The document discusses learning theories, focusing on classical and operant conditioning as methods of acquiring knowledge and behaviors through associative learning. It explains key concepts such as unconditioned stimuli, responses, reinforcement, and the effects of conditioning on behavior, offering examples from experiments by Pavlov, Thorndike, and Skinner. Additionally, it addresses the roles of biological and cognitive influences on learning and the implications for education, parenting, and behavior modification.

1. 6
Learning
Revised by Pauline Davey Zeece, University of Nebraska-
Lincoln
Learning
Acquiring new and relatively enduring information or behaviors
through experience
Associative learning: Learning that certain events occur
together
Events may be two stimuli or a response and its consequences.
Cognitive learning: Acquisition of mental information by
observing events, watching others, or through language
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Forms of Conditioning
Classical conditioning
One learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events
Produces respondent behavior

2. Operant conditioning
One learns to associate an action and its consequence.
Produces operant behavior
Conditioning - A process of learning associations.
Stimulus: Any event or situation that evokes a response.
Respondent behavior: Behavior that occurs as an automatic
response to some stimulus.
Operant behavior: Behavior that operates on the environment,
producing consequences.
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Figure 6.1 - Classical Conditioning
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Figure 6.2 - Operant Conditioning
Retrieve and Remember 1
Why are habits, such as having something sweet with that cup
of coffee, so hard to break?
ANSWER: Habits form when we repeat behaviors in a given
context and, as a result, learn associations—often without our

3. awareness. For example, we may have eaten a sweet pastry with
a cup of coffee often enough to associate the flavor of the
coffee with the treat, so that the cup of coffee alone just doesn’t
seem right anymore!
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Classical Conditioning
Pavlov’s experiments
Pavlov’s legacy
Figure 6.3 - Pavlov’s Classic Experiment
Pavlov presented a neutral stimulus (a tone) just before an
unconditioned stimulus (food in mouth). The neutral stimulus
then became a conditioned stimulus, producing a conditioned
response.
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Classical Conditioning: Terms
Neutral stimulus (NS): Evokes no response before conditioning
Unconditioned stimulus (US): Unconditionally, naturally and
automatically, triggers a response
Unconditioned response (UR): Unlearned and naturally
occurring response to an unconditioned stimulus (US)
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4. Conditioned Response and Conditioned Stimulus
Conditioned response (CR)
Learned response to a previously neutral but now conditioned
stimulus
Conditioned stimulus (CS)
Irrelevant stimulus that triggers a conditioned response (CR)
after association with an unconditioned stimulus (US)
Pavlov’s Experiments
Explored conditioning processes
Acquisition
Extinction
Spontaneous recovery
Generalization
Discrimination
Ivan Pavlov: “Experimental investigation…
should lay a solid foundation for a future true
science of psychology” (1927).
Retrieve and Remember 2
An experimenter sounds a tone just before delivering an air puff
that causes your eye to blink.
After several repetitions, you blink to the tone alone.
What is the NS? The US? The UR? The CS? The CR?
ANSWERS: NS = tone before conditioning; US = air puff; UR =
blink to air puff; CS = tone after conditioning; CR = blink to
tone
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5. Acquisition
Initial stage where one links a neutral stimulus and an
unconditioned stimulus
A neutral stimulus begins triggering the conditioned response.
Quail tale
Recent research on Japanese quail shows that their capacity for
classical conditioning gives them a reproductive edge.
In operant conditioning, acquisition is the strengthening of a
reinforced response.
Conditioning helps an animal survive and reproduce—by
responding to cues that help it gain food, avoid dangers, locate
mates, and produce offspring (Hollis, 1997).
How did researchers develop the quail’s preference for their
cage’s red-light district? - Just before presenting a sexually
approachable female quail, the researchers turned on a red light.
Over time, as the red light continued to announce the female’s
arrival, the light caused the male quail to become excited. They
developed a preference for their cage’s red-light district. When
a female appeared, they mated with her more quickly and
released more semen and sperm (Matthews et al., 2007).
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Figure 6.4 - An Unexpected CS
Psychologist Michael Tirrell (1990) recalled: “My first
girlfriend loved onions, so I came to associate onion breath with
kissing. Before long, onion breath sent tingles up and down my
spine. Oh what a feeling!”
Extinction and Spontaneous Recovery

6. Extinction
Weakening of a conditioned response when an unconditioned
stimulus does not follow a conditioned stimulus
Spontaneous recovery
Reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned
response
In operant conditioning, extinction is the weakening of a
response when it is no longer reinforced.
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Acquisition, Extinction, and Spontaneous Recovery
The rising curve (simplified here) shows that the CR rapidly
grows stronger as the NS becomes a CS due to repeated pairing
with the US (acquisition)
The CS weakens when it is presented alone (extinction).
After a pause, the CR reappears (spontaneous recovery).
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Generalization and Discrimination
Generalization
The tendency to respond similarly to stimuli that resemble the
conditioned stimulus after conditioning
Discrimination
The learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned
stimulus and other irrelevant stimuli

7. In operant conditioning, generalization occurs when our
responses to similar stimuli are also reinforced.
In operant conditioning, discrimination is the ability to
distinguish responses that are reinforced from those that are not.
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Retrieve and Remember 5
What conditioning principle is affecting the snail’s affections?
ANSWER: generalization
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Pavlov’s Legacy
Pavlov showed how learning can be studied objectively.
Many responses to many stimuli can be classically conditioned
in many other species.
Classical Conditioning in Everyday Life
Pavlov’s principles influence human health and well-being.
Examples:
Patients can develop classically conditioned side effects to
drugs given as cancer treatments.
Former drug users often feel a craving when they are again in
the drug-using context.

8. Retrieve and Remember 7
In Watson and Rayner’s experiments, “Little Albert” learned to
fear a white rat after repeatedly experiencing a loud noise as the
rat was presented.
In these experiments, what was the US? The UR? The NS? The
CS? The CR?
ANSWERS: The US was the loud noise; the UR was the fear
response to the noise; the NS was the rat before it was paired
with the noise; the CS was the rat after pairing; the CR was fear
of the rat.
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Operant Conditioning
Skinner’s experiments
Skinner’s legacy
Contrasting classical and operant conditioning
Differences Between Classical and Operant Conditioning
Classical conditioning
Learning associations between events are not controlled by the
learner.
Involves respondent behavior
Operant conditioning
The learner associates his/her own actions with consequences.
Involves operant behavior

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Skinner’s Experiments
Built on Thorndike’s law of effect
Law of effect: Rewarded behavior is likely to be repeated.
Developed to reveal principles of behavior control
Bird brains spot tumors
Reinforcement: Any event that strengthens the behavior it
follows.
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Cat in a Puzzle Box
Thorndike used a fish reward to entice cats to find their way out
of a puzzle box through a series of maneuvers.
The cats’ performance tended to improve with successive trials,
illustrating Thorndike’s law of effect (data from Thorndike,
1898).
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Operant Chamber (Skinner Box)
The box contains a bar or button that an animal can use to
obtain a food or water reinforcer.
Attached devices record the animal’s rate of pressing or
pecking.

10. Inside the box, the rat presses a bar for a food reward. Outside,
measuring devices (not shown here) record the animal’s
accumulated responses.
Shaping Behavior
Shaping: A procedure in which reinforcers guide actions closer
and closer toward a desired behavior
Helps understand what nonverbal organisms perceive
Researchers and animal trainers gradually shape complex
behaviors by rewarding desired behaviors and ignoring all other
responses.
Shaping behavior is used as people continually reinforce others’
behavior.
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TABLE 6.1 Ways to Increase BehaviorOperant Conditioning
TermDescriptionExamplesPositive reinforcementAdd a
desirable stimulusPet a dog that comes when you call it; pay the
person who paints your house.Negative reinforcementRemove
an aversive stimulusTake painkillers to end pain; fasten seat
belt to end loud beeping.
Retrieve and Remember 9
How is operant conditioning at work in this cartoon?

11. ANSWER: The baby negatively reinforces her parents’ behavior
when she stops crying once they grant her wish. Her parents
positively reinforce her cries by letting her sleep with them.
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Types of Reinforcers
Types of reinforcersDescriptionPrimary reinforcersUnlearned
and innate
Often satisfy a biological needConditioned reinforcers
(secondary reinforcers)Gain reinforcing power through their
link with primary reinforcersImmediate reinforcersImmediate
rewardsDelayed reinforcersDelayed rewards
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Reinforcement Schedules
A pattern that defines how often a desired response will be
reinforced
Learning occurs rapidly with continuous reinforcement.
Can cause rapid extinction
Partial (intermittent) reinforcement results in slower acquisition
and greater resistance to extinction.
Continuous reinforcement: Reinforcing a desired response every
time it occurs.
Partial (intermittent) reinforcement: Reinforcing a response

12. only part of the time.
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TABLE 6.2 Schedules of Partial
ReinforcementFixedVariableRatioEvery so many: reinforcement
after every nth behavior, such as buy 10 coffees, get 1 free, or
pay workers per product unit ProducedAfter an unpredictable
number: reinforcement after a random number of behaviors, as
when playing slot machines or fly fishingIntervalEvery so
often: reinforcement for behavior after a fixed time, such as
Tuesday discount pricesUnpredictably often: reinforcement for
behavior after a random amount of time, as when checking our
phone for a message
Drawbacks of Physical Punishment
Punished behavior is suppressed
May reinforce parents’ punishing behavior
Teaches the child to fear and to discriminate among situations
May increase aggression by modeling violence as a way to cope
with problems
Children See, Children Do? Children who often experience
physical punishment tend to display more aggression.
Punishment: Event that decreases the behavior it follows.
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Retrieve and Remember 11
Fill in the blanks below with one of the following terms:
negative reinforcement (NR), positive punishment (PP), and

13. negative punishment (NP). The first answer, positive
reinforcement (PR), is provided for you.Type of StimulusGive
ItTake It AwayDesired (for example, a teen’s use of the car):1.
PR2.Undesired/aversive (for example, an insult):3.4.
ANSWERS: 1. PR (positive reinforcement); 2. NP (negative
punishment); 3. PP (positive punishment); 4. NR (negative
reinforcement)
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Skinner’s Legacy
Urged people to use operant principles to influence the behavior
of others
Criticized for neglecting people’s personal freedom and
advocating external control of others
B. F. Skinner
B.F Skinner: “I am sometimes asked, ‘Do you think of yourself
as you think of the organisms you study?’ The answer is yes. So
far as I know, my behavior at any given moment has been
nothing more than the product of my genetic endowment, my
personal history, and the current setting” (1983).
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Applications of Operant Conditioning
At school
Many of Skinner’s ideals for education have been made possible
with the help of digital learning.
At work
Reinforcers are used to influence productivity.
In parenting
Desired behavior is increased by giving children attention and

14. other reinforcers when they are behaving well.
Using Operant Conditioning to Build One’s Own Strengths
Setting and announcing realistic goals in measurable terms
Deciding how, when, and where one will work toward their goal
Monitoring how often one engages in desired behavior
Reinforcing the desired behavior
Reducing the rewards gradually
TABLE 6.4 Comparison of Classical and Operant
ConditioningClassical ConditioningOperant ConditioningBasic
ideaLearning associations between events we don’t
controlLearning associations between our own behavior and its
consequencesResponseInvoluntary, automaticVoluntary,
operates on environmentAcquisitionAssociating events; NS is
paired with US and becomes CSAssociating response with a
consequence (reinforcer or punisher)ExtinctionCR decreases
when CS is repeatedly presented aloneResponding decreases
when reinforcement stopsSpontaneous recoveryThe
reappearance, after a rest period, of an extinguished CRThe
reappearance, after a rest period, of an extinguished
responseGeneralizationResponding to stimuli similar to the
CSResponding to similar stimuli to achieve or prevent a
consequenceDiscriminationLearning to distinguish between a
CS and other stimuli that do not signal a USLearning that some
responses, but not others, will be reinforced

15. Biology, Cognition, and Learning
Biological limits on conditioning
Cognitive influences on conditioning
Biological Limits on Conditioning
Natural selection favors traits that aid survival.
Biological constraints: Evolved biological tendencies that
predispose animals’ behavior and learning
Limits on classical conditioning
Humans are biologically prepared to learn some things, rather
than others.
Cognition and Classical Conditioning
Shared beliefs of Pavlov and Watson
Avoided mentalistic concepts
Maintained that the basic laws of learning are the same for all
animals
Watson supported behaviorism.
John B. Watson
Watson’s view of learning underestimated the following
influences:
The way that biological predispositions limit learning
Effect of cognitive processes on learning
Behaviorism: View that psychology (1) should be an objective

16. science that (2) studies behavior without reference to mental
processes. Most research psychologists today agree with (1) but
not with (2).
Watson (1924) admitted to “going beyond my facts” when
offering his famous boast: “Give me a dozen healthy infants,
well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in
and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to
become any type of specialist I might select—doctor, lawyer,
artist, merchant-chief, and, yes, even beggar-man and thief,
regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities,
vocations, and race of his ancestors.”
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Latent Learning
Skinner rejected the premise that cognitive processes are
integral to learning.
Animals, like people, can learn from experience, with or
without reinforcement.
In a classic experiment, rats in one group repeatedly explored a
maze, always with a food reward at the end. Rats in another
group explored the maze with no food reward. But once given a
food reward at the end, rats in the second group thereafter ran
the maze as quickly as (and even faster than) the always-
rewarded rats (Tolman & Honzik, 1930).
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Observational Learning
Learning by observing others
Modeling: Observing and imitating a specific behavior

17. Vicarious reinforcement or punishment
Helps one anticipate a behavior’s consequences in observed
situations
Albert Bandura
Albert Bandura: “The Bobo doll follows me wherever I go. The
photographs are published in every introductory psychology text
and virtually every undergraduate takes introductory
psychology. I recently checked into a Washington hotel. The
clerk at the desk asked, ‘Aren’t you the psychologist who did
the Bobo doll experiment?’ I answered, ‘I am afraid that will be
my legacy.’ He replied, ‘That deserves an upgrade. I will put
you in a suite in the quiet part of the hotel’” (2005). A recent
analysis of citations, awards, and textbook coverage identified
Bandura as the world’s most eminent psychologist (Diener et
al., 2014).
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Figure 6.9 - The Famous Bobo Doll Experiment
Mirrors and Imitation in the Brain
Brain activity underlies intense social nature.
Mirror neuron: Fires when one performs certain actions and
when one observes others performing those actions
Neural basis for imitation and observational learning
Experienced and Imagined Pain in the Brain
Brain activity related to actual pain is mirrored in the brain of

18. an observing loved one.
Empathy in the brain shows up in areas that process emotions,
but not in the areas that register physical pain.
Applications of Observational Learning
Prosocial effects
Prosocial behavior models have prosocial effects.
Effectiveness is related to consistency in actions and words.
Antisocial effects
Observational learning may have adverse effects.
TV shows, movies, and online videos are sources of
observational learning.
Aggressiveness could be genetic.
Prosocial behavior: Positive, constructive, and helpful behavior.
The opposite of antisocial behavior.
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Think Critically
Effects of viewing media violence:
Increased homicidal rates
Increased violent behavior among teens
Experimental studies have found that violence-viewing
participants react more cruelly when provoked.
Prompted by imitation and desensitization

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Expectations for the Paper/Project -
You will write one paper or complete one project for this class,
with the focus being on Greek art.
Your papers/projects will undergo a rough draft/peer
editing/revision process. A traditional visual analysis/research
paper written by an individual requires a minimum of 2000
words of edited text.
HERE IS THE TOPICI will be writing a standard research paper
in MLA format for this project. The art that I will be choosing
is “Venus de Milo”. This is one of the famous arts in the Greek
art history.