MCAT - Psych/Social Foundations:: Learning and Memory

Classical conditioning, a fundamental form of associative learning first systematically described by Ivan Pavlov, involves learning an association between:

- **A)** A specific voluntary behavior and its subsequent consequence (reward or punishment), a description that instead corresponds to operant conditioning (discussed further below), rather than accurately describing classical conditioning
- **B)** Two separate stimuli - specifically, a previously neutral stimulus becomes associated with an already meaningful, biologically significant stimulus (one that already naturally/automatically produces some particular reflexive response), such that the previously neutral stimulus eventually comes to elicit a similar response on its own, even in the complete absence of the original biologically significant stimulus
- **C)** A behavior and a specific verbal label/description of that same behavior, with no relationship whatsoever to any actual stimulus-stimulus association
- **D)** Two entirely separate, unrelated individual organisms learning to cooperate with one another, rather than accurately describing any individual learning process occurring within a single given organism

In Pavlov's classic original conditioning experiments, in which dogs were trained to salivate at the sound of a bell, the food itself (which naturally and automatically produces salivation even without any prior training or learning required) is specifically termed the:

- **A)** Conditioned stimulus (CS)
- **B)** Conditioned response (CR)
- **C)** Unconditioned stimulus (US) - since salivation to food is a naturally-occurring, biologically pre-programmed reflexive response that requires no prior learning/conditioning whatsoever to occur, distinguishing it clearly from the bell (which only comes to elicit salivation AFTER a period of specific repeated learned pairing/association with that food)
- **D)** Unconditioned response (UR)

In the same classic Pavlov conditioning experiment, the specific bell sound (which, after undergoing a sufficient period of repeated learned pairing/association with food, eventually comes to reliably elicit salivation entirely on its own) is specifically termed the:

- **A)** Conditioned stimulus (CS) - a previously neutral stimulus that, only AFTER undergoing a sufficient period of specific repeated learned pairing/association with an unconditioned stimulus, eventually comes to reliably elicit a similar response (the conditioned response) on its own, even in the complete absence of that original unconditioned stimulus
- **B)** Unconditioned stimulus (US)
- **C)** Unconditioned response (UR)
- **D)** A term that has no meaningful, describable relationship whatsoever to classical conditioning or to the specific bell stimulus used in Pavlov's classic original conditioning experiments

Acquisition, the initial learning phase of classical conditioning during which a previously neutral stimulus first gradually becomes established as an effective conditioned stimulus, is generally most efficient/rapid when the neutral stimulus (soon-to-become CS) is presented:

- **A)** A very long time AFTER the unconditioned stimulus has already been presented and has already fully finished/ended, rather than being presented in closer temporal proximity to it
- **B)** At a time completely and totally unrelated to the unconditioned stimulus's own specific presentation timing, with no meaningful temporal relationship or pairing of any kind between the two
- **C)** Only after the organism has already become fully, completely conditioned through some other entirely separate and unrelated learning process, rather than actually describing the acquisition process itself
- **D)** Shortly BEFORE the unconditioned stimulus is itself presented (a timing arrangement often specifically termed 'forward conditioning'), and generally with a relatively short, brief, and fairly consistent time interval reliably separating the two stimuli - this particular timing arrangement/relationship is generally found to produce the most efficient, rapid, and robust conditioning/learning, compared to various other alternative possible timing arrangements (such as simultaneous presentation of both stimuli together, or backward conditioning, in which the CS is instead presented only after the US has already been presented)

Extinction, an important concept in classical conditioning describing the gradual weakening/disappearance of a previously learned conditioned response, occurs when:

- **A)** The conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus continue to be repeatedly presented together/paired indefinitely, with no change whatsoever ever occurring in that established pairing pattern
- **B)** The conditioned stimulus is instead now repeatedly presented ALONE, WITHOUT the unconditioned stimulus any longer accompanying it - over a sufficient number of such unpaired presentations, the conditioned response gradually weakens and eventually disappears (or becomes considerably less pronounced), since the previously reliable, consistent CS-US association has now been effectively broken/disrupted
- **C)** A previously entirely neutral stimulus is, for the very first time, newly and initially paired together with an unconditioned stimulus, a description that instead corresponds to the very beginning of the acquisition process discussed above, rather than accurately describing extinction
- **D)** The organism in question is, for whatever underlying reason, rendered entirely and completely incapable of learning anything whatsoever, ever again, under any circumstances

Spontaneous recovery, a phenomenon closely related to extinction, refers to:

- **A)** A previously extinguished conditioned response being permanently and completely eliminated, with absolutely no possibility whatsoever of that same conditioned response ever reappearing again under any circumstances
- **B)** A phenomenon that has no meaningful, describable relationship whatsoever to classical conditioning or to the related concept of extinction discussed immediately above
- **C)** The reappearance of a previously extinguished conditioned response (often at a somewhat reduced/weaker overall strength/magnitude compared to its original pre-extinction level) after some period of rest/time has elapsed following that same original extinction process - this particular phenomenon suggests that extinction does not necessarily represent complete, total unlearning/forgetting of the original underlying CS-US association, but instead may reflect more of an active INHIBITION of that original association's outward behavioral expression, with that original underlying association itself apparently still remaining at least partially intact/preserved at some deeper level, and thus still capable of being expressed again to at least some renewed degree after a sufficient intervening rest period has since elapsed
- **D)** A phenomenon that occurs only and specifically during the very initial acquisition learning phase itself, rather than actually occurring following extinction, as its own correct, standard definition specifically and clearly indicates

Stimulus generalization, an important concept in classical conditioning, refers to the tendency for:

- **A)** A conditioned response to also be elicited by stimuli that are similar to (but not literally, exactly identical to) the original specific conditioned stimulus - with the overall strength of that generalized response typically diminishing progressively as the presented new stimulus becomes progressively less similar to the original specific conditioned stimulus it was actually trained/conditioned on
- **B)** A conditioned response to be reliably and precisely elicited ONLY by the exact, literally identical original conditioned stimulus, with absolutely no possibility whatsoever of any other similar stimulus ever eliciting that exact same conditioned response to any degree
- **C)** A conditioned stimulus to lose all of its previously established capacity to elicit any conditioned response whatsoever, a description that instead corresponds to the earlier-discussed concept of extinction, rather than accurately describing stimulus generalization
- **D)** A phenomenon that has no meaningful, describable relationship whatsoever to classical conditioning or to any particular conditioned stimulus

Stimulus discrimination, the conceptual opposite of stimulus generalization discussed above, refers to the learned ability to:

- **A)** Respond in an exactly identical way to any and every possible stimulus, with no meaningful ability whatsoever to distinguish or differentiate between different specific individual stimuli
- **B)** A term that is fully and completely synonymous with stimulus generalization, with no meaningful conceptual distinction whatsoever existing between these two quite different and largely opposite specific learning phenomena/processes
- **C)** Only ever occur during the very initial acquisition learning phase itself, rather than representing its own genuinely distinct and separate conditioning-related phenomenon/process
- **D)** Distinguish between the original specific conditioned stimulus and various other similar, but genuinely distinct, stimuli - responding with the learned conditioned response specifically and only to that one particular original conditioned stimulus, while NOT responding (or responding to a considerably lesser overall degree) to other similar stimuli that were never actually specifically paired with the relevant unconditioned stimulus during that particular original conditioning training process; discrimination training (specifically and repeatedly reinforcing/pairing one particular stimulus while explicitly NOT reinforcing/pairing various other similar stimuli) can help promote and further sharpen this particular type of learned discriminative capacity