Chapter 7: Learning
Unconditioned response (UR)
A reflexive reaction that is reliably produced by an unconditioned stimulus Ex: Salivation in the Pavlov experiment (in response to food)
What is habituation?
A simple kind of implicit learning where repeated exposure to a stimulus results in a reduced response
Operant conditioning
A type of learning in which the consequences of an organism's behavior determine whether it will be repeated in the future
The amount that Ivan Pavlov's dogs salivated gradually increased over several trials of pairing the tone with the food. This is because Pavlov's dogs went through the _____ phase of learning.
Acquisition
Neural research indicates that observational learning is closely tied to brain areas that are involved in
Action
Operant behavior
Behavior that an organism produces that has some impact on the environment
Successive approximation
Behavior that gets closer to overall desired behavior
Observational learning challenges the _____ explanation of learning because it involves no direct reinforcement.
Behavioral
Habituation
A general process in which repeated or prolonged exposure to a stimulus results in a gradual reduction in responding Ex: If you live by an airport, gradually you begin to ignore the sounds of planes in your vicinity
Conditioned Response (CR)
A reaction that resembles an unconditioned response but is produced by a conditioned stimulus Ex: Salivation in response to bell
How many different types of learning have psychologists identified?
40
In classical conditioning, a conditioned stimulus is paired with an unconditioned stimulus to produce
A conditioned response
What was Watson's controversial study with Rayner?
"Little Albert"
Acquisition
(initial) Phase of classical conditioning when the CS and the US are presented together
Evolutionary value of taste aversion
-Rapid learning because if it takes more time than this, the animal could die from eating a toxic substance -Conditioning should be able to take place over long intervals (toxic substances don't cause illness right away, so organism would have to form an association between the two over a longer period of time) -Aversion to smell or taste rater than ingestion -Learned aversion should occur more often with novel foods so that an animal won't develop aversion to everything eaten on the day it got sick
What happens when an organism generalizes to a new stimulus?
1. By responding to new stimulus, organism demonstrates that it recognizes the similarity between original CS and new stimulus 2. By showing diminished response, it notices a difference between the two stimuli (discrimination)
What was Watson's goal?
1. Complex reaction could be conditioned using Pavlovian techniques 2. Emotional responses such as fear and anxiety could be produced by classical conditioning and thus need not be the product of deeper unconscious processes or early life experiences 3. Conditioning could apply to humans
How does classical conditioning provide insight into deaths caused by drug overdoses?
1. Conditioned stimulus during classical conditioning is not just the bell or tone, but includes the CONTEXT within which the conditioning takes place 2. CRs are compensatory reactions to US Ex: Heroin slows down breathing rate so body responds with compensatory reaction that speeds up breathing in order to maintain state of balance/homeostasis (CR)
What are some characteristics that distinguish implicit learning from explicit learning?
1. People differ relatively little from one another on implicit tasks, but there are large individual-to-individual differences on explicit tasks 2. Implicit tasks are unrelated to IQ 3. Implicit learning changes LITTLE across life span 4. Resistant to disorders known to affect explicit learning
What have researchers found about a reward center in which dopamine plays a critical role?
1. Rats will stimulate pathway at expense of basic necessities 2. Drugs like cocaine, amphetamine, and opiates activate these pathways and centers, but dopamine-blocking drugs diminish their reinforcing effects 3. fMRI shows increased activity in nucleus accumbens in hetero men looking at pics of attractive women 4. Rats given primary reinforcers show increased dopamine secretion in nucleus accumbens if they are hungry, thirsty, or sexually aroused
What are the four basic elements of classical conditioning?
1. Unconditioned stimulus (US) 2. Unconditioned response (UR) 3. Conditioned Stimulus (CS) 4. Conditioned Response (CR)
Why are most deaths of addicts from drug overdoses surprising?
1. Victims are often experienced drug users 2. Dose is not larger than usual amount 3. Deaths occur in unusual settings
The behaviorist perspective dominated the field of psychology from
1930s to the 1950s
Cue exposure therapies
Addict exposed to drug-related cues without being given usual dose of drug itself, eventually resulting in extinction of the association between contextual cues and the effects of the drug == encountering familiar cues later on will no longer result in compensatory response linked to withdrawal symptoms and will thus make it easier for the addict to recover
How did Bandura ensure that the aggression was a result of observed learning?
Adult model used novel behaviors (toy mallet, throwing it in the area) -> distinguish aggressive acts that were the result of observational learning
How does Aplysia exhibit sensitization?
After a strong shock, Aplysia showed increased gill withdrawal response to light touch
Albert Bandura's famous Bobo doll experiment showed how children can learn _____ through observation.
Aggression
What did the Brelands find about evolutionary history and species?
All species are predisposed to learn some things more readily than others and to respond to stimuli in ways consistent with their evolutionary behavior -> if circumstances change, however, ironic consequences (like raccoon rubbing coins together because of natural evolutionary behavior for getting food instead of dropping coins in box)
Operant conditioning chamber/Skinner box
Allows research to study behavior of small organisms in controlled environment; focus on reward and punishment
Researchers have discovered a woman who shows no fear responses. It is likely that this woman does NOT have a normally functioning:
Amygdala
Which part of the brain is involved in the classical conditioning of fear?
Amygdala
What did Tolman propose?
Animal established a means-ends relationship; conditioning experience produced knowledge that in particular situation, specific end state will appear if means to that end is made
Punisher
Any stimulus or event that functions to decrease the likelihood of the behavior that lead to it
Reinforcer
Any stimulus or event that functions to increase the likelihood of the behavior that lead to it
Cerebellum and conditioning
Any type of conditioning that has to do with motor skills and learning
What happens when TMS is applied to the motor cortex?
Applying motor cortex greatly reduced the amount of observational learning, whereas applying TMS to a control region outside of the motor cortex had no effect on observational learning
B.F. Skinner found that bar pressing in the Skinner box was not a natural behavior for rats, so he reinforced the rats for approaching the bar, getting closer to the bar, touching the bar, etc. Skinner was reinforcing successive _____ to the desired behavior of bar pressing.
Approximations
Who coined the term operant behavior and why?
B.F. Skinner; All emitted behaviors operated on environment and the environment responded by providing events that either strengthened those behaviors (reinforce) or made them less likely to occur (punished)
Variable-interval schedule (VI)
Behavior reinforced based on average time that has expired since the last reinforcement; produces more consistent responding because time until next reinforcement is less predictable Ex: 2 min variable-interval schedule; responses reinforced every 2 mins on average, but not after each 2-minute period
What did Albert Bandura study?
Bobo doll and adult model; preschoolers in play area -> see that adult model first plays quietly with the Bobo doll, but then hits it with mallet and kicks it -> when children who observed actions were allowed to play with toys, they found that they were more than twice as likely to interact with it in aggressive manner
When chimpanzees and 2-year old human children were shown how to use a tool to obtain food:
Both used the tool, but children learned the specifics of using the tool
What area is turned on during artificial grammar learning?
Broca's area (language production)
Generalization
CR is observed even though the CS is slightly different from the CS used during acquisition
The last time that Leo went camping, he found a snake in his tent, and he is deathly afraid of snakes. Now, he becomes nervous every time he thinks about camping or watches a movie or television show that involves camping. The conditioned stimulus in this case is:
Camping
Discrimination
Capacity to distinguish between similar but distinct stimuli
Superstitions can be explained by operant conditioning as mistakenly inferring a ________ relationship between a specific behavior and a reinforcer
Causal
What did Thompson's studies show?
Cerebellum is critical for occurrence of eyeblink conditioning Seen also through impaired eyeblink conditioning in people with lesions to the cerebellum
What does observational learning challenge about the behaviorist approach?
Challenges behaviorism's reinforcement-based explanations of classical and operant conditioning
Secondary reinforcers are effective because of
Classical conditioning
Secondary reinforcers are effective because of:
Classical conditioning Derive effectiveness from associations with primary reinforcers through classical conditioning (Ex: Money)
What did Robert Rescorla and Allan Wagner theorize?
Classical conditioning occurs when animal has learned to set up an EXPECTATION; Pavlov's arrival did not set up an expectation because he was not a reliable link with food
Edward Tolman's means-end relationship and Rescorla-Wagner model of expectations are similar in that both propose the importance of an internal ______ state
Cognitive
Edward Tolman's means-end relationship and the Rescorla-Wagner model are similar in that both propose the importance of an internal _____ state
Cognitive
Enculturation hypothesis
Cognitive differences between chimps raised among humans versus those raised in the wild; Chimps raised in more human-like environment showed more specific observational learning than those raised by their mothers == perform similarly to human children AKA raised in human culture allowed chimps to increase ability to understand intentions of others
Which of the following is NOT an accurate statement concerning operant conditioning?
Complex behaviors cannot be accounted for by operant conditioning
Two most important schedules of reinforcement
Interval schedules and ratio schedules
Second-order conditioning
Conditioning where a CS is paired with a stimulus that became associated with the US in an earlier procedure
Variable-ratio schedule (VR)
Delivery of reinforcement is based on particular average number of responses; Ex: Slot machines (may advertise that pay off every 100 pulls on average, but one player may hit jackpot after 3 pulls)
Why were Pavlov's findings exciting for behaviorists?
Demonstrable evidence of how conditioning produced learned behaviors -> Like what John Watson had proposed aka organism experiences events that are measurable and that changes can then be directly observed without resorting to explanations about why it happened (NO NEED TO CONSIDER THE MIND)
Secondary reinforcers
Derive effectiveness from associations with primary reinforcers through classical conditioning (Ex: Money)
Deidra learns to speak Spanish by listening to a neighbor, and then models the behavior for her younger sister. Deidra is part of a(n) _____ chain.
Diffusion
Pleasure centers
Discovered by James Olds when inserting tiny electrodes into diff parts of rat's brain and allowing rat to control stimulation by pressing bar; certain areas esp those in LIMBIC STSTEM produced intensely positive experiences to the point where rats would ignore life-sustaining necessities for hours to receive stimulation directly in the brain
When studying classical conditioning, the mind or internal state of the organism:
Does not matter
Like classical conditioning, operant conditioning:
Does not need to refer to the mind to explain things
What did Pavlov show in his experiments?
Dogs learned to salivate to neutral stimulus after that stimulus had been associated with another stimulus that naturally evokes salivation, like food
Rats who are given the ability to stimulate their pleasure centers will stop if drugs that block the neurotransmitter _____ are administered to them.
Dopamine
Dopamine in reward-based learning
Dopamine plays an important role in reward prediction error (difference between actual reward received versus predicted reward) -> teaching signal that helps animal to learn to behave in way that maximizes reward (Seen in Schultz's monkey-juice experiment)
L-dopa
Drug used to treat Parkinson's disease because it spurs surviving neurons to produce more dopamine
Unlike B.F. Skinner, ______ proposed that learning involved a cognitive component
Edward Tolman
Amygdala (esp central nucleus) and conditioning
Emotional conditioning
What happens to learning when electrical stimulation is applied to motor cortex during the serial reaction time task?
Enhancement of implicit learning
What happens when electrical stimulation is applied to Broca's area during the learning of artificial grammar?
Enhancement of implicit learning
Who studies Aplysia?
Eric Kandel, Nobel prize winner
What did Watson and Rayner seek to demonstrate about behaviorism through the Little Albert experiment?
Even sophisticated behaviors such as emotion are subject to classical conditioning
After having a bad experience with a particular type of food, people can develop a lifelong aversion to the food. This suggest that conditioning has a(n) ______ aspect.
Evolutionary
Edyta always gives her cats treats before she goes to work each morning. When she is gathering the things she takes to work, her cats begin to circle around her and meow. Robert Rescorla and Allan Wagner would say this is occurring because Edyta's cats have developed a(n) _____ for the treats.
Expectation
What did the Rescorla-Wagner model introduce?
Expectation in turn leads to an array of behaviors associated with the presence of the CS (Ex: Salivation + Tail Wagging + Looking for food); This idea that conditioning would be easier when CS was an UNFAMILIAR event than if it was familiar because unfamiliar events do not have expectations attached to them
Learning is based on _______; without it, there would be no learning
Experience
What occurs when a conditioned stimulus is no longer paired with an unconditioned stimulus?
Extinction
Abraham trained a rat to run up a set of miniature steps whenever he plays the theme song to a specific movie by giving the rat treats at the same time as the song is playing. After acquisition, if Abraham were to present the song but no longer provide the treats, what would eventually happen?
Extinction; the rat will stop responding to the song
Intermittent reinforcement effect
Fact that operant behaviors that are maintained under intermittent reinforcement schedules resist extinction better than those maintained under continuous reinforcement
Can monkeys and chimps learn to use tools by observing tool use in others vs young children?
Found that the chimps would show more LEARNING, but could never use the tool the exact same way the model did; chimps seemed to learn that the tool could be used to obtain food while children learned something specific about how to use the tool
Dana, a 6-year-old was recently bitten by her grandmother's poodle. Dana sees a different kind of small dog in the park a week later and begins to cry. Most likely Dana is exhibiting
Generalization
Paco likes to make tuna sandwiches for lunch. He uses an electric can opener and then usually gives the can with a few bits of tuna left inside to the cat. Paco recently noticed that the cat comes running into the kitchen every time he uses the can opener to open anything. The cat's behavior is a result of operant _____.
Generalization
A rat is foraging in the country for food. On Tuesday, the rat finds food in Farmer Brown's barn. A researcher using an evolutionary perspective might predict that on Wednesday the rat would:
Go to a neighboring barn
Extinction
Gradual elimination of learned response that occurs when CS is repeatedly presented without the US; CR diminishes quickly until it no longer occurs -> rest period is typically followed by spontaneous recovery of CR (no additional learning trials may be needed)
What happens to learning during the initial phase of classical conditioning?
Gradual increase in learning; starts low, rises rapidly, and then slowly tapers off
Lucas used to startle every time the family dog would bark. Now he continues whatever he is doing and appears to not even notice the dog's bark. Lucas has probably become _____ to the dog's bark.
Habituated
The process in which repeated or prolonged exposure to a stimulus results in a gradual reduction in responding is called
Habituation
Primary reinforcers
Help satisfy basic biological needs; examples include food, comfort, shelter, or warmth
The sea slug Aplysia shows implicit learning but does not show explicit learning because Aplysia lacks a:
Hippocampus
How do rats behave in a T maze?
If a rat found food in one arm of the maze on the first trial, it typically ran down the OTHER arm on very next trial -> opposite of behaviorist/operant thinking
Why can taking drugs in anew environment be fatal?
If an addict injects usual dose in setting that is sufficiently novel, CS is altered and the compensatory CR that served a protective function does not occur -> usual does becomes an overdose
Daphne knows that she cannot show up to class naked even if she does not know when or how she learned this type of information. That is because this type of learning is _____.
Implicit
What kind of learning takes place largely independent of awareness of both the process and the products of information acquisition?
Implicit learning
What is the difference between extinction in classical conditioning and operant behavior?
In classical conditioning, US occurs on every trial, no matter what the organism does. In operant, reinforcements only occur when proper response has been made (and not even always!) -> typically they become stronger when reinforcement DOESN'T OCCUR (seeming paradox)
How were Thorndike's means of studying learning different from how classical conditioning was studied?
In classical conditioning, the US occurred on every trial no matter what the animal did; In Thorndike's, the behavior of the animal determined what happened next -> correct behavior would lead to food reward
Diffusion chain
Individuals initially learn a behavior by observing another individual perform that behavior, and then serve as a model from which other individuals learn the behavior
Behaviorism
Insistence on measuring only observable, quantifiable behavior and dismissal of mental activity as irrelevant and unknowable; 1930s-1950s
Edward Thorndike's research focused on ______ behaviors, which are those that require an organism to do something in its environment
Instrumental
Who was Edward Thorndike and what did he study?
Instrumental behaviors; behavior that required an organism to Do something, solve a problem, or otherwise manipulate elements of its environment
What have researchers found about dopamine and cravings?
It is more closely associated with wanting or craving something than simply liking it
Latent learning provides evidence for a cognitive element in operant conditioning because
It occurs without any obvious reinforcement
What did Thorndike realize about learning?
It takes place in CONTEXTS, and not in the free range of any plausible situation; most behavior is under STIMULUS CONTROL which develops when particular response only occurs when an appropriate DISCRIMINATIVE STIMULUS, a stimulus that indicates that a response will be reinforced, is present
Who kick-started the behaviorist movement and how?
John B. Watson; He argues that psychologists should "never use the terms consciousness, mental states, mind, content, introspectively verifiable, imagery, and the like"
Who studied taste aversion and classical conditioning?
John Garcia -> used variety of CSs (visual, auditory, tactile, taste, and smell) and different USs (injection of toxic substance, radiation) that caused nausea hours later -> weak conditioning with any stimuli that did not involve taste or smell, but strong food aversion with stimuli having distinct taste and smell
If a person learns a statistical technique but does not use it for two semesters, and then successfully uses it, that person may have demonstrated _____ learning.
Latent
If a person learns a statistical technique but does not use it for two semesters, and then successfully uses it, that person may have demonstrated
Latent learning
What suggests that operant conditioning involves much more than an animal responding to a stimulus?
Latent learning and cognitive maps
What were two phenomena produced by Tolman that strongly suggested S-R interpretations of operant learning behavior are inadequate?
Latent learning and cognitive maps
Newton ordered pizza from a national pizza chain and became very ill immediately after eating the pizza. Years later, Newton still feels queasy when he sees an advertisement for the pizza chain or drives by one of its establishments. Newton has developed a(n):
Learned food aversion
Observational learning
Learning takes place by watching the actions of others
Shaping
Learning that results from reinforcement of successive steps to a final desired behavior; outcomes of one set of behaviors shape next set of behaviors
Implicit learning
Learning that takes place largely independent of awareness of both the process and the products of information acquisition
What are amnesiac individuals are characterized by (brain-damage wise)?
Lesions to hippocampus and nearby structures in the medial temporal lobe
Implicit learning ability is not positively correlated with intelligence test scores and changes _____ across the lifespan.
Little
Immediate versus Delayed reinforcement
Longer time that lapses, the less effective the reinforcer; Why? Because delaying the reinforcer makes it less likely for the animal to know what behavior it needed to perform in order to obtain it
Activity of neurons in the _______ contributes to the process of reinforcement
Medial forebrain bundle
Cognitive map
Mental representation of physical features of the environment
If a person watches someone to learn how to play the violin, and then serves as a(n) _____ for another student, that person is part of a diffusion chain.
Model
What is a real-life example of second-order conditioning?
Money; some people desire money to the point that they hoard and value it even more than the objects that it purchases
With respect to studies of observational learning in primates using tools:
More research must be done before drawing a conclusion
Turning off extremely loud music is MOST likely an example of _____ reinforcement.
Negative
A teacher originally wanted to increase class participation, so she positively reinforced the asking of questions with nickels. After a few days, students had stacks of nickels on their desks and were asking far too many questions. To reduce question-asking, the teacher could remove a nickel whenever they ask a question, a process known as _____.
Negative punishment
Jayson can make his sister Maddy give him her toys or candy by whistling. She hates the sound so much, Maddy will give Jayson whatever he wants to make him stop. When Jayson stops whistling, it serves as _____ for Maddy.
Negative reinforcement
Did cognitive, neural, and evolutionary mechanisms have a role in Skinner's approach to behavior?
No
Learned food aversions are generally acquired from _____; these aversions may be caused by the evolutionary adaptive conditioning of rejecting foods that may be toxic
Novel foods
When learning takes place as a result of imitating a model, it is referred to as _____ learning.
Observational
Responding to implicit instructions results in decreased brain activation in which part of the brain>
Occipital region
Extinction with operant behavior
Operant behavior undergoes extinction when reinforcements stop; Ex: Stop putting money into vending machine if it fails to give promised items
What causes drug tolerance?
Over time, protective psychological response (brain reacts and secretes neurotransmitters that counteract effects) become part of CR and it occurs in presence of CS (the room itself) but prior to actual drug administration -> make drug users take increasingly large doses for the same effect
Serial reaction time task
Participants presented with five small boxes; each box lights up and participant is asked to press the button that is just underneath the box as quickly as possible -> light shown in a pattern and they got faster as they practice but are generally unaware that there is a pattern to the lights
Medial forebrain bundle
Pathway meandering from midbrain through hypothalamus into nucleus accumbens -> most susceptible to stimulation that produces pleasure Why? 1. This bundle of cells is crucial to behaviors that involve pleasure like eating, drinking, sexual activity 2. Neurons along pathway are dopaminergic (secrete dopamine)
What was second-order conditioning in Pavlov's experiments?
Pavlov paired a black square (a new CS) with the tone (the initial CS) -> found that dogs produced salivary response to black square even though it never had been directly associated with food
Which of the following statements about implicit learning is inaccurate?
People with high scores on intelligence tests are more adept at implicit learning tasks
Three term contingency of stimulus control
Presence of discriminative stimulus (drinking coffee with friends), a response (jokes about person) produces a reinforcer (laughter)
How did Watson condition Little Albert with?
Present white rat -> as soon as he tried to touch it, the steel bar was struck (US) -> repeated pairings and soon enough just the sight of the rat (CS) would cause Little Albert to cry (CR)
Continuous reinforcement
Presenting reinforcement after EACH response
Extinction could have been used to eliminate Little Albert's fear of a rat by:
Presenting the rat repeatedly without the loud noise
Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
Previously neutral stimulus that produces a reliable response in an organism after being paired with a US Ex: Pairing presentation of food with sound of bell (CS)
Biological preparedness
Propensity for learning particular kinds of associations over others so some behaviors are easy to condition in some species but not others Ex: Birds use visual cues to find food and are thus not as affected as rats by the taste and stimuli that cause taste aversions in rats
Any consequence that increases the likelihood of a behavior is a reinforcer and any consequence that decreases the likelihood of a behavior is a
Punisher
Which of the following mechanisms does not help form the basis of observational learning?
Punishment
How did Skinner show that correlated events (occur at same time and space) does not imply causality (presence of one reliably causes the other to occur)?
Put pigeons in Skinner boxes and left food dispenser to deliver food every 15 seconds -> found birds engaging in odd, idiosyncratic behaviors after == "superstitious" -> repeating behaviors that had been ACCIDENTALLY REINFORCED (happen to have pecked randomly when food showed up) -> pigeons acted like there was a causal relationship between behaviors and appearance of food when it was merely an accidental correlation
What is an example of Thorndike's experiments?
Puzzle box; wooden crate with a door that would open when lever was pushed in the right way -> hungry cat would be put in and the cat would try various ways to exit until performing the one behavior that opened the door and led to food -> cats put back in would become skilled at triggering lever for release
Example of fear conditioning in rats
Rat who is conditioned to CS-US pairings where CS is a tone and US is mild electric shock -> experience painful stimuli in nature, they FREEZE (defense mechanism where they crouch and sit motionless) + autonomic systems (heart rate + blood pressure increase) -> with fear conditioning these same processes now occur but are elicited by the CS
Little Albert developed a fear of a ______ because it was paired with a _____-
Rat; loud noise
What did Skinner note about the trial-by-trial experiments of Pavlov and Thorndike?
Rather artificial because behavior rarely occurs in fixed frameworks where stimulus is presented and then organism has to engage in some activity
Why does a rat's behavior in a T-maze make sense in evolutionary perspective?
Rats are foragers and have evolved adaptive strategy for survival -> move in environment looking for food and constantly look for food in different places if they find food in one place (Why would it be there again if they already ate it?)
What kind of behaviors does classical conditioning involve?
Reactive behaviors AKA involuntary behaviors
How did Skinner use shaping?
Reinforce behaviors that approached the desired behavior -> Ex: Want rat to press bar but that isn't high in natural hierarchy of responses -> if it turns in direction of bar, deliver food reward -> takes step in right direction -> deliver another reward = each behavior is successive approximation
Fixed-ratio schedule
Reinforcement is delivered after a specific number of responses have been made Ex: Every fourth response, get a free book
Which is more effective for learning: reinforcement or punishment and why?
Reinforcement; punishment signals that unacceptable behavior has occurred by doesn't specify what should be done instead (it doesn't say anything about the desired behavior)
Baby Donna is whining. Her mother lightly spanks her, and her whining increases. For Donna, spanking acted as a(n):
Reinforcer (Not punishment because that would mean that the unwanted behavior DECREASED)
Fixed-interval schedule (FI)
Reinforcers are presented at fixed-time periods, provided that appropriate response is made Ex: 2 min fixed interval schedule; response reinforced, but only after 2 mins have elapsed since last reinforcement
Difference between Tolman's means-ends relationship and Rescorla-Wagner model of classical conditioning?
Rescorla argued that CS functions by setting up expectation of arrival of US -> stimulus doesn't directly evoke response, but rather established internal cognitive state that then produces behavior (focus on stimulus-response (SR) connection while Tolman's focused on what happens in organism's mind when faced with that stimulus)
How did scientists investigate implicit learning in the laboratory?
Research participants were shown 15 or 20 letter strings and asked to memorize them -> actually an artificial grammar -> not told anything about the roles, but with experience they began to develop an intuition about correctness of particular letter groupings
How has it been shown that stimulus control shows both discrimination and generalization?
Researchers used either painting by Money or Picasso for discriminative stimulus -> reinforced only if responded when appropriate painting was presented = after training, appropriate discrimination (aka no response to Monets if trained with Picasso and vice versa) and then soon enough they could generalize ACROSS paintings (aka could identify painters in the same tradition)
______ proposed that the cognitive process of expectation occurred because of a stimulus and a conditioned response
Robert Rescorla and Allan Wagner
What are the functions of mirror neurons?
Rote-imitation of well-understood behaviors and an awareness of how behavior is likely to unfold == contribution to observational learning
Immediate versus delayed punishment
Same as reinforcement; longer the delay, the less effective the punishment
Which example demonstrates that learning has occurred?
Saying "A" when one is asked to name the first letter of the alphabet
What happened in the experiment where participants saw a series of dot patterns? There was one group that was told about the existence of a dot pattern (explicit) and the other group was given implicit learning instructions (told to just attend to dot patterns)
Scanned as they categorized dot patterns -> both groups did EQUALLY WELL , but the two groups used different parts of their brains 1. Explicit instructions: increased brain activity in prefrontal cortex, parietal cortex, hippocampus 2. Implicit instructions: decreased brain activation in occipital region (visual processing)
Ratio schedules
Schedules based on ratio of responses to reinforcements
Interval schedules
Schedules based on time intervals between reinforcements
Besides habituation what other simple form of learning does Aplysia exhibit?
Sensitization
Akio invites Johannes over to play a football video game and watch the new trick he taught his pet ferret. In the video game whenever Akio scores a touchdown, he gives a signal to the ferret. The ferret runs over and "kicks" a miniature football through a small goal post set up in the cage. Akio probably used _____ to get the ferret to perform the trick.
Shaping
Reinforcing successive steps to reach a desired outcome is referred to as
Shaping
What did Skinner find about the difference in the concept of extinction in operant conditioning versus classical conditioning?
Skinner used a schedule to deliver food instead of giving them food EVERY TIME; found that in operant conditioning the PATTERN with which reinforcements appeared was crucial as opposed to sheer NUMBER of learning trials in classical conditioing
What did Edward Chace Tolman question and then argue?
Skinner's strictly behaviorist interpretation of learning; advocated cognitive approach to operant learning; more to learning than knowing circumstances in environment (stimulus properties) and being able to observe outcome (reinforced response)
What kind of responses to fixed-interval and variable-interval scheduling produce?
Slow, methodical responding because the reinforcements follow a time scale independent of how many response occur
How does the concept of delayed reinforcement relate to difficulties with quitting smoking?
Smoker who wants to quit will be reinforced immediately by feeling of relaxation from smoking, but may not seen the reinforcement of better health from quitting till years later
What can the increase of dopamine from treatment do to people who have Parkinson's disease?
Some develop serious problems with compulsive gambling and other impulsive behaviors because of increased stimulation of dopamine receptors; increase in rate of learning from gains + increased positive reward prediction signal in striatum (subcortical region in basil ganglia -> rich in dopamine and linked with reward prediction error)
Latent learning
Something is learned, but is not manifested as a behavioral change until sometime in the future
Unconditioned stimulus (US)
Something that reliably produces a naturally occurring reaction in an organism Ex: Placing food (US) in front of an animal will naturally start the salivary process
Where are mirror neurons thought to be represented?
Specific subregions in the frontal and parietal lobes; respond specifically to certain types of actions
B.F Skinner's idea of ________ refers to particular responses only occurring when distinctive stimuli are present
Stimulus control
Positive punishment
Stimulus is presented and the likelihood of the behavior decreases
Positive reinforcement
Stimulus is presented and the likelihood of the behavior is increased
Negative reinforcement
Stimulus is removed and the likelihood of behavior is increased (umbrella example)
Negative punishment
Stimulus is removed and the likelihood of the behavior decreases
Which study strategy has been shown to be the most effective?
Taking practice tests
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)
Temporary disruption in the function of the brain region to which it is applied
Learning
The acquisition of new knowledge, skills, or responses from experience that results in a relatively permanent change in the state of the learner
What did Richard Thompson study?
The classical conditioning of eyeblink responses in the rabbit; CS (tone) immediately followed by US (puff of air) which elicits reflexive eyeblink response -> After many pairings, the eyeblink occurs in response to CS alone
How does the Rescorla-Wagner model relate to consciousness?
The cognitive elements are not necessarily conscious; they just reflect the operation of nonconscious associative mechanisms that do more than just record co-occurrences of events (link co-occurrences to an prior experiences which generates an expectation) AKA conditioning can occur without conscious awareness of the relationship between a CS and a US, but there are also occurrences when you do need consciousness of the relationship between CS and US
What part of the brain is critical for the observational learning of some motor skills?
The motor cortex
What did Pavlov study?
The salivation of dogs by surgically implanting test tubes into the cheeks of dogs to measure salivary responses to different kinds of foods -> Lead to the study of classical conditioning
Spontaneous recovery
The tendency of a learned behavior to recover from extinction after a rest period
What was John Watson inspired by?
The work of Ivan Pavlov, a Russian psychologist
What happens to mirror neurons when monkeys see humans performing an action and what does that show?
Their mirror neurons also fire; shows that mirror neurons play a critical role in the prediction of future behavior
How do most behaviorists view learning?
They viewed learning as a purely behavioral activity; it required no mental activity -> learning's "permanent change in experience" can be demonstrated equally in almost any organism
What did researchers find when they gave people ungrammatical strings of letters?
They were automatically aware there was something wrong, but were not aware of the rules and regularities of the language itself
How did laboratory-raised monkeys that had never seen a snake react when they saw a snake?
They would observe the fear reactions of other monkeys and then developed their own fear reactions to snakes.
Why didn't the dogs salivate when Pavlov approached?
Though the dogs did salivate when feeders approached, they did not salivate when Pavlov approached because, though he did feed them, he also did other activities that were not linked to food (like checking on the apparatus)
Law of effect
Thought up of by Thorndike; behaviors that are followed by a "satisfying state of affairs" tend to be repeated and those that produce an "unpleasant state of affairs" are less likely to be repeated
Experiment done with rats and latent learning
Three groups of rats and a maze over two weeks 1. First group was allowed to run until reaching goal box but never received reinforcement for navigating; got better over 2 weeks, but not by much 2. Second group received regular reinforcements aka found food when reaching goal box; showed clear learning 3. Third group treated like control for 10 days and rewarded for last 7 days -> for first 10 days, behaved like rats in first group and for final 7, behave like rats in second group that had been reinforced every day (had learned alot about maze and location of goal box over first 10 days though they had not received reinforcements AKA LATENT LEARNING and cognitive map produced)
What experiment did Tolman do to suggest the formation of a cognitive map (and also to squash behaviorist thinking)?
Train group of rats to run through maze with a goal box in upper right (aka straight and then right) and then put them into another maze with multiple paths, but the goal box was still in same place relative to the start aka upper right Behaviorist thinking: Run down familiar path, find it blocked and then would pick next closest path Actual observation: At blocked path, ran down path that led to goal box == formation of sophisticated cognitive map of environment == persevere over changes in conditions
The 'trustworthy' game
Transfer money to partner and receive more reward if they decide to return favor or don't transfer and keep smaller reward; normally, trial-and-error reinforcement BUT participants were first given descriptions of partners that described them as either trustworthy or suspect and the participants transferred more money to trustworthy than to others aka ignore trial-by-error
Zarita's instructor wants students in the class to choose a lab partner. Zarita's friends tell her that Theo is very trustworthy and that he will not slack off during the class. The research on trustworthiness suggests that Zarita will continue to view Theo as _____ regardless of his behavior.
Trustworthy
Mirror neurons
Type of cell found in the brains of primates (including humans); fire when an animal perform an action and also fire when an animal watches someone else perform an action
In classical conditioning, a conditioned stimulus elicits a conditioned response because of its association with a(n)
Unconditioned stimulus
Which produce higher rates of responses, variable-ratio schedules or fixed-ratio schedules?
Variable-ratio schedules because the organism never knows when the next reinforcement is going to appear; higher the ratio, higher the response
What did Watson condition Little Albert with?
Variety of stimuli: white rat, dog, rabbit, masks, burning newspaper -> No initial fear, but also showed that Little Albert could fear (when Watson made loud noises, Little Albert would cry)
Classical conditioning
When a neural stimulus produces a response after being paired with a stimulus that naturally produces a response
How does the sea slug Aplysia exhibit habituation?
When lightly touched, it initially withdraws its gill, but the response gradually weakens after repeated light touches.
Intermittent reinforcement
When only some of responses made are followed by reinforcement, behavior is produced that is much more resistant to extinction that a continuous reinforcement schedule AKA the more irregular, the more difficult it becomes to detect whether it has actually been placed on extinction
Sensitization
When presentation of a stimulus leads to an increased response to a later stimulus
What did Keller and Marian Breland say about rats in T mazes and behaviorists?
When psychologists and organisms seem to disagree on what organisms should be doing, the animals are always right and the psychologists should rethink their theories
Can just observing a skill result in an improvement in performing that skill without actually practicing it?
Yes, just observing someone else perform a motor task can produce robust learning in the observer
Were behaviorists right in their view of learning?
Yes, to an extent. They did overstate their case however - there are important cognitive considerations needed to understand the learning process
Do individuals suffering amnesia show intact implicit learning?
Yes; this shows that the brain structures that underlie implicit learning are distinct from those that underlie explicit learning
