The Classic Wanderer

What Is Stimulus Generalization In Psychology?

• Sabrina Sarro
• 05.05.2023
• 0
• 11

Stimulus generalization occurs when a response that has been associated with one stimulus occurs for another stimulus that is similar is some way. For example, someone can have a negative or traumatic experience with a dog and then generalize that fear to other dogs.

What is stimulus generalization in psychology simple definition?

10 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. Since the vectorial representations of conceptual spaces have a much lower dimensionality and hence many fewer parameters that must be estimated, learning different kinds of patterns can be speeded up considerably by exploiting the conceptual level.

1. This is an aspect of the learning economy of categorization that is often neglected.
2. In brief, using conceptual spaces as the representational framework facilitates learning in artificial systems.
3. The geometric structure of a dimension functions as a constraint that will make learning more efficient than it would be, for example, in an unstructured artificial neuron network.

Of course, the geometric structure must have some correspondence in the external world – otherwise, what is learned may be useless or even dangerous. For example, an explanation of how stimulus generalization works may become complicated, if the associationist approach is adopted.

1. Stimulus generalization is the ability to behave in a new situation in a way that has been learned in other similar situations.
2. The problem is how to learn which aspects of the learning situations should be generalized.
3. This is an enigma for both symbolic and associationist representations 5,
4. On the other hand, when conceptual spaces are used, the stimulus is represented as being categorized along a particular dimension or domain.

The applicability of a generalization can then be seen as a function of the distance from a prototype stimulus, where the distances are determined with the aid of an underlying conceptual space. One way of making learning in ANNs more efficient is to build in structural constraints when setting up the architecture of a network.

In other words, one can reduce the dimensionality of the learning process by making neurons dependent variables. However, adding structural constraints often means that some form of information about the relevant domains or other dimension-generating structures is added to the network. Consequently, this strategy presumes a conceptual level in the very construction of the network.

For example, one can use the technique of principal components in ANNs, which exploits redundancies in input data, If the dimensions of the input data are correlated, principal component analysis finds the number (determined by the user) of orthogonal directions in the dimensions of the input data that has the highest variation.

• Thus, the first principal component is the spatial direction in the data set that has the highest variation and which thus is the maximally “explanatory” dimension.
• In this manner, the user can help himself or herself to some dimensional information that brings the representation of the ANN close to that of a conceptual space.

Read full chapter URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780080446127500925

What is an example of generalization in psychology?

generalization, in psychology, the tendency to respond in the same way to different but similar stimuli, For example, a dog conditioned to salivate to a tone of a particular pitch and loudness will also salivate with considerable regularity in response to tones of higher and lower pitch.

1. The generalized response is predictable and orderly: it will measure less than that elicited by the original tone and will diminish as the new tone departs increasingly from the original.
2. Similar behaviour is observed in humans, as children learning to talk may call anything that can be sat upon “chair” or any man “daddy.” Adults conditioned by mild electric shock to fear a certain word will respond with symptoms of anxiety to any synonym of that word; in this instance, physical similarity, the usual basis of generalization, is less important than prior learning.

Responses may also be generalized, allowing an individual to take an alternative course of action if the usual response is for some reason precluded. Learning may be considered a balance of generalization and discrimination (the ability to respond to differences among stimuli).

What are examples of stimulus and response generalization?

– Example: Ike is presented with pictures of a variety of dogs. When his mom asks him what kind of animals they are he says”dogs”. (There are many stimuli (breeds of dogs), and one response (“dogs”). Here’s how to remember the difference: When you are presented with a scenario question, plug them into this chart (whiteboard tip!)

What is stimulus generalization in psychology classical conditioning?

Key Takeaways –

• In classical conditioning, a person or animal learns to associate a neutral stimulus (the conditioned stimulus, or CS) with a stimulus (the unconditioned stimulus, or US) that naturally produces a behaviour (the unconditioned response, or UR). As a result of this association, the previously neutral stimulus comes to elicit the same response (the conditioned response, or CR).
• Extinction occurs when the CS is repeatedly presented without the US, and the CR eventually disappears, although it may reappear later in a process known as spontaneous recovery.
• Stimulus generalization occurs when a stimulus that is similar to an already-conditioned stimulus begins to produce the same response as the original stimulus does.
• Stimulus discrimination occurs when the organism learns to differentiate between the CS and other similar stimuli.
• In second-order conditioning, a neutral stimulus becomes a CS after being paired with a previously established CS.
• Some stimuli — response pairs, such as those between smell and food — are more easily conditioned than others because they have been particularly important in our evolutionary past.

What is an example of stimulus generalization in life?

Stimulus generalization occurs when a person or animal starts responding to one stimulus, then multiple stimuli, in a similar manner. They have ‘ generalized ‘ their response to stimuli. For example, a dog may identify a whistle as a stimulus indicating ‘food’.

What is stimulus example in psychology?

Stimuli can be external or internal. An example of external stimuli is your body responding to a medicine. An example of internal stimuli is your vital signs changing due to a change in the body.

Which is the best example of stimulus generalization?

Classical and Operant Conditioning – Stimulus generalization can occur in both classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Little Albert’s fear of white furry objects is a great example of how stimulus generalization works in classical conditioning.

What is the difference between generalization and stimulus generalization?

Generalization is the ability for a student to perform a skill under different conditions (stimulus generalization), the ability to apply a skill in a different way (response generalization), and also to continue to exhibit that skill over time (maintenance).

What is the difference between stimulus generalization and response generalization?

Stimulus generalization vs response generalization – The key difference between stimulus generalization and response generalization is that stimulus generalization occurs when multiple stimuli can generate the same response, while response generalization occurs when the same stimulus can generate multiple similar responses.

Both of them are important associative learning mechanisms. For example, reading words is often taught in isolation, but students can generalize this skill to read full sentences and this is stimulus generation. Response generalization occurs when students spell words that are not explicitly instructed after they have learned to read these words ​8,9​,

Children learning to tie their shoes show another stimulus generalization pattern. Having learned how to tie one pair of shoes, children can do the same with other types of shoes. Response generalization occurs when children apply their newly acquired tying skills to tie a bow on a gift.

What are 3 examples of a stimulus and response in humans?

Some examples of stimulus and response in humans include: pupils dilating and constricting to adapt to light, our bodies sweating to adapt to heat, breathing deeper when exercising to get more oxygen and shivering to heat up our body temperature when it gets too cold.

What is an example of stimulus generalization in consumer behavior?

Certain brands often make use of stimulus generalization in order to influence consumer behavior. For example, an established, well-known brand usually features a trusted and easily recognizable design. When customers see this design, they typically feel assured that the product will be of high quality.

What are real world examples of a stimulus response?

Examples of stimuli and their responses: You are hungry so you eat some food. A rabbit gets scared so it runs away. You are cold so you put on a jacket.

What is an example of a stimulus response situation?

Example of a stimulus and a response: If you accidentally touch a hot object, you automatically withdraw your hand. The heat of the hot object is the stimulus and you, withdrawing your hand is the response to the stimulus.

What is a stimulus in classical conditioning example?

Introduction – Learning is the process by which new knowledge, behaviors, attitudes, and ideas are acquired. Learning can occur through both unconscious and conscious pathways. Classical conditioning is one of those unconscious learning methods and is the most straightforward way in which humans can learn.

• Classical conditioning is the process in which an automatic, conditioned response is paired with specific stimuli.
• Although Edwin Twitmyer published findings pertaining to classical conditioning one year earlier, the best-known and most thorough work on classical conditioning is accredited to Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist born in the mid-1800s.

Pavlov had such a great impact on the study of classical conditioning that it is often referred to as Pavlovian conditioning. Pavlov’s Experiment Classical conditioning was stumbled upon by accident. Pavlov was conducting research on the digestion of dogs when he noticed that the dogs’ physical reactions to food subtly changed over time.

At first, the dogs would only salivate when the food was placed in front of them. However, later they salivated slightly before their food arrived. Pavlov realized that they were salivating at the noises that were consistently present before the food arrived; for example, the sound of a food cart is approaching.

To test his theory, Pavlov set up an experiment in which he rang a bell shortly before presenting food to the dogs. At first, the dogs elicited no response to the bells. However, eventually, the dogs began to salivate at the sound of the bell alone. To understand classical conditioning, it is essential to be familiar with the following terms.

• A neutral stimulus is a stimulus that at first elicits no response.
• Pavlov introduced the ringing of the bell as a neutral stimulus.
• An unconditioned stimulus is a stimulus that leads to an automatic response.
• In Pavlov’s experiment, the food was the unconditioned stimulus.
• An unconditioned response is an automatic response to a stimulus.

The dogs salivating for food is the unconditioned response in Pavlov’s experiment. A conditioned stimulus is a stimulus that can eventually trigger a conditioned response. In the described experiment, the conditioned stimulus was the ringing of the bell, and the conditioned response was salivation.

What is stimulus vs response in psychology?

Stimulus is an event that happens to us, and response is our reaction or action towards that event. We respond in a particular way to a particular stimulus.

What is an example of stimulus perception?

Stimulus Factors in Perception Modified: 2020-09-14 Perception is more than just the analysis of sensation. Perception is a filtering process. We filter out most of the stimuli that surround us. Some of those stimuli, however, have properties that make us more likely to pay them attention.

• For example, when a stimulus changes, we notice it.
• A light in a room goes off.
• While the light was on, it was a sensation to us, but we did not perceive it.
• However, when it went off, we did perceive it.
• Another kind of change is novelty, or newness.
• As we drive down the same old road every day on our way to school, we see the same old things.

However, if one day a new sign has been posted or a traffic light installed we notice it. Recently, my-three-year old noticed that the sign announcing the county fair was no longer there. It had a cow on it, so it had been a favorite. I had not noticed its disappearance, but he had.

• The sign is now back up, but again he noticed its reappearance before I did.
• There is an optimal amount of stimulus complexity for perception.
• That means that we soon learn to ignore simple stimuli, and we may never bother to perceive extremely complex stimuli.
• But, in between those two extremes we each find a level of complexity that engages us perceptually.

For example, infants soon tire of looking at colors. They will look at faces for much longer, but they will “tune out” a complex collection of stimuli like a light and sound show. Advertisers have long known the perceptual properties of repeated stimulation.

“Buy soap, buy soap, buy soap, buy soap.”, the radio drones on. But after awhile we find it hard to forget that ad. That is repetition. This is an example of intensity. You will be more likely to perceive that sentence when it is printed in large, bold type. The same would be true of loud sounds, strong odors, and other intense sensory experiences.

That is intensity. This is an example of contrast. Notice that the sentence above is printed in italics, centered, and is smaller than what you have been reading all along. You notice it because it, too, is an example of change from what you have been used to.

That is contrast. Movement is a powerful perceptual cue. Preying mantis females will attack and eat anything smaller than they that moves. Most preying mantis males die during copulation because of that perceptual tendency. Some males do live to copulate more than once because they do not move when the female looks their way.

Or, think of when you are studying late at night and out of the corner of your eye you see a cockroach scurry by. That roach might have been standing there a long while before it moved and you perceived it. : Stimulus Factors in Perception

What is a good example of generalization?

When you make a statement about all or most of the people or things together, you are making a generalization. For example: – All birds have wings. – Many children eat cereal for breakfast.

What is the most famous example of generalization?

The most famous example of generalization came from an experiment performed by behavioral psychologist John Watson in the year 1920. The ‘Little Albert’ experiment worked by introducing a 9 month old child to a white rat. Initially, Little Albert enjoyed playing with the rat.

What is generalization with too few examples?

Inductive fallacies –

• Hasty generalization is the fallacy of examining just one or very few examples or studying a single case and generalizing that to be representative of the whole class of objects or phenomena.
• The opposite,, is the fallacy of denying the logical conclusion of an inductive argument, dismissing an effect as “just a coincidence” when it is very likely not.
• The is related to the hasty generalization but works from the other end. It is a generalization that is accurate, but tags on a qualification that eliminates enough cases (as exceptions); that what remains is much less impressive than what the original statement might have led one to assume.
• is a fallacy where a conclusion is drawn using samples that are unrepresentative or biased.
• is a kind of hasty generalization that appeals to the senses.
• Statistical special pleading occurs when the interpretation of the relevant statistic is “massaged” by looking for ways to reclassify or requantify data from one portion of results, but not applying the same scrutiny to other categories.
• This can be considered a special case of the, where the item under discussion is a group, and the fallacy is what can be derived from knowledge of part of the item.

What is generalization examples and meaning?

Other forms: generalizations Taking something specific and applying it more broadly is making a generalization, It’s a generalization to say all dogs chase squirrels. A generalization is taking one or a few facts and making a broader, more universal statement.

1. If all the girls you know play with dolls, you might make the generalization that all girls play with dolls.
2. Scientists try to make generalizations based on research — the more data they have, the more accurate the generalization.
3. Generalizations can be similar to stereotypes in that they are sometimes wrong and harmful.

Usually, it’s best to stick with specifics and avoid generalizations. Definitions of generalization

noun the process of formulating general concepts by abstracting common properties of instances noun reasoning from detailed facts to general principles noun (psychology) transfer of a response learned to one stimulus to a similar stimulus noun an idea or conclusion having general application synonyms: generalisation, generality see more see less types: show 5 types. hide 5 types. principle, rule, tenet a basic generalization that is accepted as true and that can be used as a basis for reasoning or conduct pillar a fundamental principle or practice yang the bright positive masculine principle in Chinese dualistic cosmology yin the dark, negative feminine principle in Chinese dualistic cosmology feng shui rules in Chinese philosophy that govern spatial arrangement and orientation in relation to patterns of yin and yang and the flow of energy (qi); the favorable or unfavorable effects are taken into consideration in designing and siting buildings and graves and furniture type of: idea, thought the content of cognition; the main thing you are thinking about

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