Chapter 8: Learning

What did Skinner believe about cognitive processes in relationship to psychology?

he resisted the growing belief that expecttions, perceptions and other cognitive processes have a valid place in psychology

Immediate reinforcement is _____ effective than delayed reinforcement

more

Secondary Reinforces

reinforcers that must be conditioned and therefore derive their power through association

Fixed-interval schedule

reinforces a response only after a specific time has elapsed; as the anticipated time for the reward draws near, choppy results are produced

Discrmination

subjects can be trained not to respond to certain conditioned stimulus and not to other irrelevant stimulus that do no precede an unconditioned stimulus; ex)256 tone vs 382 tone

Conditioned Stimulus

the neutral stimulus becomes the conditioned stimulus when there becomes a connection and it triggers the conditioned response (tone)

Shaping

the operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior towards the desired target behavior through successive approximations

Extrinsic Motivation

the motivation to seek external rewards and avoid punishment

By what age do infants imitate acts modeled on television?

14 months

By what age do infants imitate novel play behaviors?

9 months

Why did Bandura believed people imitated a model?

Bandura believed people imitate a model because of reinforcements and punihsments reiceved by the model and imitators

Which psychologist is best known for his research on observational learning?

Bandura; Bobo Doll Experiment

Who first explored the idea of classical conditioning?

Ivan Pavlov

Unconditioned Response

an unlearned response to an unconditioned stimulus ex) salivation

Operant behavior

a behavior that operates on the environment producing rewarding or punishing stimulus

Delayed Reinforcer

a reinforce that is delayed in time for a certain behavior

Immediate Reinforcer

a reinforce that occurs instantly after a behavior

Learning

a relatively permanent change in an organism's behavior due to experience

Neutral Stimulus

a stimulus that previous to introduction, causes no response and is thus irrelevant (tone)

Positive Reinforcer

a stimulus that strengthens a response by presenting a typically pleasurable stimulus; ex) getting a hug, food for hungry animals, attention, approval

Negative Reinforement

a stimulus that strengthens a response by reducing or removing an aversive (undesirable) stimulus; ex) fastening seat belt to turn off beeping, taking aspirin to relieve a headache

Punishment often increases ____-

agression

Punishment

an aversive stimulus consequence that decreases the likelihood of the behavior that preceded it

What did Wagner and Rescorla suggest in response to Watson's and Pavlov theory that cognitive processes weren't apart of classical conditioning?

animals learn the predictability of a stimulus ex) alcoholics in rehab that drink alcohol causing nausea know that they can blame their nausea on the drug and not the alcohol

Reinforcement

any event that strengthens the behavior it follows

Respondent behavior

behavior that occurs as an automatic response to a certain stimulus

What is the difference between classical conditioning and operant conditioning?

classical conditioning associates conditioned stimuli with stimuli that trigger responses that are automatic; the organism doesn't control the responses; in operant conditioning the organism has a behavior that is more spontaneous and that is influenced by its consequences

Latent

cognitive maps are based on latent learning which becomes apparent when an incentive is given

What did Pavlov and Watson underestimate the importance of in classical conditioning?

cognitive processes and biological constraints

What are the four schedules of partial reinforcement?

fixed-interval, fixed-ration, variable-interval, variable-ratio

Negative punishment

if a desirable stimulus is withdrawn it is called a negative punishment; ex) taking away phone

Positive Punishment

if an aversive stimulus is administered it is called a positive punishment; ex)spanking, parking ticket

Unconditioned Stimulus

in classical conditioning, a stimulus that unconditionally-naturally and automatically-triggers a response Ex)food

Conditioned Response

in classical conditioning, the learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus (salivation in response to tone)

Where are mirror neurons located and what do they do?

in the frontal lobe; provide a neural basis for observational learning; observed to fire when monkeys perform simple tasks and when they observe another monkey performing the same task

What are the drawbacks to punishments?

it can reappear because it is avoidable; it can lead to depression and a sense of helpless ness; it can lead to the association of the aversive event with the punisher

Why is classical conditioning highly adaptive?

it helps animals to survive and reproduce

Modeling/Observational Learning

learning by observing and imitating others

When the unconditioned response is presented prior to a neutral stimulus does conditioning occur?

no

Prosocial Models

positive helpful models my have prosocial effecs

What did Garcia discover?

rats would associate the nausea of saccharine water with the taste of the food and not with the sight or sound; rats avoided the water thereafter even after getting sick hours later; this proved that the unconditioned response doesn't have to immediately follow the conditioned response and that animals are constrained to certain levels of learning by biological predispositions

Fixed-ratio schedule

reinforce a behavior after a set number of responses; once conditioned, the anmal will pause only briefly afer a reinforce; ex) one reinforce for every thirty responses

Variable-ratio schedule

reinforce a behavior after an unpredictable number of responses; this is hard to extinguish because of predictability; ex) gambling, fishing

Variable-Interval Schedules

reinforce the first response after varying time intervals; tend to produce slow, steady responding because you aren't sure when the waiting will be over

Primary Reinforcers

reinforcers (food/shock) related to basic needs that do not rely on learning; innately satisfying

Thorndike's law of effect

rewarded behavior is likely to occur again

When a deer in the forest hears a snapping twig, signaling a predator, what is the conditioned stimulus and what is the unconditioned stimulus?

snapping twig; predator

Generalization

subjects often respond to similar subjects like they would the original conditioned stimulus ex)toddlers taught to fear moving cars----respond similar to motorcycles

Associative Learning/ Stimulus-Stimulus Learning

tendency to connect events that occur in sequence; associating two stimulus together

Why do learning theorist consider classically conditioned behaviors to be biologically adaptive?

the behaviors help animal to survive because it prepares them for good or bad events

Spontaneous Recovery

the conditioned response reappears in response to the conditioned stimulus

Intrinsic Motivation

the desire to perform a behavior effectively for its ow sake

Acquisition

the initial learning of a conditioned response; the optimal interval between the neutral stimulus (tone) nd unconditioned response (food) is half a second

Partial Reinforcement

the procedure in which responses are reinforced only part of the time; under these conditions learning is generally slower than it is with continuous reinforcent but very resistant to extiction

Continuous reinforcement

the procedure involving reinforcement of each and every response; learning is rapid under these conditions; when this type of reinforcement is discontinued, extinctions is rapid

operant conditioning

the tendency to associate a response and its consequences

Classical Conditioning

the type of learning in which the organism learns to associate two stimuli

What are the similarities of operant and classical conditioning?

they are both forms of associative learning; they both involve similar processes of acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery, generalization, and discrimination; both involve cognitive processes and biological predispositions

In what ways did Watson and Pavlov agree?

they both shared a disdain for mentalistic concepts within psychology and a belief that the basic laws of learning were the same for all animals

skinner box

using Thorndike's law of effect, Skinner developed the operant chamber to study operant conditioning

Behaviorism

view in the early twentieth century by Watson who urged psychologists to discard references to mental concepts in favor of studying observable behavior during the first half of the century

Instinctive Drift

when animals revert to their biologically predisposed patterns, they are exhibiting instinctive drift

In the work place, when is positive reinforcement most affective?

when applied to specific behaviors and when the desired performance is well defined and achievable; intermediate reinforcement is more effective than delayed reinforcement

What is evidence of cognitive processes during operant conditioning?

when navigating through a maze without an obvious reward, rats developed cognitive maps or mental layouts of the maze

When does extinction occur?

when the conditioned stimulus stops being followed by the unconditioned stimulus, the conditioned response begins to decrease

How is operant condition constratiend by an animals biological predispositions?

with animals it is difficult to use fod as a reinforcement to shape behaviors that aren't naturally associated with hunger; biological constraints predispose organisms to learn associations that are naturally adaptive