1. PSY402 Theories of Learning Wednesday March 5, 2003

2. Expectancies  Expectancy –mental representation of event contingencies.  Dickinson – an expectancy contains two kinds of information: Associative link between two events – classically conditioned, mechanistic. Behavior-reinforcer belief – consequences of action, operant, intentional.

3. Testing Associative Links  Two groups trained to bar press: One group reinforced with sodium (Na) Other group reinforced with potassium (K) Both tested when deprived of sodium.  Irrelevant incentive effect – sodium deprivation activated associative link for Na rats but not K rats.  Could be due to beliefs not links.

4. Testing for Beliefs  Reinforcer devaluation effect – what happens if reinforcer is diminished in value after training? One group got sucrose for bar-pressing and food regardless of behavior. Other group got food for bar-pressing and sucrose non-contingently. Sucrose devalued during testing.  Bar pressing was lower when the sucrose was behavior-contingent.

5. Importance of Disgust  Devaluation is a two-stage process: A disgust reaction is associated with the reinforcer (devalued by illness). The reinforcer must be reexperienced.  Devaluation of the reinforcer occurs when reexperience activates the associated disgust. Studied using ondansetron – a strong anti-emetic (reduces nausea).

6. Importance of Habits  Dickinson acknowledged that habits do exist and can control behavior.  Expectancies (behavior-reinforcer beliefs) control actions before habits are established.  Behavioral autonomy – control of responding by habit rather than expectancy. Habit responds to devalued reinforcer.

7. Learned Helplessness Theory  Seligman – depression is learned.  Depression occurs when people believe: Failures are due to uncontrollable events. Failure will continue as long as events are beyond their control.  Depression arises from helplessness.

8. Animal Research  Step 1 -- three groups of dogs: Inescapable shock – no control. Escapable shock -- terminated if the dog pressed a panel. No shock  Step 2 – 10 trials of signaled avoidance training in shuttle box.  2/3 of inescapable shock dogs did not learn to jump during step 2.

9. Helplessness in Humans  Hiroto – three groups of college students: Uncontrollable group – wrongly told that pushing button would end noise. Escapable group – pushing button ended noise. Control – no noise.  Tested using finger shuttle box.  Uncontrollable group did not escape

10. Characteristics of Helplessness  Motivational impairment – unable to initiate voluntary behavior. Mice in water maze. Nonspecific – carries over to a variety tasks and test situations.  Intellectual impairment – incapable of benefiting from future experience – even if they jump, don’t learn.  Emotional trauma – neg. affect.

11. Studies of Depressives  Show similar results to learned helplessness studies.  Depressed individuals do not escape noise, responding like inescapable non-depressed individuals.  Depressed individuals do not adjust likelihood of succeeding upward when they experience success. They credit chance not skill.

12. Criticisms of Seligman’s Theory  There is more to depression than learned helplessness.  Helplessness subjects described the task as a skill task, even though acting as if it were a chance task.  Failure to replicate performance deficits in humans – facilitation of performance instead.  May be due to attributions.

13. Attribution Theory  Causal attributions of failure have three dimensions: Internal-external – internal traits or characteristics vs environmental forces Stable-unstable – past causes will persist vs new forces will determine future outcomes Global-specific – outcome relates only to one task vs outcome effects everything.

14. Two Kinds of Helplessness  Personal helplessness – an individual’s inability causes failure.  Universal helplessness – the environment is structured so that no one can control future events.  Abramson -- both kinds lead to depression. Vary on external-internal dimension. Low self-esteem only with personal.