Chapter 7: Learning
Learning: An enduring change in behavior or mental processes due to experience. Learning occurs through various interactions with the environment, influencing an individual’s behavior over time.
Characteristics:
Relatively permanent: Learning results in lasting changes in behavior or cognitive processes, distinguishing it from temporary or fleeting changes.
Causes a change in behavior: Learning directly results in altered behaviors that are observable or manifest in different situations.
Occurs due to interactions with the environment: Learning is facilitated through experiences, interactions, and environmental stimuli that contribute to knowledge acquisition.
Types of Learning
Event-alone learning
Habituation: A process where an organism decreases its response intensity to repeated, non-threatening stimuli over time.
Sensitization: An increased response to a repeated stimulus, often triggered by arousal from other extraneous stimuli, leading to heightened sensitivity.
Event-event learning
Classical (Pavlovian) conditioning: Learning where a neutral stimulus (NS) becomes associated with a meaningful stimulus (US), leading to a conditioned response (CR).
Behavior-event learning
Instrumental (Operant) conditioning: A type of learning where behavior is influenced by the consequences that follow, either reinforcing or punishing the behavior.
Social learning
Observational learning: Learning through observing the behaviors of others, emphasizing the impact of social interactions on behavior.
Unlearned Behaviors
Innate Behaviors: Inborn or naturally occurring actions that do not require learning, such as reflexes.
Reflex: A stimulus-response relationship, which can be either learned or innate, representing automatic and involuntary responses.
Event-Alone Learning
Habituation
Definition: A decrease in response intensity to repeated stimuli over time; this is a fundamental mechanism of learning that helps organisms adapt to their environment.
Learning habituation vs. sensory habituation:
Learning habituation: Involves changes in behavior as a result of experience with the stimulus.
Sensory habituation: Involves a perceptual change wherein the information from the stimuli remains available unless relevance changes.
Sensitization
Definition: An increase in the strength of a response to a repeated stimulus, potentially resulting from prior experiences or external arousal, leading to heightened feelings or responses in situations.
Event-Event Learning
Classical (Pavlovian) Conditioning
Definition: A form of associative learning where a neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS) after being paired with an unconditioned stimulus (US).
Key Terms:
Unconditioned Stimulus (US): A stimulus that naturally triggers a response. (e.g., food causes salivation)
Unconditioned Response (UR): The unlearned response to the US (e.g., salivation when food is presented).
Neutral Stimulus (NS): Initially does not trigger a response (e.g., a bell).
Conditioned Stimulus (CS): A previously neutral stimulus that, after association, triggers a response (e.g., bell after conditioning).
Conditioned Response (CR): A learned response that occurs to a conditioned stimulus (e.g., salivation to the sound of a bell).
Conditioning Terms
Types of Pairings: Various pairings include short-delayed, long-delayed, trace, simultaneous, and backward conditioning, each influencing the strength and timing of the conditioned response.
Extinction and Recovery
Extinction: The process where conditioned responses diminish 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 rest or absence of conditioning.
Stimulus Generalization and Discrimination
Stimulus Generalization: The phenomenon where stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus can elicit a similar conditioned response, often leading to broader behavioral responses.
Stimulus Discrimination: The ability to distinguish between similar stimuli, leading to a varied conditioned response based on differences in stimuli.
Higher-Order Conditioning
Definition: A learning process that involves pairing a new conditioned stimulus (CS2) with an already established conditioned stimulus (CS1), leading to the new stimulus eliciting the conditioned response (CR).
Little Albert Experiment
Conducted by John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner, this experiment demonstrated how a child could develop a fear response (CR) to a previously neutral stimulus (a white rat) through classical conditioning. The child later generalized this fear to similar white objects.
Systematic Desensitization
A therapeutic technique aimed at reducing phobias and anxiety responses by gradually exposing the individual to the feared object or context while teaching coping strategies to mitigate fear responses.
Behavior-Event Learning
Operant Conditioning
Definition: A method of learning that relies on the consequences of behavior to shape responses. Behaviors followed by favorable outcomes are more likely to be repeated, while those followed by unfavorable outcomes are less likely to occur.
Key Concepts: Includes antecedents (stimuli present before the behavior), behaviors (responses or actions taken), and consequences (outcomes following the behavior).
E.L. Thorndike's Law of Effect: A principle stating that responses followed by satisfying outcomes are strengthened, while those with unsatisfying outcomes are weakened, establishing the foundation for operant conditioning.
Skinner and the Operant Process
B.F. Skinner expanded on Thorndike's work, introducing essential concepts such as reinforcement and punishment to explain how consequences influence learning.
Reinforcement Types
Positive Reinforcement: Adding a pleasant stimulus following a behavior to increase the likelihood of that behavior occurring again.
Negative Reinforcement: Removing an unpleasant stimulus to increase the likelihood of a behavior.
Positive Punishment: Introducing an unpleasant stimulus to decrease an undesirable behavior.
Negative Punishment: Taking away a pleasant stimulus to lower the occurrence of a behavior.
Schedules of Reinforcement
Continuous Reinforcement: Every instance of a behavior is reinforced, leading to rapid acquisition of the behavior.
Partial Reinforcement: Only some responses are reinforced, which can be structured in fixed or variable schedules, leading to more resistant behaviors to extinction compared to continuous reinforcement.
Social Learning Theory
Observational Learning (Bandura)
Observational learning suggests that animals and humans can learn by watching others, emphasizing the social dynamics in learning. Bandura's research highlighted several phases involved in observational learning:
Attention: The learner must pay attention to the behavior being modeled.
Retention: The learner must be able to remember the observed behavior.
Production: The learner must be capable of reproducing the behavior.
Motivation: The learner must desire to perform the behavior based on observed outcomes.
Mirror Neurons: Neurons that are activated both when performing an action and when observing the same action in others, indicating a neural basis for observational learning and empathy.