Conditioning

Ivan Pavlov

• Russian scientist – he wanted to learn about the relationship between digestion and the nervous system

• Accidentally discovered the principles of Classical Conditioning

• Stimulus – something that produces a reaction or response.

• Unconditioned stimulus• Unconditioned response• Neutral stimulus• Conditioned stimulus

• Taste Aversion – 1970’s John Garcia discovered that if a negative experience took place with found within several hours of consumption, people would develop an aversion to that food or taste.

Little Albert

• J.B. Watson used little children• Paired a nice fuzzy white rat with a loud noise to

frighten the children• Children became frightened of the rats even

without the noise, conditioning had occurred• They became frightened of other fuzzy animals,

even stuffed animals – this is called generalization• Sometimes the child would respond differently to a

dog than the mouse – this is called discrimination

• Extinction – when a Conditioned Stimulus no longer brings about a Conditioned Response (bell without food)

• Spontaneous Recovery – after extinction has occurred, CS is done again and it brings about the CR (often happens with music)

Applications of the Extinction Principle

• Flooding

• Systematic Desensitization• http://understandingshyness.wordpress.com/2009/12/08/systematic-desensitization-therapy/

Other Conditioning treatments

• Counter-conditioning – 1924 Mary Jones– You can counter-condition fears by pleasant

stimuli

• Bell and Pad Method

Operant Conditioning

• The idea that people (or animals) learn to do and not to do things by the result that they get.

B.F. Skinner

• Reinforcement– Primary Reinforcers– Secondary Reinforcers– Skinner Box

Reinforcers

• Primary Reinforcers– Due to biological makeup of organism– food, warmth, water

• Secondary Reinforcers– must be learned– money, social approval– sometimes functions through long lines of

association (i.e. grades)

Types of Reinforcement

• Positive reinforcement– desires to increase the frequency of a behavior– Food, fun activities, social approval– Disadvantages: only works if the reinforcer is

desired

• Negative Reinforcement– also desires to increase the frequency of a

behavior– behavior reinforced because something unwanted

stops happening (i.e. your tired, you go to bed)– Disadvantage: just like positive reinforcement

• Rewards– fairly interchangeable with Positive Reinforcement

• Punishment– seeks to decrease the frequency of a behavior– behavior decreases or stops upon the application

of punishment

Disadvantages of Punishment

• Does not necessarily teach acceptable behavior.• only works when guaranteed• severe punishments may cause a person to

simply leave the situation• Context must always be apparent• sometimes is accompanied by unseen benefits

that make the behavior increase rather than decrease

On the other hand…

• “Spare the rod and spoil the child”

Schedules of Reinforcement

• Continuous reinforcement– rein. applied every time behavior occurs– quickest way to reinforce but if reinforcement

stops behavior quickly stops as well• Partial reinforcement– Interval Schedules– Ratio Schedules

Interval Schedules

• Has to do with time• Fixed– reinforcement available only after a fixed amount

of time has passed• Variable– reinforcement available only after time has passed

but time is variable

Ratio Schedules

• Has to do with number of time behavior occurs in relation to reinforcement

• Continuous– 1:1

• Fixed– x:1 x is constant

• Variable– x:1, x is variable