Behavioral Learning

What is Behaviorism?

• The study of observable behavior and the role of the environment as a determinant of behavior

What is learning in Psychology?

• Any relatively permanent change to behavior that comes about as a result of experience

What is conditioning?

• A basic kind of learning that involves associations between environmental stimuli and the organism’s responses

Classical Conditioning and Pavlov

• All begins with Ivan Pavlov 1849-1936– Physiologist studying digestion in dogs– Notes that salivation began to take place without

exposure to meat powder– New response acquired through experience– Pavlov called this a conditional reflex (based on

conditions of the environment)– Devoted the rest of his life to this

Key ideas in Classical Conditioning

• Unconditioned Stimulus (US)- elicits a response reflexively

• Unconditioned Response (UR)-reflexive response to a stimulus

• Neutral Stimulus-can be paired with a US to elicit UR

• This leads to a Neutral Stimulus becoming a Conditioned Stimulus (CS) which elicits a Conditioned Response (CR) when a behavior takes place

Classical Conditioning

• US=>UR

• US+Neutral Stimulus=>UR– Allows learning to take place transferring Neutral

Stimulus to Conditioned Stimulus (Classical Conditioning)

• CS=>CR

Principles of Classical Conditioning

• Extinction-occurs if CS is presented without US for too long. Leads to end of the CR.– CR can come back for short periods later called spontaneous

recovery• Higher-Order Conditioning-A new Neutral Stimulus can be

paired with a CS to present the same CR (often times not as strong)

• Stimulus Generalization-If a CR has been created for a CS other similar stimuli may produce the CR

• Discrimination- A CR can be conditioned to observe the differences between 2 similar stimuli by presenting US in one case and not in the other

Important Understanding of Classical Conditioning

• Neutral Stimulus must be presented before the US to allow for true conditioning to occur

• What is being learned is how to use Neutral Stimulus as a predictor of the US (probability)

Classical Conditioning in Real Life

• John Watson- The first to recognize real life implications.

• Pairings can be made to produce emotions– Positive• Used heavily in advertising

– Negative• Irrational Fears (Phobias)

– Ex. Watson’s Study with Little Albert and his work with counterconditioning

– Irrational fear can be created and destroyed

• Taste and odor can also be tied to classical conditioning– Food more often associated with illness

biologically than other sensory information• Medical treatments can also have similar

aversive impacts

Operant Conditioning

• Centers on the idea that behavior becomes more or less likely depending on its consequences

• Deals with voluntary responses rather than reflexive responses (i.e. classical conditioning)

Radical Behaviorism

• Starts with Thorndike’s Doctoral Studies on Cats show behavior that is satisfying is “stamped in” while behavior that doesn’t gain satisfying results is “stamped out”

• Moves to Skinner who argues that to understand behavior one must focus on external causes of an action as well as its consequences– Argued against free will in favor of determinism– “My behavior at any moment has been nothing more that

the product of my genetic endowment, my personal history, and the current setting.”

Operant Conditioning

• Centers around 3 types of Consequences:– Neutral-doesn’t alter response– Reinforcement-Strengthens response, makes it more likely to

recur– Punishment-weakens response or makes it less likely to occur

• Primary Reinforcers and Punishers-deal with essentials that are hard-wired

• Secondary Reinforcers and Punishers-deal with what has been learned– Secondary reinforcers and punishments have often received their

power by being paired with primary reinforcers and punishments

How does Operant Conditioning Work

• Important to remember:– Positive=something being given– Negative=something being taken away

• Reinforcement– Behavior=> Positive or Negative

Reinforcement=>Increase in Behavior• Positive Reinforcer- Increases behavior by generating a

pleasant consequence• Negative Reinforcer-Increases behavior by removing

and unpleasant situation

• Punishment– Behavior=>Positive or Negative Punishment=>

Decrease in Behavior• Positive Punishment-Something unpleasant occurs

following behavior• Negative Punishment-Something Pleasant is removed

following behavior

Principles of Operant Conditioning

• Thousands of studies have been done– Most use animals and the Skinner box

• Skinner believed environment was a place where organisms reinforce and punish each other reciprocally.

• Several key techniques and applications discovered in this fashion– Extinction– Immediate vs. Delayed Consequences– Stimulus Generalization and Discrimination– Learning on Schedule– Shaping

Extinction

• A procedure that causes a previously learned response to stop

• Occurs when reinforcer that maintained the response is removed

• Initial response is to increases behavior, but ultimately leads to a slow down and secession of behavior

Immediate vs. Delayed Consequences

• The sooner a reinforcer or punishment follows a response the greater its effect

• Too long an interval can lead to confusion on what is being reinforced

• Dealing with extinction of certain behaviors can be difficult because of their immediate reinforcement

Stimulus Generalization and Dicrimination

• Similar stimuli can be generalized by a subject when reinforcing behavior

• Train them to discriminate by presenting both stimuli and rewarding only one

• A discriminative stimulus can be used to allow a subject to know when they can be reinforced (light in a Skinner Box)– Leads to stimulus control

Learning on Schedule

• Continuous Reinforcement- Develops a behavior– Reward each time desired behavior occurs

• Intermittent Reinforcement-Prevents extinction– Only reinforce some responses not all of them once

desired behavior has been achieved• Ratio Schedules- based on fixed # of respones• Interval Schedules-based on fixed amounts of time• Can be fixed or variable

– Creates 4 different types of learning curves

Shaping

• Starts with reinforcing a tendency in the right direction

• Then gradually require more responses that are similar to the final– Successive approximations

Operant Conditioning in Real Life

• Used in real world via Behavior Modification• Extremely promising in working with cases of

Autism

Pros and Cons of Punishment

• Punishment works with self-harming and destructive behavior and Criminal Behavior

• Punishment fails for several reasons– Administration of punishment inappropriately– Recipient responds with anxiety, fear or rage– Effectiveness is often temporary, and depends on

presence of the punishing person– Misbehavior often hard to punish immediately– Conveys little information– Can bring attention and instead reinforce

Problem with reward

• People can respond to intrinsic reinforcers as well as traditional extrinsic reinforcers– Extrinsic reinforcers can udermine intrinsic

reinforcers

The World Through Behaviorists Eyes

• Superstition is coincidental reinforcement– Hard to extinguish because of intermittent

reinforcement– Skinner made pigeons superstitious

• Insight– Based on organism’s reinforcement history