chapter 6: learning

learning

defined as a long-lasting change in behavior resulting from experience

Ivan Pavlov

found that dogs learned to pair sounds in the environment where they were fed with the food that was given to them and would salivate by hearing those sounds; created the principle of classical conditioning

classical conditioning

people and animals can learn to associate neutral stimuli with stimuli that produce involuntary responses and will learn to respond similarly to the stimulus as they did to the old one

unconditioned stimulus (US or UCS)

the original stimulus that elicits a response

unconditioned response (UR or UCR)

the involuntary response produced from the unconditioned stimulus

conditioned response (CR)

the response made by a person or animal after learning to associate an experience with a neutral or arbitrary stimulus

conditioned stimulus (CS)

this is what occurs when a neutral stimulus and a conditioned response are paired

acquisition

when animals respond to a conditioned stimulus without the unconditioned stimulus being present to them

delayed conditioning

a procedure in which the conditioned stimulus is presented, and remains present, for a fixed period (the delay) before the unconditioned stimulus is introduced

trace conditioning

the conditional stimulus is presented first, a delay, and the unconditional stimulus is presented

simultaneous conditioning

the conditional stimulus and the unconditional stimulus are presented at the same time

backward conditioning

the unconditional stimulus is presented first, then the conditional stimulus

extinction

the process of unlearning a behavior

spontaneous recovery

after a conditioned response is gone and no other training of the animals has taken place, the response reappears after the conditioned stimulus is presented again

generalization

the tendency to respond to similar conditional stimuli

discriminate

to tell the difference between various stimuli

aversive conditioning

conditioned to have a negative response

John Watson and Rosalie Rayner

tested aversive conditioning through an experiment by conditioning a little boy named Albert to fear a little rat

second-order/higher-order conditioning

once a conditional stimulus elicits a conditional response, you could briefly use a conditional stimulus as an unconditional stimulus to condition a response to a new stimulus

learned taste aversions

an association between the taste of a particular food and illness such that the food is considered to be the cause of the illness

salient

this type of stimulus is easily noticeable and creates a more powerful conditioned response

John Garcia and Robert Koelling

performed an experiment saying how rats learned to make associations faster than others did

operant conditioning

a kind of learning based on the association of consequences with one’s behaviors

Edward Thorndike

was one of the first people to research operant conditioning, conducted an experiment where a cat was in a cage next to a dish of food. the cat to get out in order to get the food. throughout the number of trials, the cat had done to get out of the box, the time decreased. (learned that the cat learned new behavior without mental activity but simply connecting a stimulus and a response)

law of effect

states that if the consequences of a behavior are pleasant the stimulus-response connection will be strengthened and the likelihood of the behavior will increase. however, if the consequences of a behavior are unpleasant, the connection will weaken and the likelihood of the behavior will decrease

instrumental learning

the term Thorndike used to describe his work since he believed the consequence was instrumental in shaping future behaviors

B.F. Skinner

coined the term operant conditioning and created a Skinner box

Skinner box

a way to deliver food to an animal and a level to press or disk to peck in order to get the food

positive reinforcement

refers to the addition of something pleasant

negative reinforcement

the removal of something unpleasant

escape learning

allows one to terminate an aversive stimulus

avoidance learning

enables one to avoid the unpleasant stimulus altogether

punishment

anything that makes a behavior less likely

positive punishment

the addition of something unpleasant

negative punishment

the removal of something unpleasant

continuous reinforcement

rewarding a behavior every time if you are teaching a new behavior

fixed-ratio schedule

provides reinforcement after a set number of responses

variable-ratio schedule

provides reinforcement based on the number of bar presses as well, but the number can vary

fixed-interval schedule

requires that a certain amount of time should occur before a bar press in order to obtain an reward

variable-interval schedule

varies the amount of time required to occur before reinforcement

instinctive drift

the tendency for animals to forgo rewards to pursue their typical patterns of behavior

contiguity model

states how the more times two things are paired, the greater the learning will take place

Robert Rescorla

revised the Pavlovian model to make it so that two dogs in separate situations experience a bell paired with food for 10 times

contingency model

Rescorla’s revision of the Pavlovian model was named this

observational learning

when you look at certain situations to develop an understanding for behaviors, also called modeling

Albert Bandura

stated that modeling can only occur within members of the same species

latent learning

is learning that becomes obvious only once reinforcement is given for demonstrating it

abstract learning

this type of learning uses pictures to teach behaviors

Wolfgang Köhler

is well known for his studies of insight learning

insight learning

occurs when one suddenly realized how to solve a problem, occurs because of the gradual strengthening connection of the stimulus and the response