What is learning? A relatively permanent change in behavior that comes as a result of experience. Not automatic…based on EXPERIENCE Not due to maturation, but produces change Learning Overview

Associative Learning Certain events occur together Habituation – repeated or prolonged exposure to a stimulus results in a reduction in responding Sensitization – presentation of a stimulus leads to increased response to a later stimulus Sea slug withdraws gills when lightly touched, but after being touched over and over again, will stop doing that. Today’s action movies show much more graphic violence than 80’s movies, which, in turn, show more graphic violence than 50’s movies. After receiving a strong shock, sea slugs show increased gill withdrawal to a light touch. People whose houses have been broken into may become hypersensitive to night sounds.

Three Types of Learning Classical conditioning (Pavlov, Watson) Operant conditioning (Thorndike, Skinner Observational learning (Bandura) Behaviorism: an approach that advocates that psychologists restrict themselves to the study of OBSERVABLE BEHAVIOR.

Classical Conditioning A form of learning that occurs when two stimuli that are presented together become associated with each other

Classical Conditioning Pavlov and his dogs—dogs learned to associate the ringing of the bell with getting food. Soon they salivated at the sound of the bell. Pavlov was a Russian physiologist who did Nobel-prize winning research on digestion. He was studying the role of saliva in digestive process in dogs when he stumbled onto what he called “psychic reflexes”. Pavlov would present meat powder to dogs, then measure salivation. As the research progressed, he noticed that the dogs would salivate before the meat powder was presented and would even salivate to a clicking sounds made by the device that presented the meat powder. Pavlov was intrigued, so starting pairing the meat powder by a simple auditory stimulus (a tone). After the tone and meat powder had been presented together a number of times, Pavlov presented the tone alone, and….guess what…the dogs salivated. What Pavlov demonstrated was how stimulus-response associations – the basic building blocks of learning – are formed by events in an organism’s environment.

Unconditioned Stimulus & Response UCS—unconditioned stimulus; an event that automatically produces an unconditioned response without any training (sound) UCR—unconditioned response; the reaction that is automatically produced when a UCS is present (saliva) HINT: “Unconditioned” means unlearned…something that occurs automatically

Conditioned Stimulus and Response CS—conditioned stimulus; neutral stimulus that acquires the ability to elicit a CR after being paired with UCS (bell) CR—conditioned response; response elicited by a CS that has been paired with UCS. Similar to the UCR. (saliva) Hint: “Conditioned” means learned. It’s not automatic.

Diagram of UCS/UCR and CS/CR Jennifer: Mangled, wounded bodies (UCS) = fear/anxiety (UCR) Helicopter sounds (neutral), but after war experiences… Helicopter sounds (CS) = fear/anxiety (UCR) Everyday Examples: Cringing at sound of dentist drill.

Key Term: Acquisition Phase of classical conditioning when the UCS and the CS are paired together. Typically gradual increase in learning: starts low, rises rapidly, tapers off.

Higher-Order (Second-Order) Conditioning A conditioned stimulus functions as if it were an unconditioned stimulus. Response is weaker than the original association Pavlov paired a black square with the tone. After a number of trials, the black square elicited the salivary response.

Extinction The gradual weakening and disappearance of a conditioned response Occurs when the unconditioned stimulus is no longer paired with the conditioned stimulus (tone constantly presented without food) Research shows that an extinguished CR isn’t totally lost during extinction…only very weakened or suppressed.

Spontaneous Recovery Reappearance of an extinguished CR after a period of nonexposure to the CS. The CR will be weaker than it was initially, and extinction occurs more easily after that. Renewal Effect – if a response is extinguished in a different environment, it will reappear in original environment where learning took place.

Acquisition, Extinction, Spontaneous Recovery

Generalization Generalization: an organism has learned a response to a specific stimulus, then response the same way to new stimuli that are similar to the original Little Albert (Watson and Raynor) Go back to the case of Jennifer, our war veteran. Remember that she associated helicopter blades with fear and anxiety. She could also begin to associate other mechanical noises with fear and anxiety. This is how phobias develop.

Phobias Marked, persistent, and excessive fear and avoidance of specific objects, activities, or situations Little Albert (Watson and Raynor) In a famous (though ethically dubious) experiment, Watson and Rayner (1920) showed that it did. Little Albert was a 9-month-old infant who was tested on his reactions to various stimuli. He was shown a white rat, a rabbit, a monkey and various masks. Albert described as "on the whole stolid and unemotional" showed no fear of any of these stimuli. However, what did startle him and cause him to be afraid was if a hammer was struck against a steel bar behind his head. The sudden loud noise would cause "little Albert to burst into tears. When Little Albert was just over 11 months old, the white rat was presented, and seconds later the hammer was struck against the steel bar.  This was done seven times over the next seven weeks, and each time Little Albert burst into tears. By now little Albert only had to see the rat and he immediately showed every sign of fear. He would cry (whether or not the hammer was hit against the steel bar) and he would attempt to crawl away. In addition, the Watson and Rayner found that Albert developed phobias of objects which shared characteristics with the rat; including the family dog, a fur coat, some cotton wool and a Father Christmas mask! This process is known as generalization. Watson and Rayner had shown that classical conditioning could be used to create a phobia….to elicit fear and anxiety. Watson wanted to show that fear and anxiety could be classically conditioned and need not be the result of deeper unconscious processes (remember that behaviorism was in vogue at the same time as psychoanalysis).

Discrimination Discrimination: Organism has learned a response to a specific stimulus, but does not respond the same way to the new stimuli that are similar to original stimuli Your dog wags his tail when your car pulls up in the driveway. Initially, probably wags tail to all cars, but over time, only wags for your car only. Only afraid black widow spiders, but not other spiders.

One-Trial Learning – Taste Aversion Requires only one pairing of the previously neutral stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus to establish a conditioned response. Evolutionary Value: Biological Preparedness – propensity for learning certain types of associations over others A conditioned taste aversion can occur when eating a substance is followed by illness. For example, if you ate a taco for lunch and then became ill, you might avoid eating tacos in the future even if the food you ate had no relationship to your illness. While it might seem expected that we would avoid foods that were immediately followed by illness, research has shown that the consumption of the food and the onset of the illness do not need to necessarily occur close together. Conditioned taste aversions can develop even when there is a long delay between the neutral stimulus (eating the food) and the unconditioned stimulus (feeling sick). In classical conditioning, conditioned food aversions are examples of single-trial learning. It requires only one pairing of the previously neutral stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus to establish an automatic response. These conditioned taste aversions are quite common and can last for days to several years. Consider your own aversions to certain foods. Can you link your distaste for particular items to a period of illness, queasiness, or nausea? People may find that they avoid very specific types of food for years simply because they consumed that particular item before they became ill. While it may seem to violate the general principles of classical conditioning, researchers have been able to demonstrate the effects of conditioned taste aversions in experimental settings. In one such experiment, psychologist John Garcia fed flavored water (a previously neutral stimulus) to lab rats. Several hours later, the rats were injected with a substance (the UCS) that made them ill. Later, when the rats were offered the flavored water, they refused to drink it. One part of the explanation lies in the concept of biological preparedness. Essentially, virtually every organism is biologically predisposed to create certain associations between certain stimuli. If an animal eats food and then becomes ill, it might be very important to the animal's continued existence to avoid such foods in the future. These associations are frequently essential for survival, so it is no wonder they form easily.

Brain Involvement in Conditioning Cerebellum – eyeblink conditioning experiment Amygdala – fear conditioning Puff of air (UCS) = eyeblink (UCR) Tone (CS) = eyeblink (CR) People with cerebellar damage had trouble making connection. Rats: electric shock (UCS) = “freezing” (UCR) (crouch down/become motionless – stress response Tone (CS) = freezing (CR) If damage to amygdala and it cannot connect to other parts of the brain, you don’t see this fear response.

Applications of Classical Conditioning Advertising – evaluative conditioning Changes in LIKING of stimulus results from pairing stimulus with other positive or negative stimuli Funny cartoons paired with energy drinks = people liked drinks more Peripheral route of persuasion Drug abuse/overdose Treatment of phobias (extinguish phobic response) Attractive man/woman = positive response Pair product with attractive women = positive response Drug overdose (Siegel study)

Vocabulary Learning Pavlov Associative Learning Watson Habituation Garcia Sensitization Classical Conditioning Unconditioned Stimulus/Unconditioned Response Conditioned Stimulus/Conditioned Response Acquisition Higher-Order (Second-Order) Conditioning Extinction Spontaneous Recovery Generalization Phobias Discrimination One-Trial Learning