Learning

Wednesday, January 3rd, 2023

Obj:

• Define learning and identify some basic forms of learning
• Explain behaviorism’s view of learning
• Describe associative learning and its two main types

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What is learning?

• The process of acquiring through experience new and relatively enduring information or behaviours
• The emphasis here is on enduring….learning is very different from cramming
• To truly learn, is to own the knowledge, skill, or idea

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What are some ways we learn?

• We learn to expect and prepare for significant events such as food or pain ==(classical conditioning)==
• We learn to repeat acts that bring rewards and avoid acts that bring unwanted results ==(operant conditioning)==
• We learn by observing events and people ==(observational learning)==
• We learn things we have neither experienced or observed ==(cognitive learning)==

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What is associative learning?

• Learning that certain events occur together
• The events may be two stimuli (as in classical conditioning) or a response and its consequence (as in operant conditioning).
• The associations may be positive or negative

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What are two types of associative learning?

• Classical Conditioning
  • In classical conditioning, we learn to associate two stimuli and thus anticipate events.
  • Stimuli are things we do not control and that we respond to automatically (involuntary responses)
• Operant Conditioning
  • In operant conditioning, we learn to associate a response (our behaviour) and its consequence. The behavior is voluntary, we operate on the environment to produce a consequence

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How do associations lead to habits?

• Learned associations also feed our habitual behaviors
• The reason so many of us eat popcorn in the movie theater is that we have come to associate the movie theater with buttery popcorn.

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What is habituation?

• Habituation is what happens when repeated stimulation produces waning responsiveness.

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What is the difference between habituation and sensory adaptation?

• Habituation
  • Habituation is a type of learning or relatively permanent change in behavior that involves a reduced response as a result of repeated but not constant exposure
• Sensory Adaptation
  • Sensory adaptation is a perceptual phenomenon that occurs when the brain stops recognizing a constant and unchanging stimulus

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What is a stimulus?

• any event or situation that evokes a response
  • so… for the sea slug… the stimulus was the squirt from the choppy ocean waters or the electric shock from the researcher.
  • For the popcorn eater…the stimulus was the movie the purchasing and eating of popcorn

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What is a response?

• the behaviour that follows a stimulus

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How is classical conditioning defined?

• Classical conditioning is a type of associative learning that involves learned involuntary responses.
• We associate stimuli that we do not control, and we respond automatically (exhibiting respondent behaviour)
• Involuntary responses include salivation, blinking, sweating, and cringing or the automatic bodily reactions to strong emotions such as fear

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