Unit 6: Learning
Introduction
 Adaptability: capacity to learn new behaviors that help cope with changing circumstances
 What is learnable we can potentially teach; what has been learned can be potentially changed by new learning
 Learning: relatively permanent behavior change due to experience
Learning
 Association: naturally connecting events that occur in sequence
 Habituation: organism’s decreasing response to stimulus with repeated exposure
 Associative learning: learning that certain events occur together; classical and operant conditioning
 Observational learning: learning by watching other’s experiences
Classical Conditioning (learning to link two or more stimuli; thus anticipate one when the other happens)
 Pavlov’s research inspired Watson; behaviorism: psychology should be objective; no reference to mental process
 Ex: see lightning and hear thunder; next time see lightning and wince, anticipating thunder
 Involves respondent behavior: behavior that occurs as automatic response to some stimulus
Pavlov’s Experiments
 Unconditioned stimulus: stimulus that naturally triggers a response (food presented to dog)
 Unconditioned response: naturally occurring response to unconditioned stimulus (dog salivating at sight of food)
 Conditioned stimulus: an originally irrelevant stimulus that comes to trigger a response (tone played with food)
 Conditioned response: learned response to previously neutral stimulus (dog salivating at sound of tone/no food)
Acquisition (where one links neutral stimulus and unconditioned stimulus to begin triggering condition response)
 Half a second between neutral stimulus and unconditioned stimulus to create conditioned stimulus
 Conditioned stimulus must happen before unconditioned stimulus (tone must sound before food is put down)
 Conditioning helps animal survive and reproduce; responds to cues that help it gain food, avoid danger, etc.
 Objects, smells and sights associated with sexual pleasure can become conditioned stimuli for sexual arousal
 Higher-order conditioning: conditioned stimulus in one experience is paired with new stimulus creating second
weaker conditioned stimulus; if light precedes tone that predicts food, then animal will respond somewhat to light
 Associations can influence attitudes; associate characters with good stimuli (ice-cream), children like them better
Extinction and Spontaneous Recovery
 Extinction: diminished responding occurs when conditioned stimulus no longer signals unconditioned stimulus
o Repeatedly sounding the tone but never presenting any food; dogs would stop responding to tone
 Spontaneous recovery: reappearance (after a pause) of extinguished conditioned response
Generalization and Discrimination
 Generalization: tendency for stimuli similar to conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses
o Can be adaptive; toddlers taught to fear moving cars also fear moving trucks and motorcycles
o Stimuli similar to naturally disgusting/appealing objects will evoke some disgust/liking
 Discrimination: ability to distinguish between conditioned stimulus and other irrelevant stimuli
o Dogs would respond to sound of one tone but not another
Cognitive Processes
 Rescorla and Wagner: the more predictable the association, the stronger the conditioned response
o Light followed by tone followed by shock; rats react with fear to tone; tone better predictor of shock
 Learned helplessness: passive resignation organism learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive events
o Dogs strapped and given shock; would not run when unstrapped and given shock; felt hopeless
o Dogs escaped first couple of shocks; would run when unstrapped and given shock, did not feel hopeless
 Thought important in classical conditioning; if alcoholic knows nausea is caused by drugs and not the alcohol, the
connection between drinking and feeling sick is weak; aversion to alcohol is not strong
Biological Predispositions
 Pavlov and Watson believed learning was essentially similar in all animals; disproved by researchers
 Garcia and Koelling
o US does not have to immediately follow CS (rats avoided flavor causing nausea even after several hours)
o Biologically predisposed to learn some associations over others (rats avoid smell not sight; hunt by smell)
 Humans predisposed to make associations between color red and women’s sexuality; sexier when wearing red!
 Ancestors who learned taste aversions were unlikely to eat toxic food again and survived and left descendants
Influences on learning
 Biological: genetic predispositions, unconditioned responses, adaptive responses
 Psychological: previous experiences, predictability of associations, generalization, discrimination
 Social-cultural: culturally learned preferences, motivation affected by presence of others
Pavlov’s Legacy
 Many other responses to many other stimuli can be classically conditioned in many other organisms
 Classical conditioning is one way virtually all organisms learn to adapt to their environment
 Pavlov showed how process (such as learning) can be studied objectively; new scientific model for psychology:
isolate basic building blocks of complex behaviors and study them with objective laboratory procedures
Applications of Classical Conditioning
 Watson and Rayner: emotions and behaviors are conditioned responses; Little Albert experiment
o Showed how fears can be conditioned; made loud noise behind Albert when rat appeared; Albert became
afraid of the rat after several days; showed generalization to rabbit and dog but not toys
Operant Conditioning (behavior is strengthened with reinforcer or diminished with punisher)
Skinner’s Experiments
 Law of effect: Thorndike’s principle that behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely
 Operant chamber (Skinner box): contains bar/key that animal can manipulate to obtain food or water reinforcer
Shaping Behavior (shaping: reinforces guide animal’s actions toward desired behavior)
 Successive approximations: reward responses that are ever-closer to final desired behavior
 Animals shaped to respond to one stimulus and not another means they see the difference between the stimuli
o Can be used to answer questions such as, “can the dog discriminate between red and green?”
 Discriminative stimulus: stimulus that elicits response after association with reinforcement
o Ex: pigeon taught to peck after seeing human face; face is discriminative stimulus
Types of Reinforcers (reinforcer: any event that strengthens the behavior it follows)
 Positive reinforcement: increasing behavior by presenting positive stimuli; strengthens response when presented
 Negative reinforcement: increasing behavior by reducing negative stimuli; strengthens response when removed
 Primary reinforcers: innately reinforcing stimulus; unlearned; one that satisfies biological need
 Conditioned reinforcers: gains power through association with primary reinforcer; rat presses light to gain food
Immediate/Delayed Gratification
 Children who learn delayed reinforcement tend to become more socially competent and higher-achieving adults
 Immediate gratification more alluring than delayed consequences (watching late TV but feeling dead in morning)
Reinforcement Schedules
 Continuous reinforcement: reinforcing desired response every time it occurs; learning and extinction occur rapidly
 Partial/intermittent reinforcement: reinforcing response part of
the time; learning and extinction occur slowly
 Fixed-ratio schedules: reinforce behavior after set number of
responses (free drink every 10 purchases)
 Variable-ratio schedules: reinforce behavior after unpredictable
number of responses (slot-machines, fly fishers)
 Fixed-interval schedule: reinforce behavior after time period;
behavior goes up as time is closer (checking mail)
 Variable-interval schedules: reinforce behavior after varying
time intervals; behavior is consistent (text message)
Punishment (any event that decreases the behavior it follows)
 Positive punishment: decreasing behavior by presenting negative stimulus (spanking, parking ticket)
 Negative punishment: decreasing behavior by removing positive stimulus (time-out, taking away driver’s license)
 Sureness (likeliness) and swiftness influences effectiveness (direct relationship)
 Drawbacks in physically punishing children: punished behavior is temporary suppressed but not forgotten;
teaches discrimination (swearing outside of house, but does not stop swearing), can teach fear (fear of people that
administered it; skipping school if punished in school), demonstrates that aggression is way to cope with problems
 Punishment tells you what not to do; reinforcement tells you what to do; reinforcement more effective
Cognition and Operant Conditioning
 Latent learning: learning that becomes apparent only when there is some incentive to demonstrate it
o Rats would explore maze for 10 days; food would be placed at end of maze on 11 day
o Rats that explored without food would finish maze faster than rats reinforced with food all along
o Seemed to develop cognitive map of maze: mental representation of layout of one’s environment
 Learning can occur with little interaction with environment; insight: sudden realization of solution to a problem
o Can puzzle over a problem and suddenly perceive solution in flash of insight
 Intrinsic motivation: desire to perform behavior for its own sake; rewards can undermine intrinsic motivation
o People lose joy in doing something they love and will not do it because they are being paid to do it
o “If I have to be bribed into doing this, it must not be worth doing for its own sake.”
 Extrinsic motivation: desire to perform behavior to receive rewards or avoid punishment
Biological Predispositions
 Biological constraints predispose organisms to learn associations that are naturally adaptive
o Ex: pigeons will peck to get food (natural behavior) but will not flap wings to obtain food (unnatural)
 Instinctive drift: animals tend to revert to biologically predisposed behaviors
o Ex: pigs will pick up toys with mouths but eventually tend to push it with noses as they naturally do
Skinner’s Legacy
 External influences (not internal thoughts and feelings) shape behavior; applies to humans too
 Critics said he dehumanized people by neglecting personal freedom and trying to control their actions
 Responded by saying reinforcers more humane than current punishments; gives hope that we can shape future
Applications of Operant Conditioning
 Computers could provide individualized instruction to students; could go at each student’s rate of learning
 Key to shaping athletic behavior is to reinforce small success and then gradually increase the challenge
 Reward specific achievable behaviors but not vaguely defined merit in work areas;
o Even specific criticism has least resentment and greater performance boost when specific and considerate
 Parents give children attention and other reinforcers when they are behaving well but try to avoid punishments
 Self-improvement: state goal in measurable terms and announce it; monitor how often you engage in desired
behavior; reinforce desired behavior (give yourself a reward); reduce rewards gradually
Comparing/Contrasting the Classical and Operant Conditioning
 Forms of associative learning
 Involve acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery, generalization, discrimination
 Both influenced by cognitive processes and biological predispositions
Observational Learning (learning by observing others; social learning)
 Modeling: the process of observing and imitating a specific behavior
 Even at 2.5 years old when mental abilities at same level as chimps; humans surpass chimps at social tasks
involving copying another’s solution a problem
Mirrors in the Brain
 Rizzolatti: discovered mirror neurons (frontal lobe neurons that fire when performing certain actions or when
observing another doing so); similar brain activity in person imagining situation as person experiencing situation
 Mirror neurons generate “inner simulation” enabling to experience someone else’s experience; enables empathy
 Mirror neurons underlie human’s social nature
Bandura’s Experiments
 Children would imitate actions and words used by adult on Bobo doll when their toys were taken away
 More likely to imitate people perceived as similar, successful and admirable as ourselves
Applications of Observational Learning
 Behavior modeling used to train communications, sales and customer service skills to trainees; gain skills faster
Prosocial Effects
 Prosocial behavior: positive, constructive, helpful behavior
 People who exemplify nonviolent, helpful behavior can prompt similar behavior in others
 Observational learning of morality begins early; toddlers who imitate prosocial parents have strong consciences
 Models most effective when actions and words are consistent (non-hypocritical)
Antisocial Effects
 Aggression is both genetic and environmental (observationally learned)
 TV is powerful source of observational learning; can teach that bullying is effect way to control others, free and
easy sex bring pleasure without misery or disease, men should be tough and women gentle
 Violence-viewing effect: violence on television does lead to aggressive behavior; especially when attractive
person commits seemingly justified, realistic violence that goes unpunished and causes no visible pain or harm
o Stems from imitation; children will imitate acts they observe on TV
o Stems from desensitization; viewers with prolonged exposed to violence become indifferent to it