Learning Processes and Conditioning

Define learning
Identify three types of learning processes
Describe the nonassociative learning processes: habituation and sensitization. Explain the significance of each.

Definition: Learning is a relatively enduring change in behavior that results from experience.
- Distinction from Memory:
- Learning: Involves how we adjust our behavior based on associations between stimuli, actions, or consequences, or based on repeated exposure to stimuli.
- Memory: Refers to how we acquire, store, and retrieve knowledge about facts, events, places, and skills.
Process of Conditioning:
- Associations develop through conditioning, where environmental stimuli and behavioral responses become connected.

Nonassociative Learning: Learning to adjust responses following repeated exposure to a single stimulus.
Associative Learning: Learning about the link between two stimuli or events that occur together.
Social Learning: Learning by instruction or by observing how others behave.

Defined as the process of adjusting responses after repeated exposure to a single stimulus.

Habituation:
- A decrease in behavioral response after repeated exposure to a stimulus, particularly if the stimulus is neither harmful nor rewarding.
Significance: Helps organisms conserve energy and focus attention on more relevant stimuli.
Dishabituation: An increase in a response due to a change in something familiar.
Sensitization:
- An increase in behavioral response following exposure to a stimulus, often associated with threatening or painful stimuli.
- Example: Behavioral changes in a marine invertebrate known as Aplysia, showing alterations in neurotransmitter release in the presynaptic membrane due to sensitization and habituation.

Definition: A learning process by which a neutral stimulus gains the ability to elicit a response after being paired with an unconditioned stimulus that already produces that response.
Key Concepts:
1. Unconditioned Response (UR): A response that does not have to be learned (e.g., salivation when food is presented).
2. Unconditioned Stimulus (US): A stimulus that evokes a response without prior learning (e.g., food).
3. Conditioned Stimulus (CS): A previously neutral stimulus that elicits a learned response (e.g., a ringing bell after conditioning).
4. Conditioned Response (CR): A learned response to the conditioned stimulus (e.g., salivation in response to the bell).
Pavlov's Experiments:
- Pavlov studied the salivary reflex in dogs, observing that they would salivate not just at food but also when they saw the bowls associated with food, indicating a learned response.

Conditioning Trials: Pairing a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus to produce a reflex (e.g., salivation).
Test Trials: A neutral stimulus is tested alone to measure its effect on the reflex.

Acquisition: The process of forming an association between the CS and US; critical element is the contiguity in time.
Extinction: Occurs when the CS is presented without the US, resulting in a weakening of the conditioned response.

Refers to the reemergence of a previously extinguished conditioned response after the presentation of the conditioned stimulus, which will fade unless the CS is again paired with the US.

Prediction Error: The difference between expected and actual outcomes in learning.
- A positive prediction error strengthens the CS-US association.
- A negative prediction error weakens the CS-US association.

Stimulus Generalization: Learning that occurs when stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus also produce the conditioned response.
Stimulus Discrimination: The ability to differentiate between two similar stimuli when only one is associated with the unconditioned stimulus.

Second-Order Conditioning: A process where a CS becomes associated with other stimuli linked to the US, which made it possible to account for complex learned associations.

Definition: A learning process in which the consequences of an action affect the likelihood of that action being repeated in the future.
- Key terms include reinforcer (object that increases the likelihood of a behavior) and reinforcement (process that increases behavior).

Edward Thorndike's Contribution: Developed the Law of Effect stating that behaviors leading to satisfying outcomes are more likely to be repeated, while those leading to annoying outcomes are less likely to be repeated.

John B. Watson: Introduced behaviorism, emphasizing observable behavior and rejecting introspective methods.
B.F. Skinner: Expanded behaviorism into a more formal learning theory, focusing on empirical observations and reinforcement principles.

Positive Reinforcement: Administering a stimulus to increase behavior probability.
Negative Reinforcement: Removing a stimulus to increase behavior probability.
Positive Punishment: Administering a stimulus to decrease behavior probability.
Negative Punishment: Removing a stimulus to decrease behavior probability.