Learning Unitu07

Learning is a relatively permanent change to an organism’s behavior due to experience.

• Classical conditioning

• Operant conditioning

• Observational learning

m21 Classical Conditioning

The Office

1849 - 1936

1904, Nobel Prize in Medicine

Originally tried to study digestion, but dogs became conditioning

Ivan Pavlov

Unconditional stimulus

Unconditional response

neutral stimulus

NS → Conditioned stimulus

Acquisition

CS → Conditioned response

Generalization vs Discrimination

Spontaneous Recovery

Modernizing Pavlov

Biological predisposition to certain associations

Universal way to learn

simple worms to humans . . . like Little Albert

Review

Identify the UCS, UCR, NS — then the post-acquisition CS and CR

Identify the UCS, UCR, NS — then the post-acquisition CS and CR

Identify the UCS, UCR, NS — then the post-acquisition CS and CR

Months prior to the season opening football game between MIT and Harvard, a psychology graduate student went to the Harvard stadium to feed seagulls. For weeks, wearing a white-and-black-striped shirt he walked up and down the sidelines, blowing on a whistle, and throwing bird seed on to the field.

At the season opener, the football game was delayed for 45 minutes as officials waited for hundreds of seagulls to leave the field.

m22 Operant Conditioning

Edward Thorndike

The LAW OF EFFECT:

rewarded behavior is likely to be be repeated.

Corollary:

punished behavior is not likely to be repeated

BF Skinner

1904-1990

Built upon the Law of Effect

Developed Skinner Box to test conditioning in isolation

Shaping through successive approximations

Increases the likelihood of the preceding event being repeated.

Positive reinforcers add something desirable

Negative reinforcers remove something undesirable

Reinforcement

Primary reinforcers are inherently desirable

food, water, air, and sex

Secondary reinforcers are learned

eg money, grades, praise

Positive reinforcement

• Taking aspirin to relieve a headache• Hurrying home in the winter to get out of the cold• Giving in to an argument or to dog’s begging to end it• Fanning oneself to escape the heat• Leaving a school play if the play is bad• Smoking to relieve anxiety• Faking a stomach ache in order to avoid school• Putting on a seatbelt to silence the warning buzzer• Using an umbrella to escape the rain• Saying “uncle” to stop being beaten

Negative Reinforcers

Negative reinforcement

Punishment

Decreases the likelihood of the preceding event being repeated

Positive punishment adds something undesirable

Negative punishment removes something desirable

Review

Reinforcement

Punishment

Does the situation require:

Scenarios

Punishment or Reinforcement?

positive or negative?

describe the response

Schedules of Reinforcement

Fixed ratio

Variable ratio

Fixed interval

Variable interval

Continuous reinforcement

or

intermittent reinforcement

fixed ratio

variable ratio

fixed interval

variable interval

1. Car salesman paid on commission?

2. Airline frequent-flyer rewards program?

3. Detention for eating in the halls?

4. Checking Facebook for something interesting?

5. Receiving acceptance letters from college?

6. Feeling sick after eating McDonald’s?

What schedule is being used?

m23 Observational Learning

Mirror neurons fire both when the animal acts and when it observes a conspecial animal act.

1925 - present

Past president of the APA

Professor at Stanford

“Bobo Doll” experiment

Albert Bandura

• Attention

• Retention

• Reproduction

• Motivation or reinforcement

Components of Observational Learning

Prosocial

or

Antisocial behaviors

Optional review session:today, 5*

Agenda:

Coloring

Presentation

Practice FRQ

Illustrate a scene showing:

A. Classical Conditioning

B. Operant Conditioning

C. Observational Learning

US ⇒ URCS + US ⇒ UR

CS ⇒ CR

Behavior + response

Experience & replication