Principles and Mechanisms of Learning

Comprehensive vocabulary terms based on lecture notes covering the biological, neural, and psychological aspects of various types of learning across animal life phases.

Learning

A relatively permanent change in behavior as a result of an individual experience.

Reflex

A rapid, automatic, and involuntary innate response.

Instinct

An innate response that is longer and more complex than a reflex.

Motivation

A natural response that is not categorized as learning.

Embryonic learning

Learning that occurs before birth, also known as learning in Utero, such as superb fairy wrens learning feeding calls.

Filial imprinting

Phase-sensitive learning for parent stimuli that is necessary for immediate survival.

Sexual imprinting

Phase-sensitive learning for appropriate mate stimuli that is necessary for long-term survival.

Orbitofrontal cortex

A brain region that shows increased activity during reversal learning.

Visual wulst

The area of the brain used for processing visual cues during neural tracing of imprinting.

Telencephalon

The brain area that stores visual inputs as memory during imprinting.

Neurogenesis

The formation of new neurons, which happens throughout life but peaks at age 2 in humans.

Gliogenesis

The production of non-neuronal glial cells.

Dendritic arborization

Increased branching of neuronal structures in response to an enriched environment.

Hebb’s rule

The principle of Hebbian learning where two cells repeatedly active at the same time tend to be associated.

Long term potentiation (LTP)

The strengthening of a synapse when one neuron repeatedly fires and excites another.

Long term depression (LTD)

The process where synapses become weaker due to infrequent activation.

Synaptogenesis

The formation of new synaptic connections.

Pruning

The process where unused neural connections are discarded.

Implicit learning

The process of acquiring knowledge without conscious awareness, characterized as automatic and unintentional.

Strategic desensitization

A clinical method where a stimulus is paired with continuous no other consequences until it becomes neutral.

Counter conditioning

A clinical method where a stimulus is paired with a relaxing environment to associate it with favorable feelings.

Habituation

A non-associative learning type characterized by a decrease in behavioral response to a repeatedly presented stimulus.

Sensitization

A non-associative learning type characterized by an increase in behavioral response to a repeatedly presented stimulus.

Unconditioned stimulus (US)

A biologically significant stimulus which already produces a response without conditioning.

Unconditioned response (UR)

An automatic response that needs no conditioning, often a reflex.

Conditioned stimulus (CS)

A stimulus that is initially neutral and does not cause a response on its own.

Conditioned response (CR)

A response that becomes linked to the conditioned stimulus after acquisition.

Acquisition

The stage of conditioning where the $CS$ and $US$ are presented together.

Contiguity

The timing condition for learning where the $US$ and $CS$ must be close together in time.

Contingency

The predictability condition for learning involving a predictive relationship between the $US$ and $CS$.

Trial and error learning

Taking a number of alternate trials and making errors before a desired behavior is performed.

Law of effect

The principle that behaviors followed by favorable outcomes become likely, while those followed by unfavorable outcomes become unlikely.

Learned helplessness

A state that occurs when there is no contingency between a response and a reinforcer, leading to a failure to respond.

Category/discrimination learning

A form of complex learning involving the understanding of relative relationships rather than absolute ones.

Casual learning

Learning the cause-effect relationship among a set of events.

Imitation

A direct social learning mechanism involving copying the specific form of an action.

Emulation

A direct social learning mechanism involving copying the end outcome of an action.

Stimulus enhancement

An indirect social learning mechanism where an individual's tendency to approach an object increases after seeing a conspecific interact with it.

Response facilitation

An indirect social learning mechanism where there is an increased tendency to perform a response after seeing a conspecific do it.