PSYC104 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Learning, Contiguity, Habituation
8 May 2018
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PSYC104 Lecture
Week 4 – Learning I
Definitions
• Learning → a relatively permanent change in behavioural potentiality that occurs as a result of
reinforced practice (Kimble)
o Helps us to adapt to changing conditions in the world
• Adaptation → the process of changing behaviour to fit changed environment conditions
• Conditioning → process of learning associations between environmental stimuli and behavioural
responses
• Associative learning → result of learning to associate one stimulus with another
• Non-associative learning → learning that results from the impact of one particular stimulus (e.g.
Habituation)
• Orientating response → move toward new event
• Habituation → decline in the tendency to respond to an event that has become familiar through
repeated presentation; can be short or long term
• Sensitisation → occurs when our response to an event increases rather than decreases with repeated
exposure
• Associative learning → learning that two events occur together
• Classical conditioning → the learning of a new association between two previously unrelated stimuli
(e.g. Pavlov’s dogs)
• Acquisition → formation of a learned response to a stimulus through presentation of an unconditioned
stimulus
• Extinction → elimination of a learned response by removal of the unconditioned stimulus
• Spontaneous recovery → re-emergence of an extinguished conditioned response after a rest period
Costs of learning
• Costs of learning may include
o Delayed reproductive effort
o Increased juvenile reproductive effort
o Increased parental involvement in young
o Greater complexity of nervous system (high energy costs to maintain and serve nerve tissues)
o Development fallibility
o Some behaviours may be too important to be left to learning
Four types of learning
• Noticing and ignoring (sensitisation and habituation)
• Learning what events significance (classical conditioning)
• Learning about the consequences of our behaviour (operant conditioning)
• Learning from others (observational learning)
Classical conditioning - key terms
• Neutral stimulus (NS) → the stimulus that, before conditioning, does not naturally bring about the
response of interest
• Unconditioned stimulus (UCS) → a stimulus that elicits/triggers an unconditioned (involuntary)
response without previous conditioning
• Unconditioned response (UCR) → an unlearned response to an unconditioned stimulus occurring
without prior conditioning
• Conditioned stimulus (CS) → previously NS that through repeated pairing with a UCS now causes a
CR
• Conditioned response (CR) → learned reaction to a CS occurring because of previous repeated pairings
with a UCS
• Stimulus generalisation → a tendency to respond to stimuli that are similar, but not identification to, a
conditioned stimulus
• Transfer of timing → being able to apply knowledge gained in one situation to that of a similar one
• Stimulus discrimination → the learned ability to respond differently to similar stimulus
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Costs of learning: costs of learning may include, delayed reproductive effort. Increased parental involvement in young: greater complexity of nervous system (high energy costs to maintain and serve nerve tissues, development fallibility, some behaviours may be too important to be left to learning. Four types of learning: noticing and ignoring (sensitisation and habituation, learning what events significance (classical conditioning, learning about the consequences of our behaviour (operant conditioning, learning from others (observational learning) 11 month old was conditioned to fear a white lab rat: the feat generalised to anything white and furry. Contiguity theory: contiguity theory when the stimuli are presented together in time, associations are formed between the two, contingency depends on, reliability of cs-ucs pairing, uniqueness of cs-ucs pairing. Acquired motivation: emotion-arousing stimuli emotional responses. Opponent-process theory: emotion after reaction - an emotional stimulus creates an initial response that is followed by adaptation, then opposite response, with repeated exposure to the stimulus, the pattern changes.
