Learning How do w e l earn? Classical conditioning Operant conditioning

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LearningHow do we learn?

Classical conditioning

Operant conditioning

Biology, cognition, and learning

Learning by Observation

How Do We Learn?

LearningThe process of acquiring, through experience, new and relatively enduring information or behaviors

Associative learningLearning that certain events occur together—the events may be two stimuli (as in classical conditioning) or a response and its consequences (as in operant conditioning)

Cognitive learningAcquisition of mental information, whether by observing events, by watching others, or through language

How Do We Learn?

Association is one way of learning.

Conditioning is the process of learning

associations.

There are two main forms of conditioning.• Classical• Operant

Learning also occurs through cognitive and observational

learning.

Learning

Classical conditioningType of learning in which we learn to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events

Operant conditioningType of learning in which we learn to associate a response and its consequence

Thus, we learn to repeat acts followed by good results and to avoid acts followed by bad results

Let’s take a closer look.

Classical Conditioning

Operant Conditioning

Conditioning is not the only form of learning

Through cognitive learning we acquire mental information that guides our behavior

Observational learning, another form of cognitive learning, facilitates learning from others’ experiences

Why are habits, such as having something sweet with that cup of coffee, so hard to break?


Pavlov’s experiments

Pavlov’s legacy

Classical ConditioningPavlov’s experiments

He and his associates explored five processes: acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery, generalization, and discrimination.

IVAN PAVLOV “Experimental investigation should lay a solid foundation for a future truescience of psychology” (1927).

PAVLOV’S CLASSIC EXPERIMENT

After studying this experiment, let’s make sure all the definitions are clear.

Can you define each of these more completely?

Neutral stimulus (NS)In classical conditioning, a stimulus that evokes no response before conditioning

Unconditioned stimulus (US)In classical conditioning, a stimulus that unconditionally—naturally and automatically—triggers a response (UR)

Unconditioned response (UR)In classical conditioning, an unlearned, naturally occurring response (such as salivation) to an unconditioned stimulus (US) (such as food in the mouth)

Conditioned stimulus (CS)In classical conditioning, an originally irrelevant stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus (US), comes to trigger a conditioned response (CR)

Conditioned response (CR)In classical conditioning, a learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus (CS)

An experimenter sounds a tone just before delivering an air puff to your blinking eye.

After several repetitions, you blink to the tone alone. What is the NS? The US? The UR? The CS? The CR?


AcquisitionFirst stage in classical conditioning

Place where link between the NS and US is learned

A quail taleRecent research on Japanese quail shows how their capacity for classical conditioning gives them a reproductive edge

How did the researchers develop the quail’s preference for their cage’s red-light district?

AN UNEXPECTED CS

Psychologist Michael Tirrell (1990) recalled: “My first girlfriend loved onions, so I came to associate onion breath with kissing. Before long, onion breath sent tingles up and down my spine. Oh what a feeling!”

In horror movies, sexually arousing images of women are sometimes paired with violence against women. Based on classical conditioning principles, what might be an effect of this pairing?


Extinction and spontaneous recoveryExtinction

In classical conditioning, the weakening of a conditioned response when an unconditioned stimulus does not follow a conditioned stimulus

In operant conditioning, the weakening of a response when it is no longer reinforced

Spontaneous recoveryReappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response

The rising curve (simplified here) shows that the CR rapidly grows stronger as the NS becomes a CS as it is repeatedly paired with the

US (acquisition). The CS weakens when it is presented alone (extinction). After a pause, the CR reappears (spontaneous recovery).

ACQUISITION, EXTINCTION, AND SPONTANEOUS RECOVERY

The first step of classical conditioning, when an NS becomes a CS, is called________. When a US no longer follows the CS, and the CR becomes weakened, this is called ________ .


GeneralizationThe tendency, after conditioning, to respond similarly to stimuli that resemble the conditioned stimulus

Can be adaptive

DiscriminationLearned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and other irrelevant stimuli

Is also adaptive

Pavlov’s Legacy

Pavlov showed how a scientific model can be used to objectively study the learning.

Many responses to many stimuli can be classical conditioned. This is true for every species tested.

If the aroma of cake baking makes your mouth water, what is the US? The CS? The CR?

Classical Conditioning in Everyday Life

Pavlov’s principles influence human health and well- being in a variety of waysExamples

Patients can develop classically conditioned side-effects to drugs given as cancer treatments

Former drug users often feel a craving when they are again in the drug-using context

In Watson and Rayner’s experiments, “Little Albert” learned to fear a white rat after repeatedly experiencing a loud noise as the rat was presented. In this experiment, what was the US? The UR? The NS? The CS? The CR?

Archives of the History of American Psychology, The University of Akron


Skinner’s experiments

Skinner’s legacy

Close-up: Using operant conditioning to build your own strengths

Contrasting classical and operant conditioning

Differences: Classical and Operant Conditioning

Classical• Involves learning

associations between events that are not controlled by learner

• Respondent behavior: Automatic responses to stimuli

Operant• Involves learning

associations between behavior and resulting events

• Association with one’s own actions with consequences

With ________ conditioning, we learn associations between events we do not control. With ________ conditioning, we learn associations between our behavior and resulting events.


Skinner’s experimentsBuilt on Thorndike’s law of effect: Rewarded behavior is likely to be repeated

Developed to reveal principles of behavior control

Shaping behavior (successive approximation)Operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide actions closer and closer toward a desired behavior

Used as we continually reinforce others’ behavior

CAT IN A PUZZLE BOXThorndike used a fish reward to entice cats to find their way out of a puzzle box (right) through a series of maneuvers. The cats’ performance tended to improve with successive trials (left), illustrating Thorndike’s law of effect. (Adapted from Thorndike, 1898.)

Types of Reinforcers

Positive reinforcementIncreases behaviors by presenting positive stimuli

Is anything that, when presented after a response, strengthens the response

Negative reinforcementIncreases behaviors by stopping or reducing negative stimuli

Is anything that, when removed after a response, strengthens the response

Is not punishment

WAYS TO INCREASE BEHAVIOR

A SKINNER BOX Inside thebox, the rat presses a bar or button for a food reward. Outside, a measuring device (not shownhere) keeps records of the animal’s responses.

Operant Conditioning; Types of Reinforcers

Primary reinforcersUnlearned; innate

Conditioned reinforcers (secondary reinforcers)Learned associaitions with primary reinforcers

Immediate reinforcersImmediate rewards

Delayed reinforcersDelayed

Can you think of examples for each of these?


Reinforcement scheduleIs a pattern that defines how often a desired response will be reinforced

Reinforcement schedules vary and influence our learning

Continuous reinforcementIs good for behavior mastery; extinction can occur

Partial (intermittent) reinforcementIs slower but extinction is less

6-7 How do continuous and partial reinforcement schedules affect behavior?


Fixed-ratio schedulesReinforce behavior after a set number of responses

Variable-ratio schedulesReinforce after an unpredictable number of responses

Fixed-interval schedulesReinforce the first response after a fixed time period

Variable-interval schedulesReinforcement after an unpredictable number of responses

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Telemarketers are reinforced by which schedule? People checking the oven to see if the cookies are done are on which schedule? Airline frequent-flyer programs that offer a free flight after every 25,000 miles of travel are using which reinforcement schedule?

Punishment

Ways to decrease behavior

Major drawbacks of physical punishmentPunished behavior suppressed; punishing behavior reinforced

Discrimination among situations taught

Generalization occurs; fear taught

Aggression may be increased by modeling

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Skinner’s Legacy

B. F. Skinner “I am sometimes asked, ‘Do you think of yourself as you think of the organisms you study?’ The answer is yes. So far as I know, my behavior at any given moment has been nothing more than the product of my genetic endowment, my personal history, and the current setting” (1983).

• Urged people to use operant principles to influence the behavior of others

• Criticized for neglecting people’s personal freedom and advocating for external control of others

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Applications of Operant Conditioning

At schoolMany of the ideas for education are used today

Electronic adaptive devices are often Skinnerian

At workMany organizations used reinforcers to influence productivity

At homeReinforcement is used and abused in many parenting situations

Reinforcement can be used effectively to help children change and manage their behavior

Ethan constantly misbehaves at preschool even though his teacher scolds him repeatedly. Why does Ethan’s misbehavior continue, and what can his teacher do to stop it?

Contrasting Classical and Operant Conditioning

Classical• Form of associative

learning• Associate different events

that one cannot control• Respond automatically

Operant• Form of associative

learning• Links behaviors to act on

the environment to produce rewarding or punishing events

Using Operant Conditioning to Build Your Own Strengths

State your goal in measurable terms and announce it

Decide how, when, and where you will work toward your goal

Monitor how often you engage in your desired behavior

Reinforce the desired behavior

Reduce the rewards gradually

Salivating in response to a tone paired with food is a(n) behavior; pressing a bar to obtain food is a(n) behavior.

Biology, Cognition, and Learning

Biological limits on conditioning

Cognitive influences on conditioning


Biological limits on conditioning

Humans are biologically prepared to learn some things rather than others

Humans are naturally disposed to learn associations favored by natural selection

Garcia and Koelling’s taste aversionresearch ended the belief that environments rule out behavior.

Findings help disprove the belief that almost any stimulus could serve equally well as a conditioned stimulus.

How did Garcia and Koelling’s taste aversion studies help disprove the belief that almost any stimulus (tastes, sights, sounds) could serve equally well as a conditioned stimulus? Explain.


Limits on operant conditioning

Each species has a limit on their capacity for operant conditioning

Our biology predisposes us to learn associations that are naturally adaptive

ROMANTIC RED In a series of experiments that controlled for other factors (such as the brightness of the image), men found women more attractive and sexually desirable when framed in red (Elliot & Niesta, 2008).

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Cognitive Influences on Conditioning

WatsonRejected mentalistic concepts

Maintained that the basic laws of learning are the same for all animals

Contended that psychology should be objective science based on observable behaviors

Watson’s view of learning underestimated two sets of influences:• Way biological predispositions

limits learning• Effect of cognitive processes

on learning

Cognitive Influences on Conditioning

Cognition and operant conditioning

Skinner rejected the premise that cognitive processes are integral to learning

Cognitive maps

Latent learning

LATENT LEARNING Animals, like people, can learn from experience, with or without reinforcement.

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Cognitive mapMental image of the layout of one’s environment

Latent learning Learning that is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it

Intrinsic motivationDesire to perform a behavior for its own sake

Extrinsic motivationDesire to perform a behavior to gain a reward or avoid a punishment


Thinking critically about: Does viewing media violence trigger violent behavior?


Observational learning Learning by observing others

ModelingThe process of observing and imitating a specific behavior

Vicarious reinforcement or punishment

Learning to anticipate a behavior’s consequences in situations like those being observed

ALBERT BANDURA “The Bobo doll follows me wherever I go.”


Mirrors and imitation in the brainMirror neuron

Fires when we perform certain actions and when we observe others performing those actions

Provides a neural basis for imitation and observational learning

EXPERIENCED AND IMAGINED PAIN IN THE BRAIN

Brain activity related to actual pain (left) is mirrored in the brain of an observing loved one (right). Empathy in the brain shows up in areas that process emotions, but not in the areas that register physical pain.

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Applications of Observational Learning

Prosocial effectsProsocial behavior models can have a prosocial effect

Effectiveness is related to consistency in actions and words

Antisocial effectsObservational learning can have adverse effects

Early childhood environments with high levels of aggression, TV, and videos are powerful sources of observational learning

Correlational studiesIn U.S. and Canada, homicide rates doubled as TV was introduced and spreading

Elementary schoolchildren exposed to media violence fought more and had a greater risk for violent behavior as teens.

Experimental studiesViolence-viewing effect stems from two factors

Media models prompt imitation

Prolonged exposure to violence desensitizes viewers

DOES VIEWING MEDIA VIOLENCE TRIGGER VIOLENT BEHAVIOR?

Documents

Learning How do w e l earn? Classical conditioning Operant conditioning