Learning

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Learning
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Adaptation to the Environment

• Learninga process that produces a relatively
  enduring change in behavior or knowledge due to
  past experience
• Conditioning--the process of learning
  associations between environmental events and
  behavioral responses

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Learning Processes

• Classical conditioning
• Operant conditioning
• Observational learning

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Ivan Pavlov (18491936)
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Pavlovs Dogs

• Digestive reflexes and salivation
• Psychic secretion

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Classical Conditioning
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Neutral StimulusBell

• Does not normally elicit a response or reflex
  action by itself
• a bell ringing
• a color
• a furry object

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Unconditioned StimulusFood

• Always elicits a reflex action an unconditioned
  response
• food
• blast of air
• noise

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Unconditioned ResponseSalivation

• A response to an unconditioned stimulusnaturally
  occurring
• Salivation at smell of food
• Eye blinks at blast of air
• Startle reaction in babies

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Conditioned StimulusBell

• The stimulus that was originally neutral becomes
  conditioned after it has been paired with the
  unconditioned stimulus
• Will eventually elicit the unconditioned response
  by itself

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Conditioned Response

• The original unconditioned response becomes
  conditioned after it has been elicited by the
  neutral stimulus

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Classical Conditioning Factors

• Stimulus generalization
• Stimulus discrimination
• Extinction
• Spontaneous recovery

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Behaviorism

• The attempt to understand observable activity in
  terms of observable stimuli and observable
  responses
• John B. Watson (1913)
• B. F. Skinner (1938)

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John B. Watson and Little Albert

• Conditioned emotional responses
• Generalization
• Extinction

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Classical Conditioning and Drug Use

• Regular use may produce placebo response where
  user associates sight, smell, taste with drug
  effect
• Classically conditioned responses may be one
  explanation for the characteristics of withdrawal
  and tolerance

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Cognitive Aspects of Classical Conditioning

• Reliable and unreliable signals
• Actively process information
• Robert Rescorla

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Evolutionary Perspective

• Conditioned taste aversions
• Internal stimuliassociate better with taste
• External stimuliassociate better with pain
• Biological preparedness
• John Garcianot all neutral stimuli can become
  conditioned stimuli

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Early Operant Conditioning

• E. L. Thorndike (1898)
• Puzzle boxes and cats

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Edward L. Thorndike ( 18741949)
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B. F. Skinner (19041990)
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B. F. Skinners Operant Conditioning

• Did not like Thorndikes term satisfying state
  of affairs
• Interested in emitted behaviors
• Operantvoluntary response that acts on the
  environment to produce consequences

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Operant Conditioning
Reinforcementthe occurrence of a stimulus
following a response that increases the
likelihood of the response being repeated
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Reinforcers

• Primarya stimulus that is inherently reinforcing
  for a species (biological necessities)
• Conditioneda stimulus that has acquired
  reinforcing value by being associated with a
  primary reinforcer

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Punishment

• Presentation of a stimulus following a behavior
  that acts to decrease the likelihood that the
  behavior will be repeated

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Problems with Punishment

• Does not teach or promote alternative, acceptable
  behavior
• May produce undesirable results such as
  hostility, passivity, fear
• Likely to be temporary
• May model aggression

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Operant Conditioning Terms

• Shaping
• Extinction
• Spontaneous Recovery
• Discriminative Stimulus
• Schedules of Reinforcement

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Discriminative Stimuli

• Environmental cues that tell us when a particular
  response is likely to be reinforced

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Reinforcement Schedules

• Continuousevery correct response is reinforced
  good way to get a low frequency behavior to occur
• Partialonly some correct responses are
  reinforced good way to make a behavior resistant
  to extinction

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Partial SchedulesRatio

• Ratio schedules are based on number of responses
  emitted
• Fixed ratio (FR)a reinforcer is delivered after
  a certain (fixed) number of correct responses
• Variable ratio (VR)a reinforcer is delivered
  after an average number of responses, but varies
  from trial to trial

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Ratio Responses

• FRhighest level of responding
• VRhigh rate with few breaks

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Partial SchedulesInterval

• Interval schedules are based on time
• Fixed interval (FI)reinforcer is delivered for
  the first response after a fixed period of time
  has elapsed
• Variable interval (VI)reinforcer is delivered
  for the first response after an average time has
  elapsed, differs between trials

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Interval Responses

• FIsteady schedule with scalloped look,
  responses drop off right after reinforcer
• VIsteady, consistent schedule of response

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Contemporary Views of Operant Conditioning

• Cognitive mapterm for a mental representation of
  the layout of a familiar environment
• Latent learninglearning that occurs in the
  absence of reinforcement, but is not demonstrated
  until a reinforcer is available
• Learned helplessnessphenomenon where exposure to
  inescapable and uncontrollable aversive events
  produces passive behavior

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Biological Predispositions

• Animal training issues
• Instinctive driftnaturally occurring behaviors
  that interfere with operant responses

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Classical Conditioning vs. Operant Conditioning
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Observation Learning

• Observation
• Modeling
• Imitation
• Albert Bandura and the BoBo doll study

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Famous last words???
Do what I say, not what I do This will teach
you to hit your brother Why do you do that, you
know you get in trouble for it