learning january 2015.pdf

LEARNING

How do we come to know things?

Learning is inferred from behavior,

but isnt the same as behavior

factors

Sensation

Perception

Emotions

Motivation

Thinking

Relationships

etc

Learning

A relatively permanent change in behavior or behavior potential (i.e., knowledge, capability, or attitude) that is acquired through experience or practice and cannot be attributed to illness, injury, or maturation.

Behavioral definition would focus exclusively on measurable behavior

Behaviorists recognize that learning is an internal event. However, it is not recognized as learning until it is displayed by overt behavior.

Behavioral Learning Theory

The behavioral learning theory is represented

as an S-R paradigm. The organism is treated

as a black box. We only know what is going on inside the box by the organisms overt behavior.

Stimulus

(S)

Organism

(O)

Response

(R)

Classical Conditioning

Classical conditioning

A learning process through which one stimulus comes

to predict the occurrence of another stimulus and

elicits a response similar to or related to the response

evoked by that stimulus

Stimulus

Any event or object in the environment to which an

organism responds; plural is stimuli

Pavlov was studying the digestive system of dogs and became intrigued with his observation

that dogs deprived of food began to salivate

when one of his assistants walked into the room.

He began to investigate this phenomena and established the laws of classical conditioning.

Skinner renamed this type of learning "respondent conditioning since in this type of learning, one is responding to an environmental

antecedent.


General model: Stimulus (S) elicits >Response (R)

Classical conditioning starts with a reflex (R): an innate, involuntary behavior.

This involuntary behavior is elicited or caused by an antecedent environmental event.

Example: air is blown into your eye, you blink. You have no voluntary or conscious control over

whether the blink occurs or not.


The specific model for classical conditioning is:

A stimulus will naturally (without learning) elicit or bring about a reflexive response

Unconditioned Stimulus (US) elicits > Unconditioned Response (UR)



Eyeblink

response

Puff of air in eye

Contraction of

pupil

Light in eye

Startle Loud noise

Salivation Food

Unconditioned

Response (UR)

Unconditioned

Stimulus (US)

Neutral Stimulus (NS) --- does not elicit the response of interest

This stimulus (sometimes called an orienting stimulus as it elicits an orienting response) is a

neutral stimulus since it does not elicit the

Unconditioned (or reflexive) Response.



The Neutral/Orienting Stimulus (NS) is repeatedly paired with the

Unconditioned/Natural Stimulus (US).



The Neutral Stimulus (NS) is transformed into a Conditioned Stimulus (CS).

That is, when the CS is presented by itself, it elicits or causes the CR (which is the same

involuntary response as the UR.

The name changes because it is elicited by a different stimulus.

This is written CS elicits > CR.


Conditioned Response (CR): the response produced by the CS.

Classical Conditioning:

Definitions

Unconditioned(al) Stimulus (US): a stimulus that has the ability to produce a specified response before conditioning begins.

Unconditioned(al) Response (UR): the response produced by the US.

(SALIVATION PRODUCED BY THE FOOD)

Conditioned(al) Stimulus (CS): an initially neutral stimulus that comes to produce a new response because it is associated with the US.

(SALIVATION PRODUCED BY THE BELL)


John Watson and emotional conditioning

Little Albert (a healthy and emotionally stable 11-month-old infant)

showed no fear except of the loud noise Watson made by striking

a hammer against a steel bar near Alberts head

Example:

Child is harassed at school

Child feels bad when harassed

Child associates being harassed and school

Child begins to feel bad when she thinks of school


In order to extinguish the associated of feeling

bad and thinking of school, the connection

between school and being harassed must be

broken.



John Watson and emotional conditioning Watson also had ideas for removing fears and laid

the groundwork for some behavior therapies used today

Peter (3-year-old who was afraid of rabbits) was put in a high chair and given candy while a rabbit was in a cage at a safe distance from him

The rabbit was moved closer with each session

Some of Peters friends were brought in to play with the rabbit to show Peter first-hand that the rabbit was safe

By the end of the sessions Peter lost his fear of rabbits


Biological predispositions

Research has shown that humans are more easily

conditioned to fear stimuli, such as snakes, that can

have very real negative effects on their well-being

Martin Seligman

Said that the most common fears are related to the survival of the human species through the long course of evolution

Suggested that humans and other animals are prepared to

associate only certain stimuli with particular consequences


Biological predispositions

Gustavson and others

Used taste aversion conditioning to stop wild coyotes from

attacking sheep in the western United States

Set out lamb flesh laced with lithium chloride, a poison that

made the coyotes extremely ill but was not fatal

After only one or two experiences, the coyotes would get sick

even at the sight of a lamb


Classical conditioning in everyday life

Research suggests that the inability to acquire

classically conditioned responses may be the first sign

of Alzheimers disease, a sign that appears prior to any memory loss

Emotional behavior very susceptible to classical

conditioning

Through classical conditioning, environmental cues

associated with drug use can become conditioned

stimuli and later produce the conditioned responses of

drug craving


Neurological basis of classical conditioning

An intact amygdala is required for conditioning of fear

in both humans and animals, and context fear

conditioning further depends on the hippocampus

Research clearly indicates that the cerebellum is the

essential brain structure for motor conditioning and

also the storage site for the memory traces formed

during such conditioning


Factors influencing classical conditioning

There are four major factors that facilitate the

acquisition of a classically conditioned response

How reliably the conditioned stimulus predicts the

unconditioned stimulus

The number of pairings of the conditioned stimulus and the

unconditioned stimulus

The intensity of the unconditioned stimulus

The temporal relationship between the conditioned stimulus

and the unconditioned stimulus

Operant Conditioning

The major theorists for the development of

operant conditioning are:

Edward Thorndike

John Watson

B.F. Skinner


Operant conditioning investigates the influence of consequences on subsequent behavior.

Operant conditioning investigates the learning of voluntary responses.

It was the dominant school in American psychology from the 1930s through the

1950s.


Where classical conditioning illustrates S-->R learning, operant conditioning is often viewed

as R-->S learning

It is the consequence that follows the response that influences whether the response is likely

or unlikely to occur again.


The three-term model of operant conditioning (S--> R -->S) incorporates the concept that

responses cannot occur without an

environmental event (e.g., an antecedent

stimulus) preceding it.

While the antecedent stimulus in operant conditioning does not ELICIT or CAUSE the

response (as it does in classical conditioning),

it can influence its occurrence.


There are two types of consequences:

positive (sometimes called pleasant)

negative (sometimes called aversive)

Disadvantages of punishment and response cost Punishment and response cost do not extinguish

an undesirable behavior; rather, they suppress that behavior when the punishing agent is present.

Punishment and response cost indicate that a behavior is unacceptable but does not help people develop more appropriate behaviors.


Disadvantages of punishment and response

cost

The person who is severely punished often

becomes fearful and feels angry and hostile

toward the punisher. These reactions may be

accompanied by a desire to retaliate or to avoid

or escape from the punisher and the punishing

situation.

Punishment frequently leads to both negative

affect and aggression. Those who administer

physical punishment may become models of

aggressive behavior.


Shaping behavior

An operant conditioning technique that consists of

gradually molding a desired behavior (response) by

reinforcing responses that become progressively

closer to the desired behavior

B. F. Skinner demonstrated that shaping is particularly

effective in conditioning complex behaviors


Analyzing An Example

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.

a. What behavior was changed?

Camping out







three weeks.

b. Was the behavior strengthened or

weakened?

Weakened (Behavior decreased)

Eliminate positive and negative reinforcement







three weeks.

Having water thrown on him.

c. What was the consequence?

d. Was the behavior consequence added or

subtracted?

Added







three weeks.

Since a consequence was ADDED and the

behavior was WEAKENED (REDUCED),

the process was PUNISHMENT.

Classical vs Operant Conditioning

Processes of generalization, discrimination, extinction, and spontaneous recovery occur in both classical and operant conditioning

Both types of conditioning depend on associative learning

In classical conditioning, an association is formed between two stimuli

In operant conditioning, the association is established between a response and its consequences

Classical vs Operant Conditioning

In classical conditioning, the focus is on what

precedes the response

In operant conditioning, the focus is on what

follows the response

In classical conditioning, the subject is passive

and responds to the environment rather than

acting on it

In operant conditioning, the subject is active and

operates on the environment

1. Every time someone flushes a toilet in the apartment building, the shower becomes very hot and causes the person to jump back. Over time, the person begins to jump back automatically after hearing the flush, before the water temperature changes.

2. Your father gives you a credit card at the end of your first year in college because you did so well. As a result, your grades continue to get better in your second year.

3. Your car has a red, flashing light that blinks annoyingly if you start the car without buckling the seat belt. You become less likely to start the car without buckling the seat belt

. 4. You eat a new food and then get sick because of the flu. However, you develop a dislike for the food and feel nauseated whenever you smell it.

5. An individual receives frequent injections of drugs, which are administered in a small examination room at a clinic. The drug itself causes increased heart rate but after several trips to the clinic, simply being in a small room causes an increased heart rate.

6. A lion in a circus learns to stand up on a chair and jump through a hoop to receive a food treat.

7. A professor has a policy of exempting students from the final exam if they maintain perfect attendance during the quarter. His students attendance increases dramatically.

8. You check the coin return slot on a pay telephone and find a quarter. You find yourself checking other telephones over the next few days.

9. Your hands are cold so you put your gloves on. In the future, you are more likely to put gloves on when its cold.

10. John Watson conducted an experiment with a boy named Albert in which he paired a white rat with a loud, startling noise. Albert now becomes startled at the sight of the white rat.

Main terms

1.Unconditiones stimulus: has an inborn power to

elicit a reflex.

2.Conditioned stimulus: is created by the learning

proces, it acuaires a power similar to the

conditional stimulus

3.Unconditioned reflex: is an inborn response

pattern.

4.Conditioned reflex: Is a learned response

pattern, they are outside of the councious.

Extintion.

Stimulus generalization.

Discrimination.

OPERANT CONDITIONING

Operant behavior is characterized by actions that have

consequences, it is acquired and shaped by experience.

1.REINFORCER is a stimulus that has the effect of

increasing the frequency of a given category of behavior

2.REWARD is perceived as valuable to the indivual giving

the reward, but might not be as valed by the receiving

organism.

Main terms

Positive reinforcer : has a value for the organism

Negative reinforcer: has no value for the organism

Primary reinforcer: has intrinsic value for the organism, no

learning is recquired for the worth of the reinforcer to exist

Secondary reinforcer has acquired value for the organism,

but in this case learning is recquired.

Trial and error learning taking the rocky road

Edward L. Thorndike (United States)

Robotlike process

1.Stamping In: An action that useful is impressed upon the nervous system

2.Law of effect: Tendency to retain what is learned (reinforcement)

3.Thorndike put forward a Law of effect which stated that any behavior that is followed by pleasant consequences is likely to be repeated, and any behavior followed by unpleasant consequences is likely to be stopped.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fanm--WyQJo

Finding what is wrong in a car. Could be learning by trial and error.,

http://www.simplypsychology.org/edward-thorndike.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIGeNOBjlkc

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/reality-check-with-

polly-curtis/2011/dec/13/women-children

CONCIOUSNESS AND LEARNING

Observational learning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AcWo3gbtBk

Vicarious Reinforcement

Social Learning theory

Prosocial behavior

Latent learning

Insight learning (learning set)

Learning to learn

MEMORY

Learning implies retention, and recalling.

Memory involves the encoding, storage, and retrieval of

cognitive information.

ENCODING is a process characterzed by giving an

informational input a more usefull form,

The use of symbols, associations, and insights are

examples of it.

MNEMONIC DEVICE it is a cognitive structure that

improves both retention and recall, is a special case of

encoding.

Storage

Storage refers to the fact that memories are retained for a

period of time.

Short-term memory (working memory)

Long-term memory

Retrieval

Retrieval of cognitive information takes place when a

memory is removed for storage and replaced in

consciousness

RECALL Takes place when memory can be retrieved

easily by an act of will.

RECOGNITION Takes place when the retrieval of

memory is facilitated by the presence of a helpful stimulus

REPRESSION Is a form of defense against a

psychological threat, forces a memory into the

unconscious.

Documents

learning january 2015.pdf