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Explanatory Style and Expectancies

• Individuals with a depressive or pessimistic explanatory style perceive causes of negative events as:

  • Internal: Believing they are personally responsible.

  • Stable: Assuming the causes are permanent.

  • Global: Thinking the causes affect many areas of their life.

• Expectancies, such as locus of control and explanatory style, vary across cultures.

  • Cultural belief systems provide ready-made interpretations of events.

  • Shared experiences within a society (e.g., work, schooling) lead to common beliefs and expectancies.

Social Learning

• Social learning includes:

  • Observational learning: Learning by watching others' behavior.

  • Tutelage: Learning through direct instruction.

• Modelling: The behavior exhibited by a model.

• Vicarious conditioning: Learning about the consequences of an action by observing its consequences for someone else.

Key Terms

• Acquisition: The initial stage of learning when a response is first established and gradually strengthened.

• Avoidance learning: A type of learning where an individual learns to avoid an unpleasant stimulus.

• Biofeedback: A technique used to control the body's involuntary functions by monitoring one's own physiological responses.

• Blocking: When a previously learned association prevents a new association from being learned.

• Chaining: A sequence of behaviors where each behavior serves as a cue for the next.

• Classical conditioning: Learning through association, where a neutral stimulus becomes associated with a stimulus that naturally evokes a response.

• Cognitive maps: Mental representations of physical spaces.

• Cognitive-social theory: A learning theory that emphasizes the roles of cognition and social learning.

• Conditioned response (CR): A learned response to a conditioned stimulus.

• Conditioned stimulus (CS): A previously neutral stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus, triggers a conditioned response.

• Conditioning: The process of learning associations between events.

• Contextual learning: Learning that is specific to a particular context or environment.

• Continuous reinforcement schedule: Reinforcing a behavior every time it occurs.

• Discriminative stimulus (SD): A stimulus that signals the availability of reinforcement for a particular behavior.

• Escape learning: Learning to terminate an ongoing aversive stimulus.

• Expectancies: Expectations about the consequences of one's actions.

• Explanatory style: A habitual way of explaining events, typically categorized as optimistic or pessimistic.

• External locus of control: The belief that outcomes are determined by external factors such as luck or fate.

• Extinction: The process of weakening a conditioned response by repeatedly presenting the conditioned stimulus without the unconditioned stimulus.

• Fixed-interval (FI) schedule: Reinforcement is given after a fixed amount of time has passed.

• Fixed-ratio (FR) schedule: Reinforcement is given after a fixed number of responses.

• Galvanic skin response (GSR): Changes in the electrical conductivity of the skin, often used as a measure of emotional arousal.

• Generalised expectancies: Broad expectations that apply to a range of situations.

• Habituation: A decrease in response to a stimulus after repeated presentations.

• Immune system: The body's defense system against illness.

• Insight: Sudden understanding of a problem or situation.

• Internal locus of control: The belief that one's own actions determine outcomes.

• Interstimulus interval: The time interval between the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus.

• Interval schedules: Reinforcement schedules based on time intervals.

• Latent inhibition: Difficulty in conditioning a stimulus that has been repeatedly presented without any consequence.

• Latent learning: Learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it.

• Law of contiguity: The principle that things that occur together in time or space are associated.

• Law of effect: Thorndike's principle that behaviors followed by positive consequences are more likely to be repeated, and behaviors followed by negative consequences are less likely to be repeated.

• Law of prediction: The principle that learning involves predicting future events based on past experiences.

• Law of similarity: The principle that things that are similar are associated.

• Laws of association: Principles explaining how ideas and experiences are connected.

• Learned helplessness: A condition in which an individual believes they have no control over aversive events, leading to passivity and depression.

• Learning: Any relatively permanent change in behavior or knowledge due to experience.

• Locus of control of reinforcement: The extent to which individuals believe they can control events affecting them.

• Long-term potentiation (LTP): A long-lasting strengthening of synaptic connections, thought to be a neural basis for learning.

• Modelling: Learning by observing and imitating others.

• Negative reinforcement: Removing an aversive stimulus to increase the likelihood of a behavior.

• Negative reinforcer: An aversive stimulus that, when removed, strengthens the probability that a response will recur.

• Observational learning: Learning by watching the behavior of others.

• Operant conditioning: Learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher.

• Operants: Behaviors that are emitted rather than elicited by the environment.

• Paradoxical conditioning: Conditioning that occurs despite seemingly contradictory circumstances.

• Partial or intermittent schedules of reinforcement: Reinforcement schedules in which reinforcement is not given after every response.

• Pessimistic explanatory style: Explaining negative events in terms of internal, stable, and global factors.

• Phobias: Irrational fears of specific objects or situations.

• Positive reinforcement: Presenting a positive stimulus to increase the likelihood of a behavior.

• Positive reinforcer: An environmental consequence that, when presented, strengthens the probability that a response will recur.

• Prepared learning: The idea that organisms are biologically predisposed to learn certain associations more easily than others.

• Punishment: An event that decreases the behavior that it follows.

• Ratio schedules: Reinforcement schedules based on the number of responses.

• Reflex: An automatic, involuntary response to a stimulus.

• Reinforcement: Any event that strengthens the behavior it follows.

• Reinforcer: Any stimulus that strengthens the behavior it follows.

• Response contingency: The relationship between a behavior and its consequences.

• Shaping: Gradually training an organism to perform a specific behavior by reinforcing successive approximations of the desired behavior.

• Social learning: Learning that occurs through social interaction, observation, and modelling.

• Spontaneous recovery: The reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response.

• Stimulus: Any event or situation that evokes a response.

• Stimulus discrimination: The learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and other irrelevant stimuli.

• Stimulus generalisation: The tendency to respond to stimuli that are similar to the conditioned stimulus.

• Successive approximations: Small steps toward a desired behavior that are reinforced during shaping.

• Superstitious behaviour: Behavior learned through accidental association with reinforcement.

• Tutelage: Learning through direct instruction.

• Unconditioned reflex: An unlearned, innate reflex.

• Unconditioned response (UCR): An unlearned, naturally occurring response to an unconditioned stimulus.

• Unconditioned stimulus (UCS): A stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers an unconditioned response.

• Variable-interval (VI) schedule: Reinforcement is given at unpredictable time intervals.

• Variable-ratio (VR) schedule: Reinforcement is given after an unpredictable number of responses.

• Vicarious conditioning: Learning the consequences of an action by observing its consequences for someone else.

Review Questions

1. Differences between Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) and Conditioned Stimulus (CS), and between Unconditioned Response (UCR) and Conditioned Response (CR):

   • UCS: A stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers a response (UCR).

   • CS: A previously neutral stimulus that, after association with a UCS, triggers a learned response (CR).

   • UCR: An unlearned, naturally occurring response to a UCS.

   • CR: A learned response to a CS.

2. Distinction between Stimulus Generalisation and Stimulus Discrimination:

   • Stimulus Generalisation: The tendency to respond to stimuli similar to the CS.

   • Stimulus Discrimination: The learned ability to distinguish between a CS and other irrelevant stimuli.

3. Differences between Positive and Negative Reinforcement and Positive and Negative Punishment:

   • Positive Reinforcement (PR): Adding a desirable stimulus to increase a behavior.

   • Negative Reinforcement (NR): Removing an aversive stimulus to increase a behavior.

   • Positive Punishment (P): Adding an aversive stimulus to decrease a behavior.

   • Negative Punishment: Removing a desirable stimulus to decrease a behavior.

4. Processes involved in Extinction and Spontaneous Recovery in Classical and Operant Conditioning:

   • Extinction: The weakening of a conditioned response when the CS is repeatedly presented without the UCS (classical) or when the operant behavior is no longer followed by a reinforcer (operant).

   • Spontaneous Recovery: The reappearance of an extinguished response after a pause.

5. Importance of Social Learning in Cognitive Social Theory of Learning:

   • Social learning is vital as it incorporates observation, modelling, and vicarious reinforcement, emphasizing the role of cognitive processes in learning within social contexts.

Application Questions

1. Classical Conditioning Examples:

   (a) Cyclone Tracy Example:

   • UCS: Cyclone.

   • UCR: Terror.

   • CS: Weather reports about cyclones.

   • CR: Trembling.

   (b) Play School Theme Song Example:

   • UCS: Ice-cream.

   • UCR: Excitement.

   • CS: Play School theme song.

   • CR: Jumping around excitedly.

   (c) Seafood Restaurant Example:

   • UCS: Seafood special.

   • UCR: Sickness.

   • CS: Bright blue walls.

   • CR: Feeling sick in the stomach.

   (d) Bakery Example:

   • UCS: Burn.

   • UCR: Severe pain.

   • CS: Smell of fresh bread.

   • CR: Panic attack.

   (e) Restaurant Example:

   • UCS: Proposal.

   • UCR: Ecstasy.

   • CS: Song Unforgettable.

   • CR: Feeling warm and tingly.

2. Operant Conditioning and Schedules of Reinforcement:

   (a) Types of Consequences:

   • (i) Plagiarism: Punishment (P).

   • (ii) Employee bonus: Positive Reinforcement (PR).

   • (iii) Using umbrella: Negative Reinforcement (NR).

   • (iv) Ignoring jokes: Extinction (E).

   (b) Schedules of Reinforcement:

   • (i) Chocolate Machine: Continuous Reinforcement (CR).

   • (ii) Casino Pokies: Variable-Ratio (VR).

   • (iii) Olympic Commentary: Fixed-Interval (FI).

   • (iv) Tim Tam Reward: Fixed-Ratio (FR).

   • (v) Cultural Events: Variable-Interval (VI).

   (c) Classical Conditioning, Operant Conditioning, and Social Learning Examples:

   • (i) Cat Meowing: Classical Conditioning (CC).

   • (ii) Sponge Pudding: Social Learning (SL).

   • (iii) Television Show: Operant Conditioning (OC).

   • (iv) Apprentice Chef: Operant Conditioning (OC)

Conceptual Shift in Learning Psychology

• Radical behaviorists (like Skinner) advocated focusing on observable behaviors and environmental events.

• Contemporary cognitive perspective emphasizes learning as mental organization and accumulation of knowledge.

• Psychologists now discuss thoughts, emotions, motives, and goals as factors influencing behavior.

• Some behaviorists consider psychological processes like thoughts and feelings as private behaviors subject to learning laws.

Skinner's Perspective

• Skinner aimed to avoid mentalistic explanations due to the lack of testability.

• He argued that scientific study should focus on what can be observed.

• Behaviorally-oriented research has produced general principles about conditioning processes.

Contributions of Learning Principles

• Learning principles have been applied to improve lives, such as overcoming phobias.

• Behaviorism contributed a rigorous approach to psychological observation and explanation.

• Skinner's principles of learning remain central to understanding behavior.

Summary of Learning

1. Learning:

• Learning is defined as lasting changes that experience causes in how an organism responds.

• Theories of learning emphasize:

  • Behaviour is shaped by experience

  • Learning is adaptive

  • The key to Laws of learning is systematic experimentation

2. Classical Conditioning:

• Innate reflex = Unconditioned reflex.

• Stimulus that triggers the response in an unconditioned reflex = Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS).

• Response that doesn't require to be learned = Unconditioned Response (UCR).

• A response that has been learned = Conditioned Response (CR).

• A stimulus that, through learning, makes an organism produce a conditioned response = Conditioned Stimulus (CS).

• Responding to stimuli that are similar to the CS with a similar response = Stimulus Generalisation.

• The learned tendency to respond to a restricted range of stimuli, or only the one used during training = Stimulus Discrimination

• The process by which a CR is weakened by presentation of the CS without the UCS = Extinction in classical conditioning

• Factors that Influence Classical Conditioning:

  • Interstimulus Interval: (time between presentation of the CS and the UCS).

  • Individual's learning history.

  • Prepared learning.

• Neuroscience of Classical Conditioning:

  • Learning involves an increase in the strength of synaptic connections.

    • Changes in the presynaptic neuron (releases neurotransmitters more readily).

    • Changes in the postsynaptic neuron (becomes more excitable).

    • Increase in dendritic connections between the two.

3. Operant Conditioning

• Thorndike's law of effect: an animal's tendency to produce a behaviour depends on that behaviour's effect on the environment.

• Skinner elaborated this idea into the concept of operant conditioning: learning to operate on the environment to produce a consequence.

• Operants: Behaviours that are emitted rather than elicited by the environment.

• A consequence leads to reinforcement if it increases the probability that a response will recur.

• Reinforcer: An environmental consequence that occurs after an organism has produced a response, which makes the response more likely to recur.

• Positive Reinforcement: Presentation of a stimulus (a reward or pay-off) after a behaviour makes the behaviour more likely to occur again.

• Positive Reinforcer: An environmental consequence that, when presented, strengthens the probability that a response will recur.

• Negative Reinforcement: The termination of an aversive stimulus (a negative reinforcer) makes a behaviour more likely to recur.

• Negative Reinforcers: Aversive or unpleasant stimuli that strengthen a behaviour by their removal.

• Reinforcement always increases the probability that a response will recur.

• Punishment decreases the probability of a response, through exposure to an aversive event (positive punishment) or losing reinforcement (negative punishment).

• Extinction in operant conditioning occurs if enough conditioning trials pass in which the operant is not followed by its previously learned environmental consequence.

• Four phenomena that explain the power of operant conditioning:

  • Schedules of reinforcement.

  • Discriminative stimuli: stimuli that signal an organism that particular contingencies of reinforcement are in effect.

  • The behavioural context.

  • Characteristics of the learner.

• Continuous Schedule of Reinforcement: The environmental consequence is the same each time an animal emits a behaviour.

• Intermittent Schedule of Reinforcement: Reinforcement does not occur every time the organism emits a particular response.

• Fixed-Ratio (FR) Schedule of Reinforcement: An organism receives reinforcement at a fixed rate, according to the number of operant responses emitted.

• Variable-Ratio (VR) Schedule: An animal receives a reward for some percentage of responses, but the number of responses required before each reinforcement is unpredictable.

• Fixed-Interval (FI) Schedule: An animal receives reinforcement for its responses only after a fixed amount of time.

• Variable-Interval (VI) Schedule: The animal cannot predict how long that time interval will be.

• The operant conditioning of a given behaviour occurs in the context of other environmental contingencies and broader social and cultural processes.

• Characteristics of the learner also influence operant conditioning.

• Operant and classical conditioning share many common features, such as extinction, prepared learning, discrimination, generalisation and the possibility of maladaptive associations.

• Operant conditioning can also be used in techniques such as biofeedback to alter autonomic responses.

• In everyday life, operant and classical conditioning are often difficult to disentangle because most learned behaviour involves both.

4. Cognitive-Social Theory

• Cognitive-social theory incorporates concepts of conditioning from behaviourism adds:

  • Focus on cognition

  • Focus on social learning

• Tolman's Cognitive Maps:

  • Rats formed cognitive maps (mental images of their environment).

  • These created latent learning: learning that has occurred but is not currently manifest in behaviour.

• Many classic learning phenomena have been reinterpreted from a cognitive perspective, including stimulus discrimination and generalisation.

• The animal’s construe of the environment is as important to learning as actual environmental contingencies.

• Expectations of the consequences of behaviours are what render behaviours more or less likely to occur.

• Locus of Control: Generalised expectancies about whether or not their own behaviour will bring about the outcomes they prefer.

• Learned Helplessness: The expectancy that one cannot escape aversive events and the motivational and learning deficits that accrue from it.

• Explanatory Style: The way people make sense of bad events.