Chapter 8: LearningRiane Barrera

Asia Gandy

Brianna Jones

Johnia Murray

David Stewart

How do we learn?

Learning: a relatively permanent change in an organism’s behavior due to experience

We learn by association

Associative Learning: Learning that certain events occur together.

The events may be two stimuli or a response and its consequences

Being able to predict the immediate future

Three forms of learning:

Conditioning

Operant

Observational

Classical Conditioning Classical Conditioning

A type of learning in which an organism comes to associate stimuli. A neural stimulus that signals an unconditioned stimulus begins to produce a response that anticipates and prepares for the unconditioned stimulus.

Behaviorism: The view that psychology should be an objective science that studies behavior without reference to mental processes.

Types of Stimuli and Response

Unconditioned Stimulus and Response (US and UR)

US – a stimulus that will evoke the most basic, natural and innate of responses in any organism

UR – a response that happens uncontrollably after being presented with the US

Conditioned Stimulus and Response (CS and CR)

CS – a stimulus that has been associated with the US to evoke the same response as before

CR – a response that happens uncontrollably after being presented with the CS because the association has taught the organism that the US will follow.

It’s almost in a sense of preparation when discussing the CS, US, and CR.

Pavlov’s Experiments

Studying salivary secretion in dogs When he puts food in the dog’s mouth the animal begins to salivate

Notices the dog began salivating to stimuli associated with food

Sight of food, food dish, presence or sound of the person who usually brought the food

Experiment Isolated dog in a room and attached a measuring device to measure its saliva

Present food from an adjacent room

Sliding in food bowl, blowing meat powder into dog’s mouth at a specific moment, paired various neutral stimuli with food in the dog’s mouth

If the neutral stimulus regularly signaled the arrival of food, would the dog associate the two stimuli? Would it begin salivating to the neutral stimulus in anticipation of the food?

Yes and Yes

Before placing food in the dog’s mouth, Pavlov sounded a tone. After repeatedly pairing sound and food, the dog began salivating at the sound alone.

Pavlov’s Experiments

The dog and food experiment lead to a gateway showing 5 major conditioning processes: AcquisitionExtinctionSpontaneous Recovery Generalization Discrimination

Acquisition

The initial stage in classical conditioning

The phase associating a neutral stimulus with an US so that the neutral stimulus comes to elicit a CR.

It’s proven that it can be done but timing is the next question of the stimulus – response relationship. In general, only half a second is really necessary. Why? Survival.

Conditioning to the CS doesn’t happen when the US precedes it.

If the event happened already, the significance of the CS is lost.

The connection of survival can be understood through sexual arousal by:

A male and female Japanese quail and a red light or

Onion breath and a kiss from a woman

Extinction and Spontaneous Recovery Extinction – the diminishing effect of the CR when there isn’t a US

When you continue to give the CS without the US to follow, the CR slowly begins to go away. Why? The subject is learning to dissociate the two because there was a change

to where the CS doesn’t equal the previous US anymore. Although you learn the dissociation, the response doesn’t completely go away. Extinction only suppresses the CR.

Spontaneous Recovery – the spontaneous response to a dissociated CS. You can take away the CS and US for a long period of time (several hours

or more) and use it again later and get the same reaction. Why? How? Why – although it has been dissociated, you still remember it for what it once

was but the reaction will be a weaker form

How – the neurons in your brain tend to make connections and ‘bonds’ that can’t be broken which leaves it to be embedded. Think of riding a bike. . .

Generalization

The recognizing of stimuli that are similar to the CS that will elicit the same response but in a weaker form depending upon how similar or dissimilar the stimuli is to the original CS

Ex. A dog and being scratched or rubbed

The CS can be being scratched on the left thigh. As the form of being touched changes so does the strength of the response. As the location of being touched changes, so does the strength of the reaction.

Although it may know the difference between them all, the dog will give a variation of the response depending upon how close or far away you are to it’s jackpot spot (scratching the left thigh)!

Discrimination

Learning and demonstrating the ability to differentiate between a CS and other irrelevant stimuli

Can determine you livelihood. Why?

No matter how minute or monumental the stimuli, they can evoke vastly different responses.

Knowing the difference are a key tool in your survival and/or sanity (I don’t believe you. How?

Think of dogs. Little dog = a yelp or a very weak bark with a pinching bite, Big dog = an alarming and booming bark with a strong and bone breaking bite

Think of snakes. Although it’s not the best way to tell the difference, the shape of their eyes can tell you which have poisonous venom in their bite and those that have a harmless bite. Typically round eyes = non venomous slit, cat like eyes = venomous.

(There are snake families in which they fall together. Some can mimic an aunt, uncle or cousin and be venomous through head shape and eyes and vice versa. Nevertheless, snakes are DANGEROUS and you should STAY AWAY and CLEAR them!!!)

Limits to Classical Conditioning?

Of course. . . Two, actually

Cognitive Processes – understanding a chain of events in chronological order. ROBERT RESCORLA and ALLAN WAGNER argued that when two significant events occur close together in time, one can learn the predictability of the second event. Through the experience, one can learn the expectancy of the second event

Rat and electrical shock

Alcoholics and nausea (failed attempt)

Biological Predispositions – embedded and innate behaviors due to DNA. It’s capacity to be conditioned is constrained by its biology.

This allows it to take in just enough to enhance their chances of survival.

Whichever sense is your primary lifeline, it can be deterred but your others won’t be effected.

This change can be passed down generation to generation leading to a superior species of that kind. (Darwin’s principle of natural selection and survival of the fittest)

Operant ConditioningOperant Conditioning

A type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforce(r) or diminished if followed by a punisher.

Respondent Behavior: behavior that occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus

Learned through classical conditioning

Operant Behavior: behavior that operates on the environment, producing consequences

Is the organism learning associations between events that it doesn’t control or is it learning associations between its behavior and resulting events?

Classical conditioning is learning associations between events that it doesn’t control

Operant conditioning is learning associations between its behavior and resulting events

Skinner’s Experiment

Law of effect: Thorndike’s principle that behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely, and that behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences become less likely

Skinner develops a “behavioral technology”

Reveals principles of behavior control

Taught pigeons how to walk in a figure 8, play Ping-Pong, and to keep a missile on course by pecking a target on a screen

His first study was with rats

Operant Chamber: aka Skinner box, containing a bar or key that an animal can manipulate to obtain a food or water reinforce(r), with attached devices to record the animal’s rate of bar pressing or key pecking.

Shows how to pull habits out of a rat

Skinner’s Experiment: Shaping Behavior

Shaping: an operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior

Reinforcer: any event that strengthens the behavior it follows

The food that guided an animal’s action toward a desired behavior.

Conditioning a hungry rat to press a bar

Observe at how the rat naturally act before training

Build on existing behaviors

Give the rat a reward each time it approaches the bar

Once that is a regular, give the require the rat to move closer before awarding it

Finally, require the rat to touch the bar before giving it a reward

Rewarding responses that are closer to the desired behavior and ignoring all other responses

Can be used to determine what nonverbal organisms perceive

Rewarding a pigeon for pecking after seeing a human faces, but not for any other image will teach a pigeon to recognize human faces.

Skinner’s Experiment: Types of Reinforcers

Positive reinforcers may be tangible, praise/attention, an activity (being able to borrow the car)

Anything that serves to increase a behavior is a reinforcer

Reinforcers vary between people and situations

Positive Reinforcement: increasing behavior by presenting positive stimuli (food). A positive reinforcer is any stimulus that, when presented after a response, strengthens the response

Food is positive reinforcer for hungry animals

Negative Reinforcement: increasing behaviors by stopping or reducing negative stimuli (a shock). A negative reinforcer is any stimulus that, when removed after a response, strengthens the response

Not punishment

Taking aspirin to relieve a headache

Pushing snooze on a sounding alarm

Skinner’s Experiment: Types of Reinforcers

Primary & Conditioned Reinforcers Primary reinforcers: An innately

reinforcing stimulus, such as one that satisfies a biological need

Receiving food when hungry

Conditioned reinforcers: A stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer; aka secondary reinforcer

If a rat knows that a light signals food coming, it will work to turn on the light. The light is the conditioned reinforcer

Immediate and Delayed Reinforcers Rat scenario Before performing “wanted” behavior, the rat engages

in “unwanted” behavior When the food reinforcer immediately follows one of

the behaviors, that response becomes more likely to recur

If the rat presses the bar, and the reinforcer is delayed, the rat will not learn to press the bar

However, humans still respond to delayed reinforcers Pay check at the end of the week

Postpone immediate awards for greater long-term rewards

Some immediate reinforcers are better sounding than delayed reinforcers

Smoking a cigarette today compared to cancer thrity years from now

Skinner’s Experiment: Reinforcement Schedules

Continuous reinforcement: reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs

Learning occurs rapidly

Extinction occurs rapidly

When the reinforcement stops, the rat stops pressing the bar

When a usually dependable candy machine stops delivering a chocolate bar twice in a row, we stop putting money into it

Real life does not provide continuous reinforcement

Partial (Intermittent) reinforcement: Reinforcing a response only part of the time; results in slower acquisition of a response but much greater resistance to extinction than does continuous reinforcement

Produces greater persistence

A pigeon has learned to peck a key to receive food

The experimental gradually decreases the delivery of food until it’s unpredictable

Pigeons may peck 150,000 times without a reward

Keep trying because of hope

Skinner’s Experiment: Reinforcement Schedules

Fixed-ratio schedule: a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified amount of times

One reinforcer for every 30 responses

Once conditioned, the animal will pause briefly after a reinforcer then return to a high rate of responding

Variable-ratio schedule: a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses

Slot-machines

Produces a high rate of responding because reinforcers increase as the number of responses increase

Skinner’s Experiment: Reinforcement Schedules

Fixed-interval schedule: a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed

People checking more frequently for mail as the delivery time approaches

Pigeons pecks a key more frequently as the anticipated time for reward approaches

Not a steady rate of response

Variable-interval schedule: a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals

The “You’ve got mail” finally rewarding the persistence in rechecking for email

Produce slow, steady responding

The reinforcement principles of operant conditioning are universal

Skinner’s Experiment: Punishment

An event that decreases the behavior that it follows

Usually administering an undesirable consequence or withdrawing a desirable one

Rat shocked after touching forbidden object learns not to repeat that behavior

Consequence: children who receive spankings are at increased risk for aggression, depression, and low self-esteem.

This states physical punishment is followed by bad behavior and physical punishment is followed after that

A claim used for those who are for milder forms of punishment

Punished behavior may not be forgotten, but suppressed.

The suppression can negatively reinforce the parent’s punishing behavior

Child may learn not to do the bad behavior around the parent, but do it everywhere else

Skinner’s Experiment: Punishment

Physical punishment may increase aggressiveness by showing that aggression is a way to cope with problems

Can create fear

Person may associate fear with the bad behavior, the punisher, and the situation

When punishments are unpredictable and inescapable, there’s a sense that events are beyond one’s control

Feeling helpless and depression

Punishment does not guide one toward desirable behavior

Punishment = what not to do

Reinforcer = what to do

Punishment combined with reinforcer is more effective

Punishment teaches how to avoid it

Extending Skinner’s Understanding: Cognition and Operant Conditioning

Skinner died resisting the belief of cognitive process having a necessary place in understanding conditioning

However, cognitive process is shown when the rats began expecting a reward to come

Latent Learning: learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it

Studying rats in mazes

With no reward, rats seem to develop a cognitive map (a mental representation of the maze)

When placing a reward in the maze’s goal box, the rat will perform as well as a rat that was reinforced with food

Rats developed latent learning

Extending Skinner’s Understanding: Cognition and Operant Conditioning

Intrinsic Motivation: a desire to perform a behavior for its own sake

Can be decreased by excessive rewards

Those who are intrinsically motivated work and play in hopes of obtaining joy, interest, self-expression, or challenge

Extrinsic motivation: a desire to perform a behavior due to promised rewards or threats of punishment

Are you pressured to get an assignment done?

Yes? You are extrinsically motivated

Would you complete the assignment even if it wasn’t for a grade?

Yes? You are intrinsically motivated

Extending Skinner’s Understanding: Biological Predispositions

Reinforcing a hamster with food

Easily condition it to dig, why?

It is a natural behavior to dig in search for food

More difficult to condition a natural behavior not associated to food when using food as a reinforcer

Animals can drift back to their natural ways

Skinner’s Legacy

External influences behavior, not internal knowledge

Administer rewards to manage people more efficiently

Critics

He dehumanized people by neglecting a person’s freedom and their ability to control their own actions

His response?

People are naturally controlled by external consequences so use this characteristic for human betterment

Skinner’s Legacy: Applications of Operant Conditioning

At school

Teaching machines offering immediate reinforcements for correct responses will shape learning

A class learning concepts, some will understand quickly others will not. What do you do?

Go through material according to each student’s rate of learning, provide positive feedback promptly and positive reinforcements OR

Teach the class as a whole. The ones who get it succeed easily, the ones who don’t fail.

The first ideal is not yet realistic, but Skinner believed it was achievable

Students must be repeatedly told whether if they are right or wrong and then guided to the next step once right

Computerized help will make the first ideal achievable (Web-based learning)

Skinner’s Legacy: Applications of Operant Conditioning

In Sports Reinforcement as an athletic

performer enhancer

Reinforcing small success then gradually increasing the challenge

At Work Reinforcement can boost

productivity

Companies now offering a share of profits and ownership to employees

Increase in motivation, moral, and cooperation when productivity is associated with rewards

Skinner’s Legacy: Applications of Operant Conditioning

At Home

Spending behavior controlled by its consequences Those who pay a utility bill use 20% less energy compared to those who have a

landlord that pays for it

Parenting “Get ready for bed!”

Parent giving in to the whines and defiance are reinforcing the behavior

Parent yells, child realizes the seriousness, gets in bed which reinforces the behavior of the mom’s yelling

Develops a destructive parent-child relationship

Give children a reward when behaving

Ignore the whining

Explain the behavior when children act up

Learning by ObservationLearning by Observation

Observational learning: learning by observing others

Modeling: the process of observing and imitating a specific behavior

The phrase “monkey see, monkey do”

Mirror neurons: frontal lobe neurons that fire when performing certain actions or when observing another doing so. The brain’s mirroring of another’s action may enable imitation, language learning, and empathy

Helps children learn how to form new words when observing someone saying it

Helps children increase empathy and ability to infer someone’s mental state

It’s harder to frown when viewing someone smiling

Bandura’s Experiments

Preschool child is drawing while an adult in another part of the room is working with some Tinkertoys.

The adult begins to kick and throw a large inflated Bobo doll and yelling “hit him down” or “kick him”

The child, after observing this unexpected behavior, is taken to another room with plenty of fun toys.

The experimenter tells the child she has decided to save those toys for other children and leads the child to a room containing a few toys, including a Bobo doll.

Those who seen the adult’s outburst was more likely to do likewise than those who didn’t see it

Through observing, we learn to anticipate a behavior’s consequence in similar situations

More likely to imitate people that are similar to ourselves

Applications of Observational Learning

Bandura’s studies show that antisocial models may have antisocial effects

After the Columbine High massacre, every state except Vermont had to handle with similar copycat incidents

TV can influence people to think certain ways are THE way

Physical intimidation is an effective way to control others

Men are to be tough and women are to be gentle

Shows how abusive parents have aggressive children

Lessons we learn as a child are not easily unlearned as an adult

Positive Observational Learning

Prosocial behavior: positive, constructive, helpful behavior

Prosocial models have prosocial effects

People such as Ghandi and Martin Luther King, Jr. used nonviolent actions to inspires others to do likewise

Parents can be prosocial models

Seeing your parent be courageous and have strong morals can bring out the same in you when necessary

Prosocial models are more effective when actions/words are consistent

Hypocrisy can arise (do as I say and not as do) and children will imitate the same hypocrisy (doing what they did and saying what they said)

Television and Observational Learning

Real world not matching up with the world shown through TV

Real world: 87% of crimes are nonviolent

“Reality-based” show: 13% of crimes are nonviolent

Does televised aggression or playing aggressive video games influence aggressive behavior?

Possibly

The more hours children watched violence, the more fights they got in two to six months later and the greater risk they have of developing aggressions as teens or adults

Prolonged exposure to violence desensitizes viewers