By the end of this chapter, you should have learned how to:
06.01 Describe Pavlov’s demonstration of classical conditioning and the key elements in this form of research.
06.02 Clarify how classical conditioning can shape emotions, physiological responses, and attitudes.
06.03 Describe acquisition, extinction, and spontaneous recovery in classical conditioning.
06.04 Explain what happens in generalization, discrimination, and higher-order conditioning.
06.05 Explain Skinner’s principle of reinforcement, and describe the terminology and procedures in operant research.
06.06 Describe shaping, extinction, generalization, and discrimination in operant conditioning.
06.07 Identify various types of schedules of reinforcement, and discuss their typical effects.
06.08 Distinguish between positive and negative reinforcement and between escape learning and avoidance learning.
06.09 Describe punishment, and assess issues related to punishment as a disciplinary procedure.
06.10 Articulate the theoretical significance of conditioned taste aversion and preparedness.
06.11 Understand the theoretical implications of research on latent learning, signal relations, and response-outcome relations.
06.12 Explain the nature, importance, and basic processes of observational learning.
06.13 Discuss Bandura’s research on TV models and aggression, and modern research on the effects of media violence.
06.14 Identify the two unifying themes highlighted in this chapter.
06.15 Describe how to specify your target behavior, and gather baseline data for a self-modification program.
06.16 Discuss how to design and execute a self-modification program.
06.17 Recognize how classical conditioning is used to manipulate emotions.
Classical Conditioning
Learning is a lasting change in behavior due to experience.
Conditioning is learning associations between events.
Classical conditioning is learning in which a stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus.
Pavlov identified “psychic reflexes” when studying digestive process in dogs.
Paired meat powder with stimuli that would stand out.
A tone started as a neutral stimulus (NS); it did not produce response.
Pavlov then paired the NS with a stimulus that did produce the desired response.
Demonstrated stimulus-response associations formation—the basic building blocks of learning.
Terminology and Procedures
Unconditioned stimulus (US): A stimulus evoking an unconditioned response without previous conditioning.
Unconditioned response (UR): An unlearned reaction to an unconditioned stimulus occurring without previous conditioning.
Conditioned stimulus (CS): A previously neutral stimulus that, through conditioning, now evokes a conditioned response.
Conditioned response (CR): A learned reaction to a conditioned stimulus occurring because of previous conditioning.
Trial: any presentation of a stimulus or pair of stimuli.
Classical Conditioning in Everyday Life
Conditioned fear and anxiety helps shape emotional responses.
Other conditioned responses affect physiological processes.
Evaluative conditioning involves the acquisition of likes and dislikes through classical conditioning.
Basic Processes
Acquisition
Extinction
Spontaneous recovery
Renewal effect
Stimulus generalization
Stimulus discrimination
Higher-order conditioning
Little Albert Study
John B. Watson (behaviorism) and Rosalie Rayner conducted what is now known as the “Little Albert” study.
The unconditioned stimulus in this study was the loud gong.
An unconditioned stimulus is a stimulus that evokes an unconditioned response without previous conditioning.
Watson and Rayner paired the presentation of the rat with a loud, startling sound (made by striking a steel bar with a hammer).
Albert did show fear in response to the loud noise.
After seven pairings of the rat and the gong, the rat was established as a CS eliciting a fear response
In this study, the white rat was the conditioned stimulus, and fear was the unconditioned response.
Operant Conditioning
Operant conditioning is a form of learning where:
Voluntary responses are controlled by their consequences.
Responses followed by favorable consequences are repeated.
Fundamental principle is reinforcement, or a response strengthened because it leads to rewarding consequences.
Skinner Box
Small enclosure in which an animal can make a specific response while the consequences of the response are controlled
Reinforcement Contingencies
Circumstances that determine the presentation of reinforcers.
Key dependent variable in operant conditioning is the subjects’ response rate over time.
Cumulative Recorder
Graphic record of responding and reinforcement in a Skinner box as a function of time.
Basic Processes
Acquisition:
Acquisition in operant conditioning is the formation of a new response tendency.
Shaping:
The reinforcement of closer and closer approximations of a desired response.
Extinction:
Reinforcement is stopped. Learns not to make a specific response in a specific context.
Resistance to extinction:
Occurs when an organism continues a response after delivery of the reinforcer has been terminated.
Stimulus Control
Generalization and discrimination.
Stimuli that precede a response can influence operant behavior.
Once an organism learns the signal, it tends to respond accordingly.
Discriminative Stimuli
Cues that influence operant behavior by indicating the probable consequences (reinforcement or nonreinforcement) of a response.
Reactions to a discriminative stimulus are governed by the processes of stimulus generalization and stimulus discrimination, just like reactions to a CS in classical conditioning.
Reinforcement
Not considered a reward because the experience of pleasure is an unobservable event that takes place within an organism.
The central process in reinforcement is the strengthening of a response tendency.
Reinforcement is defined after the fact, in terms of its effect on behavior.
Primary reinforcers are events that are inherently reinforcing because they satisfy biological needs.
Secondary (conditioned) reinforcers are events that acquire reinforcing qualities by being associated with primary reinforcers.
Schedules of Reinforcement
Continuous: Every instance of a designated response is reinforced.
Intermittent: Response is reinforced only some of the time.
Ratio Schedule
Fixed-ratio (FR): Fixed number of nonreinforced responses.
Variable-ratio (VR): Variable number of nonreinforced responses.
Interval Schedules
Fixed-interval (FI) schedule: Fixed time interval has elapsed.
Variable-interval (VI): schedule: Interval length varies around a predetermined average.
Positive vs Negative Reinforcement
Positive reinforcement occurs when a response is strengthened because it is followed by the presentation of a rewarding stimulus.
Negative reinforcement: Response is strengthened when followed by the removal of an aversive (unpleasant) stimulus.
Negative reinforcement is reinforcement.
Involves a favorable outcome that strengthens a response tendency.
Strengthening takes place because a response leads to the removal of an aversive stimulus.
In positive reinforcement, a response leads to the presentation of a rewarding stimulus.
In negative reinforcement, a response leads to the removal of an aversive stimulus.
Both have the same effect on behavior.
Escape Learning
An organism acquires a response that decreases or ends some aversive stimulation.
Leads to removal of an aversive stimulus (shock), and strengthened through negative reinforcement.
Avoidance Learning
An organism acquires a response that prevents some aversive stimulation from occurring.
Punishment
Punishment: Event following a response weakens the tendency to make that response.
Typically involves presentation of an aversive stimulus.
May involve the removal of a rewarding stimulus.
A correlation does not establish causation.
Reliance on physical punishment causes children to be more aggressive.
Highly aggressive children may cause their parents to depend heavily on physical punishment.
Parents may pass on genetic tendencies for aggressiveness, model aggressive behavior, and rely on heavy use of physical punishment. Correlation Between Physical Punishment and Aggressiveness
Changing Directions in the Study of Conditioning
There are limits to the generality of conditioning principles:
Conditioned taste aversion: Natural selection favors organisms that quickly learn what not to eat.
Evolution may have biologically programmed some organisms to learn certain types of associations more easily than other types.
Preparedness: Species-specific predisposition to be conditioned in certain ways and not others.
Phobias that are more common than others were once genuine threats to our ancient ancestors.
Cognitive Processes
Latent Learning and Cognitive Maps
Latent learning is not apparent from behavior when it first occurs.
Learning can occur without reinforcement.
Findings suggest the rats who displayed latent learning formed a cognitive map of the maze (a mental representation of the spatial layout).
Signal Relations
The predictive value of a CS is a factor governing classical conditioning.
Classical conditioning may involve information processing rather than reflexive responding. Response-Outcome Relations and Reinforcement highlight the role of cognitive processes in conditioning.
Superstitious behavior
Superstitious behavior could be established through noncontingent reinforcement.
Occurs when a response is accidentally strengthened by a reinforcer that follows it.
Extremely common.
Accidental reinforcements may sometimes contribute to these superstitions, along with various types of erroneous reasoning.
Observational Learning
Observational learning occurs when an organism’s response is influenced by models. Key processes:
Attention
Retention
Reproduction
Motivation
Media Violence Controversy
Bandura found that observational learning plays an important role in regulating behavior. Children were more aggressive after watching violent videos.
Decades of research agreed that media violence fosters increased aggression.
Media violence desensitizes people to the effects of aggression in the real world.
Desensitization mutes reactions to real violence.
Long-term results show that the more violence children watch on TV, the more aggressive they tend to be at home and at school.
Reflecting on the Chapter’s Themes: Learning
Heredity and environment jointly influence behavior.
Many learning theorists believed all aspects of behavior could be explained in terms of environmental determinants.
Evidence on conditioned taste aversion and preparedness has shown that there are biological constraints on conditioning.
Psychology evolves in a sociohistorical context.
Skinner’s ideas positive reinforcement have influenced patterns of discipline in American society.
Research on operant conditioning has affected the business world, leading to an increased emphasis on positive reinforcement.
Achieving Self-Control through Behavior Modification
Behavior modification is a systematic approach to changing behavior through the application of the principles of conditioning.
Advocates of behavior modification assume that behavior is mainly a product of learning, conditioning, and environmental control.
They further assume that what is learned can be unlearned.
They set out to “recondition” people to produce more desirable and effective patterns of behavior.
Steps in a Self-Modification Program
Step 1: Specify the behavior you want to change. Think about past behavior and pay attention to current behaviors to find examples.
Step 2: Gather baseline data by systematically observing your target behavior for a period of time.
Keep written records and graphically portray these records.
Monitor antecedents that precede the target response.
Monitor typical consequences of your target behavior and the reinforcers.
Step 3: Plan your intervention program to either increase or decrease the frequency of a target response.
To increase a response, use positive reinforcement and reward yourself for behaving properly.
To decrease a response, use reinforcers in an indirect way to decrease frequency of a response.
Step 4: Execute your program.
Reinforce the contingencies you have planned for.
Keep an accurate record of the frequency of your target behavior to evaluate progress.
Recognizing Contrast Effects: It’s All Relative
Manipulation efforts using Pavlovian conditioning generally involve evaluative conditioning.
Manipulate the automatic, subconscious associations that people make in response to various stimuli.
Advertisers endeavor to pair the products with stimuli that seem likely to elicit positive emotional responses.
Products are paired with well-liked celebrity spokespersons; depictions of warm, loving families; beautiful pastoral scenery; cute, cuddly pets; enchanting, rosy- cheeked children; upbeat, pleasant music; and opulent surroundings.
Business Negotiations
In business interactions, two standard practices are designed to get a company’s customers to make an association between the company and pleasurable feelings.
The first is to take customers out to dinner at fine restaurants.
A luxurious environment is a powerful unconditioned stimulus that reliably elicits pleasant feelings that are likely to be associated with the host.
The second practice is the strategy of entertaining customers at major events, such as concerts and football games.
Politics
Election campaign advertisements use the same techniques as commercial advertisements.
Candidates are paired with popular celebrities, wholesome families, pleasant music, and symbols of patriotism.
Cognizant of the power of classical conditioning, politicians also exercise great care to ensure that they are not paired with people or events that might trigger negative feelings.