Psych 101 Ch. 5

Learning theory and gambling

A person can get "hooked" to gambling by fixing the game to allow heavy winnings at first, then spacing out the winnings with some wins or none at all. Partial reinforcement maintains gambling

Skinner box

B.F. Skinner placed a rat deprived of food in the Skinner box and found out the rat would press the lever over and over to get more pellets of food, thereby being reinforced to press the lever by food

Project Pigeon

B.F. Skinner wanted to train Pigeons to guide missiles to their targets by reinforcement with food pellets and operant behavior

Albert Bandura

Did an experiment on preschool children and effects of violence. One group watched a violent film while another watched a peaceful film. Both groups were left alone with inflated Bobo dolls to see reaction. Kids imitated what they saw in film

Little Albert experiment

John Watson startled him by clanging steel bars behind his head when he played with a rat. This conditioned him to be afraid of rats or anything furry

What type of reinforcement is used to teach us to fasten our seat belts?

Negative reinforcement because the blinking noise when not wearing the seat belt will continue until the seat belt is worn then the blinking noise stops, therefore the negative reinforcement is removed

How did his experiment with the dogs work?

Pavlov would condition the dogs to salivate at the tone of a bell by classically conditioning them with meat powder

Preconditioning phase

Pavlov would show the dog meat powder as an unconditioned stimulus to make it salivate (unconditioned response). Also ring the bell (neutral stimulus) to get no reaction from the dog

Classical Conditioning steps

Preconditioning, Conditioning, and Postconditioning phases

Postconditioning phase

The tone (conditioned stimulus) now elicits salivation (conditioned response) without the presence of the meat powder (unconditioned stimulus)

Conditioning phase

The tone (neutral stimulus) becomes a conditioned stimulus through repeated association with the meat powder for the salivation response (conditional response)

conditioned response

a learned response to a conditioned stimulus

Cognitive map

a mental representation of the layout of one's environment

Who is Ivan Pavlov?

a physiologist known for his work in classical conditioning, the experiment with the dogs

higher-order conditioning

a previously neutral stimulus comes to elicit the response brought forth by a conditioned stimulus by being paired repeatedly with that conditioned stimulus

conditioned stimulus

a previously neutral stimulus that elicits a conditioned response because it has been paired repeatedly with a stimulus that already elicited that response

Positive reinforcement

a reinforcer that when presented increases the frequency of an operant e.g. teacher

Negative reinforcement

a reinforcer that when removed increases the frequency of an operant e.g. teacher disapproval removed when a student studies

What exactly is learning? (Behaviorist perspective)

a relatively permanent change in behavior that arises from practice or experience

continuous reinforcement

a schedule of reinforcement in which every correct response is reinforced

What is Classical conditioning?

a simple form of learning in which a neutral stimulus comes to evoke the response usually evoked by another stimulus by being paired repeatedly with the other stimulus.

Operant Conditioning

a simple form of learning in which an organism learns to engage in behavior because it is reinforced

unconditioned stimulus

a stimulus that elicits a response from an organism prior to conditioning

secondary reinforcer

a stimulus that gains reinforcement value through association with established reinforcers

primary reinforcer

an unlearned reinforcer whose effectiveness is based on the biological makeup of the organism and not on learning

orienting reflex

an unlearned response in which an organism attends to a stimulus

unconditioned response

an unlearned response to an unconditioned stimulus

Positive punishment

application of an aversive stimulus to decrease unwanted behavior like spanking, scolding, or a parking ticket

Behavior modification

application of operant conditioning that is used to reinforce people when they behave appropriately and to extinguish misbehavior by ignoring it

operant behavior

behavior that operates on, or manipulates, the environment

Punishments

decrease the frequency of the behavior they follow

Extinction in operant conditioning

extinction of learned responses results from the repeated performance of operant behavior without reinforcement. e.g. girl does her homework but stops because of no reinforcement to keep doing it

generalization

in conditioning, the tendency for a conditioned response to be evoked by stimuli that are similar to the stimulus to which the response was conditioned

discrimination

in conditioning, the tendency for an organism to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and similar stimuli that do not forecast an unconditioned stimulus (frustration and aggression)

Reinforcers

increases the frequency of the behavior they follow

Latent learning

learning that is hidden or concealed

partial reinforcement

one of several reinforcement schedules in which not every correct response is reinforced

Spontaneous recovery in operant conditioning

reinforcers may once again become available after time elapses

fixed-interval schedule

schedule in which a fixed amount of time must elapse between the previous and subsequent times that reinforcement is available

variable-interval schedule

schedule in which a variable amount of time must must elapse between the previous and subsequent times that reinforcement is available

fixed-ratio schedule

schedule in which reinforcement is provided after a fixed number of correct responses

variable-ratio schedule

schedule in which reinforcement is provided after a variable number of correct responses. (slot machines)

Observational learning

the acquisition of knowledge and skills through the observation of others (who are called models) rather than by means of direct experience

Learning (cognitive theorists)

the process by which organisms make relatively permanent changes in the way they represent the environment because of experience

extinction

the process by which stimuli lose their ability to evoke learned responses because the events that had followed the stimuli no longer occur

spontaneous recovery

the recurrence of an extinguished response as a function of the passage of time

Negative punishment

the removal of a pleasant stimulus like removing a student's opportunity to talk with friends in class by seating them apart

Contingency theory

the view that learning occurs when stimuli provide info about the likelihood of the occurrence of other stimuli