AP Psych Prep 6 - Learning

8/13/2019 AP Psych Prep 6 - Learning

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AP Psych Prep 6Learning


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Introduction to Learning

Learning - long lasting change in

behaviour that comes about because of

our experience

Learning is measured by looking for

change in behaviour; change inbehaviour is OFTEN evidence of

learning.


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Overview:

Well look at a few types of learning.

Classical Conditioning

Operant Conditioning

Cognitive Perspectives on Learning


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Ivan Pavlov - Russian

physiologist - studied

digestion in dogs.

He wasnt trying to study learning, but he

found principles of classical conditioning


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Pavlovs Dogs

Dogs were fed, and a bell was rung. Pavlov

found that dogs started to salivate (drool) along

with the bell; the two became connected.

Humans and non-human animals can

associate a reflexive behaviour with a neutralstimulus (one that normally does not cause a

behaviour)


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TerminologyUnconditioned Stimulus (US or UCS) -

original, natural stimulus (e.g. food)

Unconditioned Response (UR or UCR) -

the original, natural response to the US

(e.g. salivating / drooling)


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The result is learning or acquisition.

Order of stimulus presentation andtiming can influence acquisition

Some patterns of training are more

effective than others


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Training Patterns:

Delayed Conditioning - ring bell, and while it is

still ringing, give food. (Very Effective)

Trace Conditioning - ring bell, wait a shortperiod, then give food (not a bad method)

Simultaneous Conditioning - ring bell and give

food at the same time (also not bad)

Backward Conditioning - give food first, and

then ring bell (least effective method)


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Other Conditioning Concepts:

Extinction - unlearning. If you ring the bell

without giving food, eventually the

association between the two will fade, andthe CR will stop appearing

Spontaneous recovery - where after

extinction, the CS brings about the CR

again for some reason. Why is not

understood well yet.


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Extinction and Sp. Recovery


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Other Conditioning Concepts:

Generalization - learned responses are

often elicited by stimuli that are similar to

the CS (e.g. different bells) (See LittleAlbert)

But can be trained to Discriminate between

different stimuli and respond only to thethe right one. (ring diff bells, dont give

food; ring right bell, give food)


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Example: Little Albert

Little Albert was a very young boy, who

was conditioned by the researchers John

Watson and Rosalie Rayner.

They taught him to be afraid of a white

rat.


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Little Albert

Fear of the white rat


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Little Albert

Even generalized to other similarstimuli, things that were white and

fluffy or hairy

Cl i l A i


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Classical: Aversive

Conditioning

Aversive Conditioning - conditioning using negative

stimuli

e.g. Antabuse is a drug that stops alcoholfrom being broken down in your body; causes

nausea, vomiting, headache, and other

symptoms if you drink alcohol.

People will associate those negative symptoms with

drinking, and will eventually stop drinking because

of this association.


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Second-Order (or higher-order)

conditioning

This is where you first condition with one

stimulus (e.g. bell), and then use that stimulus

to condition another.

e.g. once bell causes you to drool, you start

pairing the bell with a smell. After some trials,the smell alone can cause you to drool (even

though smell and food were never together)


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Biological Influences on


Some responses are easier to

condition than others

It seems we are biologically more

prepared to make some connectionsthan others.


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John Garcia and Robert

Koelling Experiment

Easier to condition

reactions to some

things that make moresense in the natural

world


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Application

Learned Taste Aversion - if you eat / drink

something, and then become sick (especially

nausea, vomiting), you will pair the taste of the

new thing and the nauseous feeling.

Can happen very quickly and strongly (even with

only one pairing)

Thought to be adaptive, to help us survive. Will

prevent us from eating potentially dangerous

things in the future.


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Classical Conditioning Application

Learned Taste Aversion can happen even if the

food or drink is no t real ly connected to the sick

feeling.

E.g. you eat something, and then an hour later you

feel sick and vomit because of a flu

Your mind will still try to stop you from eating that

food again. If you see or smell it later you will

probably feel sick.

L d T t


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Learned Taste

AversionCan be used to

train predators not

to kill and eat our

animals.

E.g. A farmer might kill one sheep, and inject a mild

poison into it. Then coyote or wolves eat it, and then

get sick. They will then avoid eating sheep in the

future. The farmer doesnt have to kill the predator


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2. Operant Conditioning

Based on consequences of

actions, instead of associating

stimuli with responses.

(Big difference: neutral stimulibefore/during vs. punishment or

reward after.)

Th dik P l


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Thorndike - Puzzle

BoxesEdward Thorndike - An early operant conditioning

researcher.

Used puzzle boxes and studied cats ability tolearn how to escape them for food.


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Puzzle Boxes

Cats who escaped were rewarded with food. This

makes the behaviours that cause escape to become

more likely, increasing speed of escape.

Law of Effect - pleasant consequences = increased

likelihood of that behaviour

unpleasant consequences - decreased likelihood ofthat behaviour

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDujDOLre-8

B F Skinner Skinner
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDujDOLre-8http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDujDOLre-8http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDujDOLre-8http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDujDOLre-8


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B.F. Skinner - SkinnerBox

Used special boxes to experiment

on rats and pigeons.


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Skinner Box

reinforcer - a positive consequence

reinforcement - act of giving positive conseq.

Reinforcement - anything that makes behaviour

more likely.

Can be positive reinforc. - give good thing

Or negative reinforc. - take away bad thing


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Punishment

Punishment - makes behaviour less likely

Positive punishment - adding a negative thing.

e.g. punching your friend if they bother you

Negative punishment (omission training) - takingaway something good. e.g. dont study, parents

take away T.V. privileges


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Conditioning

Both punishment and reinforcement can be used

to alter behaviour

Shaping can be used to get subject to do whatyou want. When you reward small steps in the

direction of

the behaviouryou want.


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Conditioning

Chaining is similar to shaping, but here you reward

in order to teach a number of ordered behaviours.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kfxI9HXA_8&feature=related

Shaping - to get to one complex behaviour,

Chaining - to get multiple behaviours
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kfxI9HXA_8&feature=relatedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kfxI9HXA_8&feature=relatedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kfxI9HXA_8&feature=relatedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kfxI9HXA_8&feature=related


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Types of Reinforcers

Extinction, spontaneous recovery, discrimination

and generalization also happens with operant

conditioning

Primary Reinforcers vs. Secondary Reinforcers

Primary Reinforcers - are naturally reinforcing ontheir own. e.g. food, water, sleep, air,

Secondary Reinforcers - things we have learned to

value. e.g. praise, getting to watch a movie,


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Generalized Reinforcers (a kind of secondary

reinforcer) - are reinforcers that have been

paired with other reinforcers, and are

reinforcing because they can provide access to

a lot of other reinforcers.

E.g. Money, tokens

in token economy.


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Token Economy - tokens that function

as money given as reward for desired

behaviour.Used in experiments with

people and animals (e.g.

chimps) but also used

practically in schools and prisons.


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Premack Principle

Some people like some things but not

others.

Dramas, reading, etc.

Premack Princ. - an enjoyed activity can be used

to reinforce a less enjoyed activity (dependent on

persons preferences)

If you do _____, you can do ______

Reinforcement


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ReinforcementSchedules

Different rates of reinforcement are possible

Ratio Schedules - reinforcement based on the number of

times the behaviour happens

Interval Schedules - reinforce based on how much time has

passed

Variable Schedules - change time or # of responses for each

reward

Fixed Schedules - same time or # of responses for each

reward

Reinforcement


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Those can be mixed to make:

Fixed Ratio (FR) - the same number of behaviours

will bring reward (e.g. every 5 behaviours (FR-5),

every 10, every 7, etc

Variable Ratio (VR) - after different number ofbehaviours, give reward. (e.g. VR-10 - after 10, then

5, then 15, then 8, then 12 [10 is average])

Reinforcement


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Fixed Interval (FI) - after a certain time, behaviour

will be reinforced again. (e.g. you need to wait for

one hour each time before youre rewarded again

FI-60min)

Variable Interval (VI) - after different amounts oftime the behaviour is rewarded again (e.g. after 10

min, 20 min, 13 min, 17 min, etc. [VI-15min])

Reinforcement


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Partial-reinforcement effect - if you dont reward after

each behaviour, it will be less likely to quickly go

extinct.

Variable schedules

are more resistant

to extinction, but

ratio schedules

make the behaviour

occur more often.


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Biology and Operant Conditioning

It can be very hard to teach animals to

do things that are very different from their

normal behaviours.

called Instinctive Drift - behaviours drift

towards their instinctive behaviours.


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Cognitive Learning

Psychologists who believe that thinking (cognition) is

involved in learning

Classical Conditioning - Contiguity (togetherness)

Model (traditional classical; ignores thoughts)

vs.

Contingency Model - includes thinking;

humans/animals form cognitive expectations that

affect our learning


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Observational Learning (or Modelling)

Learning by watching. We can watch others behaviour,

and learn how to do things, and what the consequences

for those actions could be.

Studied by Albert Bandura - Classic Study - Bobo Dolls

studies

Children exposed to aggressive or non-aggressive play,

and then allowed to play with the same toys.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHHdovKHDNU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHHdovKHDNUhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHHdovKHDNU


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Observational Learning (or Modelling)

Obs. Learning has two steps: observing, and mimicking.

Requires some kind of cognition. The image of thebehaviour has to come into the mind of the observer if

they are going to mimic.

Many worry a lot about observational learning because

of violent media: TV, movies, video games, etc.


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Latent Learning

Latent learning - Learning that remains hidden, until its

needed.

Edward Tolman - study with rats in a maze. Some rats

were rewarded, some were not. If not rewarded, they

didnt do well, but they still learned about the maze.Therefore later when they were rewarded, they could

do the maze more easily. They learned, but only

applied the learning when they needed it.


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Latent Learning


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Abstract Learning

Learning about concepts, rather than just actions.

Some evidence that animals can understand concepts.

e.g. pigeons taught the concept of tree by rewarding

if they pecked pictures of trees. Then when showed

new trees, they would still peck the trees. They didnt

just memorize, but seemed to understand what a tree

was.

Teaching to apply other mental concepts like same-

different, or use math also possible.


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Insight Learning

When you suddenly realize what the solution to a

problem is. It doesnt seem like you went through a

step by step process; you dont know, and then

suddenly you know.

Some think this happens because of unconscious

processing; brain works in the background.

Remembering can seem to work this way too

sometimes. e.g. someones name.

Insight Learning


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Insight Learning

Wolfgang Kohler studied learning in

chimpanzees. Banana problem, they would

mostly be unproductive, not seeming to try the

trial and error method that would be supported

by operant conditioning, then due to an insight,

they would suddenly solve the problem.

Classical and Operant


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Classical and Operant

Conditioning Videos

Classical Conditioning situation from

The Office

And Operant Conditioning situation fromThe Big Bang Theory

Learning


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Learning

Classical, Operant, and Cognitive perspectives

on learning can show us some of the basic

principles of how we learn and start to form

complicated behaviours.

Next well look at more complicated mental

functioning, Cognition.

Documents

AP Psych Prep 6 - Learning