Chapter 6: LearningBEHAVIORAL PERSPECTIVE

2015-2016

Objective

• I will be able to understand and apply the concepts of “learning”

1.Classical conditioning

2.Operant conditioning

3. Observational learning

to “real life” situations

What type of “things” do people learn?

What is the process involved in this learning?

How would you define learning?

Learning

• *A relatively durable change in behavior or knowledge that is due to experience

Label your Notes:1. Classical Conditioning

Some Natural Reactions

What happens when you smell good food?

What happens when you see the “love of your life” walking down the hall?

We’ll get back to this in a minute!

I need a volunteer who is a “good sport.”

Ivan Pavlov*Ivan Pavlov, Russian physiologist , 1900’s- research on digestion, found dogs salivate in response to sound of a tone. He discovered Classical Conditioning, a.k.a. Pavlovian conditioning

He was studying the role of saliva in digestion of dogs

Figure 6.1 Classical conditioning apparatus

Figure 6.2 The sequence of events in classical conditioning

Classical Conditioning

Ivan Pavlov• Terminology

– *Unconditioned Stimulus-UCS or US (the food)-evokes an unconditioned response that is not learned

– *Unconditioned Response-UCR or UR (salivate)-an unlearned reaction to an unconditioned stimulus (food)

– *Conditioned Stimulus-CS (bell) –a neutral stimulus that is able, through conditioning, to evoke a conditioned response (salivating)

– *Conditioned Response-salivate (CR) –a learned reaction to a conditioned stimulus (bell) that occurs because of conditioning

Now, back to our pizza and “the love of your life.”

Conditioning in Everyday Life

Food and the Bell

• You are in your 5th period, the bell rings, you become hungry and salivate. You associate eating with the bell.

• In this example,

the UCS=,

the UCR=

the CS=

the CR=

Seeing the “love of your life”• You see him/her, your

heat beats, you get butterflies in your stomach. This love wears AXE. You are walking down the hall & smell AXE, you get butterflies.

• In this example,

the UCS=

the UCR=

the CS=

the CR=

The water bottle incident.

• What was the US?

• What was the UR?

• What was the CS?

• What was the CR?

Natural Reactions and Their CausesOther Reactions that are Natural (part of out human make-up)?

Natural Causes (part of our human make-up) for these Reactions

Classical Conditioning or Pavlovian Conditioning

*A stimulus (the bell-AXE) acquires the capacity (making it conditioned) to evoke a response (salivation-feelings of love) that was originally evoked by a natural stimulus (food-seeing your “love”)

Classical Conditioning: More Terminology

• Trial = pairing of UCS (food) and CS (bell)• Acquisition = initial stage in learning • Stimulus contiguity = occurring together in

time and spacePresenting the CS no more than 2 to 3 seconds

before an US/UCS will result in most effective learning

Figure 6.3 Classical conditioning of a fear response

The Love Story, Charlie, Gum and Cigarettes

Processes in Classical Conditioning

• *Extinction-gradual weakening and disappearance of a conditioned response when the UCS and the CS are no longer paired

• *Spontaneous Recovery-reappearance of an extinguished response

• *Stimulus Generalization-responding the same way to stimuli that are similar to the conditioned stimuli ( a different tone of a bell, the word turd)

• *Discrimination-not responding to similar stimuli as the CS-only respond to the original bell tone

• *Higher-order conditioning-conditioned stimulus function as if it were an unconditioned stimulus-using a CS to add another CS See next slide for example)

Figure 6.10 Higher-order conditioning

Figure 6.7 Acquisition, extinction, and spontaneous recovery

Poor Little Albert

Little Albert

-What is the UCS?

-What is the UCR?

-What is the CS?

-What is the CR?

-How was generalization demonstrated?

-What would have demonstrated stimulus discrimination in the case of Little Albert?

Your Turn

• Work with a partner to:

1.Use Classical Conditioning to explain why you or someone else associates one event with another

2. Include and identify the UCS (water in face), UCR (turning head to avoid), CS (word bird), CR (turning head)

3.Explain discrimination and generalization

4.You have 10 minutes

Conditioning and Physiological Responses

• Functions of the immune system can be influenced by conditioning

immunosuppression (decrease in production of antibodies)

Animals injected with immunosuppression drug while given an odd tasting liquid to drink

Had reduced antibody production when given just the drink

Let’s See How Many Past Vocabulary Words We know

Lets see how many old terms you remember

Behavioral Perspective proactive interference

Evolutionary Perspective anterograde amnesia

Psychoanalytic Perspective retrograde amnesia

Cognitive Perspective long term potentiation

Socio-cultural (Cultural) Perspective

Humanistic Perspective

Hypothesis Operational Definitions

Independent variable random sample

Dependent variable population

Control Group random assignment

Experimental Group

Extraneous Variables

Label Your Notes:

2. Operant Conditioningis Instrumental Learning (Thorndike)

• *Edward L. Thorndike (1913) – the law of effect – behaviors followed by positive consequences are strengthened (have better chance of occurring in future); behaviors followed by negative consequences are weakened.

• Did pioneering work on how cats learn using puzzle box (p. 229)-read about in text

Operant Conditioning-BF Skinner (1953)

• learning in which responses are controlled by their consequences (the response is called an operant response)

Operant Conditioning• B.F. Skinner (1953) – principle of

*reinforcement -reinforcement occurs when an event (ex. candy) following a response (ex. answering questions) increases an organism’s tendency to make that response (ex. answering questions)– *Operant chamber or Skinner box

(animal makes specific responses that are recorded and consequences are controlled)

Operant Conditioning

– *Reinforcement contingencies-whether or not responses lead to reinforces/rewards-controlled by the experimenter

– *Cumulative recorder-creates a graphic record of animal’s response and reinforcement

Figure 6.13 Skinner box and cumulative recorder

How Does Operant Conditioning Look in “Real” Life? Are you likely to go out with

these friends again?

Figure 6.12 Reinforcement in operant conditioning

Basic Processes in Operant Conditioning

• *Acquisition-the initial stages of learning, effected by:

• *Shaping-rewarding successive approximations (behaviors close to what is expected)

• *Extinction-the weakening of the response due to no reinforcement (how would this look in real life?)*Generalization-responding to a new stimuli as if it were the

original-I answer questions to any kind of candy reward

*Discrimination-responding only to the original stimulus (a bear responds to an animal trainer’s hand signals but not to your hand signals)

Figure 6.14 A graphic portrayal of operant responding

Table 6.1 Comparison of Basic Processes in Classical and Operant Conditioning

Reinforcement:Consequences that Strengthen Responses

• *Primary Reinforcers – Satisfy biological needs (food, water)

• *Secondary Reinforcers are– Conditioned reinforcers-acquire

reinforcing qualities (money, good grades, cars, etc…)

Schedules of Reinforcement

• *Continuous reinforcement =reward every time(most effective when learning new behaviors)

• *Intermittent (partial) reinforcement (responses sometimes reinforced and sometimes not-2 types):

1. *Ratio schedules (# of responses)• Fixed – number of responses (pellet after every 7pigeon

pecks)• Variable – average number of correct responses (occurs

after an average of 7 pigeon pecks)

2. *Interval schedules (amount of time)• Fixed –rat reinforced every 2 minutes• Variable – rat reinforced after average of every 2

minutes

Partial Reinforcement ScheduleRatios

Fixed Ratio-Every 5 pulls--lower resistance to extinction

Variable Ratio-average of 5 pulls-higher resistance to extinction

Partial Reinforcement ScheduleRatios

Fixed Interval-Every 5 minutes--lower resistance to extinction

Variable Interval-average of 5 every five minutes-higher resistance to extinction

Figure 6.17 Schedules of reinforcement and patterns of response

Consequences: Reinforcement (increases behaviors) and Punishment (decreases behaviors)

• Increasing a response through:– *Positive reinforcement = response followed by

rewarding stimulus (food)– *Negative reinforcement = response (push lever

in skinner box; studying; click seatbelt) stops/removes an aversive (means uncomfortable) stimulus/event (shock-fear of failing test; seat belt buzzer stops- doing what you were asked just to stop mom from yelling):

• *Escape learning-response that ends or decreases an aversive stimuli (shock; turning on AC to end heat)

• *Avoidance learning-an aversive stimuli is prevented from occurring (turn on AC before it gets hot)

Figure 6.18 Positive reinforcement versus negative reinforcement

Figure 6.19 Escape and avoidance learning

Operant Conditioning

• Decreasing a response through:– *Punishment (consequences that

weaken a response)*Positive Punishment(give something-

spanking, ticket) *Negative Punishment(take something-car,

grounded for a week)– Problems with punishment and General Rules:1. apply swiftly 2. just severe enough to be effective

–fit the “crime” 3. consistent 4. explain the punishment 5. minimize physical punishment

Punishment Verses Reinforcement

• Punishment (negative or positive) decreases a behavior

• Reinforcement (negative or positive) increases a behavior

Figure 6.20 Comparison of negative reinforcement and punishment

Changes in Our Understandingof Conditioning

• Biological Constraints on Conditioning– Instinctive Drift-animals instincts interfere with

conditioning (raccoons rub shinny pennies-can not get them to put pennies in bank; can’t get you to jump out window for $100)

– Conditioned Taste Aversion (aka, the Garcia Effect)- John Garcia, 1989- Food paired with nausea, even hours later, we avoid that food and do not relate nausea to other stimuli present (our girlfriend, our parents, a fork)

– WHY????

Figure 6.22 Conditioned taste aversion

Changes in Our Understandingof Conditioning

– Biological Preparedness (Martin Seligman) said we are prone to be easily conditioning in certain ways. Certain phobias are more common than others

Most Common Phobias-Snakes, spiders, heights, darkness-Most common Phobias

After painful experiences with hot stove or electrical outlets, fear’s infrequent

WHY???????????????????????????????

Why-Evolutionary or Biological Perspective- Most were Once Threats to our Ancestors

Avoiding events in our environment are adaptive

our biological heritage puts restraints on learning

Associative Learning= learning that two events occur together (stimuli in classical cond., or a response and its consequence-as in operant cond.)

Premack Principle: high probability behaviors (we do by choice-soccer) are used to reinforce low probability behaviors (chores).

If I listen to music while studying, I realize that it is the studying, not the music, that improved my grade. Studying will be reinforced and done again. Robert Rescorla’s (behavioral psychologist-studied Operant Conditioning) Contingency Model-has a cognitive aspect)

Recognizing Cognitive Processes in Conditioning

Key Figure-Robert Rescorla’s Contingency Model –Cognitive

Process :Response Outcome Relations:• Stimulus must provide subject info. about

likelihood events will occur

Example: Dog has to realize that going a trick results in a food treat, for the dog to be trained to do tricks

Label your Notes:3. Observational Learning / Social Learning Theory/Social Cultural Perspective (Albert Bandura):

Observational Learning:• Albert Bandura :

– *Observational learning =learn by watching and then imitating others, called models

– *Vicarious conditioning=both classical and operant conditioning takes place, vicariously, through observational learning (example=You respond to my word questions because you saw others get candy)

What are some examples of this?

Bandura’s BoBo Doll Experiment and observational learning

Showed that children learned to be aggressive by watching aggression-Let’s watch

Mirror Neurons

• Particular group of brain cells seem to be responsible for observational learning

Other Important Learning ConceptsLearned Helplessness-Seligman, passive behavior

due to unavoidable aversive events, feel outcome is out of our control (read page 223)Ex: do not study b/c you feel you always fail

Insight Learning-sudden solution to a problem, an “ah-ha” experience (Kohler-banana in ceiling experiment)

Cognitive Maps-Tolman-a mental representation of the layout of the environment (with food present) in a maze because they remembered cognitive maps of the maze when they were in there with no food present-Tolman called this:

Latent learning-storing the info until it was needed (can wash car since I saw mom do it years earlier)

Figure 6.25 Observational learning

Observational Learning: Basic Processes

Bandura distinguishes between acquisition (I know how to study) vs. performance (but will I) .

*Reinforcement will determine whether I actually perform a learned response-is it worth it?

Prosocial v. Antisocial Modeling Effects

• Positive, helpful models

• Negative models have negative effects (abusive men saw mothers abused)

More Terms to Know• Aversive Conditioning=associating a satisfying

experience with an unpleasant one to stop unwanted behavior (is Classical Conditioning-taking a nausea producing drug with alcohol)

• Token economy= (is operant conditioning) using tokens/tickets/stickers to reward desired behaviors-tokens are later traded in for desired items – used in psychiatric facilities

• Chaining= (is operant conditioning)teach subjects to perform a number of responses successfully to get a reward (training a dog act in the circus)

(shaping is to mold a single behavior)

Overjustification Effect external rewards diminish intrinsic motivations (I love reading; school gives prize for summer reading; I don’t enjoy reading as much-I read less)