1. 7
Learning and Conditioning

2. Classical Conditioning
Learning
A relatively permanent change in behavior due to experience.
Behaviorism
An approach to psychology that emphasizes the study of observable behavior and the role of the environment and prior experience as determinants of behavior.
Conditioning
A basic kind of learning that involves associations among environmental stimuli and an organism’s behavior.

3. Classical Conditioning, cont’
The process by which a previously neutral stimulus acquires the capacity to elicit a response through association with a stimulus that already elicits a similar response.

4. Classical Conditioning, cont’ LO7
Classical Conditioning, cont’ LO7.1 List and explain each of the four key elements that make classical conditioning take place.
New reflexes from old
Unconditioned stimulus (US): Elicits a certain response without additional learning.
Unconditioned response (UR): Response elicited by an unconditioned stimulus.

5. Classical Conditioning, cont’ LO7
Classical Conditioning, cont’ LO7.1 List and explain each of the four key elements that make classical conditioning take place.
New reflexes from old
A neutral stimulus is then regularly paired with an unconditioned stimulus.

6. Classical Conditioning, cont’ LO7
Classical Conditioning, cont’ LO7.1 List and explain each of the four key elements that make classical conditioning take place.
New reflexes from old
Conditioned stimulus (CS): An initially neutral stimulus that comes to elicit a conditioned response after being paired with an unconditioned stimulus.
Conditioned response (CR): A response that is elicited by a conditioned stimulus. Occurs after the CS has been associated with an US. Is usually similar to the US

7. Classical Conditioning, cont’ LO7
Classical Conditioning, cont’ LO7.2 Discuss the basic principles of classical conditioning.
Principles of classical conditioning
Extinction
Higher-order conditioning
Stimulus generalization and discrimination

8. Classical Conditioning, cont’ LO7
Classical Conditioning, cont’ LO7.2 Discuss the basic principles of classical conditioning.
Extinction
The weakening and eventual disappearance of a learned response.
In classical conditioning, it occurs when the conditioned stimulus is no longer paired with the unconditioned stimulus.

9. Classical Conditioning, cont’ LO7
Classical Conditioning, cont’ LO7.2 Discuss the basic principles of classical conditioning.
Higher-ordering conditioning
A neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus through association with an already established conditioned stimulus.

10. Classical Conditioning, cont’ LO7
Classical Conditioning, cont’ LO7.2 Discuss the basic principles of classical conditioning.
Stimulus generalization
In classical conditioning, occurs when a new stimulus that resembles the conditioned stimulus elicits the conditioned response.

11. Classical Conditioning, cont’ LO7
Classical Conditioning, cont’ LO7.2 Discuss the basic principles of classical conditioning.
Stimulus discrimination
The tendency to respond differently to two or more similar stimuli
In classical conditioning, occurs when a stimulus similar to the conditioned stimulus fails to evoke a conditioned response

12. Classical Conditioning, cont’ LO7
Classical Conditioning, cont’ LO7.3 Explain why the stimulus to be conditioned should precede the unconditioning stimulus in order for classical conditioning to take place.
What is actually learned in classical conditioning?
For classical conditioning to be most effective, the stimulus to be conditioned should precede the unconditioned stimulus.
We learn that the first stimulus predicts the second.

13. Classical Conditioning in Real Life LO7
Classical Conditioning in Real Life LO7.4 Provide examples of how classical conditioning takes place in forming preferences and avoiding fearful stimuli.
Learning to like
Where do sentimental feelings come from?
Objects have been associated in the past with positive feelings.

14. Classical Conditioning in Real Life, cont’ LO7
Classical Conditioning in Real Life, cont’ LO7.4 Provide examples of how classical conditioning takes place in forming preferences and avoiding fearful stimuli.
Learning to fear
Research suggests we can learn fear through association.
Watson and Rayner conditioned “Little Albert” to be afraid of white rats by pairing the neutral stimulus (rats) with an unconditioned stimulus (loud noise).
Within days, Albert was afraid of rats, and his fear generalized to other furry objects.

15. Classical Conditioning in Real Life, cont’ LO7
Classical Conditioning in Real Life, cont’ LO7.4 Provide examples of how classical conditioning takes place in forming preferences and avoiding fearful stimuli.
Accounting for taste
Slugs learned an aversion to the smell of carrots, which they normally like, after the smell of carrots was paired with a bitter-tasting chemical.
Psychologist Martin Seligman developed an aversion to béarnaise sauce after he came down with the flu following a meal of filet mignon with béarnaise sauce.

16. Reacting to medical treatments
Classical Conditioning in Real Life, cont’ LO7.5 Describe how the process of counterconditioning takes place.
Reacting to medical treatments
Some cancer patients react to waiting rooms with nausea, because the waiting room has been associated with chemotherapy, which chemically causes nausea.

17. Classical Conditioning in Real Life, cont’ LO7
Classical Conditioning in Real Life, cont’ LO7.5 Describe how the process of counterconditioning takes place.
Why do placebos work?
Cognitive psychologists emphasize the role of expectations.
Expectations of getting better may reduce anxiety, and that reduction may have a positive effect on the immune system.

18. Operation Conditioning LO7
Operation Conditioning LO7.6 Discuss how Thorndike’s law of effect served as the basis for operant conditioning.
The birth of radical behaviorism
To understand behavior it is necessary to focus on the external causes of an action and the action’s consequences.
To explain behavior, one must look outside the individual, not inside.

19. Operation Conditioning, cont’ LO7
Operation Conditioning, cont’ LO7.7 Define operant conditioning and explain the difference between operant conditioning and classical conditioning.
Operant conditioning
The process by which a response becomes more likely to occur or less so, depending on its consequences.

20. Operation Conditioning, cont’ LO7
Operation Conditioning, cont’ LO7.8 Distinguish between reinforcement and punishment and a positive and negative stimulus. Provide examples of positive and negative reinforcement and punishment.
Consequences of behavior
Reinforcement: process by which a stimulus or even strengthens or increases the probability of the response that it follows.
Punishment: process by which a stimulus or event weakens or reduces the probability of the response that it follows.

21. Operation Conditioning, cont’ LO7
Operation Conditioning, cont’ LO7.8 Distinguish between reinforcement and punishment and a positive and negative stimulus. Provide examples of positive and negative reinforcement and punishment.
Types of reinforcement
Reinforcement: process by which a stimulus or event strengthens or increases the probability of the response that it follows.
Punishment: process by which a stimulus or event weakens or reduces the probability of the response that it follows.

22. Operation Conditioning, cont’ LO7
Operation Conditioning, cont’ LO7.9 Distinguish between primary and secondary reinforcers and punishers.
Reinforcers
Primary reinforcers are inherently reinforcing and typically satisfying a physiological need.
Secondary reinforcers are stimuli that have acquired reinforcing properties through association with other reinforcers.

23. Operation Conditioning, cont’ LO7
Operation Conditioning, cont’ LO7.9 Distinguish between primary and secondary reinforcers and punishers.
Punishers
Primary punishers are stimuli that are inherently punishing.
Secondary punishers are stimuli that have acquired punishing properties through association with other punishers.

24. Operation Conditioning, cont’ LO7
Operation Conditioning, cont’ LO7.9 Distinguish between primary and secondary reinforcers and punishers.
Types of punishment
Positive punishment: When an unpleasant consequence follows a response, making the response less likely to recur.
Negative punishment: When a pleasant consequence is removed following a response, making the response less likely to recur.

25. Principles of Operant Conditioning LO7
Principles of Operant Conditioning LO7.10 Discuss the basic principles of operant conditioning.
The Skinner Box

26. Principles of Operant Conditioning, cont’ LO7
Principles of Operant Conditioning, cont’ LO7.10 Discuss the basic principles of operant conditioning.
Extinction
The weakening and eventual disappearance of a learned response; in operant conditioning, it occurs when a response is no longer followed by a reinforcer.
Stimulus generalization
In operant conditioning, the tendency for a response that has been reinforced (or punished) in the presence of one stimulus to occur (or be suppressed) in the presence of other similar stimuli.
Stimulus discrimination
In operant conditioning, the tendency of a response to occur in the presence of one stimulus but not in the presence of other similar stimuli that differ from it on some dimension.

27. Schedules of reinforcement
Principles of Operant Conditioning, cont’ LO7.11 Compare how learning takes place under continuous versus intermittent reinforcement.
Schedules of reinforcement
Continuous
Particular response is always reinforced.
Intermittent
Particular response is sometimes but not always reinforced.

28. Principles of Operant Conditioning, cont’ LO7
Principles of Operant Conditioning, cont’ LO7.12 Explain the process of shaping and how reinforcement of success approximations can be used to alter behavior.
Shaping
An operant-conditioning procedure in which successive approximations of a desired response are reinforced.
Instinctive drift: the tendency for an organism to revert to instinctive behavior.

29. Biological limits on learning
Principles of Operant Conditioning, cont’ LO7.13 Describe how biology and genetics place limits on an organism’s ability to learn through operant conditioning.
Biological limits on learning
Instinctive drift
During operant learning, the tendency for an organism to revert to instinctive behavior.
In humans, operant learning is affected by genetics, biology, and the evolutionary history of our species.

30. Principles of Operant Conditioning, cont’ LO7
Principles of Operant Conditioning, cont’ LO7.13 Describe how biology and genetics place limits on an organism’s ability to learn through operant conditioning.
Skinner
Maintained that private internal events – perceptions, emotions, and thoughts – are as real as any others, and we can study them by studying our own sensory experiences.
Insisted, however, that thoughts and feelings cannot explain behavior.
These components of consciousness are themselves simply behaviors that occur because of reinforcement and punishment.

31. Operant Conditioning in Real Life LO7
Operant Conditioning in Real Life LO7.14 List and discuss six reasons why punishment often fails to effectively change behavior.
Operant conditioning in real life
Behavior modification
The application of operant-conditioning techniques to teach new responses or to reduce or eliminate maladaptive or problematic behavior.
Also called applied behavior analysis.

32. Operant Conditioning in Real Life, cont’ LO7
Operant Conditioning in Real Life, cont’ LO7.14 List and discuss six reasons why punishment often fails to effectively change behavior.
When punishment works
When it immediately follows the behavior
When it is mild rather than harsh
When it is consistent

33. Operant Conditioning in Real Life, cont’ LO7
Operant Conditioning in Real Life, cont’ LO7.14 List and discuss six reasons why punishment often fails to effectively change behavior.
Punishment fails…
… when it is administered inappropriately or mindlessly
… when the recipient responds with anxiety, fear, or rage
… when it does not immediately follow the behavior
… when it does not inform the recipient how it might be avoided in the future
… when a consequence thought to be a punishment proves to be reinforcing

34. Extrinsic and intrinsic reinforcers
Operant Conditioning in Real Life, cont’ LO7.15 Discuss reasons why rewards may backfire, and not produce their intended results for behavior.
Extrinsic and intrinsic reinforcers
Extrinsic reinforcers: Reinforcers that are not inherently related to the activity being reinforced.
Intrinsic reinforcers: Reinforcers that are inherently related to the activity being reinforced.
Extrinsic reinforcers may undermine intrinsic reinforcers.

35. Operant Conditioning in Real Life, cont’ LO7
Operant Conditioning in Real Life, cont’ LO7.15 Discuss reasons why rewards may backfire, and not produce their intended results for behavior.
Rewards can backfire
Preschoolers played with felt-tipped markers.
Divided into three groups
Given markers again and asked to draw
Promised a reward for playing with markers
Played with markers, then rewarded

36. Learning and the Mind LO7
Learning and the Mind LO7.16 Define and contrast latent learning and observational learning, and give an example of each.
Latent learning
Rats received one maze trial per day.
Learning isn’t the same as performance.
Learning and the mind

37. Learning and the Mind, cont’ LO7
Learning and the Mind, cont’ LO7.16 Define and contrast latent learning and observational learning, and give an example of each.
Social cognitive learning
Social-cognitive theories emphasize how behavior is learned and maintained.
Through observation and imitation of others
Positive consequences
Cognitive processes such as plans, expectations, and beliefs
Observational learning involves learning new responses by observing the behavior of another rather than through direct experience.

38. Learning and the Mind, cont’ LO7
Learning and the Mind, cont’ LO7.16 Define and contrast latent learning and observational learning, and give an example of each.
Bandura’s Bobo doll study
In studies by Albert Bandura and his colleagues, children watched films of an adult kicking, punching, and hammering on a big rubber doll.
Later, the children imitated the adult’s behavior, some of them almost exactly.

39. Learning and the Mind, cont’ LO7
Learning and the Mind, cont’ LO7.16 Define and contrast latent learning and observational learning, and give an example of each.
Media violence
Since Bandura, hundreds of other experimental studies have corroborated the findings.
Meta-analysis shows that greater exposure to violence is related to more aggressive behavior when controlled for social class, intelligence, and other factors.
Other researchers are less concerned because they believe that media violence does not cause most viewers to become aggressive.
Aggressive individuals may be drawn to violent programming.

40. Learning and the Mind, cont’ LO7
Learning and the Mind, cont’ LO7.16 Define and contrast latent learning and observational learning, and give an example of each.
Social-cognitive view and aggression
Other factors intervene in the relationship between what we see, what we learn, and how we respond.
Perceptions
Interpretations
Personality dispositions