Learning

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Learning
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Define Learning

• Learning is a relatively permanent change in
  behavior as a result of experience.

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Classical Conditioning

• In classical conditioning, we learn to associate
  two stimuli and anticipate events.

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• For example, we learn that a flash of lightening
  signals an impending crack of thunder, so we
  start to brace ourselves when lightening flashes
  nearby.

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Operant Conditioning

• In operant conditioning, we learn to associate a
  response and its consequence. Typically we
  repeat acts followed by rewards and avoid acts
  followed by punishment.

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• For example, we learn that when we get good
  grades, we get money, so we continue to get good
  grades. Or, if we dont get good grades, we lose
  privileges. To avoid losing privileges, we get
  good grades.

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Social/Vicarious/Observational Learning

• In social learning (or observational learning),
  we learn from others experiences and examples.

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• For example, chimpanzees sometimes learn
  behaviors merely by observing others perform
  them. If one animal watches another learn to
  solve a puzzle that gains a food reward, the
  observing animal may perform the trick as well.

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• Classical Conditioning

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• Classical Conditioning The Office

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Classical Conditioning

• Ivan Pavlov - Russian Medical doctor who spent
  two decades studying the digestive system. Nobel
  Prize in 1904. Studied learning for the next
  three decades, by accident.

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Classical Conditioning

• After studying salivary secretion in dogs, he
  knew that when he put food in a dogs mouth the
  animal would invariably salivate. He also began
  to notice that when he worked with the same dog
  repeatedly, the dog began salivating to stimuli
  associated with food the sight of food, the
  food dish, the mere presence of the person
  bringing the food, even the sound of oncoming
  footsteps in anticipation of the food

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Classical Conditioning

• Pavlovs Experiment
• Through experimentation, Pavlov asked If a
  neutral stimulus (something the dog could see or
  hear) regularly signaled the arrival of food,
  would the dog associate the two stimuli (the food
  and the neutral stimuli)? If so, would the dog
  begin to salivate to the neutral stimulus in
  anticipation of the food?

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• From Pavlovs research
• Zimbardo and Pavlovs Experiment
• Pavlovs Experiment

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Classical Conditioning

• Unconditioned Stimulus
• A stimulus that naturally and automatically
  triggers a response

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Classical Conditioning

• Unconditioned Response
• The unlearned, naturally occurring response to
  the unconditioned stimulus

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Classical Conditioning

• For example
• For Pavlov, the UCS was food and the UCR was the
  dogs salivation

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Classical Conditioning

• Pavlovs Experiment (continued)
• Just before placing food in the dogs mouth to
  produce salivation, Pavlov sounded a tone. After
  several pairings of tone and food, the dog began
  to salivate to the tone alone, in anticipation of
  the food.

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Classical Conditioning

• Conditioned Stimulus
• An originally irrelevant stimulus that, after
  association with and unconditioned stimulus,
  comes to trigger a conditioned response

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Classical Conditioning

• Conditioned Response
• The learned response to a previously neutral
  conditioned stimulus

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Classical Conditioning

• For example
• For Pavlov, the previously neutral stimulus was
  the tone. During conditioning, the tone was
  paired with the food (UCS). After conditioning,
  the tone, when presented alone, produced
  salivation in the dog. The tone is now
  considered the CS, and the dogs salivation to
  the tone alone is now considered the CR.

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• 1. While George was having a cavity filled by
  his dentist, the drill hit a nerve that had not
  been dulled by anesthetic, a couple of times.
  Each time he cringed in pain. George now gets
  anxious each time he sees the dentist.
• What is the
• Unconditioned stimulus ____________________
• Unconditioned response ____________________
• Conditioned stimulus ____________________
• Conditioned response ____________________

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• 2. Every time a psychology instructor enters the
  classroom, she goes straight to the board to
  write an outline on it. Unfortunately, she has
  long finger nails and each time she writes the
  outline, her nails screech on the board, making
  students cringe. After a few weeks of this,
  students cringe at the sight of the teacher
  entering the classroom.

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• 3. Fanny eats fried chicken that has e coli in
  it and ends up vomiting for hours that night.
  Luckily she recovers within a day, but now just
  the thought (or the sight or the smell) of fried
  chicken makes her nauseous.

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• 4. At a football game, every time the home team
  scores a touchdown, the person behind you blasts
  an air horn near your ears causing you to wince.
  Unfortunately for you, the home team scores
  frequently. As the end of the game nears, the
  home team scores a touchdown, and even though the
  inconsiderate fan behind you has left, you still
  wince.

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• 5. LaToyas husband puts on Polo cologne every
  time theyre going to be sexually intimate. Now
  when LaToya is walking through the mall and
  passes a store selling Polo cologne, she becomes
  sexually aroused.

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• 6. Charlie has been humiliated in the past for
  doing poorly on tests. When that has happened,
  he would get so upset he would shake. Now when
  presented with a test, he begins to shake.

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• Fred has a fluffy down pillow with some of the
  down sticking out of the fabric. When he first
  tries out the pillow, a piece of down tickles his
  nose and he sneezes. He now sneezes every time
  he lays down on any kind of pillow.

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• It is springtime and the pollen from the flowers
  causes you to sneeze. Soon you are sneezing at
  the mere sight of a flowerreal or fake.

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• You ride a roller coaster and get sick afterward.
  Now, whenever you are near a roller coaster you
  feel queasy.

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• Your relationship is going badly and your
  significant other has yelled at you without
  warning several times. You now feel tense and
  fearful any time that you are around him or her.

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Five Major Conditioning Processes

• Acquisition
• Generalization
• Discrimination
• Extinction
• Spontaneous Recovery

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Acquisition

• The initial stage in classical conditioning
• The phase associating a neutral stimulus with an
  unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral
  stimulus comes to elicit a conditioned response

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Acquisition

• Findings
• The time between presenting the neutral stimulus
  and the unconditioned stimulus needs to be short.
  For most species and procedures, about ½ second
  works best.
• Conditioning is more likely to occur if the
  conditioned stimulus is presented before the
  unconditioned stimulus

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Generalization

• The tendency, once a response has been
  conditioned, for stimuli similar to the
  conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses
• IE. A dog responding to a bell tone may also
  respond to a similar sounding door bell. A
  person bit by a dog may fear all dogs. You may
  buy a lemon Ford, and never buy a Ford again.

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Classical Conditioning - Generalization

• Little Albert Experiment Fear Conditioning
• An 11-month infant named Albert feared loud
  noises, but not white rats. In the experiment,
  when Albert was presented with a white rat and
  reached out to touch it, a hammer was struck on a
  steel beam behind his head. After a number of
  repetitions of seeing the rat and then hearing
  the frightening noise, Albert burst into tears at
  the mere sight of the rat.

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Classical Conditioning - Extra

• Five days after the testing, Albert showed
  generalization of his conditioned response by
  reacting with fear to a rabbit, a dog, and a
  sealskin coat.
• Little Albert Experiment

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Discrimination

• The learned ability to distinguish between a
  conditioned stimulus and other stimuli that do
  not signal an unconditioned response
• IE. A child is bitten by a dog, and only fears
  that dog. Other dogs dont illicit an automatic
  fear response.

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Extinction

• The diminishing of a conditioned response when an
  unconditioned stimulus no longer follows a
  conditioned stimulus
• If the food no longer follows the bell tone,
  eventually the dog will no longer associate the
  bell tone with food and will stop salivating.

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Spontaneous Recovery

• The reappearance, after a rest period, of an
  extinguished conditioned response.
• The conditioned response continues to get weaker
  after less pairings of the CS and the UCS, and
  after more and more rest periods

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• Operant Conditioning

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Operant Conditioning

• Type of learning in which behavior is
  strengthened if followed by a reinforcer, or
  diminished if followed by a punisher

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Operant Conditioning

• B.F. Skinners Experiments
• Based on Edward Thorndikes LAW OF EFFECT
  states that rewarded behavior is likely to recur
• Experiments conducted with animals in an operant
  chamber (Skinner Box) a soundproof box, with a
  bar or key that an animal presses or pecks to
  release a reward of food or water

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• Pigeons and the Skinner Box

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Operant Conditioning

• Shaping while conditioning an animal to perform
  certain behaviors, reinforcers are successively
  given only as the subject gets closer to the
  ultimate behavior goal

                                                                                                                                                                                                        
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• IE. If the purpose of putting a rat in a maze is
  to teach it to get from Point A to Point B while
  following a certain path, then every time the rat
  makes a turn towards the right path, a reward
  should be given. If it makes a turn towards the
  wrong path, NO reward is given.

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Operant Conditioning

• Reinforcement any event that increases the
  frequency of a preceding response, or
  strengthens the behavior that it follows

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• IE. Being able to borrow the car after the
  dishes are done will increase the likelihood that
  you will do the dishes again.

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Operant Conditioning

• Positive Reinforcement strengthens a response
  by presenting a typically pleasurable stimulus
  after a response.
• IE. Food for a hungry animal. Attention,
  approval, money for people.

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• Big Bang Theory Operant Conditioning

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Operant Conditioning

• Negative Reinforcement strengthens a response
  by reducing or removing an aversive stimulus

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• IE. Taking aspirin to relieve a headache will
  increase the behavior of taking aspirin because
  it reduces or eliminates the pain. Smoking a
  cigarette to relieve stress will increase the
  behavior of smoking because it reduces or
  eliminates anxiety and pressure.

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Operant Conditioning

• Positive ADDS a desirable stimulus, like getting
  a hug or watching t.v.
• Negative REMOVES an aversive stimulus, like
  fastening a seatbelt to stop the annoying beeping

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Operant Conditioning

• Primary Reinforcers one that primarily satisfies
  a biological need
• Conditioned or Secondary Reinforcers a stimulus
  that is learned, and/or is associated with a
  primary reinforcer

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• IE. Primary reinforcers may be food, or pain
  relief. Secondary reinforcers may be money,
  praise, good grades, a pleasant tone of voice.

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Operant Conditioning

• Immediate and Delayed Reinforcers How quickly
  does a reinforcement needed to be given after a
  desired behavior has been exhibited in order for
  the behavior to be conditioned? How often does
  the reinforcement need to be given to condition
  proper behavior?

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Operant Conditioning

• Continuous Reinforcement Reinforcing the
  desired response immediately, every time it
  occurs. Learning occurs quickly, but as soon as
  reinforcement ends, extinction occurs very
  quickly also.

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• You go to the same soda machine every day, put
  your money into it, and it delivers a soda. On
  Friday, you put your money into it and it doesnt
  work. Same thing Saturday. You stop using the
  machine, though a week later you may try again.

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Operant Conditioning

• Partial (Intermittent) Reinforcement
  Reinforcing a response only part of the time.
  This results in slower acquisition of a response,
  but much greater resistance to extinction also.

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• IE. Slot machines. You may win only once in
  long while, but youll keep playing because the
  reinforcement is worth it, and the habit may last
  a long time.

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Operant Conditioning

• Partial (Intermittent) Reinforcement Schedules
• Fixed-Ratio a schedule of reinforcement that
  reinforces only after a specified number of
  responses.
• IE. Every 10th sale gets a prize.

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Operant Conditioning

• Partial (Intermittent) Reinforcement Schedules
• Variable-Ratio Schedule a schedule of
  reinforcement that reinforces a response after an
  unpredictable number of responses
• IE. Slot machines, fishing.

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Operant Conditioning

• Partial (Intermittent) Reinforcement Schedules
• Fixed-interval schedules a schedule of
  reinforcement that reinforces a response only
  after a specified time has elapsed
• IE. At the end of every 30 minutes a new batch of
  cookies will be baked.

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Operant Conditioning

• Partial (Intermittent) Reinforcement Schedules
• Variable-Interval Schedules a schedule of
  reinforcement that reinforces a response at
  unpredictable time intervals
• IE. Youve Got Mailyou dont know when you
  will get an email, but you are always checking
  for it.

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Operant Conditioning

• Punishment An event that decreases the behavior
  that it follows
• May be done by administering an undesirable
  consequence, or by withdrawing a desirable
  consequence

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• IE. Shock treatment and spanking are added,
  undesirable consequences, while taking away phone
  or car privileges withdraws desirable
  consequences.

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Operant Conditioning

• Issues/Questions regarding punishments
• Physical punishments are not forgotten, just
  suppressed
• Physical punishments may increase aggressiveness
  by demonstrating that aggression is a way to cope
  with problems
• Punishments may create fear

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Operant Conditioning

• If punishment isnt delivered swiftly, or
  proportionally with regards to the crime, those
  punished may be confused, depressed, or helpless
• Punishments still do not teach the proper
  behavior it only suppresses unwanted behaviors

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• Observational Learning

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• Mirror Neurons

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Observational Learning

• Observational Learning is learning by watching
  and imitating others

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Observational Learning

• For example, a child sees his big sister burn her
  fingers on the stove has thereby learned not to
  touch it.

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Observational Learning

• Modeling is the process of observing and
  imitating a specific behavior

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Observational Learning

• Pro-Social Models exemplify positive,
  constructive, helpful behavior. Anti-Social
  Models exemplify negative and hurtful behavior.

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Observational Learning

• Mirror Neurons in the frontal lobe are partially
  responsible for allowing humans to imitate simple
  language and emotions

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Observational Learning

• Albert Banduras Experiment The Bobo Doll
• Children exposed to an adult taking out their
  frustrations on a Bobo doll would imitate their
  punches and kicks when presented with a Bobo doll
  when they were frustrated.

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• Bobo Doll Experiment