UOL - BBC - S4 - Learning

UOL - BBC - S4 - Learning

1. Animal work

   • Behaviours surrounding digestion in dogs
     • Count the no. drops of saliva produced in response to food/ presence of food-giver/ sounding of signal

2. Classical conditioning

   • Individuals
     • Ivan Pavlov
     • Vladimir Bekhterev
   • Types of stimuli
     • Unconditional stimulus
       • Stimulus which produces an innate, automatic and reflexive response
     • Conditioned stimulus
       • A newly introduced stimulus which has been associated with an unconditional stimulus to gain a desired response
     • Neutral stimuli
       • A stimulus with no automatic response association, that is paired repeatedly with an unconditional stimulus to teach association
   • Types of response
     • Conditioned response
     • Unconditional response
   • Higher order conditioning
   • Acquisition
     • US --> UR
       • US + NS --> UR
         • Repeat
         • NS = CS
           • US + CS --> UR
             • CS --> CR
             • Same behaviour
     • NS --> NR
   • How long does CC last?
     • Extinction
       • If CS is presented too often without US, CR decreases
       • If too long passes without association reinforcement, the conditioned behaviour is unlearned
     • Spontaneous recovery
       • After rest, the CR may seemingly return
         • Often diminished
         • Extinction occurs more rapidly with each successive rest/recovery
   • Specificity of association
     • Depending on the similarity to the CR, another stimuli may successfully elicit the conditioned response
     • generalisation
       • context and presentation of similar stimuli to CS
   • Usefulness of CC
     • Protective learned aversion
       • conditioned taste aversion
     • Hebb rule
       • neurons that fire together, wire together
     • Neuronal strengthening
       • When US and NS are paired, both relevant neurons repeatedly fire simultaneously, strengthening the relevant neuron for the NS 's connection with the response neuron, this is further strengthened when just the CS is triggered to gain the response.

3. Operant conditioning

   • Individuals
     • Thorndike
       • Puzzle box
     • Skinner
   • Law of effect
     • Behaviour followed by pleasant experience is likely to be repeated
     • Behaviour followed by unpleasant consequences will likely cease
   • Reinforcement
     • Maintenance of behaviour
     • Increasing presence of behaviour
   • Punishment
     • control of behaviour through consequences
     • Reduction of behaviour
     • Elimination of behaviour
   • Reinforcement schedules
     • Continuous
       • Reinforcement happens every time the behaviour occurs
     • Partial
       • Reinforcement only occurs some of the time when behaviour occurs
     • Fixed interval
       • Reinforcement occurs after a fixed period of time, regardless of performance rates of behaviour
       • Slowest learning reinforcer
     • Variable interval
       • Gap between reinforcement can change
       • Slow gradual learing
     • Fixed ratio
       • every x no. times behaviour is achieved, reinforcement occurs
       • Learn gradually,
     • Variable ratio
       • Reinforcement happens after varying times
       • Learn fast, sustain
   • Insight
     • A moment of realisation of an intention, or purpose to tasks that should theoretically lead to correct subsequent completion
   • Instrumental conditioning
   • Types of consequence
     • Positive
       • Addition
     • Negative
       • Removal
   • Types of reinforcement
     • Primary
       • Direct satisfaction of a need or response
     • Secondary
       • No intrinsic value, but can be used to acquire primary reinforcers

4. Simple model of learning

   • Stimulus
     • Perceptual learning
       • Motor learning
         • Response
         • Changes in the neural circuit that controls a particular behaviour
         • Learning how to modify motor responses, engaging and changing motor regions
       • Changes in the neural circuit that detect particular stimuli
       • The process of learning to identify and discriminate between different types of stimuli
   • Stimulus-response learning

5. Neural mechanisms of learning

   • Hebb Rule
   • Transcortical pathways
   • Basal ganglia