Learning

• Process of    acquiring      through experience new information or behaviors

• Two important parts:

  • Classical conditioning:     associate       two stimuli & thus to anticipate events

  • Operant conditioning: learn to associate a response and its        consequences   .

• Learning has a      big       impact on behavior

Types of Learning

• Simple Learning

  • Habituation: Learning      NOT       to respond to the repeated presentation of a stimulus.

  • Mere Exposure Effect: A learned preference for stimuli to which we have been previously exposed

• Complex learning

  • Behavioral Learning: Forms of learning, such as       classical       and operant conditioning which can be described in terms of stimuli and responses.

  • Classical conditioning is more simple learning, operant conditioning is more complex learning.

Vocabulary

• Associative learning: involves the encoding of           relationships        between events

• Stimulus: any        object       or        event         that elicits a sensory or behavioral response in an organism

• Respondent behavior: behavior that is evoked by a specific         stimulus          and that will consistently and predictably occur if the stimulus is presented

• Operant behavior: behavior that produces an effect on the      environment       and whose likelihood of     recurrence                        is influenced by consequences

Classical Conditioning

Pavlov & his experiments

• Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)

• Classical conditioning: one learns to link two or more stimuli &      anticipate    events

• Behaviorism (Watson): view that psychology

  • Should be        objective    science

  • Studies behavior        without      reference to mental processes

• Pavlov speculated what dog was thinking/feeling when drooling in anticipation of food

  • Experiment: isolated dogs in room, secured with harness, attached device to divert saliva into measuring instrument

Acquisition

• In classical conditioning:     initial stage     when one links NS & US so that the NS begins triggering the CR

  • In other words, attainment of a new behavior

• In operant conditioning: strengthening of reinforced response

• Conditioning helps animals survive & reproduce

• Higher-order conditioning: new NS can become a new CS    without       the presence of a US

  • Become associated with a previously CS

Extinction & Spontaneous Recovery

• Extinction:     weakening      of CR, occurs when US does not follow a CS

  • I.e.: dogs salivating less & less over time

• Spontaneous recovery: reappearance of a (   weakend    ) CR after a pause

• Generalization: tendency to respond likewise to a stimuli                             to the CS

• Discrimination: ability  to distinguish      to between CS and other irrelevant stimuli

Pavlov’s Legacy

• Classical conditioning is a  basic      form of learning

• Virtually all organism learn to adapt to their environment via classical conditioning

Applications

• Former drug users

• Immune system

Operant Conditioning

Skinner & his experiments

• Operant conditioning: organisms associate their own actions with       consequences       .

• Law of effect:

  • Actions followed by  reinforcers increase

  • Actions followed by  punishment decrease

• BF Skinner (1904-1990): pigeons natural walking & pecking behaviors

  • Operant chamber: box with bar where animal can control food or water reinforcer

• Reinforcement: any event that strengthens (increase the       frequency        of) a preceding response

Shaping Behavior

• Shaping: OC procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer & closer approximations of the     desired           behavior

• We    unconsciously      reinforce & shape others’ behaviors everyday - even if not intentionally

Types of Reinforcers

• Primary reinforcers: unlearned

• Conditioned (secondary) reinforcers: get power through       learned        association with primary reinforcers

Reinforcement schedules

• Pattern that defines how often a desired response will be reinforced

• Continuous reinforcement schedule: reinforcing the desired response        every time           it occurs

• Partial reinforcement schedule: reinforcing a response only part of the time

  • Results in slower        acquisition         but greater resistance to extinction

Punishment

• Vent that tends to            decrease          the behavior it follows

Skinner’s Legacy/Applications

• Dehumanizing?

• Describe an application:

Biology, Cognition, & Learning

Limits on Classical Conditioning

• We don’t learn all associations equally well - limited by biological predispositions

• Learning is     essential     .

• Taste aversion: learned association between the taste of a particular food and   illness   such that the food is considered to be the cause of the illness.

Limits on Operant Conditioning

• Biological constraints predispose organisms to learn associations that are naturally adaptive

• Biofeedback: process that enables an individual to learn how to change physiological activity for the purposes of improving health and performance

Cognitive Processes & Classical Conditioning

• Animals may learn to except a US & may be aware of link between stimuli & responses

Cognitive Processes & Operant Conditioning

• Cognitive map: mental representation of      the layout   of one’s environment

• Latent learning: learning that occurs but is not    apparent   until there is an incentive to demonstrate it

• Intrinsic motivation: desiree to perform a behavior effectively for its      own      sake

• Extrinsic motivation desire to perform a behavior to      receive    promised rewards OR avoid threatened punishment

Observational Learning

Mirror & Imitation in the Brain

• Albert Bandura (1925-2021)

• Observational learning: learn without direct experience, by      observing    & imitating others

• Modeling: process of observing & imitating a    specific     behavior

• Mirror neurons:    frontal      lobe neurons that some believe fire when performing certain actions or when observing others doing so

  • Brain’s mirroring of another’s action may enable imitation &    empathy   .

Applications

• Prosocial behavior:      positive     , constructive, helpful behavior

• Antisocial behavior: Hostility, significant irritability, agitation, aggression or violence

• Social learning theory: suggests that social behavior is learned by observing and imitating the behavior of others