LEARNING Psychology

DEFINITION Learning is defined: ◦_____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ Psychologists are interested in how we learn and the impact learning has on our behaviour.

THREE TYPES OF LEARNING O I C

OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING Theory coined by Albert Bandura. Also known as “__________________________” _______________________________________ ________________________________. For example: studying a professional sports figure in order to learn the techniques of that sport. Learning through observation and/or imitation can have positive and negative impact on an individual’s behaviour depending on what or whom they choose to imitate.

OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING According to Bandura, ___________________ _______________________________________ all play an important role in the learning process. For example: we learn through observation, modeling (i.e. Bobo Doll experiment) and through mirror neurons. (clip) Mirror Neurons are frontal lobe neurons that fire when performing certain actions or when observing another doing something. They enable imitation, language learning, and empathy.

OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING PROCESS: A__________ -- the individual notices something in the environment. R__________-- the individual remembers what was noticed. R__________ -- the individual produces an action that is a copy of what was noticed. M__________ -- the environment delivers a consequence that changes the probability the behavior will be emitted again Provide two positive and two negative examples of this process.

INSIGHT LEARNING Insight learning occurs when________________ _______________________________________ ____________________. Some noteworthy terms that describe insight learning include: experiencing an “epiphany” eureka! “aha” Insight learning suggests that it is important to have time to absorb and think about new learning.

THE ANATOMY OF INSIGHT LEARNING The experience of insight learning often involves three factors: 1. Seemingly all possible problem-solving attempts have been exhausted and are unsuccessful. 2. ____________________________________. 3. A perfect solution to the problem is suddenly realized in a spontaneous way.

WOLFGANG KOHLER

Psychologist who conducted insight learning experiments on animals. In one experiment, a chimpanzee was given two short sticks with a banana set out of reach. After unsuccessfully attempting to reach the banana with the short sticks, the hungry chimpanzee gave up. However, the chimpanzee later accidentally discovered that the sticks could be joined together to form one longer stick. Just then, a spark of insight revealing a solution manifested, allowing the chimpanzee to successfully reach the banana.

Conditioned Learning Definition: _________________________________ _________________________________. ◦i.e. learning to respond to a particular stimulus in a particular way Two types: ◦__________ Conditioning

Classical Conditioning Key figure: Ivan Pavlov Pavlov’s dog ◦Sounded bell right before giving the dog food ◦Initially, the food caused the dogs to salivate ◦Eventually the dogs salivated at the sound of the bell alone

Classical Conditioning An unconditioned stimulus (US) is paired with a conditioned stimulus (CS) to turn an unconditioned response (UR) to a conditioned response (CR) 1. __________ 2. __________ 3. __________

Operant Conditioning Key figure: BF Skinner Skinner realized that most behaviour is not the result of the pairing of unrelated stimuli Skinner put a rat in a cage that had a bar that, when pushed, would drop a food pellet into the cage ◦The rat randomly pushed the bar and got food ◦The next time it pushed the bar, it got more food ◦Eventually it pushed the bar constantly, knowing it would get food

Operant Conditioning Using rewards to reinforce behaviours, and punishments to discourage them Positive reinforcement: an event/condition that increases the likelihood that a certain behaviour will reoccur Negative reinforcement: an event/condition that decreases the likelihood that a certain behaviour will reoccur

Operant Conditioning Which do you think is more effective, rewards, or punishment? Why?