Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)
Chapter # 5: Learning and Memory
Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) / -the thing that the organism naturally, reflexively responds to / -ex: meat powder for a dogUnconditioned Response(UCR) / -natural, unlearned, largely reflexive response to the UCS / -ex: excitement or anticipation at the presentation of meat powder (dogs salivate)
Conditioned Stimulus (CS) / -“what is the learner now responding to that he did not previously respond to in this way?”
-initially meaningful stimuli / -ex: dog learned to respond to sound of bell
Conditioned Response (CR) / -new, learned response to the CS / -ex: dog drooling at sound of bell
Delayed Conditioning Arrangements / -sub-division of forward conditioning (CS is presented b4 the US)
-the CS is present until the US begins
Trace Conditioning Arrangements / -CS is removed some time before the US is presented
Simultaneous Conditioning Arrangements / -CS and US are presented at the same time
Backward Conditioning Arrangements / US is presented before the CS
-typically ineffective
Stimulus Generalization / -when the subject cannot distinguish among similar but distinct stimuli / -ex: Albert was afraid of all other fluffy white objects (similar to rat)
Stimulus Discrimination / -when the subject can distinguish among similar but distinct stimuli / -ex: if the dog salivates only at the bell
Higher Order Conditioning / -a previous CS is used as the US
-in theory can go up to any order as new CSs are linked to old ones
-rarely effective beyond the second order / -ex: dogs salivating at the sound of metronome, pair that sound with a red night and get conditioning to it, red light would not be paired with the meat powder
Extinction / -the elimination of the conditioned response
-achieved by presenting CS without the USrepeatedly / -ex: white rat without the loud noise
Spontaneous Recovery / -the reappearance of a learned response after its apparent extinction
Aversion therapy / -suppression of an undesirable responses by associating it with aversive (painful or uncomfortable) stimuli
-learning involving an unpleasant or harmful stimulus or reinforcer
Systematic Desensitization / -a guided reduction in fear, anxiety, or aversion
-treatment for phobias
-trained to relax to increasingly fearful stimuli
+ and - reinforcement / + encourages behavior, pleasurable consequence delivered upon completion of desirable action; increases likelihood that particular type of response will repeat
– removal of aversive event, not same as punishment, increases probability that given type of response will be repeated; unpleasant condition is removed when a desired behavior is completed
+ and - punishment / -decreases behavior
-positive punishment: discomfort follows response, ex: spanking
-negative punishment: positive state removed after response, ex: grounded
Escape and Avoidance Responses / -avoidance: behavior takes away the unpleasant stimulus before it begins
-escape: behavior takes away the unpleasant stimulus after it has already started
Shaping / -reinforcing a subject as it takes successive steps toward the goal behavior
Primary and Secondary Reinforcers / -primary –unlearned and are inherently reinforcing to most members of a species
-secondary – learn to value these things / - primary:food, water, love/attachment/sex
- secondary: money
Successive Approximations / -a series of steps that change behavior to a desired response pattern
Skinner Box / -empty box except for a lever and hole to deliver food pellets
-trained rats to press the lever in order to get food; used shaping: rat first receives a food reward for being near the lever, then for touching the lever, and finally for pressing the lever
-in the end, only rewarded for pressing the lever, process known as: differential reinforcement of successive approximations
Continuous vs. Partial Reinforcement / -continuous – consequence is delivered after every instance of the goal behavior; produces rapid learning and rapid extinction
-partial – intermittent, not all responses are reinforced; produces slow learning and slow extinction
Fixed Interval (Reinforcement) / -reinforcement is delivered based on a specified passage of time / -ex: paycheck every other Friday
Variable Interval (Reinforcement) / -reinforcement is delivered after some established period of time but it changes from one reinforcement to the next / -ex: awaiting mail on Friday but the delivery time is different each week, you would check more often to see if it has arrived since you do not know exactly when it will get there
Fixed Ratio
(Reinforcement) / -reinforcement will be delivered after a specified number of desired responses / -ex: being paid by an employer for every 7 toys assembled
Variable Ratio
(Reinforcement) / -reinforcement will be delivered after some number of responses but the amount is not specified / -ex: playing the lottery
Latent Learning / -Edward Tolman
-learning that is not demonstrated until the subject is reinforced for doing so / -research with rats and maze completion tasks showed that rats who had been exposed to a maze several times were more likely to run it efficiently and with few errors if there was a reinforcement in the goal box
Overjustification
Effect / -predicts that if you begin to reinforce a behavior that the individual is already disposed to perform it may actually discourage the subject from continuing to do it / -ex: reward for reading a certain number of books will stop once the reward is discontinued
Modeling / -much of what we learn comes from observation
-if an adult is modeling a behavior a child is likely to imitate that model, especially if the adult’s behavior is reinforced in some way
Bandura’s Bobo Doll experiment / -Albert Bandura
-adult models videotaped punching and kicking doll
-children who watched the video were placed in same room as depicted in video imitated adult models, beating on Bobo
-children in control group who did not view video played in same setting and did not behave in such ways / Studied the role of observational learning
Sensory Memory / -allows us to take in the plethora of sensory inputs that are available at any moment
-brief functioning
-info is not encoded and is lost
Short-term Memory / -twenty seconds
-can hold about 7 +/- 2 items
-maintained there by rehearsal: maintenance – simple repetition
Elaborative – organization and understanding of the info that has been encoded in order to transfer the information
Long-Term Memory / -lasting memories and knowledge
-capable of permanent retention
-semantically encoded
-“do something” with incoming material through rehearsal, chunking, mnemonic elaboration, or a processing strategy
Flashbulb Memory / -very deep vivid memory in the form of a visual image associated with a particular emotionally arousing event
Chunking / -grouping items of information into units
-used for phone numbers, social security numbers, bank cards
-group digits into manageable segments
Mnemonic Devices / -rely on the ability to make mental images to remember
-link part of it (image, way word sounds, etc.) to something already known
-tie a set of images to a familiar place, mentally walk through familiar scene, retrieving images
-create an image using “peg words”
Encoding / -shallow processing
-simple rehearsal
-attach meaning and place it in context
- visually, acoustically (ex: rhyming), semantically (meaning)
Retroactive vs. Proactive Interference / -retroactive interference: new memory interferes with old
-proactive interference: old memory interferes with new / ex: old address is blocked because new address interferes with recall
ex: trying to remember a new phone number disrupted by the memory of an old phone number
Iconic vs. Echoic Memory / -iconic: visual, lasts for a few tenths of a second
-echoic: auditory, lasts for 3-4 seconds
Implicit vs. Explicit Memory / -implicit memory: we remember something without knowing that we do; may need to be primed or cued to recall it
-explicit memory: consciously declare that we know
Long term Potentiation / -an increase in a synapse’s firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation and possibly in the neutral basis for learning and memory, involving an increase in the efficiency with which signals are sent across the synapses within neural networks
State Dependent Memory / -theory that one is more likely to recall details of something if one is in a similar emotional and physical state as when one was exposed to the events one is trying to recall / study where you are planning on taking the exam!!
Theories Of Forgetting / -Decay: fading/weakening of memories assumed to occur when memory traces become weak
-Disuse: “Use it or lose it!”; theory that memory traces weaken when memories are not periodically used or retrieved
Encoding Failure / -failure to store sufficient memory to form a useful memory
Positive and Negative Transfer / -Positive transfer: mastery of one task aids learning in another
Ex: learning to ride a bike and learning to ride a motorcycle
-Negative transfer: mastery of one task conflicts with learning another / Ex: backing out a car and backing out a trailer
Tip of the Tongue Phenomena / -retrieval problem
-memory is “in there” but we just can’t seem to pull it out because we lack cues
Anterograde vs. Retrograde Amnesia / -anterograde amnesia: memory loss for information since the accident
-retrograde amnesia: memory loss for information before the damage occurred
Eyewitness Testimony / -influenced by expectancy or set
-might unknowingly apply gender, racial, or place schemas in trying to reconstruct the events they witnessed
-framing of questions influences how events are recalled (Elizabeth Loftus)
Ivan Pavlov / -studied digestive system of dogs, noted dogs responded to previously neutral stimuli
-presented meat powder which makes a dog salivate and previously neutral stimulus
-used metronomes and other tones
-present sound followed by meat powder led to salivation response in dogs
-dog begins to salivate at sound of metronome
B.F. Skinner / -pioneered the study of operant conditioning
-ran many operant-conditioning experiments
-“Skinner Box” apparatus
-behavior is a series of behavior-reward pairings and cognition is not as important to learning process (psychologists abandoned this view)
John Watson / -with Rosalie Rayner demonstrated classical conditioning with Little Albert
-no fear of small animals but showed fear when steel bar banged w/ a hammer
-presented child with a rat and banged the steel bar at the same time = child cried
-Albert cried any time he was presented with the rat – even w/o the noise
-became afraid of other fluffy white objects
Albert Bandura / -famous study in social or observational learning; Bobo doll studies
-response-reward relationship not necessary for observational learning
-for observational learning to occur: learner must pay attention to the behavior in question, retention of observed behavior (must be remembered), motivation for the learner to produce behavior, potential for reproduction must exist
Herman Ebbinghaus / -postulated in his “forgetting curve” that we have rapid decay of memory for nonsense syllables but that decay will flatten out at ~20-30% in long term retention (it doesn’t all fade)
-info forgotten because of interference (proactive and retroactive)