Operant/Classical Conditioning Quiz Notes

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING


Behavioralist perspective —> Behaviors are learned (nurture), not innate (fixed). All actions and personality traits are a result of environment/culture.

Learning —> Relatively permanent change in knowledge/behavior that results from experience.

Habituation —> Tendency to become familiar with a stimulus merely as a result of repeated exposure (clock ticking, humm) — sound *SENSORY ADAPTATION*

  • response decreases after too much repeated exposure

Classical conditioning —> learned behavior that occurs as an automatic response (behavior) to a neutral stimulus one stimulus predicts another stimulus

Associative learning —> learning that certain events occur together

  • associative is learning ________ predicts ________

  • a behavior and its consequences

Neutral stimulus —> stimulus which initially produces no specific response other than attention (paying attention to it = response)

UNCONDITIONED STIMULUS —> external factor (stimulus) that naturally triggers a response w/o prior learning - ex. dust→sneeze

UNCONDITIONED RESPONSE —> automatic, involuntary and unlearned reaction to a stimulus (present from birth) - ex. dust→sneeze

CONDITIONED STIMULUS —> previously neutral stimulus that, through repeated association w/ unconditioned stimulus triggers conditioned response

CONDITIONED RESPONSE —> learned behavior when a previously neutral stimulus produces response

Acquisition —> first stages of learning when a response is established - ex. you would acquire a fear of planes after being in a plane crash (connecting neutral stimulus to unconditioned response)

Extinction —> decrease or disappearance of a conditioned response (increased plane trips→ lessened fear of planes)

Spontaneous recovery —> reappearance of a conditioned response after rest period or a period of lessened response

  • Long-term potentiation and plasticity keeps memory traces

Stimulus generalization —> elicitation of a conditioned response by stimulation similar but not identical to original stimulus - ex. associating any ring with the sound of a bell, response follows

  • Schema assimilation, interpret with any schema

Stimulus discrimination —> ability to distinguish between like stimuli and respond to specific stimuli only - ex. Pavlov’s dogs distinguishing between different bell sounds

  • Schema accommodation, change schema

Higher-order conditioning —> conditioned stimulus used as unconditioned stimulus - ex. Pavlov’s dog was trained to salivate at the sound of a bell (through introducing food), now a light is introduced before the bell (OG conditioned stimulus) to train the dog to salivate at the light

Counterconditioning —> change a response (behavior) to a given stimulus, used on Little Albert to revert his fear of animals back to neutral

Taste-aversion —> one-trial conditioning

  • Sick even after thinking about certain foods, etc. (lasts forever)

  • One-trial conditioning = repeated pairings not necessary

Biological preparedness —> species are prepared, by nature, to learn some cond. stim. - uncon. stim. associations easier than others: “Garcia Taste Aversion Studies with Rats”

  • noises = fear

  • taste = nausea

Habituation —> diminished effectiveness of a stimulus in eliciting a response following repeated exposure - ex. losing reaction to gunshots in a shooting range after an hour

OPERANT CONDITIONING


Operant conditioning —> voluntary process by which learning as a function of the consequence of the behavior, behavior→consequence

  • Reinforcement → any event that STRENGTHENS the behavior it follows

  • Punishment → any event that tends to DECREASE the behavior it follows

Aspects of reinforcers:

  • Primary → fulfills basic drive - ex. food, sleep, shelter, sex

  • Secondary → everything else - ex. money, cars, jewelry, concert tickets

Law of effect —> behaviors followed by desirable outcomes will be repeated and behaviors followed by undesirable outcomes will be extinguished

Commonalities with Classical Conditioning:

  • acquire behaviors (brushing your teeth)=acquisition

  • behaviors lost (saying “like” all the time)=extinction

  • generalization & discrimination

Shaping —> operant procedure - reinforcements are used to gradually guide an organism to the target behavior

Instinctive drift —> tendency of learned behavior to gradually revert to biologically predisposed patterns (conditioned responses can be disrupted by an animal's innate behaviors over time)

REINFORCEMENT increases the likelihood of behavior happening again

PUNISHMENT decreases the likelihood of behavior happening again

Reinforcement v. Punishment Applying to scenarios

Learned helplessness —> hopelessness and positive resignation humans other animlas learn when unable to avoid repeated aversive events - ex. depression or addiction

  • People stop trying to change their circumstances, even when they have the ability to do so