AP Psych Module 26 - Conditioning and Learning

Module 26 - How We Learn and Classical Conditioning

• How Do We Learn?

  • Learning - the process of acquiring through experience new and relatively enduring information or behaviors

    • Prepare for significant events - classical conditioning

    • Repeat acts that bring rewards and avoid acts with negative effects - operant conditioning

    • Learning through observing and language - cognitive learning

  • John Locke and David Hume - we learn by association

    • Our minds connect events that occur in sequence

    • Learned operations often operate subtly (using a black pen rather than red bc it’s less aggressive)

  • Learned associations feed habitual behaviors

    • Habits forms when behaviors are repeated in a given context

    • Habituation - decreasing responsiveness with repeated exposure to a stimulus

  • Associative learning - learning that certain events occur together

    • The events may be two stimuli (classical conditioning) or a response and its consequence (operant conditioning)

  • Conditioning - learning associations and anticipating the near future

    • Classical Conditioning - learning to associate two stimuli and thus to anticipate events

      • Stimulus - any event or situation that evokes a response

      • Ex: a flash of lightning signals a crack of thunder and we brace ourselves

      • Produces respondent behaviors - behavior that occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus

    • Operant Conditioning - learning to associate a response and its consequence

      • Produces operant behaviors - behavior that operates on the environment (affects environment), producing consequences

  • Cognitive learning - the acquisition of mental information, whether by observing events, by watching others, or through language

    • Observational learning - a form of cognitive learning that allows use to learn through others’ experiences

• Classical Conditioning - A type of learning in which we link two or more stimuli

  • As a result, the first stimulus comes to elicit behavior in anticipation of the second stimulus

    • Ex: Pavlov’s dog - the tone elicits drooling in anticipation of food

  • Ivan Pavlov paved the way for John B. Watson

    • Believed the study of psychology should study how organisms respond to stimuli

    • Behaviorism - the view that psychology should be an objective science that studies behavior without reference to mental processes

      • Most researchers agree that psych should be an objective science, but not that behavior should be studied without mental processes

• Pavlov’s Experiments

  • Pavlov’s dog - the dog salivated at the sight of food, or the person delivering the food

    • Isolated a dog in a small room in order to collect saliva

    • They then presented food, either by placing a bowl of food or blowing meat powder

    • Then paired various neural stimuli (NS) - a stimulus that elicits no response before condition (the tone)

    • Eventually, when the tone was sounded after being paired with the food, the dog would salivate at the sound of the tone

  • Unconditioned Response (UR) - an unlearned, naturally occurring response to an unconditional stimulus

    • Ex: a dog salivating to food

  • Unconditioned Stimulus (US) - a stimulus that unconditionally (naturally and automatically) triggers an unconditioned response (UR)

    • Ex: the food in the experiment

  • Neutral Stimulus (NS) - a stimulus that was previously meaningless

    • Ex: The tone being sounded before being associated with food

  • Conditioned Response (CR) - a learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus (CS)

    • Ex: a dog salivating to the tone

  • Conditioned Stimulus (CS) - an originally neutral stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus (US), comes to trigger a conditioned response (CS)

    • Ex: the tone being sounded after being associated with food

  • Five Major Conditioning Processes

    • Acquisition

    • Extinction

    • Spontaneous Recovery

    • Generalization

    • Discrimination

• Acquisition

  • Classic: The initial stage, when one links a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus begins triggering the conditioned response

    • Operant: the strengthening of a reinforced response

    • Conditioning will not usually occur when the NS follows the US - the NS must come first

  • Classical conditioning is biologically adaptive because it helps humans and other animals prepare for different events

    • NS’s become CS’s after signaling an important biological event

    • Conditioning helps an animal survive and reproduce - by responding to cues that help it gain food, avoid dangers, locate mates, and produce offspring

  • Higher-order Conditioning (Second Order Conditioning) - a procedure in which the CS in one conditioning experience is paired with a new NS, creating a second (often weaker than first-order conditioning) conditioned stimulus

    • Ex: An animal that has learned that a tone predicts food might then learn that a light predicts the tone and begin responding to the light alone

• Extinction 

  • The diminishing of a conditioned response

    • Classical: occurs when a US does not follow a CS

    • Operant: occurs when a response is no longer reinforced

    • Ex: ringing the tone and then not giving food resulting in decreased salivation

• Spontaneous Recovery - the reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response

  • Ex: allowing several hours to pass before sounding the tone again caused salivation to start again

  • Extinction only suppresses a CR; does not eliminate it 

• Generalization (stimulus generalization) 

  • Classical: The tendency, once a response has been conditioned, for stimuli similar to the CS to elicit similar responses

    • Operant: occurs when responses learned in one situation occur in other, similar situations

  • Can be adaptive

    • Ex: toddlers who learn to fear moving cars also become afraid of moving trucks/motorcycles

  • Generalized fears can linger

    • When one thing that is conditioned to like/dislike is morphed into something else, one has a tendency to like/dislike that similarly morphed thing

    • Stimuli that is associated with disgusting objects will evoke disgust

      • Ex: associating a shape resembling fudge with dog poop

• Discrimination

  • Classical: the learned ability to distinguish between a CS and similar stimuli that do not signal a US

    • Operant: the ability to distinguish responses that are reinforced from similar responses that are not reinforced

    • Ex: responding to a particular tone but not other ones

• Pavlov’s Legacy

  • Classical conditioning is a basic form of learning

  • Many other responses to many other stimuli can be classically conditioned in many other organisms

  • Pavlov showed us how a process such as learning can be studied objectively

  • Pavlov’s work paved the basis for many of Watson’s ideas

• Applications of Classical Conditioning

  • Drug Cravings - former addicts feel a craving when they are again in the drug-using context

    • Drug counselors advise clients to steer clear of stimuli that trigger these cravings

  • Food Cravings - associating sugary substances with an enjoyable sweet sensation

    • People who struggle with weight may have strongly conditioned responses to eat poor foods

  • Immune System - when a particular taste accompanies a drug that influence immune responses, the taste by itself may come to produce an immune response

  • Little Albert Experiment - conditioning a baby to be afraid of of a mouse, then generalized to a dog, rabbit, and sealskin coat