Introduction to Psychology

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Introduction to Psychology

• Chapter 8 Learning and Conditioning

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Behaviorism

• John Watson
• B.F. Skinner
• Observable behavior
• Learning by association
• Reinforcement and punishment

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Behaviorism

• Give me a dozen healthy infants, well formed,
  and my own special world to bring them up in and
  Ill guarantee to take any one at random and
  train him to become any type of specialist I
  might select- doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant,
  and yes- beggar man and thief --John Watson

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Learning

• Learning a relatively permanent change in
  behavior that can be attributed to experience

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The Role of Learning

• Do some psychological characteristics result from
  learning?

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Classical Conditioning

• We learn when one event becomes associated with
  another
• Stimulus-response chains

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Stimulus/Response

• Stimulus the presentation of something (i.e.
  food, a noise, music, a puppy)
• Response a reaction to the stimulus

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Classical Conditioning

• The behavioral technique of pairing a naturally
  occurring stimulus and response chain with a
  different stimulus in order to produce a response
  which is not naturally occurring
• Example naturally occurring stimulus and
  response loud noise and flinching
• We can pair a different stimulus with a loud
  noise to conditioning an unnatural response

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Classical Conditioning

• Pavlov
• Dogs to study digestion
• Salivation would occur when meat powder was
  placed in the dogs mouths

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Classical Conditioning

• Salivation started to occur before the meat
  powder was given
• The dogs would salivate when Pavlov entered the
  room

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Classical Conditioning

• The dogs started to associate Pavlovs entrance
  with food
• Can the dogs be conditioned to associate a
  ringing bell with food?

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Classical ConditioningHow does it work?

• Unconditioned Stimulus a naturally occurring
  stimulus it brings about a natural (as opposed
  to learned) response
• Example food a stimulus that would produce a
  naturally occurring response
• We dont need to learn to respond to food

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Classical ConditioningHow does it work?

• Unconditioned response a response that occurs
  naturally and does not have to be learned
• i.e. salivating to food a natural response

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Classical ConditioningHow does it work?

• Conditioned stimulus the stimulus brings about a
  response due to learning.
• Example a bell (the conditioned stimulus) brings
  about salivation due to learning this wouldnt
  occur naturally
• This takes many repeated pairings with the
  unconditioned stimulus (the meat)

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Classical ConditioningHow does it work?

• Conditioned response the response that is not
  naturally occurring, but has been learned or
  conditioned.

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Putting it together....

• US (meat powder) ------? UR (salivation to meat)
• CS (bell)-? US (meat powder) ---?UR (salivation
  to meat)
• We repeat this pattern many times.....
• Then
• CS (bell) -----? CR (salivation to the bell)

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John WatsonLittle Albert study

• Conditioned the child to fear a bunny
• Loud noise
• Fear (toward the noise)
• Bunny
• Fear (toward the bunny)

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Little Albert study

• US loud noise
• UR fear (toward noise)
• CS bunny
• US fear (toward bunny)

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Classical ConditioningLittle Albert study

• US (loud noise) --------? UR (fear of noise)
• CS (bunny) ----? US (loud noise) --? UR (fear of
  noise)
• CS (bunny) ---? CR (fear of bunny)

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To Review....

• Classical conditioning involves learned through
  association
• We can learn to fear, or respond in some way to
  previously neutral stimuli

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Higher order conditioning

• Extending the conditioning process by a step
• Example clap, ring the bell, then salivation
  occurs
• we dont need to present food because the bell
  has already conditioned the response
• Clapping would eventually cause salivation

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Extinction

• We can weaken the conditioned response
  (salivation to the bell) by removing the
  reinforcement
• If we never introduce food again, the dogs will
  eventually stop salivating to the bell

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Spontaneous Recovery

• Even after extinction, the learned response may
  come back suddenly
• There may be food this time

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Stimulus Generalization

• A similar stimulus to the CS (the bunny) might
  trigger the response
• We can condition fear of the rabbit, and then we
  can condition fear of other, similar stimuli

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Stimulus Discrimination

• Learned ability to respond differently to
  different stimuli
• If certain stimuli are no longer associated with
  the noise, the fear reaction will not be elicited
• i.e. introduce the mouse but no noise, eventually
  Albert will fear the bunny, but not the mouse

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Real-life application

• Phobias intense, unrealistic fear reactions to a
  stimulus or situation
• Conditioned emotional response we learn to fear
  certain stimuli
• Vicarious classical conditioning if we see
  something aversive happen to someone else

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Treatment Systematic Desensitization

• Slow exposure to the stimulus, paired with
  relaxation techniques
• Support for this in the research
• In contrast
• Flooding introducing us to the stimulus all at
  once

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Operant Conditioning

• We associate responses with their consequences
• Acts that are reinforced will be repeated
• Acts that are not reinforced, or punished, will
  not be repeated

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Operant vs. Classical Conditioning

• Operant Conditioning
• Active
• In regard to voluntary responses

• Classical Conditioning
• Passive it just happens

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Language of operant conditioning

• Positive add
• Negative take away
• Positive/negative are not necessarily good/bad

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Reinforcement

• Any event that increases the probability that a
  particular response will occur

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Positive Reinforcement

• Providing a reward (reinforcer) to increase the
  probability that the response will occur again
• We add (positive add) something good
• Candy for raising your hand in class
• Praise for washing the dishes
• Gold stars for doing your homework

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Negative Reinforcement

• Response is followed by an end to discomfort or a
  removal of an unpleasant event (negative
  removal/taking away something)
• We will increase the behavior because it results
  in the decrease of something unpleasant

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Negative Reinforcement

• Taking aspirin to alleviate a headache
• Leaving early to avoid traffic
• Rat presses a lever to stop a shock
• We will continue these behaviors because they
  result in the end to something unpleasant

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Punishment

• When a bad or unpleasant event begins
• We will be less likely to repeat behaviors that
  are punished

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Punishment

• Positive adding something aversive so a behavior
  will not be repeated
• Negative taking way something positive so a
  behavior will not be repeated
• Both are punishments because an unpleasant
  event is beginning

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Activity reinforcement and punishment

• worksheet

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Superstitions

• We repeat them because the appear to be
  reinforced
• i.e. lucky socks ? winning a game

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Partial Reinforcement

• Pattern where only certain responses are
  reinforced
• i.e. slot machine
• More resistant to extinction
• Over time, we may be rewarded, so we keep trying

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Are punishments effective?

• Based on
• Timing (should be right after the bad behavior)
• Consistency (punish it every time)
• Intensity (strength of the punishment)
• How can we teach kids without using punishments?

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Bandura Social Learning Theory

• Learning through observation and imitation
• Bobo doll experiment

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Television and Violence

• Lots of violent t.v. is correlated with
  aggression
• Does not prove causation
• Identification with the aggressor?