{Learning
I’m Forcing You to Do It!
How do we define “learning”?
Learning: some experience that results in a relatively permanent change in the state of the learner
How about…
Habituation: general process in which repeated or prolonged exposure to a stimulus results in a gradual reduction in responding
May remind you of a term from the sensation lesson…
Back to Basics
Behaviorism: school of psychological thought
Argues that psychologists should “never use the terms consciousness, mental states, mind, content, introspectively verifiable, imagery, and the like” (J.B. Watson).
Why?
Behaviorism!
Occurs when a neutral stimulus evokes a responses after being paired with a stimulus that naturally evokes a response
Classical Conditioning
Unconditioned stimulus: something that reliably produces a naturally occurring response reaction in an organism
Unconditioned response: reflexive reaction that is reliably elicited by an unconditioned stimulus
Pavlov’s Dog Experiments
Conditioned Stimulus: a stimulus that is initially neutral and produces no response in an organism
Conditioned Response: a reaction that resembles an unconditioned response but is produced by a conditioned stimulus
Pavlov Continued
Research Apparatus
What does the experiment tell us about learning?
What does the experiment tell us about the way humans behave?
Why was Pavlov’s experiment so groundbreaking?
An organism experiences events or stimuli that are observable and measurable, and changes in that organism can be directly observed and measured
No need to resort to explanation about why it had happened, what the dog wanted, or how the animal thought about the situation
No need to consider the mindWhy is Classical Conditioning Attractive?
Second-Order Conditioning: conditioning where the US is a stimulus that acquired its ability to produce learning from an earlier procedure in which it was used as a CS
Can you think of ways this might apply to your life?
Learning on top of learning?
CS can be more than a simple bell or tone; also includes the overall CONTEXT within which the conditioning takes place
Drug tolerance: an organ’s defensive response against a drug
Drug Overdoses
Generalization: CR is observed even though the CS is slightly different from the original one used during acquisition
Octave pitches act as CS
Generalization
Alcoholism: addiction to alcohol
An alcoholic goes out to a restaurant where alcohol is not served. There is no bar in the restaurant and no bottles of liquor anywhere to be seen. But the alcoholic suddenly feels the overwhelming urge to drink. Why?
Alcoholics & Bars
Discrimination: capacity to distinguish between similar but distinct stimuli
Splat the dog!
Discrimination
Little Albert Experiments
What do they tell us about learning?
What do they tell us about human beings?
What do they tell us about psychology?Why Are the Baby Albert Experiments Considered Significant?
Watson: “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 of them 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 theif, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocation, and race of his ancestors.”
???? vs. ????
Food aversions cut acquisition time between CS and UR
Food aversions can occur even when an animal is unconscious
Less likely to occur in familiar foods
Evolutionary Elements to Classical Conditioning
The natural (innate) ability to learn particular kinds of associations over others
Phobias: examples of biological preparedness? Fear of heights? Fear of snakes?
Biological Preparedness
A type of learning in which the consequences of an organism’s behavior determine whether it will be repeated in the future
Exploration of behaviors that are ACTIVE rather than passive
Operant Conditioning
Thorndike’s Cat in a Box experiment
Over time, ineffective behaviors become less and less frequent and effective behaviors become more common
Law of Effect: behaviors that are followed by a “satisfying state of affairs” tend to be repeated and those that produce an “unpleasant state of affairs” are less likely to be repeated
Cats!
Operant Behavior: behavior that an organism produces that has some impact on the environment
B.F. Skinner
Take a look!
Skinner Box
In Skinner-ese: Punisher: any stimulus or event that
functions to decrease the likelihood of the behavior that led to it
Reinforcer: any stimulus or event that functions to increase the likelihood of the behavior that led to it
Punishers and Reinforcers
Increases Likelihood of Behavior
Decreases the Likelihood of Behavior
Stimulus is presented
Positive reinforecement
Positive punishment
Stimulus is removed
Negative reinforcement
Negative punishment
Positives and Negatives
*Reinforcement is generally more effective than punishment in promoting learning
*Punishment signals that a behavior is ineffective but provides no alternative
Extrinsic reinforcement: rewards that come from external sources
Overjustification effect: when external rewards undermine intrinsic satisfaction of performing a behavior
Reinforcement = Punishment?
In Operant Conditioning rewards are given out only when the correct behavior is undertaken—and sometimes not even then!
Schedule of reinforcement—when rewards are presented relative to correct behavior—drastically effect on behavior
Classical vs. Operant Conditioning
Fixed Interval Schedule: reinforcement presented every two minutes as long as correct behavior is undertaken
Bursts of correct behavior just before interval is up
Procrastination?
Fixed Interval Schedule
Responses are reward on average every two minutes but not after each two minute interval
Produces steady, consistent responding because the time until the next reinforcement is more variable
Variable Interval Schedule
Reinforcement is delivered after a specific number of responses have been made
Eat five pizzas and get the sixth one free!
Fixed Ratio Schedule
Delivery of reinforcement is based on a particular average number of responses
Slot machines
Intermittent-Reinforcement Effect: the fact that operant behaviors that are maintained under intermittent reinforcement schedules resist extinction better than those maintained under continuous reinforcement
Skinner got a pigeon to peck 10,000 before it got a food pellet!
Variable Ratio Schedule
Reward Schedule and Superstition
Edward Chace Tolman designed experiments to show that rats seemed to have BELIEFS about the rewards they would receive
Latent Learning: something is learned but it is not manifested as a behavioral change until sometime in the future
Cognitive Map: a mental representation of the physical features of the environment
But What About the Mind
Observational Learning: learning takes place by watching the actions of others
Challenges behaviorism’s reinforcement-based explanations of classical and operant conditioning
That Looks Bad…
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