Learning

Learning

• Learning by Association: Classical Conditioning• Changing Behavior Through Reinforcement and Punishment: Operant Conditioning• Learning by Insight and Observation• Using the Principles of Learning to Understand Everyday Behavior

LEARNING

• Learning– a relatively permanent

change in behavior or knowledge resulting from experience

Learning

Condition-ing

Observa-tional

LearningInsight

Classical Condition-

ing

OperantCondition-

ing

LEARNING

• Some famous learning theorists: (clockwise from top right) Ivan Pavlov, John Watson, B. F. Skinner

Learning by Association: Classical Conditioning

Learning By Association: Classical Conditioning

• Learning Objectives1. Describe how Pavlov’s early work in classical conditioning influenced the

understanding of learning.2. Review the concepts of classical conditioning, including unconditioned stimulus

(US), conditioned stimulus (CS), unconditioned response (UR), and conditioned response (CR).

3. Explain the roles that extinction, generalization, and discrimination play in conditioned learning.

LEARNING BY ASSOCIATION: CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

• Classical conditioning– learning that occurs

when a neutral stimulus becomes associated with a stimulus that naturally produces a behavior

LEARNING BY ASSOCIATION: CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

THE PERSISTENCE AND EXTINCTION OF CONDITIONING

• acquisition– The CS and the US are repeatedly paired together and behavior increases.

• extinction– The CS is repeatedly presented alone, and the behavior slowly decreases.

• spontaneous recovery– After a pause, when the CS is again presented alone, the behavior may

again occur and then again show extinction.

THE PERSISTENCE AND EXTINCTION OF CONDITIONING

• Generalization– The tendency to

respond to stimuli that resemble the original conditioned stimulus

• Discrimination– The tendency to

respond to stimuli that are similar but not identical

THE ROLE OF NATURE IN CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

• Behaviorists argued that conditioning is based entirely on experience, and that nature plays no role.

• Psychologists have found, however, that nature can influence the way associations are formed in some instances of classical conditioning.

– Nature influences the classical conditioning processes involved in the learning of phobias, in the development of taste aversions, and in post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD).

THE ROLE OF NATURE IN CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

• Phobia– a strong and irrational fear of a specific object, activity, or situation– We are more likely to develop phobias related to objects that were harmful in our

evolutionary past.• Taste aversion in food conditioning

– Potentially harmful associations are learned very quickly.• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

– Strong associations are formed with stimuli related to traumatic events.

LEARNING BY ASSOCIATION: CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

• Key Takeaways– In classical conditioning, a person or animal learns to associate a neutral

stimulus (the conditioned stimulus, or CS) with a stimulus (the unconditioned stimulus, or US) that naturally produces a behavior (the unconditioned response, or UR). As a result of this association, the previously neutral stimulus comes to elicit the same response (the conditioned response, or CR).

– Extinction occurs when the CS is repeatedly presented without the US, and the CR eventually disappears, although it may reappear later in a process known as spontaneous recovery.

LEARNING BY ASSOCIATION: CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

• Key Takeaways, continued– Stimulus generalization occurs when a stimulus that is similar to an already-

conditioned stimulus begins to produce the same response as the original stimulus does.

– Stimulus discrimination occurs when the organism learns to differentiate between the CS and other similar stimuli.

– In second-order conditioning, a neutral stimulus becomes a CS after being paired with a previously established CS.

– Some stimulus/response pairs are more easily conditioned than others because they have been particularly important in our evolutionary past.