Psychology Of Learning

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Learning is...

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"an enduring change in the mechanisms of behavior involving specific stimuli and/or response that results from prior experience with those or similar stimuli and responses

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Learning is NOT...

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1. fatigue
2. change of stimulus conditions
3. alteration of physiological state (hunger/thirst)
4. maturation

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Thorndike's Law of Effect

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the S-R association is key; the role of the response outcome is to establish or "stamp-in" an association between contextual cues S and the instrumental response R; does not involve the response outcome O at all

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Modern Two Process Theory

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two types of learning:
1.instrumental conditioning
2. classical conditioning
the rate of the instrumental response is modified by the presentation of a CC stimulus

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Fear Conditioning

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CC experiments designed to measure the effect of fear or anxiety on responses
US: electrical shock
CS: tone or light

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Eyeblink Conditioning

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presentation of a brief tone followed by a puff of air to an individuals' eye conditions eyeblinking w/ the tone
US: puff of air
CS: tone or light

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Sign Tracking

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presentation of a discrete, localized visual stimuli just before delivery of a small amount of food
light is not associated w/ the food, but animals believe it is

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Taste Aversion Learning

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ingestion of a novel flavor is followed by aversive consequences; can be learned in just one trial

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Avoidance

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a specific response has to be made to prevent an aversive stimulus from occurring; increases the occurrence of instrumental behavior

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Discriminated Avoidance

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procedure in which the occurrneces of the aversive stimulus are signaled by a conditioned stimulus; responding during the CS terminates the CS and prevents delivery of the US

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Two Process Theory of Avoidance

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presumes the operation of 2 mechanisms:
1. CC of fear to the warning stimulus
2. instrumental reinforcement of the avoidance response through termination of the warning signal & consequent fear reduction

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Acquired Drive

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a source of motivation for instrumental behavior caused by the presentation of a stimulus that was previously conditioned with a primary, unconditioned reinforcer

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Extinction of Avoidance Response

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flooding, in which the participant is prevented from making the conditioned response and is flooded with the CS

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Non-Discriminated (Free-Operant) Avoidance

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the aversive stimulus are not signaled by an external stimulus; S-S interval in which the shocks are presented repeatedly at specified amount of time and R-S interval where if the CR occurs the shock is suppressed for a set amount of time

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Safety Signal Hypothesis

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stimuli that accompany avoidant responses may provide positive reinforcement for avoidance behavior

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Stimulus Substitution Model

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(1st and most enduring explanation for the nature of CRs); the association of the CS with the US turns the CS into a surrogate US and is assumed to activate the neural circuits previously activated by the US

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Learning & Homeostasis

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conditioned responses will alter in an effort to stay homeostatic

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Conditioning Model of Drug Tolerance

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attributes drug tolerance to compensatory responses conditioned to environmental stimuli paired w/ drug administration

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CS as a Determinant of the CR

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the cues & behavior elicited by the CS affect the conditioned responses in ways in which the US cannot account for

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Conditioned Behavior & Behavior Systems

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in the presentation of a US in a Pavlovian conditioning procedure activates the behavior system relevant to the US; (food activates the foraging and feed system)

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Extinction

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involves omitting the US or the reinforcer and is the opposite of acquisition
CC-repeated presentation of the CS
IC-no longer presenting the reinforcer w/ the response

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Two basic behavioral effects of extinction:

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1. responding decreases when the response no longer results in the reinforcer
2. increases response variability

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Spontaneous Recovery

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extinction dissipates over time and this leads to the originally learned CR returns if the subject is tested after a delay following the extinction period

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Renewal of Excitatory Conditioning

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(Bouton)the recovery of acquisition performance when the contextual cues that were present during extinction change,

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Restoration of Extinction Performance

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extinction performance can be restored and acquisition suppressed by introducing contextual cues that reactivate the memory of extinction

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Reinstatement of Conditioned Excitation

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the recovery of excitatory responding to an extinguished stimulus produced by exposures to the US

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Sensitivity to Reinforcer Devaluation

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a CS-US association remains intact despite extinction of the CS; extinction does not eliminate the R-O & S-O associations that are learned during the course of instrumental conditioning

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Instrumental Conditioning

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The use of consequences to modify the occurrence and form of behavior; involves the response, the outcome and the response-outcome relation

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Response Variability

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an individual is required to do something new, something unlike they had to do on the previous 4-5 trials

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Relevance, Belongingness

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certain responses "belong" with the reinforcer b/c of animals' evolutionary history

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Behavior Systems and Constraints

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the effectiveness of the proecudre in increasing the instrumental response depends upon the compatibility of that response w/ the preexisting organization of the feeding system

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Temporal Relation (R-O relation)

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refers to the time between responses and the reinforcer

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Causal Relation

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refers to the extent to which the instrumental response is necessary and sufficient for the occurrence of the reinforcer

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US-preexposure effect

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subjects familiar w/ the US before its pairings with the CS are slower to develop the conditioned respondings

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Biological Strength in Classical Conditioning

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for a stimulus to be conditioned, it must be of weaker biological strength than the US with which it is paired; the CS has to elicit fewer and weaker responses than the US

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Counterconditioning

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two stimuli can become associated w/ each other even though they both elicit stronger reponses initially; the response an animal makes to a CS is reversed by pairing its it with a US that promotes the opposite type of reactino

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Sensory Preconditioning

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a biologically weak stimulus is paired repeatedly w/ another biologically weak stimulus; the first CS is then paried with a US; in a later trial, the second CS will also come to elicit the conditioned response even though it was never conditioned w/ the US

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Reduction of Shock Frequency

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the avoidance of shock is critical to the reinforcement of avoidance behavior (Sidman)

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Species-Specific Defense Reactions SSDR

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(Bolles) aversive stimuli and situations elicit strong, innate reponses which are assumed to have evolved b/c they are successful defenses against pain and injury; reinforcement is assumed to have a minor role here, if any

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Predatory Immenince

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belief that different species typical defenses are assumed to be performed based on the different degrees of predatory threat; differs from SSDR theory b/c it depends on predatory imminence, not environmental conditions

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Punishment

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involves a positive contingency btwn the response and the aversive stimulus; it decreases the occurrence of instrumental behavior

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Types of Punishment Stimuli

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lemon juice, saccharin solution, time-out, overcorrection, point-loss

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Conditioned Emotional Response Theory of Punishment

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(Estes) punishment procedures do not always have to involve an explicit CS that signals the delivery of the punishment; the various stimuli that accompany the punished response is sufficient (dog/invisible fence)

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Avoidance Theory of Punishment

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suppression of behavior is explained in terms of the strengthening of competing avoidance responses

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Negative Law of Effect

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(Thorndike)just as positive reinforcement strengthens behavior, negative reinforcement weakens it

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Stimulus Discrimination

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an organism is said to exhibit stimulus discrimination if it responds differently to two or more stimuli

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Stimulus Generalization

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an organism is said to show generalization if it responds in a similar fashion to two or more stimuli

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Sensory Capacity & Orientation

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determine which stimuli are included in an organism's sensory world

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Type of reinforcement

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visual stimuli=appetitive situations
auditory stimuli=aversive situations

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Type of Response

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responses differentiated by location are more likely to be under the control of spatial features of auditory cues; responses differentiated by quality are more likely to be under the control of quality features of auditory cues

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Stimulus Equivalence Training

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training to teach a response to physically different stimuli as if they were the same b/c of common experiences with the stimuli