Learning

Learning (8)

  • Classical conditioning - learning to link stimuli to help anticipate an event to which we have a reaction (associative)

    • Pairing stimuli

  • Operant conditioning - changing behavioural responses to consequences 

    • Learning from experiences

    • Functionalism; whole response is valued rather than parts

  • Cognitive (latent) - learning that occurs without reinforcement and without being directly observable

    • Humans are able to acquire this form of learning for easier than any other being

    • Theory of mind (cognitive ability to understand that other people have different beliefs, desires, plans, and intentions than oneself)

  • Behaviourism - started with proponents that mental life was much less important than behaviour as a foundation for psychological research

    • Taking a more objective approach rather than introspective

    • B.F. Skinner & J.B. Watson

  • Thoughts have no relevance to psychology, rather environmental learning 

  • Ivan Pavlov - classical conditioning; experiment with dogs and stimulus

  • Unconditioned stimulus (US) - innate response due to nature

  • Conditioned stimulus (CS) - stimulus that triggers a conditioned response

  • Neutral stimulus (NS) - does not initially trigger response

  • Unconditioned response (UnR) - naturally occurring reaction to given stimulus

  • Conditioned response (CR) -  learned response triggered by the CS

  • Acquisition - pairing of NS and US >  CS then triggers a CR 

  • Extinction - diminishing of a CR that occurs when the CS is presented without the US

  • Spontaneous recovery - after extinction and a rest period, presenting the CS alone often leads to spontaneous recovery

  • Generalization - tendency to have a conditioned responses triggered by related stimuli (generalized anxiety disorder)

  • Discrimination - learned ability to only respond to a specific stimuli; preventing generalization (olympic athletes eliminating similar stimuli so only a very specific stimuli triggers the CR, the gunshot)

  • How do we learn through the consequences of our actions? - operant conditioning

    • Skinner box - rats press the lever bar to get food, then levers elicited stimuli changes

  • Thorndike's law - reinforced behaviour is more likely to be tried again, and punished behaviour is less likely to be attempted in the future

    • Organism initiated

    • Types of reinforcement - positive/additive (adding something desirable),  and negative/subtractive (removing something unpleasant)

  • Continuous reinforcement leads to quickly acquired desired behaviour

  • Partial reinforcement - target behaviour takes longer to acquire but persists longer without a reward

    • Combination is ideal in conditioning behaviour (ex. slot machines) 

    • Interval of times 

  • Fixed intervals (slow, unsustained responding; paychecks)

  • Variable interval (slow, consistent responding; ex. emails) 

  • Ratio of rewards

  • Fixed ratio (high rate of consistent responding) 

  • Variable ratio (high rate of consistent responding; resists extinction even when reinforcement stops)

  • Punishments - makes the target behaviour less likely to occur

    • Positive/additive - adding something unpleasant/aversive (ex. spanking)

    • Negative/subtractive - removing something pleasant/desired (ex. taking away toys)

  •  Corporal punishment

    • Punishment must occur immediately, consistently, and explanation for punishment while providing alternate action

    • Intensity of punishment has little impact on outcome

    • Most effective when it’s combined with reinforcement to direct behaviour, though only effective at inhibiting behaviour

    • No better than reinforcement

  • Behaviourism sees the world as stimulus > response; cognitivism sees the world as stimulus > organism > response

    • Recognising organism recognised the need to desire change for it to occur

    • Different interpretations of the same reactions given a situation and cognition

    • Implies will and self-control  

  • Learning through observation (form of latent learning) - Changes in behaviour occur by watching others, typically role models (Albert Bandura)

    • Learning that occurs without reinforcement; not directly and immediately observable

    • Aggression learned by observation - Bobo doll experiment  

  • Observing an aggressive model increases imitative physical and verbal responses

  • Reinforcement and immediate observation isn’t present, but learning is

  • Increase in non-imitative, suggest human can innovate based on observational learning