Learning

Learning
B. F. Skinner, who was inspired by the work of Watson and Pavlov, has been one of the most influential people in contemporary psychology Skinner believed that, to be scientists, psychologists had to study observable actions and focus on the behaviors people and nonhuman animals display

What Ideas Guide the Study of Learning?

Define classical conditioning. Differentiate between US, UR, CS, and CR. Describe the role of learning in the development and treatment of phobias and drug addiction. Discuss the evolutionary significance of classical conditioning.

What Ideas Guide the Study of Learning?

Skinner and other behaviorists dismissed the

importance of introspection and mental states in favor of basic learning principles and scientific approaches to psychology.
Learning theories have been used to improve quality of life and to train humans and nonhuman animals to learn new tasks.

Learning Results from Experience

Learning: a relatively enduring change in behavior,
resulting from experience

Associations develop through conditioning, a process in which environmental stimuli and behavioral responses become connected
classical (Pavlovian) conditioning: learning that two types of events occur together operant (instrumental) conditioning: learning that a behavior leads to a particular outcome

Learning Results from Experience

Learning Theory arose in the early twentieth century in response to Freudian and introspective approaches John B. Watson argued that only observable behavior was a valid indicator of psychological activity, and that the infant mind was a tabula rasa, or blank slate He stated that the environment and its effects were the sole determinants of learning Behaviorism was the dominant paradigm into the 1960s, and had a huge influence on every area of psychology

Behavioral Responses Are Conditioned

Watson was influenced by Ivan Pavlovs research on the salivary reflex, an automatic response when food stimulus is presented to a hungry animal Pavlov noticed the dogs salivated as soon as they saw the bowls that usually contained food, suggesting a learned response

Pavlovs Experiments
Classical (Pavlovian) conditioning: A neutral object comes to elicit a response when it is associated with a stimulus that already produces that response A typical Pavlovian experiment involves:
Conditioning trials: neutral stimulus AND unconditioned

stimulus are paired to produce reflex, e.g. salivation

Neutral stimulus : anything the animal can see or hear as long as it is NOT associated with the reflex being tested, e.g. ringing bell Unconditioned stimulus (US): a stimulus that elicits a response, such as a reflex, without any prior learning, e.g. food

Critical trials: neutral stimulus alone is tested, and effect on the reflex is measured

Terminology of Pavlovs Experiments

Unconditioned response (UR): a response that does not have to be learned, such as a reflex Unconditioned stimulus (US): a stimulus that elicits a response, such as a reflex, without any prior learning Conditioned stimulus (CS): a stimulus that elicits a response only after learning has taken place Conditioned response (CR): a response to a conditioned stimulus; a response that has been learned

Acquisition, Extinction, and Spontaneous Recovery

Pavlov was influenced by Darwin and believed that conditioning is the basis of adaptive behaviors
Acquisition : the gradual formation of an association between the CS and US The critical element in the acquisition of a learned association is time, or contiguity The CR is stronger when there is a very brief delay between the CS and the US
For example, scary music begins to play right before a frightening scene in a movienot during or after

Acquisition, Extinction, and Spontaneous Recovery

How long do learned behaviors persist? Animals must learn when associations are no longer adaptive
extinction : a form of learning that the prior association no longer holds. The CR is weakened when the CS is repeated without the US, and eventually extinguishes

Spontaneous recovery: a previously extinguished response reemerges after the presentation of the CS The recovery will fade unless the CS is again paired with the US Extinction inhibits the associative bond, but does not eliminate it

Phobias and Addictions Have Learned Components

Classical conditioning helps explain many behavioral phenomena. Among the examples are phobias and addictions.

Phobias and Their Treatment

phobia: an acquired fear out of proportion to the real threat of an object or of a situation Fear conditioning: the process of classically conditioning animals to fear neutral objects The responses include specific physiological and behavioral reactions
freezing: may be a hardwired response to fear that helps animals deal with predators

Phobias and their Treatment

In 1919, John B. Watson became one of the first researchers to demonstrate the role of classical conditioning in the development of phobias by devising the Little Albert experiment At the time, the prominent theory of phobias was based on Freudian ideas about unconscious repressed sexual desires Watson proposed that phobias could be explained by simple learning principles, such as classical conditioning

Phobias and their Treatment

The Little Albert Research Method:
Little Albert was presented with neutral objects (a white rat and costume masks) that provoked a neutral response
During conditioning trials, when Albert reached for the white rat (CS) a loud clanging sound(US) scared him (UR) Results: Eventually, the pairing of the rat CS and the clanging sound (US) led to the rats producing fear (CR) on its own. The fear response generalized to other stimuli presented with the rat initially, such as the costume masks Conclusion: Classical conditioning can cause people to fear neutral objects

Phobias and their Treatment

Watson planned to conduct extinction trials to remove the learned phobias but Alberts mother removed him from the study
Do you think this type of research is ethical?

Watsons colleague, Mary Cover Jones, used classic conditioning techniques to develop effective behavioral therapies to treat phobias
Counterconditioningexposing a patient to small doses of the feared stimulus while they engage in an enjoyable task

Phobias and their Treatment

systematic desensitization: a formal treatment based on counterconditioning
Developed by behavioral therapist Joseph Wolpe in 1997 CS CR1 (fear) connection can be broken by developing a CS CR2 (relaxation) connection

Psychologists now believe that exposure to the feared stimulus is more important than relaxation

Drug Addiction
Classical conditioning also plays an important role in drug addiction. Environmental cues associated with drug use can induce conditioned cravings Unsatisfied cravings may result in withdrawal, an unpleasant state of tension and anxiety, coupled with changes in heart rate and blood pressure The sight of drug cues leads to activation of the prefrontal cortex and various regions of the limbic system and produces an expectation that the drug high will follow

Drug Addiction
Psychologist Shepard Siegel (2005) believed exposing addicts to drug cues was an important part of treating addiction
Exposure helps extinguish responses to the cues and prevents them from triggering cravings

Siegel and his colleagues conducted research into the relationship between drug tolerance and situation
The body has learned to expect the drug in that location and compensates by altering neurochemistry or physiology to metabolize it Conversely, if addicts take their usual large doses in novel settings, they are more likely to overdose because their bodies will not respond sufficiently to compensate

Classical Conditioning Involves More Than Events Occurring at the Same Time
Pavlovs original explanation for classical conditioning was that any two events presented in contiguity would produce a learned association

Pavlov and his followers believed that the associations strength was determined by factors such as the intensity of the conditioned and unconditioned stimuli
However, in the mid-1960s, a number of challenges to Pavlovs theory suggested that some conditioned stimuli were more likely than others to produce learning Contiguity was not sufficient to create CS-US associations

Evolutionary Significance
Psychologist John Garcia and colleagues showed that certain pairings of stimuli are more likely to become associated than others _____________ _____________: the association between eating a food and getting sick
Response occurs even if the illness was caused by a virus or some other condition
Especially likely to occur if the food was not part of the persons usual diet. A food aversion can be formed in one trial

Animals that associate a certain flavor with illness, and therefore avoid that flavor, are more likely to survive and pass along their genes

Evolutionary Significance
Learned adaptive responses may reflect the survival value that different auditory and visual stimuli have based on potential dangers associated with the stimuli What evolutionary value do you see in this learned behavior? _____________ _________: Psychologist Martin Seligman (1970) argued that animals are genetically programmed to fear specific objects People are predisposed to wariness of outgroup members (Olsson, Ebert, Banaji, & Phelps, 2005)

How Does Operant Conditioning Differ from Classical Conditioning?

Define operant conditioning.

Distinguish between positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, and negative punishment.
Distinguish between schedules of reinforcement.

Identify biological and cognitive factors that influence operant conditioning.

How Does Operant Conditioning Differ from Classical Conditioning?

_____________ _____________: a learning process in which the consequences of an action determine the likelihood that it will be performed in the future B. F. Skinner chose the term operant to express the idea that animals operate on their environments to produce effects. _____________ _____ performed the first reported carefully controlled experiments in comparative animal psychology using a puzzle box.
_____________ ___: Any behavior that leads to a satisfying state of affairs is likely to occur again, and any behavior that leads to an annoying state of affairs is less likely to occur again.

Reinforcement Increases Behavior

Thirty years after Thorndike, Skinner developed a more formal learning theory based on the law of effect He objected to the subjective aspects of Thorndikes law of effect: States of satisfaction are not observable empirically Skinner believed that behavior occurs because it has been reinforced
_____________ : a stimulus that follows a response and increases the likelihood that the response will be repeated

The Skinner Box

An operant chamber that allowed repeated conditioning trials without requiring interaction from the experimenter Contained one lever connected to a food supply and another connected to a water supply

Shaping
Sometimes animals take a long time to perform the precise desired action. What can be done? _____________ : an operant-conditioning technique that consists of reinforcing behaviors that are increasingly similar to the desired behavior
_____________ _________: any behavior that even slightly resembles the desired behavior

Suppose you wanted to teach yourself to do something. Which behavior would you choose, and how would you go about shaping it?

Reinforcers Can Be Conditioned

________________: satisfy biological needs such as food or water _____________ _____: events or objects established through classical conditioning that serve as reinforcers but do not satisfy biological needs, e.g. money or compliments

Both Reinforcement and Punishment Can Be Positive or Negative

Reinforcement and punishment have the opposite effects on behavior

Both reinforcement and punishment can be positive or negative

This designation depends on whether something is given or removed, not on whether any part of the process is good or bad

Positive and Negative Reinforcement

Reinforcement positive or negative increases the likelihood of a behavior
_____________ ______: the administration of a stimulus to increase the probability of a behaviors being repeated, e.g. a reward _____________ ______: the removal of a stimulus to increase the probability of a behaviors being repeated, e.g. requiring a rat to press a lever to turn off a shock

Positive and Negative Punishment

Punishment reduces the probability that a behavior will recur
_____________ _______: the administration of a stimulus to decrease the probability of a behaviors recurring, e.g. receiving a ticket for speeding _____________ _______: the removal of a stimulus to decrease the probability of a behaviors recurring, e.g. taking away driving privileges for bad behavior

Effectiveness of Parental Punishment

For punishment to be effective, it must be reasonable, unpleasant, and applied immediately so that the relationship between the unwanted behavior and the punishment is clear
How might this go wrong?

Punishment often fails to offset the reinforcing aspects of the undesired behavior Research indicates that physical punishment is often ineffective, compared with grounding and time-outs

Many psychologists believe that positive reinforcement is the most effective way of increasing desired behaviors while encouraging positive parent/child bonding

Operant Conditioning is Influenced by Schedules of Reinforcement

How often should reinforcers be given?

continuous reinforcement: a type of learning in which behavior is reinforced each time it occurs
partial reinforcement: a type of learning inwhich behavior is reinforced intermittently

Partial reinforcements effect on conditioning depends on the reinforcement schedule

Ratio and Interval Schedules

Partial reinforcement can be administered according to either the number of behavioral responses or the passage of time
ratio schedule: Reinforcement is based on the number of times the behavior occurs interval schedule: Reinforcement is provided after a specific unit of time

Ratio reinforcement generally leads to greater responding than does interval reinforcement

Fixed and Variable Schedules

Partial reinforcement can also be given on a fixed schedule or a variable schedule
fixed schedule: Reinforcement is provided after a specific number of occurrences or after a specific amount of time variable schedule: Reinforcement is provided at different rates or at different times

Behavior Modification
_____________ _________: the use of operant-conditioning techniques to eliminate unwanted behaviors and replace them with desirable ones _____________ ______ operate on the principle of secondary reinforcement. Tokens are earned for completing tasks and lost for bad behavior. Tokens can later be traded for objects or privileges

Biology and Cognition Influence Operant Conditioning

Behaviorists such as Skinner believed that all behavior could be explained by straightforward conditioning principles However, a great deal about behavior remains unexplained Biology constrains learning, and reinforcement does not always have to be present for learning to take place

Acquisition/Performance Distinction
Tolman argued that learning can take place without reinforcement
latent learning: takes place in the absence of reinforcement insight learning: A solution suddenly emerges after either a period of inaction or of contemplation

Tolmans studies involved rats running through mazes

cognitive map: a visual/spatial mental representation of an environment

The presence of reinforcement does not adequately explain insight learning, but it helps determine whether the behavior is subsequently repeated

Does Watching Others Affect Learning?

Describe the concept of the meme.

Define observational learning.

Generate examples of observational learning, modeling, and vicarious learning. Discuss contemporary evidence regarding the role of mirror neurons in learning.

Does Watching Others Affect Learning?

Teaching someone to perform a complex task requires more than reinforcing arbitrary correct behaviors. We learn many behaviors, including attitudes, through observation.

Learning Can Be Passed On through Cultural Transmission

_____________ : a unit of knowledge transmitted within a culture Can be conditioned through association or reinforcement, but are often learned by watching the behavior of other people Through social learning, some behaviors are passed along from one generation to the next

Learning Can Occur through Observation and Imitation

_____________ ______: the acquisition or modification of a behavior after exposure to at least one performance of that behavior Observational learning is a powerful adaptive tool for humans and other animals

Banduras Observational Studies

Banduras studies suggest that exposing children to violence may encourage them to act aggressively

Media and Violence

The extent to which media violence impacts aggressive behavior in children is debated Some studies demonstrate desensitization to violence after exposure to violent video games

However, it is difficult to draw the line between playful and aggressive behaviors in children
There may be extraneous variables that affect both TV habits AND violent tendencies

Social Learning of Fear

Susan Mineka noticed that lab-reared monkeys were not afraid of snakes the way monkeys in the wild are Her research demonstrated that animals fears can be learned through observation

Demonstration and Imitation

modeling: the imitation of behavior through observational learning Modeling is effective only if the observer is physically capable of imitating the behavior Imitation is much less common in nonhuman animals than in humans Adolescents who associate smoking with admirable figures are more likely to begin smoking