Behavoral Analysis Exam 1
Taste aversion learning
**exception to short ISI rule -long ISI can still result in learning
Learning
- a relatively permanent change in *behavior* due to *experience*
within-subjects design
- participant's behavior is examined before (at baseline) some treatment, and then either during or after the treatment
between-subjects design
- participants are randomly split into different treatment groups, where the independent variable differs among groups.
Mutation
- slight changes in the DNA sequence that occur due to copying mistakes during replication, and other causes
animal psycholgoy
-*laboratory* Studied "higher" animals (rats, pigeons, monkeys, and apes) -Study animals as models for human behavior - *learning* was main focus
Repeated presentation of a musical tone is followed by a puff of air in the eye-causes eye blink. - After a few repetitions, the rabbit blinks when the tone sounds. This is ________. - The musical tone is then played repeatedly with no puff of air. Gradually, the rabbit stops blinking. This is _______
-acquisition -extinction
What other kinds of selection are there?
-artificial selection (fruit flies fed different diets) -sexual selection (
examples of inherited behaviors
-dogs fetching, birds singing, music ability
operational definition
A clear, concise detailed definition of a measure.
unconditioned stimulus
A stimulus that consistently and automatically elicits an unconditional response (UR). This is the UNLEARNED (*NATURAL*) STIMULUS Ex. sudden loud noise electric-shock smell of favorite food
Institutional Research Board (IRB)
A university or other institution appoints a panel of qualified judges who review all research proposals.
unconditioned response
An action that the US automatically elicits. This is the UNLEARNED (_*NATURAL*) RESPONSE Ex. Jumping (from loud noise) Flinching (from electric shock) Hunger ( from smelling favorite food)
Federal law that regulates treatment of animals alternative to painful procedures must be considered institutions must have a review board exclusions (not currently protected) birds, rats, mice, farm animals, frogs, fish, all invertebrates
Animal Welfare Act
Which of the following might be used as an operational definition of "attraction"? A) A feeling of affection when two people are together. B) The number of minutes during which two people touch each other over a four-hour period.
B
Which statement is more parsimonious? A) All humans have an unconscious drive towards self- destruction. or B) Self-destructive habits are caused by environmental factors, like abuse in early childhood.
B
ABA reversal design
Baseline (A), Treatment (B), Baseline (A) More convincing design, in that the behavior is more clearly controlled by the independent variable.
simultaneous conditioning
CS and US coincide completely (presented at same time)
backward conditioning
CS occurs after the US (not useful for learning)
trace conditioning
CS occurs totally before the US, so you have to remember the "trace" of the stimulus
We measure relationships between the environment and behavior, such as changes in:
Changes in: number of errors intensity speed rate fluency
The role of natural selection in the beaks of finches was the subject of research by
Charles Darwin
conditioned stimulus
Formerly a neutral stimulus, after consistent pairing with the US, elicits a similar response. This is the *LEARNED* STIMULUS Ex: Red light (neutral at first, then paired with loud noise)
"debate of mind"
Heightened interest in *apes*, primitive *peoples*, and *prehistoric* humans arose
GENUS
Homo -always capitalize genus name
Evolution by natural selection
In a given environment, certain individuals are better suited than others, with respect to a particular trait These individuals survive, and pass on that trait to future generations Ex. *peppered moths* during the industrial revolution
Watson and Rayner conditioned a baby to fear a white rat
Little Albert Experiment US-loud sound UR- fear CS- rat CR- fear
class of animals
Mammal
student of Watson, the "mother of behavior therapy"
Mary Cover Jones
Does an individual person or animal evolve?
No, generations evolve, not individuals
Does natural selection help individuals adapt to a changing environment
No, too slow (works over eons)
A compound CS that consists of a sour taste plus an electric shock is consistently paired with a drug that induces nausea (US). When presented alone the shock does not produce nausea. Is this an example of overshadowing or blocking?
Overshadowing (unless one of the pair was already a CS) Sour taste is more salient!
prior experience
Previous learning *disrupts* the CSUS contingency It's easy to ignore stimuli that occur all the time!
Order of animals
Primates
Three R's: replacement, reduction, refinement
Replacement- preferred use of non-animal methods over animal methods Reduction- use fewer animals Refinement- alleviate or minimize pain, suffering or distress, and enhance animal welfare for the animals still used.
Species
Sapiens -always italicize Latin name
delayed conditioning
The US is presented during the CS after a slight delay
peer-reviewed article
The article is forwarded to *expert* reviewers who specialize in the same field who carefully *evaluate* the quality of the submitted manuscript and check for *accuracy* and validity • *revisions* are suggested or if the article is lacking in scholarly validity and rigor it is *rejected*
conditioned response
The response elicited by the CS due to training. Usually it resembles the UR. This is the *LEARNED* RESPONSE Ex. Jumping (from the red light only)
Before conditioning, the US elicits __________ and the CS elicits ________
UR, no response
Synapse
When two dendrites grow close together, a contact point is formed. A small gap at the contact point is called the __ -messages are sent from one neuron across the __
Which type of learning theorist would be most likely to study human emotions?
a cognitivist
cumulative reader
a device used to record and analyze behavior • a pen rides on a slowly-moving piece of paper • each *action by the animal* marks a response by moving the pen • now replaced by computer software
personality
a dynamic set of characteristics which a person develops (after birth) due to *experience*
Species
a group of organisms in which individuals are capable of reproducing *fertile offspring*
latent inhibition
a stimulus that has not had any significance in the past takes longer to learn than a new stimulus. Ex. Baby crying all the time
Modal action pattern (MAP) or Fixed action patter (FAP)-
an instinctive behavioral sequence produced in response to a releasing stimulus it is indivisible and runs to completion Ex. Greylag goose egg-rolling
Kingdom of animals
animalia
Moro reflex
babies pull up their legs and arch their backs in response to sudden sounds or bumps
behaviorism
behavior should be described scientifically without attributing internal events or hypothetical constructs such as the "mind
Eye-blink conditioning First, train with tone alone as a CS for eye-blink Additional trials with tone and red light (compound CS), paired with air puff (US) Test light alone, the light alone does not cause eye blink The previous experience with the tone has ______ learning about the light.....because tone alone was a good predictor of air puff
blocked
An animal has learned that electric shock preceded nausea in the past. A compound CS that consists of a sour taste plus an electric shock is consistently paired with a drug that induces nausea (US). When presented alone the sour taste does not produce nausea. Is this an example of overshadowing or blocking ?
blocking
When the buzzer goes off on the microwave oven, Mary opens the door and eats her muffin.
buzzer is the CS; muffin is the US
Evolution
change in the inherited traits of a population of organisms through *successive generations*
5 species of apes
chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, bonobos, humans
Theory
comprehensive explanation of observable events
change is __
constant -environment is always changing
A blinking light (CS) is paired with shock (US) to cause a fear response in a rat. The blinking light occurs twenty minutes before the shock every single time. When presented alone, the blinking light fails to elicit the fear response. Is this failure to learn related to contingency or contiguity?
contiguity
A blinking light (CS) is paired with shock (US) to cause a fear response in a rat. Fifty percent of the times that the blinking light occurs, a shock comes after it. The rest of the time the shock comes without warning. When presented alone, the blinking light fails to elicit the fear response. Is this failure to learn related to contingency or continuity?
contingency
continuity
different degrees of mentality could be ascribed to creatures
patellar reflex = (example)
doctor hitting knee with stick thing
supernormal stimulus
elicits a response more strongly than the stimulus for which it evolved Ex. herring gull chicks peck more at a red stick than a red spot, exaggerated breast size/eyes Ex. Oystercatcher incubates larger than normal eggs
Variation and natural selection are the foundations of...
evolution
Darwin's big idea
evolution by natural selection
in order to cope with change, organisms can __
evolve (does not help individuals) learn
glutamate
excitatory neurotransmitter
You answer the phone in your office hundreds of times, but it is never for you. Finally you stop answering it. This is an example of __
extinction
Richard Dawkins
gene centered view of evolution wrote "the selfish gene" in 1976 -critic of creationism and intelligent design
The tendency of some animals to hoard food is probably an example of
general behavior trait
Dendrites (branches)
grow out of the neurons when you listen to/write about/talk about/ practice something
Mutation changes can be:
have no effect (mostly!) • be *harmful* • be *advantageous*
Before learning: a hot date (US) = lust (UR) During learning: hot date (US) is paired with cologne (CS) = lust After learning: cologne only (CS) = lust (CR)
higher order conditioning
continguity
how close in time are the CS and US paired? -if the time b/w the CS and the US is short, learning is better
temperament
in-born behavioral tendencies that are repeatable across situations
Variation
individuals (at a given time and place) within a population of any organism are not all the same, due to slight *genetic differences*
Heritable traits
inherited characteristics
gaba
inhibitory neurotransmitter
Behavior can be ________ and/or ________
innate or learned
the strength of responses that occur after the CS (amplitude)
intensity
inter-stimulus interval (ISI)
interval of time b/w the CS and US -optimum ISI depends on many factors (type of resp)
Inter-trial interval (ITI)
interval of time between pairings of the CS and the US
Thorndicke
introduced experimental tests into the study of animal learning and brought comparative psychology into the laboratory
Growth of dendrites
learning
constructivism
learning is a process in which the learner actively builds new ideas from old -humans generate knowledge and meaning from their experiences
cognitivism
looks beyond behavior to explain brain-based learning (internal representations)
The cause of variation is:
mutation
ethology
natural habitat -studied "lower" animals (bees, ants) -instinctive behavior was main focus
The mechanism of evolution is
natural selection
brain cells are called
neurons
What is the purpose of evolution? Is there an end-goal or result to evolution?
no purpose- mistakes cause genetic mutations and species variation, those best suited will go on to reproduce
Learning is the mechanism by which individuals change in __
one lifetime
overshadowing
one of the components of a compound stimulus is more effective than the other in eliciting the CR
Ex. Eye blink conditioning A loud tone and a weak red light are trained together as a compound CS. When tested individually, the loud tone alone will cause eye blink, but the weak red light will not. The loud sound ___________ the weak red light
overshadows
higher order conditioning
pairing of a new neutral stimulus with an already learned CS (new stimulus becomes the CS without ever being paired with the US) Ex. cologne, love song, hot date
Which is learned, personality or temperament?
personality
You want to eliminate your conditional response to the song from the Burger King commercial, What steps would you take to produce extinction?
play the song repeatedly with no image of the breakfast sandwich
blocking
prior experience causes one part of a compound stimulus to be ineffective
Hypothesis
proposed explanation of a phenomenon
Positron emission tomography (PET)
provides a picture of brain activity using *radioactivity* from chemicals injected into the bloodstream
evolutionary psychology
psychological traits are *adaptations* that evolved to solve problems in human ancestral environments, and have been *passed down* through natural or sexual selection.
an American _______ who established "behaviorism" after doing research on animal behavior.
psychologist, John Watson
- Electroencephalographs (EEGs) and Magnetoencephalographs (MEGs)
record electrical and magnetic activity in the brain
Releasing stimulus (sign stimulus)
release a reaction that is inherited, not learned (species specific) Ex. Herring gull chicks- peck at parent's beak to obtain regurgitated food
Model action patterns are induced by events called
releasers
Spontaneous recovery refers to _.
return of CR during extinction after a time lapse
dopamine
reward system
the state or quality of an item that stands out relative to neighboring items
salience How important is the stimuli to an individual? Ex. For most of us a fire alarm has more salience than a soft whistle
comparative psychology
searches for principles that apply to the behavior of all animals, including humans. -compares cognitive processes and capacities of multiple species • examines both *unique* and *shared* behavioral traits
dishibition
sensitization of a previously habituated response -rat not being scared of loud sound anymore
David Bus
sex differences in mate selection -men portray sexual over perception bias, have false beliefs, look at human mating (men mostly murder other men over social status, etc.) sex selction, mate selection
counter conditioning
she (Mary Jones) "unconditioned fear" by pairing a pleasant stimulus with the white rat
parsimony
simple explanations (those with the fewest assumptions) are preferred over complex ones A. All humans have an unconscious drive towards self- destruction. or *B.* Self-destructive habits are caused by environmental factors, like abuse in early childhood.
stimulus
something that causes a response ex: Literally anything and everything can be considered a stimulus
Review Article
sometimes called literature reviews or secondary sources, synthesize or *analyze* research already conducted in primary sources. They generally *summarize* the current state of research on a given topic
Empirical or research article
sometimes called primary sources, report on original research. They usually describe an *experiment* and typically include sections such as an introduction, methods, results, and discussion
The temporary return of an extinguished response is called ______ __________
spontaneous recovery
social psychology
study how people's behavior is influenced by the presence of *others*
archeaology
study of human activity in the past, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the materials that they have left behind
informed consent
subjects are advised on what to expect and explicitly state that they agree to continue.
Prediction
testable statement about what will happen
Replication
testing of hypotheses must be *repeated*
extinction
the CS is repeatedly presented without the US, until the CR is *extinguished*
latency
the amount of time before a behavior starts -we measure this with UR/Cr
acquisition
the first stages of learning in which the CS and US are repeatedly paired. The CS starts to *elicit* the CR
topography
the form of the behavior
Speciation and how?
the formation of *new* and distinct species in the course of evolution How? -Reproductive isolation
Natural selection
the process by which heritable traits become more common in a population over time, because individuals possessing certain variations of those traits are *better adapted* to the *current environment*
psychology
the scientific study of human mental functions and behaviors
Darwin's Evolutionary Theory
the single most important factor in the debate on the mind Darwin thought of cognition and behavior, as adaptations of the organism just like any other physical features
pedagogy
the study and practice of how best to teach, especially as an academic subject or theoretical concept
epigenetics
the study of genetic variations that result from external or environmental factors that switch genes on and off
sociology
the study of human social behavior
anthropology
the study of humankind, past and present
sociobiology
the study of social behavior from a Darwinian evolutionary perspective -Founder E.O Wilson
Heritable traits persist...
these traits persist in a population if they make an organism more likely to *survive and reproduce*
replication results
those that anyone can obtain by following the same procedures.
Plato
thought individual differences were innate *nativism* -the bulk of our knowledge is inborn
Aristotle
thought that the mind of a newborn is like a blank slate or tabula rasa *Empiricism* - all the ideas we have are based on experience
Natural selection is the mechanism by which species change over vast amounts of __
time
general behavior traits
traits that are influenced by genes, like MAPs but they occur in numerous situations, ex: rats freeze when startled
neurotransmitters
transmit information across the synapse
compound stimulus
two or more stimuli *presented together*, often as a CS Ex. Eye blink conditioning Sound plus red light presented together (CCS) before air puff (US)
reflex
unlearned response to a stimuli relationship between an event (stimulus) and a behavior (response)
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
uses magnetic detectors to measure the amounts of hemoglobin and oxygen in different areas of the brain *during a cognitive task*
Ivon Pavlov
was a *physiologist* who won a Nobel Prize for his research on *digestion*.
What steps would you take to produce spontaneous recovery?
watch the commercial once a few days after the extinction procedure has been completed
contingency
what is the *likelihood* that the CS will precede the US? Amount of learning depends on how well the CS *predicts* the US
habituation
when a stimulus evokes *decreases* response over time
sensitization
when a stimulus evokes an *increased* response over time