psych 109 learning test two

why study learning?

interested in how behaviour is affected by the environment in which it occurs

is learning a short-term or long-term effect?

long-term

example of not learning (short-term)

maturation, drugs & surgery - they are only temporary

what does behavioural psychology look for?

cause & affect

what is something that behaivoural psychologists don’t usually measure?

feelings - hard to measure

does environment control behaivour the same or humans and non-humans?

yes

what are 3 advantages to using animals rather than humans in experiments?

easier to simply and control environment, animal’s history can be known and controlled, and animal’s behaivour sis likley not persuaded by humans watching it

who created ‘the law of effect’

thorndike

an example of an experiment demonstrating thorndike’s ‘law of effect’

cat in a puzzle box

describe thorndike’s ‘cat in a puzzle box’

put cat in the box, try to escape and in proccess accidentally button that pulls rope to open door. repeat proccess until cat learns that button opens door

what were the findings from the ‘cat in a puzzle box’

at first it took 360 seconds, over 60 trials the cat evetually learnt that the button opened the door and decreased to about 20 seconds

what did the cat learn?

that a behaivour is followed by a positive outcome (reinforcer)

what are the two ideas of the ‘law of effect’

response followed by reinforcer will increase and unsuccessful responses will reduce and dissapear

describe an example (pigeons and rat) of ‘law of effect’

pigeon/rat gets put in box, 3 keys - light up when experiment begins, key pecking leads to food

what was the measureable behaivour and the reinforcer in the pigeon and rat ‘law of effect’ experiment?

measureable outcome = key pecking and reinforcer = wheat

for a behavioural experiement in a controlled environment, what are the three components?

stimulus, response, reinforcer

example of behavioural experiment for humans

children doing chores - stimulus = parent says do chores, response = doing chores, reinforcer = sticker

the reinforcer needs to be suited…

for the target audience

what is operant behaviour?

behaviour controlled by it’s consequences

what is operant conditioning?

learning an assoiciate between a response and it’s consequences

what makes a reinforcer less effective?

a big gap between the time of the behaviour and the reinforcer being given

what is a contingency?

specific relationship between behaviour and reinforcer - response causes reinforcer

what are the two types of consequences?

punishers and reinforcers

what is an operant class?

set of behaviours that have the same effect on the environment

what is shaping?

creating new behaviours that don’t naturally occur

what are the 3 steps of shaping?

reinforce broad class of behaivours - any behaviour, gradually narrow class of behaviours, gradually shift behaviour to goal behaviour

example given in class of shaping:

shaping lecturer to stand under exit sign - reinforce any behaviour (paying attention, taking notes etc), reinforce behaviour standing away from lectern, narrow behaivour to being close to the exit sign

example of what happens if behaivour is not reinforced immediately

colleauge’s child - using shaping to get kid to walk to classroom, spent too long on one step resulting in doing a lot of one behaivour and the variability decreased

describe example of using shaping to put on glasses

any movement of the hands, move hands towards glasses, touch glasses, pick up glasses, wear glasses

can a favourable consequence be good and bad? explain:

yes - can be adding something good or taking away something bad

example of a bad favourable consequence:

cat in the puzzle box, something bad was taken away - having the be in the box

in behaivoral psychology, what does punishment mean?

if a response is followed by an unfavourable consequence, it is less likely to happen again

in behavioural psychology, what does extinction mean?

if a response is first followed by a reinforcer and is later taken away, the behaviour is less likely to happen again

what are the 2 parts of contigency?

is something being taken away or added? does this result in good or bad consequences?

what does positive mean?

something is being added to environment

what does negative mean?

something is being taken away from the environment

example of positive punishment:

student on phone during lecture, lecturer electric shocks student - added shock to environment

example of negative punishment:

losing job - took away job from environment

example of negative reinforcement:

lost job so don’t have to sit in traffic anymore - took away traffic from environment

which two contingencies increase behaivour?

positive and negative reinforcers

contengcy is what happens to…

the personal

reinforcement and punishment are best effective when…

immediately given

example of why introducing punisher abruptly is more effective

rat experiment - run from one side to other to get food. first group: shock increased each round vs second group: shock was remained same throughout experiment

define escape:

come into contact with averse stimuli and do something to remove that from environment

example of escape

go to boring party, leave = escaped

what is a delayed reinforcer?

a reinforcer that doesn’t occur until much later

what can be done when a reinforcer cannot be taken away?

use a reinforcer to prompt a different behaivour

what are the two types of reinforcers?

primary and secondary reinforcers

what does primary reinforcer mean? with examples:

reinforce behaviour because of their innate biologically significance and don’t have to learn from experience - eg: food, warmth, sex

what does secondary reinforcer mean?

reinforcers that are previously neutral stimuli but paired with primary reinforcer - they have no value within themselves

example of secondary reinforcer:

kid runs towards busy road but can’t get there in time so yell out ‘stop, no’ 

how often is continuous reinforcement given?

every time the behaivour occurs

how often is intermittent reforcement given?

only some responses reinforced - on a time schedule

what did skinner discover with intimittent reinforcers?

it is harder to stop the behaviour when the reinforcer has been taken away

what is a fixed interval (FI) schedule?

a behaivour that is reinforced (next person to) after a fixed amount of time since the last reinforcer was given

example of fixed interval schedule

hand out chocolate bar every 15 seconds during lectures

what is a variable interval schedule?

a behaivour is reinforced after a variable (different each time) amout of time since the last reinforcer

what is a fixed time schedule

a reinforcer is delivered after a certain amount of time since the last reinforcer but no behaivour required 

what is adventitious reinforcement?

when there is a chance pairing when absence of contingency

describe herrnstiens superstitious data

trained them to peck a key for food, reinforcing key pecking, behaviour becomes more likely reinforcers occur every 11 seconds no matter what the pigeon was doing, when there is no reinforcers there is still key pecking

describe skinners’ experiment (similiar to herrnstein)

replicated experiment with children - every 15 seconds robotic clown dispense lollies, children found doing mass amounts of activities because they thought that it caused lollies. these behaviours just happened to occur before the clown dispensed lollies first time - chance pairings

our behaivour is under stimulus control which…

determines which behaviours will be reinforced and which will be punished

what is classical conditioning?

learnining an association between a respone and it’s consequence

how do you get a conditioned stimulus in classical conditioning?

need an uncondtioned stimulus and a neutral stimulus

example of conditioned stimulus:

pair bell with food, after time bell signals food

describe pavlov’s accidental discovery

rang bell before food, dogs began to salivate at bell, bell became conditioned stimulus - found neutral stimulus repeatedly paired with stimulus = behaivour