1. Background for the Study of Learning and Behavior
Dr. Hale Ögel Balaban
PSY 211 Learning Psychology

2. What is behavior?
What is learning?

3. Why is learning important?
acquisition of new behavior (general common sense definition)
inhibition of already-existing behavior
role of training/instruction
life is filled with activities and experiences shaped by what we have learned.
facilitation of survival
promoting well-being

4. What is learning?
Learning: an enduring change in the mechanisms of behavior involving specific stimuli and/or responses that results from prior experience with those or similar stimuli and responses.
key points of definition:
Change in mechasnisms
learning vs. performance
Enduring
Short-lasting changes
long-lasting changes, but not learning: maturation

5. Antecedents Roots in philosophy Mind-body problem
Before Descartes: mind influences body
Conscious intent → voluntary behavior
People have free will.

6. Antecedents Roots in philosophy Descartes: human body like a machine
many automatic responses to external stimuli
Cartesian dualism: voluntary vs. involuntary human behavior
human body like a machine
Undulatio reflexa:
movement not determined by a conscious will
Reflex action theory
Mechanical, automatic responses brought by an external object
the pineal body as the interaction point
No free will- determinism

7. Antecedents -Descartes
Cartesian Dualism: voluntary vs. involuntary human behavior
Domjan, 2015, p. 5

8. Antecedents -Descartes
nerves like hollow tubes involving gas (‘animal spirit’) released by pineal gland
not supported
no change in the volume of the nerve during contraction (Schwammerdam, 1669)
Same nerves for sensory and motor messages
Bell and Magendie: sensory nerves vs. motor nerves
the more intense the stimulus, the more intense the response
some reflexes are more complicated: Sechenov’s studies

9. Antecedents -Descartes
all reflexes are innate (nativism)
not supported
Pavlov:
new reflexes through
associations
S-R units

10. Antecedents Nature vs. Nurture

11. Antecedents Nature vs. Nurture Aristotle John Locke (1632-1704)
mind as a blank slate- tabula rasa
observation as the way to the truth (empiricism)
John Locke ( )
Everything through experience
empiricism

12. Antecedents British empiricism: basic principles:
the primary role of the process of sensation
the analysis of conscious experience into elements
the synthesis of elements into complex mental experiences through the process of association
the focus on conscious processes

13. Antecedents Mind as predictable vs. unpredictable
Descartes: unpredictable
Hobbes: predictable
Hedonism: pursuit of pleasure, avoidance of pain
Empiricism:
Laws of associations by Aristotle:
contiguity
similarity
contrast

14. Antecedents Empirical study of associations
Ebbinghaus:mind’s process of association
formation.
Method: objective methods
List of CVC nonsense syllables.
Learn and relearn the list
Examination of forgetting as a function of the time interval passed between two learning sessions.
Himself as the subject
First to invent scientific method to study memory and mental processes.

15. Antecedents- Comparative Cognition
Idea of evolution:
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1809): animal’s bodily forms evolved through its efforts to adapt to its environment and these modifications were inherited by succeeding generations.

16. Antecedents- Comparative Cognition
Idea of evolution:
Too many species had been identified to believe the story of Noah’s Ark
fossils and bones of creatures that did not match those of existing species
species similar to human beings.
in 1835, a chimpanzee named Tammy at London Zoo.
in 1837, Jenny the orangutan
in 1853, British museum displayed a gorilla skeleton alongside a human skeleton.

17. Antecedents- Comparative Cognition
Idea of evolution:
Darwin’s 5-year-long journey with HMS Beagle
Observed variety of plant and animal life
waited for 22 years to present his ideas to the public
a letter from Alfred Russell Wallace including a theory very similar to Darwin’s.
published his book “On the Origin of Species”

18. Antecedents- Comparative Cognition
Idea of evolution:

19. Antecedents Idea of evolution: Charles Darwin:
the variation among individual members
of a species is inheritable.
Natural selection  survival of the fittest
natural selection results in the survival of those organisms best suited for their environment and the elimination of those not fit.
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”

20. Antecedents- Comparative Cognition
Idea of evolution:
Charles Darwin:
‘The Descent of Man’ (1871): emphasis on the similarity between animal and human mental processes.
continuity from nonhuman to human animals
 focus on animal psychology: the basis of comparative Ψ

21. Antecedents- Comparative Cognition
Animal Psychology
George John Romanes ( ):
formalized and systematized the study of
animal intelligence.
“Animal Intelligence” (1883): the first book on
comparative psychology
collected data from various animals
ants, spiders, fish, birds, elephants, monkeys, domestic animals.
Aim: to demonstrate high level of animal intelligence and its similarity to human functioning to illustrate the continuity in mental development.

22. Antecedents- Comparative Cognition
Romanes:
Method: anectodal method
the use of observational, often causal reports or narratives about animal behavior.
introspection by analogy: drawing an analogy between known human mental processes and the processes assumed to be taking place in the animals’ mind.
Finding: animals are capable of the same kinds of rationalization, ideation, complex reasoning, information processing and problem solving abilities as humans
the line between fact and subjective interpretation of the data is not clear

23. Antecedents- Comparative Cognition
Animal Psychology
Lloyd Morgan ( ):
the Law of Parsimony (Lloyd Morgan’s Canon):
an animal’s behavior must not be interpreted as the outcome of a higher mental process when it can be explained in terms of a lower mental process.
most animal behavior resulted from learning or association based on sensory experience.
First large-scale experimental studies in animal psychology.

24. Antecedents- Animal models
Drawing inferences about human behavior on the basis of research with other animals.
simpler, better, less expensive studies with animals
Key: similarity in features that are relevant for the problem at hand.
Application:
Learning based treatments for human problems
Behavioral theraphy
Developing drugs for various purposes
Animal models for robotics and AI

25. Antecedents-Functional neurology
Study with nonhuman animals about how nervous system works.
Behavioral studies provide cues about the machinery
Kinds of plasticity
Conditions of learning
How long learned responses persist etc.
 Neuroscientists explain them in more molecular & biological level.

26. General process approach
commonality vs. variety
Scientists try to formulate general laws with which to organize and explain diversity of the universe
Universal laws of learning
Methodological implication: studying any species or response systems that exhibit learning.
Different species same learning principles

27. Methodology Experiments
How prior experience causes long-term changes in behavior.
identification of causal variables
Behavior is observed with and without the presumed causes
Mostly in laboratory
With animals

28. Methodology Use of animals in research Control of past experience
Study how strong the response can be
How learning is involved in various issues
No effect of linguistic processes
No effect of the effort to please the experimenter

29. Methodology Use of animals in research Public debate:
Animal care/welfare of animals
Discomfort
Administration of aversive stimulus
Ethical
Humane treatment
Benefit from the use of animals
No right to exploit animals

30. Methodology Use of animals in research Any alternative?
Observational technique?
Plants?
Tissue cultures?
Computer simulations?

31. Next week Elicited behavior Reflex Habituation & Sensitization
Dual-Process Theory ……
Chapter 2