Learning Adaptability is our capacity to learn new behaviors that

help us cope with changing circumstances.

Learning is the process of acquiring new and relatively enduring information or behaviors.

We learn by association: we connect events that occur in sequence.

Classical conditioning: we associate two stimuli and thus anticipate events, such as Fig. 20.1

Operant conditioning: we associate a response (our behavior) and its consequence. Thus we learn to repeat acts followed by good results, and avoid acts followed by bad results, such as Fig. 20.2

Observational learning: we learn behaviors by watching others perform them.

Classical Conditioning Respondent behavior occurs as an automatic response to

a stimulus. You don't have to teach puppies how to drool.

Neutral stimulus elicits no response to a stimulus before conditioning.

Unconditioned response, an unlearned naturally occurring response (such as salivation) to an unconditioned stimulus such as food in the mouth.

Unconditioned stimulus a stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers a response.

Conditioned response: a learned to previously neutral but now conditioned stimulus.

Conditioned stimulus: an originally irrelevant stimulus, that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus, comes to trigger a conditioned response.

Classical Conditioning Memorize Fig. 20.3 for the next exam.

Note the acronyms!

Acquisition: the initial stage, when one links a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus begins triggering the conditioned response.

Higher-order conditioning: a procedure in which the conditioned stimulus in one conditioning experience is paired with a new neutral stimulus, creating a second (often weaker) conditioned stimulus.

For example, an animal that has learned that a tone predicts food might then learn that a light predicts the tone, and begins responding to the light alone.

Timing is crucial! Conditioning will not occur if the neutral stimulus follows the unconditioned stimulus.

Classical Conditioning Extinction: the diminishing of a conditioned response.

Occurs when an unconditioned stimulus does not follow a conditioned stimulus.

See Fig. 20.5: The rising curve shows that the CR rapidly grows stronger as the NS becomes a CS as it is repeatedly paired with the US (acquisition), then weakens as the CS is presented alone (extinction). After a pause, the CR reappears (spontaneous recovery).

Only with the advent of neuroscience could we explain why spontaneous recovery occurs. This is reason for Web Article Three.

We now know that once a behavior is strongly learned, there is a permanent and difficult to remove restructuring in our neural networks.

Classical Conditioning Generalization: Pavlov noticed that a dog conditioned to

the sound of one tone also responded somewhat to the sound of a new and different tone.

Generalization is adaptive, but also non-adaptive.

See Fig. 20.7 Abused children's sensitized brains react more strongly to angry faces. This generalized anxiety response may help to explain their greater risk of psychological disorders.

Verosky & Todorov, 2010: We like unfamiliar people more if they look somewhat like someone we already like.

Classical Conditioning Discrimination: the ability to distinguish between a

conditioned stimulus and stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus.

The ability to recognize differences is adaptive.

Pavlov's legacy: Many other response to many other stimuli can be classically conditioned in many other organisms.

Learning can be studied objectively; that is, by applying the scientific method of hypothesis testing.

For Web Article Three: Siegel, 2005: Former drug users often feel a craving when they are again in the drug-using context.

Drug counselors advise addicts to steer clear of people and settings that may trigger these cravings.