Psychology Unit 2 - Learning and Memory

What is learning?

the process of acquiring, through experience, new and relatively enduring information

Why is learning important?

helps us adapt to the environment

How long did it take university students to learn new desirable habits?

66 days (roughly 2 months)

Who is John B. Watson?

early psychologist who discovered behaviorism

What is BEHAVIORISM?

behavior you can predict or control by paying attention external behaviors

What is ASSOCIATIVE LEARNING?

learning that certain events occur together

When was Ivan Pavlov born?

1849

What was Pavlov’s career?

Medical scientist that studied the digestive system

Did Ivan Pavlov want to study patients?

No, instead he did research on learning

What was Pavlov’s original choice of career?

following his father’s footsteps and becoming a priest

How long did Pavlov spend studying learning?

30 years

What did Pavlov discover & develop?

Classical Conditioning

What awards did Pavlov win & how many articles did he publish?

He won a Nobel prize and 532 articles.

What is CLASSICAL CONDITIONING?

when a subject learns to associate one stimulus with another that is followed by a certain event, so that the subject learns to anticipate that event and respond to the first stimulus as if it were the second stimulus

How did Pavlov discover this kind of learning?

used the digestive process to analyze other situations

What was his experiment with dogs?

He used the behavior approach. He gave the dog food so it could salivate and then but music before giving the dog food so that the dog could learn that every time he hears the music food is coming. Every time the dog heard the music, it started salivating because he knew that food would follow.

What is UNCONDITIONAL STIMILUS?

a stimulus that naturally brings about a response you are looking out without any learning having to take place

What is an UNCONDITONAL RESPONSE?

a response that does not take learning in order to take place

what does “unconditional” mean?

natural or built-in

What is a CONDITIONAL STIMULUS?

an original neutral stimulus that after being associated with a unconditioned stimulus, takes on the ability to bring about the response that originally followed the unconditioned stimulus.

What is a CONDITIONED RESPONSE?

a learned response to a previously neutral stimulus that has now become the conditioned stimulus

What does “conditioned” mean?

not natural or not built-in

What is ACQUISITION in classical conditioning?

the initial learning of a stimulus -response relationship in which a neutral stimulus is linked to an unconditioned stimulus and the neutral stimulus becomes the conditioned stimulus capable of bringing about a conditional response that is the same as the unconditioned response

What is the most effective interval between presenting a neutral or conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus?

Short Interval (about 0.5 secs)

What happens if the interval is too long or the conditioned stimulus comes after the unconditioned stimulus?

They won’t learn

What happened in the modern Japanese quail experiment?

A male quail was put in a cage and with a red light. When the red light was turned on a female quail was added to the cage and then they mated.

How did the quail react to the experiment?

After the process was done a few times, the quail had become conditioned to mate every time the red light comes on

Can s3xual arousal be conditioned in humans?

yes

What is EXTINCTION?

the diminishing of a conditioned response; when unconditional stimulus no longer follows the conditioned stimulus, until the conditioned stimulus no longer appears

How was extinction demonstrated in Pavlov’s original?

If you only play the musical song without giving the dog food, the dog will eventually drool until he doesn’t anymore

What is SPONTANEOUS RECOVERY?

the reappearance of a previously extinguished conditioned response after there has been no training for a while

What is Generalization?

the establishment of a conditioned response for stimuli that are similar to the conditioned stimulus to bring a similar response

What is DISCRIMINATION?

the learned ability to tell the difference between the conditioned stimulus that will be followed by the unconditioned stimulus and ither similar stimuli that will not be followed by the unconditioned stimulus

Can cognition (internal thought processes) influence classical conditioning?

yes

What did Watson and Rayner do in their classical experiment with Little Albert?

They intentionally conditioned fear in Little Albert by hitting him with a metal rod every time he reached or touch the white fluffy rag.

What was the result for Little Albert?

Little Albert stopped reaching for the rag, but every time he seen it or something white and fluffy, he screamed and cried.

Why did Watson and Rayner do this experiment?

They wanted to show the fear in children could be conditioned

What two things did Watson ad Rayner demonstrate that

1. fears can be conditioned

2. fears can be generalized