PSYC 110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Classical Conditioning, Episodic Memory, Cold Response
27 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Play:
Many animals and mammals engage in play in the earlier parts of development. It has an energetic cost
to it. It can be dangerous if it gets rowdy. Learning curve - figuring out play into real life. You are
relatively vulnerable and when you are out to play, you can be picked up by a predator. Overall, play can
be costly. Then why do we do it?
Karl Groos - Play is a practice of species-typical skills. Animals engage in wrestling - preparing the animal
for self-defense, hunting, competing for mates, practicing social interaction that helps to figure out
relationships of dominance.
Evidence:
Young animals play more than adults.
Animals that have the most to learn, play the most: Young mammals play more than all other
animals, they also have the most survival skills to learn. - success in hunting requires more skills
than success in grazing
Play is centered around the most valuable skills. Eg: mating competition, hunting behavior,
developing reflexes
Play involves repetition
Play is challenging. Eg: stronger animal will pin itself and then fight to get out.
Humans playing and their evolutionary history:
Playing tag - hunting behavior, super adaptive
Hop scotch - motor coordination, jumping
Clue - facial recognition, deductive reasoning, social skills
Freeze tag - prosocial behavior, teamwork
Marco polo - sensory training
Lego - spatial problems with tool use
Sports - hand-eye coordination, throwing small objects very accurately (humans are the only mammals)
House - K-selective behavior, interaction with family and child, maternal and paternal instincts, social
norms (cultural learning) - kids with the same gender playing house, somebody has to be the other
gender - more proactive now with social inclusion of lgbtq norms
Playing these games help practice species-typical behavior, doing it unconsciously - not aiming to learn
adult skills
Reason you think is fun is because you like what you do - body is awarding you for it by giving you joy -
operant conditioning
Sweet, fatty foods - pleasurable, these foods were not plentiful so they were pretty adaptive, we enjoy
them because our body gives us this joy as reward for finding it.
Exploration - play games
Two types of learning:
Learning to do (skills)
Learning about (information learning)
oRats will cower into a corner when placed in a novel environment but after a while they
will get out and explore the arena and keep observing if anything has changed - patrolling
Exploration is informational learning
Food
Water
Shelter
Mates
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Many animals and mammals engage in play in the earlier parts of development. It can be dangerous if it gets rowdy. Learning curve - figuring out play into real life. You are relatively vulnerable and when you are out to play, you can be picked up by a predator. Karl groos - play is a practice of species-typical skills. Animals engage in wrestling - preparing the animal for self-defense, hunting, competing for mates, practicing social interaction that helps to figure out relationships of dominance. Animals that have the most to learn, play the most: young mammals play more than all other animals, they also have the most survival skills to learn. Success in hunting requires more skills than success in grazing. Play is centered around the most valuable skills. Eg: stronger animal will pin itself and then fight to get out. Clue - facial recognition, deductive reasoning, social skills.
