UNIT TEST REVIEW!! PSYCHPSYCHPSYCH

What is Learning?

Learning is when you change your behavior or knowledge because of experience.

Types of Learning

Latent Learning (Hidden Learning)

• Learning happens, but you don’t show it until needed.

• Example: A rat goes through a maze many times without a reward. Later, when given a reward, it quickly finds the fastest way through because it had already learned the maze.

Cognitive Maps

• Mental pictures of places.

• Example: You can find your way around school even if no one ever gave you a map.

Insight Learning (Aha! Moment)

• Figuring out a solution suddenly, without trial and error.

• Example: A chimp sees a banana hanging from the ceiling. Instead of jumping for it, it suddenly realizes it can use a stick to knock it down.

Observational Learning (Learning by Watching Others)

• Learning by copying someone else.

• Mirror Neurons: Neurons that fire both when performing and observing an action.

• Example: A kid sees an older sibling tying shoes and learns to do it the same way.

• Bobo Doll Experiment: Kids watched an adult hit a toy doll. Later, those kids also hit the doll, proving that we learn aggressive behavior by watching.

Classical Conditioning (Learning Through Association)

• You learn by connecting two things that happen together.

Key Terms:

• Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) → Something that naturally causes a reaction (food).

• Unconditioned Response (UCR) → Natural reaction to the UCS (salivating to food).

• Neutral Stimulus (NS) → Something that doesn’t cause a response at first (bell).

• Conditioned Stimulus (CS) → The NS after it’s learned (bell after being paired with food).

• Conditioned Response (CR) → Learned response to CS (salivating to bell).

Example:

• In Pavlov’s experiment, dogs heard a bell (NS), then got food (UCS), and salivated (UCR).

• After doing this several times, the bell (CS) alone made them salivate (CR), even without food!

Watson’s “Little Albert” Experiment:

• A baby was shown a white rat (NS).

• Every time Albert saw the rat, a loud scary noise (UCS) was played.

• He started crying (UCR) when he saw the rat.

• Later, he feared the rat (CS) even without the noise (CR).

Other Classical Conditioning Concepts

• Acquisition → Learning starts when the connection between CS & UCS is made.

• Generalization → Responding to similar things (Albert was scared of all white furry things, not just rats).

• Discrimination → Learning to tell the difference between things (Albert wouldn’t fear a toy car).

• Extinction → If you stop pairing CS & UCS, the response goes away (bell with no food = no more salivating).

• Spontaneous Recovery → After extinction, the response randomly comes back.

Special Types of Classical Conditioning

• Aversive Conditioning → Learning to avoid something (ex: a person stops smoking because they associate it with nausea).

• Taste Aversion (Garcia Effect) → If food makes you sick once, you might never eat it again (even if it wasn’t the food’s fault).

• Contingency Model → The brain notices patterns; if a CS predicts a UCS consistently, learning is stronger.

Operant Conditioning (Learning Through Consequences)

• Learning happens based on rewards and punishments.

Thorndike’s Law of Effect

• Behaviors that get rewarded happen more.

• Behaviors that get punished happen less.

Reinforcement (Encouraging Behavior)

• Positive Reinforcement → Giving something good (ex: candy for good grades).

• Negative Reinforcement → Taking away something bad (ex: no chores for doing homework).

• Primary Reinforcer → Something naturally good (ex: food, water).

• Secondary Reinforcer → Something we learn is good (ex: money, grades).

Punishment (Stopping Behavior)

• Positive Punishment → Adding something bad (ex: getting a speeding ticket).

• Negative Punishment (Omission Training) → Taking away something good (ex: losing phone privileges).

Shaping & Chaining (Step-by-Step Learning)

• Shaping → Rewarding small steps toward a bigger behavior (ex: training a dog to roll over by rewarding each small step).

• Chaining → Linking several behaviors together in order (ex: teaching a kid to brush their teeth by breaking it into steps).

Token Economy

• Using tokens as rewards that can be traded for prizes (ex: getting gold stars in class that add up to a prize).

Premack Principle

• Using a fun activity to encourage a less fun one (ex: “You can play video games after finishing homework”).

Reinforcement Schedules (How Often You Get Rewards)

• Continuous Reinforcement → Reward every time (quick learning, but easy to forget).

• Partial Reinforcement → Reward sometimes (slower learning, but lasts longer).

Partial Reinforcement Types:

• Fixed Ratio → Reward after a set number of times (ex: free coffee after 10 purchases).

• Variable Ratio → Reward after a random number of times (ex: slot machines – most addictive).

• Fixed Interval → Reward after a set time (ex: paycheck every 2 weeks).

• Variable Interval → Reward at unpredictable times (ex: surprise quizzes).

Other Learning Phenomena

• Superstitious Behavior → Thinking something random caused success (ex: wearing lucky socks for a test).

• Learned Helplessness → Giving up after repeated failure (ex: a student failing math over and over might stop trying).

Unit 3.8/3.9

Operant Conditioning: A way we learn by associating behaviors with their consequences (rewards or punishments).

• Law of Effect: Behaviors that are rewarded are more likely to happen again; behaviors that are punished are less likely to happen again.

Reinforcement: Anything that increases the chance a behavior will happen again. (Think of positive as adding and negative as taking away something*)

• Positive Reinforcement: Giving something pleasant to encourage a behavior (e.g., praising someone for doing a good job).

• Negative Reinforcement: Taking away something unpleasant to encourage a behavior (e.g., stopping a loud noise when a person does the right thing).

Punishment: Anything that decreases the chance a behavior will happen again.

• Positive Punishment: Adding something unpleasant to discourage a behavior (e.g., giving extra chores for misbehavior).

• Negative Punishment: Taking away something pleasant to discourage a behavior (e.g., taking away a teen’s video game privileges for not doing chores).

Reinforcement Discrimination: Learning to respond to a specific situation but not others (e.g., raising your hand in class but not at home).

Generalization: Using a learned behavior in similar situations (e.g., saying "please" and "thank you" at school after learning it at home).

Shaping: Gradually rewarding behaviors that get closer to the desired action (e.g., teaching a dog to fetch by rewarding small steps).

Instinctive Drift: When animals return to natural, instinctive behaviors even if they were trained to do something else (e.g., raccoons trying to rub coins instead of putting them in a bank).

Superstitious Behavior: Doing something based on a mistaken belief that it causes a good outcome (e.g., athletes wearing a "lucky" shirt).

Learned Helplessness: When someone learns they can’t escape negative situations, so they stop trying (e.g., a student giving up after repeatedly failing).

Aversive Consequences: Using unpleasant things to reduce unwanted behavior (e.g., giving reprimands to reduce lateness at work).

Schedules of Reinforcement: Different ways of giving rewards for a behavior:

• Continuous Reinforcement: Rewarding every time a behavior happens.

• Partial Reinforcement: Rewarding only some of the time. There are four types:

  • Fixed Ratio: After a set number of behaviors.

  • Variable Ratio: After an unpredictable number of behaviors.

  • Fixed Interval: After a set time passes.

  • Variable Interval: After an unpredictable amount of time.

Social Learning Theory: Learning by watching others and copying their behaviors (e.g., a child learning by watching a sibling).

Vicarious Conditioning: Learning by watching others get rewarded or punished for their behaviors.

Insight Learning: Sudden realization of the solution to a problem (e.g., a chimp figuring out how to use a stick to get food).

Latent Learning: Learning that happens without immediate rewards, but is shown later when needed (e.g., learning the layout of a city by just visiting it daily).

Cognitive Maps: Mental images of our surroundings that help us navigate (e.g., knowing how to get around an airport).

Unit 3.7

• Behavioral Perspective: Focuses on how people learn behaviors through rewards, punishments, and observation. It ignores thoughts and feelings and only looks at actions.

• Classical Conditioning: Learning by linking two things together. For example, if a dog hears a bell before getting food, it learns to salivate when it hears the bell.

• Association: Connecting two things in the mind so that one makes you think of the other.

• Associative Learning: Learning that two events happen together, like hearing thunder and expecting lightning.

  • Unconditioned Stimulus (US): Something that naturally causes a reaction, like food making a dog salivate.

  • Unconditioned Response (UR): A natural reaction to something, like salivating when seeing food.

  • Neutral Stimulus (NS): Something that doesn’t naturally cause a reaction, like a bell before it is linked to food.

  • Conditioned Stimulus (CS): A once neutral thing that now causes a learned response after being linked to something else (e.g., the bell after being paired with food).

  • Conditioned Response (CR): A learned reaction to something (e.g., salivating to the bell).

• Delayed Conditioning: The best method for learning—first, the new signal (CS) starts, then the natural trigger (US) happens right after.

• Trace Conditioning: The signal (CS) happens first, stops, and then the natural trigger (US) comes. Works best if the break is short.

• Simultaneous Conditioning: The signal (CS) and natural trigger (US) happen at the same time, making learning harder.

• Backward Conditioning: The natural trigger (US) happens before the signal (CS), making learning almost impossible.

• Extinction: If the signal (CS) is shown without the natural trigger (US) too many times, the learned response fades.

• Spontaneous Recovery: A response that was gone comes back after a break, even without retraining.

• Discrimination: Learning to react only to a specific signal, not similar ones.

• Generalization: Reacting to things that are similar to the original signal.

• Higher-Order Conditioning: A new signal is learned by linking it to an already learned one (e.g., if a light is added before the bell, the dog may learn to salivate to the light too).

• Counterconditioning: Replacing a bad reaction with a better one by pairing the trigger with something positive.

• Taste Aversion: If food makes you sick once, you avoid it in the future, even if it wasn’t the cause.

• Biological Preparedness → Some things are easier to learn because they helped our ancestors survive. For example, people are more likely to fear snakes or heights than electrical outlets because avoiding natural dangers helped early humans stay alive.

• Habituation → Getting used to something after experiencing it repeatedly. For example, if you live near a noisy road, at first the traffic sounds might bother you, but over time, you stop noticing them.