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Learning Theory
● Human beings and Animals are able to learn
and adapt to changes in the environment
● Stimulus to produce a respone
● Behavior influences our way of learning
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❏ Learning play a role in the development of human behavior
❏ Learning can be state dependent, that is, it may occur when the
person is in a special internal state (under the influence of drug)
or in a special environment
❏ Thus, principles of learning are always operating and always
influencing human activity
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Types of Learning
Learning is thought to
result from the
consequences of a
person’s action.
Learning is thought to take
place as a result of the
contiguity of environmental
events; when events occur
closely together in time,
persons will probably come to
associate the two.
Classic
conditioning
Operant
Conditioning
Social Learning
Theory
Incorporates both classic
and operant models of
learning, but also considers
a reciprocal interaction
between the person and
the environment
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● Ivan Pavlov is one of the most recognisable names in psychology.
● Pavlov was important in psychology because he laid the foundations
of what eventually became a school of of thought of psychology
called behaviourism.
● also called respondent conditioning
● learning is thought to take place as a result of the contiguity of
environmental events; when events occur closely together in time,
persons will probably come to associate the two
● results from the repeated pairing of a neutral (conditioned) stimulus
with one that evokes a response (unconditioned) stimulus, such that
the neutral stimulus eventually comes to evoke the response
Ivan Pavlov (Pavlonian Theory)
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Key terms
· Classical conditioning:- Refers to a form of learning that occurs through the repeated
association of two (or more) different stimuli.
–Learning is only said to have occurred when a particular stimulus consistently produces a
response that it did not previously produce.
· Stimulus:- Any event that elicits (produces) a response from an organism (eg, food)
· Response:- A reaction by an organism to a stimulus (eg, salivation)
Conditioned reflex:- An automatic response that occurs as the result of previous experience
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Key terms
Unconditioned Response (URS): the natural response to an unconditioned stimulus.
· The response which occurs automatically as a result of the
unconditioned stimulus (UCS).
· A reflexive, or involuntary, response is an UCR as it is predictably
caused by an unconditioned stimulus (UCS).
· For example- Dogs salivate (UCR) at food (UCS)
Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): a stimulus that naturally triggers a response.
· Any stimulus which produces an unconditioned response (UCR).
· For example- Food (UCS) causes salivation (UCR)
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Pavlonian (Classical learning)
● Ivan Petrovich Pavlov observed this conditioning in his work on
gastric secretion
● In which, a dog salivated not only when food was placed in its
mouth, but also at the sound of the footsteps of the person
coming to feed it, even though the dog could not see or smell
the food
● He called the saliva flow that occurred with the sound of
footsteps a conditioned response (CR), a response elicited
under certain conditions by a particular stimulus
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Pavlonian (Classical learning)
● a stimulus (S) that had no capacity to evoke a particular
response before training, did so after consistent association
with another stimulus
For example, under normal circumstances, a dog does not salivate
at the sound of a bell, but when the bell sound is always followed
by the presentation of food, the dog ultimately pairs the bell and
the food. Eventually, the bell sound alone elicits salivation, which is
then called a conditional response (CR).
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Pavlonian (Classical learning)
▪ the bell, which was originally unable to evoke salivation but
came to do so when paired with food, is referred to as a
conditioned stimulus (CS)
▪ because the food naturally produces salivation, it is referred
to as an unconditioned stimulus (US)
▪ Salivation, a response that is reliably elicited by food (US), is
referred to, as an unconditioned response (UR)
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Pavlonian (Classical learning)
▪ Classic conditioning is then diagrammed as
follows:
Before conditioning:
Food (US) = Salivation (UR)
Bell (CS) paired with food (US) = Salivation
(UR)
After conditioning:
Bell (CS) = Salivation (CR)
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Scientific Analysis-1
· Salivation in response to food in the dog’s mouth and is not a learned response. Therefore, the
salivation is an Unconditional Response.
· Food in the dog’s mouth is an Unconditional Stimulus.
· The tone is a neutral stimulus because the dog does not salivate upon hearing it.
Scientific Analysis-2
· During conditioning, the procedure of presenting the dog with food right after sounding a tone is
repeated.
· After conditioning, the dog salivates upon hearing the tone.
· So the tone that was originally a neutral stimulus is now a Conditional Stimulus.
· The dog salivating is now a Conditional Response instead of an Unconditional Response.
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The Nature of the learning process
❏ Research beginning in the late 1960s began to uncover some
Important details about the learning process behind Pavlovian
Conditioning. Several findings proved that conditioning is not an
inevitable consequence of pairing a CS ( conditioning stimuli) with a
US ( unconditional stimuli ).
❏ Such pairings will not cause conditioning if there is a second CS
present that already predicts the US.
❏ This finding (known as blocking) suggests that a CS must provide
new information about the US if learning is to occur.
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The Nature of the learning process
❏ The importance of the CS information value is also suggested by
the fact that a CS will not be treated as a signal for the US if
the US occurs equally often in the presence and the absence of
the CS.
❏ There are also important variants of classical conditioning also called
respondent conditioning
❏ Sensory preconditioning and second-order conditioning increase the
range of stimuli that can control the conditioned response.
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The Nature of the learning process
❏ Such intra event associations may play a role in many of the
body’s regulatory functions, such that an initial change in some
variable (e.g., blood pressure)may come to signal a further
increase in that variable and therefore initiate a conditioned
compensatory response.
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The Nature of the learning process
❏ Emotional responses can also be conditioned through observation.
For example, a monkey that merely observes another monkey being
frightened by a snake can learn to be afraid of the snake.
❏ The observer learns to associate the snake (CS) with its emotional
reaction (US/UR) to the other monkey being afraid. Although
monkeys readily learn to fear snakes .
❏ This is an example of preparedness in classical conditioning-some
stimuli are especially effective signals for some USs because
evolution has made them that way.
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The Nature of the learning process
❏ Another example is the fact that tastes are easily associated with
illness but not shock, whereas auditory and visual cues are easily
associated with shock but not illness.
❏ Preparedness may explain why human phobias tend to be for
certain objects (snakes or spiders) and not others (knives or
electric sockets) that may as often be paired with pain or Trauma.
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01
▪ developed by Burrhus. Frederick Skinner
▪ a form of learning in which behavioral frequency is
altered through the application of positive and negative
consequences
▪ Occurs when a behavior (instead of stimulus) is associated
with a psychologically significant event
▪ As opposed to Pavlov’s, the behavior is said to be an
operant because it operates on the environment
Operant or Instrumental conditioning
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Operant or Instrumental conditioning
▪ related to trial-and-error learning, as described by Edward L.
Thorndike
▪ Thorndike's law of effect states that certain responses are
reinforced by reward, and the organism learns from these
experiences
▪ in trial-and-error learning, a person or animal attempts to solve
a problem by trying different actions until one proves
successful
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Operant or Instrumental conditioning
● Most famous laboratory experiment on operant conditioning is the one in which
the rat presses a lever to earn food pellets
● In this method, the rat’s behavior is voluntary, in the sense that it is not
compelled to make the response, it can perform it whenever it “wants” to
● If the food pellet, (Reinforcer)- an event that increases the strength of the
behavior of which it is made a consequence, were stop to be delivered, the
rat would then stop pressing the lever
● But if the experimenter were to allow the lever press to produce larger
pellets, the rate of the behavior might increase
● Therefore, operant conditioning is based largely to understand the relation of
behavior to its payoff.
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● Reinforcement
is the key element in Skinner’s S-R theory. A reinforcer is
anything that strengthens the desired response. It could be
verbal praise, a good grade or a feeling of increased
accomplishment or satisfaction.
Operant or Instrumental conditioning
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Positive Reinforcement- a response or behavior is strengthened by rewards,
leading to the repetition of desired behavior. The reward is a reinforcing
stimulus.
Negative Reinforcement- termination of an unpleasant state following a
response. This is known as negative reinforcement because it is the removal
of an adverse stimulus which is ‘rewarding’ to the animal or person. Negative
reinforcement strengthens behavior because it stops or removes an
unpleasant experience.
Punishment - is defined as the opposite of reinforcement since it is designed
to weaken or eliminate a response rather than increase it. It is an aversive
event that decreases the behavior that it follows
Operant or Instrumental conditioning
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Schedule Reinforcement
Behaviorists discovered that different patterns or shedule of reinforcement had
different effects on the speed of learning and extinction. Ferster and Skinner (1957)
devised different ways of delivering reinforcement and found that this had effects on
1. The Response Rate - The rate at which the rat pressed the lever (i.e., how hard
the rat worked).
2. The Extinction Rate - The rate at which lever pressing dies out (i.e., how soon the
rat gave up).
Skinner found that the type of reinforcement which produces the slowest rate of
extinction (i.e., people will go on repeating the behavior for the longest time without
reinforcement) is variable-ratio reinforcement. The type of reinforcement which has
the quickest rate of extinction is continuous reinforcement.
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Schedule Reinforcement
(A) Continuous Reinforcement
An animal/human is positively reinforced
every time a specific behavior occurs, e.g.,
every time a lever is pressed a pellet is
delivered, and then food delivery is shut off.
● Response rate is SLOW
● Extinction rate is FAST
(B) Fixed Ratio Reinforcement
Behavior is reinforced only after the behavior occurs
a specified number of times. e.g., one reinforcement
is given after every so many correct responses,
e.g., after every 5th response. For example, a child
receives a star for every five words spelled
correctly.
● Response rate is FAST
● Extinction rate is MEDIUM
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Schedule Reinforcement
(C) Fixed Interval Reinforcement
One reinforcement is given after a fixed time
interval providing at least one correct response has
been made. An example is being paid by the hour.
Another example would be every 15 minutes (half
hour, hour, etc.) a pellet is delivered (providing at
least one lever press has been made) then food
delivery is shut off.
● Response rate is MEDIUM
● Extinction rate is MEDIUM
(D) Variable Ratio Reinforcement
behavior is reinforced after an unpredictable
number of times. For examples gambling or
fishing.
● Response rate is FAST
● Extinction rate is SLOW (very hard to
extinguish because of unpredictability)
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Schedule Reinforcement
(E) Variable Interval Reinforcement
Providing one correct response has been made, reinforcement is given after an unpredictable amount
of time has passed, e.g., on average every 5 minutes. An example is a self-employed person being paid
at unpredictable times.
● Response rate is FAST
● Extinction rate is SLOW
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Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Sensorimotor
stage
Stage from 2 to 6
years of age in
which children use
words and images
to represent things
(mental
representations)
Preoperational
stage
Stage from 7 to 11
years of age in
which children
understand concrete
events and analogies
logically but lack
abstract logic and
moral reasoning
abilities.
Concrete
Operational
Stage
Stage that
emerges in
adolescence (12
years of age) in
which children can
think abstractly and
reason
hypothetically.
Formal
Operational
Stage
First stage, from 0
to 2 years of age
in which the world
is experienced
through senses
and actions.
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Motivational Factors
A state of being that produces a tendency toward action.
May be one of deprivation (e.g., hunger), a value
system, or a strongly held belief (e.g., religion).
The expectancy factor refers to the subjective
probability that by expending sufficient effort, the object
can be acquired or the goal reached.
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Motivational Factors
❏ As Edward Tolman illustrated in many experiments.
❏ Organisms may flexibly perform any of several actions to get to a
goal; instrumental learning thus provides a variable means to a fixed
end.
❏ Subsequent research has identified many motivating effects of reward
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Negative contrast and Positive contrast
❏ For example, organisms that have had experience receiving a small reward
may show positive contrast when they are suddenly reinforced with a
larger reward.
❏ Conversely, organisms show negative contrast when they are switched
from a high reward to a lower reward-their behavior becomes weaker
than control subjects who have received the same smaller reward.
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Negative contrast and Positive contrast
❏ Negative contrast involves frustration and emotionality.
❏ An increase from expectation causes elation, whereas a
decrease from expectation causes frustration
❏ Negative contrast is an example of a paradoxical reward effect-a
set of behavioral phenomena.
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Negative contrast and Positive contrast
❏ The best known is the partial reinforcement extinction effect, in
which actions that have been intermittently (or "partially") reinforced
persist longer .
❏ That is, human and animal participants that have been reinforced
for performing effortful responses learn a sort of "industriousness"
that transfers to new behaviors.
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Incentive learning
❖ The process of learning about the effects the reinforcer has
on the motivational state is called incentive learning.
❖ According to theory, direct experience with a reinforcer's effect
on depressed mood might be necessary before the person will
be interested in performing actions that help to ameliorate the
depressed state.
