Learning

How do we learn?

1. Classical conditioning

2. Operant conditioning

3. Learning by Observation

How Do We Learn?

Learning

Relatively permanent change in behavior due to experience

Associative learning

Learning that certain events occur together

When two stimuli occur together we call it

When there is a response and its consequence, we call it

classical conditioning

operant conditioning

Learning

Classical conditioning

Type of learning in which we learn to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events

Operant conditioning

Type of learning in which we learn to associate a response and its consequence

Thus, we learn to repeat acts followed by good results and to avoid acts followed by bad results

Let’s take a closer look.

Classical Conditioning

Operant Conditioning

Classical & Operant Conditioning are not the only forms of learning

Observational learning, another form of cognitive learning, is learning from others’ experiences

Why are habits, such as having something sweet with that cup of coffee, so hard to break?

Classical Conditioning

Classical Conditioning

Ivan Pavlov

“Experimental investigation should lay a solid foundation for a

future truescience of psychology” (1927).

PAVLOV’S CLASSIC EXPERIMENT

Let’s make sure all the definitions are clear.

Classical Conditioning Terminology

Neutral Stimulus:

Unconditioned Stimulus:

Unconditioned Response:

Conditioned Stimulus:

Conditioned Response:

A response (reaction) that happens naturally (involuntary)

A stimulus that NATURALLY brings about a response.

A stimulus that doesn’t bring about a response

A US causes a UR

A response (reaction) that happens due to being conditioned (trained)

(involuntary)A CS causes a CR

A stimulus that, through association (pairing repeatedly)

brings about a response.

Can you define each of these more completely?

Neutral stimulus (NS)

In classical conditioning, a stimulus that evokes no response before conditioning

Unconditioned stimulus (US)

In classical conditioning, a stimulus that unconditionally—naturally and automatically—triggers a response (UR)

Unconditioned response (UR)

In classical conditioning, an unlearned, naturally occurring response (such as salivation) to an unconditioned stimulus (US) (such as food in the mouth)

Conditioned stimulus (CS)

In classical conditioning, an originally irrelevant stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus (US), comes to trigger a conditioned response (CR)

Conditioned response (CR)

In classical conditioning, a learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus (CS)

An experimenter sounds a tone just before delivering an air puff to your blinking eye.

After several repetitions, you blink to the tone alone. What is…

The NS?

The US?

The UR?

The CS?

The CR?

tone (before conditioning)

air puff

blink (to air puff)

tone (after conditioning)

blink (to tone)

Classical Conditioning

Acquisition

First stage in classical conditioning

Place where link between the NS and US is learned

AN UNEXPECTED CS

Psychologist Michael Tirrell (1990) recalled: “My first girlfriend loved onions, so I came to associate onion breath with kissing. Before long, onion breath sent tingles up and down my spine. Oh what a feeling!”

In horror movies, sexually arousing images of women are sometimes paired with violence against women. Based on classical conditioning principles, what might be an effect of this pairing?

Classical Conditioning

Extinction and spontaneous recovery

Extinction -

the weakening of a conditioned response

happens when an unconditioned stimulus does not follow a conditioned stimulus (no longer give food after bell)

Spontaneous recovery

Reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response

The rising curve (simplified here) shows that the CR rapidly grows stronger as the NS becomes a CS as it is repeatedly paired with the

US (acquisition).

The CS weakens when it is presented alone (extinction). After a pause, the CR reappears (spontaneous recovery).

ACQUISITION, EXTINCTION, AND SPONTANEOUS RECOVERY

The first step of classical conditioning, when an NS becomes a CS, is called________. When a US no longer follows the CS, and the CR becomes weakened, this is called ________ .

Classical Conditioning

Generalization

The tendency, after conditioning, to respond similarly to stimuli that resemble the conditioned stimulus

Discrimination

ability to tell the difference between a conditioned stimulus and other irrelevant stimuli

If the aroma of cake baking makes your mouth water, what is the US? The CS? The CR?

Classical Conditioning in Everyday Life

Pavlov’s principles influence human health and well- being in a variety of ways

Examples

Patients can develop classically conditioned side-effects to drugs given as cancer treatments

Former drug users often feel a craving when they are again in the drug-using context

In Watson and Rayner’s experiments, “Little Albert” learned to fear a white rat after repeatedly experiencing a loud noise as the rat was presented. In this experiment, what was the US? The UR? The NS? The CS? The CR?

loud noise

fear response Rat (before paired)

Rat (after paired)

fear

https://youtu.be/FMnhyGozLyE

Sensitivity To Punishment or Rewards?

Give yourself 1 point for each odd yes = total

Give yourself 1 point for each even yes = total

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Sensitivity to Reward (even)

Higher score = greater sensitivity toward reward

Sensitivity to Punishment (odd)

Higher score = greater sensitivity toward punishment

High punishment likely to be

vulnerable to anxiety

High reward likely to be impulsive

Consideration of Future Consequence Scale

Circle #3,4,5,9,10,11,12

Cross out the number you put and put it’s opposite…

Total all 12 / Range 12-60

Higher score…greater concern for future consequence

average 42.5

1=52=43=34=25=1

Differences: Classical and Operant Conditioning

Classical

• not controlled by learner

• Automatic responses to stimuli

Operant

• Involves learning associations between behavior and resulting events

• Association with one’s own actions with consequences

https://youtu.be/H6LEcM0E0ioDifference Between Classical &

Operant Conditioning

With ________ conditioning, we learn associations between events we do not control. With ________ conditioning, we learn associations between our behavior and resulting events.

Operant Conditioning

Skinner’s experiments

Rewarded behavior is likely to be repeated

Shaping behavior

Teach a behavior in small steps

Successive approximations

Reinforcer

An event that increases the frequency of a preceding response

CAT IN A PUZZLE BOXThorndike used a fish reward to entice cats to find their way out of a puzzle box (right) through a series of maneuvers. The cats’ performance tended to improve with successive trials (left), illustrating Thorndike’s law of effect. (Adapted from Thorndike, 1898.)

Types of Reinforcers

Positive reinforcement

Increases behaviors by presenting positive stimuli

Is anything that, when presented after a response, strengthens the response

Negative reinforcement

Increases behaviors by stopping or reducing negative stimuli

Is anything that, when removed after a response, strengthens the response

Is not punishment

WAYS TO INCREASE BEHAVIOR

A SKINNER BOX Inside thebox, the rat presses a bar or button for a food reward. Outside, a measuring device (not shownhere) keeps records of the animal’s responses.

Operant Conditioning; Types of Reinforcers

Primary reinforcers

Unlearned; innate

Conditioned reinforcers (secondary reinforcers)

Learned associaitions with primary reinforcers

Delayed reinforcers

Delayed

Can you think of examples for each of these?

Telemarketers are reinforced by which schedule? People checking the oven to see if the cookies are done are on which schedule? Airline frequent-flyer programs that offer a free flight after every 25,000 miles of travel are using which reinforcement schedule?

Punishment

Ways to decrease behavior

Major drawbacks of physical punishment

Punished behavior suppressed; punishing behavior reinforced

Discrimination among situations taught

Generalization occurs; fear taught

Aggression may be increased by modeling

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Skinner’s Legacy

B. F. Skinner “I am sometimes asked, ‘Do you think of yourself as you think of the organisms you study?’ The answer is yes. So far as I know, my behavior at any given moment has been nothing more than the product of my genetic endowment, my personal history, and the current setting” (1983).

• Urged people to use operant principles to influence the behavior of others

• Criticized for neglecting people’s personal freedom and advocating for external control of others

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Applications of Operant Conditioning

At school

Many of the ideas for education are used today

Electronic adaptive devices are often Skinnerian

At work

Many organizations used reinforcers to influence productivity

At home

Reinforcement is used and abused in many parenting situations

Reinforcement can be used effectively to help children change and manage their behavior

Ethan constantly misbehaves at preschool even though his teacher scolds him repeatedly. Why does Ethan’s misbehavior continue, and what can his teacher do to stop it?

Contrasting Classical and Operant Conditioning

Classical

• Form of associative learning

• Associate different events that one cannot control

• Respond automatically

Operant

• Form of associative learning

• Links behaviors to act on the environment to produce rewarding or punishing events

Using Operant Conditioning to Build Your Own Strengths

State your goal in measurable terms and announce it

Decide how, when, and where you will work toward your goal

Monitor how often you engage in your desired behavior

Reinforce the desired behavior

Reduce the rewards gradually

Salivating in response to a tone paired with food is a(n) behavior; pressing a bar to obtain food is a(n) behavior.

Biology, Cognition, and Learning

Biological limits on conditioning

Humans are biologically prepared to learn some things rather than others

Humans are naturally disposed to learn associations favored by natural selection

Garcia and Koelling’s taste aversionresearch ended the belief that environments rule out behavior.

Findings help disprove the belief that almost any stimulus could serve equally well as a conditioned stimulus.

How did Garcia and Koelling’s taste aversion studies help disprove the belief that almost any stimulus (tastes, sights, sounds) could serve equally well as a conditioned stimulus? Explain.

Biology, Cognition, and Learning

Limits on operant conditioning

Each species has a limit on their capacity for operant conditioning

Our biology predisposes us to learn associations that are naturally adaptive

ROMANTIC RED In a series of experiments that controlled for other factors (such as the brightness of the image), men found women more attractive and sexually desirable when framed in red (Elliot & Niesta, 2008).

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Cognitive Influences on Conditioning

Watson

Rejected mentalistic concepts

Maintained that the basic laws of learning are the same for all animals

Contended that psychology should be objective science based on observable behaviors

Watson’s view of learning underestimated two sets of influences:• Way biological predispositions

limits learning• Effect of cognitive processes

on learning

Cognitive Influences on Conditioning

Cognition and operant conditioning

Skinner rejected the premise that cognitive processes are integral to learning

Cognitive maps

Latent learning

LATENT LEARNING Animals, like people, can learn from experience, with or without reinforcement.

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Cognitive map

Mental image of the layout of one’s environment

Latent learning

Learning that is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it

Intrinsic motivation

Desire to perform a behavior for its own sake

Extrinsic motivation

Desire to perform a behavior to gain a reward or avoid a punishment

Learning by Observation

Thinking critically about: Does viewing media violence trigger violent behavior?

Learning by Observation

Observational learning

Learning by observing others

Modeling

The process of observing and imitating a specific behavior

Vicarious reinforcement or punishment

Learning to anticipate a behavior’s consequences in situations like those being observed

ALBERT BANDURA “The Bobo doll follows me wherever I go.”

Learning by Observation

Mirrors and imitation in the brain

Mirror neuron

Fires when we perform certain actions and when we observe others performing those actions

Provides a neural basis for imitation and observational learning

EXPERIENCED AND IMAGINED PAIN IN THE BRAIN

Brain activity related to actual pain (left) is mirrored in the brain of an observing loved one (right). Empathy in the brain shows up in areas that process emotions, but not in the areas that register physical pain.

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Applications of Observational Learning

Prosocial effects

Prosocial behavior models can have a prosocial effect

Effectiveness is related to consistency in actions and words

Antisocial effects

Observational learning can have adverse effects

Early childhood environments with high levels of aggression, TV, and videos are powerful sources of observational learning

Correlational studies

In U.S. and Canada, homicide rates doubled as TV was introduced and spreading

Elementary schoolchildren exposed to media violence fought more and had a greater risk for violent behavior as teens.

Experimental studies

Violence-viewing effect stems from two factors

Media models prompt imitation

Prolonged exposure to violence desensitizes viewers

DOES VIEWING MEDIA VIOLENCE TRIGGER VIOLENT BEHAVIOR?