3.7-9 Conditioning and Learning

3.7 - Classical Conditioning, 3.8 - Operant Conditioning, 3.9 - Social, Cognitive, and Neurological Factors in Learning

Process of acquiring through experience new and relatively enduring information or behaviors

Learning

One way we learn is by ___________

Association

Learning associations feed into ________ _________

Habitual behaviors

Key to self-control and academic success

Helpful habits

Amount of time it takes to form a helpful habit

66 days

Learning that certain events occur together, may be two stimuli or a response and its consequence

Associative learning

Two main forms of conditioning

Classical conditioning, operant conditioning

Learn to associate two stimuli and thus to anticipate events

Classical conditioning

Learn to associate a response and its consequence

Operant conditioning

Any event or situation that evokes a response

Stimulus

behavior that occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus

Respondent behavior

Behavior that operates on the environment, producing a consequence

Operant behavior

Acquisition of mental information, whether by observing events, watching others, or through language

Cognitive learning

Form of cognitive learning, let us learn from others’ experiences

Observational learning

Type of learning in which we link two or more stimuli, the first stimulus comes to elicit behavior in anticipation of the second stimulus

Classical conditioning according to Pavlov’s experiment

View that psychology (1) should be an objective science that (2) studies behavior without reference to mental processes, most research psychologists today agree with (1) but not (2)

Behaviorism according to Watson

Stimulus that elicits no response before conditioning

Neutral stimuli (NS)

Unlearned, naturally occurring response to an unconditioned stimulus

Unconditioned response (UCR)

Stimulus that unconditionally, naturally and automatically, triggers an unconditioned response

Unconditioned stimulus (UCS)

Learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus

Conditioned response (CR)

Originally neutral stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus, comes to trigger a conditioned response

Conditioned stimulus (CS)

In classical conditioning, initial stage, when one links a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus. In operant conditioning, strengthening of a reinforced response.

Acquisition

Procedure in which the conditioned stimulus in one conditioning experience is paired with a new neutral stimulus creating a second (often weaker) conditioned stimulus

Higher-order conditioning

Diminishing of a conditioned response when an unconditioned stimulus doesn’t follow a conditioned stimulus

Extinction

Reappearance, after a pause, of a weakened conditioned response

Spontaneous recovery

Tendency, once a stimulus has been conditioned, for stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses

Generalization

Ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and other stimuli that have not been associated with a conditioned stimulus

Discrimination

What remains today of pavlov’s ideas?

Current psychologists now agree that classical conditioning is a basic form of learning

Why does Pavlov’s work remain important?

Classical conditioning is one way that all organisms learn to adapt to their environment, learning could be studied objectively

3 examples of how Pavlov’s principles can influence health and well-being

Drug cravings, food cravings, immune response

Used a loud noise to create a conditioned response to the sight of a rat and eventually any animal

Watson’s “Little Albert” experiment

First to extend Watson and Rayner’s results by showing how conditioning can also reduce children’s fear

Mary Cover Jones

Pavlov, Watson, and B.F. Skinner believed…

Basic laws of learning were essentially similar in all animals

Discovered by Kimble through experiments

An animal’s capacity for conditioning is limited by biological constraints

Biological predisposition to learn associations that have survival value (such as between taste and nausea)

Preparedness

Even if sickened hours later, rats would avoid the food they thought made them sick. Sickened rats developed aversions to tastes but not to sights or sounds

2 findings of Garcia

Single pairing of stimulus and response will be enough to create an association, new aversion won’t be strengthened by further pairings

One-trial conditioning