Learning is a process of acquiring knowledge through experience or being taught. There are several types of learning, including classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning. Classical conditioning involves associating a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus to elicit a conditioned response, as demonstrated in Pavlov's experiments. Operant conditioning involves voluntary responses that are reinforced or punished to increase or decrease a behavior. Observational learning occurs through observing and imitating others. Factors that influence learning include intelligence, prior knowledge, motivation, and the learning material and methods used. Various therapies also apply learning principles, such as systematic desensitization for phobias.

2. Learning
Dr. Hani Hamed Dessoki, M.D. Psychiatry
Associate Prof. Psychiatry
Acting Head, Psychiatry Department
Beni Suef University
2012

3. Stimulus Response

4. Learning
• Learning is the acquisition and
development of memories and
behaviors, including skills, knowledge,
understanding, values, and wisdom.

5. Learning
• Learning refers to relatively
permanent changes in behavior
resulting from practice or
experience
• Innate behaviors are inborn,
emerge during certain periods,
and are not the result of
learning

6. ‫مقدمة‬
‫• يعد التعلم سمة وقدرة يكاد يتميز بها الكائن البشري عن كافة المخلوقات الخرى,‬
‫على الرغم من وجودها في بعض الكائنات الحية الخرى.‬
‫• التعلم يشير إلى عملية حيوية تحدث لدى الكائن البشري وتتمثل في التغير‬
‫السلوكي وفي الخبرات ويستدل عليها من خلل السلوك الخارجي القابل للملحظة‬
‫والقياس.‬
‫• يمكن النظر إلى التعلم على أنه عملية ديناميكية تتجلى في جملة التغيرات‬
‫السلوكية وفي خبرات الفرد بهدف تحقيق التوازن بين الفرد والبيئة المحيطة به.‬

7. Goals:
are the things we aim for

8. Responses:
are how we react to events

9. Effort:
is it required for success?

10. Strategies:
how to reach success

11. Classical Conditioning
• Certain stimuli can elicit a reflexive response
– Air puff >> eye-blink
– Smelling food >> can produce salivation
• The reflexive stimulus (UCS) and response
(UCR) are unconditioned
• The neutral stimulus is referred to as the
conditioned stimulus (CS)
• In classical conditioning, the CS is repeatedly
paired with the reflexive stimulus (UCS)
• Eventually the CS will produce a response (CR)
similar to that produced by the UCS

12. Pavlov’s Experiment

14. Generalization – Learning on stimulus A changes
behavior regarding stimulus B
Discrimination – Learning on stimulus A doesn’t
change behavior regarding stimulus B
Extinction – Loss of learned behavior after
training stops
Spontaneous Recovery – Exhibiting learned
behavior after extinction has occurred.

15. Extinction (Deconditioning)
• Pairings of the CS and UCS lead to
conditioning whereas presentation of
the CS only leads to loss of the
conditioned response
• Extinction refers to loss of response to
a CS presented without the UCS
– Extinction is not forgetting
• Extinction is useful in clinical situations
– Extinction of a phobia can be treated by
exposure to the CS only

16. Operant/Skinnerian
Conditioning
• Organisms must make responses
that have consequences
– Punishment
– Reinforcement
– The response can be associated with
cues in the environment
• We put coins in a machine to obtain food
• But we refrain when an Out of Order
sign is placed on the machine

17. Key Aspects of Operant
Conditioning
• In operant conditioning, the
stimulus is a cue, it does not
elicit the response
• Operant responses are
voluntary
• In operant conditioning, the
response elicits a reinforcing
stimulus

18. Key Terms of Operant
Conditioning
• Reinforcement is any procedure
that increases the response
• Punishment is any procedure that
decreases the response
• Types of reinforcers:
– Primary: e.g. food or water
– Secondary: money or power

19. Punishment
• Positive Punishment – presenting a
stimulus that leads to a lowered
likelihood for a response to occur
in the future
• Negative Punishment – removing a
stimulus that leads to a lowered
likelihood for a response to occur
in the future

20. Two Types of Reinforcers and
Punishers.
• Positive reinforcement occurs when a behavior (response) is followed
by a favorable stimulus (commonly seen as pleasant) that increases the
frequency of that behavior. In the Skinner box experiment, a stimulus
such as food or sugar solution can be delivered when the rat engages in
a target behavior, such as pressing a lever.
• Negative reinforcement occurs when a behavior (response) is followed
by the removal of an aversive stimulus (commonly seen as unpleasant)
thereby increasing that behavior's frequency. In the Skinner box
experiment, negative reinforcement can be a loud noise continuously
sounding inside the rat's cage until it engages in the target behavior, such
as pressing a lever, upon which the loud noise is removed.
• Positive punishment (also called "Punishment by contingent
stimulation") occurs when a behavior (response) is followed by an
aversive stimulus, such as introducing a shock or loud noise, resulting in
a decrease in that behavior.
• Negative punishment (also called "Punishment by contingent
withdrawal") occurs when a behavior (response) is followed by the
removal of a favorable stimulus, such as taking away a child's toy
following an undesired behavior, resulting in a decrease in that behavior.

21. Reinforcement/Punishment

22. Two Types of Reinforcers and
Punishers.
• The difference occurs due to whether you
add or remove something.
• If you add something following a response
= positive
• If you remove something following a
response = negative
• Positive does not mean good:
• Negative does not mean bad.

23. Schedules of Reinforcement
• Continuous: reinforcement occurs
after every response
– Produces rapid acquisition and is
subject to rapid extinction
• Partial: reinforcement occurs after
some, but not all, responses
– Responding on a partial reinforcement
schedule is more resistant to
extinction

24. Partial Reinforcement
Schedules
• Ratio: every nth response is reinforced
– Fixed: every nth response
– Variable: on average, every nth response
• Interval: first response after some
interval results in reinforcement
– Fixed: interval is x in length (e.g. 1 min)
– Variable: the average interval is x

25. Shaping
• Shaping – rewarding
successive approximations
towards the final goal
–Used often in phobias…
–E.G. fear of snakes…

26. Thorndike's law of effect
• Operant conditioning, sometimes called instrumental
conditioning or instrumental learning, was first
extensively studied by Edward L. Thorndike
(1874-1949).
• In his Law of Effect, Thorndike theorized that
successful responses, those producing satisfying
consequences, were "stamped in" by the experience
and thus occurred more frequently. Unsuccessful
responses, those producing annoying consequences,
were stamped out and subsequently occurred less
frequently.
• In short, some consequences strengthened behavior
and some consequences weakened behavior.

27. Summary
of
Conditioning

28. Classical Conditioning Applied
John B. Watson's Little Albert
• John B. Watson proposed that emotions (such as
fear) can be conditioned in humans.
• To study this, Watson conditioned an nine month
old child, Albert, to fear various neutral objects
(including a rabbit, a dog and some wool) by
repetitively pairing their presence with a loud noise.
• Watson's experiment was successful and resulted in
little Albert displaying severe fear responses to the
previously unfeared objects.
• The goal of Watson's experiment had been to prove
that behaviour is learned, in contrast to the then-
prevalent, Freudian belief that behaviour came from
the unconscious.

29. Types of learningSimple non-associative
learning
• Habituation
In psychology, habituation is an example of
non-associative learning in which there is a
progressive diminution of behavioral
response probability with repetition of a
stimulus.
An animal first responds to a stimulus, but if it
is neither rewarding nor harmful the animal
reduces subsequent responses.

30. Types of learningSimple non-associative
learning
• Habituation is stimulus specific. It does not
cause a general decline in responsiveness.
• Habituation is also commonly found in the case
of odors. For example, one may not be able to
smell one's own bad breath while being able to
smell another's.
• Dishabituation is when a second stimulus is
used, which briefly increases habituated
response, it has been shown that this is a
different mechanism from sensitization.

31. Types of learningSimple non-associative
learning
• Sensitization
Sensitization is an example of non-
associative learning in which the
progressive amplification of a response
follows repeated administrations of a
stimulus.

32. Types of learningSimple non-associative
learning
• A different type of sensitization is that of
kindling, where repeated stimulation of
hippocampal or amygdaloid neurons in the
limbic system eventually leads to seizures
in laboratory animals.

33. Imprinting
• Konrad Z. Lorenz being followed by his
imprinted geese
• Imprinting is the term used in psychology
and ethology to describe any kind of
phase-sensitive learning (learning
occurring at a particular age or a particular
life stage) that is rapid and apparently
independent of the consequences of
behavior.
• It was first used to describe situations in
which an animal or person learns the
characteristics of some stimulus, which is
therefore said to be "imprinted" onto the
subject.

34. Observational learning (social
learning or modeling)
• It is learning that occurs as a function of
observing, retaining and, in the case of imitation
learning, replicating novel behavior executed by
others.
• It is most associated with the work of
psychologist Albert Bandura, who implemented
some of the seminal studies in the area and
initiated social learning theory.
• It involves the process of learning to copy or
model the action of another through observing
another doing it.

35. Observational learning (social
learning or modeling)
• Many mistake observational learning with
imitation.
• The two terms are different in the sense
that observational learning leads to a
change in behavior due to observing a
model.
• This does not mean that the behavior
exhibited by the model is duplicated.

36. Learning by trail and error
• Primitive
• Young children and animals
• Less time with repetition

37. Learning by insight
• Planning
• Mental level before hand
• Adults
• Experiment of chimpanzee and banana
• Foresight

38. Electronic learning
Electronic learning or E-learning is a
general term used to refer to computer-
enhanced learning.

39. Learning helps our neurons GROW.
The more we learn, the more connections they
make.

40. Factors affecting Learning
• Personal Factors
- Intelligence
- Previous Knowledge
- Acquired habits
- Physical state
- Psychological state
- Motivation

41. Factors affecting Learning
• Objective external Factors:
- Learned material
- Method of learning

42. Behavioral Therapies Based on Classical Condition

43. Psychotherapy Goals
• Psychotherapy can provide relief to a client for
issues relating to:
Eclectic Approach – combining techniques from various theories to
find the most appropriate treatment

44. Behavior Therapies
• Learning techniques are used to alter
behaviors; these techniques include:
–Classical conditioning
•Aversion therapy…
•Systematic desensitization…

45. Aversion therapy
• This is a form of psychological therapy that is designed
to eliminate, for example, sexual behaviour by
associating an aversive stimulus such as nausea with
sex.
• Because the aversive stimulus performs as a US and
produces a UR, the association between the stimulus
and behaviour leads to the same consequences each
time.
• If the treatment has worked, the patient will not have a
compulsion to engage in such behaviours again.
• This sort of treatment has been used to treat alcoholism
as well as drug addiction.

46. Systematic Desensitization

47. Systematic desensitization
• Patients might learn that the object of their phobias or
fears are not so fearful if they can safely relive the feared
stimulus.
• However, anxiety often obstructs such recovery. This
obstruction is overcome by reintroducing the fear-
producing object gradually by a process known as
reciprocal inhibitions.
• A person constructs a hierarchy of events leading to the
feared situation.
• This hierarchy is approached step by step and anxiety is
relieved at every level.
• The fear is eventually removed if the therapy is
performed correctly.

48. Behavior Therapies
–Operant conditioning
•Shaping – focus on target
behavior
•Modeling – observe and
imitate behaviors of others

49. MCQ
Learning is the acquisition of :
a- memories
b- behaviors
c- knowledge
d- all of the above

50. MCQ
The following factors affect learning:
a- Intelligence
b- Previous Knowledge
c- Motivation
d- all of the above

51. Hani Hamed Dessoki, MD Psychiatry
Associate Prof. of Psychiatry
Acting Head, Psychiatry Department
Faculty of Medicine - Beni Suif University
APA membership
Mob: +20106071194
+20108833248
Telephone, clinic: 02 – 37603192
Mailing address: 42 El- Dokki St. Cairo, Egypt
Email: hanipsych@yahoo.com
Website: www.hanipsych.com
Clinic : 24 Gameet El- Dowal El- Arabia St. El-
Mohandiseen, Cairo.
Beni Suef, Islam St.