General Psychology (PY110) Chapter 4 Learning

Learning Learning is a relatively permanent change or modification in behavior due to experience or training

Why Do We Learn?

Training Two main types of training BehaviorTraining type InnateClassical Conditioning AcquiredOperant Conditioning

Classical Conditioning Discovered by Ivan Pavlov - a Russian physiologist studying digestive processes in dogs The dogs were strapped into harnesses and had tubes inserted into their cheeks to measure the amount of salivation, the initial step in the digestive process With time, he noticed that the dogs started to salivate before the meat powder was even put in their mouths, and wanted to know why this was happening

Classical Conditioning (Neutral Stimulus)

Elements and Procedures of Classical Conditioning Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) Unconditioned Response (UCR) Conditioned Stimulus (CS) Conditioned Response (CR) Associated Similar

Principles of Conditioning Extinction ◦ Hey where’s my food? Spontaneous Recovery ◦ Maybe I’ll get food this time Stimulus Generalization ◦ Any bell will do Stimulus Discrimination ◦ That’s not the dinner bell “I don’t know about you, but that bell is starting to put me off my food”

Acquisition, Extinction, and Spontaneous Recovery

Stimulus Generalization and Discrimination

Limitations of Classical Conditioning Continuous reinforcement required Extinction occurs quickly

The “Little Albert” Study John Watson conducted a study on an infant named Albert While Albert was looking at a little white rat, Watson quietly sneaked behind him and made a loud noise Albert’s reflexive response, the UCR, was a fear- avoidance response (e.g., crying and trying to crawl away) to the loud noise, which was the UCS After pairing the white rat with the loud noise only 7 times, the white rat became a CS

Operant Conditioning Behaviors that are reinforced (lead to satisfying consequences) will be strengthened, and behaviors that are punished (lead to unsatisfying consequences) will be weakened Called “operant” conditioning because the organism needs to “operate” on the environment to bring about consequences from which to learn Learning to associate behaviors with their consequences

Operant Conditioning Most famous work conducted by psychologist B.F. Skinner Used apparatus known as ‘Skinner boxes’ that are still used in experimentation today

The Law of Effect Operant conditioning is based on E. L. Thorndike’s Law of Effect Any behavior that results in satisfying consequences tends to be repeated, and any behavior that results in unsatisfying consequences tends not be repeated

General Learning Processes in Operant Conditioning Shaping occurs when an animal is trained to make a particular response by reinforcing successively closer approximations to the desired response ◦ With humans, this might mean reinforcing a child the closer he comes to making his bed correctly each morning

Shaping in Operant Conditioning

Imitation (or Modeling) Albert Bandura ◦ Researched aggressiveness as a learned behavior ◦ Children exposed to aggressive adult behavior against Bobo doll ◦ Many imitated aggressive behavior

Types of Reinforcement PositiveNegative ReinforcementA rewardRemoval of something unpleasant PunishmentUnpleasant PresentRemoval of a reward

Example of Reinforcement Social Situation + Alcohol Drink Alcohol Presentation of pleasant feelings Stressful Situation + Alcohol Drink Alcohol Reduction of Unpleasant Feelings A psychologist considering why alcoholics drink can consider two possible reinforcement factors Positive Reinforcement Negative Reinforcement

Types of Reinforcement Reward Time Based INTERVAL Work Based RATIO

Interval Schedules of Reinforcement Fixed Interval ◦ Reward arrives on set schedule  Work paid with salary Variable Interval ◦ Reward arrives sporadically

Ratio Schedules of Reinforcement Fixed Ratio ◦ Reward arrives after performance of task  Piece work Variable Ratio ◦ Reward will arrive after unknown number of repetitions of a task  Lottery  Resistant to Extinction

Motivation When motivation is:  Task is accomplished to gain reward Also referred to as Goal Oriented (GO) Task is accomplished for personal satisfaction. Also referred to as Learning Oriented (LO) Are you learning oriented (LO) or goal oriented (GO)?

The Motivation Process 1. Need 2. Drive (awareness) 3. Action (direction) 4. Need reduction or Need satisfaction State of deprivation (imbalance)

Theories of Motivation Intrinsic Factors Drive Reduction Theory Need Satisfaction Extrinsic Factors Incentive Theory Reward

Yerkes-Dodson Law State of Arousal Difficulty of Task Best Result Low High Low

Yerkes-Dodson Law Increased arousal will aid performance up to a point, after which further arousal impairs performance