chapter 18 - conditioning and learning

Learning

A process by which behavior or knowledge changes as a result of experience

2 types of learning

1. Cognitive learning - direct learning

Ex. Studying for bio by memorizing

1. Associative learning - learning through association with our different senses

Ex. Smelling a candle and it reminds you have your old house

Ivan Pavlov

Physiologist who won a Nobel prize for his research on digestion

• developed the idea of psychological reflex

Psychological reflex

Sight of food produced salivation despite no food being present due to a response called psychic secretion

Classical conditioning

• learning that occurs when a neutral stimulus causes a response that was originally caused by another stimulus

• Ex. Dogs salivate hearing boots

Elements of classical conditioning

1. Unconditioned stimulus

• stimulus that elicits a reflexive response without learning

2. Unconditioned response

• a reflexive, unlearned reaction to an unconditioned stimulus

3. Neutral stimulus

• stimulus that doesnt normally elicit a reflexive response without learning

4. Conditioned stimulus

• a once neutral stimulus that later elicits a response because it has a history of being paired with an unconditioned stimulus

5. Conditioned response

• the learned response that occurs to the conditioned stimulus

• The CS must elicit a CR in the absence of NS

Possible mechanism of conditioning

• during conditioning, weak synapses fire at the same time as related strong synapses

• The simultaneous activity strengthens the connections in the weaker synapses

Stages of conditioning

1. Acquisition

• initial phase of learning in which the response is established

• The CS helps predict that the US will appear

• Is stronger if the CS and the US are presented close together in time to make the pattern more easily recognizable

2. Extinction

• the loss or weakening of a CR when a CS and US no longer occur together

3. Spontaneous recovery

• the reoccurrence of a previously extinguished CR

Stimulus generalization

Process in which a response that originally occurs to a specific stimulus also occurs to different, through similar stimuli

Ex. Cats generalized the opening of cat food can to all canned foods. And thought that all the can noises were its food

Stimulus discrimination

• when an organism learns to respond to one original stimulus but not to new stimuli that may be original stimulus

• Often occurs when similar stimuli are NOT paired with a US