Unit 1 Review

1. 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?

2. Unit 1 Review 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 experiencethe subject has had. This is to rule out an explanation in terms of the biological process of maturation.

3. Unit 1 Review 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.

4. Unit 1 Review 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 potentialto perform behavior when there is an incentive to do so.

5. Unit 1 Review Latent learning implies that we have to distinguish between learning, a theoretical internal state, and behavior (or performance), something we can observe directly.

6. Unit 1 Review 3. Learning is an “intervening variable”. How are intervening variables different from other kinds of internal states?

7. Unit 1 Review 3. Intervening variablesare theoretical; they exist only as ideas that help us understand relationships between observable variables. In contrast, conscious experiencesand physiological processesare real phenomena that can be observed directly.

8. Unit 1 Review 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.

9. Unit 1 Review 4. According to the behavioral and cognitive traditions in learning theory, what is learned when learning takes place?

10. Unit 1 Review 4. The behavioral viewis 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).

11. Unit 1 Review The cognitive viewis 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.

12. Unit 1 Review 5. What are the two major traditions in philosophy that address the question of where our knowledge comes from?

13. Unit 1 Review 5. The nativist viewis that basic ideas like space, motion, and causality are inborn. The empiricist viewis that all ideas are learned. Ideas start as simple sensory experiences (sensations). When sensations become associated with each other, they form more complex ideas.

14. Unit 1 Review 6. In the empiricist tradition, what two principles have been used most often to explain how associations are formed?

15. Unit 1 Review 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.

16. Unit 1 Review The principle of frequency states that the more often we experience two events contiguously (simultaneously), the more strongly we will tend to associate them.

17. Unit 1 Review 7. In classical conditioning, a CR is trained by repeatedly “pairing” a CS with a US. What is a pairing?

18. Unit 1 Review 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).

19. Unit 1 Review 8. In classical conditioning, after we train a CR, how can we eliminate it using the extinction procedure?

20. Unit 1 Review 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.

21. Unit 1 Review 9. In classical conditioning, what is meant by a “contingency” between the CS and the US? Distinguish between positive and negative contingencies.

22. Unit 1 Review 9. A contingencymeans 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.

23. Unit 1 Review A positive contingencymeans 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 contingencymeans that the CS signals a decrease in the likelihood that the US will occur.

24. Unit 1 Review 10. What are excitatory and inhibitory conditioning? How do they relate to positive and negative contingencies?

25. Unit 1 Review 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.

26. Unit 1 Review According to contingency theory, positive contingencies produce excitatory conditioningand 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).

27. Unit 1 Review 11. In Rescorla’s experiment on contingencies in classical conditioning, how were positive, negative, and zero contingencies arranged between the tones and shocks?

28. Unit 1 Review 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.

29. Unit 1 Review 12. In Rescorla’s experiment, what type of CR, if any, was produced by each contingency?

30. Unit 1 Review 13. The positive contingencyproduced a fear CR, as indicated by an increase in jump rate while the tones were on during the test phase. The negative contingencyproduced a relaxation CR (inhibition of fear), as indicated by a decrease in jump rate. The zero contingencyproduced no CR, as indicated by an unchanged jump rate during the tones.

31. Unit 1 Review 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?

32. Unit 1 Review 13. For conditioned inhibitionto 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.

33. Unit 1 Review 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?

34. Unit 1 Review 14. The Law of Effectstates 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.

35. Unit 1 Review 15. What is operant conditioning? Give an example of how it applies the Law of Effect.

36. Unit 1 Review 15. Operant conditioningis 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.

37. Unit 1 Review 16. How is positive reinforcement similar to negative reinforcement? How are these two procedures different?

38. Unit 1 Review 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).

39. Unit 1 Review 17. Reinforcers and punishers are consequences of behavior. What two kinds of stimuli are antecedents of behavior? Define and give an example of each.

40. Unit 1 Review 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.

41. Unit 1 Review 18. What is a continuous schedule of reinforcement (CRF)? How is it similar to a fixed-ratio (FR) schedule?

42. Unit 1 Review 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).

43. Unit 1 Review 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.

44. Unit 1 Review Cumulative Record 19. 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 High Response Rate Cumulative Responses Low Response Rate Time

45. Unit 1 Review 20. On a cumulative record, draw the response pattern that usually occurs on a fixed-interval (FI) schedule (FI “scallop”).

46. Unit 1 Review 20. 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 FI Scallop Response rate gradually increases as the time until the next reinforcement decreases. Response rate is positively accelerated. Cumulative Responses = reinforcement Time