LB

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

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

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)==

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

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

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.

What is habituation?

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

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

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

What is a response?

  • the behaviour that follows a stimulus

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