Chapter 6: Learning

Ivan Pavlov

Ivan Pavlov

inadvertently discovered a kind of learning while studying digestion in dogs.

Classical Conditioning

People and animals can learn to associate neutral stimuli (e.g., sounds) with stimuli that produce reflexive, involuntary responses (e.g., food) and will learn to respond similarly to the new stimulus as they did to the old one (e.g., salivate).

unconditioned stimulus

The original stimulus that elicits a response is known as the __ (US or UCS).

unconditioned response

Food elicits the natural, involuntary response of salivation.

conditioned response (CR)

it is no longer a neutral stimulus but rather a conditioned stimulus (CS).

acquisition

Learning has taken place once the animals respond to the CS without a presentation of the US.

Trace conditioning

The presentation of the CS, followed by a short break, followed by the presentation of the US.

Simultaneous conditioning

CS and US are presented at the same time.

Backward conditioning

US is presented first and is followed by the CS.

extinction

In psychological terminology, the process of unlearning a behavior is known as

spontaneous recovery

One fascinating and yet-to-be-adequately-explained part of this process is known as

Aversive conditioning

has been used in a number of more socially constructive ways.

second-order or higher-order conditioning

Once a CS elicits a CR, it is possible, briefly, to use that CS as a US in order to condition a response to a new stimulus.

Learned taste aversions

are interesting because they can result in powerful avoidance responses on the basis of a single pairing.

Taste aversions

most commonly occur with strong and unusual tastes.

Salient stimuli

are easily noticeable and therefore create a more powerful conditioned response.

Operant conditioning

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

Edward Thorndike

was one of the first people to research this kind of learning.

instrumental learning

to describe his work because he believed the consequence was instrumental in shaping future behaviors.

B. F. Skinner

who coined the term operant conditioning, is the best-known psychologist to research this form of learning.

Reinforcement

is defined by its consequences; anything that makes a behavior more likely to occur is a reinforcer.

Positive reinforcement

refers to the addition of something pleasant.

Negative reinforcement

refers to the removal of something unpleasant.

Punishment

is anything that makes a behavior less likely.

positive punishment

(usually referred to simply as “punishment”), which is the addition of something unpleasant

negative punishment

the removal of something pleasant.

Punishment

is operant conditioning’s version of aversive ­conditioning.

Chaining

Animals can also be taught to perform a number of responses successively in order to get a reward.

Extinction

occurs when the rat ceases to press the lever because the reward no longer results from this action.

Spontaneous recovery

after having extinguished the bar press response and without providing any further training, the rat began to press the bar again.

Generalization

would be if the rat began to press other things in the Skinner box or the bar in other boxes.

Discrimination

would involve teaching the rat to press only a particular bar or to press the bar only under certain conditions.

Primary reinforcers

innately satisfying stimuli.

Secondary reinforcers

are things we have learned to value such as praise or the chance to play a video game.

token economy

every time people perform a desired behavior, they are given a token.

Premack principle

It explains that whichever of two activities is preferred can be used to reinforce the activity that is not preferred.

reinforcement

When you are first teaching a new behavior, rewarding the behavior each time is best.

partial-reinforcement effect

behaviors will be more resistant to extinction if the animal has not been reinforced continuously.

fixed-ratio

(FR) schedule provides reinforcement after a set number of responses.

fixed-interval

schedule requires that a certain amount of time elapse before a bar press will result in a reward.

instinctive drift

The tendency for animals to forgo rewards to pursue their typical patterns of behavior is called

contiguity model

it postulates that the more times two things are paired, the greater the learning that will take place.

Contiguity

(togetherness) determines the strength of the response.

Robert Rescorla

revised the Pavlovian model to take into account a more complex set of ­circumstances.

Observational Learning

is also known as modeling and was studied a great deal by Albert Bandura in formulating his social-learning theory.

Latent learning

was studied extensively by Edward Tolman.

Latent

means hidden, and latent learning is learning that becomes obvious only once a reinforcement is given for demonstrating it.

Abstract learning

involves understanding concepts such as “tree” or “same” rather than learning simply to press a bar or peck a disk in order to secure a reward.

Wolfgang Köhler

is well known for his studies of insight learning in chimpanzees.

Insight learning

occurs when one suddenly realizes how to solve a problem.