Psych Midterm 2 Notes PDF

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Psych Midterm 2 Notes Natalie Threadgill Chapter 6 – Learning  Learning theories used to improve qualities of life and to train humans & animals to learn new tasks Learning = relatively enduring change in behavior, resulting from experience. Occurs when an animal benefits from experience so that its behavior is better adapted to the environment (better prepared to deal with environment in the future, predict when likely events will happen)  Need to survive: dangerous foods, safe to sleep, signal dangers  Makes possible basic abilities and aspects of daily life Learning theory  Arose in early 20th century in opposition to psychologists like Freud who used verbal report techniques (e.g. dream analysis and free association)  John B. Watson (1924) argued Freudian theory = unscientific & meaningless, observable behavior is only valid indicator of psychological activity o Founded behaviorism: potential to learn anything Three Types of Learning 1. Nonassociative learning = responding after repeated exposure to a single stimulus, or event (e.g. hearing fire alarm and turning toward alarm). Learning about a stimulus, such as sight our sound, in the external world. a. Habituation = when our behavioral response to a stimulus decreases (e.g. learning to ignore a constant noise) i. The increase in a response because of a change in something familiar is dishabituation (e.g. sound stops buzzing, birds stop singing = predator) ii. Habituation can last several weeks b. Sensitization = when our behavioral response to a stimulus increases (e.g. studying and smell something burning) c. Eric Kandel (neurobiologist, 1972): For both types of simple learning, alterations in the functioning of the synapse lead to habituation and sensitization. Presynaptic neurons alter their neurotransmitter release. A reduction in neurotransmitter release = habituation. An increase in neurotransmitter release leads to sensitization. d. Kandel studied the apylsia (marine animal that withdraws its gills in response to touch) to show that habituation & sensitization occur through alternation in neurotransmitter release 2. Associative learning = learning the relationship between two pieces of information (e.g. going to the dentist associated with pain). a. Develop through conditioning = environmental stimuli and behavioral responses become connected.

b. Classical conditioning = when we learn that a stimulus predicts another stimulus c. Operant conditioning = when we learn that a behavior leads to a certain outcome 3. Observative learning = learning by watching how others behave (e.g. watching dance video or learning habits) Conditioning = process that connects environmental stimuli to behavior (classical or operant) Classical conditioning = (a.k.a. Pavlovian conditioning) a neural stimulus elicits a response because it has become associated with a stimulus that already produces that response. You learn that one event predicts another. (e.g. certain music during scary scenes in movie)  Ivan Pavlov worked on digestive system, salivary reflex = unlearned response when food stimulus presented to animal Pavlov’s experiments  Neutral stimulus = anything that the animal can see or hear as long as it's not associated with the response (e.g. clicking of metronome, unrelated to food)  Pairing of neutral stimulus with stimulus that reliably produces the reflex (in this case, food) is called a conditioning trial, repeated a number of times  Test trials = metronome presented alone and salivary reflex measures. Pavlov found the sound of metronome on its own produced salivation – now referred to as classical conditioning  Trial o (1) the dog is presented with a bowl that contains meat o (2) a tube carries the dog’s saliva from the salivary glands to a container o (3) the container is connected to a device that measures the amount of saliva  Unconditioned response = a response that does not have to be learned, such as a reflex (e.g. salivation from food)  Unconditioned stimulus = a stimulus that elicits a response, such as a reflex, without any prior learning (e.g. food)  Conditioned stimulus = a stimulus that elicits a response only after learning has taken place (e.g. metronome)  Conditioned response = a response to a conditioned stimulus; a response that has to be learned (e.g. salivation from metronome, but produces less saliva than the unconditioned response) New Adaptive Behaviors (also Pavlov)  Acquisition = the gradual formation of an association between the conditioned and unconditioned stimuli (here, conditioned = metronome, unconditioned = food) o Contiguity = critical element in the acquisition of a learned association is that stimuli occur together in time. Strongest conditioning occurs when there is a brief delay between

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conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus—scary music just before scary scene Extinction = a process in which the conditioned response is weakened when the conditioned stimulus is repeated without the unconditioned stimulus Spontaneous recovery = a process in which a previously extinguished conditioned response reemerges after the presentation of the conditioned stimulus Stimulus generalization = learning that occurs when stimuli that are similar but not identical to the conditioned stimulus produce the conditioned response Stimulus discrimination = a differentiation between two similar stimuli when only one of them is consistently associated with the unconditioned stimulus...