Transcript Unit 1 Review - psych.fullerton.edu.

Unit 1 Review
1. To say that learning has taken
place, we must observe a change
in a subject’s behavior. What two
requirements must this behavioral
change meet before we can
conclude that it resulted from
learning and not from other
processes?
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1. First, the behavioral change
must be long-lasting. This is to
rule out explanations in terms of
temporary states like fatigue and
motivation.
Second, the change must be the
result of some type of experience
the subject has had. This is to rule
out an explanation in terms of the
biological process of maturation.
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2. Suppose that no change in
behavior takes place as the result
of practice or experience. What
conclusion can we draw about
whether learning occurred? Relate
to the concept of latent learning.
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2. If there is no change in behavior,
no conclusion can be drawn about
whether learning occurred. It may be
a case of latent learning, an internal
state that creates the potential to
perform behavior when there is an
incentive to do so.
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Latent learning implies that we
have to distinguish between
learning, a theoretical internal
state, and behavior (or
performance), something we can
observe directly.
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3. Learning is an “intervening
variable”. How are intervening
variables different from other
kinds of internal states?
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3. Intervening variables are
theoretical; they exist only as ideas
that help us understand relationships
between observable variables.
In contrast, conscious experiences
and physiological processes are real
phenomena that can be observed
directly.
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Conscious experiences can be
observed only by the person who
has those experiences; they are
subjective.
Physiological processes can be
observed by others with
appropriate instruments; such
processes are objective.
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4. According to the behavioral
and cognitive traditions in learning
theory, what is learned when
learning takes place?
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4. The behavioral view is that learning
produces associations between
specific actions and specific stimuli in
the environment. These stimuli may
occur either before the behavior
(antecedents) or after the behavior
(consequences).
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The cognitive view is that learning
produces mental representations of
the elements that make up a
problem. Through practice or
experience, we learn how to relate
these elements to each other so that
we can solve the problem.
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5. What are the two major
traditions in philosophy that
address the question of where our
knowledge comes from?
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5. The nativist view is that basic
ideas like space, motion, and
causality are inborn.
The empiricist view is that all ideas
are learned. Ideas start as simple
sensory experiences (sensations).
When sensations become associated
with each other, they form more
complex ideas.
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6. In the empiricist tradition, what
two principles have been used
most often to explain how
associations are formed?
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6. One is the principle of temporal
contiguity, which states that we tend
to connect events that we experience
simultaneously, like seeing a table
and a chair at the same time.
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The principle of frequency states
that the more often we experience
two events contiguously
(simultaneously), the more
strongly we will tend to associate
them.
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7. In classical conditioning, a CR
is trained by repeatedly “pairing” a
CS with a US. What is a pairing?
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7. A pairing means presenting the
CS (ringing the bell) and then
quickly presenting the US (putting
food in the dog’s mouth). The
more times you do this (i.e. as you
increase the number of pairings),
the stronger will be the CR (the
amount of salivation that occurs
when you ring the bell).
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8. In classical conditioning, after
we train a CR, how can we
eliminate it using the extinction
procedure?
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8. In extinction, we eliminate a CR
by repeatedly presenting the CS
without the US. If we keep ringing
the bell and don’t give the dog
food, he will salivate less and less in
response to the bell and eventually
he will stop.
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9. In classical conditioning, what
is meant by a “contingency”
between the CS and the US?
Distinguish between positive and
negative contingencies.
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9. A contingency means that
whether or not the US occurs
depends on whether or not the CS
occurred before it. If the
occurrence of the CS helps you
predict whether or not the US will
occur, then the US is contingent on
the CS.
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A positive contingency means that
the CS signals an increase in the
likelihood that the US will occur
(compared to the period when
there was no CS).
A negative contingency means that
the CS signals a decrease in the
likelihood that the US will occur.
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10. What are excitatory and
inhibitory conditioning? How do
they relate to positive and
negative contingencies?
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10. In excitatory conditioning, the
subject learns to perform a certain
response, like salivating. In
inhibitory conditioning, the subject
learns to withold or suppress that
response. Theoretically, this is
done by learning an unobserved
internal response of conditioned
inhibition.
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According to contingency theory,
positive contingencies produce
excitatory conditioning and negative
contingencies produce inhibitory
conditioning. A positive contingency
between bell and food will make the
dog salivate when the bell rings. A
negative contingency will make him
stop salivating when the bell rings (he
salivates when the bell is not ringing).
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11. In Rescorla’s experiment on
contingencies in classical
conditioning, how were positive,
negative, and zero contingencies
arranged between the tones and
shocks?
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11. In the positive contingency, shocks
only occurred right after the tones,
never before or between the tones.
In the negative contingency, shocks only
occurred before or between the tones,
never right after the tones.
In the zero contingency, shocks could
occur at any time; they were equally
likely to occur before, after, and
between the tones.
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12. In Rescorla’s experiment,
what type of CR, if any, was
produced by each contingency?
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13. The positive contingency produced
a fear CR, as indicated by an increase in
jump rate while the tones were on
during the test phase.
The negative contingency produced a
relaxation CR (inhibition of fear), as
indicated by a decrease in jump rate.
The zero contingency produced no CR,
as indicated by an unchanged jump rate
during the tones.
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13. Conditioned inhibition is an
internal CR that prevents some
other response (like salivation)
from occurring. To get a CS to
produce an inhibitory CR, two
requirements must be met. One is
that the US never comes after the
CS. What is the other
requirement?
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13. For conditioned inhibition to
develop, the US must sometimes
occur in the same place where the CS
occurs.
The subject learns an association
between the US and contextual stimuli.
This produces a CR (like salivation) in
that location EXCEPT when the CS
occurs. The CS inhibits the CR
because there is no US after the CS.
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14. What is the Law of Effect?
Why doesn’t it explain why dogs
learn to salivate in response to a
bell after the bell has been paired
repeatedly with food?
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14. The Law of Effect states that
behavior changes because of its effects
(consequences) in the environment. In
classical conditioning, the CR has no
effect on the presentation of the US.
The dog gets the food whether or not
he salivates in response to the bell.
The Law of Effect implies that no
learning should occur because the CR
has no consequences.
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15. What is operant conditioning?
Give an example of how it applies
the Law of Effect.
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15. Operant conditioning is a process
by which behavior is modified as a
result of its consequences in the
environment. You offer your dog food
if he stands. If he doesn’t stand, he
doesn’t get the food. The dog
repeatedly performs the behavior. In
operant conditioning, the learned
behavior has consequences—it must be
performed to get something.
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16. How is positive reinforcement
similar to negative reinforcement?
How are these two procedures
different?
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16. Both positive and negative
reinforcement increase the likelihood
that a response will be repeated. The
term, positive, means that a stimulus is
added to the situation after the
response occurs (e.g., presenting a
food pellet after a rat’s bar press
response). The term, negative, means
that a stimulus is removed after the
response occurs (e.g., turning off shock
after a bar press).
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17. Reinforcers and punishers are
consequences of behavior. What
two kinds of stimuli are
antecedents of behavior? Define
and give an example of each.
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17. One type of antecedent is a
discriminative stimulus: When it is
present, a response may be reinforced.
For example, when the doorbell rings,
opening the door is likely to be
reinforced by seeing someone there.
The other type of antecedent is a delta
stimulus: When it is present, a
response will not be reinforced. If the
doorbell didn’t ring, opening the door
would not be reinforced.
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18. What is a continuous schedule
of reinforcement (CRF)? How is it
similar to a fixed-ratio (FR)
schedule?
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18. On CRF, reinforcement is given every
time a response occurs. For example,
pushing up a light switch in a room
always turns on the light.
On FR, reinforcement is given after a
certain number of responses is made,
and this number is always the same, like
double-clicking a desktop icon to open a
program—this is an FR 2 schedule.
CRF is a special case of FR with a
requirement of 1 response (CRF = FR 1).
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19. Draw a cumulative record,
labeling both the X and Y axes.
On the graph, show two response
patterns: a high, constant
response rate and a relatively low,
constant response rate.
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Cumulative Record
Cumulative Responses
19. 70
High Response Rate
60
50
40
30
Low Response Rate
20
10
0
Time
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20. On a cumulative record, draw
the response pattern that usually
occurs on a fixed-interval (FI)
schedule (FI “scallop”).
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Cumulative Responses
20. 70
60
50
40
30
FI Scallop
Response rate gradually increases as
the time until the next reinforcement
decreases.
Response rate is
positively
accelerated.
20
= reinforcement
10
0
Time