Learning And Behavior Change

Front 1

What is the definition of learning? (including the 4 main parts)

Back 1

A 1) change in behavior 2) under identical circumstances 3) resulting from experience 4) which modifies an animals nervous system.

Front 2

Define Behavior

Back 2

Anything an animal does (should be measurable and multicellular)

Front 3

What is Nativism vs Empiricism?

Back 3

Nature vs Nurture.

Front 4

Define Associationism:

(also who coined it?)

Back 4

We learn by combining experiencial concepts to each other through association. (Aristotle)

Front 5

Name and describe the laws of Association:

Back 5

-Law of Similarity: Higher order concepts ecncompass broad catagories that associate many different but similar things (ex: animal)

-Law of Contrast: Ease of distinguishing opposite of contrasting ideas.things (night vs day)

-Law of Contiguity: Things that are often together or associated become tied together or connected conceptually, more so the closer the connection is to 100% of the time.

-Law of Frequency: If things are associated more often they become connected, has to do with the frequency of association.

Front 6

What is Determinism?
Who coined it?

Back 6

Behavior is the product of rules and laws (opposite of free will). Has 2 natural consequences: - external variables determine behavior.

-Behavior is predictable.

Rene Descarte

Front 7

What is Extreme Empiricism?

Back 7

Everything is learned, nothing is innate.

Front 8

What discoveries did Ebbinhaus make?

Back 8

3 factors affecting memory: list length, repetition, and time.

Front 9

Who pioneered behaviorism? What is it's definition?

Back 9

John B. Watson

A natural science approach to psychology that emphasizes the study of environmental influences on observable behavior.

Front 10

What are the two major consequences of the rise of behaviorism?

Back 10

-Animal research

-Learning (the field)

Front 11

What are the 5 schools of behaviorism?

Back 11

-Watson's Methodological Behaviorism (no reference to internal events)

-Hull's Neobehaviorism (internal events could be included if they were operationalized)

-Tolman's Cognitive Behaviorism (Internal events could be included in explanations operationalized, emphasized cognitive intervening variables)

-Bandura's Social Learning Theory (focus on observational learning and internal events were included in explanations of behavior)

-Skinner's Radical Behaviorism (internal events are not included as explanations but are instead behaviors themselves that must be explained)

Front 12

What are the 4 causes of behavior (from Aristotle's view)? Describe each

Back 12

-Efficient Causes: Necessary and sufficient conditions to produce a result

-Material Causes: The physical mechanism underlying some result.

-Formal Causes: The rules of why a result occurs described in terms of models and theoretical constructs.

-Final Causes: Accounts for a particular result in terms of the purpose or goal that it serves.

Front 13

What is the difference between elicited and innate behaviors?

Back 13

Elicited behaviors are learned. Innate behaviors are preprogrammed into an organism from birth.

Front 14

What are the two types of elicited behaviors?

Back 14

Reflexes and modal action patterns

Front 15

Describe Reflexes

Back 15

Very simple innate behaviors tend to be short lived. They are stereotyped and often involve certain parts of the body reliably elicited by a particular stimuli. Tend to involve peripheral nervous system but more complex reflexes involve brain stem structures as well.

Front 16

Describe Modal Action Patterns

Back 16

More complex innate behaviors that occur over longer temporal durations and often involve parts of the CNS. They are a sequence of responses elicited by a particular stimulus. They are species typical. (ie. instinctual behaviors)

Front 17

What is the eliciting stimulus called?

Back 17

The sign stimulus or releaser.

Front 18

What are some benefits to innate behaviors?

Back 18

-adaptive benefits for regularly encountered stimuli and situations

-do not have to prelearn the behavior, especially useful for life saving behaviors

-easily modifiable simply circuitry for later adaptation and easier/faster execution.

Front 19

What is Habituation?

Back 19

A decrease in the strength of an elicited behavior following repeated presentations of the eliciting stimulus.

Front 20

What is Sensitization?

Back 20

An increase in the strength of an elicited behavior following repeated presentations of an elicited stimulus.

Front 21

What sort of stimulus/state tends to produce habituation?

Back 21

Insignificant stimuli, relaxed

Front 22

What sort of stimulus/state tends to produce sensitization?

Back 22

Intense stimuli, aroused

Front 23

Whats the basis of Duel process theory?

Back 23

Both habituation and sensitization occur and the behavioral outcome is determined by which process is stronger

Front 24

What is mediated by habituation?

Back 24

The stimulus --> response interaction

Front 25

What is mediated by sensitization?

Back 25

The overall state system

Front 26

List or Describe some of the principles of habituation:

Back 26

-classic learning curve

-forgetting

-relearning is faster

-stimulus intensity increase decreases rate of habituation

-can overlearn habituation

-is stimulus specific but can transfer between similar stimuli

-dishabituation due to novel stimuli

Front 27

Outline basic classical conditioning

Back 27

UCS --> UCR

NS --> nothing

NS+UCS --> UCR

CS --> CR

Front 28

What is Appetitive conditioning?

Back 28

Conditioning with a UCS that elicits a positive UCR. Often sought out by animals.

Front 29

What is Aversive Conditioning?

Back 29

conditioning with a UCS that elicits a negative UCR. Often avoided by animals.

Front 30

What is Eyeblink Conditioning?

Back 30

Makes use of the blink reflex. uses puff of air as UCS. has to account for normal automatic blinking.

Front 31

What is Conditioned suppression (conditioned emotional response)?

Back 31

First you train the animal to get food through an action when a stimuli occurs. Second you condition it to be afraid of a different stimuli. Probing the level of fear conditioning is done by playing the food and fear stimuli simultaneously and observing the amount of suppression for food seeking behavior.

Front 32

Name, describe, and state the effectiveness of each form of CC timing.

Back 32

-Delayed Conditioning: UCS is slightly delayed after CS. Most effective but impacted by delay period.

-Trace Conditioning: UCS occurs after CS is gone. Less effective but effectiveness decreases as delay increases.

-Simultaneous conditioning: UCS and CS occur as exact same time. Little to no conditioning.

-Backwards conditioning: UCS occurs before CS. Little to no conditioning.

Front 33

What is the main thing that produces conditioning?

Back 33

A stimuli's ability to predict a UCS.

Front 34

In the Rescorla-Wagner Model, what is Rule 1?

Back 34

If the strength of the actual UCS is greater than the expected UCS then any CS associated with the UCS will receive excitatory conditioning.

Front 35

In the Rescorla-Wagner Model, what is Rule 2?

Back 35

If the strength of the actual UCS is less than the expected UCS then any CS associated with the UCS will receive inhibitory conditioning.

Front 36

In the Rescorla-Wagner Model, what is Rule 3?

Back 36

If the strength of the actual UCS is equal to the expected UCS then any CS associated with the UCS will receive no conditioning.

Front 37

In the Rescorla-Wagner Model, what is Rule 4?

Back 37

The greater then magnitude of the discrepancy between the strength of the actual UCS and the expected UCS, the greater the magnitude of conditioning.

Front 38

In the Rescorla-Wagner Model, what is Rule 5?

Back 38

The greater the salience of the CS the greater the magnitude of conditioning.

Front 39

In the Rescorla-Wagner Model, what is Rule 6?

Back 39

If more than 1 CS is present, their effects are additive with respect to the magnitude of the expected UCS.

Front 40

Describe Acquisition (and rules)

Back 40

Process of connecting NS to UCS. Classic learning curve. Can be 1 trial learning (traumatic or potentially deadly stimuli)
Rule 1 and 4.

Front 41

Describe Extinction (and rules)

Back 41

Process by which a CR is weakened of eliminated by presenting CS without UCS.
Rule 2 and 4.

Front 42

Describe Spontaneous Recovery

Back 42

The reappearance of an extinguished CR following a rest period. Longer you wait the more likely it is. Can happen multiple times but is diminished each time. Implies that extinction and acquisition are different forms of learning and that extinction is forgotten faster.

Front 43

Describe Rapid Reaquisition

Back 43

Rapid re-conditioning after extinction implying saved learning.

Front 44

Describe disinhibition:

Back 44

The sudden reappearance of an extinguished CR following the presentation of a novel stimulus followed by the CS.

Front 45

Outline higher order conditioning

Back 45

The use of one CS to condition a second CS. First CS must be strongly conditioned to resist extinction.

NS1+UCS --> UCR

CS1 --> CR

NS2+CS1 --> CR

CS2 --> CR

Front 46

How do the characteristics of a stimuli alter conditioning?

Back 46

-Greater salience causes greater conditioning

Front 47

What is a compound stimuli?

Back 47

When two NS are presented at the same time before a UCS they become a compound stimulus.

Front 48

What is overshadowing? (and rules)

Back 48

If one of the compound stimuli is more intense it will produce normal conditioning while the weaker stimulus will produce weaker conditioning.

Rules 5 and 6

Front 49

How does contingency impact conditioning?

Back 49

Lowering the contingency (reliability) of a stimulus to predict the UCS will greatly diminish conditioning.

Front 50

What is latent inhibition?

Back 50

A reduction in the capacity for conditioning with a particular stimuli due to previous non-conditioning experience with the stimulus.

Front 51

What is sensory preconditioning?

Back 51

A neutral stimulus acquires a CR through its prior association with another neutral stimulus that receives conditioning.

Front 52

Describe blocking (and rules)

Back 52

If one stimuli of a compound stimulus is previously conditioned, the other is not conditioned.

CS1+UCS --> UCR

CS1 --> CR

CS1/CS2+UCS --> UCR

CS1-->CR , CS2-->nothing

Rule 3 and 6.

Front 53

Describe conditioned inhibition (and rules)

Back 53

By pairing a higher order conditioning with regular conditioning trials you condition an inhibition of the CR when the CS2 is present.

Rules 2 and 6.

Front 54

What tests were used to test whether a conditioned inhibitor was created or not?

Back 54

-Summation test: Test the conditioned inhibitor with a different CS to find no response.

-Retardation test: test the conditioned inhibitor with the UCS and find no response initially and retarded conditioning.

Front 55

Describe the overexpectation effect (and rules)

Back 55

Condition two stimuli separately to mean a response. If you then combine them into a compound stimulus with the result the same the CR for each individual CS will have diminished.

Rules 2 and 6.