Learning

How Do We Learn?

Learning Objectives

• Define learning

• Identify three types of learning processes

• Describe the nonassociative learning processes: habituation and

sensitization. Explain the significance of each.

6.1 Learning Results from Experience

• Learning: a relatively enduring change in behavior, resulting from

experience

• Learning is distinguished from memory:

• Learning: how we adjust our behavior based on associations between stimuli,

actions, or consequences, or based on repeated exposure to stimuli

• Memory: how we acquire, store, and retrieve knowledge about facts, events, places,

and skills

• Associations develop through conditioning, a process in which

environmental stimuli and behavioral responses become connected.

6.1 Associative Learning

• Associative learning: linking two stimuli, or events, that occur

together

6.1 Nonassociative Learning

• Nonassociative learning: learning to adjust responses after

repeated exposure to a single stimulus or event

6.1 Social Learning

• Social learning: learning by instruction or observing how others

behave

6.2 Nonassociative Learning Involves

Habituation and Sensitization

• Habituation: a decrease in behavioral response after repeated

exposure to a stimulus

• This is especially true if the stimulus is neither harmful nor rewarding.

• Dishabituation: an increase in a response because of a change in

something familiar

6.2 Nonassociative Learning Involves

Habituation and Sensitization

• Sensitization: an increase in behavioral response after exposure

to a stimulus

• Stimuli that most often lead to sensitization are those that are threatening

or painful.

• Aplysia: a type of marine invertebrate studied by Kandel and

colleagues

• Sensitization and habituation in Aplysia alters neurotransmitter release in

the presynaptic membrane

How Do We Learn Predictive

Associations?

Learning Objectives

• Define classical conditioning

• Differentiate between the UR, US, CS, and CR

• Describe acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery,

generalization, discrimination, and second order conditioning

• Describe the Rescorla-Wagner model of classical conditioning,

including the role of prediction errors

6.3 Classical Conditioning Is Learning What

Goes Together

• We learn predictive associations through conditioning, the

process that connects environmental stimuli to behavior.

• Psychologists study two types of associative learning:

• Classical conditioning

• Operant conditioning

6.3 Classical Conditioning Is Learning What

Goes Together

• Ivan Pavlov conducted basic research on the salivary reflex, an

automatic response when a food stimulus is presented to a

hungry animal.

• Pavlov won a Nobel Prize in 1904 for his research on the digestive system.

• Pavlov noticed the dogs salivated as soon as they saw the bowls

that usually contained food, suggesting a learned response.

6.3 Classical Conditioning Is Learning What

Goes Together

• Classical (Pavlovian) conditioning: a neutral object comes to

elicit a response when it is associated with a stimulus that already

produces that response

6.3 Classical Conditioning Is Learning What

Goes Together

• Elements of a typical Pavlovian experiment

• Conditioning trials: a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus

are paired to produce a reflex (e.g., salivation)

• Neutral stimulus: anything the animal can see or hear as long as it is not associated

with the reflex being tested (e.g., a ringing bell)

• Unconditioned stimulus (US): a stimulus that elicits a response, such as a reflex,

without any prior learning (e.g., food)

6.3 Classical Conditioning Is Learning What

Goes Together

• Test trials: the neutral stimulus alone is tested, and

the effect on the reflex is measured

⎼ Pavlov used the metronome sound to measure the salivary

reflex.

6.3 Classical Conditioning Is Learning What

Goes Together

• Unconditioned response (UR): a response that does not have to

be learned, such as a reflex

• Unconditioned stimulus (US): a stimulus that elicits a response,

such as a reflex, without any prior learning

6.3 Classical Conditioning Is Learning What

Goes Together

• Conditioned stimulus (CS): a stimulus that elicits a response

only after learning has taken place

• Conditioned response (CR): a response to a conditioned

stimulus; a response that has been learned

6.4 Learning Is Acquired and Persists

Until Extinction

• Acquisition: the gradual formation of an association between the

conditioned and unconditioned stimuli

• The critical element in the acquisition of a learned association is time, or

contiguity.

6.4 Learning Is Acquired and Persists

Until Extinction

• The CR is stronger when there is a very brief delay between the CS

and the US.

• Scary music begins to play right before a frightening scene in a movie—

not during or after.

6.4 Extinction

• Extinction inhibits the associative bond but does not eliminate it.

• Animals must learn when associations are no longer adaptive.

• Extinction: a process in which the conditioned response is weakened

when the conditioned stimulus is repeated without the unconditioned

stimulus

6.4 Spontaneous Recovery

• Spontaneous recovery: a process in which a previously

extinguished conditioned response reemerges after the

presentation of the conditioned stimulus

• The recovery will fade unless the CS is again paired with the US.

6.5 Learning Involves Expectancies

and Prediction

• Classical conditioning is a way that animals come to predict the

occurrence of events that prompted psychologists to try to

understand the mental processes that underlie conditioning.

• Robert Rescorla argued that for learning to take place, the conditioned

stimulus must accurately predict the unconditioned stimulus.

6.5 Learning Involves Expectancies

and Prediction

• Rescorla-Wagner model: a cognitive model of classical

conditioning; it holds that the strength of the CS-US association is

determined by the extent to which the unconditioned stimulus is

unexpected

6.5 Prediction Errors

• Prediction error: the difference between the expected and actual

outcomes

• A positive prediction error strengthens the association between the CS

and the US.

• A negative prediction error weakens the association between the CS and

the US.

6.6 Learning Shapes Both Conditioned and

Unconditioned Stimuli

• Stimulus generalization: learning that occurs when stimuli that

are similar, but not identical, to the conditioned stimulus produce

the conditioned response

• Stimulus discrimination: a differentiation between two similar

stimuli when only one of them is consistently associated with the

unconditioned stimulus

6.6 Second-Order Conditioning

• Second-order conditioning: a CS becomes associated with other

stimuli associated with the US; this phenomenon helps account

for the complexity of learned associations

• Second-order conditioning helps account for the complexity of learned

associations, especially in people.

How Do the Consequences of an

Action Shape Behavior?

Learning Objectives

• Define operant conditioning

• Distinguish between positive reinforcement, negative

reinforcement, positive punishment, and negative punishment

• Identify factors that influence the acquisition of operant behaviors

• Distinguish between schedules of reinforcement

6.7 Operant Conditioning Is Learning Actions

from Consequences

• Operant conditioning (instrumental conditioning): a learning

process in which the consequences of an action determine the

likelihood that it will be performed in the future

• B. F. Skinner chose the term operant to express the idea that animals

operate on their environments to produce effects.

6.7 Law of Effect

• Edward Thorndike performed the first reported carefully controlled

experiments in comparative animal psychology using a puzzle box.

• Law of Effect: any behavior that leads to a “satisfying state of affairs” is

likely to occur again, and any behavior that leads to an “annoying state of

affairs” is less likely to occur again

6.7 Watson Introduced Behaviorism

• John B. Watson developed the school of thought known as

behaviorism, which emphasized environmental effects on

observable behaviors.

• Behaviorism was a reaction against psychology’s earlier focus on

conscious and unconscious mental processes.

• Watson believed that for psychology to be a science, it had to stop

focusing on mental events that could not be observed directly.

6.8 Reinforcement Increases Behavior,

Punishment Decreases Behavior

• Thirty years after Thorndike, Skinner developed a more formal

learning theory based on the law of effect.

• Like Watson, Skinner objected to the subjective aspects of Thorndike’s

law of effect: States of “satisfaction” are not observable empirically.

6.8 Reinforcement Increases Behavior,

Punishment Decreases Behavior

• An operant chamber that allowed repeated conditioning trials

without requiring interaction from the experimenter

• Contained one lever connected to a food supply and another connected

to a water supply

6.8 Reinforcement Increases Behavior,

Punishment Decreases Behavior

• Skinner believed that behavior occurs because it has been

reinforced.

• Reinforcer: a stimulus that follows a response and increases the

likelihood that the response will be repeated

6.8 Reinforcement Increases Behavior,

Punishment Decreases Behavior

• Reinforcement—positive or negative—increases the likelihood of

a behavior.

• Positive reinforcement: the administration of a stimulus to increase the

probability of a behavior being repeated

• Negative reinforcement: the removal of a stimulus to increase the

probability of a behavior being repeated

6.8 Reinforcement Increases Behavior,

Punishment Decreases Behavior

• Reinforcement and punishment have the opposite effects on

behavior.

• Reinforcement increases a behavior’s probability, while punishment

decreases its probability.

6.8 Reinforcement Increases Behavior,

Punishment Decreases Behavior

• Punishment reduces the probability that a behavior will recur.

• Positive punishment: the administration of a stimulus to decrease the

probability of a behavior recurring

• Negative punishment: the removal of a stimulus to decrease the

probability of a behavior recurring

6.9 When Is Parental Punishment Effective?

• For punishment to be effective, it must be reasonable,

unpleasant, and applied immediately so the relationship between

the unwanted behavior and the punishment is clear.

• Punishment often fails to offset the reinforcing aspects of the undesired

behavior.

6.9 When Is Parental Punishment Effective?

• Research indicates that physical punishment is often ineffective,

compared with grounding and time-outs.

• Many psychologists believe that positive reinforcement is the most

effective way of increasing desired behaviors while encouraging positive

parent-child bonding.

6.10 Learning Shapes Actions and

Reinforcers

• Sometimes animals take a long time to perform the precise

desired action. What can be done to make them act more quickly?

• Shaping: an operant-conditioning technique that consists of reinforcing

behaviors that are increasingly similar to the desired behavior

• Successive approximations: start with any behavior that even slightly resembles

the desired behavior

6.10 Learning Shapes Actions and

Reinforcers

• Primary Reinforcers: satisfy biological needs

• Inherently reinforces stimuli

• Secondary Reinforcers: do not satisfy biological needs

• Must be established through classical conditioning

• e.g., money (CS) is associated with rewards such as food, security, and

power (US)

6.11 Can You Challenge Superstitious

Behaviors?

• Most superstitions are harmless, but some can interfere with daily

living when they become too extreme.

• As a critical thinker who understands psychological reasoning, you

should be aware of the tendency to associate events with other events

that occur at the same time.

6.11 Can You Challenge Superstitious

Behaviors?

• Seeing relationships that do not exist: How do superstitions start?

• The list of people’s superstitions is virtually endless

• Culture influences specific superstitions.

• In North America and Europe the number 13 is considered unlucky; and in China,

Japan, Korea, and Hawaii, it’s the number 4.

• Many sports stars, including Michael Jordan and Wade Boggs, engage in

superstitious behavior.

6.11 Can You Challenge Superstitious

Behaviors?

• The scientific study of superstition

• B. F. Skinner started the scientific study of superstitious behavior in 1948

using pigeons as subjects.

• The pigeons developed a number of superstitious behaviors that they

normally would not perform.

• Because these pigeons were performing particular actions when the

reinforcers were given, their actions were accidentally reinforced.

6.11 Can You Challenge Superstitious

Behaviors?

• Associating events that occur together in time

• Both animals and humans have a tendency to associate events that occur

together in time. This tendency is extremely strong because the brain is

compelled to understand things.

• Pigeons develop behaviors that look like superstitions, and people look

for reasons to explain outcomes; the observed association serves that

purpose.

6.11 Can You Challenge Superstitious

Behaviors?

• Associating events that occur together in time

• Critical thinking requires us to understand psychological reasoning and

be aware of the tendency to associate events with other events that occur

at the same time.

6.12 Operant Conditioning Is Influenced

by Value and Timing

• David Premack theorized about how a reinforcer’s value could be

determined.

• The key is the amount of time an organism, when free to do anything,

engages in a specific behavior associated with the reinforcer.

• Premack principle: using a more valued activity can reinforce the

performance of a less valued activity

6.12 Operant Conditioning Is Influenced

by Value and Timing

• Effect of delay between action and consequence:

• Longer delays result in unlearning

• e.g., delaying food after pressing a lever

• Temporal Discounting: when the value of a reward diminishes

over time

• e.g., preferring to have $10 now than $20 a year from now

6.13 Operant Conditioning Is Influenced by

Schedules of Reinforcement

• How often should reinforcers be given?

• Continuous reinforcement: a type of learning in which behavior is

reinforced each time it occurs

• Partial reinforcement: a type of learning in which behavior is reinforced

intermittently

• The effect of partial reinforcement on conditioning depends on the

reinforcement schedule.

6.13 Operant Conditioning Is Influenced by

Schedules of Reinforcement

• Partial reinforcement can be administered according to either the

number of behavioral responses or the passage of time.

• Ratio schedule: reinforcement is based on the number of times the

behavior occurs

• Interval schedule: reinforcement is provided after a specific unit of time

• Ratio reinforcement generally leads to greater levels of responding

than interval reinforcement.

6.13 Operant Conditioning Is Influenced by

Schedules of Reinforcement

• Partial reinforcement can also be given on a fixed schedule or a

variable schedule.

• Fixed schedule: reinforcement is provided after a specific number of

occurrences or after a specific amount of time

• Variable schedule: reinforcement is provided at different rates or different

times

6.13 Operant Conditioning Is Influenced by

Schedules of Reinforcement

• Fixed Interval Schedule (FI): occurs when reinforcement is

provided after a certain amount of time has passed

• Variable Interval Schedule (VI): occurs when reinforcement is

provided after the passage of time, but the time is not regular

6.13 Operant Conditioning Is Influenced by

Schedules of Reinforcement

• Fixed Ratio Schedule (FR): occurs when reinforcement is

provided after a certain number of responses have been made

• Variable Ratio Schedule (VR): occurs when reinforcement is

provided after an unpredictable number of responses

6.13 Operant Conditioning Is Influenced by

Schedules of Reinforcement

• Continuous reinforcement is highly effective for teaching a

behavior. If the reinforcement is stopped, however, the behavior

will extinguish quickly.

• Partial-reinforcement extinction effect: the greater persistence of

behavior under partial reinforcement than under continuous

reinforcement

• Explains why gambling is so addictive

6.13 What Associative Learning Has in

Common

• Classical conditioning: noticing patterns between stimuli

• Learned association: association between CS and US

• Operant conditioning: requires an action that has a consequence

• Learned association: association between action and consequence

6.13 What Associative Learning Has in

Common

• Similarities across associative learning:

• Both involve forming associations

• Both depend on function of neurotransmitter dopamine

• Classical and operant conditioning interact in guiding behaviors

• Stimuli acquire value through classical conditioning and can then act as

reinforcers/punishers in operant conditioning

6.14 Learning Is Influenced by Biology and

Evolution

• Pavlov’s original explanation for classical conditioning was that

any two events presented in contiguity would produce a learned

association.

• Pavlov and his followers believed that the association’s strength was

determined by factors such as the intensity of the conditioned and

unconditioned stimuli.

6.14 Learning Is Influenced by Biology and

Evolution

• However, in the mid-1960s, a number of challenges to Pavlov’s

theory suggested that some conditioned stimuli were more likely

than others to produce learning.

• In other words, contiguity was not sufficient to create CS-US

associations.

6.14 Conditioned Taste Aversions

• Psychologist John Garcia and colleagues showed that certain

pairings of stimuli are more likely to become associated than

others.

• Conditioned taste aversion: the association between eating a

food and getting sick

• A response occurs even if the illness was caused by a virus or some other

condition.

• This is especially likely to occur if the food was not part of the person’s

usual diet. A food aversion can be formed in one trial.

6.14 Conditioned Taste Aversions

• Animals that associate a certain flavor with illness, and

therefore avoid that flavor, are more likely to survive

and pass along their genes.

• Learned adaptive responses may reflect the survival

value that different auditory and visual stimuli have

based on potential dangers associated with the stimuli.

6.14 Biological Constraints

• Animals have a hard time learning behaviors that run counter to

their evolutionary adaptation.

• Marian Breland and Keller Breland (1961) used operant-conditioning

techniques to train animals, but ran into difficulty when they chose tasks

that were incompatible with innate adaptive behaviors.

6.14 Biological Constraints

• Conditioning is most effective when the association between the

response and the reinforcement is similar to the animal’s built-in

predispositions.

• Psychologist Robert Bolles (1970) argued that animals have built-in

defense reactions to threatening stimuli.

6.14 Biological Preparedness

• Biological preparedness: Psychologist Martin Seligman argued

that animals are genetically programmed to fear specific objects.

• For example, people are predisposed to feel wary of outgroup members.

6.15 Dopamine Activity

Underlies Learning from Rewards

• People often use the term reward as a synonym for positive

reinforcement.

• Dopamine is an important component of the neural basis of

reward.

• Dopamine release sets the reward value of:

• the unconditioned stimulus (classical conditioning)

• the reinforcer (operant conditioning)

6.15 Dopamine Activity

Underlies Learning from Rewards

• When hungry rats are given food, they experience an increased

dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens, a structure in the

basal ganglia of the limbic system.

• The greater the hunger, the greater the dopamine release.

• More dopamine is released under conditions of deprivation than under

conditions of no deprivation.

6.15 Dopamine Activity

Underlies Learning from Rewards

• Drugs that enhance dopamine activation increase the reward

value of stimuli.

• Activities like watching funny cartoons and listening to music can

increase dopamine activity in the nucleus accumbens.

6.15 Dopamine Activity

Underlies Learning from Rewards

• Is dopamine responsible for the subjective feeling of pleasure

(liking) we get from rewarding activities?

• Psychologists Terry Robinson and Kent Berridge introduced an

important distinction between the wanting and liking aspects

of reward.

• For example, a smoker may want a cigarette yet may not especially like it.

• Dopamine appears to be especially important in wanting a

reward.

6.15 Dopamine and Prediction Error

• Wolfram Schultz et al. examined how dopamine responds during

classical conditioning.

• When monkeys unexpectedly received juice after a light or tone, they

experienced a positive prediction error and showed high dopamine

activity in reward regions of the brain.

• After learning the association, the absence of juice produced a negative

prediction error along with high dopamine activity.

• Dopamine signals prediction errors, which reflect important changes in

the environment.

6.16 Phobias and Addictions Have

Learned Components

• Classical conditioning helps explain many behavioral phenomena.

• Among the examples are phobias and addictions

6.16 Phobias

• Phobia: an acquired fear out of proportion to the real threat of an

object or of a situation

• Fear conditioning: the process of classically conditioning animals to fear

neutral objects; the responses include specific physiological and

behavioral reactions

• Freezing: may be a hardwired response to fear that helps animals deal

with predators

6.16 Phobias: Case Study of “Little Albert”

• In 1919, J. B. Watson became one of the first researchers to

demonstrate the role of classical conditioning in the development

of phobias by devising the “Little Albert” case study.

• At the time, the prominent theory of phobias was based on Freudian ideas

about unconscious repressed sexual desires.

• Watson proposed that phobias could be explained by simple learning

principles, such as classical conditioning.

6.16 Phobias: Case Study of “Little Albert”

• “Little Albert” (who was 11 months old) was presented with neutral

objects (a white rat, rabbit, dog, and costume masks) that provoked a

neutral response.

• During conditioning trials, when Albert reached for the white rat (CS), a

loud clanging sound (US) scared him (UR).

6.16 Phobias: Case Study of “Little Albert”

• Results: Eventually, the pairing of the rat (CS) and the clanging sound (US)

led to the rat’s producing fear (CR) on its own. The fear response

generalized to other stimuli presented with the rat initially, such as the

costume masks.

• Conclusion: Classical conditioning can cause people to fear neutral

objects.

6.16 Phobias: Case Study of “Little Albert”

• Watson planned to conduct extinction trials to remove the learned phobias,

but Albert’s mother removed the child from the study.

⎼ Is this type of research ethical?

• Watson’s colleague, Mary Cover Jones demonstrated that conditioned fear

could be eliminated by presenting feared stimuli with pleasant stimuli.

• Jones successfully treated a 3-year-old named Peter with a rabbit phobia by

pairing a favorite food with presentations of a rabbit.

6.16 Drug Addiction

• Classical conditioning also plays an important role in drug

addiction.

• Environmental cues associated with drug use can induce conditioned

cravings.

• Unsatisfied cravings may result in withdrawal, an unpleasant state of

tension and anxiety, coupled with changes in heart rate and blood

pressure.

• The sight of drug cues leads to activation of the prefrontal cortex and

various regions of the limbic system, and produces an expectation that

the drug high will follow.

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6.16 Drug Addiction

• Psychologist Shepard Siegel (2006) believed that exposing addicts

to drug cues was an important part of treating addiction.

• He believed exposure helps extinguish responses to the cues and

prevents them from triggering cravings.

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6.16 Drug Addiction

• Siegel and his colleagues conducted research into the

relationship between drug tolerance and situation.

• The body has learned to expect the drug in that location and

compensates by altering neurochemistry or physiology to metabolize it.

• Conversely, if addicts take their usual large doses in novel settings, they

are more likely to overdose because their bodies will not respond

sufficiently to compensate.

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How Do We Learn from

Others?

Learning Objectives

• Define social learning

• Define the observational learning processes of

modeling and vicarious learning

• Define instructed learning

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6.17 Social Learning Occurs Through

Observation and Instruction

• Social learning: the acquisition or modification of a behavior after

exposure to another individual performing that behavior

• Social learning is a powerful adaptive tool for humans and animals.

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6.17 Bandura’s Observational Studies

• Psychologist Albert Bandura’s studies in the 1960s suggest that

exposing children to violence may encourage them to act

aggressively.

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6.17 Research Since Bandura’s Studies

• A meta-analysis by Gentile et al. in 2007 concluded that across

many studies exposure to violent media increases the likelihood

of aggression.

• However, longitudinal studies suggest that additional variables,

such as personality, poverty, or parental neglect may affect both

TV viewing habits and violent tendencies.

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6.17 Modeling (Demonstration and Imitation)

• Modeling: the imitation of observed behavior

• Modeling is effective only if the observer is physically capable of imitating

the behavior.

• Adolescents who associate smoking with admirable figures are more

likely to start smoking.

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6.17 Vicarious Learning

(Reinforcement and Conditioning)

• Vicarious learning: learning the consequences of an action by

watching others being rewarded or punished for performing the

same action

• A key distinction in learning is between the acquisition of a behavior and

its performance.

• Learning a behavior does not necessarily lead to performing that

behavior.

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6.17 Vicarious Learning

(Reinforcement and Conditioning)

• Bandura demonstrated vicarious learning in his Bobo-doll studies.

• When children observed adults that were punished for playing

aggressively with the bobo-doll, they were, themselves, less likely

be aggressive with the doll later on.

• When adults were rewarded for their aggressive behavior,

observing children were more likely to be aggressive with the doll.

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6.17 Instructed Learning

• Humans are the only species that can be verbally instructed about

the associations between actions and consequences.

• Instructed learning plays a key role in education, development,

and cultural learning.

• e.g., during the COVID-19 pandemic, people learned about the

association between proactive actions (immunizations,

handwashing, social distancing) and avoiding negative illness

consequences

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6.18 Fear Can Be Learned Through Social

Means

• Mineka noticed that lab-reared monkeys were not afraid of snakes

to the same extent as monkeys in the wild.

• Her research demonstrated that animals’ fears can be learned through

observation.

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6.18 Fear Can Be Learned Through Social

Means

• Elizabeth Phelps and colleagues demonstrated that fear can be

learned through:

• classical conditioning: pairing a colored square with a mild shock

• observational learning: watching another person receive a shock when

presented with a colored square

• instructed learning: being told a mild shock might accompany a colored

square

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