Learning

Definition: change in thoughts or behaviours due to experience, study, or practice

plasticity: forming or changing connections between neurons

Habituation: getting used to a stimulus

Classical conditioning

Definition: an unconscious process where an automatic, conditioned response becomes associated with a specific stimulus

Pavlov’s Experiment

Terms of classical conditioning

Unconditioned stimulus: something that naturally triggers an automatic response

Unconditioned response: the automatic reaction to that stimulus

Conditioned stimulus: an object, person, place, or item that becomes associated with a certain response through repeated exposure

Conditioned response: an automatic response established by training to an ordinarily neutral stimulus

Pavlov’s dog example of UCS/UCR/CS/CR:

UCS: dog food, produces a reflexive response

UCR: saliva, natural response

CS: metronome (originally neutral)

CR: saliva, a natural reaction that occurs due to CS

Little Albert example of UCS/UCR/CS/CR:

UCS: loud noise

UCR: fear of noise

CS: rat

CR: fear of rat

Chemotherapy example:

UCS: chemotherapy

UCR: side effects like vomiting and nausea

CS: treatment room

CR: patients feel sick from treatment room

Ad example:

UCS: celebrities

UCR: your positive feelings about celebrities

CS: products and services

CR: your positive feelings about the product

Bullying example:

UCS: bullying

UCR: your fear of the bully

CS: the school

UCR: your fear of the school

[Practice tip: make your own examples!!]

Acquisition in classical conditioning

Initial learning phase:

Frequency effects: how often CS is paired with UCS

Timing effects: time duration between CS and UCS

Extinction: elimination of CR, CS unpaired with UCS

Spontaneous recovery: sudden emergence of the CR after extinction

Stimulus generalization: stimuli similar to CS will elicit a CR, quick learning

Stimulus discrimination: CR specific to one stimulus, but not others; effective learning

Law of effect

Definition: learning is controlled by consequences

Examples: good result —> increase probability of behaviour, bad result —> decrease probability of behaviour

Operant conditioning

Definition: associate a voluntary behaviour and a consequence

Reinforcement: increases behaviour; allowed extra time for video games for good behaviour

Punishment: decreases behaviour; take away video games for misbehaving in public

Positive form: add stimulus

Negative form: remove stimulus

[Practice tip: make your own examples!!]

Differences between classical and operant conditioning:

Differences in target behaviour: classical conditioning target behaviour is elicited automatically while operant conditioning target behaviour is emitted voluntarily

Differences in what behaviour is a function of: classical conditioning behaviour is a function of stimulus that precedes behaviour while operant conditioning is a function of stimulus that follows behaviour

Latent learning

Definition: learning that isn’t directly observable, reinforcement not needed

Edward Tolman: cognitive psychologist at University of Berkley

Competence: what we know

Performance: we show what we know

Observational learning

definition: children learn by watching “models”

Social learning theory: learn by watching people

Models: other people (e.g. adults or peers) doing behaviours

Bobo doll experiment

What the experiment was: separated kids into groups, one group watched adults be aggressive towards bobo dolls, other group was control group, and last group was shown non-aggressive behaviour. The experiment revealed that the kids who watched adults act aggressively towards the dolls were more likely to copy that behaviour, while the kids who watched non-aggressive behaviour acted with less aggression.

How it demonstrated social learning: demonstrated that child does what the ‘model’ does

Four parts of observational learning

Attention: paying attention to the model is a condition for learning

Retention: remembering what the model did is a condition for imitating the behaviour

Initiation (or reproduction): people must have the capacity (e.g. skills) for imitating behaviour

Motivation: people must be motivated to imitate behaviour (e.g. importance of model or reward)