General Psychology

1
General Psychology

• Chapter 5
• Learning

2
What is Learning?

• Demonstrated by a relatively permanent change in
  behavior that occurs as a result of practice or
  experience
• Learning cannot be observed directly
• Only overt behavior can be measured
• Learned changes are neither fleeting nor cyclical
• Learned changes are due to experience, not
  maturation or adaptation

3
Learning Conditioning

• Not technically synonymous, but most basic types
  of learning will be called conditioning in this
  text
• Organisms can learn maladaptive habits as easily
  as positive, adaptive ones

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Classical Conditioning

• Ivan Pavlov Russian psychologist, won a Nobel
  Prize in 1904 for his study of the processes of
  digestion
• Salivation reflex in dogs
• Present food powder, dogs reflexively salivate
• Dogs began salivating before food powder put in
  their mouths, either at sight of food, or person
  delivering food
• This is called classical conditioning

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Classical Conditioning, Contd.

• Unconditioned Stimulus UCS stimulus that can
  already elicit a response
• Unconditioned Response UCR response that is
  already elicited by a stimulus
• Conditioning Stimulus CS a new stimulus we
  deliver at the same time we give the old stimulus
• Conditioned Response CR response to the
  conditioned stimulus

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Basics of Classical Conditioning

• Food Powder (UCS) Salivate (UCR)
• Add a neutral stimulus (like a bell tone) that
  produces minimal response
• Orientating reflex simple unlearned response of
  attending to a new or unusual stimulus
• Habituation organism comes to ignore a stimulus
  of little or no consequence
• When dog learns not to orient (i.e., habituates),
  study begins
• UCS (Food) CS (Bell) Salivate
  (CR)
• CS (Bell) Salivate (CR)

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Basics of Classical Conditioning

• Conditioned the learned component of
  classical conditioning
• Unconditioned no learning involved
• CR and UCR NOT identical
• CR usually weaker than UCR, regardless of number
  of pairings

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Processes Phenomena of Classical Conditioning

• Acquisition stage during which CS and USC are
  paired, and strength of CR increases
• Extinction strength of CR decreases with
  repeated presentations of CS without UCS
• Generalization CR elicited by stimuli different
  from, but similar to, CS

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Processes Phenomena of Classical Conditioning

• Discrimination an organism learns to make a
  response only to one CS, but not to other CSs
• Spontaneous Recovery after extinction and rest
  interval
• If CS is then paired with UCS, the strength of CR
  increases (relearning)
• If CS presented without UCS, the strength of CR
  diminishes, as it did during extinction

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Figure 5.1 The stages of conditioning.
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Figure 5.2 The generalization gradient.
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Significance of Classical Conditioning

• The Little Albert experiment was an experiment
  showing classical conditioning, conducted by John
  B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner at Johns Hopkins
  University.

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Little Albert

• In 1920, Watson and Rayner performed a
  conditioning experiment on an infant by the name
  of Albert B., a child whose mother was a nurse in
  the hospital infirmary.
• He was given a white rat and his reaction was
  noted to be playful. He had no fear of the white
  rat, and was even comfortable picking the rodent
  up while playing with it.

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Significance of Classical Conditioning

• First, a white rat was a neutral stimulus for
  Albert, eliciting no fear.
• When the rat was given to Albert, the
  psychologists made a loud noise, using a metal
  pipe and a hammer.
• The loud, sudden noise made Albert cry (because a
  sudden, loud noise is an unconditioned stimulus
  for fear).
• After just a couple pairings, Albert showed fear
  of the rat.

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Figure 5.3 Conditioning Little Albert.
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Little Albert, Contd.

• Unfortunately, Albert's mother removed the child
  before he could be counter-conditioned.
• Some have questioned the ethics of this
  experiment!

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Treating Fear with Classical Conditioning

• Systematic desensitization introduced by Joseph
  Wolfe to treat phobic disorders (intense,
  irrational fear of an object or event that leads
  a person to avoid contact with it).

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3 Stages of Systematic Desensitization

• Therapist trains person to relax.
• Anxiety hierarchy is constructed, listing, in
  order, stimuli that gradually decrease in their
  ability to elicit anxiety.
• The person relaxes, thinks about the least
  anxious stimulus on the list, and continues to
  proceed to the next highest, etc.

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Counterconditioning

• Learning a new response to replace an old one
• A person cannot be relaxed and anxious at the
  same time. So often, relaxation replaces anxiety.
• This process works best for fears or anxieties
  associated with specific, easily identifiable
  stimuli.

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Classical Conditionings Role in Drug Addiction

• Tolerance often develops because of frequency
  of use more and more of the drug is necessary
  to produce desired effect
• Could be a biological phenomenon or a conditioned
  response
• Environmental cues become stimuli that produce a
  classically conditioned reaction
• In new environment, the same dose of drug
  (without tolerance cues) can lead to overdose

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Basics of Classical Conditioning

• Effective CSs provide information about the
  environment (e.g., when a bell rings, food is
  likely to appear)
• Some responses are more likely to be associated
  with some stimuli than with others (e.g.,
  pleasant feelings of a vacation, with memories of
  a sunset at the beach)

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Basics of Classical Conditioning

• Best to present the CS within a second or two of
  the UCS
• However, interval between CS and UCS for taste
  aversion may be hours long, rather than seconds

23
Operant Conditioning

• Changes rate or probability of response on the
  basis of the consequences that result from those
  responses
• As Skinner put it, operant conditioning shows us
  that behaviors are controlled by their
  consequences

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Operant Conditioning

• Thorndikes law of effect claims that responses
  that lead to a satisfying state of affairs tend
  to be repeated responses that do not lead to a
  satisfying state of affairs tend not to be
  repeated

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Figure 5.4 Thorndikes Law of Effect.
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Demonstrating Operant Conditioning

• Operant conditioning chamber
• In box, food pellets can be dispensed through a
  tube into the food cup when a lever on bar is
  pressed
• Base rate of response number of times a rat
  will press lever as it explores environment
  before food is dispensed
• Rate of lever pressing will increase when food
  appears after lever press

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Figure 5.5 A drawing of a typical operant
chamber.
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Course of Conditioning

• Shaping reinforces successive approximations of
  the response you want to condition
• Acquisition process in operant conditioning in
  which the rate of a reinforced response increases
• Extinction decrease in rate of response as
  reinforcers are withheld
• Spontaneous Recovery return of extinguished
  response following rest interval

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Figure 5.6 The stages of operant conditioning.
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Generalization and Discrimination

• Generalization responses conditioned in the
  presence of a specific stimulus appear in the
  presence of other similar stimuli
• Discrimination training occurs when responses
  made to appropriate stimuli are reinforced and
  responses to inappropriate stimuli are ignored or
  extinguished
• Largely a matter of differential reinforcement
• Learning when it is okay to do something and when
  it is not is an example of discrimination learning

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Figure 5.7 Discrimination training.
32
Reinforcement

• Reinforcement a process that increases the
  rate, or probability, of the response it follows
• Reinforcer actual stimulus used in the process
  of reinforcement that increases the probability
  or strength of response

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Primary Secondary Reinforcers

• Primary Reinforcer
• Stimulus (usually biologically or
  physiologically based) that increases the rate of
  a response with no previous experience or
  learning required

• Secondary Reinforcer
• Conditioned, acquired or learned it
  increases the rate of response because of an
  association with other reinforcers

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Positive Negative Reinforcers

• Positive Reinforcer
• Stimulus given to an organism after a response is
  made that increases or maintains the rate of a
  response

• Negative Reinforcer
• Stimulus that increases or maintains the rate of
  a response that precedes its removal

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Figure 5.8 The major differences between
positive and negative reinforcement.
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Examples of Negative Reinforcement

• Escape conditioning learning to get out of an
  unpleasant or painful situation once in it
• Avoidance conditioning learning not to get into
  an unpleasant or painful situation before it
  occurs

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Learned Helplessness

• If there is no way to avoid or escape from a
  painful stimulus, an animal may display learned
  helplessness and stop even trying to avoid it or
  escape from it

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Schedules of Reinforcement

• Continuous Reinforcement (CRF)
• Reinforces each and every response after it occurs

• Partial Reinforcement Schedule
• Reinforces a response less frequently than every
  time it occurs

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Reinforcement Schedules

• Consistency of
  Contingency
• Fixed Variable
• Contingency
• Based on Ratio
• Interval

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Partial Reinforcement, Contd.

• Partial reinforcement effect the phenomenon
  that a behavior maintained on a partial schedule
  of reinforcement is more resistant to extinction
  than one maintained on CRF

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Figure 5.9 The effects of a schedule of
reinforcement on extinction.
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Can Any Behavior Be Operantly Conditioned?

• For the most part, YES!
• With patience, nearly any behavior can be
  operantly conditioned to change its rate of
  occurrence.
• However, there is an instinctive drift!
• Breland experiments

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Punishment

• Punishment occurs when a stimulus delivered to an
  organism decreases the rate, or probability, of a
  response that preceded it
• Delivered after response
• Usually hurtful or painful

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Punishment as Behavior Modifier

• To be effective, it should be delivered
  immediately after a response
• It needs to be administered consistently
• It may decrease overall behavior levels
• When responses are punished, alternatives should
  be introduced

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Punishment as Behavior Modifier

• What is the intent of the parent when he spanks a
  child?
• Has several negative consequences, including the
  fact that it provides a model of aggressive
  behavior
• Probably best to find other means of punishment
• Occasional spanking is not likely to have serious
  detrimental effects

46
Latent Learning and Cognitive Maps

• Tolman and Honzik (rat experiments) demonstrate
  latent learning
• Latent learning hidden learning that is not
  demonstrated in performance until it is
  reinforced
• Humans and other animals demonstrate latent
  learning and formation of cognitive maps

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Figure 5.10 The performance of rats in a
complicated maze.
48
Social Learning

• Albert Banduras social learning theory refers to
  idea that learning often takes place through
  observation and imitation of models
• Social because it is learned from others
• Cognitive because what is learned through
  observations are changes in cognitions and may
  never be expressed in behavior

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Outcomes of Social Learning

• Person can learn a new behavior
• Person can inhibit a behavior if the model is
  seen punished for it
• Person can disinhibit a behavior after watching a
  model, thus performing behaviors that had
  previously been inhibited (reduced in frequency
  of occurrence)

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Observational Learning

• Classic experiment by Bandura, Ross, and Ross in
  1963
• Involved children observing an adult model behave
  aggressively toward a plastic Bobo doll
• Children who had seen aggressive behaviors of the
  model were more aggressive in their play than
  were the children in the control group

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Vicarious Learning

• Vicarious reinforcement leads to the
  acquisition of new behaviors or disinhibition of
  behavior
• Vicarious punishment leads to inhibition of
  behavior

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Ethnic Differences in Learning Styles

• Three dimensions of learning style in your text
• Perceptual modalities
• Information processing
• Personality patterns

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Ethnic Differences in Learning Styles

• Caucasians are field-independent
• Hispanics are field-dependent, group-oriented,
  cooperative learners
• African Americans prefer visually presented
  materials and cooperative learning activities
• Asian Americans use logical, sequential
  reasoning, and like to work on their own
• Native Americans prefer a holistic approach to
  learning