DEFINITIONS OF LEARNING

 

Depends on experience (not development alone)

Outlasts the environmental contingencies (not performance alone)

Neurally mediated

Can potentially be lost (forgotten) over time (e.g., does not reflect neural insult)

 

ELEMENTS OF LEARNING

 

Environmental events: S & R

Methods: S1, S1-S2 (Pavlovian), R-S1 (instrumental)

Other possibilities: S-R, R-R, S-(R-O) (hierarchical), (S-S) (configural)

 

SINGLE STIMULUS LEARNING (S1)

 

Habituation

Example-startle

Phenomena-habituation, dishabituation, & spontaneous recovery

Opponent Process Theory

Standard pattern of affective dynamics

Mechanisms (a-process, b-process (changes with experiences))

Sensitization

Dual Process Theory-Groves and Thompson

PAVLOVIAN CONDITIONING (S1-S2)

Pavlov & the components of classical (Pavlovian) conditioning

CS, CR, US, UR

Examples: fear conditioning, conditioned eyeblink

Behavioral procedures

Paired CS-US --> acquisition

Temporal relations: delayed, simultaneous, trace & backward

CS alone --> extinction

S1-US then S2-S1 --> second-order conditioning

S2-S1 then S1-US --> sensory preconditioning

A+, AX- --> conditioned inhibition

Interactions with single stimulus learning

S1 then S1-US --> latent inhibition

US then S1-US --> US preexposure effect

Biological constraints & the generality of the laws of learning

Evidence the parts are not interchangeable

Organisms are "prepared" to form some associations

Implications for mechanism

Distinction between methodology, behavioral outcome & mechanisms

Types of mechanistic descriptions

Functional (S-S, S-R, others)

Psychological (mediated vs. unmediated)

Biological

When does learning occur

Evidence contiguity is not sufficient

AX+ --> overshadowing

B+ then BY+ --> blocking

Random US experiment & the "truly random control"

Rescorla-Wagner model

The model

Application to blocking, US preexposure

The temporal coding hypothesis

Hierarchical control, configural learning and modulation

Negative patterning

Facilitation & occasion setting

INSTRUMENTAL CONDITIONING (R-S1)

Training procedures

Reward, omission, punishment, escape & avoidance

Approaches

Thorndike, Hull, & S-R reflexes

--> bio. mechs. of instrumental learning

Tolman & the cognitive approach (S1-O-S2)

--> contributes to the study of memorial mechs.

Skinner & schedules of reinforcement

FI, VI, FR, VR (vars. that affect performance)

--> used to study pharmacology & drug addiction

Mechanisms contributing to instrumental learning

Modification of a pre-existing reflex (S-R, e.g, spinal learning)

Learning about the outcome (R-O, learned helplessness)

Embedded relations (signal-outcome, e.g., avoidance learning)

Variation in behavioral flexibility

Evidence for preparedness

Instrumental (gen. prepared?) versus operant (unprepared/mediated?)

Memory, cognition & reasoning

Radial arm maze & memory for spatial location

Reasoning: transitive inference

 

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