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95 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What is learning? What is memory? |
Process where changes in behaviour come from experiences interacting in the world Record of past experiences acquires through learning |
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In what way did Aristotle change how memory was written about? What was Aristotle's theory? |
Used data to formulate theories, instead of just intuition and logic Associationism - Memory depends on making links between pairs of events/sensations/ideas so recalling or experiencing one part of the pair elicits a memory/anticipation of the other |
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How did Aristotle explain associations? Ex., he says cold you think hot. What were his three principles? |
Said linkages reflect three principles of association: 1) Contiguity - nearness in time and space (events experienced at same time [temporal contiguity] or place [spacial contiguity] are associated 2) Frequency - more often we experience contiguous events, more strongly we associate 3) Similarity - More similar = ^ association |
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Aristotle's beliefs led to the philosophical school of _____; opposite to Plato's _______ What three other philosophers believed in nativisim? What four other philosophers believed in empiricism? |
Empiricism - Ideas come only from experience; nativism - bulk of knowledge is inborn/native Descartes; Leibniz; Darwin Locke; Will James; Pavlov; Thorndike |
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What did Descartes believe? What did he believe about the body? What did Locke believe? How did he believe people can transcend their class? |
Mind and body are separate, and governed by separate laws (dualism) Saw the body as a machine with innate and fixed responses to stimuli (stimulus --> response = reflex arc) Newborns are a blank slate (tabula rasa) and are only affected by experience Learning via education and experience |
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What did Leibniz believe? What were the two principles of William James' theory? Darwin's main theory was that of natural selection, what three things did he believe led species evolution (to the extent that it could become an entirely new species)? This also led to evolutionary psychology |
3/4 human knowledge is learned, 1/4 is inborn Habits built from inborn reflexes via learning (soldier coming to attention) Memory comes from network of associations 1) Have a trait that is inheritable (parent to kid) 2) Varies across individuals (big/small/etc) 3) Increases chances of survival and reproduction |
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What was the thought behind classical Pavlovian conditioning? What did Thorndike believe in? |
Animals learn through experience to predict future events Law of effect (instrumental conditioning) - Animal's behaviours increase/decrease based on the consequences that follow the response |
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What area of research did Hermann Ebbinghaus create? The experiment with the random works BAP/KEP/DAK/etc that we did in class contains what four key stages of a memory experiment? What did Ebbinghaus use a retention curve for? |
Memory research 1) Learning 2) Delay 3) Test 4) Relearning To look at forgetting. Seeing how much info was retained after each point in time after learning |
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How did Pavlov's conditioning studies work? What was extinction? What was generalization? |
Organism learns to respond with a CR to a previously neutral stimulus (the CS) that has been repeatedly presented alongside the US Getting rid of the CR while still using the same CS Transfering past learning to novel events and problems |
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What was Thorndike's theory of instrumental conditioning? Now known as? What was the law of effect? How did he tie Darwin's theory of evolution into this? |
Organisms making responses to obtain/avoid important consequences Operant conditioning The probability that a response increases/decreases depending on the consequences that followed that response in the past; Behaviours that lead to positive consequences persist, those that don't die out |
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What did behaviourism argue psychology should study? Who was considered the founder of behaviourism? How did he prove it? |
Observable behaviours (lever presses/salivation/measurable things) and not infer unobservable mental processes John Watson Put rats in maze, eliminated variables (deafened/blinded/etc) yet they still did the maze, concluded rats had learned an automatic set of motor habits for moving through the maze and these habits were independent of sensory cues. |
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What did Clark Hull popularize in regards to behaviourism? What's the reason why his theories were dropped? |
Stimulus-response learning using mathematical models that 'took into account all the key factors contributing to a learning experience'. Can't take into account all those factors |
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What was B.F. Skinner's main invention? What did it discover? What did he begin researching? What was radical behaviourism, the viewpoint that Skinner advocated for? |
Skinner box When trained with intermittent reinforcements, rats learn to respond as quickly and as frequently as when they're rewarded on every trial How learning is affected by the reliability an organism's response result in consequences Consciousness/free will are illusions, and higher cognitive functions are just complex sets of stimulus-response associations |
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What did Edward Tolman believe could explain how rats could find food by using alternative routes if their preferred route is blocked, and even find their way to the goal if they're started from a novel position? When placed in a maze w/out rewards, the rats were learning a cognitive map they could exploit later, he called this ______ ______ |
Cognitive map based upon intrinsic motivation to learn the general layout of mazes (couldn't just be stimulus-response connections) Latent learning - learning that is undetected (latent) until explicitly demonstrated later |
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What did cognitive psychology focus on? What was Estes' theory? What was a key principle in it? What could it explain, for example? This lead to what field of psychology? |
Human abilities not easily explained by a behaviourist approach (thinking/language/etc.) Stimulus sampling theory Random variation 'sampling' is essential for learning Why variability is seen in learning and why even highly trained people can give a different response because a subset of elements will activate that aren't yet linked to the repsonse Mathematical psychology = using math equations to describe learning and memory |
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What was Estes' theory? What was a key principle in it? What could it explain, for example? This lead to what field of psychology? |
Stimulus sampling theory Random variation 'sampling' is essential for learning Why variability is seen in learning and why even highly trained people can give a different response because a subset of elements will activate that aren't yet linked to the repsonse Mathematical psychology = using math equations to describe learning and memory |
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What did Bower believe? Example? What did he prove in regards to graphs? |
Learning occurred by insight If people are given a task and have no clue of the correct answer, they start by guessing, randomly get the right answer, and then keeping responding correctly. If individual performances are averages across a lot of people, the result shows a smooth learning curve even though no single participant showed that incremental learning |
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What did George Miller build on? What did he find? What was his central message? |
Information theory - a measure of how much information is contained in a message based on the message itself + the listener's previous knowledge (new knowledge = 1 bit) Peoples capacity to make judgements in a range was ~7 values and could remember ~7 numbers, plus or minus 2. Human mind is limited in capacity and that information theory gives a way to measure this capacity, and these limits apply to a diverse range of human capabilities |
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What was David Rumelhart's theory? Distributed representation was a representation where information was coded as a pattern of activation distributed across many different nodes, give an example of this |
Connections models - Networks of uniform and unlabeled connections between simple processing units called nodes Golden retriver = pattern of activation across a set of nodes Cocker spaniel = represented by different pattern of nodes |
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What does neuroscience study? What does the nervous system do? Tissues responsible for accomplishing these tasks are cells called _______, which collect incoming signals from sensory organs and the rest of the body, process the signals, and react to them by coordinating the body's responses |
The brain and the rest of the nervous system Distribute and process information Neurons |
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The nervous system is divided into what two parts? What two things does the CNS do? What two things is it made up of? What is the PNS made up of? What does it do? |
CNS, PNS Learning, memory; Brain, spinal cord Nerve fibers connecting sensory receptors to the CNS and carries commands from the CNS to the muscles |
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Name the parts of the brain! |
BLAMO! |
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What does the cerebral cortex do? What does the frontal lobe do? What does the parietal lobe do? What does the temporal lobe do? What does the occipital lobe do? What does the cerebellum do? What does the brainstem do? |
Store and process sensory and motor inputs Plan and perform actions Process touch information (somatosensory) Language and auditory processing and learning new facts/forming new memories of events Visual processing Regulate & coordinate voluntary muscular movement Connect brain to spinal cord and regulate automatic functions (breathing/body temp) |
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In comparative neuroanatomy, what have we found?
Why can we learn from invertebrate nervous systems like nematodes? |
All vertebrates have a cerebral cortex, cerebellum, brainstem, and two hemispheres. Shows its capable of social learning despite having a decentralized brain (brain extends to its legs) They're super simple, making it easy to map their nervous system connections |
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What are the three main parts to a neuron? What's the other kind of cell in the brain that vastly outnumbers neurons? |
Dendrites - Receives signals from other neurons Cell body/soma - central part of the neuron containing the nucleus and integrates signals from all the dendrites Axon - Output extension of the neuron that transmits information to other neurons/muscles Glia - gives functional/structural support to neurons |
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What is structural neuroimaging? What three things do they show? What is MRI (magnetic response imaging) based on? What's the new type of MRI? How does it work? What does it allow for? |
Creating images of anatomical structures in the living brain Size and shape of brain, and leisons (damage) Recording changes in magnetic fields DTI (diffusion tensor imaging) Measures diffusion of water in brain tissue, allowing groups of axons in the brain to be imaged |
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Why there is better learning capacity in rats in enriched environments compared to isolated environments
What are the two changes? What was found in London taxi drivers? |
Structural changes in neurons Enriched environment rats have cortical neurons with more and longer dendrites than other rats These dendrites have more connections with other neurons Larger hippocampus possibly due to more dendrite branching in hippocampal neurons |
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What are the two types of nerve fibers (axons) connecting muscles to the spinal cords, and act during reflexes? What happens if the sensory fibers are cut? What happens if the motor fibers are cut? This finding of each running in two parallel nerve pathways, one to sensing and one to responding, is called? |
One set of fibers carrying sensory signals from the PNS to the spinal cord Another set carrying motor signals back from spinal cord to muscles Will not feel, but will still have the reflex Will feel, but won't move Bell–Magendie law of neural specialization |
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What did Sherrington discover that was so prolific that he is considered the founding father of neuroscience? If the spinal cord controls reflexes & if complex actions are described as combinations of these reflexes, then where does the brain come in? |
That spinal reflexes could be combined into complex sequences of movements without the use of the brain, and these reflexes are the building blocks of all behaviour.
Sensory fibers enter the spinal cord and connect to motor fibers there, but some fibers also go to the brain. Brain processes these inputs and makes its own outputs, some of which go back down the spinal cord to muscles |
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What is the primary sensory cortices (first stages of processing for each type of sensory information) made up of? For ex. damage to V1 can cause? |
A1 - Primary auditory cortex for sound S1 - Primary somatosensory cortex for sensation V1 - Primary visual cortex for sight Blindness, even if eyes work perfectly |
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The primary motor cortex (M1), located in the frontal lobe, sends output to where? Where does M1 get most of its input? Which are responsible for what? Based on? What other places give important inputs to translate plans into movements? What three areas produce their own outputs to converge on the spinal cord and travel to the muscles? |
To the brainstem, which sends instructions to the spinal cord to activate motor fibers that control the muscles Frontal lobes High level plans; based on the present situation, past experience, and future goals Basal ganglia, cerebellum Basal ganglia, cerebellum, frontal cortex |
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What is a synapse? The synapse is between what two things? What is a neurotransmitter (ex. glutamate [exciteatory]/GABA[Inhibitory]/acetylcholine/dopamine/norepinephrine/epinephrine/serotonin) |
Space between two neurons where chemical messages are transmitted Presynaptic (sending side of synapse) and postsynaptic (receiving side of synapse) A molecule released by neurons to carry chemical messages to other neurons |
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What happens after neurotransmitters are released into the synapse?
When does a neuron's cell body fire an action potential down its axon? What is the refractory period after the firing? |
Postsynaptic neuron collects them via receptors
When the total electrical charge exceeds a threshold upon receiving Can't fire again no matter how much input it gets |
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What happens while the refractory period is occurring? What are the two ways this is done? What is a neuromodulator? |
Neurotransmitters are cleared from the synapse so it can receive future signals 1 - Inactivation = breaking neurotransmitter molecules down 2 - Reuptake = bringing neurotransmitters back into the presynaptic neuron and recycled for future use Neurotransmitter that modulates activity in a large number of neurons instead of a single synapse |
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What's the difference between MRI and functional neuroimaging? What is the difference image? |
MRI looks at structure of the brain, functional neuroimaging looks at activity of brain Image showing differences of an image of a person performing a task, then subtracting the image of the same person at baseline |
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What are the two most common functional neuroimaging tools?
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fMRI;
PET (positron emission tomography) (measures brain activity via radiation from emission of subatomic particles [positrons] associated with brain's use of glucose from the blood) |
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Give three cons of PET and fMRI |
1 - They're only indirect measures of brain activity = they measure glucose utilization and blood oxygenation instead of directly measuring the neurons 2 - They focus on differences in activity under different conditions, emphasizing assocations between specific brain regions and particular functions (like phrenology), instead of showing the full range of brain activity contributing to mental and physical functioning 3 - They're slow. PET can only be taken every few minutes |
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How does an EEG (electoencephalography) work? What's the downside of EEG? How is this counteracted? What are two benefits of EEG compared to fMRI and PET? What is a downside of EEG compared to fMRI and PET? |
Electrodes placed on the scalp to measure electrical charges of neurons in the brain Measures everything else occurring as well ERP = EEGs from one person averaged over tons of trials Detects rapid changes with more temporal precision than PET/fMRI Can't localize as well |
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What does neurophysiology look at? One technique is called single-cell recording, what happens in this? What are the two options after this? |
Activity and function of neurons Implanted electrode detects electrical activity (spike) in a single cell (such as a neuron) and records the electrical activity of single neurons and changes in their firing patterns that occur during learning/recall of memories 1 - Leave it in and see what the animal does and record the neuron 2 - Remove part of the brain, keep neurons alive in a bath of nutrients, and record their activity |
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What does neuropsychology look at? How is it usually done? Lashley believed there was a location of an engram (physical change in the brain that forms the basis of a memory) and removed parts of rats' brains, but they kept on being able to run the maze. What was his next theory? What were two issues with his original experiment? |
The relationship between brain function and behaviour Volunteers with certain brain areas impaired or by removing/deactivating certain parts of animals Theory of equipotentiality - memories are stored by the brain as a whole, not just one area 1 - Should've went beneath the cortex and lesioned things like hippocampus 2 - Even if you did lesion one cortical area, the rat could find its way around using a different method |
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Electrical stimulation can generate sensations in what four parts? What are the two types of neural stimulation? What is the major similarity between the two? What can both improve function in? |
Visual, auditory, somatosensory, and motor TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation) = changes activity in cerebral cortex via strong magnetic pulses over the skull tDCS (transcranial direct-current stimulation) = low-level electrical current through electrodes on scalp) Activate large cortical networks instead of individual ones Can improve memory disorders |
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Drugs have an effect on the brain by altering synaptic transmission; the effects of the drug on behaviour depend on what two things? Drugs can affect any of the four major processes of synaptic transmission: |
1 - Which neurotransmitters are involved 2 - Whether their ability to carry messages across the synapse is enhanced/impaired 1 - Neurotransmitter release 2 - Activation of postsynaptic receptors 3 - Neurotransmitter inactivation 4 - Neurotransmitter reuptake |
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What is synaptic plasticity? What did Cajal theorize? What did Hebb believe? |
Ability of synapses to change from experience Learning involving strengthening/weakening connections between individual neurons If two neurons meet at a synapse, often firing at nearly the same time, then the synapses between them should be strengthened, wiring the two neurons together |
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What is Hebbian learning? |
Principle that learning involves strengthening connections of coactive neurons (neurons that fire together wire together) |
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What did Lomo discover? What is LTD? Why would it occur? |
LTP [long term potentiation] = synaptic transmission becoming more effective because of recent activity Long-term depression = synaptic transmission becoming less effective as a result of recent activity Presynaptic neurons fire but postsynaptic neurons don't respond |
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HM's medial temporal lobes were removed due to seizures, what did this cause? |
Amnesia |
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What are the two types of memory? What's the major difference between semantic and episodic? |
Semantic - Memory of facts/general knowledge of the world including general personal information (what we know) Episodic - Memory for specific events in your life, including information about where and when the event occurred (what we remember) Semantic does not tell when/where something happened |
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What are the two similarities between semantic and episodic memory? Because of these similarities, people use the term _________ memory to include both semantic and episodic memory What are three examples of nondeclarative memory? |
Can be communicated flexibly - in a manner other than which it was acquired Consciously accessible (you know that you know) Declarative - because you can verbalize (declare)/communicate your knowledge Skill learning; classical & operant conditioning |
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________ memory is used to show that episodic and semantic memory is consciously available (you know that you know) What is the opposite (that HM had)? |
Explicit; implicit memory |
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What are three differences between semantic and episodic memory? |
Episodic recalls time and space of event (semantic doesn't necessarily, its just facts) Episodic is autobiographical (semantic can be general or personal info; don't need to know how you go the info) Learning in single exposure & can be weakened by exposure to similar events (semantic can be strengthened by repetition) |
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What was Tulving's theory on why semantic memory precedes episodic? What was Conway's theory on why only semantic facts remain? |
You need semantic as a base for episodic to grow out of (ex. need to know what graduation is before you can have episodic memory for any specific graduation) First time you learn/experience sth, then sure you get episodic -- but if you keep learning/experiencing it, eventually you forget the episodic and only remember the semantic |
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Explain the third view of how semantic and episodic memory are interdependent |
Episodic memory is made stronger when there's semantic information to help recognize and encode the event Semantic memory is made stronger when there is episodic context to it |
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How is semantic memory assessed in rats? |
Radial arm maze - Food in a goal arm and the rat eventually learns to run straight for that arm, showing it has semantic memory |
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Give two examples of animals showing episodic memory |
King the gorilla used cards to say who gave him food/what fruit he ate/when it happened Scrub jays remember where they store food/what type of food it was/how long ago it was stored |
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What are three principles that determine how successful a new episodic or semantic memory is encoded/stored in memory? |
Mere exposure to information doesn't guarantee memory Memory is better for information that relates to prior knowledge (ex. readings before lecture) Deeper processing at encoding improves recognition later (levels of processing effect = deeper processing [thinking about semantic meaning of word] leads to better recall than shallow processing [thinking about a word's spelling/pronunciation]) |
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What are three principles help recall existing memories? Give three types for the second one Give three reasons for the final one |
Study and test conditions match (transfer-appropriate processing effect/encoding specificity effect) = cues being same in study and test More cues (free recall = hardest; cued recall [fill in blank]; recognition [MC] = easiest Struggling (and even failing) to remember (ex. practice tests) Mere exposure doesn't help encoding Transfer-appropriate processing Desirable difficulties phenom (difficult learning conditions give better long term retention & recall) |
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What are the four types of failures of memory? |
1 - Forgetting 2 - Interference from other memories 3 - False memory 4 - Source monitoring errors |
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What are the two types of forgetting? |
Passive forgetting - occurs over time Directed forgetting - forgetting on demand |
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What is interference of other memories? What are the two types of interference? |
Two memories overlapping in content Retroactive interference - Disrupting old memories by new learning (REtroactive = REcently acquired is at fault) Proactive interference - Disrupting new learning from previous memories (PRoactive = PReviously acquired is at fault) |
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What is a source monitoring error? What is false memory? When are they likely to occur? |
Remembering info but being mistaken about the specific episode that is the source of the memory Memory of an event that never happened When prompted to imagine missing details |
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Cortical areas that specialize in one kind of sesnsory information are often grouped under the heading of ________ ______ Other cortical areas are called ____________ _______ What are they involved in? Some studies suggest that specific categories of semantic information are encoded by specific groups of neurons; how does this help keep memories alive? |
Sensory cortex Association cortex - Associating information within and across modalities Even if a single brain cell dies, it won't erase all memories of the category, as long as some of the network survives |
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In addition to other cortical areas, what two important parts of the brain do the medial temporal lobes in humans contain?
What kind of amnesia did H.M. have? What type of memory is affected when the hippocampal-region is damaged? Ex? |
Hippocampus (new memory formation) Amygdala Anterograde amnesia - can't form new episodic/semantic memories Episodic - Rats in the radial arm task remember where in space and time the food was, the rats with lesioned hippocampuses run erratically |
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If the hippocampus is impaired, does that mean there will be no semantic encoding possible? What can incidental learning studies using fMRI tell us? What part of the brain can successfully distinguish true episodic memories from false ones? |
No -- the brain will use other cortical areas in the medial temporal lobes Can allow us to predict whether information will be recalled or forgotten later -- more processing in medial temporal lobes = better remembered Parahippocampal cortex |
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The frontal cortex, located in the frontal lobe, does what two things? The prefrontal cortex can also suppress hippocampal activity, causing inhibition of storage and retrieval of unwanted memories (ex. direct forgetting task). What does this imply? What kind of errors may people with damaged frontal cortexes make? |
Chooses which memories are stored Produces metamemory for that information Frontal cortex also determine what gets forgotten Source monitoring errors - can't remember where/when an event occurred |
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What is an unconditioned stimulus? What is an unconditioned response? What is a conditioned stimulus? What is a conditioned response? |
Stimulus that happens naturally - like food Natural response - like salivating to that food Originally neutral, like a bell, it is paired with the US and elicits a CR Trained response to the CS in anticipation of the US, like salivation, without the US needing to be present |
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What is appetitive conditioning? Exs? What is aversive conditioning? Exs? |
Conditioning where the US is a positive event; food delivery/sex Conditioning where the US is a negative event; shock/airpuff to the eye |
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What did Skinner and Estes' "Conditioned Emotional Response" (CER) procedure involve? What did the CER procedure allow researchers to see? |
Rats pressed lever, which gave food Trained rats to hear a tone (CS) that would predict a shock (US), making the rats freeze (CR) See, quantifiable trial-by-trial changes in the learned response |
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What do all four procedures (appetitive [dogs and food, quails and sex] and aversive [rats freezing with tone; fly shock preparation]) have in common? |
Conditioned response is understood as an anticipatory response that prepares the animal for the expected US Fly moves away from odor associated with the shock to avoid being shocked. Dog salivated in anticipation of food to be prepared to efficiently digest food Rat is prepared to ward off danger and have ongoing motor behaviours disrupted by the shock Quail moves toward the light to prepare to fcuk the female |
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Explain how eyeblink conditioning is broken down (US/UR/CS/CR). [Aversive conditioning] What animal is this usually done on? Who did eyeblink conditioning originate from? Explain the rat conditioned emotional response is broken down (US/UR/CS/CR) [Aversive conditioning] |
Airpuff to the eye (US) causes an eyeblink (UR), which is conditioned with a sound (CS) which gives a conditioned response of blinking (CR) Rabbits as they don't blink that often otherwise Hull, face slap Shock is given (US) causing the rat to freeze (UR), which is conditioned with a sound (CS) which gives a conditioned response of freezing (CR) |
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Explain how the fly shock is broken down (US/UR/CS/CR) [Aversive conditioning] |
Shock is given (US) causing the fly to attempt to escape (UR), which is conditioned with an odor (CS) which gives a conditioned response of attempting to escape (CR) |
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Explain how Pavlov's dog is broken down (US/UR/CS/CR) [Appetitive conditioning] Explain how Quail sex is broken down (US/UR/CS/CR) [Appetitive conditioning] |
Food is given (US) causing the dog to salivate (UR), which is conditioned with a bell (CS) to give a conditioned response of salivation (CR) Sexually available female (US) gives a response to fcuk (UR), which is conditioned with a light (CS) to give a conditioned response to fcuk (CR) |
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How does learning progress during classical conditioning? Who learns faster, humans or rabbits? |
Humans learn faster |
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Explain conditioned compensatory response in terms of the dogs experimented on by Pavlov's colleagues. |
They'd give shots of adrenaline in a certain setting. Then they'd give a neutral substance. Because the dogs were in that specific setting, and though they'd be getting adrenaline, their bodies decreases HR to compensate for the adrenaline (which would usually increase HR) |
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What cues can be CSs or USs? |
USs are biologically significant events because they're inherently positive (food/sex) or inherently negative (sohck/airpuff) CSs can be any cue in the environment, even a US. Airpuff to the eye is the US in eyeblink conditioning, but can be CS in another experiment (ex can teach that an airpuff predicts food delivery) |
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How does extinction occur? How would it work with rabbits in eyeblink conditioning? |
Repeatedly presenting the CS without the US The CS (tone) is presented repeatedly without an airpuff (US) Rabbit learns tone (CS) =/= airpuff (US) |
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What are three ways in which extinction can be undone? |
Can extinguish CS-US response made in setting X into a CS-no response in a different setting (setting Y), and then it reappears when back in setting X If a long time passes before the animal is retested with presentation of the CS (spontaneous recovery) Previously extinguished CS is learned faster than a novel CS (rapid reacquisition), inferring that the CS-US relationship is saved during extinction, even if the behavioural CR isn't evident following extinction trials |
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What is compound conditioning? What happens when one of the stimuli is tested alone, without the other? What is overshadowing? |
Conditioning two CS (ex. tone and light) to a US procedure (food) One stimulus by itself will have less association with the US if it is trained in compound than if it was trained alone When a more salient cue (ie. loud tone) gets more association strength and is more strongly conditioned than the less salient (dim light) |
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How can informational redundancy block learning (use stock market example)? Blocking states that classical conditioning only occurs when what two things are present? |
Doris correctly predicts stock trends (phase 1), Herman and Doris both can predict the stock market (phase 2), therefore Herman is seem as redundant as you already have Doris (phase 3) Cue is useful; cue is a nonredundant predictor of the future |
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Explain Kamin's blocking paradigm in each of his groups (his control group, and his experimental 'pre-trained' group) |
Control = phase 1 - rat sits in chamber with no learning; phase 2 - tone CS combined with light CS --> shock US; phase 3 - tone CS or light CS --> medium CR Experimental = phase 1 - light CS --> shock US; phase 2 - tone CS combined with light CS --> shock US; phase 3 - tone CS: little/no CR (learning was blocked) |
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What is the predictino error? Rescorla and Wagner tried to understand how animals become aware of the informational value of stimuli (seeing that cues appear to compete with one another for associative strength [cues must be reliable/useful/nonredundant], what was the key idea behind the Rescorla-Wagner model? |
Difference between what was predicted, and what actually happened. That changes in CS-US associations on a trial are driven by the discrepancy (or error) between the animal's expectations (or prediction) of the US and whether or not the US actually occurred. This error = prediction error |
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What is the main point of error-correction learning? What are the three possible errors that can occur? What are the three responses? What are the three tennis errors and their responses? |
The amount an outcome is surprising dictates how much learning takes place Positive error - CS predicts nothing/too little but US unexpectedly occurs or is unexpectedly too strong; increase association; ball falls short, increase strength of serve No error - CS Predicts US and predicted US occurs; no new learning; ball lands perfectly, do the same thing next time Negative error - CS predicts US, but no US occurs; decrease association; ball goes too far, decrease strength of serve |
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What is associative weight? What two things does this allow for in the Rescorla-Wagner model? |
In the Rescorla-Wagner model, its a value of the strength of association between a CS and US Can take into account important conditioning phenomena when multiple stimuli compete Can take into account Kamin's blocking effect |
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Explain how the Rescorla-Wagner model takes into account Kamin's blocking effect, as seen in this model |
Phase 1 - Tone CS (weighted as 1.0) with airpuff US = blink, giving the desired output at 1.0 Phase 2 - Both tone and light CSs paired with US; because tone already predicts US, the output node is fully activated. There is no output error and there is no learning Phase 3 - Just light CS is used. Light node's weight never changed from 0.0, making no activation in the output node, and no behavioural response occurs |
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What two things mark a successful model, both shown by the Rescorla-Wagner model? |
It shows underlying connections in a series of observations that at first seemed unrelated/contradictory It lets scientists make predictions that couldn't otherwise be made without the model |
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How did Rescorla show cue-outcome contingency? Meaning that no conditioning/learning will occur if? |
He showed that conditioning to a tone stimulus depends both on frequency of tone-US pairing and frequency of US in absence of the tone No learning if the US occurs just as often without the tone as it does with the tone |
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What is latent inhibition? What happens in the control group and experimental 'pre-trained' group Why is this problematic in the Rescorla-Wagner model? |
Prior exposure to a CS retards later learning of the CS-US association during acquisition training Control - Phase 1 = Animal sits in chamber; Phase 2 = Tone CS --> shock US Experimental - Phase 1 = Tone CS presented (but no US) There's no surprise during the first phase of tone-alone exposure and thus no learning to occur in phase one This causes the Rescola-Wagner model to make an incorrect prediction that the pre-exposed group should be no different than the control group at the start of phase 2 |
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What is a US modulation theory and why is the Rescorla-Wagner model considered one? How does the error-correction principle relate to this? |
Any theory of conditioning saying a stimulus that enters association is determined by a change in how the US is processed The ability for the US to promote learning is modulated by how unexpected the US is The error modulates the ability for the US to promote learning about the CSs that preceded it |
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What does the CS modulation theory state? What was Mackintosh's CS modulation theory? The Rescorla-Wagner model argues that the stock market (US) is already well predicted by Doris (CS1), so there's no value (learning) attached to Herman (CS2). Mackintosh sees blocking as devoting all attention to Doris because she has a longer history of predicting and thus no attention left to pay to Herman. What is the core idea of Mackintosh's theory? |
Any theories of conditioning saying that the stimulus enters into association is determined by a change in how the CS is processed People/animals have a limited capacity to process info, so paying attention to one stimulus diminishes (modulates) our ability to attend to other stimuli A previously conditioned stimulus gets its salience from its past success as a predictor of important events, and this happens at the expense of other co-occurring cues that don't get access to your pool of attention |
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READ PAGES 142-143 |
READ EM ********* |
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The simplicity of the Rescorla-Wagner model and Mackintosh model causes them to ignore subtle parts of conditioning like timing and the importance of innate biases for associating different stimulus cues. Both treat classical conditioning as trial-level models, what are these and why are they bad? |
Theories of learning where all the cues occur during a trial and all of the changes that result are considered a single event Conditioning is more complex with variants within the trial. The model only describes the aggregate effect of a training trial in terms of overall association strength - ex. when did the CR occur? Right after the CS? Was it delayed until just before the US occurred? |
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What is delay conditioning? Use the rabbit eye-blind conditioning study as an example |
Conditioning where there's no time gap between the end of the CS and the beginning of the US, and where the CS co-terminates with the US The tone CS continued throughout the trial and only end when the US has occurred |
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What is trace conditioning? |
Conditioning where there is a time gap between the end of the CS and beginning of the US (hence animal must maintain a trace of the CS to associate with the arriving US) |
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What is the interstimulus interval (ISI)? What's the optimal time? |
The gap of time between of the CS and the onset of the US 1/4 of a second |
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Explain the Garcia-Koelling taste-aversion study in terms of the poison group and shock group |
Poison group - Phase 1 - Tone + Taste = poisoning; Phase 2 - Tone = ? Shock group - Phase 2 - Taste = ? |
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READ PAGES 147-149 |
READ IT ! |
