Chapter 18 - Conditioning and Learning

Learning

• a process by which behaviour or knowledge changes due to experience

2 types of learning

• cognitive learning - direct learning

• associative learning - associating a sense to a particular person/thing, even when that person or thing isn’t there

  • ex. your uncle smells cigarettes, so you think of him when you smell cigarette smell, even if he isn’t there

ivan pavlov

• physiologist who won a nobel prize for his research on digestion

  • created the idea of “psychological reflex”

psychological reflex

• ex. sight of food produced salivation

  • this response is called a psychic secretion

classical conditioning (pavlovian conditioning)

• learning that occurs when a neutral stimulus causes a response that was originally caused by another stimulus

• ex. Dogs salivating when they hear boots

elements of classical conditioning

• unconditioned stimulus (US) - stimulus that causes a reflexive response without learning

• unconditioned response (UR) - a reflexive, unlearned reaction to an unconditioned stimulus

  • ex. salivation, flinching, blinking, etc.

• neutral stimulus - stimulus that does not normally cause a reflexive response

• conditioned stimulus (CS) - a once neutral stimulus that later causes a response because it has a history of being paired with an unconditioned stimulus

• conditioned response (CR) - the learned response that occurs to the conditioned stimulus

  • ex. salivation, flinching, blinking, etc.

  • the CS must cause a CR in the absence of the US (ex. food) for conditioning to have occurred

possible mechanism of conditioning

• during conditioning, weak synapses fire at the same time as related strong synapses

• the simultaneous activity strengthens the connections in the weaker synapse

stages of conditioning

1. acquisition

• the initial phase of learning where a response is made (ex. dog salivating in response to a tone)

• CS helps predict that the US will appear

  • acquisition is stronger if the CS and US are consistently presented close together in time

2. extinction

• loss or weakening of a CR when a CS and US no longer happen together

3. spontaneous recovery

• the reoccurrence of an extinguished conditioned response, usually after some time has passed since extinction

stage generalization

process in which a response that originally occurs to a specific stimulus also occurs to different (but similar) stimuli

• ex. cats generalized the opening of cat food to all canned foods. And thought that all the can noises were its food

stimulus discrimination

• when an organism learns to respond to one original stimulus but not to new stimuli that may be original stimulus

• often occurs when similar stimuli are NOT paired with a US

Phobia

• when fear of an object or situation becomes irrational and interferes with normal activities

• can occur naturally (possibly due to genetics)

  • however many fears are learned through experience

Little Albert Experiement

• Little Albert was an 11 month old infant with no fear of animals

• but when researchers made a loud noise (UCS) behind his head, he would jump (UCR)

• researchers repeatedly did this to condition the loud noise (US) whenever he saw the animal (CS)

• Albert quickly developed a fear (CR) of the rat (CS)

• this fear generalized to other furry animals or stimuli

Conditioned emotional responses

emotional and physiological responses that develop to a specific object or situation

preparedness

the biological predisposition to rapidly learn a response to a particular class of stimuli (hard wired to fear certain stimuli over other)

fear conditioning in the brain

• the amygdala is involved in fear conditioning

  • some patient groups have hypersensitive amygdalae (they learn fear extremely quick) compared to others

contextual fear conditioning

learning to fear a location (ex. cage where a shock occurred)

• increased activation in the hippocampus

• pairs with fear conditioning (since amygdala and hippocampus are so close to one another)

Conditioned taste aversions

• an acquired dislike or disgust of a food or drinks due to it paired paired with illness

• triggers a decreased reward response in the brain

  • ex. ate a Buddy Burger than got food poisoning, so then you’re scared and you fear it/don’t want it

Garcia effect

• tastes produces stronger aversive conditioning than sights and sounds

• one exposure is often enugh

• CTAs (Conditioned Tasted Aversions) develop even if illness occurs hours later

• this biological tendency likely evolved through natural selection because it enhances a species’ survival

Latent inhibition

• when frequent experience with a stimulus before it is paired with a US makes it less likely that conditioning will occur after a single episode of illness

  • it’s hard to create a CTA for something if you’ve often had the stimuli that was often positive/neutral beforehand

Classical conditioning and advertising

• advertising techniques are based on classical conditioning

• using these techniques, they stimulate positive feelings and associate it with those items/people

  • using popular songs in commercials

    • music caused a UCS

    • pens became a CS

  • using attractive people in commercials

  • mermaid drinking bottled water

evaluative conditioning

• pairing emotional stimuli (ex. attractive people) with a target in order to influence people’s perceptions and attitudes toward that target

political advertising techniques and evaluation conditioning

• using advertisements to stimulate silly feelings on politicians we see to associate those silly feelings whenever we see or hear about them

  • influences our view on them

• ex. conservative party mocked the Prime Minister’s physical ability

  • this caused the conservative party to lose almost all of their seats

    • their plan backfired

negative political advertising (attack ads)

• consist of black-and-white, grainy images that are frustrating to look at

• images that allow you to judge/mock the target

• using images of a politician making an angry face and an angry narrator whose voice causes autonomic responses

Thorndike and cat experiemtn (Law of effect)

• Thorndike observed cats in a “puzzle box”

  • initially, the cat would scratch or paw at the box, it would accidentally escape and get the reward

  • cat notices a pattern after repeatedly doing this

• escaping from the puzzle box reinforced the cat’s actions

• it quickly learned the behaviour required to escape

Law of effect

• choosing a behaviour that has been reinforced with reward in a reoccurring situation

• ex. Thorndike observed cats in a “puzzle box”

  • initially, the cat would scratch or paw at the box, it would accidentally escape and get the reward

  • cat notices a pattern after repeatedly doing this

• escaping from the puzzle box reinforced the cat’s actions

• it quickly learned the behaviour required to escape

Operant conditioning

• type of learning in which behaviour is influenced by consequences

• a response (behaviour) and a consequence (ex. reward or punishment) are needed for learning to happen

• the consequence depends on the action

processes of operant cooling

Increasing likelihood

• reinforcement - process in which an event or reward that follows a response increases the likelihood of that response occurring again

• reinforcer - the action that causes a response which increases the chance of the response happening again

  • ex. Me training a dog to sit by giving it treats (reinforcer) will increase its likelihood to sit (reinforcement)

Decreasing likelihood

• punishment - process that decreases the future chance of a response or behaviour

• Punisher - stimulus that is contingent upon a response and that results in a decrease in behaviour

  • ex. Cindy getting me to get her stuff but when I come she gets angry (punisher) and now I won’t get her stuff (punishment)

Studying operant conditioning using a skinner box

• lab apparatus containing levers or keys that the animal can manipulate

• experimenter can control whether behaviours are rewarded or punished

2 types of reinforcement

• Positive reinforcement - increases behaviour by increasing or gaining a stimulus

  • ex. getting praised which motivates you to study more

• Negative reinforcement - increase behaviour to decreasing or remove a stimulus

  • ex. parents giving in to a whining child

    • studying for an exam so your parents can stop nagging you

2 types of negative reinforcement

• escape learning - response removes a stimulus that is already present

• avoidance learning - removes the chance of a stimulus occuring

  • associated with increased activity in the frontal lobe’s reward centres

2 types of punishment

• positive punishment - behaviour decreases as a result of an unpleasant stimulus

  • ex. getting mocked by your friends causes you to study less (because now you feel bad)

• negative punishment - behaviour decreases because it decreases or removes a desired stimulus

  • ex. grounding a child

    • they can’t see their friends (who they want to hang out with), which causes them to study less

Primary reinforcers

• reinforcing stimuli that satisfy basic motivational needs, which are needs that affect an individual’s ability to survive and reproduce

secondary reinforcers

• stimuli that acquire their reinforcing effects after we learn that they have value

• ex. money

reinforcer in brain activity

• reinforcers trigger dopamine release in reward centres of the brain (nucleus accumbens)

• larger dopamine response during learning of stimulus-reward association (initial learning)

  • larger in people prone to high-risk behaviours

discriminative stimulus

• a cue or event that indicates that a response, if made, will be reinforced

• when the cue isn’t present, there is no point in responding

  • so then no reinforcement will occur

ex. steve wearing white socks to indicate to the children that he’s going to play with them

• black socks show that he will not have time to play with them

generalization in operant conditioning

• when an operant response takes place to a new discriminative stimulus that is similar to the stimulus present during original learning

• ex. steve wearing beige socks (which are similar in colour to white)

discrimination in operant conditioning

• when an operant response is made to one discriminative stimulus but not to another, even if they are similar

shaping

• a procedure in which a specific operant response is created by reinforcing successive approximations of that response (rewarding baby steps in order to reach the desired goal)

chaining

• shaping several behaviours into a sequence

delayed reinforcement

• conditioning is stronger when the reinforcement immediately follows the behaviour

  • the more delayed the reinforcement, the fewer responses there is

extinction

• the weakening of an operant response when reinforcement is no longer available

• decreased dopamine response

• decrease in response rates when reward loses value (like becoming less appealing)

Continuous reinforcement

• when every response made results in reinforcement

• leads to rapid learning

partial reinforcement (intermittent reinforcement)

• when only a certain number of responses are rewarded, or a certain amount of time must pass before another reinforcement

• there are 4 types of partial reinforcement schedules

types of partial reinforcement

• fixed-ratio schedule - when reinforcement is delivered after a specific number of responses have been completed

  • FR7 = reinforcement occurs after every 7 responses

  • ex. being paid per product made

• variable-ratio schedule - when the number of responses required to receive reinforcement varies according to an avaerage

  • VR7 = reinforcement occurs randomly, with the average being after every 7 responses

  • ex. frequency of winning on a slot machine

• fixed-interval schedule varies linked- when reinforcement occurs following first response happening after a set amount of time passes

  • FI 5 min = 1 piece of candy for the first response after 5 minutes

  • ex. students study the most for an exam because they know the exam is upcoming

• variable-interval schedule - when the first response is reinforced following a variable amount of time

  • VI 5 min = reinforcement occurs randomly, with the average being after 5 minutes

  • ex. waiting for falling stars during a meteor shower

partial reinforcement effect

• a phenomenon where organisms that have been conditioned under partial reinforcement resist extinction longer than those conditioned under continuous reinforcement

• AKA superstitions

how are superstitions helpful?

• superstitious behaviour can help (maintain) performance on tasks involving control (like sports)

• otherwise they are useless

punishment and how its used in the real world (speeding tickets)

• photo radar has small effects on speeding behaviour

  • punishment arrives a week after the behavioir

• tickets from officers are more immediate and effective

principles of effective punishment

• severity - severity of punishment should match

• Initial punishment level - level of punishment needs to be strong enough to reduce the chance of another offence occurring

• contiguity - punishment is most affective when it happens right after the behaviour

• consistency - punishment should be administered consistently

• show alternatives - punishment is more successful, and side effects are reduced, if the individual is clear on how reinforcement can be obtained by engaging in appropriate behaviours