Psychology of Learning Notes

Psychology of Learning

Introduction

• Learning is crucial for human survival.

• Psychologists define learning as a change in behavior resulting from experience.

Behaviorism

• A psychological perspective in the early 20th century that emphasizes the study of behavior.

• John B. Watson, the father of behaviorism, advocated focusing on observable behavior and environmental stimuli.

• Watson proposed that the human infant is a "tabularosa" (blank state), and development depends on the environment.

• B. F. Skinner designed animal experiments to discover the basic rules of learning, focusing on operant conditioning.

Importance of Learning

• Learning is critical for the survival of animals, including humans.

• Adapting behaviors to a particular environment is crucial.

• Examples: Identifying potential dangers, safe foods, and safe places to sleep.

Three Ways of Learning

• Non-associative learning: Learning about a stimulus without association.

• Associative learning: Pairing or linking two or more things.

• Learning by watching others.

Non-Associative Learning

• Learning about a stimulus in the external environment without any association.

• Two forms:

  • Habituation: A decrease in behavioral responses after lengthy or repeated exposure to a stimulus that is neither harmful nor rewarding. Example: ignoring the sound of an airplane engine.

  • Sensitization: An increase in behavioral responses after lengthy or repeated exposure to a stimulus, especially if potentially harmful or rewarding. Being sensitive to the stimulus is necessary to prepare for a situation with potential harm or reward.

Associative Learning

• Understanding that two or more pieces of information are related to each other.

• Two forms:

  • Classical conditioning: Learning that two stimuli go together. E.g., associating music from a scary movie with anxiety.

  • Operant conditioning: Learning that a particular behavior leads to a particular outcome. E.g., studying harder leading to better grades.

Learning by Watching Others

• Three types:

  • Observational learning

  • Modeling

  • Vicarious conditioning

Brain Changes During Learning

• Hebbian learning: Neurons that fire together develop synaptic connections, making them likely to fire together in the future.

• Learning occurs when synaptic connections in the brain become stronger over time.

• Long-term potentiation: усиление синаптических связей в мозге

  • Involved in learning and memory processes.

  • Observed in the hippocampus.

  • Drugs that improve learning also increase long-term potentiation.

Classical Conditioning

• Learning that two or more stimuli are related.

• Discovered by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov, who won the Nobel Prize in 1904.

• Pavlov's experiment: Dogs began to salivate as soon as they saw the food bowl or heard the researcher's footsteps.

• Classical conditioning: A type of learned response in which a neutral object comes to elicit a response when associated with a stimulus that already produces a response.

Pavlov's Experiment Steps

1. Begin with a stimulus that naturally elicits a response:

   • Unconditioned stimulus (US): A stimulus that naturally elicits a response without prior learning, e.g., eating food.

   • Unconditioned response (UR): A response that does not have to be learned, such as reflex salivation.

2. A neutral stimulus is presented:

   • Neutral stimulus: Anything not previously associated with the unconditioned response, e.g., metronome sound.

3. Conditioning trial:

   • A neutral stimulus (metronome sound) is presented together with the unconditioned stimulus (food).

   • The neutral stimulus (metronome sound) is now considered the conditioned stimulus (CS).

4. Critical trial:

   • 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 learned response.

   • Metronome sound alone can make dogs salivate.

Summary

• Initially, metronome sound + food leads to salivation.

• After pairing, metronome sound alone elicits salivation.

Acquisition

• The gradual formation of association between conditioned stimuli and unconditioned stimuli.

• Strongest conditioning occurs when CS is presented slightly before US.

• $CS <br>Arr US$ creates the strongest conditioned response.

Extinction

• A process in which the conditioned response is weakened when the conditioned stimulus is no longer paired with the unconditioned stimulus.

• Adaptive because the animal learns that the original association is no longer true.

Spontaneous Recovery

• A process in which a previously extinguished response reemerges after the conditioned stimulus is presented again.

• Can occur after only one pairing following extinction.

• Response will weaken if CS-US pairings don't continue.

Stimulus Generalization

• Learning that occurs when stimuli that are similar but not identical to the CS produce the CR (conditioned response).

• Adaptive because there is often no exactly same CS in the real world.

Stimulus Discrimination

• Learning to differentiate between two similar stimuli when one of them is consistently associated with the unconditioned stimulus and the other one is not.

• Necessary to survive, e.g., differentiating between poisonous and non-poisonous plants.

Second Order Conditioning

• When a second CS becomes associated with the first CS, it can elicit the CR without US or without the first CS.

• Example: A black square presented with the metronome sound after the food was removed. The black square becomes a second-order stimulus that can cause salivation alone.

Real Life Phenomena Explained by Classical Conditioning

Phobia

• Phobia: An acquired fear that is exaggerated in comparison to the real threat of an object or a situation.

• Examples: Phobia of height, enclosed places, insects, darkness.

• Can be developed through a generalization of fear experience.

Little Albert Experiment by John B. Watson

• Watson showed little Albert various neutral objects like white rat, white rabbit, white dog, white monkey, or a white ball of white wool.

• Paired a white rat with a loud clanging noise until the rat alone produced fear responses.

• Fear response was generalized to all kinds of similar stimuli.

• Controversy about research ethics.

Counter Conditioning

• Providing a pleasant event to a person with phobia because then it can reduce a fear response.

• Systematic desensitization: Exposure to feared stimuli while relaxing.

• Three steps:

  1. Learn how to relax yourself.

  2. Learn to imagine a feared object while relaxing.

  3. Expose you to the real field object while you are taking a relaxing.

• Mechanism: Break the CS-CR1 (fear) connection by introducing a new connection, CR2 (relaxing).

Adaptation and Cognition During Classical Conditioning

• Pavlov initially believed that any two events presented together would produce a learned association.

• Later, scientists found that some conditioned stimuli were more likely to produce learning than others.

• Evolutionary influence: Certain pairings are more likely to be associated evolutionarily (safe or dangerous).

• Smell or taste cues guide eating behavior and condition taste aversions which help to avoid illness and deaths.

Cognitive Influences

• Animals can now predict events.

• Robert Rescorla: Highlighted the role of cognition in learning.

• Conditioning is easier when CS precedes US.

• Conditioning is easier when US is more expected or surprising one.

• Animals must attend to predict the environment.

Operant Conditioning

• Operant: Voluntary action to the environment by the organism.

• Learning the relationship between a behavior and its consequences, and having the relationship affects future behavior.

• Association between behavior and consequence.

Edward Thorndike's Puzzle Box Experiment

• Cat in a box with a trapdoor that opens if the animal performs a specific action.

• Animal quickly learns to repeat the behavior to free itself and reach the food.

Law of Effect

• Any behavior leading to a satisfying state of affairs is likely to be repeated.

• Any behavior leading to an annoying state is less likely to be repeated.

• Effective behavior is repeated, non-effective behavior is reduced.

B. F. Skinner's Operant Conditioning Theory

• Operant conditioning occurs when animals operate on their environment to produce effect.

• Reinforcer: A stimulus that occurs after a response and increase the likelihood of response reoccurring.

• Consequence of action determines the likelihood of behavior in the future.

Skinner Box

• Similar to Thorndike's puzzle box.

• An association between hitting the lever and getting food is associated.

Shaping

• Reinforcing behaviors that are increasingly similar to the final desired behavior.

• Applying open conditioning step by step to reach the desired final behavior.

• Example: Training a dog to surf by reinforcing successive approximations of the behavior.

Types of Reinforcers

• Primary reinforcer: Necessary for survival, such as food or water.

• Secondary reinforcer: Events or objects that serve as a reinforcer but do not satisfy biological needs (e.g., money).

Premack Principle

• A more valued activity can be used to reinforce the performance of a less valued activity.

• Example: Eating spinach can be reinforced by getting dessert.

Reinforcement and Punishment

• Reinforcement: Makes a behavior more likely to be repeated.

• Punishment: Makes a behavior less likely to occur.

Positive and Negative Reinforcement and Punishment

• Positive Reinforcement: Addition of a stimulus to increase the probability of a behavior. E.g., working harder after receiving a pay raise.

• Negative Reinforcement: Removal of a stimulus to increase the probability of a behavior. E.g., taking a pill to remove a headache.

• Positive Punishment: Addition of a stimulus to decrease the probability of a behavior. E.g., receiving a speeding ticket.

• Negative Punishment: Removal of a stimulus to decrease the probability of a behavior. E.g., losing a game machine for not finishing homework.

Schedule of Reinforcement

• Continuous Reinforcement: Behavior is reinforced every time it occurs. Produces faster learning.

• Partial Reinforcement: Behavior is reinforced occasionally. Much more common in real-world situations.

Four Different Schedules of Partial Reinforcement

• Fixed Interval Schedule: Reinforcement is given by predictable basis and interval schedule means it is based on passage of time.

• Variable Interval Schedule: unpredictable reinforcement with varying amount of time since the last reward.

• Fixed Ratio Schedule: completing predetermined amount of task.

• Variable Ratio Schedule: Most effective behavior last longer under partial reinforcement than under continuous reinforcement.

Open Conditioning Affects Your Life

• parental punishment is often ineffective.

• To be effective punishment must be reasonable, unpleasant enough, applied immediately after the bad behavior, and clearly connected to the unwanted behavior.

• reinforcement is much better than punishment to shape desired behavior.

• scientists especially the psychologist suggest that parents should avoid, should not use physical punishment.

• Positive parenting, no hitting, no yelling, spank out.

• rather than positive punishment or spanking, negative punishment is much more effective like time out or taking away smartphone or taking away remote internet access something like that.

Behavior Modification

• to use operant conditioning technique to replace unwanted behavior with desirable behavior.

• Example - token economy means a type of behavior modification involving the opportunity to earn tokens for completing tasks . These tokens are traded for desirable object or privileges.

Role of Biology and Cognition During Open Conditioning

• Behavioral psychologists believe that all behavior could be explained by conditioning principles.

• Biological factors can limit the effect of reinforcement on learning

• drugs that enhance dopamine activation, the same drug increase the reinforcing value of stimuli.

• Learning even can occur without reinforcement -Edward Tolman, who is a cognitive psychologist, he's done a famous experiment and he have rats to run through complex maze to obtain the food and he found that the rats in that maze, they may develop a cognitive map regarding the inside of the maze.

Learning By Watching Others

• There are three types - Observational Learning, Modeling. vicarious Conditioning.

• Albert Bandura proved that viewers of aggression showing the same aggressive behavior twice more than the first group.

• Modeling means imitation of behavior through observational learning.

• vicarious conditioning, Which means the new behavior when somebody is rewarding or somebody is punishing.

  • rewarded behavior is more imitated and punished behavior is less imitated.

  • mirror neurons function might make a person to emphasize the other person thus better understand the other person's behavior.