How Do We Learn?

The Big Picture: Lifetimes of Experience

Learning to Live

• Nature: genes• Nurture: environment• Learning: acquisition of skills needed to survive

The Story of Peter

• Isolated during first three years in Russian orphanage

• Very little human contact• Adopted in nurturing home• Language delays and oddities• Social difficulties• With help Peter was able to overcome these

difficulties

Defining Learning

• We learn from all of life’s events – not just psychology class!

• Definition – relatively permanent change in behavior or the potential for behavior that results from experience– May or may not be permanent change

(relatively)– Not restricted to humans– Learning is related to experience

Orienting and Habituation: Learning to Ignore

• Orientating reflex – orient sense organs in direction of unexpected stimuli– Try it with your pet!

• Habituation – when a stimulus is repeated over and over again the orienting reflex diminishes or stops

• Most likely related to natural selection

Habituation as an Adaptive Asset

• What if we could not habituate?– Constantly attend to stimuli – Disrupt functioning

• Advantages of habituation– Attend to potentially threatening stimuli– Tune out non-threatening stimuli

Dishabituation

• Definition – more intense response to stimulus to which previously habituated

• Caused by change in quality of stimulus or passage of time

Practical Application of Habituation

• Training for people suffering from chronic motion sickness or vertigo– Habituate to visual and vestibular signals that

create sickness

Classical Conditioning: Learning Through the Association of Stimuli

• Pavlov and his dogs – learning to associate certain cue or stimuli (footsteps, buzzer) with presentation of food

• Conditioned to respond to footsteps or buzzer by salivating

The Elements of Classical Conditioning

• Unconditioned stimulus (US) and response (UCR)– Naturally occurring stimulus (US), response is

naturally evoked (UR)• Neutral stimulus (NS)

– NS does not typically evoke response

The Elements of Classical Conditioning (continued)

• Pairing neutral and unconditioned stimuli– NS and US presented together; NS becomes

conditioned stimulus (CS) to produce conditioned response (CR)

Summing it Up

• Classical conditioning – learning that occurs when a neutral stimulus is paired with an unconditioned stimulus that reliably causes an unconditioned response, and because of this association, the neutral stimulus looses its neutrality and takes on the same power as the unconditioned stimulus to cause the response

Factors Affecting Classical Conditioning

• Relationship in time: contiguity– NS/CS and US must occur close together in

time– NS/CS should precede the US

• Consistency and reliability: contingency– NC/CS should reliably predict the onset of the

US

Real-World Classical Conditioning: What Responses Can Be Classically Conditioned in

Humans?

• Emotional responses• Physiological responses

Classical Conditioning of Emotional Responses

• Little Albert– white rat, noise• Stimulus generalization – stimuli similar to

CS, same power to elicit CR (rats to dogs, rabbits

• Counterconditioning – conditioned to have positive (systematic desensitization)

• Stimulus discrimination – CR occurs in response to only specific stimuli

• Advertisers use classical conditioning

Classical Conditioning of Physiological Responses: The Special Case of Taste Aversion

• Taste aversion – sight, smell, idea of food make person sick; classically conditioned through experience

• Single pairing sufficient, interval between pairings can be long

• Real life applications– Coyotes and sheep– Try it yourself – pizza aversion?!– Aversion therapy and alcoholism

Extinction of Classically Conditioned Responses

• Extinction – presenting CS without presenting the US

• Habituation may play a role• Pavlov’s extinction trials

– Acquisition (learning curve) for CR and extinction curve

• Spontaneous recovery – CR occurs during extinction

Instrumental and Operant Conditioning: Learning from the Consequences of Our

Actions

• Instrumental conditioning – learning from consequences of behavior (e.g. positive comments from others)

• Powerful means of learning

E.L. Thorndike’s Law of Effect

• E.L. Thorndike (1874 – 1949)• Worked with cat in puzzle boxes

Unlocking the Puzzle of Learning

• Cats learned to associate behavior (tripping mechanism) with consequence of behavior (getting out of box)

• Law of effect – behaviors that lead to positive, satisfying consequences will be strengthened. Behaviors that lead to negative, discomforting consequences will be weakened and less likely to be emitted

Random Actions and Reinforcement

• Particular response, perhaps starting out as random response, is strengthened or reinforced because was instrumental in evoking reward

• Rewarded behavior is likely to happen again• Behaviors not rewarded are likely to stop

Positive and Negative Reinforcement

• Positive reinforcement– Behavior leads to something pleasant

• Negative reinforcement– Behavior is rewarded by the removal of

something unpleasant• Punishment is not the same as negative

reinforcement– “Negative” means removing something– Remember that reinforcement increases

behavior

Positive and Negative Punishment(continued)

• Positive punishment– Addition of something unpleasant that

decreases behavior• Negative punishment

– Removal of something pleasant that decreases behavior

A Japanese View of Reinforcement

• Japanese culture – collectivistic society• U.S. – individualistic society• Theory of Japanese research Yutaka Haruki• Opinions and actions play role in reinforcement

A Japanese View of Reinforcement(continued)

• Four types of human reinforcement– External reinforcement (oshitsuke)– Self-reinforcement (makase)– Internal reinforcement (uketome)– Alien reinforcement (mitome)

More Thoughts

• What we find rewarding and punishing may differ• However, still predicts how behavior changes

through conditioning

Why Is Instrumental Conditioning Useful?

• Natural selection– Behaviors that are adaptive are kept, those that are

not are weeded out

• Back to Peter

How Classical and Instrumental Conditioning Differ

• Classical conditioning, passive role• Instrumental conditioning, more active role• Classical conditioning, one clear response is

required; instrumental, many responses possible• Classical conditioning emotions and

physiological responses are conditioned; instrumental behaviors more complex

B.F. Skinner and Operant Responses

• Introduced term operant to instrumental conditioning

• Respondent behavior – classically conditioned behavior

• Operant behavior – behavior that operates on an organism’s environment to produce consequence

• Developed method of studying animal behavior– Skinner box

Acquisition and Extinction

• Acquisition – conditioning of response– Behavior increases because it is reinforced

• Extinction – loss of a conditioned response– Occurs because behavior is no longer

reinforced– Extinction burst- temporary increase in

behavior in the absence of reinforcer

Schedules of Reinforcement

• Timing and consistency of the reinforcement affects rate at which behavior is acquired or extinguished

• Continuous schedule• Ratio schedules• Interval schedules

Continuous Schedules of Reinforcement

• Behavior rewarded each time exhibited• Drawbacks

– Not always feasible– More vulnerable to extinction

• Partial reinforcement schedules– Schedules of reinforcement where behavior

reinforced only some of the time

Ratio Schedules of Reinforcement

• Fixed ratio schedule– Set number of responses emitted before

reward given– Slower extinction, high rates of responding

Ratio Schedules of Reinforcement(continued)

• Variable ratio schedule– Exact number of responses needed to receive

reward; vary around an average– Even slower rates of extinction, high rates of

responding– Example – slot machines

Interval Schedule of Reinforcement

• Fixed interval schedule– Behavior rewarded once per some interval of

time has passed– Most of responding occurs right around time

reward is due with pauses after reward

Interval Schedule of Reinforcement (continued)

• Variable interval schedule– Similar to variable ratio, but interval varies– Produces steady rates of responding– Resistant to extinction

Summary

• Continuous reinforcement high rates of responding, quickest extinction

• Ratio schedule higher rates of responding• Variable schedule most resistant to extinction

Generalization and Discrimination

• Discrimination– Learns to distinguish among stimulus

situations displays a particular response only in situations where reinforcement is expected; discriminate

• Generalization– Emits same behavior in response to different,

but similar stimuli• Negative aspects: prejudice, discrimination

Shaping New Behaviors

• First step – behavior must be emitted• Shaping allows a new behavior to be

conditioned by successive approximations• Real life examples

– Animal training– Modifying children’s behavior

Decisions That Must Be Made When Using Operant Conditioning

• Punishment or reinforcement• Choosing a reinforcer that is reinforcing• Primary and secondary reinforcers

Punishment or Reinforcement

• Most effective: show what behavior is desired and reinforce when behavior is demonstrated

The High Risks of Punishment

• Bottom line – doesn’t teach correct/desired behavior

• Harsh punishment teaches aggression• Harsh punishment ineffective at producing

behavior changes• Harsh punishment leads to negative emotional

reactions (learned helplessness)• Physical punishment should be avoided!

Making Punishment More Effective

• Tell child about appropriate behavior, then reinforce it

• Minimize situations in which bad behavior exists• Use punisher that’s punishing• Punishment must occur right after behavior • Punishment must occur every time behavior

occurs• Remain calm when punishing

Choosing a Reinforcer That Is Reinforcing

• Must choose reinforcer that is actually reinforcing to that person

• Varies from person to person

Primary and Secondary Reinforcers

• Primary – reinforcer that is directly reinforcing; food

• Secondary – rewarding because they lead to primary reinforcers; money

• Token economies use secondary reinforcers (token)

• Advantages– Effective in modifying behaviors in groups – Allows for immediate reinforcement

The Role of Cognition in Learning

• Strict behaviorist do not study cognitive aspects of behavior

• Kohler and the chimps demonstrated insight learning

• Tolman and rats demonstrated latent learning – can’t be directly observed as it’s happening– Developed a cognitive map or mental

representation to learn

Social Learning or Modeling

• Learn by observing other and imitating or modeling behaviors

• AKA observational learning or modeling

Albert Bandura and the Bobo Doll Experiments

• Social learning theory• Bobo dolls

– Watched three conditions: children rewarded, punished or no consequences for beating doll

– Children who saw rewards or no consequences more likely to be aggressive

Albert Bandura and the Bobo Doll Experiments (continued)

– Implications• Don’t have to engage in behavior for

learning to occur• Learning can be latent• Television aggression?

Social Learning Theory and Cognition

• Four steps to modeling– Attention – must attend to behavior of model– Retention – must retain cognitive

representation or memory of model’s behavior– Reproduction of behavior – use memories to

reproduce behavior– Motivation – must be motivated to execute

behavior

Are You Getting the Big Picture?

• Four different types of learning: habituation, classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and social learning

• Use learning to control behavior of others• Learning impacts everyday life• Learning affects quality of social interactions