Myers

1
Myers PSYCHOLOGY (6th Ed)

• Chapter 8
• Learning
• James A. McCubbin, PhD
• Clemson University
• Worth Publishers

2
Learning

• Learning
• relatively permanent change in an organisms
  behavior due to experience
• experience (nurture) is the key to learning

3
Association

• We learn by association
• Our minds naturally connect events that occur in
  sequence
• Aristotle 2000 years ago
• John Locke and David Hume 200 yrs ago
• Associative Learning
• learning that two events occur together
• two stimuli
• a response and its consequences

4
Association
Event 1
Event 2

• Learning to associate two events

Sea snail associates splash with a tail shock
Seal learns to expect a snack for its showy
antics
5
Classical or Pavlovian Conditioning

• We learn to associate two stimuli

6
Operant Conditioning

• We learn to associate a response and its
  consequence

7
Behaviorism

• John B. Watson
• viewed psychology as objective science
• generally agreed-upon consensus today
• recommended study of behavior without reference
  to unobservable mental processes
• not universally accepted by all schools of
  thought today

8
Classical or Pavlovian Conditioning

• Ivan Pavlov
• 1849-1936
• Russian physician/ neurophysiologist
• Nobel Prize in 1904
• studied digestive secretions

9
Pavlovs Classic Experiment
Before Conditioning
UCS (food in mouth)
Neutral stimulus (tone)
No salivation
UCR (salivation)
During Conditioning
After Conditioning
UCS (food in mouth)
CS (tone)
Neutral stimulus (tone)
UCR (salivation)
CR (salivation)
10
Classical or Pavlovian Conditioning

• Pavlovs device for recording salivation

11
Classical or Pavlovian Conditioning

• Classical Conditioning
• organism comes to associate two stimuli
• lightning and thunder
• tone and food
• begins with a reflex
• a neutral stimulus is paired with a stimulus that
  evokes the reflex
• neutral stimulus eventually comes to evoke the
  reflex

12
Classical or Pavlovian Conditioning

• Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)
• effective stimulus that unconditionally-automatica
  lly and naturally- triggers a response
• Unconditioned Response (UCR)
• unlearned, naturally occurring automatic response
  to the unconditioned stimulus
• salivation when food is in the mouth

13
Classical or Pavlovian Conditioning

• Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
• previously neutral stimulus that, after
  association with an unconditioned stimulus, comes
  to trigger a conditioned response
• Conditioned Response (CR)
• learned response to a previously neutral
  conditioned stimulus

14
Conditioning

• Acquisition
• the 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

15
Conditioning

• Extinction
• diminishing of a CR
• in classical conditioning, when a UCS does not
  follow a CS
• in operant conditioning, when a response is no
  longer reinforced

16
Classical or Pavlovian Conditioning
17
Classical or Pavlovian Conditioning

• Spontaneous Recovery
• reappearance, after a rest period, of an
  extinguished CR
• Generalization
• tendency for a stimuli similar to CS to evoke
  similar responses

18
Classical or Pavlovian Conditioning

• Discrimination
• in classical conditioning, the ability to
  distinguish between a CS and other stimuli that
  do not signal and UCS
• in operant conditioning, responding differently
  to stimuli that signal a behavior will be
  reinforced or will not be reinforced

19
Generalization
20
Classical or Pavlovian Conditioning
21
Nausea Conditioning in Cancer Patients
22
Operant Conditioning

• Operant Conditioning
• type of learning in which behavior is
  strengthened if followed by reinforcement or
  diminished if followed by punishment
• Law of Effect
• Thorndikes principle that behaviors followed by
  favorable consequences become more likely and
  behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences
  become less likely

23
Operant Conditioning

• Operant Behavior
• complex or voluntary behaviors
• push button, perform complex task
• operates (acts) on environment
• produces consequences
• Respondent Behavior
• occurs as an automatic response to stimulus
• behavior learned through classical conditioning

24
Operant Conditioning

• B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)
• elaborated Thorndikes Law of Effect
• developed behavioral technology

25
Operant Chamber

• Skinner Box
• soundproof chamber with a bar or key that an
  animal presses or pecks to release a food or
  water reward
• contains a device to record responses

26
Operant Conditioning

• Reinforcer
• any event that strengthens the behavior it
  follows
• Shaping
• conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide
  behavior toward closer approximations of a
  desired goal
• Successive Approximations
• reward behaviors that increasingly resemble
  desired behavior

27
Principles of Reinforcement

• Primary Reinforcer
• innately reinforcing stimulus
• satisfies a biological need
• Secondary Reinforcer
• conditioned reinforcer
• learned through association with primary
  reinforcer

28
Schedules of Reinforcement

• Continuous Reinforcement
• reinforcing the desired response each time it
  occurs
• learning occurs rapidly
• extinction occurs rapidly
• Partial Reinforcement
• reinforcing a response only part of the time
• results in slower acquisition
• greater resistance to extinction

29
Schedules of Reinforcement

• Fixed Ratio (FR)
• reinforces a response only after a specified
  number of responses
• faster you respond the more rewards you get
• different ratios
• very high rate of responding
• like piecework pay

30
Schedules of Reinforcement

• Variable Ratio (VR)
• reinforces a response after an unpredictable
  number of responses
• average ratios
• like gambling, fishing
• very hard to extinguish because of
  unpredictability

31
Schedules of Reinforcement

• Fixed Interval (FI)
• reinforces a response only after a specified time
  has elapsed
• response occurs more frequently as the
  anticipated time for reward draws near

32
Schedules of Reinforcement

• Variable Interval (VI)
• reinforces a response at unpredictable time
  intervals
• produces slow steady responding
• like pop quiz

33
Schedules of Reinforcement
34
Punishment

• Punishment
• aversive event that decreases the behavior that
  it follows
• powerful controller of unwanted behavior

35
Problems with Punishment

• Punished behavior is not forgotten, it's
  suppressed- behavior returns when punishment is
  no longer eminent
• Causes increased aggression- shows that
  aggression is a way to cope with problems-
  Explains why aggressive delinquents and abusive
  parents come from abusive homes

36
Problems with Punishment

• Creates fear that can generalize to desirable
  behaviors, e.g. fear of school, learned
  helplessness, depression
• Does not necessarily guide toward desired
  behavior- reinforcement tells you what to
  do--punishment tells you what not to do-
  Combination of punishment and reward can be more
  effective than punishment alone
• Punishment teaches how to avoid it

37
Cognition and Operant Conditioning

• Cognitive Map
• mental representation of the layout of ones
  environment
• example- after exploring a maze, rats act as if
  they have learned a cognitive map of it
• Latent Learning
• learning that occurs, but is not apparent until
  there is an incentive to demonstrate it

38
Cognition and Operant Conditioning

• Overjustification Effect
• the effect of promising a reward for doing what
  one already likes to do
• the person may now see the reward, rather than
  intrinsic interest, as the motivation for
  performing the task

39
Latent Learning
Average errors
32
30
28
26
24
22
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
Days
40
Operant vs Classical Conditioning

• Extinction CR decreases when CS is Responding
  decreases when
• repeatedly presented alone. reinforcement
  stops.

41
Observational Learning

• Observational Learning
• learning by observing and imitating others
• Modeling
• process of observing and imitating behavior
• Prosocial Behavior
• positive, constructive, helpful behavior
• opposite of antisocial behavior