PSYC2081 — Learning Reorganised Lecture & Tutorial Notes Flashcards

Comprehensive practice questions covering core concepts, experiments, and brain circuits from the Learning Reorganised lecture and tutorial series.

How is 'learning' defined in the context of this course?

Learning is defined as how organisms adapt to their environment and how animals use the past to predict the future.

What are the two broad types of relationships studied in this course?

1. Pavlovian (classical) conditioning: Relationships between stimuli/events in the world. 2. Instrumental (operant) conditioning: Relationships between an organism's own actions and outcomes.

What was the aim and outcome of the Watson & Rayner (1920) 'Little Albert' experiment?

The aim was to test whether fear can be classically conditioned in a human infant. The result showed Albert became fearful of a white rat after it was paired with a loud noise, and this fear generalised to other furry stimuli.

In Pavlov's studies, what is the difference between an unconditioned reflex and a conditioned reflex?

An unconditioned reflex (e.g., salivating at the taste of food) is present in every dog and does not depend on experience. A conditioned reflex (e.g., salivating at the sight of the attendant) depends on that individual dog's specific learning history.

Define 'external inhibition' as discovered by Pavlov.

External inhibition is the loss of salivation to a trained sound when a novel stimulus (like a light) is added at the same time, causing attention to switch away from the sound.

What does the phenomenon of 'extinction' illustrate regarding memory?

Extinction is a gradual decline in the conditioned response when the CS is repeatedly presented without the US. It is NOT unlearning or forgetting; the original association remains intact but is actively inhibited.

What is 'disinhibition' in Pavlovian conditioning?

Disinhibition is the reappearance of a response lost through extinction when the extinguished stimulus is combined with a novel stimulus, which displaces attention and removes active inhibition.

How did Skinner define a 'reinforcer'?

A reinforcer is anything that increases the likelihood of the specific behaviour that produced it.

Contrast Fixed Ratio (FR) and Variable Ratio (VR) schedules of reinforcement.

A Fixed Ratio (FR-n) requires $n$ responses per reinforcer and produces a post-reinforcement pause. A Variable Ratio (VR-n) requires $n$ responses on average and produces a constant, high rate of responding with no pause.

Contrast Fixed Interval (FI) and Variable Interval (VI) schedules of reinforcement.

In a Fixed Interval (FI) schedule, behaviour is reinforced after a fixed period of time (producing a 'scalloped' pattern). In a Variable Interval (VI) schedule, reinforcement occurs at unpredictable time intervals, producing steady responding.

What is 'omission training' in the 2x2 matrix of instrumental conditioning?

Omission training is a procedure where a behaviour prevents a desired outcome, leading to a decrease in the likelihood of that behaviour.

What is 'sign-tracking' in pigeons?

Sign-tracking is when a light predicting reward causes the animal to approach and interact with (e.g., peck) the light itself, even if this delays food delivery, showing the stimulus has acquired incentive properties.

What does 'incentive salience' refer to in the context of rat sign-trackers vs. goal-trackers?

Incentive salience is the attribution of motivational significance to a cue that signals reward. Sign-trackers, who approach the cue itself, are more likely to show addiction-like characteristics toward drug cues.

What is the 'Garcia effect' or taste-aversion learning?

The Garcia effect refers to biological preparedness where animals readily associate flavor with illness and external audiovisual cues with pain/shock, but fail to associate flavor with shock or audiovisual cues with illness.

What is the 'blocking effect' discovered by Kamin (1969)?

The blocking effect occurs when prior conditioning to one stimulus impairs (blocks) learning about a second, new stimulus when the two are presented simultaneously with a US, showing that temporal contiguity is not sufficient for learning.

How did Rescorla (1968) define 'contingency'?

Contingency focuses on the statistical relationship between a cue and an outcome. Learning only occurs if the outcome reliably depends on the stimulus (i.e., the outcome is more likely when the cue is present than when it is absent).

What is the Rescorla-Wagner (1972) model formula?

$$\Delta V = \alpha \beta (\lambda - \Sigma V)$$

In the Rescorla-Wagner model, what does the bracketed term $(\lambda - \Sigma V)$ represent?

It represents the 'prediction error', which is the difference between what actually happens ($\lambda$) and what is expected ($\Sigma V$).

How does the Rescorla-Wagner model explain conditioned inhibition?

Conditioned inhibition occurs when a cue is present during trials where an expected outcome fails to occur ($\lambda < \Sigma V$). This produces a negative prediction error, pushing the associative value of the cue below zero.

What is 'super-conditioning' according to the RW model?

Super-conditioning occurs when a stimulus is learned in the presence of a safety signal (conditioned inhibitor). Because the outcome is highly surprising, it drives extra learning about the new stimulus.

Define the four hallmark phenomena of extinction that prove it is not 'unlearning'.

1. Rapid reacquisition (fast return of learning). 2. Reinstatement (return of response after re-exposure to the US). 3. Spontaneous recovery (return of response after a delay). 4. Renewal (return of response when tested in a new context).

Describe the three types of renewal: AAB, ABC, and ABA.

AAB: Trained and extinguished in context A, tested in new context B. ABC: Trained in A, extinguished in B, tested in novel context C. ABA: Trained in A, extinguished in B, tested back in original context A.

What is 'super-extinction' (Wagner, 1972)?

Super-extinction is the finding that a stimulus undergoes stronger extinction when paired with a highly-trained (strongly expected) excitor, because the omission of the outcome creates a larger prediction error.

How is contingency ($\Delta P$) quantified in human associative learning?

$$\Delta P = P(\text{outcome} | \text{cue}) - P(\text{outcome} | \text{no cue})$$

What is the 'propositional view' of human associative learning?

The propositional view suggests that learning is a form of (unconscious) reasoning or inference from past evidence to form structured causal beliefs, rather than the automatic formation of associative links.

What did Olson & Fazio (2001) demonstrate using the Implicit Association Test (IAT)?

They provided evidence for real, automatic evaluative conditioning (EC) by showing that paired stimuli automatically activated 'pleasant' or 'unpleasant' concepts, independent of demand characteristics.

What is Bernstein's (1978) 'scapegoat' flavour intervention?

It is a clinical strategy where a novel flavor is consumed before chemotherapy to 'absorb' the conditioned taste aversion, thereby protecting the patient's regular healthy foods from being associated with nausea.

What is the 'Predictiveness Principle' in attention (Mackintosh, 1975)?

The Predictiveness Principle states that we preferentially allocate attention to cues that are accurate and reliable predictors of outcomes.

Distinguish between Intradimensional (ID) and Extradimensional (ED) shifts.

An ID shift involves learning new values within an already predictive dimension (e.g., shape). An ED shift requires shifting attention to a whole new dimension (e.g., from shape to lines), which is much harder to learn.

What did Le Pelley et al. (2015) discover about value-driven attentional capture?

They found that stimuli associated with high reward value can capture attention automatically and involuntarily, even when looking at them is costly or against current goals.

How does the 'aberrant salience hypothesis' explain symptoms of schizophrenia?

It suggests that dopamine dysregulation leads to the assignment of motivational significance to irrelevant stimuli. Hallucinations are internal representations of this salience, and delusions are attempts to explain it.

What is the relationship between latent inhibition and schizophrenia?

Acute schizophrenia patients often show reduced or absent latent inhibition, meaning they have difficulty filtering out irrelevant information, which correlates with the severity of positive symptoms.

What are the characteristics of substance dependence (addiction)?

It requires at least 3 of: tolerance, withdrawal, increasing doses, failed efforts to reduce, time spent obtaining/using, interference with activities, and continued use despite problems.

Explain the mesolimbic dopamine pathway's role in reward.

Dopamine is released from the Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA) into the Nucleus Accumbens (NAc) to attribute 'incentive salience' or 'wanting' to stimuli.

Contrast 'wanting' and 'liking' in Incentive Sensitisation Theory.

'Wanting' is the dopamine-driven incentive salience (the urge to consume), whereas 'liking' is the hedonic/affective pleasure response. Repeated drug use sensitises 'wanting' even as 'liking' may decrease.

Describe the Opponent Process Theory of motivation.

It involves an A-process (initial reward) and a B-process (compensatory aversion/withdrawal). Over time, the B-process strengthens, leading to tolerance and a shift where the drug is taken to avoid distress rather than for pleasure.

How does the classical conditioning model explain context-dependent overdose?

Drug-associated cues (CS) trigger learned compensatory responses (CR) that oppose the drug. In a new environment, these cues are absent, the body does not prepare, and a previously tolerated dose becomes lethal.

Which treatment for addiction is based on instrumental learning and is considered highly effective?

Contingency management, which provides vouchers or rewards for positive behaviours (like negative drug tests).

What is the 'glucostatic hypothesis' of feeding?

A homeostatic theory stating that a decrease in blood glucose ($~6–8\%$) is detected by the hypothalamus, triggering hunger to return the system to its setpoint.

What does 'social facilitation' of eating (De Castro, 1989) suggest about homeostasis?

It shows people eat significantly more when with others than alone, proving that homeostasis (biological need) alone cannot fully explain motivated behaviour.

What was the findings of the 5-HTT gene and environment interaction study (Kaufman et al., 2004)?

The s/s genotype only increased depression risk in children who experienced maltreatment; however, access to supportive mentors buffered this risk even for high-risk genotypes.

What was the key conclusion of Harlow's surrogate mother experiments?

Attachment is driven by 'contact comfort', not by whoever provides food, disproving Watson's simple conditioning theory of attachment.

Contrast the attachment style and neurobiology of prairie voles vs. montane voles.

Prairie voles are monogamous and have high densities of oxytocin/vasopressin receptors. Montane voles are polygamous and have fewer receptors. Blocking these hormones prevents pair-bonding in prairie voles.

What is the 'dual-process theory' of context processing in the brain?

It posits that context is represented both as elemental features (in cortical areas) and as a configural whole (in the hippocampus). By default, the brain favors the configural hippocampal representation.

Identify the roles of the BLA and CE in fear conditioning.

The Basolateral Amygdala (BLA) is where CS-US associations are formed (acquisition and retrieval). The Central Amygdala (CE) coordinates the expression of fear responses (freezing, heart rate).

What are the roles of NMDA receptors and protein synthesis in the BLA regarding fear memory?

NMDA receptors are essential for the acquisition (but not retrieval) of fear memory. Protein synthesis is required for the consolidation of fear memory into long-term storage.

How do you distinguish goal-directed actions from habitual actions in the lab?

Goal-directed actions are sensitive to changes in outcome value (devaluation) and changes in causal contingency. Habits are insensitive to these changes.

Identify the brain regions associated with goal-directed vs. habitual actions.

Goal-directed: Prelimbic cortex (PL) and posterior dorsomedial striatum (pDMS). Habitual: Infralimbic cortex (IL), dorsolateral striatum (DLS), and anterior central amygdala (aCeA).

What is the difference between General and Specific Pavlovian-Instrumental Transfer (PIT)?

General PIT occurs when a reward-predictive cue energises any reward-seeking action (motivational). Specific PIT occurs when a cue for a specific outcome biases choice toward the action that earns that same outcome (identity-based).

What are the roles of the Prelimbic (PL) and Infralimbic (IL) cortex in fear extinction?

The PL is necessary for the expression of conditioned fear. The IL is necessary for the consolidation and retrieval (but not acquisition) of fear extinction, suppressing amygdala output.

What is 'cue exposure therapy' and what models its relapse?

It is a clinical treatment for anxiety modeled on fear extinction. Its vulnerability to relapse is explained by fear-restoration phenomena including renewal, reinstatement, and spontaneous recovery.

What are the 3Rs in the ethical framework for animal research?

1. Replacement (avoiding animal use). 2. Reduction (using the minimum number of animals for valid results). 3. Refinement (minimising pain and distress).