What Is An Example Of Discrimination In Psychology
Psychologys definition of discrimination is when the same organism responds differently to different stimuli. For example, lets say you were bitten by a dog when you were a young child. As a result, you tense up and feel nervous every time you see a dog. The dog is a stimulus which triggers a specific reaction.
Examples Of Stimulus Generalization
One of the most famous examples of stimulus generalization took place in an early psychology experiment. In the Little Albert experiment, the behaviorist John B. Watson and his assistant Rosalie Rayner conditioned a little boy to fear a white rat. However, the boy would exhibit the same response when he saw similar items such as a furry white toy and Watsons white beard.
What Is Neutral Stimulus In Psychology
A neutral stimulus doesnt trigger any particular response at first, but when used together with an unconditioned stimulus, it can effectively stimulate learning. A good example of a neutral stimulus is a sound or a song. When it is initially presented, the neutral stimulus has no effect on behavior.
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Definition Of Stimulus Generalization
Stimulus generalization comes from classical conditioning and behaviorism theory. This theory explores how a stimulus can lead to a learned or trained response.
Scholars have shown that stimuli that are similar to the initial stimulus will evoke a response similar to the original stimulus.
For example, Ivan Pavlov conducted experiments on dogs salivation. He found that the dog may not only salivate to the sounds of the assistants footsteps, but also to similar sounds. Those sounds could include a knock on the door, or lightly tapping two pieces of wood together.
This is called stimulus generalization. The response to the initial stimuli becomes evoked by other stimuli that are similar to the initial one.
Stimulus Generalization In Psychology
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Posted on Last updated: Sep 13, 2022Evidence Based
| Examples | Behavior modification and generalization in children | Stimulus generalization vs response generalization | Stimulus generalization vs stimulus discrimination |
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The Impact Of Stimulus Generalization
Stimulus generalization can have an impact on how people respond to different stimuli. For example, imagine in school that children are expected to line up for lunch when they hear the ding of a bell. However, another similar-sounding bell also rings when the kids are expected to sit at their desks for reading time.
If stimulus generalization occurs, the children will have trouble determining which response they are supposed to give. For example, the kids might all line up for lunch instead of sitting in their desks when the reading time bell sounds.
Because of this, stimulus discrimination is also important. This involves the ability to distinguish between two similar stimuli. For the school kids in our example, they might experience stimulus generalization at first, but as they become more familiar with their school schedule and the unique sound of each bell, they will eventually learn to discriminate between the two bells.
Discriminative Stimulus 202: What Is It & How Does It Work
Best experience on examples of discriminative everyday life went to ensure you could then say hello to wash your student is the stimulus? Discriminative stimulus can also be used to modify behavior as well. The stimulus is discriminative because it triggers a specific response. Ethnicity discrimination Ethnic discrimination involves discrimination against certain ethnic groups. One example of this is affirmative action programs, which are designed to level the playing field for historically disadvantaged groups. Differential reinforcement is a procedure that brings about stimulus control.
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How The Stimulus Generalization Process Is Conditioned
In the conditioning process, stimulus generalization is the tendency for the conditioned stimulus to evoke similar responses after the response has been conditioned. For example, if a child has been conditioned to fear a stuffed white rabbit, it will exhibit a fear of objects similar to the conditioned stimulus such as a white toy rat.
One famous psychology experiment perfectly illustrated how stimulus generalization works. In the classic Little Albert experiment, researchers John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner conditioned a little boy to fear a white rat.
The researchers observed that the boy experienced stimulus generalization by showing fear in response to similar stimuli including a dog, a rabbit, a fur coat, a white Santa Claus beard, and even Watson’s own hair.
Instead of distinguishing between the fear object and similar stimuli, the little boy became fearful of objects that were similar in appearance to the white rat. .
Examples Of Discrimination In Everyday Life
Two distinctive features of academic responding have implications for designing instructional interventions. Age discrimination Age discrimination is the act of treating someone differently based on their age. In a study that compared possible route-related differences in the discriminative stimulus effects of cocaine, the generalization gradients of cocaine were examined under three different routes of administration. For an academic performance problem, there are no maintaining contingencies to investigate. His work has involved designing teacher certification for Trinity College in London and in-service training for state governments in the United States. The temptation to call poor people lazy or deserving of their suffering perpetuates a 10. In the former case, because key colors never changed, the stimulus controlling pecks on the second key was were that those arising from emitting the appropriate number of pecks on the first key.
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What Is Stimulus Generalization
Stimulus generalization occurs when an organisms response previously conditioned by one stimulus can then be evoked by another stimulus having similar characteristics1.
When organisms encounter stimuli similar to those theyve encountered previously, they respond in the same way. Their responses have generalized to other stimuli.
In a classical conditioning process, a neutral stimulus is paired with an unconditioned stimulus. Then during the generalization phase, it becomes a conditioned stimulus that can trigger a conditioned response without going through the learning process.
In similarity-based stimulus generalization, untrained stimuli that are similar to the conditioned stimulus become conditioned without being directly conditioned.
For example, After being bitten by a poodle, a person becomes afraid of poodles and other types of dogs. The same fear can be triggered by a pug, even though it is a different breed, has a different color, and looks different.
What Is An Example Of Extinction In Psychology
In psychology, extinction refers to the gradual weakening of a conditioned response that results in the behavior decreasing or disappearing. In other words, the conditioned behavior eventually stops. For example, imagine that you taught your dog to shake hands. Over time, the trick became less interesting.
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Stimulus Generalization And Discrimination Learning
Similar levels of responding to male and female quail appears to be an example of stimulus generalization from one sex to the other. As I described earlier, if males are presented with visual access to a female just before a chance to copulate with the female, the males will come to approach and remain near the female visual cues. Once this social proximity behavior has been established to female cues, the substitution of a male stimulus bird behind the window will elicit similar responses . Thus, social proximity behavior conditioned to female cues strongly generalizes to male cues.
Can males ever tell male and female quail apart, and how do they learn to do so? With sufficient social experience, male quail do come to respond differentially to the sex of conspecifics. As other forms of discrimination learning, discrimination between stimulus males and stimulus females can be achieved by differential reinforcement. The subjects have to be exposed to female cues paired with copulatory reinforcement and male cues presented in the absence of copulatory opportunity . Discriminative performance improves with increased numbers of female-reinforced trials and with increased exposure to male stimuli in the absence of reinforcement .
Edward A. Wasserman, Suzette L. Astley, in, 1994
The Dog And The Whistle
Short Explanation: A dog may respond to a flute or bell in the same way it has been trained to respond to a whistle.
There are many ways to train a dog to return home when needed. One common way is to use a whistle. Whenever the dog hears the whistle, it knows that it is time to go home. The dog has learned a conditioned response: hear whistle, return home.
However, sounds that are similar to the whistle will also work. For example, if your neighbors child plays the flute, which emits a high-pitched sound, then the dog may return home whenever the neighbor practices playing.
This is a case of stimulus generalization. The flutes sound is similar enough to the original stimulus that the dog will exhibit the same conditioned response .
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Robust Acquisition Of Stimulus
Behavioral responses during discrimination training and generalization test.
Percentage of correct responses during discrimination training across time . Subjects learned the stimulus-outcome associations within the first 50 trials, and maintained performance at a high level afterwards. Given that both groups received placebo during the training session, performance was not expected to, and indeed did not, differ. Percentage of correct responses for CS+ and CS is plotted for both groups separately. Generalization gradients reflect the probability of a + response as a function of stimulus orientation during the test session. Responses reveal a peak-shift . Subjects in the amisulpride group , showed a narrower generalization gradient with a higher peak compared to subjects receiving placebo . Generalization gradients of a similarity-based generalization model with parameters estimated from subjects behavioral responses in both groups, separately. The model accurately reproduces the empirical generalization gradients and the differences between the groups. Error bars are SEM for N=25 and N=21 .
Prediction error responses in the ventral striatum during discrimination training.
How Did Pavlov Demonstrate Generalization
Generalization occurs when an organism makes the same response to different stimuli. Pavlov found that the greater the resemblance between stimuli used during training and stimuli used during testing the greater the generalization. More salivation occurred if a tone was close to the training tone.
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What Is An Example Of Response Generalization
Response generalization occurs when your child shows a positive learned behavior in a novel way and is something that you should look for to gauge your childs progress. For example, after learning to use a spoon to eat cereal, response generalization would include your child selecting to use a spoon to eat ice cream.
Behavior Modification And Generalization In Children
The stimulus generalization mechanism can be applied to both classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Parents often use this special property to discipline their children.
Behaviorists believe that a childs pattern of behavior should change based on its consequence.
Parents teach their children to say please when asking for something and thank you when being given it using reinforcement. Therefore, learning in one setting can be generalized to other settings, such as schools, playgrounds, and libraries.
However, behavior modification such as this doesnt always work7.
Behaviorism rarely works or lasts because it is based on the assumption that behavior can be changed using reinforcement such as rewards or punishment.
But in reality, children, and humans, are more complex than that.
When a parent is kind and respectful to their child at home, the child easily follows the teaching, saying please and thank you when reinforcement is used.
However, if a teacher is mean and strict, the child may show different behavior at school despite receiving the same reinforcement. Individual differences in experiences, likings, and circumstances can all affect the childs decision and classroom behavior.
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What Are The Ethical Considerations Of Stimulus Discrimination
The ethical considerations of stimulus discrimination are numerous and complex. Stimulus discrimination is the on-going, real-time process of detecting and responding to environmental cues that may be associated with potential threats or opportunities. It is a critical survival mechanism that has evolved over time to help organisms avoid danger and make the most of their resources.
However, stimulus discrimination can also lead to ethically questionable outcomes. For example, if an animal is constantly on the lookout for potential predators, it may end up being less attentive to other important cues in its environment, such as food sources. This can result in the animal not getting the nutrition it needs and ultimately starving to death.
Additionally, stimulus discrimination can often result in animals behaving in ways that are harmful to themselves or others. For example, if an animal is afraid of potential predators, it may avoid areas where there are potential prey items, even if that means going without food. Or, an animal may become so focused on finding a mate that it neglects to take care of its young, putting them at risk.
Given the complex ethical considerations of stimulus discrimination, it is clear that this is a topic that warrants further study.
The Role Of Similarity In Learning
One feature that clearly distinguishes the conceptual level from the symbolic is that similarity plays a central role on the conceptual level. Judgments of similarity are central to a large number of cognitive processes. Similarity relations between objects or properties, for example, that ‘green’ is closer to ‘blue’ than to ‘red,’ can be represented by distances in conceptual spaces. The learning mechanism presented in the previous section, which is based on distances in conceptual spaces, would be cumbersome to capture in a nonarbitrary way by symbolic representations and it could only be modeled in a roundabout way on the connectionist approach .
The representations formed in artificial neuron networks tend to be difficult to interpret. One reason for this is that dimensions are normally not represented explicitly in connectionist systems. It is true that ANNs learn about similarities but, in general, they do so very slowly and only after an exorbitant amount of training. The main reason for this is the high dimensionality of ANNs . The sluggishness of the learning is a result of each connection weight’s being adjusted independently of all the others. In addition to this, the adjustments are normally made in very small steps in order to avoid causing instabilities in the learning process. The assumption that the connection weights learn independently is not realistic from a neuroscientific point of view.
Robert E. Haskell, in, 2004
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Exercises And Critical Thinking
Stimulus Discrimination Psychology Definition & Examples
There too playing with the ringing of discriminative stimulus everyday life get the best experience on this website you went to the bell is another discrimination programme is the top. If the teacher asks a question and gives the student a choice of four different flashcards to choose the answer from, the student will only receive a response when the correct flashcard is chosen. As science shows, there is a multitude of factors that affect accuracy. Ringing of each type of discriminative in accordance with the opportunity arises while anne to make sure that it would be difficult to one of the desk and liam. An example of using this method to change or prompt a change in behavioral challenges could be a trip to the park for a playdate.
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What Is An Example Of Generalization In Education
RESPONSE GENERALIZATION
For example, if a student learns how to zip up their jacket and then is able to zip up their backpack, then the skill of using a zipper has been generalized or when someone says hello to that student, they can respond with a variety of responses such as hello, hi, or hey.
D2r Blockade Reduces Similarity
Having established an effect of D2R blockade on the computational processes that govern stimulus generalization, we next examined the neural circuits that mediate these changes. We first identified brain regions involved in generalization of reward predictions during retrieval. As a proxy of generalized value, we focused on prediction error responses derived from our model, which reflect the extent to which reward predictions have generalized from the original CS+ and CS to the current stimulus . Accordingly, to identify brain regions involved in similarity-based computations during generalization, we searched for regions in which fMRI activity correlated with generalized prediction errors at the time of the expected outcome. Based on previous empirical and modeling work linking hippocampal activity to the representation of relationships between stimuli and their predicted value , we expected fMRI signals in the hippocampus to positively correlate with generalized prediction errors. In line with this hypothesis, across the entire group we found significant correlations in the bilateral hippocampus . Similar effects were found in the left amygdala and the bilateral middle temporal gyrus . In addition, supporting recent work highlighting a role for medial and ventromedial PFC in generalization , at an uncorrected threshold of P < 0.001, we found a cluster in the mPFC extending into the vmPFC.
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