Chapter 6 Psych

Reflexes

Motor/neural reactions to specific stimulus

Example:

• Touching something hot (stimulus)

• Reflex: Jerk hand instinctively before fully registering

Instincts

Behaviors triggered by events

Example:

• Sucking Reflex: A baby sucks on finger without being taught how.

Learning

Change in behavior/knowledge resulting from experience

Classical Conditioning / Associative Learning

Ivan Pavlov — Associating stimuli to create anticipated events, changing behaviors

1. Before Conditioning (UCS —> UCR):

   1. Unconditioned Stimulus, a stimulus eliciting reflexive responses. Such as smelling tasty food.

   2. Unconditioned Response, natural unlearned response to that stimulus, such as salivating over that smell.

2. During Conditioning (NS + UCS —> UCR):

   1. Neutral Stimulus, stimulus that does not elicit response, so to condition they will pair the unconditioned stimulus to try to link it to the unconditioned response. Such as bell ringing does not cause salivation until its linked.

3. After Conditioning (CS —> CR)

   1. Conditioned stimulus, stimulus will elicit response after being paired

   2. Conditioned Response, behavior caused by conditioned stimulus (dog will finally associate food to bell and begin to salivate when hearing bell)

All of this is an example of associative learning: connections between stimuli and event will change behaviors

Higher-Order Conditioning

Established conditioned stimulus pairs with new neutral stimulus (second-order) so that new stimulus also elicits conditioned response, without conditioned stimulus
Example:

• The cat learns to associate the cabinet door with the electric can opener and therefore with food. Doesn’t need food nor conditioned stimulus, can opener sound, to produce conditioned response

Acquisition

Initial period (when first learned) when organism connects neutral stimulus to unconditioned stimulus

Example:

• Dog finally sits at command and you have to repeat it till its replicable. Acquisition is when its first learned.

Extinction

If conditioned stimulus (bell) stops being paired with unconditioned stimulus (food), conditioned response (salivating @ sound of bell) will stop happening

Spontaneous Recovery

Return of previous extinguished conditioned response (extinction, stops salivating @ sound of bell)

Stimulus Discrimination

Organism responds differently to various stimuli that are similar (Two bells sounds they are different in pitch representing different things, the pitches will make organism have different conditioned response)

Stimulus Generalization

Organism demonstrate conditioned response to stimuli that are similar to conditioned stimulus

Example:

• If you learn to hate spiders, you will dislike all spiders

Habituation

Learning to not to respond to stimulus that is presented repeatedly w/o change

Example:

• Train, your brain will filter out sound and won’t be loud as the first time you first live at a house near a train

Behaviorism

John B. Watson —> Believed behavior could be studied with classical conditioning especially with human emotions could be conditioned, Conducting case study Little Albert

Little Albert

1. Presented neutral stimuli (rabbit, dog, cotton wool, white rat)

2. Paired with loud noise (unconditioned stim) everytime Little Albert touched the pet to causing fear

3. After repeated pairings he became scared of neutral stimuli making it a conditioned response of fear

because they were all furry/similar stimulus generalization made him fear them, making Little Albert scared of Santa Claus

Operant Conditioning

Theory proposed by B.F. Skinner which essentially associate behaviors w/ consequences

• Positive consequence (job give money) behavior will happen again

• Unpleasant (scolded for misbehaving) behavior less likely to happen

Pos (added: money!!!)/neg (taken away, like annoying beeping sound which only goes away after seatbelt put on) reinforcements to increase likelihood of behavior

Pos (added, scolding)/neg (taken away, like your phone) punishment

Skinner Box

Would put animals in operant conditioning chamber (Skinner box) which had a lever that would dispense food when pressed

Shaping

Reward in steps

1. Reinforce any behaviors that resemble desired behavior

2. Reinforce response that more closely resembles desired, no longer reinforcing 1

3. Begin reinforcing closer and close till desired is achieved

Primary & Secondary Reinforcers

Primary reinforcers are things we find good we don’t need to learn to reinforce behavior like delicious food

Secondary are things that only have value after being linked to primary reinforcers (such as tokens you can get to get primary reinforcers like toys, if you do good things its reinforced by these tokens which don’t have value outside primary reinforcers)

Partial Reinforcements

Doesn’t get reinforced everytime.

• Fixed — reinforcements are set & unchanging (Fixed Intervals: delivered @ predictable time intervals, like receiving biweekly paychecks, significant pause)

• Variable — reinforcements aren’t set & change (Variable intervals: delivered @ rando time intervals, like supervisor dropping in every x mins, but not predictable mins, moderate response rate)

• Fixed Ratio — reinforcement after predictable # of responses (being paid by x amount of items made as a worker, high response w/ short pause to maximize #)

• Variable Ratio — reinforcement after unpredictable # of responses (gacha/gambling, high and steady w/ little pause because its addicting to get rewarded appeals with norepinephrine)

Cognitive map

mental picture of the layout of an environment (by edward tolman)

latent learning

learning happens but not noticeable in behavior till a reason to show it (by edward tolman)

OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING (MODELING)

Observational learning – learning by watching others and then imitating.

Model - the individual performing the imitated behavior that they’re inspired off of

Social learning theory & bobo doll experiment

• by albert bandura

  • children see adults being aggressive with bobo doll, adults were punished/praised/ignored, children then given the opportunity to play w/ doll, punished = less likely to act aggressively, praised = more likely

• ARRM — attention, retention, reproduction, motivation (to the model, paying attention to what theyre doing, retaining it, reproducing it, and being motivated to do so)

  • Motivation depends on:

    • Vicarious Reinforcement — seeing model being rewarded makes more likely to imitate

    • Vicarious Punishment — same but w/ punishment, but less likely

concept

categories of lingustic info images or memories

prototype

best representation / example of a concept

natural / artifical concepts

natural: created naturally thru direct / indirect experiences, like the concept of snow

artiifcal: defined by a specific, rigid, and unchanging set of rules or characteristics.

• such as triangle = 3 sided