Unit 5

Learning

Slides prepared by Randall E. Osborne, Texas State University-San Marcos

Revised by Dr. Bar-Navon

PSYCHOLOGYSchacter

Gilbert

Wegner

2

6.1 Defining Learning

- Learning – Experience that causes a permanent change

Learning

Associative learning: learning that occurs by making a connection or association between two events. There are two types of associative learning:

1. Classical conditioning – association between stimuli in the environment and involuntary reflexive behaviors such as salivation.

2. Operant conditioning – association between the consequences of our behaviors and our voluntary actions.

PSYCHOLOGYSchacter

Gilbert

Wegner

6.2

Classical Conditioning: One Thing Leads to Another

Learning

Classical conditioning.

Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) –

Russian physiologist interested in studying digestion. Pavlov used dogs as his research subjects.

Key terms:

Stimulus = activating event in the environment

Response = reaction to the activating event

- Pavlov taught dogs to salivate in reaction to hearing a bell ring.

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6.2 Classical Conditioning

- Classical conditioning• Unconditioned

stimulus (US)• Unconditioned

response (UR)• Conditioned

stimulus (CS)• Conditioned

response (CR)

Learning

During conditioning or learning:

A bell rang, and immediately after the bell rang, the dogs received food.

Bell + Food = salivation

Through associative learning, the dogs learned to associate the bell with the food.

Learning

Eventually, after repeatedly pairing the bell with the food, the bell was able to act in the place of the food.

Bell [alone] = salivation

- The dogs were able to salivate in response to just the bell ringing, without the food being present.

- This is known as classical conditioning.

**In classical conditioning, an involuntary or reflexive behavior such as salivation, is associated with another stimulus in the environment like a bell. An involuntary or reflexive behavior is one that you do not have to learn how to do. It is instinctual or automatic. You are born with it!

Pavlov’s Analysis and Terminology

Before conditioning:

Bell (Neutral stimulus) == no relevant response

Food (Unconditioned stimulus) =Salivation (UCResponse)

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During conditioning:

Bell (NS) + Food (UCS) = Salivation (UCR)

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After conditioning:

Bell (CS) == Salivation (CR)

Learning

Pavlov’s terminology.

- Unconditioned: means without learning or conditioning.

- UCS = unconditioned stimulus: a stimulus that cause a response that you do NOT have to learn. What was this in Pavlov’s study?

- UCR = unconditioned response: a reaction to a stimulus that you do NOT have to learn. What was this in Pavlov’s study?

Learning

What are some examples of other involuntary or reflexive unconditioned responses (UCR’s):

- Knee jerk patellar reflex: response to doctors tap - Blinking: response to air puffs to the eye- Sweating: response to heat - Shivering: response to cold- Emotional reactions such as fear - Salivation: response to the sight or smell of food - Nauseau: response to certain smells or sights

Learning

More Terminology:

- The stimulus that does not cause any relevant reaction or response prior to conditioning or learning is called the neutral stimulus.

- In Pavlov’s experiment, the neutral stimulus is the bell.

- Prior to conditioning, the bell does not cause the dog to salivate.

Pavlov’s study

- Conditioned means learned or trained.

- A conditioned stimulus = a stimulus that you have learned to connect with another stimulus through associative learning or repeated pairing.

- A conditioned response = a response that you have learned to do in reaction to a stimulus. This response is not innate or something you are born with. It must be learned!!!

Learning

In the following examples, see if you can figure out what is the: Neutral stimulus (NS), UCS, UCR, CS, & CR.

1. Every time June goes to visit Grandma at her cute little yellow house in Queens, she notices that it is very hot. When she asks Grandma about it, Granny says she likes to keep it at a toasty 80 degrees all day long. June sweats profusely and leaves Granny’s house feeling drained. After repeatedly visiting Grandma, June eventually begins to sweat when she pulls up to the curb of Grandma’s cute little yellow house in Queens, before she even goes inside.

Learning

2. Johnny yells “Bye Mom!” every morning before he goes to school. Right after he yells, he slams the door loudly behind him. Johnny’s Mom jumps in reaction to the slam. Eventually, Johnny’s yell of “Bye Mom!” causes his mother to jump, before the door even slams.

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6.2 Conditioned Emotional Responses

- John Watson- “even complex behaviors are the result of

conditioning”- 9-month-old “Little Albert”- Stimuli—white rat; dog; rabbit; burning

newspaper• Showed curiosity• Then shown stimulus (rat) and loud noise when he

reached to touch it—result was fear• Soon sight of rat caused fear

Chapter 4 – Classical Conditioning

- Conditioned emotional responses. In a famous experiment conducted by (Watson & Raynor, 1920) Little Albert was trained through classical conditioning to fear a rat. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxKfpKQzow8

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6.2 Conditioned Emotional Responses

- Watson’s goals:• Complex reactions can be conditioned using Pavlovian

techniques• Emotional responses (such as fear) are learned and not

result of unconscious processes“Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select – doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors.”

Learning Applications

John Watson believed that many fears and phobias are initially acquired through classical conditioning.

Examples: a phobia of cotton balls or a phobia of clowns (coulrophobia). Both of these phobias often begin at an early age through classical conditioning.

Learning

- In a similar line of thinking, fears and phobias can also be “de-conditioned” or “unlearned” through classical conditioning.

- The case of “Little Peter” who was afraid of a rabbit (Jones, 1924) illustrates the concept of counter-conditioning.

- Peter was given candy in the presence of the rabbit he feared. Eventually, his fear disappeared.

Applications

- Classical conditioning is frequently used in advertising.

- Through imagery and/or music, smells, sounds, advertisers attempt to manipulate the emotions of consumers.

- The goal is to make the consumer associate a specific emotion with their product.

- For example: using humor in an ad, or using sex to sell a product.

- Video of a TV ad for diet Coke: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmBDeswu2dI

Learning

Researchers have found that young children and adults will begin to drool when they see the golden arches of McDonalds.

- This is an excellent example of classical conditioning.

- Can you break this example down into the basic elements (NS, UCS, UCR, CS, CR) ??

Applications of Classical Conditioning

Aversion therapy.

- Using classical conditioning to help someone break a habit or bad behavior.

- Typically used to make a future behavior less appealing.

- Examples: silver nitrate filters for cigarettes, bitter apple for nail biters, and antabuse (disulfurin) for alcoholics.

- The drug antabuse alone has no effect. However, if it is mixed with alcohol, the person becomes immediately and violently ill.

- Most students can relate to eating something that made them sick. How many of you have since eaten that same food?

Applications of Classical Conditioning

- In the classic movie “A Clockwork Orange” by Stanley Kubrick, the main character is trained through aversion therapy to associate nauseau with violent and/or sexual feelings.

- Thoughts?

- Is this something we should

do to criminals?

Higher-order conditioning

Higher order conditioning: after a classically conditioned response has been acquired, the learner is taught to make a new association between the conditioned stimulus and a new and different neutral stimulus.

- Example: in Pavlov’s study, after conditioning or learning to salivate in response to the bell, the dogs are taught to make a new association between the bell and a light.

bell + light = salivation

- Eventually, the light alone will be able to cause the dogs to salivate. This is higher order conditioning.

light = salivation

- The salivation response to the light will be weaker than the salivation response to the bell. Why?

Review 1. A stimulus that does NOT cause a

relevant reaction or response before conditioning

2. A stimulus that causes an involuntary reflexive response

3. A reaction or response that is not learned. It is innate or something you are born with.

4. In Pavlov’s study, what the bell is called after conditioning or learning takes place.

5. In Pavlov’s study, what is the meat powder referred to as?

6. A type of classical conditioning where a second neutral stimulus is associated with a conditioned stimulus.

a. Conditioned stimulus

b. Conditioned response

c. Unconditioned stimulus

d. Unconditioned response

e. Neutral stimulus

f. Higher order conditioning

Review

7. In the case of little Albert, before conditioning the rat was a(n) ___.

8. Another way of saying “after learning takes place” is___.

9. In the case of little Albert, the loud noise was the ____.

10. Sweating in response to heat is a(n) ______.

11. Classical conditioning involves ____ behavior.

12. A reflex would be considered a(n) _____ behavior.

13. The Golden Arches of McDonald’s would be considered a(n) _____ before conditioning.

14. Children drooling only upon sight of the golden arches of McDonalds would be a(n) ______.

a. Unconditioned stimulus

b. Conditioned stimulus

c. Neutral stimulus

d. Conditioned response

e. Unconditioned response

f. Involuntary

g. Voluntary

h. Conditioned

i. unconditioned

PSYCHOLOGYSchacter

Gilbert

Wegner

6.3

Operant Conditioning: Reinforcements from the

Environment

Operant Conditioning

- Focus is on Voluntary behavior

- Behavior that is learned only NOT innate

- Consequences shape voluntary behavior

- Free-will is a myth

- Theorists: Skinner, Thorndike, Watson

Chapter 4 - Learning

- Operant conditioning: learning to perform a voluntary behavior based upon the consequences

- behavior is voluntary. You must think about doing it beforehand. It is not innate or inborn.

Operant Conditioning

Example: raising your hand in class to answer a question. This is voluntary behavior. It is NOT reflexive or involuntary. You are not born with this ability, you have to learn how to do this [although the idea of this being innate in all my students makes me quite happy ]

Whether or not you will raise your hand again in the future has to do with the consequences of your actions. Were you ridiculed? Did you get a bonus point??

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6.3 Operant Conditioning

- B. F. Skinner- Operant conditioning

Learning

- B.F. Skinner is the most prominent figure in psychology who we associate with operant conditioning.

- http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8956355585286146382&q=BF+Skinner

- There are two categories or types of consequences according to Skinner:

1. reinforcement

2. punishment

Reinforcement

- Reinforcement: any consequence that increases the probability of a response in the future.

- Reinforcement can be used to shape many unusual behaviors in animals as well as people!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKZdpKPGvoA

Reinforcement types

Reinforcement= any consequence that you like. It is different for everyone. The trick to motivation is to

figure out what each person likes and dislikes!

1. Positive reinforcement: a consequence that you like is added. Example: bonus points, stickers, candy, money, etc.

2. Negative reinforcement: a consequence that you dislike is taken away. Example: If you have an A average, you

are exempt from the final and get an automatic A in the class. Other examples: Snooze alarms, taking aspirin for a headache, seatbelt buzzers in the car, etc.

Extinction and Spontaneous Recovery

- Extinction: A response that is no longer reinforced is weakened and less likely to occur again in the future.

- Example: you put money into a soda machine, and nothing comes out. How many more dollars would you put into the machine before you stop?

- Spontaneous recovery: the sudden reappearance of a behavior after extinction has taken place. In the soda machine example, you might try again after several weeks of not using the machine.

Punishment

Punishment: any consequence that decreases the probability of a behavior in the future.

- E.g., A consequence that you do not like.

1. positive punishment: something that you don’t like is added. Examples: getting spanked, getting yelled at, etc.

2. negative punishment: something that you like is taken away. Examples: getting grounded, you can’t use the car, the phone, the video games, time-out, etc.

Can you think of more examples of each type of punishment?

Operant Conditioning

- Skinner believed that reinforcement was significantly more effective than punishment in shaping behavior.

Why?

1. punishment – tells the individual what not to do.

No! No! No! No! This can lead to “learned helplessness” where the learner gives up trying. It can also lead to anger and frustration. Focus is on the negative. Lastly, the teacher is modeling aggression when angry.

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Operant Conditioning

2. reinforcement – Tells the learner what they are doing correctly, or in what direction they should keep moving. This method is much more rewarding for both the teacher and the learner, and reinforcement continues to motivate future attempts on the part of the student. Focus is on the positive. Less likely to result in frustration and helplessness.

Punishment

Learned helplessness. (Seligman, 1965)

- Dogs were divided into three groups.

- 1. dogs were harnessed and no shocks were given

- 2. dogs were harnessed and shocked, but were able to turn the shock off by pressing a lever. [Control]

- 3. dogs were harnessed and shocked by yoked-control [according to group #2]. They were unable to turn off the shock. [NO Control]

- The first and second group of dogs quickly recovered after the experiment. The third group however, suffered signs of clinical depression. They had learned to give up.

Punishment

- Learned helplessness is the behavioral explanation for depression.

- According to behaviorism, depression is the result of an environment deprived of reinforcement and abundant in punishment.

- Signs of depression that connect to this explanation include: withdrawal, isolation, apathy, and feelings of helplessness

Operant conditioning

- When teaching an individual a new skill, it is best to use continuous reinforcement. This means reward the learner every time. Why would you do this?

- Partial reinforcement – not every time. Why do you eventually want to switch to partial reinforcement?

- Shaping: the reinforcement of successive approximations or “baby steps” towards a targeted behavior.

- How would you teach a child to play baseball? Swing a bat?

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6.3 Operant Conditioning

- Schedules of reinforcement• fixed-interval (set

time)• variable-interval

(avg. time)• fixed ratio (set

number)• variable ratio

(avg. number)

Partial Schedules of Reinforcement

Both ratio and interval schedules can be either fixed [constant] or variable [changes].

Ratio schedules.

Fixed ratio: the number of responses that must be made before reinforcement is given is fixed or constant. Example: every 5th time the rat presses the lever, he will get a food pellet.

Variable ratio: the number of responses that must be made before reinforcement is given is variable or changes. Example: the first time the rat presses the lever, he gets a food pellet. The next 30 times, he doesn’t get any food pellets. The 32nd time he gets a pellet. The next reward is given after 2000 presses.

Partial schedules of reinforcement

Fixed interval. The amount of time that must elapse between reinforcement is fixed. - Examples: a weekly paycheck, weekends, a favorite TV show – say Thursday’s at 10pm. Can you think of some more examples?

Variable interval. The amount of time that must elapse between reinforcement will vary or change. This schedule is the most resistant to extinction.- Examples: blue light sales at Kmart, the green light at KrispyKreme doughnuts, fishing. Can you think of some more examples?

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6.3 Operant Conditioning

- Superstitious behavior• reinforcement of

accidental behavior• “this stench causes

home runs!”

PSYCHOLOGYSchacter

Gilbert

Wegner

6.4

Observational Learning: Look at Me

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6.4 Observational Learning

- Learning without direct experience

- Bandura’s bobo dolls

- Adult models

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6.4 Observational Learning

- Social learning

- Cultural norms

- Viewing media violence

- Mirror neurons