PSYCHOLOGY Unit 6 Learning

 Learning  relatively permanent change in an organism’s behavior due to experience

Association  We learn by association  Our minds naturally connect events that occur in sequence  Put key in ignition -> turns car on!  2:39 pm -> end of school day!  Dog sits on command -> treat time!  Psych class starts -> awesome time!

Behaviorism  John B. Watson  viewed psychology as objective science  Baby Albert Experiment  Father of Behaviorism

Classical Conditioning  Classical Conditioning  organism comes to associate two stimuli  a neutral stimulus that signals an unconditioned stimulus to begin to produce a response that anticipates the unconditioned stimulus

Classical Conditioning  Ivan Pavlov   Russian physician/neurophysiol ogist  Nobel Prize in 1904  studied digestive secretions

Classical Conditioning  Pavlov’s device for recording salivation

Pavlov’s Classic Experiment videovideo Before Conditioning During ConditioningAfter Conditioning UCS (food in mouth) Neutral stimulus (tone) No salivation UCR (salivation) Neutral stimulus (tone) UCS (food in mouth) UCR (salivation) CS (tone) CR (salivation)

Classical or Pavlovian Conditioning  We learn to associate two stimuli

Classical Conditioning  Acquisition  Beginning stage in classical conditioning  The phase associating a neutral stimulus with a UCS causing the neutral stimulus to elicit a CR

Classical Conditioning  Neutral Stimulus  A stimulus that before conditioning elicits no response  Eventually becomes the CS

Classical Conditioning  Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)  stimulus that automatically and naturally triggers a response  Unconditioned Response (UCR)  naturally occurring response to the unconditioned stimulus

Classical Conditioning  Conditioned Stimulus (CS)  after an association with a US, begins to trigger a CR  Conditioned Response (CR)  learned response to a previously neutral conditioned stimulus

Classical Conditioning  Generalization  tendency for stimuli similar to CS to elicit similar responses

Classical Conditioning  Discrimination  in classical conditioning, the learned ability to distinguish between a CS and other stimuli that do not signal a CR

Classical Conditioning  Extinction  diminishing of a CR  when a US does not follow a CS

Classical Conditioning  Spontaneous Recovery  reappearance, after a rest period, of an extinguished CR

Behavior Therapy  Aversive Conditioning  type of counterconditioning that associates an unpleasant state with an unwanted behavior  The logic of aversive counterconditioning is to pair situations that elicit the undesired positive response (e.g., the handling and taste of a cigarette) with stimuli that elicit a dominant, incompatible, aversive response (e.g., the reaction to electric Shock) as a way of reducing the positive reaction.

Operant Conditioning  Operant Conditioning  Learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by reinforcement or diminished if followed by punishment

Operant Conditioning  Operant Behavior  One’s acts on the environment which produces consequences  Respondent Behavior  Acts that occur as an automatic response to stimulus; OC’s term for CC

Operant Conditioning  Edward Thorndike  Law of Effect  Rewarded behavior is likely to recur  Experimented with cats

Operant Conditioning  Law of Effect – He placed a cat in the puzzle box with a piece of fish placed outside. Thorndike would put a cat into the box and time how long it took to escape. The cats experimented with different ways to escape the puzzle box and reach the fish.Eventually they would stumble upon the lever that opened the cage. He repeated the process and the next escape was quicker. – Edward Thorndike put forward a “Law of effect” which stated that any behavior that is followed by pleasant consequences is likely to be repeated, and any behavior followed by unpleasant consequences is likely to be stopped. – Video 

Operant Conditioning  B.F. Skinner ( )  Developed operant conditioning behavioral technology

Operant Chamber  Skinner Box (Operant Chamber)  chamber with a bar or key that an animal manipulates to obtain a food or water reinforcer

Operant Chamber  Skinner Box

Operant Conditioning  Reinforcer  any event that strengthens the behavior it follows  Shaping  procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward a desired goal

Principles of Reinforcement  Primary Reinforcer  Innately reinforcing stimulus  Usually food/water  Conditioned Reinforcer (secondary reinforcer)  stimulus that gains reinforcing power through association with primary reinforcer (light)

Reinforcement  Shaping and Reinforcement video Shaping and Reinforcement video Identify: operant behavior, primary reinforcer, conditioned reinforcer

Principles of Reinforcement  Positive Reinforcement  increase in the strength of a response by presenting a favorable stimulus associated with the response  Negative Reinforcement  increases a behavior by removing an aversive stimulus

Punishment  Punishment  aversive event that decreases the behavior that it follows  Controls unwanted behavior

Punishment

 Chaining  involves reinforcing individual responses occurring in a sequence to form a complex behavior  Teaching a dog the series sit, lay, roll over

Schedules of Reinforcement  Continuous Reinforcement  reinforcing the desired response each time it occurs  Partial (Intermittent) Reinforcement  reinforcing a response only part of the time  results in slower acquisition  greater resistance to extinction Video

Schedules of Reinforcement  Fixed Ratio (FR)  reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses  faster you respond the more rewards you get  very high rate of responding

Schedules of Reinforcement  Variable Ratio (VR)  reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses  like gambling  very hard to extinguish because of unpredictability

Schedules of Reinforcement  Fixed Interval (FI)  reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed  response occurs more frequently as the anticipated time for reward draws near

Schedules of Reinforcement  Variable Interval (VI)  reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals  produces slow steady responding  like pop quiz

Schedules of Reinforcement Variable Interval Number of responses Time (minutes) Fixed Ratio Variable Ratio Fixed Interval Steady responding Rapid responding near time for reinforcement 80

Learned Helplessness Learned helplessness occurs when an animal is repeatedly subjected to an aversive stimulus that it cannot escape. Eventually, the animal will stop trying to avoid the stimulus and behave as if it is utterly helpless to change the situation. Even when opportunities to escape are presented, this learned helplessness will prevent any action. Dogs stop jumping over the wall

Cognition and Operant Conditioning Latent Learning  learning that occurs, but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it

Cognition and Operant Conditioning Edward Tolman To study learning, Tolman conducted several classical rat experiments. One of his most well-known studies involved maze running. These experiments eventually led to the theory of latent learning which describes learning that occurs in the absence of an obvious reward. Hugh Blodgett conducted the first experiment using the paradigm of learning without reward in Three groups of rats were trained to run a maze. The control group, Group 1, was fed upon reaching the goal. The first experimental group, Group 2, was not rewarded for the first six days of training, but found food in the goal on day seven and everyday thereafter. The second experimental group, Group 3, was not rewarded for the first two days, but found food in the goal on day three and everyday thereafter. Both of the experimental groups demonstrated fewer errors when running the maze the day after the transition from no reward to reward conditions. The marked performance continued throughout the rest of the experiment. This suggested that the rats had learned during the initial trials of no reward and were able to use a "cognitive map" of the maze when the rewards were introduced.

Cognition and Operant Conditioning  Cognitive Map  mental representation of the layout of one’s environment  Ex: after exploring a maze, rats act as if they have learned a cognitive map of it

Observational Learning  Observational Learning  learning by watching or observing others  Modeling  process of observing and imitating a specific behavior Bandura Clip

Observational Learning  Mirror Neurons  frontal lobe neurons that fire when observing someone else  may enable imitation, language learning, and empathy  Prosocial behavior  occurs when someone acts to help another person, particularly when they have no goal other than to help a fellow human.

Observational Learning  Zone of Proximal Development  the range of abilities that a person can perform with assistance, but cannot yet perform independently  After learning adding/subtracting, you can move on to learn multiplication and division. You can not move on to differential equations, it is out of range or out of the “proximal zone”

Operant vs Classical Conditioning

Cognition and Operant Conditioning  Overjustification Effect  the effect of promising a reward for doing what one already likes to do  the person may now see the reward, rather than intrinsic interest, as the motivation for performing the task