Psychology Chapter 6 Learning

What is Learning?
• Learning:
–The process by which experience or
practice results in a relatively permanent
change in behavior or potential behavior.
(clearer than book)
• Motivation:
–Energizes & directs behavior
• How does this affect learning?
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Behaviorists
• Look at how people respond to the things in
their environment that affect them.
• Don’t think it is important to study one’s
– Inner needs
– Thoughts
– Feelings
– Motives
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Associative Learning (Stimulus Response)
• People learn to associate events
– Lighting
– Thunder
• 2 types of Associative Learning
– Classical Conditioning
• Stimulus from environment > reflexive response from
subject
– Operant Conditioning
• Behavior from subject > response from environment
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Classical Conditioning
• Classical conditioning
–Form of learning that occurs when 2
stimuli—a neutral stimulus and an
unconditioned stimulus—that are paired
(presented together) become associated
with each other.
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Ivan Pavlov & Classical Conditioning
• (1849-1936)
• Russian physiologist
• Studied digestion
• Psychology hopeless as
an independent
science.
• Noble prize 1904
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Pavlov Cont.
• Serendipity
• Noticed dogs salivated before food presented
• Sounded bell before feeding dogs
• Dogs salivated at sound of bell whether food or not.
• Ringing a bell alone would not ordinarily produce
salivation.
• Classical conditioning has been demonstrated in all
species.
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• Unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
– Stimulus that automatically produces response
without any previous training.
• Meat
– Naturally salivate when anticipate eating
» Naturally & automatically elicit response
• Lighter to your finger
– Automatically pull away
» Fire unconditioned stimulus
» Stimulus > Response
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• Unconditioned response (UCR)
– Reaction that is automatically produced when an
unconditioned stimulus is presented.
• Unlearned naturally occurring response
– Dog
• Unconditioned response was salivation
– Lighting your finger
• Unconditioned response pull away
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• A neutral stimulus (NS)
–Stimulus that, before conditioning, does not
elicit a particular response.
–Dog
• Bell
– Does not naturally & automatically produce a
response
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• Conditioned stimulus (CS)
– Neutral stimulus that acquires ability to elicit a
conditioned response after being paired with an
unconditioned stimulus.
– Dog
• Paired sound of bell with meat
– Tone no longer neutral stimulus
» Conditioned stimulus
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• Conditioned response (CR)
– Response elicited by a conditioned stimulus that
has been paired with an unconditioned stimulus;
it is similar to the unconditioned response.
– Several pairings of the NS and UCS during an
acquisition phase lead to a situation in which the
CS presented by itself elicits a CR.
• Bell > Salivation
• Wouldn’t naturally salivate at sound of bell
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Classical Conditioning Cont.
• Neurological change occurs before eating.
• Dopamine in addicts
– Released before get the drug in anticipation of
receiving it.
related to a spanking?
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• Sound of a can opener
• Fish swim fast when knock on the aquarium.
• Taught the fish to have a physiological response to
the tapping.
• Learned tap = food
• Consistent
• Short time interval
• * Conduct experiment on Crunch.
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Classical Conditioning in Humans
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• Advertising using Classical Conditioning?
– Taught to pair what with what?
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• John Watson & Rosalie Rayner
–Demonstrated
• Emotions can be learned by classically
conditioning
– 9-month-old Little Albert to fear a white rat.
• Every time Albert reached for rat
– Struck steel bar
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• Rosalie Rayner & John Watson (1920'S)
• Conditioning Little Albert to fear white rat.
• Not ethical by present-day standards.
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• Unconditioned
Stimulus (UCS)
• Loud noise
– No learning
• Conditioned Stimulus
(CS)
– Rat
• Unconditioned
Response (UCR)
• Fear (of loud noise)
– No learning
• Conditioned Response
(CR)
– Fear of rat
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Little Albert Cont.
• Generalized
• Became frightened of
–White animals
–Stuffed animals
–Fur coats
–Santa Claus beards
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• Discrimination
– Ability to tell difference between similar stimuli.
• Rat not the same as fur coat
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Mary Cover Jones (1924)
• 3 yr. Old Peter
• Afraid of white rats
• Placed cage at a distance
• Gave child candy
• Each day moved cage closer
• Candy + white rat = pleasure
• Rat conditioned stimulus for pleasure
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• Optimum sequence for CS to precede the UCS
(by about .50 second).
• Stronger the UCS, stronger the conditioning.
• More times the CS & UCS are presented
together
– Stronger the CR becomes
• Steel bar hit every time you touch the rat
• *Complete crunch experiment
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Classical Conditioning Cont. Aversion
Therapy
• A type of Classical Conditioning technique for
reducing or eliminating behavior by pairing
the behavior with an unpleasant stimulus.
– Antibuse
– Squirrels hot pepper
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• Extinction: Weakening of associations.
• Dog door story
–Open all the time
–Open sometimes
–Closed all the time
–Behavior becomes extinct
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• Extinction
• General term for a reduction & eventual disappearance of a behavior
• Process of getting rid of a conditioned response
– Extinction occurs when repeated presentation of CS alone leads to a
decrease in the strength of the CR.
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• Spontaneous recovery is the reappearance of an
extinguished CR after the passage of time.
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Spontaneous Recovery
• Dog door
– Dog stops checking
– One day checks again
– Extinction
• Car
– Battery dead
– Stop checking
– Check again
– Extinction
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• Fears, anxieties classically conditioned.
• Phobia irrational fear of an activity, object, or
situation that is out proportion to actual
danger it poses.
– Meaning?
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Desensitization Therapy
• Joseph Wolpe,
1973
• Fear of flying
–Hierarchy of fear
–Pair item with
relaxation
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• Taste-aversion learning refers to the
development of a dislike or aversion to a
flavor or food that has been paired with
illness.
• Garcia Effect
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Operant Conditioning
• Also known as instrumental conditioning, an
organism operates on its environment to produce a
change.
• Teaches subjects to associate behaviors with their
consequences
– Subject acts first
– Environment responds to the action
• Classical Conditioning
– Environment acts first by triggering or eliciting a response
from subject
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• Behaviors more likely to be repeated if they
are followed by a reward or an incentive to
do it again.
• Less likely to be repeated if followed by a
punishment.
– Principles apply to both Operant & Classical
Conditioning
• Extinction
• Generalization
• Discrimination
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Edward Thorndike
• Studied behavior of
animals
– Placed them in a
small chamber
• Puzzle box
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Thorndike's Puzzle Box
• Did not know how to
escape.
• 1st cats explored
restlessly, meowed.
• Eventually stepped on
the foot switch
accidentally
– Trap door opened.
– On succeeding trials,
they operated the
switch faster.
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Edward Thorndike
• Believed that when cat stumbled upon a behavior
that produced a desirable effect
– Created a link or associative bond between
• Stimulus (in this case, being in the cage)
• Response (stepping on the switch).
– Later, in the same stimulus situation response occurred
faster.
• Thorndike’s Law of Effect
– People are more likely to do things when the
consequences feel good.
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• Example:
–Training a dog to roll over.
–How did you do it?
–What steps did you take?
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Shaping
• Reinforcing successive
approximations to the desired
behavior.
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• B.F. Skinner influenced by Thorndike, & John B.
Watson’s behavioral view of psychology.
• Watson
– If we could understand how to
• Predict
• Control behavior
– Would know all there was to know about psychology.
• Skinner looked for the stimuli that control
behavior.
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Skinner
• Skinner box recorded
– How fast
– How often
• Pressed the bar
– Taught animals weird behaviors to get food
• Reward
• Used shaping
– Operant Conditioning
• Subject acts first
• Reward from environment
• If subject likes reward will probably repeat behavior
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• Reinforcer
– Event or stimulus that increases the frequency of the
response that it follows.
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Reinforcers
• Primary Reinforcers
– Food
– Hour extra sleep
– Something that feels good & satisfying all by itself.
• Secondary Reinforcers
– Not satisfying all by themselves
– Learn they are worth repeating a behavior
• Money / Concert tickets
– By themselves not fun
» Buy fun stuff
» See a show with the tickets
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Reinforcers
• Positive reinforcers
– Gives subject something
• More likely that a behavior will be repeated
– Food
– Money
– Concert tickets
– Praise
• Presented after the target response occurs.
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Reinforcers
• Negative reinforcers
– Events or stimuli that are removed because a
response has occurred.
• Takes away something unpleasant
– Example Skinner Box
• Rat gets shock
• Press bar to stop shock
– Behavior reinforced when the pain of the current stops
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• Punisher
– Stimulus that produces a
decrease in responding
– May take the form of
presentation of a
stimulus or termination
of a stimulus.
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• Punishment
– Process of using a punisher to decrease response
rate.
• Punishment is not an especially effective
means of altering behavior.
– May repeat the behavior but not in the presence
of the punisher
– Sometimes creates fear & aggression
– Doesn’t encourage desired behavior
– RAT EXPERIMENT!!``````````````
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Cognitive and Social Perspectives On
Learning
• Latent learning
occurs when
learning has
taken place, but
is not
demonstrated.
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Learning
• Latent learning
occurs when
learning has
taken place, but
is not
demonstrated.
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Learning
• Observational learning (modeling)
– Learning that occurs through watching & imitating
the behaviors of others.
• Parents
• See person doing the behavior reinforced for the
behavior
– Gold & silver class watch teacher do what you have been
trying to do easier.
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Learning
• Keys to observational learning
– Participant identifies with the person being
observed.
• Vicarious reinforcement or vicarious
punishment.
– Put ourselves in the other person’s place for a
moment
– Better able to imagine the effects of the reinforcer
or punisher.
• Brown eye, blue eye study
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Learning
• Attempts to influence behavior through
observational learning occur every day (along
with efforts based on classical conditioning).
• Observational learning
– Used to reduce or eliminate phobias.
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Psychology Chapter 6 Learning

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