Psych Ch 7

learning

process of acquiring through experience new info or behavior, allows for adaption to environment

classical conditioning

learn to expect and prepare for significant events (food or pain)

operant conditioning

learning where behavior strengthened if followed by reinforce or diminished if followed by punisher, associate action w consequence

cognitive learning

learn new behaviors by observing events, watching others, can learn things never experienced/observed through language

association/associative learning

minds naturally connect events occur in sequence, (ex. see/smell fresh bread and remember pleasant experience eating)

stimulus

event/situation that evokes response (ex. flash of lightening means thunder)

respondent behaviors

behavior occurs as automatic response to stimulus, stimuli not controlled, unconditioned (classical)

operant behaviors

behavior operates on environment, produce consequences (operant)

observational learning

learn from others experience, form of cognitive learning

Ivan Pavlov

explored classical conditioning (ex. dog experiment)

John B Watson

believed you should discard reference to inner thoughts, feelings, motives, studied conditioning

behaviorism

believe psych should be objective science that studies behavior without reference to mental process (Watson and Pavlov)

neutral stimuli (NS)

stimulus elicits no response before conditioning (classical) (ex. tone before dog got food)

unconditioned response (UR)

unlearned naturally occurring response to unconditioned stimulus (classical) (ex. salivation to food)

unconditioned stimulus (US)

stimulus unconditionally naturally and automatically triggers UR (classical) (ex. dog food)

conditioned response (CR)

learned response to previously neutral but now conditioned stimulus (classical) (salivation to tone)

conditioned stimulus (CS)

originally irrelevant stimulus after association with unconditioned stimulus comes to trigger CR (classical) (ex. tone)

acquisition (initial learning)

initial stage when one links neutral stimulus and unconditional stimulus so neutral stimulus begins triggering conditioned response, strengthening of reinforced response, only half a second needed to present NS and US (operant)

higher-order conditioning

CS in one conditioned experience paired with new NS, creats second weaker conditioned stimulus (ex. tone predicts food, light predicts tone, causes dog to react to light alone) (classical)

extinction

diminishing of conditioned response, occurs when US doesn’t follow CS (classical), occurs when response no longer reinforced (operant)

spontaneous recovery

reappearance of extinct conditioned response, extinction suppressing CR rather than eliminating it

generalization

tendency once response has been conditioned for stimuli similar to conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses (ex. dog conditioned to tone response to new different tone)

discrimination

learned ability to distinguish between conditioned stimulus and stimuli that do not signal unconditioned stimulus (ex. reaction to guard dog vs guide dog)

B. F. Skinner

Modern behaviorism, operant learning and introduced idea of schedules

behavior control

using animals natural behaviors to create new actions (ex. shape pigeons natural walking/pecking behavior to teach to walk in figure 8, ping pong, and peck at screen target)

law of effect

Thorndike principle behaviors followed by favorable punishment become more likely, vice versa

operant chamber (skinner box)

chamber containing bar or key that animal can manipulate to obtain food or water reinforcer, attached devices record animals rate of bar pressing/key pecking

reinforcement

event strengthens behavior it follows, depends on animal and conditions (ex. praise, attention, food, water)

shaping

reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and closer approximations of desired behavior, watch how animal naturally behaves, build on existing behaviors reward when closer to wanted behavior (ex. child rewards when crawling, then when standing, then finally when walking)

successive approximations

reward responses closer to final desired behavior and ignore other responses

discriminative stimulus

signal response will be reinforced (ex. pigeons rewarded for pecking at human face, ignored others, trained to group objects in classes, can identify category of new object)

positive reinforcement

increasing behaviors by presenting positive reinforcers, any stimulus when presented after response strengthens response

negative reinforcement

increase behavior by stopping or reducing negative stimuli, when removed after response strengthens response, not punishment (ex. negative reinforcement of withdraws cause drug addicts to keep using drugs to avoid pain)

primary reinforcers

innately reinforcing stimulus, such as one that satisfies biological need (ex. getting food when hungry)

conditioned reinforcers (secondary reinforcers)

stimulus gains reinforcing power through association with primary reinforcer (ex. learn money has value)

reinforcement schedules

pattern defines how often desired response will be reinforced

continuous reinforcemet schedule

reinforcing desired response every time occurs, learning occurs rapidly, makes best choice for mastering behavior, extinction occurs rapidly, when reinforcement stops, behavior soon stops

partial (intermittent) reinforcement schedules

reinforce response only part of the time, results in slower acquisition of response but much greater resistance to extinction than continuous reinforcement (ex. phase out food delivery until occur only rarely, may do desired response without reward, slot machine gambler)

fixed-ratio schedules

reinforce behaviors after a specified number of responses, behavior pauses only briefly after reinforcer before responding with high rate again (ex. coffee shop reward w free drink after 10 drinks)

variable-ratio schedules

reinforcement of response after unpredictable number of responses, reinforcers increase as number of responses increase, produce high rate of response (ex. slot machine and fishing)

fixed-interval schedule

reinforce response only after specified time, respond more frequently as anticipated time for reward draws near, chopped stop-start patten rather than steady rate of response (ex. check more frequently for mail when delivery time approaches)

variable-interval schedule

reinforcement schedule reinforcing response after unspecified time elapsed, produce slow, steady responding, no knowing when waiting will be over (ex. checking for longed for message)

ratio schedule

punishment/reinforcer based on number of desired action, response rates are higher when reinforcement linked to the number of responses (operant)

variable schedule

punishment/reward more unpredictable, response more consistent (operant)

punishment

event tends to decrease behavior it follows (ex. child burned by touching pot)

positive punishment

administer something undesired (ex. spraying water or misbehaving dog)

negative punishment

end something desired (ex. taking away misbehaving teen drivers licence)

taste aversion

rats identify tainted food by tasting, if sickened, avoid it, makes difficult to eradicate rats by poisoning

ecologically relavant

similar to stimuli associated with sexual activity in natural environment (ex. quail sexually excited by red light)

instinctive drift

revert back to biologically predisposed patterns (ex. pigs pushed coins with snout as prone, delay food)

cognitive map

mental representation of the layout of ones environment (ex. rats learn maze layout after exploring)

latent learning

learning occurs but not apparent until incentive to demonstrate it

extrinsic motivation

desire to perform behavior to receive promised rewards or avoid threatened punishment (ex. doing this knowt to get a good grade, not personal interest)

observational learning

learning by observing others (ex. learning not to touch pot after seeing someone else get burned)

modeling

process observing behaviors and imitating (ex learning first language)

mirror neurons

frontal lobe neurons fire when performing actions or when observing another doing, brain mirroring another action may enable imitation and empathy

overimitate

children imitate even irrelevant adult actions, shows human predisposition to learn from adults

prosocial

positive constructive helpful behavior, opposite of antisocial behavior (ex. MLK, parents having stong morals having humanitarian children)

antisocial

negative modeled effects (ex. abusive parents have aggressive children)