Theories of learning

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Theories of learning

• Lecture 8

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Learning

• Any relatively permanent change in behaviour
  produced by experience

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Key Elements in Learning

• Learning is not temporary changes, it is
  permanent change
• It is not the change that result from maturation
• It result from vicarious as well as direct
  experiences
• The Changes are not always positive

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BEHAVIOUR IS LEARNED
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Learning Theories

• 1. Classical Conditioning- a form of learning in
  which two stimulus events become associated with
  in such a way that occurrence of the other
• 2. Operant Conditioning- a form of learning in
  which organism learn associations between
  behaviour and stimuli that precede them
  (antecedents) or follow them (consequences)
• 3. Social/Observation Learning- a form of
  learning in which organisms learn by observing
  the behaviour and the consequences of the
  behaviour of others around them

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What do you do when you hear a bell ring?

• A teacher told this story on himself. When most
  teachers hear a bell one of the first things they
  do is walk out into the hallway to be a monitor.
  Right? Just keep a watchful on the students. Well
  this guy had acquired such a habit that when he
  was at home and the doorbell rang he'd walk into
  a nearby hallway and "monitor" his family. For
  him it was simply such a strong habit that he'd
  produce the right behavior (going into the hall
  to monitor) at the wrong place (his own home).

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Classical Conditioning

• Classical conditioning occurs when a stimulus,
  after pairing with another stimulus, starts
  eliciting a certain response.
• Stimulus any object or operation which has a
  rather immediate effect on an (experimental)
  subject
• Response behaviour of an (experimental) subject
  (elicited by stimulus) which may be given a
  reasonably precise placement in time

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IVAN PAVLOV

• CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

Associated with a Russian physiologist
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• Discovered that dogs can learn to associate one
  thing with another and by extension this may also
  be possible in humans

How we learn to associate one thing with another,
and we make anticipatory responses as a sign of
our learning.
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CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

• Type of learning in which an originally neutral
  stimulus comes to elicit a new response after
  having been paired with another stimulus which
  alone would elicit the same response.  

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Concepts

• UCS- Unconditioned stimulus
• UCR- Unconditioned Response
• NS- Neutral Stimulus
• CS- Conditioned Stimulus
• CR- Conditioned Response

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Definition of these concepts

• Unconditioned Stimulus An event/ thing that
  leads to a certain, predictable, response without
  previous training- FOOD
• Unconditioned Response A reaction that occurs
  naturally and automatically when the
  unconditioned stimulus is presented- SALIVATION
  AND DIGESTION
• Neutral Stimulus- A stimulus that has nothing to
  do with the response prior to conditioning- BELL

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Definition of these concepts

• Conditioned Stimulus- Leads to a certain response
  AFTER training- BELL (after repeatedly pairing
  with UCS)
• Conditioned Response- The LEARNED response to the
  conditioned stimulus- SALIVATION AND DIGESTION

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Classical Conditioning Experiment

• Ivan Pavlovs experiments with dogs
• 1. Meat Saliva (UCS UCR )
• 2. Bell Meat Saliva
• (NS UCS UCR)
• 3. Bell Saliva (CS CR )

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Classical Conditioning

• UCS? UCR
• NS ? Nothing
• NS UCS ? UCR (repeatedly pairing NS with UCS
  will lead to)
• CS ? CR

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Classical Conditioning things to note

• CR and UCR are not identical. The CR is usually
  weaker than UCR. Example never gets as much
  saliva from the tone as you would from food.
• The order of pairing of the CS and UCS does
  matter and is important.
• If you place the UCS before the CS the dog will
  continue to salivate from the food and never
  learn to do so from the tone CS is then
  ineffective backward conditioning.
• Pair them simultaneously the dog may not be
  able to distinguish the food and the tone
  simultaneous conditioning
• It is best that the CS is presented first
  followed shortly after (one to two seconds) by
  the UCS forward conditioning.

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Nothing

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Classical Conditioning things to note

• extinctionthe diminishing of a response when, in
  classical conditioning, an unconditional stimulus
  (UCS) does not follow a conditioned stimulus
  (CS) or when, in operant conditioning, a
  response is no longer reinforced
• acquisitionthe initial stage of learning, during
  which a response is established and gradually
  strengthened. In classical conditioning, the
  phase in which a stimulus comes to evoke a
  conditioned response. In operant conditioning,
  the strengthening of a reinforced response.

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Practice exercise

• the case of a child who has developed a fear of
  doctors. Hint! The parents report that at first
  the child showed no symptoms of fear in the
  presence of doctors.

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Practice Exercise

• It is likely that the child will be afraid of the
  lab coat. That is the fear response (CR) is often
  generalized to other stimuli that is similar to
  the original (CS)

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Discrimination

• Will the child fear the scientist as much as the
  doctor? Probably not. Usually the intensity
  of the CR decreases as the degree of similarity
  between the new stimulus and the original CS
  decreases.

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As it relates to real life

• Research has suggested that environmental cues
  associated with the environment in which drugs
  were consumed serves as a conditioned stimuli
• In that the environment in which former drug
  users returned often contain cues that may
  produce drug related responses such as cravings
  and withdrawal symptoms
• It has also been suggested that it may be
  possible to alter the immune system through
  classical conditioning

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BURRHUS F. SKINNER

• Skinner didnt look towards internal variables to
  explain personality/behavior.
• What is pleasure anyway? toss out pleasure and
  pain, they are irrelevant
• Skinner believed that psychology should focus on
  observable stimuli, observable responses, and the
  relationship between them.

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Operant Conditioning

• According to operant conditioning, behaviour is a
  function of its consequences.
• If the beviour is to be strengthened then one
  would apply reinforcement
• If the behaviour is to be suppressed then you
  apply punishment

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FORGET EVERYTHING YOU EVER LEARNED ABOUT NEGATIVE
AND POSITIVE
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Reinforcement

• Reinforcement is the application or removal of a
  stimuli that strengthen a specific behaviour
• There are two types of reinforcement
• 1) Positive reinforcement stimuli that
  strengthen responses that precede them
• 1). Primary reinforcers natural/unlearned
  does not require previous experience to be
  effective. Usually related to an organisms
  survival and are usually biological or
  physiological. Example food, water, sex, love.
  
• 2). Secondary reinforcers conditioned, acquired
  or learned reinforcers. Reinforcers may not be
  inherently reinforcing, but there is a strong
  association between them and other reinforcers.
  Example money, praise, grades, promotions.  
•  
• Preferred activities can also be used to
  reinforce behavior, a principle referred to as
  the Premack Principle.

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Reinforcement

• NEGATIVE REINFORCERS -- any stimulus that results
  in the increased frequency of a response when it
  is withdrawn.
• Negative reinforcers are presented before a
  response is made.
• Negative reinforcers are different from
  punishment procedure that weakens or decrease
  the rate of behavior.  
•  
• Keep in mind that both negative and positive
  reinforcers are procedures that strengthen and
  increases behavior.  

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Punishment

• Punishment a procedure by which the application
  or removal of a stimulus decreases the strength
  of behaviour
• Positive punishment- behaviors are followed by
  aversive stimulus events and this is referred to
  as punishers.
• Negative punishment- the rate of a behavior is
  weakened or decreased because the behavior is
  linked to the loss of potential reinforcement.
• Negative punishment is also commonly referred to
  as time- outs

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Shaping and chaining

• Most of our day to day activity we do
  unconsciously
• This is based on the principle of shaping, where
  the organism undergoing shaping receives a reward
  for the target response rather than only for the
  final response
• In light of circus trained animals the trainers
  establish a sequence, or chain of responses, the
  last of which leads to a reward, this procedure
  is referred to as chaining

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The following questions can help in determining
whether operant conditioning has occurred

• What behavior in the example was increased or
  decreased?
• b. Was the behavior increased (if yes, then you
  should consider either positive or negative
  reinforcement), or decreased (if the behavior was
  decreased then you should consider is either
  negative or positive punishment).
• c. What was the consequence / stimulus that
  followed the behavior in the example?
• d. Was the consequence / stimulus added or
  removed? If added the process was either positive
  reinforcement or punishment. If it was
  subtracted, the process was either negative
  reinforcement or punishment.

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Practice

• a. Billy likes to campout in the backyard. He
  camped-out on every Friday during the month of
  June. The last time he camped out, some older
  kids snuck up to his tent while he was sleeping
  and threw a bucket of cold water on him. Billy
  has not camped-out for three weeks.
• 1. What behavior was changed?
• 2. Was the behavior strengthened or weakened?
• 3. What was the consequence / stimulus that
  followed the behavior in the example?
• 4. Was the consequence / stimulus added or
  removed?

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Answer

• 1. camping-out
• 2. weakened (eliminate positive and negative
  reinforcement)
• 3. having water thrown on him
• 4. Added
• Since a consequence was added and the behavior
  was weakened, the process was punishment.

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Practice

• Every time Madge raises her hand in class she is
  called on. She raised her hand 3 times during the
  first class, 3 times in the second and 4 times
  during the last class.
• 1. What behavior was changed?
• 2. Was the behavior strengthened or weakened?
• 3. What was the consequence / stimulus that
  followed the behavior in the example?
• 4. Was the consequence / stimulus added or
  removed?

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Thank you for my gift.
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Hey mom! You should see how gorgeous my lawn is.
What! Hired a yard boy? Are you crazy? I just
nagged Harold till he did it.
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I dont care what he does, Im never speaking to
him again. Were just going to sit here in
silence till one of us dies
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ALBERT BANDURA

• A very recent addition to the behaviourists
• Learning does not have to be rewarded or
  conditioned to occur.
• Learning could occur through the simple processes
  of observing someone else's activity.

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Observational learning

• Observational or social learning is based
  primarily on the work of Albert Bandura.
• He and his colleagues were able to demonstrate
  through a variety of experiments that the
  application of consequences was not necessary for
  learning to take place.
• Rather learning could occur through the simple
  processes of observing someone else's activity.
• Albert Bandura (1925) believed that learning is
  more than forming connections between stimuli and
  responses or between responses and resulting
  reinforcers

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Observational Learning

• The observer will imitate the model's behavior if
  the model possesses characteristics-- things such
  as talent, intelligence, power, good looks, or
  popularity--that the observer finds attractive or
  desirable.
• The observer will react to the way the model is
  treated and mimic the model's behavior. When the
  model's behavior is rewarded, the observer is
  more likely to reproduce the rewarded behavior.
  When the model is punished, an example of
  vicarious punishment, the observer is less likely
  to reproduce the same behavior.

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Attention -- the individual notices something in
the environment

• Retention -- the individual remembers what was
  noticed

Observational Learning
Reproduction -- the individual produces an action
that is a copy of what was noticed
Motivation -- the environment delivers a
consequence that changes the probability the
behavior will be emitted again (reinforcement and
punishment)
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Observational Learning

• Bandura's work draws from both behavioral and
  cognitive views of learning. He believes that
  mind, behavior and the environment all play an
  important role in the learning process.
• In a set of well known experiments, called the
  "Bobo doll" studies, Bandura showed that children
  (ages 3 to 6) would change their behavior by
  simply watching others.
• This work provided the foundation for Bandura's
  later work in social cognition

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Observational Learning and culture

• Much of our understanding of the world for
  example our language and customs comes through
  our observation of others around us
• As psychologists one of the requirements is that
  you become exposed to different cultures so as
  the understand the behaviour of different groups

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Observational Learning Practical applications

• Observational learning may contribute to the
  development of unhealthy behaviour such as
  smoking among adolescents

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WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?
Observational Learning in real life

• Our life experiences
• Jamaica and crime
• Models of behaviour

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Evaluating the Behavioral-Learning Approach 

• Critics argue that they rely too much on the
  individuals environment or learning history.
  This leaves nothing for the person to contribute
  no free will very deterministic. Ignore
  inner conflicts and influence of unconscious
  thoughts and impulses on behavior.
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• No one right or wrong answer to looking at
  personality. Each theory has its shortcoming,
  but it adds something to our understanding of
  human personality.
•  

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• HUMANISTIC APPROACH

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• Claims that people have the ability to shape
  their own destiny, and this is not driven by
  biological, instinctive influences.
• Emphasize the wholeness or completeness of
  personality, rather than focusing on its
  structural parts.
• What matters is how people view themselves.
•  

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Themes of Humanistic Theories

• Emphasis on personal responsibility and free will
  each of us is responsible for what happens to
  us.
• The importance of the here and now rather than
  the past.
• Also emphasize personal growth and fulfillment
  moving towards bigger goals self-actualizing

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Humanistic Theorists

• Carl Rogers (1902-1986)
• Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)

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Carl Rogers (1902-1987)
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• Approach to psychology was based on self-
  concept. Each individual has a self- concept,
  which consists of his or her conscious thoughts
  and beliefs about himself or herself. View
  referred to as person-centered.
• Believed that the most powerful drives are the
  ones to become fully functioning.
• To be fully functioning is to achieve optimal
  psychological adjustment, to live in the
  present, getting the most from each experience.
• To help children become fully functioning
  requires that we offer them unconditional
  positive regard.

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• Unconditional Positive Regard means showing a
  child that they are loved, respected, and
  accepted (this is positive regard) with no
  conditions attached.
• This does NOT mean that parents must always agree
  with their childs behaviour choices. But they
  must never use love and acceptance as a means of
  pressuring the child into accepting their views.
• Rogers said we should separate the childs
  behaviors from the childs self. We punish a
  child for doing a bad thing, but never for being
  a bad child.
• Helping people achieve positive self-regard is
  one of the major goal of Rogers person-centered
  therapy.
•  

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Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)
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• Peoples needs are positive and our major goal is
  to realize and put into practice those needs, or
  to self-actualize
• We have to master our lower needs before we could
  move to the highest need.
• Our personality and subsequently behaviors are
  driven by or ability to master these needs.

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• Biological and Physiological needs - air, food,
  drink, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep, etc.
• Safety needs - protection from elements,
  security, order, law, limits, stability, etc.
• Belongingness and Love needs - work group,
  family, affection, relationships, etc.
• Esteem needs - self-esteem, achievement, mastery,
  independence, status, dominance, prestige,
  managerial responsibility, etc.
• Self-Actualization needs - realizing personal
  potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal
  growth and peak experiences.

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Self - Actualization

• A musician must make music, an artist must paint,
  a poet must write, if he is to ultimately be at
  peace with himself. What a man can be, he must
  be. This need we may call self-
  actualization (Maslow 1970)

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Evaluating the Humanistic-Phenomenological
Approach

• Critics argue against the humanist psychologist
  strong emphasis on personal responsibility or
  free will.
• This conflicts with the deterministic view that
  says that behavior and personality are influenced
  by many factors external factors.
• Also concepts are loosely defined. What is
  self-actualization, fully functioning? Hard to do
  systematic research b/c concepts cannot be
  defined or tested. How do you measure
  self-actualizing, self-concept etc?
•  

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COGNITIVE APPROACH
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• Cognitive therapy is based on a theory of
  personality which maintains that how one thinks
  largely determines how one feels and behaves.
• What matters most are the clients beliefs,
  thoughts, perceptions and attitudes about
  him/herself and the environment.
•  
• They dont deny the importance of behavior
  (stimulus-response), but they argue that A
  (activating events stimulus) doesnt just lead
  to C (consequences or behavior response), but
  there is an intervening process B (beliefs).

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• These beliefs can be rational or irrational. The
  way a person processes stimulus events is
  critical in determining what responses are
  produced and subsequently ones personality.
•  
• In Cognitive therapy it is not the stimuli (A)
  activating events that are crucial, but rather
  the persons perceptions and interpretation of
  the events.
•  
• Individuals make themselves emotionally healthy
  or emotionally upset by the way they think, not
  by the environment.

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The Trait/Biological Approach 
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• Personality is the set of enduring
  characteristics that influences ones
  interactions with others and their environment.
• Individuals differ in the amount of each of these
  characteristics that they possess.
• Trait/ Biological approach describes ones
  characteristics using three concepts stability,
  consistency and generality and individual
  differences

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• 1). Stability the biological psychologists see
  these enduring characteristics as permanent,
  inherent elements of personality.
• 2). Consistency and Generality no trait is
  expected to appear all the time or in every
  situation. Different demands and circumstances
  can bring a somewhat different set of traits.
  However, some aspects of behavior are consistent
  across situations and time. introversion-
  extraversion.
• 3). Individual Differences individuals are
  unique individual differences come from
  differences in the strength or pervasiveness of
  particular dispositions.