PSYC 201 - 04 : Chapter 5
Foundations of Learning and Conditioning
Definition of Learning: Learning refers to a relatively enduring change in behavior or knowledge as a result of experience.
Universal Context and Lifespan: Learning occurs in every setting, not just in structured classrooms, and takes place across all developmental stages and ages throughout life.
Definition of Conditioning: Conditioning is the basic learning process of forming associations between environmental events and behavioral responses.
Classical Conditioning: Associating Stimuli
Core Concept: Classical conditioning is a basic learning process that involves repeatedly pairing a neutral stimulus with a response-producing stimulus until the neutral stimulus comes to elicit the same response.
Mechanism of Behavioral Elicitation: The stimulus does not produce a completely new behavior; rather, it causes an existing reflexive behavior to occur in response to a new stimulus due to a learned association made between two stimuli.
Ivan Pavlov ():
Russian physiologist who discovered and systematically investigated classical conditioning.
Focused research on reflexive responses and the formation of associations between environmental signals and biological reflexes.
Terminology of Classical Conditioning:
Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): A natural stimulus that reflexively elicits a response without the need for prior learning (e.g., food placed in a dog's mouth).
Unconditioned Response (UCR): An unlearned, reflexive response that is elicited naturally by an unconditioned stimulus (e.g., salivation in response to food).
Conditioned Stimulus (CS): A formerly neutral stimulus that acquires the capacity to elicit a reflexive response after being paired with an unconditioned stimulus (e.g., the sound of a ticking metronome).
Conditioned Response (CR): A learned, reflexive response to a conditioned stimulus (e.g., salivation in response to the ticking metronome alone).
Factors Affecting Classical Conditioning:
Timing: Conditioning is most effective when the conditioned stimulus is presented immediately before the unconditioned stimulus.
Stimulus Generalization: The occurrence of a learned response not only to the original conditioned stimulus but also to other, similar stimuli.
Stimulus Discrimination: The occurrence of a learned response to a specific stimulus, but not to other, similar stimuli.
Higher Order Conditioning:
A procedure in which a conditioned stimulus from one learning trial functions as the unconditioned stimulus in a new conditioning trial.
Results in a second conditioned stimulus coming to elicit the conditioned response, even though it has never been directly paired with the original unconditioned stimulus.
Extinction and Spontaneous Recovery:
Extinction: The gradual weakening and apparent disappearance of conditioned behavior; occurs when the conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus.
Spontaneous Recovery: The reappearance of a previously extinguished conditioned response after a period of time without exposure to the conditioned stimulus.
Historical Contributions: Beyond Pavlov
Charles Henry Turner ():
Recognized as the first African American psychologist.
Conducted extensive comparative research on psychology and learning across multiple species.
Developed pioneering methodological techniques (such as the method later attributed as the von Frisch technique).
Published groundbreaking academic work despite being long ignored and systematically denied university faculty positions due to racial barriers.
Behaviorism and Conditioned Emotional Reactions
The Founding of Behaviorism:
Founded by John Watson (), who redefined psychology as the scientific study of observable behavior.
Behaviorism Definition: A school of psychology and theoretical viewpoint emphasizing the study of objectively observable behaviors, especially as they pertain to the process of learning.
Watson advocated for eliminating subjective mentalistic concepts and proposed that all human behavior is the result of conditioning and learning.
The Case of Little Albert (Watson and Rosalie Rayner):
A controversial experiment demonstrating that emotional responses can be classical conditioned in humans.
Before Conditioning: A white rat (neutral stimulus) elicited no fear. A loud noise produced by hitting a steel bar with a hammer (UCS) naturally elicited crying/fear (UCR).
During Conditioning: The white rat (neutral stimulus) was repeatedly paired with the loud noise (UCS).
After Conditioning: The white rat became a conditioned stimulus (CS) that elicited fear and crying (CR).
Generalization: Little Albert also showed fear toward other white, furry objects (such as a rabbit, a dog, and a seal-skin coat).
Extinction of Emotional Reactions:
Mary Cover Jones demonstrated that classical conditioning principles could be used to extinguish fear responses in young children, establishing early behavioral therapy techniques.
Biological Constraints and Evolutionary Perspectives
Historical Paradigm Shift: In the 1960s, behaviorists held the strict assumption that basic learning principles applied uniformly across all species. However, evidence of evolutionary influences challenged this view.
John Garcia and Conditioned Taste Aversions:
Conducted studies on taste aversion that violated standard classical conditioning models in several key ways:
Single Pairing Requirement: Conditioned taste aversion can occur after only a single pairing of a taste (CS) and illness (UCS).
Temporal Separation: The time interval between the CS and the UCS can extend up to several hours or longer, rather than requiring immediate presentation.
Stimulus Selectivity: Rats selectively associate internal feelings of illness with taste stimuli rather than visual or auditory stimuli.
Biological Preparedness: The concept that an organism is innately predisposed by evolutionary history to form certain associations between specific stimuli and responses more readily than others.
Operant Conditioning: Voluntary Behaviors and Consequences
Core Concept: Operant conditioning deals with the learning of active, voluntary behaviors that operate on the environment and are shaped and maintained by their consequences.
Edward L. Thorndike () and the Law of Effect:
The first psychologist to systematically investigate animal learning and how voluntary behaviors are influenced by their consequences using puzzle box experiments with cats.
Observed that learning occurs incrementally through trial and error.
Law of Effect:
Responses followed by a satisfying effect become strengthened and are more likely to recur in a particular situation.
Responses followed by a dissatisfying effect are weakened and less likely to recur in a particular situation.
Marked an important first step in understanding voluntary behavior modification, though Thorndike did not formalize his ideas into a complete theoretical model.
B. F. Skinner and Radical Behaviorism:
Argued that psychology should restrict itself exclusively to phenomena that can be objectively measured and verified—namely, outwardly observable behavior and environmental events.
Rejected internal thoughts, beliefs, emotions, or motives as scientific explanations for behavior.
Coined the term operant to describe any active behavior that operates upon the environment to generate consequences.
Core Reinforcement Mechanisms
Operant Conditioning Definition: The basic learning process that involves changing the probability that a response will be repeated by manipulating the consequences of that response.
Reinforcement: The occurrence of a stimulus or event following a response that increases the likelihood of that response being repeated in the future.
Discriminative Stimulus: A specific environmental stimulus in the presence of which a particular response is more likely to be reinforced, serving as a signal that reinforcement is available.
Positive vs. Negative Reinforcement:
Positive Reinforcement: A situation in which a response is followed by the addition or presentation of a reinforcing stimulus, increasing the likelihood that the response will recur in similar situations.
Negative Reinforcement: A situation in which a response results in the removal of, avoidance of, or escape from an aversive or punishing stimulus, increasing the likelihood that the response will recur in similar situations.
Comparison of Reinforcement Contingency Examples:
Positive Reinforcement Example: Studying diligently (Operant Behavior) leads to winning an academic award (Consequence), which results in increased studying in the future (Effect on Behavior).
Negative Reinforcement Example: Studying diligently (Operant Behavior) leads to avoiding the loss of an academic scholarship (Consequence), which results in increased studying in the future (Effect on Behavior).
Primary vs. Secondary Reinforcers:
Primary Reinforcer: A stimulus or event that is naturally or inherently reinforcing for a given species because it satisfies biological necessities (e.g., food, water).
Secondary (Conditioned) Reinforcer: A stimulus or event that has acquired reinforcing value by being paired or associated with a primary reinforcer (e.g., money, awards, frequent-flyer points).
Punishment and Behavioral Reduction
Core Concept: Punishment is a process that decreases the future occurrence or probability of a behavior.
Distinguishing Punishment from Negative Reinforcement:
Negative reinforcement increases the likelihood of a behavior being repeated by removing an unpleasant stimulus.
Punishment decreases the likelihood of a behavior being repeated by introducing an unpleasant stimulus or removing a pleasant one.
Comparison of Punishment and Negative Reinforcement Example:
Punishment Example: Wearing a warm but unstylish flannel shirt (Operant) leads to a friend making a hurtful comment like, "Nice shirt. Whose couch did you steal to get the fabric?" (Consequence), resulting in a decrease in wearing the shirt in the future (Effect on Behavior).
Negative Reinforcement Example: Wearing a warm but unstylish flannel shirt (Operant) leads to avoiding feeling cold and uncomfortable all day (Consequence), resulting in an increase in wearing the shirt in the future (Effect on Behavior).
Types of Punishment Identified by Skinner:
Positive Punishment (Punishment by Application): A situation in which an operant is followed by the presentation or addition of an aversive stimulus.
Negative Punishment (Punishment by Removal): A situation in which an operant is followed by the removal or subtraction of a reinforcing stimulus.
Summary Matrix of Operant Contingencies:
Stimulus Presented + Reinforcing Stimulus: Positive Reinforcement (Increases behavior)
Stimulus Presented + Aversive Stimulus: Positive Punishment (Decreases behavior)
Stimulus Removed + Reinforcing Stimulus: Negative Punishment (Decreases behavior)
Stimulus Removed + Aversive Stimulus: Negative Reinforcement (Increases behavior)
Shaping, Extinction, and Reinforcement Schedules
Shaping: The operant conditioning procedure of selectively reinforcing successively closer approximations of a goal behavior until the target goal behavior is displayed.
The Operant Chamber (Skinner Box): An experimental apparatus invented by B. F. Skinner to scientifically study the relationship between environmental events and active operant behaviors in lab animals.
Patterns of Reinforcement:
Continuous Reinforcement: A pattern of reinforcement in which every occurrence of a particular response is reinforced.
Partial Reinforcement: A pattern of reinforcement in which the occurrence of a particular response is only sometimes followed by a reinforcer.
Extinction in Operant Conditioning: The gradual weakening and disappearance of conditioned behavior when an emitted behavior is no longer followed by a reinforcer.
The Partial Reinforcement Effect: Behaviors that are conditioned using partial reinforcement schedules are significantly more resistant to extinction than behaviors conditioned using continuous reinforcement.
Schedules of Reinforcement (Skinner, 1956): Preset arrangements of partial reinforcement that produce distinct, predictable patterns and rates of responding:
Fixed-Ratio (FR) Schedule: Reinforcement occurs after a fixed number of responses. Produces a high rate of responding with a pause following reinforcement.
Variable-Ratio (VR) Schedule: Reinforcement occurs after an unpredictable average number of responses. Produces high, steady rates of responding that are highly resistant to extinction (e.g., slot machines).
Fixed-Interval (FI) Schedule: Reinforcement is delivered for the first response that occurs after a fixed time interval has elapsed. Produces a scalloped response pattern with a pause after reinforcement and increased responding as time draws near.
Variable-Interval (VI) Schedule: Reinforcement is delivered for the first response after an unpredictable average time interval has elapsed. Produces a moderate, steady rate of responding.
Practical Applications and Learned Helplessness
Behavior Modification Applications:
Coaching, Parenting, and Education: Used to decrease problem behaviors in schoolchildren.
Clinical Interventions: Applied behavior analysis used to improve social skills and reduce self-destructive behaviors in individuals with autism spectrum disorders.
Public Health: Applied strategies to reduce public smoking among teenagers.
Organizational Settings: Employers increase productivity by offering flexible work hours, casual dress codes, and worker-selected reinforcers.
Learned Helplessness (Martin Seligman, b. ):
Definition: Exposure to inescapable and uncontrollable aversive events produces a passive behavioral state where the organism stops making efforts to cope or escape.
First identified in experimental research with dogs subjected to uncontrollable shocks, later extended to human behavior.
Applied to explain clinical depression, habitual pessimism, and perceived lack of control.
Led to techniques that train individuals to overcome feelings of helplessness, helping found the field of positive psychology.
Comparative Analysis: Classical vs. Operant Conditioning
Type of Behavior:
Classical Conditioning: Involves reflexive, involuntary behaviors.
Operant Conditioning: Involves nonreflexive, active voluntary behaviors.
Source of Behavior:
Classical Conditioning: Response is elicited by a stimulus.
Operant Conditioning: Behavior is emitted by the organism.
Basis of Learning:
Classical Conditioning: Associating two stimuli ().
Operant Conditioning: Associating an active response and the consequence that follows it.
Responses Conditioned:
Classical Conditioning: Physiological and emotional responses.
Operant Conditioning: Active environmental behaviors.
Extinction Process:
Classical Conditioning: Conditioned response decreases when the conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented alone.
Operant Conditioning: Responding decreases when reinforcing consequences are eliminated.
Cognitive Aspects:
Classical Conditioning: Development of an expectation that the CS reliably predicts the UCS.
Operant Conditioning: Performance of behavior is influenced by the expectation of reinforcement or punishment.
Evolutionary Influences:
Classical Conditioning: Innate biological predispositions determine how easily an association between a particular stimulus and response is formed.
Operant Conditioning: Behaviors that align with natural or instinctive behaviors are more readily conditioned.
Cognitive Aspects and the Debunking of "Learning Styles"
Empirical Reality of "Learning Styles":
Popular educational theories suggest individuals learn best when instruction is tailored to a specific modality (e.g., visual, auditory, kinesthetic).
Systematic psychological research does not support the learning styles hypothesis.
While individuals clearly differ in learning preferences and specific cognitive abilities, empirical studies show no evidence that teaching students in a manner matching their preferred style increases learning retention or effectiveness.
Observational Learning and Social Modeling
Definition: Learning that occurs through observing and acquiring behaviors from the actions of others.
Albert Bandura (b. ):
Contended that the vast majority of human behavior is acquired through observational learning rather than direct conditioning alone.
Demonstrated that observing a model receive reinforcement (vicarious reinforcement) creates an expectation of reinforcement that directly alters the observer's behavior.
Classic Bobo Doll Experiments (Early 1960s):
Children observed adult models performing aggressive physical and verbal acts toward an inflatable Bobo doll.
When placed in a room with the doll, children who observed aggressive models imitated the specific behaviors, displaying novel aggressive acts.
Revealed that reinforcement is not necessary for learning to occur; learning can remain latent until incentive conditions favor performance.
Factors That Increase Likelihood of Imitation:
Observing models who are rewarded for their behavior.
Models who are warm and nurturing.
Models who possess power, authority, or control over the observer's life.
Models who share similar demographic characteristics (age, sex, interests).
Models perceived as having high social status.
Situations where the task to be imitated is neither excessively simple nor overly complex.
Instances where the observer lacks confidence in their own abilities in a given scenario.
Situations that are unfamiliar, ambiguous, or uncertain.
When the observer has been previously reinforced for imitating behaviors.
Mirror Neurons and Biological Substrates:
Specialized brain cells that activate both when an individual performs a motor action and when they observe another individual performing the exact same motor action.
Provide a hardwired neural architecture for imitation, motor learning, and social understanding.
Thought to serve as a critical foundation for empathy and social cognition, with potential implications for understanding psychological disorders involving social deficits.
Prosocial and Media Applications:
Educational media programs utilize modeling to promote health and social progress (e.g., MTV's 16 and Pregnant correlated with drops in teen birth rates).
Serial entertainment dramas used globally (e.g., Mexico, Asia, Latin America, Africa) to promote adult literacy, gender equality, and healthy lifestyle choices.
Organizations such as PCI Media Impact structure media narratives to foster positive behavioral change.