PSYCH 333 - Learning and Cognitive Perspectives

The learning perspective

emphasizes the effects of experience on behavior

Personality is shaped through learning

Learning (according to the learning perspective)

The change of behaviour as a function of experience

Two varieties of the learning perspective

Behaviourist theories and social learning theories

Behaviourism

The theoretical view of personality that focuses on overt behavior and the ways in which it can be affected by rewards and punishments in the environment

Took psychology outside of the mind

environment/nurture/blank slate

Habituation, classical conditioning, and operant conditioning

T/F According to behaviourism, personality isn't traits, unconscious conflicts, or anything that cannot be directly observed

T

Classical conditioning

The kind of learning in which an unconditioned response that is naturally elicited by one stimulus becomes elicited also by a new, conditioned stimulus

• Pavlovian conditioning

Reflex (Classical conditioning)

An existing connection between a stimulus and a response, such that the first causes the second

CC HAS to have this

Generalization (Classical conditioning)

Responding in a similar way to somewhat different stimuli

Discrimination (Classical Conditioning

Responding in a different manner to different stimuli

Extinction (Classical conditioning)

The reduction of a conditioned response by repeating the conditioned stimulus without the unconditioned stimulus

Emotional Conditioning

Classical conditioning in which the conditioned response is an emotional reaction

Higher Order Conditioning

An event in which a former conditioned stimulus now acts as an unconditioned stimulus in a new instance of conditioning

Operant Conditioning

Skinner's term for the process of learning in which an organism's behavior is shaped by the effect of the behavior on the environment

AKA Instrumental Conditioning

Punishers and reinforcers Negative/positive as subtraction/addition, not bad/good

Positive Reinforcement

Adding something to increase behavior • E.g., Having drinks for getting an 'A'

Negative Reinforcement

Taking something away to increase behaviour

Not having to do chores for getting an 'A'

Reinforcement =

Behaviour becomes more likely

Punishment =

Behaviour becomes less likely

Positive punishment

Adding something to decrease behaviour

Adding chores for getting a poor grade

Negative punishment

Taking something away to decrease behaviour

Not going out because of a poor grade

Schedules of reinforcement influence the _____ of learning

effect

Continuous and Partial

Continuous reinforcement

reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs

Leads to faster learning

Partial reinforcement

reinforcing a response only part of the time; results in slower acquisition of a response but much greater resistance to extinction than does continuous reinforcement

More persistent learning

Partial reinforcement effect

the tendency for a response that is reinforced after some, but not all, correct responses to be very resistant to extinction

T/F Discrimination, generalization, and extinction do not occur within operant conditioning

False

Vicarious conditioning

classical conditioning of a reflex response or emotion by watching the reaction of another person

Shortcomings of classic behaviourism (4)

•It ignores motivation, thought, and cognition

•It is based on research using animals, ignoring aspects that may be more important for humans

•It ignores the social dimension of learning

•It treats the organism as passive

Social Learning Theory

The general view that learning is largely or wholly due to modeling, imitation, and other social interactions.

• We learn A LOT!!! through our social interactions

• Aspects of some social learning theories reinterpret ideas rooted in more classic behaviorism

Two focused perspectives for Social Learning Theory

Rotter and Bandura

Rotter's Model of Social Learning

Primarily concerns decision making and the role of expectations

Classic behaviorism focuses on the actual rewards/punishments, Rotter focuses on the ______ about reward/punishment

BELIEFS

Expectancy Value Theory

Rotter

Behavioural decitions are determined not just by the presence or size of reinforcements, but also by beliefs about the likely results of behaviour

Specific Expectancies

Rotter

The belief that a certain behaviour at a certain time and place will lead to a specific outcome

Generalized Expetancies

Rotter

General beliefs about whether anything you do is likely to make a difference

Internal (high) and External (low) Locus of Control

May vary accross domains

Internal locus of control

Those with high generalized expectancies and thus tend to think that what they do affects what happens to them

External locus of control

Those with low generalized expectancies and tend to think that what they do will not make much difference.

Bandura's model of social learning

emphasizes the social nature of learning and the ways people interact with the situations in their lives

reinterpreted expectancies as efficacy expectations

According to Bandura, ______ should be the key target for therapeutic interventions

Efficacy expectations

Effecacies can create capacities

T/F Increases in self-efficacy can increase motivation and performance (Bandura's model)

True

Bandura's model - Observational Learning

Learning a behaviour vicariously, but seeing someone else do it

Other animals also have a capacity for _____

• Humans can learn nearly everything from _______

Observational learning requires (4)

attention, retention, motivation, and behavior

The bobo doll study

Psychologist: Bandura

Description: Children watched (through a one way glass) a confederate play with the BoBo doll and then played with the BoBo doll in the same way as the confederate

Significance: used to develop "observational learning"

The cognitive perspective of personality

Focuses on cognitive processes that underlie personality

2 assumptions of the cognitive perspective

• We integrate and organize bits of information

• Life involves elaborate decisions that may be conscious or unconscious

The ____ perspective includes concepts such as memory, decision making, and mental representations

cognitive

Semantic Memory

Memory organized according to meaning

Episodic Memory

Memory organized according to sequences of events

Why are memories helpful?

They help us interact with situations that we may have never experienced before by using previous experiences in "similar" situations

Script

Memory structure used to represent a highly stereotyped category of events

We may have variations of _____ for similar but different experiences (e.g., fast food dining vs. fine dining)

Memories and Nodes

• Our various memories can be organized via a connection of nodes, some more strongly linked than others

• Nodes: Areas of storage

• "Activated" nodes are in consciousness and may spread to nodes with strong links to the activated node

• Partial activation may allow associated concepts to become more accessible to, yet still just outside of, conscious awareness

Priming

Activating an element in memory by using information contained by it, leaving it partly activated

Both subliminal and supraliminal (below and above consciousness respectively)

_____ makes information/concepts more accessible and partially activates associated nodes and can affect how we think, feel, and behave

Priming

Connectionism

• An approach to understanding cognition based on the metaphor of interconnected neurons

• Information processed through multiple neural pathways simultaneously as opposed to a singular node

• Input -> Output

• Activation as excitatory or inhibitory

• Each "output" is a unique pattern of activation

• Can be rather complex as well as dynamic

Dual-Process Models

Models assuming two different modes of cognition—one effortful, one automatic

• Many variations and overlap is common

Cognitive-Experimental self-theory (Epstein 1985,90, 94)

(Dual process models)

seeks to explain unconscious processing and the seemingly irrational, emotion-driven sectors of the mind

Showed the rational and experiential system

Behavior is determined by both rational and experiential systems but each can be more engaged/active than the other but may require self-control

Mischel's cognitive person variables

A theory of personality needs to take into account 5 cognitive-social learning person variables

• Competencies

• Encoding strategies and personal constructs

• Expectancies

• Subjective values

• Self-regulatory systems and plans

•Was the foundation for what would later become CAPS

Cognitive-Affective Processing System (CAPS)

A theoretical conception of personality structure as a complex system that features a large number of highly interconnected cognitions and emotional tendencies

• Emotion plays an important role in cognition

If...then contingencies

a repertoire of actions triggered by particular stimulus situations

Hedges for personality schemas

This refers to conditions that modify these "if... then..." statements.

Example: "If I am with close friends (but not strangers), then I am outgoing."

Behaviour signature for CAPS

the unique profile of if...then relations

T/F for CAPS, One must know how someone construes the situation and their behavioral signatures to predict behavioral consistency

True (Review the last slide more