Learning

Conditioning

Acquisition

• OC- the strengthening of a reinforced response
• CC - when an NS and US are linked so that the NS begins triggering the CR
• When the dog begins to salivate in response to the bell

Extinction

• OC - when a response is no longer reinforced
• CC - diminishing the CR when an US does not follow a CS
• A child knows if he throws a tantrum he gets candy but the mom stops giving him candy when he throws tantrums so he stops throwing tantrums.

Operant Conditioning

voluntary behaviors

a type of learning when a behavior is strengthened or punished

Skinner’s pigeons

Positive & Negative, Reinforcement & Punishment

Examples

• PR - Adding a bonus to increase sales
• PP - Adding extra work to decrease forgetting homework
• NR - Removing chores to increase child’s behavior of completing homework
• NP - Removing phone privileges to decrease child’s behavior of staying out late

Reinforcers & Reinforcement

Primary Reinforcers - a stimulus that is inherently rewarding usually satisfies a biological need

• food, drink, & pleasure

Conditioned Reinforcers - a stimulus that gets its power through learned association with a primary reinforcer

• grades, money

Continuous Reinforcement - desired response is reinforced every time

• quick learning but can be lost quickly

Partial Reinforcement - desired response is sometimes reinforced

• slow learning and resistant to extinction

Schedules

Fixed Ratio - behavior is reinforced after a set number of responses

• Commission for every sale

Variable ratio - behavior is reinforced after an unpredictable number of responses

• Gambling

Fixed interval - behavior is reinforced after a set period of time

• Paycheck every two weeks

Variable interval - behavior is reinforced after varying periods of time

• Checking & getting emails

  

Classical Conditioning

involuntary behaviors

a type of learning when one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events

Pavlov’s dogs

Main Points

Neutral Stimulus NS - a stimulus that elicits no response before conditioning

• Bell

Unconditioned Response UR - naturally occurring response to an US

• Salivation

Unconditioned Stimulus US - a stimulus that naturally triggers a response

• Food

Conditioned Response CR - a learned response to a previously NS

• Salivation in response to the bell

Conditioned Stimulus CS - an originally irrelevant stimulus that comes to trigger a CR

• Bell results in salivation

Other

Generalization - the tendency to respond in the same way to a similar but different stimuli

• Salivating to a different pitch of bell

Discrimination - learned ability to distinguish between a CS and stimuli that doesn’t signal a US

• Different pitches of tones

Higher-order conditioning - the CS is paired with a new NS creating a second, weaker stimulus

• Bell and Light produces salivation in addition to Bell and Food

Learning

Insight learning - a sudden realization of a problem’s solution

Latent learning - learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate

• mental map of the school

Von Restorff effect - the more something stands out from the crowd the more likely it is to be seen

Associative learning - learning that certain events occur together

• hand on hot stove

Habituation - an organism’s decreasing response to a stimulus with repeated exposure to it

• Sleeping through an alarm that once was new enough to wake you up

Coping

Problem-focused coping - try to reduce stress directly; altering or removing stressor or changing the way we interact with it

Emotion-focused coping - try to reduce stress by managing our reaction to the stressor but still knowing it exists

Effects

Spacing effect - distributed study or practice yields to better long-term retention

• Spreading out studying for a test

Testing effect - enhanced memory after retrieving rather than simply re-reading info

• flashcards and visual stimuli

Recency/Primacy Effect

Recency effect - ability to recall the most recent items especially well and quickly

Primacy effect - after delay when attention has shifted, they recall the first items best