Learning Record Form For Research ONLY Name:

The purpose of this form is to document your learning as you are researching.
What you should see is that learning is a process. Your goal should be to update this form on a daily basis as you work
and find out additional information:

Include the information you have learned, with the main ideas summarized in your own words. If you cant summarize it in your
own words, you havent learned it.
Include the dates so that you can monitor your learning process.
As you learn more, you should always have more questions. We should see continuous questions and answers as you seek to
deepen your knowledge.

Knowledge Section: This section will be where you record what you know, as well as what you learn. At the end it should
give us a picture of the learning that took place during this project.

Things you know and things you learned: This section will be the first section you will fill out. Here you will list, summarized in
your own words, every important idea that you know so far. Later, as you learn more, you should add to this list. Choose a
specific color for all the things that you know. Choose a different color for all the things that you learn. This should be
summarized in your own words.

Question Sections: Questions drive learning. Asking effective questions is the key to real learning. You should keep a
careful record of all questions that come to your mind. If the teacher comes to ask what you are doing, you should be able
to show them the question that is driving your learning.

Things you know that you dont know: These should be questions that come from you. Having focused questions is an
important part of doing efficient research. If the teacher comes to ask you what you are doing, you should be able to show them
the question you are focused on. As you learn new information, add it to the things you know section in a different color.

Things you didnt know that you dont know: As you continue to research and learn, you will come across words or ideas that
you have never heard of before. This is a very valuable chance to learn. It will also lead you to have questions such as: what does
this word mean? Who made this theory? How does this relate to this? These questions will add even more opportunities for you to
learn. As you learn the answers to these questions, add them to the things you learned list in a third different color.
Question Section: Things you know and things you learned
Things you know that
you dont know
31/3/17 https://www.researchgate.net/post/Do_hamsters_have_a_better_memory_than_mice_or_the_other_way_around
What animal 31/3/17
should we do? Most typical cognitive function lab experiments are optimized for mice and not hamsters, so a test would only
What is the indicate how good the test fits the organism.
difference http://news.stanford.edu/news/2008/october8/hamster-100808.html
between each
animal and which http://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/42785198/The_significance_of_circadian_phase_for_201602
one is better? 17-24392-758nr0.pdf?
How do hamsters AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&Expires=1490949687&Signature=pH1LOOtnnqlQg5ul952lOGCqfrg
learn? %3D&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DThe_significance_of_circadian_phase_for.pdf
How do they
forget? How fast Two articles have confirmed that having a functioning circadian rhythm affects a hamsters ability to learn
do they do? The functioning of all mammals brains happens from neurochemical balances that excite and calm the brains.
What pathways The neurochemical GABA inhibits brain activity. Circadian rhythm affects your sleep by affecting an influx of
are activated when GABA into various parts of the brain to inhibit it.
the hamsters learn However, if the hippocampus, the memory storage part receives too much GABA your memories may not
new things and function properly. If theyd lost their Circadian rhythm, they will be receiving too much GABA too often and not
store things into rhythmically.
memory? Additionally, they tested to find that if they gave the hamster PTZ, which prevents GABA from binding to
Why do hamsters synapse, this can help solve the problem.
forget?
How quick can
18/3/17
hamsters relearn?
Remembering is very complicated. When you can associate something to the thing you are trying to remember

that serves as a retrieval cue that helps you find that memory. Called Priming, when something you didnt
Question Section:
knew you know helped jogged your memory, or context-dependent memory. It also depends on state and
Things you didnt
emotions. Order of information is important as well, The serial position effect where you remember the first
know that you dont
and last things on the list. Also the Primacy Effect and Recency Effect is when you rehearse something more,
know
you remember more. The middle words does not benefit from neither.
31/3/17
Forgetting happens in 3 ways: Failure to encode, Failure to retrieve, and Storage Decay. Failure to encode is that
What affects their
ability to learn? it is not stored into our memory in the first place. Storage decay is naturally forgetting. Retrieval failure is the
tip-of-the-tongue type of failures, from memory interferences. Memories can interfere with one another and
can be changed from that or misinformation.
# Learning
#school/animal behavior#
1. Vocabulary
1. Learning Curve: a graph over time or the number of trials (X-axis) vs the likelihood it will perform the
task correctly (Y-axis).
2. Extinction: The loss of information over time.
3. Forgetting curve: A graph over time (X-axis) vs the likelihood of forgetting information.
2. *Memory*
1. Memory starts with a sensory input
2. Smell, hear, see, touch, taste, etc.
3. Synapses are activated, transferring the sensation into the electrical memory that simulate building
proteins.
4. Proteins are for short term memory storing.
5. Additional proteins and synaptic connections must be made for long term memories.
3. Learning is Costly
* Learning can be a costly act for an animal: It takes time and space in the brain. Formation of short and
long term memories require chemical reactions.
* Animals learn two different types of info: what is important only now, and what must be retained for a
period of time.
* Selective attention helps us decide what is important and what information we can forget.
4. Associative Learning
* Stimulus (Plural: stimuli)
* An event or thing that creates a functional response
* Normally to response to sensory info, but can also be internal
* Something that affects an organisms behavior in an obvious way.
* Habituation
* Habituation is the loss of response to a stimulus when a stimulus is given repeatedly.
* Ex: When we are exposed to cigarette smell for the first time, we react with expressions and
body language, but over time our body gets use to it and it no longer react.
* Sensitization
* An increase in response to a stimulus due to experience
* Ex: We notice that a speaker in a lecture says Most importantly after everything that goes
on the next test. Next time, we play close attention to what he says before that.
* Conditioning
* Building associations between two events.
 * Certain condition/events / stimuli will result in certain outcomes.
* Ex:Bird that forages for bugs under a rock and finds a bug, bird repeats the behavior and
finds another bug. Birds can assume that if they repeat behavior again, they will likely find a bug.
* Classical and Operant

# Classical Conditioning
#school
1. Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)
* Russian Psychologist.
* Experiment with dogs and saliva
* When dog smells food it salivates
* If you ring bell before you give it food, it soon learns to associate the bell with food
* Next time, if you ring the bell without food, it still, salivates.
* Unconditioned Stimulus: Food
* Unconditioned Response: Salivate
* Conditioned Stimulus: Bell ringing (neutral paired with one that invokes a response)
* A stimulus that provokes a response is paired with a stimulus that does not, and the animal learns to
respond with only the non-invoking response.
2. John B. Watson
* Generalization: Animals ability to respond the same way to different but similar stimuli.
* Little Albert:
* Hammer (fearful stimuli) paired with mouse (neutral) over time child is afraid of mouse as well.
* Then, once a similar furry thing was exposed to the baby, he now fears it.
3. Classical Conditioning Types:
* Flooding: Overexposure until familiarity gets rid of fear of that stimuli. Not recommended , only works in
highly control environments. Trainer has to understand body language in order to know when to stop, stop early
= more fear.
* Desensitzation: Animal is exposed to the fear-invoking stimuli at a visible distance but where it does not
exhibit fearful behavior. Overtime, the variables are changed
* Graded Exposure: Same as desensitization but the animal is exposed at a fear invoking distance but
does not show aggression.
* Counterconditioning: Exposed fearful and favorable stimuli at same time to change fearful response.
* Graded counterconditioning: Graded exposure, but once the animal stops show fear, it is given a treat.

# Operant Conditioning
#school/animal behavior#
1. Classical Conditioning forms an association between two stimuli
* Used to change an emotional State.
2. Operant conditioning forms an association between a behavior and a consequence
* Used to increase or decrease a behavior.
3. There are two possible goals
* Encourage a behavior to be repeated (reinforcement)
* Discourage a behavior from happening (punishment)
4. There are four possible consequences to any behavior
* Something *good* can *start* or be *presented* (*positive*)
* Something *bad* can *start* or be *presented* (*positive*)
* Something *good* can *end* or be *taken away* (*negative*)
* Something *bad* can *end* or be *taken away* (*negative*)
* *Positive* means that something is *given* (good or bad)
* *Negative* means that something is *taken away* (good or bad)
## History
1. _Edward Thorndike_
* Born in 1874 and died in 1949
* Thorndike studied learning and how learning takes place when the response of the animal is
*reinforced* in some way.
* Thorndike studied the topic using a puzzle box and watching how cats solve the puzzle.
2. _Thorndikes puzzle box_
* A cat was put in a puzzle box that was kept shut by a simple latch
* Outside the cage is a piece of salmon on a dish, which encouraged the cat to want to
escape the box.
* The cat sees the salmon and begins extending its paws through the bars toward the fish but it
cant reach it.
* The cat must find a way to escape through the door in order to eat the fish.
* The cat will explore the box for several minutes before solving the puzzle and opening the door
* Cat immediately gets the fish as a reward.
* The cat is placed back in the box
* A new piece of fish is placed on the dish as reward for escaping the box.
* The cat goes through the same responses as before and eventually, bumps into the latch once
more
* Cat immediately gets fish as a reward
* Eventually, the cat can very quickly open the door.
* *The cat has learned how to solve the puzzle box*
* *The behavior of bumping into the latch surely gives them the reward, so they will do it
again*
3. _B.F. Skinner_
* B.F. Skinner was born in 1904 and died in 1990
 * Specifically studied *reinforcements*
* Used *rats*
* His experiments that were conducted are considered the basis for understanding of operant
conditioning.
* All behavior is constructed by a continual process of differential reinforcement from
undifferentiated [unlearned; random] behavior, just as the sculptor shapes his figures from lumps of clay.
* More informative than Thorndikes.
* Considered the *basis* for operant conditioning today.
* Skinner Box: Positive Reinforcement
* A rat was placed in a box
* No food in the box, but had a food dispenser, where food would be dropped into the box.
* You want the food, you must push the lever.
* The *Food = Reinforcement*
* After rat presses the lever and gets food as reward so it learns that pressing the lever gives
it food.
* It would learn to repeat the lever pressing
* *Positive*[adding something] /Reinforcement/ [repeat]
* *Box No.2*
* Skinner changed the box and observed how the rats behavior changed in response
* *Negative* /Reinforcement/
* The box has an electrified grid which shocks the rat
* *Press lever = Shock stop*
* If rats press lever to stop shock and get food, its more likely to press when it gets food.
* Having a *positive* [adding] stimuli *is more likely* to *reinforce* a behavior than
*negative* stimuli
* But a *positive punishment* will encourage *more unwanted behaviors* as compared to
negative punishment [things are taken away to prompt you to stop something].
* *Box No.3*
* Skinner again changed the box
* *Positive* /Reinforcement/
* When there is light and the lever is pressed, the rat gets food, but if it is pressed at night,
the food is not given.
* Pressing the lever with light is reinforced, because food is only given then.
* Rat starts to *discriminate* between light and dark.
* A similar thing was done with music (music play food come out, music not played, no food)
* *Positive* /Reinforcement/: something is *added* and increases behavior
* *Negative* /Reinforcement/: Something is *removed* and /increases/ behavior
* *Positive* /punishment/: something is *added* and /decreases/ behavior. *Worst possible method*
 * *Negative* /punishment/: something is *removed* and /decreases/ behavior.

# Operant Conditioning
#school/animal behavior#

## John B. Watson
* (1878-1958)
* American Psychologist who established the psychological school of behaviorism.
* Watson (and a colleague, Rosalie Rayner) conducted an influential early study of *generalization*.
* Generalization: an animals ability to respond in the same way to different but similar stimuli.
## Little Albert Experiment
* Watson and Rayner examined the generalization of conditioned fear in humans by experimenting
with an 11-month-old boy called Little Albert.
* Little Albert was exposed to a little white mouse (Neutral Stimulus)
* Albert did not react or show fear to the mouse at first.
* Little Albert was then exposed to a loud sound (Unconditioned Stimulus)
* Albert cried out of fear at the sound (Unconditioned response).
* Little Albert was then exposed to the loud noise with the mouse.
* Little Albert would show fear from the noise
* Over time Little Albert became frightened of the white mouse without the loud noise
* Conditioned Stimulus
* UCR becomes CR
* Little Albert didnt learn that loud noises dont hurt him, so he now cant get over loud noises.
* Little Albert then generalized and became afraid of a number of white things.
18/5/17
I learned that guinea pigs are actually very smart compared to the hamsters because it ran the maze
comparably very fast.