Part 8 (Learning)

PART 8
LEARNING
SECTIONS
Ѱ
8
Psychology, Twelfth Edition (Myers, D. G.)
© T.G. Lane 2018

PART8:LEARNING
• Discuss some of the basic forms of learning, including
classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and
observational learning.
• Differentiate between classical conditioning, operant
conditioning, and observational learning.
• Apply principles of classical conditioning, operant
conditioning, and observational learning to real life
examples.
• Differentiate between an unconditioned stimulus,
unconditioned response, neutral stimulus, conditioned
stimulus, and conditioned response when considering classical
conditioning.
© T.G. Lane 2018
LEARNING

PART8:LEARNING
• Differentiate between positive and negative reinforce-
ment as well as positive and negative punishment when
considering operant conditioning.
• Discuss how extinction, spontaneous recovery, general-
ization, and discrimination works when considering
classical and operant conditioning.
© T.G. Lane 2018
LEARNING

PART8:LEARNING
SECTION
LEARNING
© T.G. Lane 2018

1PART8:LEARNING
What is learning and what are some basic forms of learning?
BASIC LEARNING CONCEPTS AND CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
© T.G. Lane 2018
• By learning, humans are able to adapt to different environments,
which gives humans the ability to expect and prepare for
significant events.
• learning: the process of acquiring new and relatively
enduring information or behavior
HOW DO WE LEARN?

1PART8:LEARNINGBASIC LEARNING CONCEPTS AND CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
© T.G. Lane 2018
• Humans learn by associations; the mind naturally connect events
that occur in sequences (e.g. using a red pen to grade papers or
education aid voting in a school).
• As you repeat behaviors in a
given context (e.g. walking a
certain route on campus) the
behaviors become associated
with the contexts; the next
experience of the context
evokes a habitual response,
especially in instances of fa-
tigue.
HOW DO WE LEARN?

© T.G. Lane 2018
• On average, behaviors become habitual after about 66 days of
repeated behavior.
• Associative learning can follow when linking two events that
occur close together.
HOW DO WE LEARN?
• associative learning: learning that
certain events occur together; the
events may be two stimuli (as
classical conditioning) or a res-
ponse and its consequences (as in
operant conditioning).
• stimulus: any event or situation
that evokes response

© T.G. Lane 2018
• Responsive behavior can occur as a result of associative learning.
HOW DO WE LEARN?
• responsive behavior: behavior that occurs as automatic
response to some stimulus; this is an
example of classical conditioning
Example:
It is learned that a flash of
lightning signals an impending
crack of thunder, when
lightning flashes nearby, one
starts to brace themselves (or
respond).

© T.G. Lane 2018
• Humans and other animals learn to repeat acts followed by
good results and avoid acts followed by bad results; these
associates produce operant behaviors as a result of operant
conditioning.
HOW DO WE LEARN?
• operant behavior: behavior that operates on the environ-
ment, producing consequences

© T.G. Lane 2018
• Cognitive learning is another form of learning separate from
conditioning.
HOW DO WE LEARN?
• cognitive learning: the acquisition of mental information,
whether by observing events, by watching others, or
through language
• Observational learning is one form
of cognitive learning where one
learns from others’ experiences or
by watching others’ performances.

1PART8:LEARNING
What was behaviorism’s view of learning?
BASIC LEARNING CONCEPTS AND CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
© T.G. Lane 2018
• Ivan Pavlov explored classical conditioning.
• classical conditioning: a type of learning in which one
learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
• Behaviorism helped shape psychology’s current definition
which can be credited to John B. Watson and Ivan Pavlov.
• behaviorism: the view that
psychology (1) should be an
objective (i.e. observable)
science (2) studies behavior
without reference to mental
processes

© T.G. Lane 2018
Pavlov’s Experiments
• Pavlov’s experiment aimed to determine how animals learn,
which he was able to demonstrate by observing what situ-
ations prompt dogs to salivate.
• Through several tests they
were able to determine
how these acts lead to the
dog salivating.
• He discovered that the dogs not only salivate at the taste of
food, but also by the sight of food, or the food dish, or sound of
the footsteps of the person delivering the food.

© T.G. Lane 2018
Pavlov’s Experiments (Continued)
Steps
1. The dog was presented with food by sliding in a food bowl.
2. The food was then paired with various neutral stimuli (NS) –
e.g. tone of a tuning fork, buzzer, a light, touch of the leg, etc.
• neutral stimulus: in classical conditioning, a stimulus
that elicits no response before conditioning

© T.G. Lane 2018
Steps Continued
3. The food in mouth (i.e. the unconditioned stimulus (US))
automatically triggered the dog’s salivary reflex which he
called an unconditional response (UR), which is not learned.
• unconditioned stimulus (US): a stimulus that
unconditionally– naturally and automatically–
triggers an unconditioned response (UR)
• unconditioned response (US): an
unlearned, naturally occurring response
(such as salivating) to an unconditioned
stimulus (US) (such as food in mouth)

© T.G. Lane 2018
Steps Continued
• conditioned stimulus (CS): an originally irrelevant stimulus
that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus (US),
comes to trigger a conditioned response (CR)
4. On the other hand, overtime, the dog learned to respond (i.e.
salivate) to the sound of a tuning fork when the unconditioned
stimulus (food in mouth) was removed; the conditioned stimulus
(the tuning fork) in turn produced a conditioned response.
• conditioned response: a learned response to a
previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus
(CS)

© T.G. Lane 2018
VideoClip

1
In classical conditioning, what are the processes of acquisition, ex-
tinction, spontaneous recovery, generalization, and discrimination?
ACQUISITION
HOW DO WE LEARNING?
© T.G. Lane 2018
PART8:LEARNING
To understand the acquisition, or initial learning, of the stimulus-
response relationship, Pavlov and his associates wondered: How
much time should elapse between presenting the NS and the US?
The answer– about a half second usually works well.
• acquisition: in classical conditioning,
the initial stage, when one links a
neutral stimulus and an unconditioned
stimulus so that the neutral stimulus
begins triggering the conditioned
response. In operant conditioning, the
strengthening of a reinforced response.

© T.G. Lane 2018
• Conditioning typically does not occur when the NS follows
the US.
ACQUISITION
• Conditioning is biologically adaptive because it helps
humans and other animals prepare for good or bad events
Example

new dog bark leads to past memory
(causes fear)
© T.G. Lane 2018
• Conditioning helps an animal survive and reproduce– by responding
to cues that help it gain food, avoid dangers, locate mates, and
produce offspring.
ACQUISITION
Example
• Through higher-order conditioning, a new NS can become a new CS
without the presence of a US.
• higher-order conditioning: a procedure in which the
conditioned stimulus in one conditioning experience
is paired with a new neutral stimulus, creating a
second (often weaker) conditioned stimulus
guard dog bite produces fear
Scenario #1
Scenario #2

• What would happen, if after conditioning, the CS occurred repeat-
edly without the US? If the tone sounded again and again, but no
food appeared, would the tone still trigger salivation?
EXTINCTION AND SPONTANEOUS RECOVERY
• The dog is likely to salivate less and less, a reaction known
as extinction – CS (tone) no longer signals an impending
US (food).
• extinction: the diminished of a conditioned response;
occurs in classical conditioning when an uncondit-
ioned stimulus (US) does not follow a conditioned
stimulus (CS)
X Repeated
decreased salivation
CS
© T.G. Lane 2018

• When several hours have elapse before sounding the tone again–
after the delay, the dogs would again begin salivating; this is an
example of spontaneous recovery.
EXTINCTION AND SPONTANEOUS RECOVERY
© T.G. Lane 2018
• spontaneous recovery: the reappearance, after a
pause, of an extinguished conditioned response
Paused After
Extinction

• Pavlov noticed that a dog conditioned to sound of one tone also
responded somewhat to the sound of a new and different tone;
this is an example of generalization.
GENERALIZATION
© T.G. Lane 2018
or
• generalization: the tendency, once a response has been
conditioned, for stimuli similar to the conditioned
stimulus to elicit similar responses
• Examples: fudge shaped like feces and toddlers fearing all
moving vehicles rather than just trucks

• Pavlov’s dogs also learned to respond to the sound of a particular
tone and not to other tones. This learned ability to distinguish
between a conditioned stimulus (which predicts the US) and other
irrelevant stimuli is called discrimination.
DISCRIMINATION
© T.G. Lane 2018
• discrimination: in classical conditioning, the learned
ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and
stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus.
X
≠

1
Why does Pavlov’s work remain so important?
• Most psychologists agree that classical conditioning is a basic
form of learning.
• Many other responses to many other stimuli can be classically
conditioned in many other organisms– classical conditioning is
one way that virtually all organisms learn to adapt to their
environment.
PAVLOV’S LEGACY
© T.G. Lane 2018
PART8:LEARNINGHOW DO WE LEARN?
• Pavlov helped to show how a process such as
learning can be studied objectively– study
suggested a scientific model for the psychology
discipline.

1
How did Watson apply Pavlov’s principles to learning fears?
• Pavlov’s work provided a basis for Watson’s idea that human
emotions and behaviors, though biological influenced, are
mainly bundle of conditioned responses.
APPLICATIONS OF CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
PART8:LEARNINGHOW DO WE LEARN?
• Watson and Rayner’s Little Albert study:
© T.G. Lane 2018
• Little Albert learned to fear a white rat after repeatedly
experiencing a loud noise as the rat was presented.
• Little Albert generalized to the sight of a rabbit, a dog, and
sealskin coat, but not to dissimilar objects, such as toys.
• Extinction can occur with fears (e.g.,
repeated exposure to elevators).

PART8
SECTION
LEARNING
© T.G. Lane 2018

punisher
2
What is operant conditioning?
• Operant conditioning and classical conditioning are both forms
of associative learning, yet their differences are straight forward.
© T.G. Lane 2018
PART8:LEARNINGOPERANT CONDITIONING
• classical conditioning involves
respondent behavior– actions
that are automatic responses to
a stimulus
reinforcer
• operant conditioning: a type of learning in which be-
havior is strengthened/increased if followed by a rein-
forcer or diminished or stopped if followed by a punisher

2
Who was Skinner, and how is operant behavior reinforced and shaped?
• Skinner’s work elaborated what psychologist Edward L. Thorndike
called the law of effect.
SKINNER’S EXPERIMENT
© T.G. Lane 2018
• law of effect: Thorndike’s principle states that behaviors
followed by favorable consequences become more likely,
and that behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences
become less likely
• Skinner developed a behavioral technology that revealed
principles of behavior control (e.g. pigeons playing Ping-Pong,
walking in a figure 8, or keeping a missile on course by pecking at
a screen target).

2
• Skinner designed a operant chamber, popularly known as a
Skinner box, which rats and other animals act out Skinners
concept of reinforcement.
© T.G. Lane 2018
• operant chamber: a chamber containing a bar or key that an
animal can manipulate to obtain a food or water reinforcer;
attached devices record the animal’s rate of presses or pecks
• reinforcement: any event that strengthens the behavior it
follows

2
Shaping
• In order to condition a hungry rat to press a bar, Skinner
teased out this action with shaping.
• shaping: procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior
toward closer and closer approximations of the desired
behavior
Steps
1. Watch animals natural behaviors– helps
to build on its existing behaviors
2. With successive approximations, responses
are rewarded that are closer to the final
desired behavior and ignored if not
© T.G. Lane 2018

2
Shaping (Continued)
• Shaping can help to understand what nonverbal organisms
perceive (e.g. dog perceiving red from green).
• Experiments have also shown that some animals can form
concepts (e.g. pigeons peck when recognize human faces
only; this is an example of a discriminative stimulus)
• Skinner noted that individuals continually reinforce and shape
others’ everyday behaviors with no intentions of doing so.
© T.G. Lane 2018

2
Billy: Could you tie my shoes?
Father: (Continues reading paper.)
Billy: Dad, I need my shoes tied.
Father: Uh, yeah, just a minute.
Billy: DAAAAD! TIE MY SHOES!
Father: How many times have I told you not to whine?
Now, which shoe do we do first?
Shaping (Continued)
• Skinner expressed that we continually reinforce and shape
other’s everyday behaviors, though we may not mean to.
Example
• Billy’s whining is reinforced – he get’s something desirable
(his dad’s attention)
• Dad’s response is reinforced – it stops something undesirable
(Billy’s whining)
© T.G. Lane 2018

2PART8:LEARNINGOPERANT CONDITIONING
© T.G. Lane 2018
How do positive and negative reinforcement differ, and what are the
basic types of reinforcers?
• There are two types reforcers– positive reinforcers and negative
reinforcers:
TYPES OF REINFORCERS
© T.G. Lane 2018
• positive reinforcers: increasing behaviors by presenting
any stimulus that, when presented after a response,
strengthens the response.
• negative reinforcers: increasing behaviors by stopping or
reducing negative stimuli; any stimulus that, when
removed after a response, strengthens the response.

• Beyond just basic types of reinforcers, there are primary and
conditioned reinforcers:
TYPES OF REINFORCERS
© T.G. Lane 2018
• primary reinforcers: innately reinforcing stimulus
(unlearned), such as one that satisfies a biological need
(e.g. food for hunger).
• conditioned reinforcers: a stimulus that gains its
reinforcing power through its association with a primary
reinforcer; also known as a secondary reinforcer (e.g. light
reliably signals food for a rat; rat will work to turn it on; a
pay check associated with food and shelter ).
Primary and Conditioned Reinforcers

REINFORCEMENT SCHEDULES
© T.G. Lane 2018
How do different reinforcement schedules affect behavior?
• When attempting to reinforce behavior, reinforcement schedules
can vary.
• reinforcement schedule: a pattern that defines how often
a desired response will be reinforced.
• There are two types of schedules; continuous reinforcement and
partial (intermittent) reinforcement schedules.
• continuous reinforcement schedule: reinforcing the
desired response every time it occurs.
• partial (intermittent) reinforcement schedule: reinforcing a
response only part of the time; results in slower learning of
a response but much greater resistance to extinction.

© T.G. Lane 2018
variable-ratio fixed-interval variable-intervalfixed-ratio
4 Types of Partial Reinforcer Schedules
Reinforce behavior
after a set number
of responses (every
so many)
Provide reinforcers
after seemingly
unpredictable # of
responses (after an
upredictable #).
Reinforce the first
response after a
fixed time period
(every so often).
Reinforce the first
response after
varying time
intervals (unpre-
dictably often).
Example Example Example Example
Coffee shops may
reward a free drink
after every 10
purchased.
Slot machine re-
wards are random,
requiring high rates
of responding.
People check the
mail more often as
the delivery time
approaches.
Persistent re-
checking of Face
book for a mess-
age.

© T.G. Lane 2018
Types of Partial Reinforcer Schedules (Continued)
• Response rates are generally higher when reinforcement is linked
to the number of responses (a ratio schedule) rather than to time
(an interval schedule).
• Responding is generally more consistent when reinforcement is
unpredictable (a variable schedule) than when it is predictable (a
fixed schedule).

How does punishment differ from negative reinforcement, and how
does punishment affect behavior?
• Reinforcement increases a behavior; punishment does the
opposite.
PUNISHMENT
© T.G. Lane 2018
• punishment: an event that tends to decrease the frequency
of the behavior that follows.
• There are positive punishment and negative punishment are two
types to consider.
Punishments tells you not to do (what we don’t want).
Reinforcement tells you what to do (what we want).

SKINNER’S LEGACY
© T.G. Lane 2018
• He repeatedly insisted that external influences, not internal
thoughts and feelings, shape behavior.
Why did Skinner’s ideas provoke controversy?
• He argued that we should use rewards to evoke more desirable
behavior.
• Critics objected Skinners ideas and believed that he
dehumanized people by neglecting their personal
freedom and by seeking to control their actions

CONSTRASTING CLASSICAL AND OPERANT CONDITIONING
© T.G. Lane 2018
• Both classical and operant conditioning are forms of associative
learning.
How does operant conditioning differ from classical conditioning?
• Both involve acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery,
generalization, and discrimination.
Classical Conditioning
Associate different stimuli we do not
control, and we respond automatically
(respondent behavior)
Operant Conditioning
Associate our own
behaviors– which act on
our environment to
produce rewarding or
punishing stimuli
(operant behaviors)–
with their consequences

3
• Today’s learning theorists recognize that learning is the
product of the interaction of biological, psychological, and
social-cultural influences.
BIOLOGICAL CONSTRAINTS ON CONDITIONING
© T.G. Lane 2018
PART8:LEARNINGBIOLOGY, COGNITION, AND LEARNING

3
How do biological constraints affect classical and operant conditioning?
• An animal’s capacity for conditioning is constrained by its biology;
each species’ predispositions prepare it to learn the associations
that enhance its survival– environments are not the whole story.
• John Garcia was among those who challenged the
prevailing idea that all associations can be learned
equally well.
© T.G. Lane 2018
Limits on Classical Conditioning
+

3
• While researching the effects of radiation on laboratory animals,
Garcia and Robert Koelling noticed that rats began to avoid
drinking water from the plastic bottles in radiation chambers.
• They exposed the rats to a particular taste, sight, or
sound (CS) and later also to radiation or drugs (US) that
led to nausea and vomiting (UR).
© T.G. Lane 2018
Limits on Classical Conditioning (Continued)
Taste (CS) Radiation (US) Nausea (UR)

3
• Two startling findings emerged from this study:
1. Even if sickened as late as several hours after tasting a
particular unfamiliar flavor, the rats thereafter avoided
that flavor.
© T.G. Lane 2018
2. The sickened rats developed aversions to tastes but not
to sights and sounds; this response is called a taste
aversion.
• Violates the notion that for conditioning to
occur, the US must immediately follow the CS.
• Contradicts the idea that any perceivable
stimulus can serve as a CS.

3
• Research has suggested that conditioning is speedier, stronger,
and more durable when the CS is ecologically relevant (e.g. a
quail sexually aroused by a fake quail-like female vs. a red light
– there is a stronger, speedier, and more durable effect).
© T.G. Lane 2018
• In the real world, conditioned stimuli have a natural
association with the unconditioned stimuli they predict.
VS
red lightfake quail
sexual arousal

3
• Biological constraints predispose organisms to learn associations
that are naturally adaptive.
Example:
© T.G. Lane 2018
Limits on Operant Conditioning
• One could easily teach pigeons to flap their wings to avoid
being shocked, and to peck to obtain food: Fleeing with their
wings and eating with their beaks are natural pigeon behaviors
• Pigeons would have a hard time learning to peck
to avoid a shock, or to flap their wings to obtain
food.

3
COGNITION INFLUENCE ON CONDITIONING
© T.G. Lane 2018
Cognitive Processes and Classical Conditioning
• In their dismissal of “mentalistic” concepts such as
consciousness, Pavlov and Watson underestimated the
importance of not only biological constraints, but also
the effects of cognitive processes (thoughts,
perceptions, expectations).
How do cognitive processes affect classical and operant conditioning?
• Researchers showed that an animal
can learn the predictability of an
event (e.g. fear of a tone initially
paired with a shock).

3
© T.G. Lane 2018
Cognitive Processes and Operant Conditioning
• Skinner believed that thoughts and emotions were
behaviors that follow the same laws as other behaviors
• There is evidence to the contrary:
• Animals on a fixed-interval reinforcement
schedule respond more and more frequently as
the time approaches when a response will
produce a reinforcer – they behave as if they
expect that repeating the response will soon
produce the reward.

3
© T.G. Lane 2018
Cognitive Processes and Operant Conditioning
• Evidence of cognitive processes has also come from studying
rats in mazes; rats exploring a maze, given no obvious rewards,
seem to develop a cognitive map.
• cognitive map: a mental representation of the layout
of one’s environment
• When food is placed in the maze’s goal box, these rats run the
maze as quickly and efficiently as other rats that were
previously reinforced with food for this result.
• The exploring rats seemingly experienced latent
learning during their earlier tours..
• latent learning: learning that occurs but is
not apparent until there is an incentive to
demonstrate it

3
© T.G. Lane 2018
Cognitive Processes and Operant Conditioning (Continued)
• The cognitive perspective has also shown us the limits of
rewards; two types of rewards/motivational systems include
intrinsic motivations and extrinsic motivations.
• intrinsic motivation: a desire to perform a behavior
effectively for its own sake
• extrinsic motivation: a desire to perform
a behavior to receive promised rewards
or avoid threatened punishment
• Research has shown that in some cases that
rewarding behavior too often can lead decreased
responses; therefore lessening intrinsic motivation.

3
LEARNING BY OBSERVATION
© T.G. Lane 2018
How does observational learning differ from associative learning?
How may observational learning be enabled by mirror neurons?
• Cognition is certainly a factor in observational learning, in
which higher animals, especially humans, learn without direct
experience, by watching and imitating others.
• We learn our native languages and various other
specific behaviors by observing and imitating
others, a process called modeling
• observational learning: learning by observing others
• modeling: the process of observing
and imitating a specific behavior

3
LEARNING BY OBSERVATION
© T.G. Lane 2018
• Albert Bandura was the pioneering researcher of observational
learning; one popular experiment he conducted was the Bobo
doll experiment.VideoClip

3
MIRRORS AND IMITATION IN THE BRAIN
© T.G. Lane 2018
• Researchers have discovered a previously unknown type of
neuron called mirror neurons.
• mirror neurons: frontal lobe neurons that some scientists
believe fire when performing certain actions or when
observing another doing so; the brain’s mirroring of
another’s action may enable imitation and empathy

3
APPLICATION OF OBSERVABLE LEARNING
© T.G. Lane 2018
Prosocial Effects
What is the impact of prosocial modeling and of antisocial modeling?
• Research has shown that prosocial models can have
prosocial effects (e.g. business organizations use
behavior modeling to help new employees learn
communications, sales, and customer service skills).
• prosocial: positive, constructive, helpful behavior
• Repeated observation of violence in the home
and on T.V. can shape such behavior
Antisocial Effects
• Observational learning can also have antisocial effects.
• Models are most effective when their actions and
words are consistent.

Part 8 (Learning)

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Part 8 (Learning)