Study Questions for Learning and Cognition

1. Describe a short-term and a long-term change in endocrine state and the effects that each has on motivation.

2. What is the general process theory of learning? What is the principle of equipotentiality? Which of these aspects of learning theory is invalidated by the recognizing that there are biological constraints on learning. Explain your answer with reference to the example of taste aversive conditioning and shock aversive conditioning in mice.

3. Discuss the adequacy of associative learning studies in the lab for the kinds of learning we have considered during the quarter. Your answer must include reference to at least 4 kinds of learning in a natural context.

4. Can an animal that is learning be foraging optimally? Why or why not? What are the environmental conditions that favor a learning-based foraging strategy?

5. Describe a memory constraint on foraging in bumble bees that leads to apparently risk aversive behavior.