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Simple Stimulus Learning

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Simple Stimulus Learning
Prepare a 1,050- to 1,400-word paper in which you analyze forms of simple stimulus learning. As a part of your analysis, address the following items:

- Explain the concept of habituation.
- Analyze the factors that affect perceptual learning.
- Examine the effects of stimulus exposure.
- Discuss the application of simple stimulus learning to at least two real life situations.
- Your analysis should include at least three references from scholarly sources.

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Solution Summary

A simple stimulus learning are explained. The factors that affect perceptual learning are analyzed.

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Explain the concept of habituation.

Habituation is a concept most commonly used among Behaviorist. It is not forbidden to other schools, only that it is specifically tailored to their concept of learning. There are two aspects to the concept. First, that, over time, the response to the identical stimulus will wear off. This is similar to the brain building tolerance to a drug. However, it does not end there. The second step is that, some time later, when the stimulus begins again, the proper response should return.

One specific take on this is called the Wagner-Konorski Gnostic Unit Theory (cited in Thompson, 2009) , which combines neurobiology with the concept of habituation and stimulus. The simple scheme can be summarized like this: the stimulus and proper response have physical and chemical effects in the brain. As the association builds in regularity, neurons form what they call a "gnostic unit," which is a combination of the memory itself plus the system that provokes it to consciousness.

The upshot is that this is the physical outline of learning. Learning according to this theory, is the creation of structures in the brain that form to encapsulate what is needed to evoke the response.

One need not be a materialist to see the usefulness of this approach. Habituation for this theory is the mysterious activity of a "inhibitor" system that seems to compensate for the response over time. In addition, learning is enhanced by the fact that preexisting networks of neurons already exist. New knowledge is then fit into this structure, expanding it and providing it with more complex and nuanced content. This is not knowledge per se, but the physical accompaniment of it.

Analyze the factors that affect perceptual learning. Discuss the application of simple stimulus learning to at least two real life situations.

This form of learning deals with a specific form of sensation. Over time, very similar aspects of the same sensation can be distinguished. As this occurs, one's conceptual repertoire of members of that sensation class develop as well. A good example might be cigar aficionados. For most of us who have never smoked one, they all seem to smell the same. However, after years of smoking and paying attention to the different forms of leaf, their geographic origin and general quality, a real aficionado can sense the most subtle differences among brands or geographic regions.

The number of theories and works on this phenomenon are legion. Suffice it to say that the essential ingredient is selective attention. As one becomes more knowledgeable about an object such as ...

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