45 slides I have made which consists of three important learning theories; Classical Conditioning Theory, Operant Conditioning Theory and Observant Conditioning Theory and empirical studies of each.

1. LEARNING THEORY
Prepared and Presented by:
Suhaili bt. Sahiful Bahari
BHMS 1401-4356
Psychology BMS 1043
Cyberjaya University College of Medical Sciences
Lecturer: Abd Haris Mohd Darudin

2. GOAL?
To scientifically observe how
human & animal learns a thing.

3. 1.Classical conditioning theory. (20 mins)
2.Operant conditioning theory. (20 mins)
3.Observational conditioning theory. (20
mins)
EXPECTATIONS

4. 1. Classical Conditioning
Theory.

5. 1. Classical Conditioning
Theory.
• Learning a new behavior via the process
of association.
• Two stimuli are linked together to produce
a new learned response in a person or
animal.

6. 1.The unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
produces an unconditioned response
(UCR) in an organism.
2.No new behaviour is learned.
3.The person is Neutral Stimulus.
Stage 1:
Before
Conditioning.
Stage 2:
During
Conditioning.
Stage 3:
After
Conditioning.
1. Unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
must be associated with the
conditioned stimulus (CS) on a
number of occasions, or trials,
for learning to take place.
1.Now, the conditioned stimulus (CS)
has been associated with the
unconditioned stimulus (UCS) to create
a new conditioned response (CR).
A perfume
(UCS) create a
response of
happiness or
desire (UCR).
A perfume (UCS)
might be
associated with a
specific person
(CS).
A person (CS) who
has been
associated with
nice perfume (UCS)
is now found
attractive (CR).

7. Ivan Pavlov (1902)

8. Good & Bad Stimulation
• For example a person (CS) who has been
associated with nice perfume (UCS) is
now found attractive (CR). Good
stimulation.
• Chocolate (CS) which was eaten before a
person was sick, with a virus (UCS) is now
produces a response of nausea (CR).

9. Real life examples
• If a student associates negative emotional experiences
with school, then this can produce bad results, that the
school is gonna create a school phobia.
• E.g: If a student is bullied at school, they learn and
looking at school as place that associates with fear.
• This may explain why some students show a particular
dislike of certain subjects.
• Other stimulus, this school phobia also could happen if a
student is humiliated or punished in class by a teacher.

10. Critics
• Emphasize the importance of learning
from the environment.
• Supports nurture (environment) over
nature(biology).
• Attempts to underestimate the complexity
of human behavior.
• The theory is scientific. An exp is carried
out to show empirical evidence.

11. • The theory is a reductionist explanation of
behavior. Means complex behavior is
broken down into smaller stimulus-
response unit of behaviour.
• Reductionist supporters say this this is
scientific but their view lacks of validity.
• It is useful, but incomplete.

12. • The theory is deterministic. (vs free-will?)
• It proposes that all behavior is caused by
preceding factors and is thus predictable.
• This underestimates uniqueness of
choices, their freedom at choosing their
own destiny.

13. 2. Operant Conditioning
Theory.

14. 2. Operant Conditioning Theory.
• Introduced by B.F Skinner. His view is less
extreme than John B. Watson.
• He believed that the best way to
understand behavior is to look at the
causes of an action and by its
consequences.
• Based on Edward Thorndike work. What
Thorndike do?

15. Edward Thorndike
• He placed a cat in the puzzle
box, which was encourage to
escape to reach a scrap of fish
placed outside.
• Thorndike would put a cat into
the box and time how long it
took to escape.
• The cats experimented with
different ways to escape the
puzzle box and reach the fish.

16. • Eventually they would stumble upon the
lever which opened the cage.
• When it had escaped it was put in again,
and once more the time it took to escape
was noted.
• In successive trials the cats would learn
that pressing the lever would have
favorable consequences and they would
adopt this behavior, becoming increasingly
quick at pressing the lever.

17. Law of effect
• Edward Thorndike put forward a “Law of
effect” which stated that any behavior that
is followed by pleasant consequences is
likely to be repeated, and any behavior
followed by unpleasant consequences is
likely to be stopped.

18. • B.F Skinner is the father of Operant
Conditioning, but his work was based on
Thorndike’s law of effect.
• Skinner introduced a new term into the
Law of Effect - Reinforcement. Behavior
which is reinforced tends to be repeated
(i.e. strengthened); behavior which is not
reinforced tends to die out-or be
extinguished (i.e. weakened).

19. 3 types of responses:
• Neutral operants: Responses from the
environment is neither increase nor decrease
the probability of a behavior to be repeated.
• Reinforcers: Responses from the environment
that increase the probability of a behavior to be
repeated. Reinforcers can be either positive
or negative.
• Punishers: Responses from the environment
that decrease the likelihood of a behavior to be
repeated. Punishment weakens behavior.

20. i. Positive Reinforcement (+R)
• You're being reinforced. Strengthened.
• Smoking BF + GF don't like smoking BF ->
BF stops smoking --> GF loves BF
(positive reinforcement/rewarded.)
• Smoking student --> caught by teachers --
> caned --> stops smoking.
• So smoking will be lessly repeated.
• Complete homework --> teacher gives $5.

21. Skinner empirical study (+R)
1. Skinner showed how positive reinforcement worked by
placing a hungry rat in his Skinner box.
2. The box contained a lever on the side. As the rat moved
about the box, it would accidentally knock the lever.
3. Immediately, lever is down. A food pellet drop into a
container next to the lever.
4. The rats quickly learned to go straight to the lever after a
few times of being put in the box.
5. The consequence of receiving food if they pressed the
lever ensured that they would repeat the action again
and again.

22. ii. Negative Reinforcement (-R)
• Rewarding a person by removing
unpleasant experience.
• Not complete homework --> You give
teachers $5.
• You will complete your homework to avoid
paying $5, thus strengthening the behavior
of completing your homework.

23. Skinner empirical study (-R)
1. Skinner showed how negative reinforcement worked by
placing a rat in his Skinner box and then subjecting it to an
unpleasant electric current which caused it some discomfort.
2. As the rat moved about the box it would accidentally knock
the lever. Immediately it did so the electric current would be
switched off.
3. The rats quickly learned to go straight to the lever after a few
times of being put in the box.
4. The consequence of escaping the electric current ensured
that they would repeat the action again and again.
5. In fact Skinner even taught the rats to avoid the electric
current by turning on a light just before the electric current
came on.
6. The rats soon learned to press the lever when the light came
on because they knew that this would stop the electric current
being switched on.

24. iii. Punishment (weakens behavior)
• Opposite of reinforcement.
• It is designed to weaken or eliminate a
response/operant rather than increase it.
• Weaken a behaviour by removing a
potentially rewarding stimulus.

25. Bobby is very rude
--> Grounded
--> to punish (to weaken
the undesirable
behaviour).

26. Schedule of Reinforcement
• Bobby works in Sally
new company.
• Bobby works so hard,
really hard but then
Bobby is not getting
paid enough or not at
all for 2 months.
• How longer Bobby
can work with this
situation?
Quiz

27. How longer Bobby can work
with this situation?
• Ferster and Skinner (1957) found:
– The Response Rate - The rate at which the
rat pressed the lever (i.e. how hard the rat or
Bobby worked).
– The Extinction Rate - The rate at which lever
pressing dies out (i.e. how soon the rat or
Bobby gave up).

28. 5 Types of reinforcement
• Variable-ratio reinforcement.
– after unpredictability number of times.
– Likes gambling or fishing.
– Extinction rate is SLOW (very hard to
extinguish because of unpredictability)
– Response rate FAST
• Continuous
Reinforcement.
– Positively
reinforced every
time
– Response rate is
SLOW
– Extinction rate is
FAST
• Fixed Ratio Reinforcement
– Positively reinforced every X number
of times.
– Response rate is SLOW
– Extinction rate is MEDIUM
• Fixed Interval
Reinforcement
– Positively
reinforced every
15 mins.
– Response rate is
MEDIUM
– Extinction rate is
MEDIUM
• Variable-interval reinforcement.
– One good job, reward with an
unpredictable amount.
– Extinction rate is SLOW.
– Response rate FAST

29. • Quiz:
• So if Sally don't want to lose Bobby, which
one of type of reinforcement should she
practice?

30. Application
• +R, -R, Punishment can be applied in
classroom, prison, psychiatric hospitals,
homeopathy clinics.

31. Punishment vs -R
• Punisment is not forgotten,
it's suppressed - behavior
returns when punishment is no
longer present.
• Causes increased
aggression - shows that
aggression is a way to cope
with problems.
• Creates fear that can
generalize to undesirable
behaviors, e.g., fear of school.
• Not clear. Not guiding
towards the desired
behavior.
– Reinforcement tells you what to.
– Punishment only tells you what
not to do.

32. OCT towards Behavior Shaping
Skinner says:
• We should change how we give reward
each time to a person/animal each time
they make move to desired behaviour.
• Behavior Shaping via successive
approximation.
• Can produce extremely complex
behaviour.

33. Behavior Modification Therapy
• Always reinforcing desired behavior, for example,
is basically bribery.
• Behavior modification therapy include
token economy system & behavior shaping
Primary reinforcement Secondary reinforcement
when a reward strengths a
behavior by itself.
when something strengthens a
behavior because it leads to a
primary reinforcer

34. • Targeted behaviors are reinforced with tokens
(secondary reinforcers) and later exchanged for
rewards (primary reinforcers).
• Eg of tokens: fake money, buttons, poker chips,
stickers...
• Results:
– Can be very effective. in managing psychiatric
patients/ prisoners in prison.
– Once subject is over reliant on the tokens, making it
difficult for them to adjust/reinforce with society.
Token economy system

35. Criticism
• Fail to consider cognitive factors in
learning: Study of human mental
processes and their role in thinking, feeling,
and behaving.
• Raises the issue of extrapolation. Some
psychologists argue we cannot generalize
from studies on animals to humans as
their anatomy and physiology is different
from humans, and they cannot think about
their experiences and invoke reason,
patience, memory or self-comfort.

36. 3. Observational Conditioning
Theory.
(Learn through modelling)

38. Introduction
• Albert Bandura (1977) is a behaviourist.
• He agrees with previous two theories.
• However, he adds two important ideas:
– Mediating processes occur between stimuli &
responses.
– Behavior is learned from the environment
through the process of observational
learning.
– Got two other names: Social learning
theory/Social cognitive theory
"Forget the mind, Psychology should based on observable
behaviour," John B. Watson.
Behaviorist be
like:

39. Let's watch how Bandura
conducts experiment to prove his
theory.

40. Bobo doll experiment
• Bandura demonstrated that
young children would imitate
the violent and aggressive
actions of an adult model.
• In the experiment, children
observed a film in which an
adult repeatedly hit a large,
inflatable balloon doll.
• After viewing the film clip,
children were allowed to play
in a room with a real Bobo doll
just like the one they saw in
the film.

41. Bandura predicts/ hypothesize...
• He predicted that children who observed an
adult acting aggressively would be likely to act
aggressively even when the adult model was not
present.
• The children who observed the non-aggressive
adult model would be less aggressive than the
children who observed the aggressive model;
the non-aggressive exposure group would also
be less aggressive than the control group.
• Children would be more likely to imitate models
of the same-sex rather than models of the
opposite-sex.
• Boys would behave more aggressively than girls.

42. Results
• Bandura found was that children were more likely to
imitate the adult's violent actions when the adult either
received no consequences or when the adult was
actually rewarded for their violent actions.
• Children who saw film clips in which the adult was
punished for this aggressive behavior were less likely to
repeat the behaviors later on.
• Bandura study has important implications for the effects
of media violence on children. (WWE)

44. Criticism
• Since data was collected immediately, it is also difficult
to know what the long-term impact might have been.
• Acting violently toward a doll is a lot different that
displaying aggression or violence against another human
being in a real world setting.
• It has also been suggested that children were not
actually motivated to display aggression when they hit
the Bobo doll; instead, they may have simply been trying
to please the adults.
• Some critics argue that the study itself is unethical. By
manipulating the children into behaving aggressively,
they argue, the experimenters were essentially teaching
the children to be aggressive.

45. What have we learn for
today?