Download Myers Module Twenty Two

Biological & Observational Learning
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An organism's capacity for conditioning is constrained by
its biology.
Garcia and taste aversion in rats: Rats began to avoid
drinking water from plastic bottles left in radiation
chambers.
Could the rats have linked the conditioned stimulus
(plastic-tasting water) to the unconditioned response
(sickness) triggered by the unconditioned stimulus
(radiation)?
The conditioned rats developed aversions to tastes but
not to sights or sounds.
In contrast, birds, which hunt by sight, appear biologically
primed to develop aversions to the sight of tainted food.
Conditioning is stronger when ecologically relevant.
Biological & Observational Learning
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In human females, enhanced blood flow produces the red
blush of flirtation and sexual excitation. This is the real reason
that gentlemen prefer blondes: their blushes are easier to see.
Mp300 Fig. 22.2, cp287 f7.12 In a series of experiments that
controlled for other factors, (such as the brightness of the
image), men found women more attractive and sexually
desirable when framed in red. (Elliot & Niesta, 2008).
Under normal circumstances, revulsion to sickening stimuli is
adaptive; sometimes, as in m p300 Fig. 22.3, cp287 f7.13 it is
not.
Organisms have an instinctive drift that will return them to
those behaviors for which they are biologically constrained and
are naturally adapted. Pigeons won't peck with their wings.
Biological & Observational Learning
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In Cognitive Learning, we acquire mental information that
guides our behavior.
Rescorla, 1972: an animal can learn the predictability of an
event. The more predictable the association, the stronger the
response.(mp301, c p288)
This is the definition of expectancy, an awareness of the
likelihood (statistically, but still biological) of the unconditioned
stimulus.
Cognitive map: a mental representation of the layout of one's
environment.
Latent learning: learning that occurs but is not apparent until
there is an incentive to demonstrate it.
Observational learning: modeling by imitating a specific
behavior.
Biological & Observational Learning
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Rizzolatti, 2006: Mirror neurons provide a neural basis for
imitation and observational behavior. (mp304,cp291)
When a monkey grasps, holds, or tears something, these
neurons fire.
And they likewise fire when the monkey observes another
monkey (or human) doing so.
So strong is the human predisposition to learn by observing
that children overimitate.
Researchers can used fMRI scans to see brain activity to
model and share another's experience.
M p306 Fig. 22.7, cp293 f7.17 Brain activity related to actual
pain is mirrored in the brain of an observing loved one.
Empathy in the brain shows up in emotional brain areas, but
not in the somatosensory cortex, which recieves the physical
pain input.