Learning Psychology

Learning

How Do We Learn?

• Learning: Defined as a relatively enduring change in behavior resulting from experience.

  • Associations develop through conditioning.

    • Stimulus-Stimulus (S-S) associations: Form the basis of classical or Pavlovian conditioning.

    • Response-Stimulus (R-S) associations: Form the basis of operant conditioning.

Types of Learning Processes

There are three primary types of learning processes:

1. Nonassociative Learning:

   • Learning about a single stimulus, such as a sight or sound, in the external world.

   • Involves changes in behavioral response to a stimulus over time.

   • Includes:

     • Habituation: Our behavioral response to a stimulus decreases after repeated exposure.

     • Sensitization: Our behavioral response to a stimulus increases after repeated exposure.

2. Associative Learning:

   • Learning the relationship between two pieces of information (e.g., two stimuli, or a response and an event).

   • Includes:

     • Classical (Pavlovian) conditioning: When we learn that a stimulus predicts another stimulus (S-S).

     • Operant (Instrumental) conditioning: When we learn that a behavior leads to a certain outcome (R-S).

3. Observational Learning:

   • Learning by watching how others behave.

Nonassociative Learning: Habituation and Sensitization

Habituation

• Definition: A decrease in behavioral response after repeated exposure to a stimulus.

• Context: This is particularly true if the stimulus is neither harmful nor rewarding.

• Adaptive Significance: Considered adaptive for survival as it allows individuals to ignore inconsequential stimuli and focus on important ones (e.g., ignoring constant background noise to detect a predator).

Sensitization

• Definition: An increase in behavioral response after repeated exposure to a stimulus.

• Context: Stimuli that most often lead to sensitization are those that are threatening or painful.

• Adaptive Significance: Considered adaptive for human evolution and survival, as it makes individuals more vigilant and reactive to potentially dangerous stimuli, preparing them for action.

Associative Learning: Classical Conditioning

Definition and Core Concepts

• Classical (Pavlovian) conditioning: A neutral object (or stimulus) comes to elicit a response when it is associated with an emotionally charged stimulus that already produces that response.

• Key Figures: Influenced by Ivan Pavlov's research on the salivary reflex in dogs, for which he won a Nobel Prize in $1904$ for his work on the digestive system.

  • Pavlov observed dogs salivated to cues (like seeing food bowls) that previously had been neutral, suggesting a learned response.

• Components of Classical Conditioning:

  • Neutral Stimulus (NS): Anything the animal can see or hear that is not initially associated with the reflex being tested (e.g., a ringing bell, metronome sound).

  • Unconditioned Stimulus (US): A stimulus that naturally and automatically elicits a response without any prior learning (e.g., food, meat powder).

  • Unconditioned Response (UR): A response that does not have to be learned; it's a natural reflex elicited by the US (e.g., salivation to food).

  • Conditioned Stimulus (CS): A previously neutral stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus, comes to elicit a conditioned response (e.g., the metronome sound after being paired with food).

  • Conditioned Response (CR): A response to a conditioned stimulus; a response that has been learned (e.g., salivation to the metronome sound).

• Conditioning Trials: A CS and a US are paired to produce a reflex.

• Test Trials: The CS alone is tested to measure the effect on the reflex and determine if the NS has become a CS.

Processes in Classical Conditioning

• Acquisition: The gradual formation of an association between the conditioned stimulus (CS) and the unconditioned stimulus (US).

  • This is the initial learning phase.

  • Critical elements: Contiguity (the CS and US occur close together in time) and contingency (the CS reliably predicts the US).

  • The CR is typically stronger when there is a very brief delay between the CS and the US (e.g., scary music starting just before a frightening movie scene).

• Stimulus Generalization: Occurs when stimuli that are similar, but not identical, to the conditioned stimulus produce the conditioned response.

  • Example: If a red light (CS) produces a CR, similar colors like orange or pink might also elicit a CR.

• Stimulus Discrimination: A differentiation between two similar stimuli when only one of them is consistently associated with the unconditioned stimulus.

  • Example: If a red light (CS) produces a CR, but an orange light never does, the individual learns to discriminate and does not produce a CR to the orange light.

• Extinction: A process in which the conditioned response is weakened when the conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus.

  • The animal learns that the association is no longer adaptive.

  • Important Note: Extinction inhibits the associative bond but does not eliminate it—it is a learning of new information (that the CS no longer predicts the US), not forgetting of the original association.

• Spontaneous Recovery: A process in which a previously extinguished conditioned response reemerges after the presentation of the conditioned stimulus following a rest period.

  • This recovery is typically weaker and will fade again unless the CS is paired with the US once more.

  • Provides evidence that extinction is not forgetting.

Special Cases and Applications

• Conditioned Taste Aversions:

  • Definition: An association between eating a food and getting sick.

  • Characteristics: Can form in just one trial, even if the illness occurs hours later (violating typical contiguity rules of classical conditioning).

  • Specificity: Most likely to occur with novel foods and can be formed even if the illness was caused by something other than the food itself (e.g., a virus).

  • Adaptive Significance: Animals that associate a certain flavor with illness and avoid it are more likely to survive and pass on their genes, highlighting evolutionary preparedness.

• Biological Preparedness:

  • Psychologist Martin Seligman argued that animals are genetically programmed to fear specific objects more easily (e.g., snakes, spiders).

  • This suggests that certain associations are learned faster and stronger due to evolutionary predisposition.

• Phobias:

  • Definition: A learned fear that is out of proportion (exaggerated) to the real threat of an object or situation.

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