AP Psychology Chapter 5
Law of Effect (Thorndike)
(to do or not to do, again) pleasurable consequence, action repeated; unpleasable consequence, action not repeated
Exception to the rule of learning:
- Does not require several trials and experiences - Time span can be several hours between stimuli
Disadvantages of Punishment:
- Unwanted side effects: rage, fear, aggression - Avoidance of those who administer punishment - Suppresses behavior, does not always eliminate it
What are the four elements of observational learning?
1. Attention 2. Memory 3. Imitation 4. Desire
Baby Albert
1920, John Watson First documented experiment of classical conditioning theory on humans to show conditioned emotional responses (CER)
Learning
A relatively permanent change in behavior brought about by experience or practice
Conditioning
A theory that the response to a stimuli can be modified by 'learning'
Conditioned Taste Aversions
Avoidance of particular food, due to illness after eating it The association of nausea or sickness with certain tastes or smells
How does instinctive drift effect conditioned behavior?
Because instinctive drift occurs when a behavior reverts to genetically controlled behavior like the conditioned behavior was never learned
Watson's Findings
CERs may lead to phobias - irrational fear responses.
When Zach was eight years old, he ate a piece of shrimp that caused him to become ill. Now Zach is seventeen and becomes nauseous whenever he smells shrimp. Zach has experienced what principle of classical conditioning?
Conditioned taste aversion
John Garcia
Discovered an exception to the rule of learning
Pavlov's Findings
Discovered that a neutral stimulus (NS), when paired with a natural reflex-producing stimulus (UCS), will begin to produce a learned response, even when it is presented by itself.
Response Chain
Each step, or link in the chain, serves as a cue to do the next step to form a complex behavior Ex: teaching a child to tie shoes -- Each individual step, from tightening the laces to making the parts of the knot, would be taught and reinforced until the child can perform the complete task.
Pavlov's Experiment
Food was used as the UCS because it produced a salivation reflex The dog salivating when its tongue touched food, was the UCR Any stimulus that does not create a response, was the NS
Secondary Reinforcer
Gain reinforcing properties through a primary reinforcer - Things we have learned to value -- money
How can Applied Behavior Analysis be used to shape behavior in individuals with Autism?
It can help shape social skills in children who have autism. As a child begins to master a skill and receives reinforcement in the form of a treat or praise it prompts the child to do the skill independently
How does experience change what we do?
Learning covers a broad array of activities that leads to the acquisition of skills and knowledge ex. observation, direct instruction, physical activities, reading, listening
How was learned helplessness discovered?
Martin Seligman was doing classical conditioning on dogs and their original intention was to study the escape and avoidance learning. They discovered learned helplessness when the dogs that they were shocking refused to move to the other side of the box when shocked
Jillian was out past curfew on Saturday. As a result, her parents took away her driving privileges. Jillian no longer stays out past curfew. According to Skinner, which type of punishment did Jillian experience?
Negative punishment (omission)
What is higher order conditioning?
Occurs when a strong conditioned stimulus is paired with a neutral stimulus, causing the neutral stimulus to become a second conditioned stimulus
Self-Control
One of the most successful aspects of behavior modification is having individuals monitor their own behaviors and reward/ punish themselves (calorie counting/ self deprecating remarks made/ behavioral contract)
Ivan Pavlov (Russian physiologist)
Originally studied salivation and digestion in mammals. While studying what triggers dogs to salivate, Pavlov paved the way for a new theory about behavior, Classical Conditioning.
Between partial reinforcement and continuous reinforcement, which is more likely to cause a behavior to continue even after the reinforcement is removed?
Partial reinforcement
The researcher responsible for discovering classical conditioning was ________.
Pavlov
4 types of reinforcers
Primary Reinforcer Secondary Reinforcer Positive Reinforcement Negative Reinforcement
Edward Thorndike:
Puzzle Box - Among the first to study learning of voluntary responses - Focused on observable measurable behavior - Developed the Law of Effect
Every time Rachel's parents leave her with Lisa, the babysitter, Rachel cries. Lisa came to Rachel's third birthday party, which caused Rachel to cry. According to the principles of classical conditioning what is the conditioned stimulus?
Rachel seeing Lisa at her house
Primary Reinforcer
Satisfy basic biological needs - Things that are rewarding in itself -- hunger, thirst, touch
What concept is used to teach a dog a trick?
Shaping by successive approximation
A box used in operant conditioning of animals which limits the available responses and thus increases the likelihood that the desired response will occur is called
Skinner Box
B.F. Skinner:
Skinner Box - Coined the term operant conditioning - Built on the ideas of Thorndike - Created the operant conditioning chamber, aka, the "Skinner Box" to obtain empirical evidence to support his concepts
Reinforcement
Stimulus or event that follows a response and increases the likelihood that the response will be repeated; choice is involved (not reflexive like classical)
Shaping
Technique in which desired behavior is molded by first rewarding any act similar to that behavior, requiring ever-closer approximations for reward Reinforcement of simple steps, leading to a desired, more complex behavior Ex: To train a dog to get your slippers; use of reinforcement in small steps: Step 1. Find the slippers. Step 2. Put them in his mouth. Step 3. Bring them to you and so on until the goal is reached... this is shaping behavior.
Positive Reinforcement:
The addition of something pleasant Addition, or experiencing of, pleasurable stimulus Ex: Dog "sits" on command and this behavior is followed by the reward of treat The dog treat serves to positively reinforce the behavior of "sitting"
In their 1961 paper on instinctive drift, the Brelands determined that three assumptions most Skinnerian behaviorists believed in were not actually true. Which is one of the assumptions that was NOT true?
The animal comes to the laboratory a tabula rasa, or "blank slate,"and can be taught anything with the right conditioning.
Watson's Experiment
The experiment was initiated on Little Albert, who was 9 months. Demonstrated the classical conditioning of a phobia. Fear of white rat and other furry objects conditioned by loud noise
What is the partial reinforcement effect?
The tendency for a response that is reinforced after some but not all correct responses to be very resistant to extinction
"If a response is followed by a pleasurable consequence, it will tend to be repeated. If a response is followed by an unpleasant consequence, it will tend not to be repeated". This is a statement of
Thorndike's Law of Effect
Punishment:
Unpleasant consequence causes a decrease in behavior Opposite of Reinforcement
Negative Reinforcement:
When an aversive, or unpleasant stimulus is removed The removal, escape, or avoidance of unpleasant stimulus Ex: Parent nags a child to clean room; child cleans room to stop the parent's nagging The nagging serves to negatively reinforce the behavior of cleaning because the child wants to remove that aversive stimulus of nagging
According to the principles of observational learning what is seven year old Robert most likely do after watching a violent television program?
When experiencing a situation similar to what he saw on the television program he will imitate what he saw
What does relatively permanent mean?
When people learn anything, some part of their brain is physically changed to record what they have learned (process of memory; in physical form)
Television advertisers have taken advantage of the fact that most people experience positive emotions when they see an attractive, smiling person. This association is an example of
a conditioned emotional response
Which of the following real world situations is using the principles of classical conditioning?
a hungry child smiling at the sight of the spoon his or her dad always uses to feed him or her lunch
Cognitive Map
a mental picture of spatial relationships or relationships between events
Which of the following is an example of a primary reinforcer?
a piece of blueberry pie
The first step in classical conditioning is called
acquisition
Latent learning
alteration of a behavioral tendency that is not demonstrated by an immediate observable change in behavior
Operant
an observable behavior that an organism uses to "operate" in the environment
Reflex
an unlearned, involuntary response
Stimulus
any object, event, or experience that causes a response
Reinforcer
anything that increases a behavior
classical conditioning is learned by
association
In Bandura's study of observational learning the abbreviation AMIM stands for
attention, memory, imitation and motivation
Unconditioned Response (UCR):
automatic response A response resulting from an unconditioned stimulus without prior learning
Avoidance conditioning
avoid an occurrence of an unpleasant stimulus
Law of Effect:
behavior followed by pleasant consequences tends to be repeated; behavior followed by unpleasant consequences tends not to be repeated
Maturation:
change controlled by a genetic blueprint
Learned helplessness
condition in which repeated attempts to control a situation fail and thus a situation is believed uncontrollable People must learn that their actions do make a difference If pain comes no matter what people give up (believe they have no control/ luck causes success) How it effects depression/ self esteem Stability- permanent specific quality (I'm not good at math) Globality- large permanent quality (I'm just dumb)
Judy would sometimes discipline her puppy by swatting its nose with a rolled-up newspaper. One day she brought the newspaper into the house still rolled up, and her puppy ran from her in fear. By pairing the rolled paper with the swat, Judy's puppy had developed a(n) ____________ response to the rolled-up paper.
conditioned
Mary is often tired when she wakes up so she starts drinking coffee every day at 8:00 am which makes her feel energized. One morning she is coming home from the grocery store she notices the time it is 8:00 am. She had not wanted coffee before she checked the time but suddenly feels tired and craves the drink. Mary's sudden craving for coffee after noticing the time is an example of which of the following?
conditioned response
John Watson and his colleague, Rosalie Rayner, offered a live white rat to little albert and then made a loud noise behind his head by striking a steel bar with a hammer. The white rat served as the ___________________ in their study.
conditioned stimulus
Token Economy
conditioning in which a desired behavior is reinforced with valueless objects which can be accumulated and exchanged for valued rewards Points, money, poker chips, etc. Can reward people for positive behavior (instead of only attention for negative)
Jake is training his dog to sit on command. Jake gives his dog a treat every time the dog sits. Which type of reinforcement schedule is Jake displaying?
continuous reinforcement
Pavlov discovered classical conditioning through his study of
digestive secretions in dogs
The learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus.
discrimination
Neutral Stimulus (NS):
does not create a response Any stimulus that produces no conditioned response prior to learning
Which of the following is considered a primary reinforcer?
drinking a glass of water
Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS):
event that causes a predictable response A stimulus that automatically, without conditioning or learning, provokes a reflexive response
The current view of why classical conditioning works the way it does, by cognitive theorists such as Rescorla, adds the concept _____ to the conditioning process
expectancy
After you successfully classically conditioned your pet dog, you repeatedly presented the conditioned stimulus without ever pairing it with the unconditioned stimulus. Over time, your dog stops performing the conditioned response. What has happened?
extinction
When the conditioned stimulus is no longer paired with the unconditioned stimulus, what occurs?
extinction
A rat receives a food pellet after a certain desired behavior is performed after an elapsed time of 45 seconds. Which of the following correctly identifies which schedule of reinforcement the rat has been placed on?
fixed interval
You are reading a really boring assignment for another class. To motivate yourself to keep going, you promise yourself a piece of chocolate for every 10 pages you read. You are using
fixed ratio
Lian has an intense phobia of birds. Her psychologist believes that in order to alleviate her phobia, Lian must be placed in a room where she is surrounded by birds. Lian's therapist believes in the effectiveness of what type of phobia reduction technique?
flooding
Cognitive Learning
form of altering behavior that involves mental processes and may result from observation and imitation
Conditioned Stimulus (CS):
formerly neutral event that now causes a specific response The originally neutral stimulus that gains the power to cause the response.
Extinction:
gradual disappearance of a CR - the moment the CS is no longer associated with the UCS - does not mean complete elimination of a response, it merely suppresses the CR, and can reappear during spontaneous recovery.
One difference between classical and operant conditioning is that
in classical conditioning the responses are automatically triggered by stimuli
Reinforcement can be distinguished from punishment in that reinforcement ______ a target behavior, whereas punishment ______ a target behavior.
increases; decreases
The "aha!" experience is known as
insight learning
In Bandura's study wit the Bobo doll the children in the group who saw the model punished did not imitate at first. They would only imitate the model if given a reward for doing so. The fact that these children had obviously learned the behavior without actually performing it is an example of
latent learning
The idea that learning occurs and is stored up even when the behaviors are not reinforced is called
latent learning
A researcher places dogs in a cage with metal bars on the floor. The dogs are randomly given electric shocks and can do nothing to prevent them or stop them. Later, the same dogs are placed in a cage where they can escape the shocks by jumping over a low hurdle. When the shocks are given, the dogs do not even try to escape. They just sit and cower. This is an example of ________.
learned helplessness
Conditioned Response (CR):
learned reaction to stimulus A response elicited by a previously neutral stimulus that has become associated with the unconditioned stimulus
_____ is any relatively permanent change in behavior brought about by experience or practice
learning
The partial reinforcement effect refers to the fact that a response that is reinforced after some, but not all, correct responses will be
more resistant to extinction than a response that receives continuous reinforcement (a reinforcer for each and every correct response)
When a stimulus is removed from a person or animal resulting in a decrease in the probability of response, it is known as ________.
negative punishment
Escape conditioning is a form of _______ in which the subject learns to perform a response to remove an aversive stimulus.
negative reinforcement
You decide you want to try to classically condition your pet dog. What is the correct order that you should use to present the stimuli to your dog?
neutral stimulus-unconditioned stimulus
In Pavlov's original experiment with dogs, the bell was initially an ________ stimulus; after it was paired with meat it became an ______ stimulus.
neutral, conditioned
If you learn how to fix your car by watching someone on TV demonstrate the technique, you are acquiring that knowledge through
observational learning
A Skinner box is most likely to be used in research on ________.
operant conditioning
Biofeedback is an application of
operant conditioning
Kenra has a new pet cat and decides to modify her cat's behavior by administering pleasant and unpleasant consequences after her cat's behaviors. Kenra is using the principles of
operant conditioning
Which of the following correctly describes the process of classical conditioning?
pairing a stimulus that naturally causes a certain response with a second stimulus that does not naturally cause that response
Operant Conditioning
pairs behavior and response Voluntary behavior, controlled by consequences B.F. Skinner Reinforcement and Punishment
Operant Conditioning:
pairs behavior and response Voluntary behavior, response is controlled by positive and negative consequences - the strength of a behavior is modified by reinforcement or punishment
Classical Conditioning
pairs two stimuli Involuntary, reflex response to a stimulus other than the original, natural stimulus Pavlov and Watson NS, UCS, UCR, CS, CR pairs two stimuli, resulting in a learned response Involuntary, reflex response to a stimulus other than the original, natural stimulus A form of associative learning, which deals with learning of a new behavior via associating various stimuli.
On the first day of class, Derek draw an obnoxious picture on the blackboard and the entire class laughs. As a result of the attention from the other students Derek draws an obnoxious picture on the blackboard for the of the week. His behavior is the result of
positive reinforcement
Social learning
process of altering behavior by observing and imitating the behavior of others (two sub categories are cognitive learning and modeling) Bandura came to these conclusions with his famous Bobo the clown study (Pg 215)
Your child has begun drawing on the walls of your house and you would like this activity to stop. Which of the following actions would, at least temporarily, decrease the occurrence of the behavior in your child?
punish your child after she draws on the wall
Spontaneous Recovery:
reappearance of a previously extinguished CR - after rest period and extinction, a return of the conditioned response, but typically not a strong
Which example best describes the fixed interval schedule of reinforcement?
receiving a paycheck after 2 weeks of work
Fixed Ratio:
reinforcement after a fix number of responses - Ejection after 5 fouls - 10 dollars for every pizza made
Fixed Interval:
reinforcement after a fixed amount of time has passed - Paycheck every two weeks - Test every Thursday
Variable Interval:
reinforcement after varying amounts of time - Pop quizzes - Busy signal on the phone
Variable Ratio:
reinforcement after varying number of responses - Slot machines - Sales commissions
In operant conditioning, a _______ is any stimulus that increases behavior; a ________ is any stimulus that decreases behavior.
reinforcement; punishment
Escape conditioning
remove or terminate an unpleasant stimulus
A negative reinforcer is a stimulus that is _____ and thus _____ the probability of a response
removed; increases
Acquisition:
repeated pairing of a NS with an UCS in order to produce a CR - typically happens gradually, depends on frequency of association and strength - does not last forever
Stimulus Generalization:
response to a stimulus that is similar to original CS - responding similarly to a range of similar stimuli Ex: a dog has been conditioned to run to its owner when it hears a whistle
Stimulus Discrimination:
response to different stimuli in different ways Ex. if a bell tone were the conditioned stimulus, discrimination would involve being able to tell the difference between the bell sound and other similar sounds
CAI- Computer Aided Instruction
shapes knowledge in a predictable way
Applied behavior analysis or ABA has been used with autistic children. The basic principle of this form of behavior modification is
shaping
Negative Punishment:
something pleasurable is removed Ex: getting grounded from your cell phone after failing your progress report.
Positive Punishment:
something unpleasant added to the situation Ex: getting spanked after telling a lie; this is the addition of something unpleasant.
An example of a discriminative stimulus might be ________.
stop sign
Behavior Modification
systematic application of learning principles to change people's actions and feelings Must first define the problem (sound like anything) Then identify system of rewards and punishments to correct the problem
Cognition refers to
the mental events that take place while a person is behaving
Response:
the reaction
Dr. Walsh is interested in seeing whether symptoms of depression can be manipulated using principles of classical conditioning. For several weeks of an experiment he gives a group of patients a sweetened soda that has a mood enhancing drug in it and notices that the symptoms of depression improve significantly. Then he removes the drug from the beverage and notices that the symptoms are still improved when the patients consume the soda. Which of the following is the conditioned stimulus in Dr. Walsh's experiment?
the sweetened soda
Students in Mr. Winn's class receive a gold star each time they answer a question correctly. After a student receives ten gold stars, he or she earns a pencil. Mr. Winn is using an operant conditioning technique known as
token economy
observational learning/ imitation
unable to do a task, but after watching someone else do it you can (dance step/ run a pass route/ play part of a chord on the piano)
When Pavlov placed meat powder or other food in the mouths of canine subjects, they began to salivate. The salivation was a(n) ________.
unconditioned response
Which schedule of reinforcement should you select if you would like to produce the highest number of responses with the least number of pauses between the responses?
variable ratio
Julie works at a shoe factory and is paid based on the number of shoes she produces in a day. This is an example of which type of schedule of reinforcement?
variable-ratio or fixed ratio
disinhibition
watch someone else do a threatening behavior and get away with it and thus feel like they can do the same (handle snakes/ cut in vhs parking lot/ cheat)
Schedule of Reinforcement:
when and how often behavior is reinforced; continuous schedule v variable schedule
