience

• occurs due to interactions with the environment

types of learning

1. event-alone learning: habituation and sensitization

2. event-event learning: classical/pavlovian conditioning

3. behaviour-event learning: instrumental (operant conditioning)

4. social learning: observational learning

innate

something inborn or naturally occuring

reflex

stimulus-response relationship which is either learned or innate and indicates that behaviour that happens automatically

habituation

process by which we respond less strongly over time to repeated stimuli

what is not habituation?

1. sensory adaptation —> not stimulus-specific, sense is just fatigued/adaptive

2. fatigue: decrease in behaviour due to repeated or excessive use of muscles

sensitization

increase in the strength of a response to a repeated stimulus, can result from repeated presentations or by arousal from extraneous stimuli

stimulus specificity

• habituation is highly specific

• sensitization is often not specific

classical conditioning

a form of learning in which a neutral stimulus comes to signal the occurrence of a second stimulus

unconditioned stimulus (US)

biological significant stimulus that already has a response associated with it

• e.g. food; pain

unconditioned response (UR)

response naturally associated with the unconditioned stimulus

• e.g. salivation (with food); startle (with pain)

neutral stimulus (NS)

a stimulus that does not naturally elicit a response and initially did not mean anything

• e.g. tone; chime; bell

conditioned stimulus (CS)

previously neutral stimulus that comes to elicit a conditioned response

conditioned response (CR)

learned response to an environmental stimulus (CS)

short-delayed conditioning

US starts just after the CS started

• e.g. lightning 3s before a thunderclap

long-delayed conditioning

US starts after the CS has been on for a while

• e.g. sirens 30s before a tornado

trace conditioning

CS begins and ends before US is presented

• e.g. salmonella 3 hours after rotten sushi

simultaneous conditioning

CS and US begin and end together

• e.g. lightning and thunderclap occurring at the same time

backward conditioning

US occurs before the CS

• e.g. thunderclap before lightning

preparedness

species-specific predisposition to be conditioned some specific way

• e.g. bright, noisy, tasty water experiment

extinction

process in which CS is presented in absence of US

• causes CR to weaken and eventually disappear (not a process of forgetting)

spontaneous recovery

when a seemingly extinct CR reappears if the CS is presented again following a delay after extinction

conditioned excitor

a conditioned stimulus that produces a conditioned response

safety signal/conditioned inhibitor

a conditioned stimulus that lets us know an unconditioned stimulus is not coming

stimulus generalization

a process where once a CS has been established, similar stimuli may also produce a CR

• bell-shaped visual

stimulus discrimination

process where we exhibit less pronounced CR to CSs to differ from the original CS

• sharp decline at similar (but not exact) CS’s

higher-order conditioning

conditioning procedure in which an already conditioned signal (CS1) is paired with another/new neutral stimulus

operant (instrumental) conditioning

learning that is controlled by the consequences of the organisms behaviour

E. L. thorndike’s law of effect

• the relationship between stimulus and response is strengthened if a satisfying consequence is followed

escape behaviour

performance of a behaviour terminates an aversive stimulus

avoidance behaviour

performance of the behaviour prevents the aversive stimulus from occurring

learned helplessness

experiencing an aversive situation you can’t control prevents you from learning to control other aversive situations

shaping

reinforce successive approximations toward a final response while no longer reinforcing previous approximations

chaining

reinforce each response with the opportunity to perform the next response

behavioural effects of operant extinction

1. extinction burst: temporary increase in responding

2. emotional and aggressive responding

3. responding eventually stops

discriminative stimulus

any stimulus that signals the availability of reinforcement

reinforcer

stimulus/event following a behaviour that increases the likelihood of that behaviour occurring in the future

• primary: not learned

• secondary: learned

punisher

stimulus/event following a behaviour that increases the likelihood of that behaviour occurring in the future

continuous reinforcement

every “correct” response is reinforced

partial (intermittent) reinforcement

only some “correct” responses are reinforced

fixed vs. variable

• fixed: occurs after a fixed number of responses or fixed time interval

• variable: occurs after an average number of responses or passage of time

ratio vs. interval

• ratio: certain percentage of responses are reinforced

• interval: certain amount of time must elapse between

latent learning

behaviour is learned but not demonstrated until it is reinforced

cognitive maps

mental representations created by the mind and recalled to improve our ability to navigate our environment

social (observational) learning

we understand what to do by watching others

• vicarious conditioning: organism watching another organism be conditioned

phases of observational learning

1. attention: learner watches trainer/model/demonstrator

2. retention: trainer models response and learning thinks about response

3. production: learner demonstrates response without model

4. motivation: learner’s imitated behaviour produces reinforcer