Cyclone Pride: These terms appear on the first page, possibly as branding or keywords.
Behaviorism
An approach within psychology emphasizing the study of observable behavior.
Focuses on the role of the environment as a determinant of behavior.
Assumes learning occurs through interactions with the environment.
Our responses to environmental stimuli shape behaviors.
Behaviorists are primarily interested in what they can observe (e.g., how a person is behaving).
They are not interested in an individual’s internal mental states (how that person is feeling).
Definition of Learning
Learning is defined as a relatively permanent change in behavior due to experience.
Psychologists define learning as a relatively permanent change in behavior or mental processes caused by experience.
Relative permanence applies to:
Bad habits (e.g., texting while driving, procrastination).
Useful behaviors and emotions (e.g., rehabilitation of aggressive dogs, professional training, falling in love).
Bad habits can be difficult to change because they can be rewarding.
Learning is “relatively” permanent, meaning it can be changed with new experiences.
Previous bad habits and problem behaviors can be replaced with new, more adaptive ones.
Breaking bad habits can be accomplished through conditioning.
Conditioning
The association between environmental stimuli and the organism's responses.
Learning vs. Conditioning
Learning: Relatively permanent change in behavior or mental processes caused by experience.
Classical Conditioning: Learning through paired associations.
A previously neutral stimulus (NS) is paired (associated) with an unconditioned stimulus (US) to elicit a conditioned response (CR).
Types of Conditioning
Two major types of conditioning:
Classical conditioning
Operant conditioning
Ivan Pavlov
Born: September 14, 1849; Died: February 27, 1936.
Noted Russian physiologist.
Won the 1904 Nobel Prize for studying digestive processes.
Observed that dogs would salivate when a lab assistant entered the room (the assistant's job was to feed the dogs).
Pavlov's Experiment
Pavlov paired the ticking of a metronome with the presentation of food to dogs.
After a few pairings, the dogs began to salivate to the tick of the metronome alone.
Classical conditioning had taken place.
Pavlov's initial experiment used a metronome, but he later used a bell and a tone from a tuning fork in his scientifically researched methods.
Pavlov's Observations
Pavlov noticed that dogs would often begin salivating in the absence of food and smell.
Suggested that salivation was a learned response.
Dogs were responding to the sight of the research assistants' white lab coats, which they associated with food.
Pavlov realized that the dogs were not only responding on the basis of hunger but also as a result of experience or learning.
Classical Conditioning Theory
Involves learning a new behavior via the process of association.
Two stimuli are linked together to produce a new learned response.
Key components:
Unconditioned Stimulus (US): Naturally and automatically triggers a response (e.g., the smell of favorite food).
Unconditioned Response (UR): Unlearned response that occurs naturally in response to the US (e.g., feeling of hunger in response to the smell of food).
Neutral Stimulus (NS): A stimulus that, before conditioning, does not bring about the response of interest.
Conditioned Stimulus (CS): Previously neutral stimulus that, after becoming associated with the US, eventually comes to trigger a conditioned response.
Conditioned Response (CR): Learned response to the previously neutral stimulus (e.g., feeling hungry when hearing a whistle).
Pavlov's Experiment Explained
Food: Unconditioned stimulus (US)
Sound of a metronome: Neutral stimulus (NS)
Dogs were exposed to the sound of the ticking metronome (NS), and then food (US) was immediately presented.
After several conditioning trials, dogs began to salivate after hearing the metronome.
The stimulus which was once neutral (metronome) has now become the conditioned stimulus (CS), and in turn elicits the conditioned response (CR) (salivation).
Elements of Classical Conditioning
New Reflexes from Old
How classical conditioning explains why a dog might salivate when it sees a light bulb or hears a buzzer
CONDITIONED (learned)
UNCONDITIONED (unlearned)
STIMULUS
RESPONSE
STIMULUS
RESPONSE
Putting it Together
Neutral Stimulus: No Response
Unconditioned Stimulus
Conditioned Unconditioned Conditioned Stimulus
Two and a Half Men
The Little Albert Experiment – John Watson
John Watson: the Father of Behaviorism
Assisted by graduate student Rosalie Raynor.
Watson showed that emotional reactions could be classically conditioned in people.
He wanted to condition a human being to fear.
In this study, a 11-month-old child, later known as “Little Albert,” was first allowed to play with a white laboratory rat.
Albert was curious and reached for the rat, showing no fear.
Watson stood behind Albert and when he reached for the rat (NS), Watson banged a steel bar with a hammer.
The loud noise frightened the child and made him cry.
The rat (NS) was paired with the loud noise (US) only seven times before Albert became classically conditioned and demonstrated fear of the rat even without the noise.
The rat had become a CS that brought about the CR (fear).
The experimental creation of what’s now called a conditioned emotional response (CER) remains a classic in psychology, it has been heavily criticized and would never be allowed under today’s experimental guidelines.
John Watson - Little Albert
Proved (very unethically) that individuals can be classically conditioned to fear.
Before Conditioning
He sees a white rat
Conditioning Little Albert's Fears
Watson and Rayner's Little Albert study demonstrated how some fears can originate through conditioning.
The white rat (a neutral stimulus/NS) was initially paired with the loud noise (an unconditioned stimulus/US) to produce a conditioned stimulus (CS)—the white rat.
Then, just the appearance of the white rat would elicit Little Albert's conditioned emotional response (CER)—his fear of the rat.
CR and UR (fear) are the same for Little Albert.
Through classical conditioning, the infant learned to fear just the sight of the white rat.
Counter Conditioning
Albert’s phobia could have been extinguished by repeatedly exposing Little Albert to the white rat without the loud bang.
Another way to extinguish a phobia is through counter conditioning.
In counter conditioning, the conditioned stimulus is paired with a pleasant stimulus.
Little Albert could have extinguished his phobia of the white rat by pairing it with something pleasant (e.g., food, praise).
Six Principles of Classical Conditioning
Acquisition: Learning occurs when an organism involuntarily links a neutral stimulus (NS) with an unconditioned stimulus (US), eliciting the conditioned response (CR) and/or conditioned emotional response (CER).
Example: Fearing a dentist's drill (CS) because it's associated with the pain of dental work (US).
Generalization: Conditioned response (CR) and/or a conditioned emotional response (CER) come to be involuntarily elicited not only by the conditioned stimulus (CS), but also by stimuli similar to the CS.
Example: Generalizing a fear of the dentist's drill to the dentist's office and other dentists' offices.
Discrimination: Learned ability to distinguish (discriminate) between similar stimuli so as NOT to involuntarily respond to a new stimulus as if it were the previously conditioned stimulus (CS).
Example: Not being afraid of a physician's office because it has been differentiated from the dentist's office.
Extinction: Gradual diminishing of a conditioned response (CR) and/or a conditioned emotional response (CER) when the unconditioned stimulus (US) is no longer paired with the conditioned stimulus (CS).
Example: Returning to the dentist's office for routine checkups with no dental drill; fear of the dentist's office (CER) gradually diminishes.
Spontaneous Recovery: Reappearance of a previously extinguished conditioned response (CR) and/or conditioned emotional response (CER).
Example: While watching a movie depicting dental drilling, a previous fear (CER) suddenly returns.
Higher-Order Conditioning: A new conditioned stimulus (CS) is created by pairing it with a previously conditioned stimulus (CS).
Example: Fearing the sign outside the dentist's office (an originally neutral stimulus (NS)) because it has become a conditioned stimulus (CS) associated with the previously conditioned stimulus (CS) of the dental drill.
Acquisition
The initial learning (acquisition) phase of classical conditioning; an organism links a neutral stimulus (NS) with an unconditioned stimulus (US), which in turn elicits the conditioned response (CR)
Stimulus Generalization
After conditioning, the tendency to respond to a stimulus that resembles one involved in the original conditioning.
In classical conditioning, it occurs when a stimulus that resembles the CS elicits the CR.
Stimulus Discrimination
A conditioning process in which an organism learns to respond differently to stimuli that differ from the conditioned stimulus on some dimension.
Extinction and Spontaneous Recovery
Extinction: When the conditioned stimulus is presented repeatedly without the unconditioned stimulus, the conditioned response eventually disappears.
Spontaneous Recovery: After a response has been extinguished, it may spontaneously reappear after the passage of time, with exposure to the conditioned stimulus.
AcquisitionCS+US
ExtinctionCSalone
TRIALS
Higher-Order Conditioning
The food dish is a previously conditioned stimulus for salivation.
When the light (a neutral stimulus) is paired with the dish…
…the light also becomes a conditioned stimulus for salivation.
A neutral stimulus can become a conditioned stimulus by being paired with an already established conditioned stimulus.
Accounting for Taste
Many people can learn to dislike a food after eating it and then falling ill, even when the two events are unrelated.
Reacting to Medical Treatments
Some cancer patients react to waiting rooms with nausea because the waiting room has been associated with chemotherapy, which chemically causes nausea.
Reinforcement
The process by which a stimulus or event strengthens or increases the probability of the response that it follows.
Refers to anything that increases the likelihood that a response will occur - It increases or strengthens the behavior.
For example, a reinforcement might involve presenting praise (the reinforcer) right after a child cleans up their room (the response).
By reinforcing the desired behavior with praise, the child will be more likely to perform the same actions again.
There are 2 major categories of reinforcement:
Primary Reinforcement
Sometimes referred to as unconditional reinforcement, occurs naturally and does not require learning in order to work.
Primary reinforcers satisfy biological needs.
Primary reinforcers, such as food, water, and caresses, are naturally satisfying.
*Example: food.
*Example: praise.
Secondary Reinforcement
Also known as conditioned reinforcement, involves stimuli that have become rewarding by being paired with another reinforcing stimulus.
For example, when you train a dog, praise and treats are primary reinforcers.
The sound of a clicker can be associated with the praise and treats until the sound of the clicker itself begins to work as a secondary reinforcer.
Secondary reinforcers are things like money, trophies, and good grades.
They are satisfying because they’ve become associated with primary reinforcers.
You can buy a primary reinforcer with a secondary reinforcer.
To tell the difference between primary and secondary reinforcers, ask yourself: “Would a newborn baby find this stimulus satisfying?”
If you answer is yes, the reinforcer is primary.
If you answer is no, the reinforcer is secondary.
The same thing can be applied to punishers by asking yourself whether a baby would find the stimulus unpleasant.
Primary vs. Secondary Reinforcers
Primary Reinforcers: Inherently reinforcing and typically satisfy a physiological need.
Secondary Reinforcers: Stimuli that have acquired reinforcing properties through associations with other reinforcers.
Positive and Negative Reinforcement
Positive:
When a pleasant consequence follows a response, making the response more likely to recur.
Something pleasant is presented.
Negative:
When an unpleasant consequence is removed following a response, making the response more likely to recur.
Something unpleasant is removed.
Reinforcers always increase the likelihood of a response.
Partial Reinforcement Schedule
Once a behavior has been acquired, it is often a good idea to switch to a partial reinforcement schedule.
It may be impractical to reinforce a behavior every time it is performed.
Even though the behavior may not be reinforced every time it is performed, the behavior keeps happening because the individual knows that sooner or later, they will be rewarded.
Schedules of Partial Reinforcement
Ratio Schedules (Response Based)
Fixed Ratio (FR)
Reinforcement occurs after a fixed, predetermined number of responses.
Relatively high rate of response, but a brief drop-off just after reinforcement.
Example: You receive a free flight from your frequent flyer program after accumulating a given number of flight miles.
Variable Ratio (VR)
Reinforcement occurs after a varying number of responses.
Highest response rate, no pause after reinforcement; variability also makes it resistant to extinction.
Example: Slot machines are designed to pay out after an average number of responses (maybe every 10 times), but any one machine may pay out on the first response, then the seventh, then the twentieth.
Interval Schedules (Time Based)
Fixed Interval (FI)
Reinforcement occurs after the first response, following a fixed period (interval) of time.
Lowest response rate; responses increase near the time for the next reinforcement but drop off after reinforcement and during intervals.
Example: You receive a monthly paycheck.
Variable Interval (VI)
Reinforcement occurs after the first response, following varying periods (intervals) of time.
Relatively low, but steady, response rates because respondents cannot predict when reward will come; variability also makes it resistant to extinction.
Examples: Health inspectors visit a restaurant every 6 months. Your professor gives pop quizzes at random times throughout the course. A dog receives a treat if he stays in a sit position for a variable, unpredictable length of time.
Punishment
The process by which a stimulus weakens or reduces the probability of the response that it follows.
Punishment is any consequence that occurs after a behavior that reduces the likelihood that that behavior will occur again in the future.
Positive and negative reinforcement are used to increase behaviors, punishment is focused on reducing or eliminating unwanted behaviors.
Punishment is often confused with negative reinforcement.
Reinforcement always increases the chances that a behavior will occur and punishment always decreases the chances that a behavior will occur.
Primary and Secondary Punishment
Primary Punishers: Stimuli that are inherently punishing.
Primary punishers are inherently unpleasant. Examples: pain, extreme heat or cold
Secondary Punishers: Stimuli that have acquired punishing properties through associations with other punishers.
Secondary punishers are punishing through association with other punishers. Examples: criticism, demerits, scolding, fines, bad grades
Positive and Negative Punishment
Positive:
When an unpleasant consequence follows a response, making the response less likely to recur.
Something unpleasant occurs.
Negative:
When a pleasant consequence is removed following a response, making the response less likely to recur.
Something pleasant is removed.
Punishers decrease the likelihood of a response.
How Reinforcement Increases Behavior
Primary Reinforcers
Unlearned, innate stimuli that reinforce and increase the probability of a response
Examples:
Positive Reinforcement:
You put money in the vending machine, and a snack comes out. The addition of the snack makes it more likely you will put money in the vending machine in the future.
You hug your baby and he smiles at you. The addition of his smile increases the likelihood that you will hug him again.
Your baby is crying, so you hug him, and he stops crying. The removal of crying increases the likelihood that you will hug him again.
Negative Reinforcement:
You switch from formal dress shoes to sneakers, and your foot pain goes away. The removal of your pain makes it more likely you will wear sneakers or other casual shoes in the future.
Secondary Reinforcers
Learned stimuli that reinforce and increase the probability of a response
Positive Reinforcement:
Completing a quest in your video game increases your score and unlocks desirable game items. The addition of these items increases your video game playing behavior.
You study hard and receive a good grade on your psychology exam. The addition of the good grade makes it more likely that you'll study hard for future exams.
Negative Reinforcement:
You mention all the homework you have to do, and your partner offers to do the dinner dishes. The removal of this chore increases the likelihood that you will again mention your homework the next time it's your turn to do the dishes.
You're allowed to skip the final exam because you did so well on your unit exams. The removal of the final exam makes it more likely that you'll work hard to do well on unit exams in the future.
How Punishment Decreases Behavior
Primary Punishers
Unlearned, innate stimuli that punish and decrease the probability of a response
Examples:
Positive Punishment:
You must run four extra laps at soccer practice because you were late. Adding the four extra laps makes it less likely that you'll be late for soccer practice in the future.
You forget to apply sunscreen, and as a consequence you later suffer a painful sunburn. The addition of the sunburn makes it less likely that you'll forget to apply sunscreen in the future.
Negative Punishment:
Your instructor takes away a significant number of points from your paper because you turned it in late. The loss of points makes it less likely that you'll be late turning in your papers in the future.
A hungry child is denied dessert because she refused to eat her dinner. The removal of the dessert option decreases the likelihood of the child refusing to eat her dinner in the future.
Secondary Punishers
Learned stimuli that punish and decrease the probability of a response
Examples:
Positive Punishment:
You text on your cell phone while driving and receive a ticket. The addition of the ticket for texting makes it less likely you will text while driving in the future.
You study hard for your psychology exam and still receive a low grade. The addition of the low grade after studying hard decreases the likelihood that you will study hard for future exams.
Negative Punishment:
A parent takes away a teen's cell phone following a poor report card. The removal of the phone makes it less likely that the teen will earn poor grades in the future.
You argue aggressively with your friend, and he or she goes home. The removal of your friend's presence decreases the likelihood that you'll argue aggressively in the future.
Side Effects of Punishment
Undesirable emotional responses
Passive aggressiveness
Lying and avoidance behavior
Inappropriate modeling
Temporary suppression versus elimination
Learned helplessness
Inappropriate rewards and escalation
Undesirable emotional responses
For the recipient, punishment often leads to fear, anxiety, frustration, anger, and hostility—obviously, not the responses most punishers intend.
The parent may see this as a simple way to obtain compliance, whereas the child may interpret it as a threat of abandonment and experience one or more of these unintended, undesirable emotional responses.
Passive aggressiveness
Most of us have learned from experience that retaliatory aggression toward a punisher (especially one who is bigger and more powerful) is often followed by more punishment.
So instead, we may resort to subtle techniques, called passive aggressiveness, in which we deliberately show up late, “forget” to do an assigned chore, or complete the chore in a half-hearted way.
Lying and avoidance behavior
No one likes to be punished, so we naturally try to avoid the punishment by lying or by avoiding the punisher (a form of negative reinforcement).
If lying gets you out of trouble, you learn to do it again in the future.
Similarly, if every time you come home a parent or spouse starts yelling at you, you learn to delay coming home—or you find another place to go.
Inappropriate modeling
The punishing parent may unintentionally serve as a “model” for the same behavior he or she is attempting to stop.
Temporary suppression versus elimination
Punishment generally suppresses the behavior only temporarily, while the punisher is nearby.
In addition, the recipient only learns what NOT to do, but not necessarily what he or she SHOULD do.
Learned helplessness
Research shows that nonhuman animals will fail to learn an escape response after experiencing inescapable aversive events.
Can you see how this phenomenon, known as learned helplessness, might explain, in part, why some people stay in abusive relationships?
Or why some students, who’ve experienced many failures in academic settings, might passively accept punishingly low grades, and/or engage in self-defeating behaviors, such as procrastination or minimal effort responses?
Inappropriate rewards and escalation
Because punishment often produces a decrease in undesired behavior, at least for the moment, the punisher is in effect rewarded for applying punishment.
To make matters worse, a vicious cycle may be established in which both the punisher and recipient are reinforced—the punisher for punishing and the recipient for being fearful and submissive.
This side effect may partially explain the escalation of violence in family abuse and bullying.
Edward L. Thorndike
Thorndike's law of effect
In his most famous experiment, Thorndike put a cat inside a specially built puzzle box.
When the cat stepped on a pedal inside the box (at first by chance), the door opened, and the cat could get out and eat.
Then, through trial and error, the cat learned what specific actions led to opening the door.
With each additional success, the cat's actions became more purposeful, and it soon learned to open the door immediately (Thorndike, 1898).
Thorndike 'Law of Effect'
Thorndike concluded that the cat had learned the association between its behaviour (pulling the string) & the consequences (reaching the food)
Results led Thorndike to devise the 'Law of effect' that is a behaviour that is followed by a satisfying consequence is strengthened (more likely to happen) than a behaviour that is followed by an annoying consequence which is weakened (less likely to occur)
The food was a satisfying consequence - hence the cat would try to escape
Behaviour that kept the cat in the box (annoying consequence) was less likely to occur
Skinner’s Radical Behaviorism
To understand behavior, it is necessary to focus on the external causes of an action and the action’s consequences to explain behavior, one must look outside the individual, not inside.
To explain behavior, one must look outside the individual, not inside.
1904-1990
The birth of radical behaviorism: Introduced at the turn of the twentieth century
Thorndike: Behavior is controlled by its consequences
Puzzle box
B.F. Skinner: Behavior is explainable by looking outside of the individual
B. F. Skinner
1904 - 1990
(B.F.) Skinner majored in literature at Hamilton College in New York.
He went to New York City in the late 1920s to become a writer, but he wasn't very successful.
So he decided to go back to school, and went to Harvard to study psychology;
he had always enjoyed observing animal and human behavior, so he decided to work in the lab of an experimental biologist, and he developed behavioral studies of rats.
As a kid, Skinner had been a tinkerer and loved building contraptions.
He now put that skill to good use by designing boxes for the rats that would automatically reward behavior, such as depressing a lever, pushing a button, and so on.
His devices were such an improvement on the existing equipment that they've come to be known as Skinner boxes.
Skinner received his PhD in 1931. In 1936 he began to teach at the University of Minnesota. Pigeons roosted outside his office window at the University of Minnesota, which gave him the idea to use them as experimental subjects; they became his favorite.