8
votes
Accepted
Evidence that positive rewards are learnt faster than negative rewards?
This is a great question.
Short answer: No, the evidence does not suggest that positive reinforcement is universally more effective than negative reinforcement or punishment. However, there are ...
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7
votes
Accepted
How does the brain generate answers to questions?
The task you're referring to is called the Verbal Fluency Test. In "A Biologically Constrained Model of Semantic Memory Search" by Kajic et al. wherein a neural model of this task is described.
The ...
- 8,783
6
votes
Accepted
'Model-free' learning in humans
As per the comments to the question, human research observing this distinction does exist. CHCH possibly alludes to an article by Gläscher, Daw, Dayan and O'Doherty (2010) which concisely defines the ...
- 6,912
5
votes
Accepted
What salient features of a {conditioned stimulus,unconditioned stimulus} pair are represented in the lateral amygdala?
The lateral amygdala appears to be involved in representing fear memories after extinction (Hobin, Goosens and Maren, 2003). The extent of the lateral amygdala's involvement in representing these ...
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4
votes
Why has behaviourism fallen out of favour?
There is a lot of research here so there is a lot to cover. Please bear with me.
There are what is known as 3 forces of psychology
Behavioural Theory (First Force) – (Short & Thomas, 2014, ...
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4
votes
Accepted
Evolutionary motivation for the existence of pleasure?
First a couple of definitions:
Positive reinforcement occurs when an event or stimulus is presented as a consequence of a behavior and the behavior increases.
Negative reinforcement occurs when the ...
- 18.1k
4
votes
Accepted
How do humans learn to combine tasks?
The term I was looking for is "concurrent activities". Some research in the domain of hierarchical learning has been done in this domain by Rohanimanesh and Mahadevan.
According to this literature ...
- 8,783
4
votes
Refinements of Rescorla-Wagner model of classical conditioning
I don't think anyone has ever bothered (though Ralph Miller might disagree), since many of the 'failures' are outside of the model's purview. The model expresses as simply as possible the profound ...
- 171
4
votes
Accepted
What's the optimal way to space out rewards in order to maximise motivation?
To add gaming element to education, you have two options:
Look at currently successful examples of products that gamify learning
Check most successful mobile games (short engagement times)
Here are ...
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3
votes
Accepted
What is a sensorimotor connection in plain English?
The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines the word sensorimotor to be:
of, relating to, or functioning in both sensory and motor aspects of bodily activity
and the following relating to the tags you ...
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3
votes
Why is the last part (transmit) of the Feynman learning technique optional?
From your source:
If you really want to be sure of your understanding, run it past someone (ideally someone who knows little of the subject). The ultimate test of your knowledge is your capacity to ...
- 6,174
3
votes
Accepted
What's the relation between firing of dopaminergic neurons and dopamine dispersion in terms of neurophysiological processes?
I've mostly figured it out now, and I've a better idea of the words and phrases I need to search to get the information I was asking for.
The short answer comes from wikipedia: "The neurons' somata ...
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3
votes
What is an acquired taste?
One explanation for the development of 'acquired tastes' is a form of reinforcement learning called flavor-flavor learning. The name sounds a bit odd on its own, but should best be seen in relation to ...
- 6,912
3
votes
Accepted
Does the brain's reward system also work when the reward comes before the experience?
Short answer
Operant conditioning through positive reinforcement is always established by applying a stimulus after the behavior. Negative reinforcers can, however, be deployed before the wanted ...
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2
votes
What's the relation between firing of dopaminergic neurons and dopamine dispersion in terms of neurophysiological processes?
Dopaminergic neurons synthesize dopamine and release it at their synapses with target neurons (see David Sulzer's review article. The activity of a dopaminergic neuron (its instantaneous firing rate) ...
- 102
2
votes
Cognitive Models of learning Working Memory usage
ACT-R is a complete cognitive model that incorporates Working Memory, Declarative Memory and Procedural Memory, but also incorporates input (visual and auditory) and output (manual) buffers. It is a ...
- 3,132
2
votes
Accepted
Are food rewards a good long term learning strategy?
Food rewards are effective and safe to use in principle. But in practice...?
The non-caveman term for the process of using consequences to modify behavior is operant conditioning, and the specific ...
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2
votes
Is pleasure synonymous to positive reinforcement?
Before I even start to try answering this question, it should be said that there is no clear and definitive answer. Endless debates are everywhere on the subject of consciousness but nothing has come ...
- 164
2
votes
Accepted
Punishment v.s Negative Reinforcement
Operant Conditioning
The general topic you are referring to is called operant conditioning.
Positive/negative refers to whether you are adding something or taking it away.
Reinforcement/punishment ...
- 6,174
2
votes
Accepted
Why is conditioned taste aversion an example of classical conditioning (rather than operant)?
This is an excellent question. The difference between Classical conditioning (also called Pavlovian conditioning) and operant (instrumental) conditioning is subtle for the new student, but can be ...
- 171
2
votes
Why is conditioned taste aversion an example of classical conditioning (rather than operant)?
The conditioning of aversion to taste is part of learning studies in which there is an association between food and flavors with positive reactions such as food preferences or satiety and negative ...
- 1,039
1
vote
How does TD-learning explain trace conditioning?
See my comment above, but it is possible to assume that B acquires the same reward value as the original reward, so B can then be treated as a reward, which in turn brings A closer to the reward event ...
- 171
1
vote
Cognitive Models of learning Working Memory usage
I could only find a single instance of learning to leverage a memory. "The Origin of Epistemic Structures and Proto-Representations" by Chandrasekharan and Stewart shows how to include the option to ...
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1
vote
How do reward signals strengthen synaptic connections in the human brain?
dopamine release changes the nature of synaptic long term potentiation (ltp) thought to underly long term memory. see http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0896627305003971 for a paper i ...
- 1,855
1
vote
Accepted
Brain areas active while learning hierarchical structure of a problem
According to "Frontal Cortex and the Discovery of Abstract Action Rules" by David Badre, Andrew S. Kayser, and MarkD'Esposito:
... the rostro-caudal axis of frontal cortex support rule learning at
...
- 8,783
1
vote
Accepted
What evidence is there to suggest that delayed gratification is taught and learned and not genetic?
whilst the nature-nurture issue in mammalian (and particularly human) behaviour is a perennially-fascinating topic, we have learned to be cautious about attempting to construct any strict dichotomies ...
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