Introduction of Learning Concepts

• Learning – any relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs due to experience

• Behaviorism – school of psychology that accounts for behavior in terms of observable events

• Conditioning – involves forming associations between environmental stimuli and responses

  • Classical conditioning

  • Operant conditioning

• Other theories reject the idea of omitting mental processes from explanations of human behavior

  • Social learning theories

  • Cognitive theories

Classical Conditioning

New reflexes from old

• Pavlov was the first to describe and document the form of learning we now call classical conditioning

• Terminology :

  • Unconditioned stimulus (US) – stimulus eliciting an automatic or reflexive response

  • Unconditioned response (UR) – response that is automatically produced

  • Conditioned stimulus (CS) – an originally neutral stimulus that comes to elicit a conditioned response after being paired with a US

  • Conditioned response (CR) – response that is elicited by a CS

• Learning occurs when a neutral stimulus is regularly paired with a US and the neutral stimulus becomes a CS that elicits a CR that is similar to the original, unlearned one

• Classical conditioning is also called Pavlovian or respondent conditioning

Principles of Classical Conditioning

• Extinction – when the conditioned stimulus is presented repeatedly without the unconditioned stimulus, the conditioned response eventually disappears

• Spontaneous recovery – after a response has been extinguished, it may spontaneously reappear after the passage of time, with exposure to the conditioned stimulus

• Higher‐order conditioning – a neutral stimulus can become a conditioned stimulus by being paired with an already established conditioned stimulus

• Stimulus generalization – after a stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus for some response, similar stimuli may produce the same reaction

• Stimulus discrimination – different responses are triggered by stimuli that resemble the conditioned stimulus in some way

What is really learned in classical conditioning?

• For effective conditioning to occur, it is not enough to pair the stimuli; the neutral stimulus must reliably signal the unconditioned one

• Conditioning is less certain in everyday life

Classical Conditioning in Real Life

• Learning to like

• Learning to fear

  • Some things may be more easily learned because of a biological predisposition based on evolutionary considerations

  • Little Albert example

  • Therapy techniques that have developed to reverse classically conditioned fears include counterconditioning and systematic desensitization

• Accounting for taste – food and odor likes and dislikes

• Reacting to medical treatments

Operant Conditioning

The birth of radical behaviorism

• Introduced at the turn of the twentieth century

• Thorndike observed that behavior is controlled by its consequences

• B.F. Skinner – behavior is explainable by looking outside of the individual

The Consequences of Behavior

• A response can lead to three types of consequences: neutral consequences, reinforcers : increase the probability that the response they follow will recur, and punishers : make the response they follow less likely to recur

• Consequences are most effective when there is no delay between response and consequence

Primary and secondary reinforcers and punishers

• Primary reinforcers satisfy biological needs

• Primary punishers are inherently unpleasant

• Secondary reinforcers are reinforcing through association with other (possibly primary) reinforcers

• Secondary punishers are punishing through association with other punishers

Positive and negative reinforcers and punishers

• Reinforcers – always increase the likelihood of a response

  • Positive reinforcement – something pleasant is presented

  • Negative reinforcement – something unpleasant is removed

• Punishers – decrease the likelihood of a response

  • Positive punishment – something unpleasant occurs

  • Negative punishment – something pleasant is removed

Principles of operant conditioning

1. Skinner boxes and cumulative recorders are often used when conditioning animals

2. Extinction – a previously learned response stops occurring because it is no longer reinforced

3. Spontaneous recovery is the return of a response that has been extinguished

4. Stimulus generalization – a response occurs to stimuli that resemble the stimuli present during the original learning

5. Stimulus discrimination – the ability to distinguish between similar stimuli and to respond only to the one that results in the reinforcer

6. Discriminative stimulus is a signal whether a response will pay off; it is said to exert stimulus control over the response because it signals whether the conditions in which the response will be reinforced are present

7. Schedule of reinforcement – the pattern of delivery of reinforcements; can have powerful effects on rate, form, and timing of behavior

   • Continuous reinforcement – reinforcing a response each time it occurs; most effective for initial learning

   • Partial or intermittent schedules – reinforcement occurs only after a certain amount of time has passed or only after a certain number of responses have been made

   • Superstitious behavior can be learned when behavior is coincidentally reinforced

   • Reinforcement on an intermittent schedule makes a response more resistant to extinction when reinforcement is discontinued

8. Shaping - method of getting a response to occur in the first place by reinforcing successive approximations to the desired response

9. Principles of conditioning are limited by genetic dispositions and physical characteristics

10. Skinner : The man and the myth

Operant Conditioning in Real Life

• Operant principles may explain why people do not always behave as we or they would like

• Behavior modification – the use of classical and operant conditioning techniques in real world settings

Pros and Cons of Punishment

• Punishment is widely used as a means of controlling behavior; punishment is appropriate in situations where the individual's behavior is dangerous

• Punishment is often administered inappropriately or in a state of rage

• The recipient often responds with anxiety, fear, or rage

• Effects can be temporary and may depend on the presence of the punisher

• Most behavior is hard to punish immediately

• Punishment conveys little information about how to behave differently

• An action intended to punish may be reinforcing because it brings attention

Guidelines

• No physical abuse

• Describe appropriate behavior

• Reinforce desirable behavior as soon as possible

• Alternative to punishment – combine extinction of undesirable behavior with the reinforcement of desirable behavior

The problems with reward

• Rewards must be tied to the activity being reinforced

• Intrinsic reinforcers involve enjoyment of the task itself, feelings of accomplishment

• Extrinsic reinforcement may undermine intrinsic reinforcement because the behavior is now viewed as “work” so they should be used sparingly

Learning and the Mind

• Latent learning

  • Tolman’s experiment with rats demonstrated latent learning

  • Latent learning is learning that is not immediately revealed through a change in behavior

  • Latent learning occurs without obvious reinforcement

  • Perceptions of the model and of themselves influence individuals’ learning

• Social‐cognitive learning theory

  • The importance of observational learning was demonstrated by Bandura