Learning

WHAT IS LEARNING?  Learning is formally referred to as acquiring new knowledge or skill however, for psychology…..  Learning is a process that produces a relatively enduring change in behavior or knowledge as a result of an individual experience  Learning can occur in any setting, at any age, and is not just limited to humans.  Conditioning (A form of Learning) is the process of learning associations between environmental events and behavioral responses  Behaviors triggered by associations with events in environment  Two Types of Conditioning:  Operant- how we acquire new information  Classical – how certain stimuli trigger automatic responses CLASSICAL CONDITIONING  Ivan Pavlov  A Russian physiologist (not a psychologist), studied digestion in dogs which led to the discovery of Classical Conditioning  Salivating Dog Experiment PRINCIPLES OF CLASSICAL CONDITIONING  Classical Conditioning- dealing with behaviors that are brought forth automatically by some stimuli  Almost always involves some reflex behavior  “Reflex” is an unlearned behavior, controlled by the nervous system, and automatically occurs when a stimulus is presented  Unconditioned Stimulus- natural stimulus that reflexively produces a response without prior learning  Ex: the food in the dog’s mouth  Unconditioned Response- unlearned reflexive response  Ex: the dog salivating because the food was in it’s mouth  Conditioned Stimulus- is the stimulus that is originally neutral but comes to elicit a reflex  Ex: the sound of the bell  Conditioned Response- is the learned reflexive response to a previously neutral stimulus  Ex: dogs salivation to the sound of the bell HELPFUL TOOLS  Conditioned = “learned”  Unconditioned= “unlearned”  Conditioned stimulus … The dog learned the sound of the bell  Conditioned response…the salivation to the sound of the bell  Unconditioned stimulus … The food in the dog’s mouth is not learned  Unconditioned response…the dog naturally salivating to food in his mouth PAVLOV TO WATSON  Pavlov and Watson had the same views…. ~ Psychology should study behavior and produce experiments conducting prediction and control for behaviors ~  John B. Watson  Founder of Behaviorism  Conducted many controversial influential experiments today 1878-1958 CONDITIONED EMOTIONAL REACTIONS  Watson believed (due to Pavlov’s experiment) that human emotions could be a reflex response involving muscles and glands  Watson identified 3 basic emotions (according to his theories) that represented inborn natural unconditioned reflexes:  Fear  Rage  Love  In his experiment he found that these innate emotions could be reflexively brought forth by specific stimuli (i.e. emotions could be conditioned)  These theories led to the “Little Albert Experiment”  Little Albert also demonstrated stimulus generalization—he became afraid of other furry things: a rabbit, a furry coat, and even a Santa Claus mask THE LITTLE ALBERT STUDY CLASSICAL VS. OPERANT CONDITIONING  Classical Conditioning- is a process of learning associations between stimuli  Involves automatic reflexive behaviors that are a result of specific stimuli  Discovered by Ivan Pavlov  Operant Conditioning- is learning active, voluntary behaviors that are shaped and maintained by their consequences  Form of conditioning that explains how we acquire and maintain voluntary behaviors  Developed by B.F. Skinner B.F. SKINNER AND THE SEARCH FOR “ORDER IN BEHAVIOR”  Skinner found “a process of conditioning that was different from Pavlov’s classical conditioning and much more like most learning in daily life”  Operant describes… “active behavior that operates upon the environment to generate consequences”  In other words… How do we develop voluntary behaviors that we perform daily  Operant Conditioning explains learning as a process in which behavior is shaped and maintained by its consequences (i.e. reinforcement and punishment) REINFORCEMENT  Reinforcement- the occurrence of a stimulus or event following a response that increases the likelihood of that response being repeated, and is defined by the effect it produces  Increasing or strengthening the occurrence of a behavior in the future  Example:  The T.V. remote doesn’t work when trying to change the channel and you don’t want/feel like replacing the batteries… so what do you do??  Slap the remote on your hand or object and poof… it works again.  Operant =hitting the remote  Reinforcer= the remote working/changing the channel  Future prediction…if a remote stops working you will hit it before replacing the batteries. POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT  Two forms of reinforcement: positive and negative Positive = Good or desirable Negative = Bad or undesirable  Positive reinforcement= adding a stimulus  A positive reinforcer is when a response is strengthened by adding something  Negative reinforcer= removing a stimulus  A negative reinforcer is when a response is strengthened by removing something EXAMPLE  You study very hard for a test (operant) and after taking the test receive a grade of 100 (positive reinforcer)  You will be more likely to study hard for each test to earn a good grade  You go an entire year with no claims on your car insurance (operant) and receive a permanent discount on your monthly premium (positive reinforcer)  You will be more likely to drive safely to receive the discount  You have a headache (operant) so you take two Advil and the headache goes away (negative reinforcer)  You will be more likely to take Advil in the future to remove the pain of a headache AVERSIVE STIMULI  Aversive stimuli= psychical or psychological discomfort that an organism will seek to avoid or escape  Behaviors are Negatively Reinforced when they allow you to :  1.) Escape aversive stimuli that are already present OR  2.) Avoid aversive stimuli before they occur  Example:  You have a headache so you take two Advil and escape the headache ESCAPE BEHAVIOR  You pay your car insurance on time each month and avoid insurance cancellations and/or fines for no car insurance AVOIDANCE BEHAVIOR PRIMARY AND CONDITIONED REINFORCES  Two kinds of reinforcing stimuli:  Primary Reinforcers- naturally reinforcing; even if an individual has not had prior experience with a particular stimulus, the stimulus is still reinforcing  Example; food, water, adequate body warmth  Conditioned (or secondary) Reinforcers – acquired reinforcing value by being associated with a primary reinforcer  Example; money…money is reinforcing because we need those flimsy papers because they help us acquire primary reinforcers (food, clothing, etc.) PUNISHMENT  Punishment – the presentation of a stimulus or event following a behavior that acts to decrease the likelihood of the behavior being repeated  decreases the likelihood of the behavior reoccurring in the future  Note  Negative Reinforcement will INCREASE the likelihood that an operant will be repeated  Example: Taking medicine to avoid pain  Punishment will DECREASE the likelihood that an operant will be repeated POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE PUNISHMENT  Two forms of punishment: positive (punishment by application) and negative (punishment by removal) Positive = Good or desirable Negative = Bad or undesirable  Positive punishment= adding an aversive stimulus  A positive punishment is a response being followed by the presentation of an aversive stimuli  Negative punishment= removing a stimulus  A negative punishment is a removal or loss of a stimulus following a behavior EXAMPLE  You say something inappropriate in front of your grandparents(operant) and you get scolded by your parents ( positive punishment)  You will be less likely to use that language in front of your grandparents in the future  You misuse company equipment (operant) and you lose your employment (negative punishment)  You will be less likely to repeat that behavior if reemployed APPLICATIONS OF OPERANT CONDITIONING  Behavior Modification- the application of learning principles to help people develop more effective adaptive behaviors  Parenting  Teachers  Employers  Government Laws  All of these examples have applied operant conditioning principles to modify behavior and bring about change in desirable and/ or undesirable behavior COGNITIVE ASPECTS OF OPERANT CONDITIONING  Edward Tolman  He believed that reinforcement (or reward) did not have to take place for learning to occur  He also believed that reinforcement only affected the performance of learning, not learning itself…  Latent Learning- Learning that occurs in the absence of reinforcement, but is not demonstrated until a reinforcer becomes available  “Organisms learn to EXPECT that a certain behavior will lead to a particular outcome in a specific situation”  TODAY…operant conditioning is seen as involving the cognitive expectancy that a given consequence will follow a given behavior  Example:  If you don’t study you will not make a good grade… … you don’t have to fail once to learn that behavior LEARNED HELPLESSNESS  Learned helplessness- a phenomenon in which exposure to inescapable and uncontrollable aversive events produces passive behavior  Learned helplessness has been shown to play a role in psychological disorders; such as depression, and also in ways people respond to distress  The idea that “no matter what I do it won’t matter and I won’t be successful in my endeavor”  Example: a person suffering from depression… “I won’t feel better no matter what so I will just stay in isolation”  Healthy person might… “I’ve been feeling depressed, I’ll go see a doctor or a therapist to feel better” OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING  Observational learning- learning that takes place through observing the actions of others  Albert Bandura- believes that observational learning is the result of cognitive processes that are “actively judgmental and constructive”, not merely “mechanical copying”  Example: Bobo Doll Experiment