Biological & Observational Learning
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An organism's capacity for conditioning is constrained by
its biology.
Garcia and taste aversion in rats: Rats began to avoid
drinking water from plastic bottles left in radiation
chambers.
Could the rats have linked the conditioned stimulus
(plastic-tasting water) to the unconditioned response
(sickness) triggered by the unconditioned stimulus
(radiation)?
The conditioned rats developed aversions to tastes but
not to sights or sounds.
In contrast, birds, which hunt by sight, appear biologically
primed to develop aversions to the sight of tainted food.
Conditioning is stronger when ecologically relevant.
Biological & Observational Learning
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In human females, enhanced blood flow produces the red
blush of flirtation and sexual excitation. This is the real
reason that gentlemen prefer blondes: their blushes are
easier to see.
Fig. 22.2 In a series of experiments that controlled for
other factors, (such as the brightness of the image), men
found women more attractive and sexually desirable
when framed in red. (Elliot & Niesta, 2008).
Under normal circumstances, revulsion to sickening
stimuli is adaptive; sometimes, as in Fig. 22.3 it is not.
Organisms have an instinctive drift that will return them to
those behaviors for which they are biologically
constrained and are naturally adapted. Pigeons won't
peck with their wings.
Biological & Observational Learning
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In Cognitive Learning, we acquire mental information that
guides our behavior.
Rescorla, 1972: an animal can learn the predictability of
an event. The more predictable the association, the
stronger the response.
This is the definition of expectancy, an awareness of the
likelihood (statistically, but still biological) of the
unconditioned stimulus.
Cognitive map: a mental representation of the layout of
one's environment.
Latent learning: learning that occurs but is not apparent
until there is an incentive to demonstrate it.
Observational learning: modeling by imitating a specific
behavior.
Biological & Observational Learning
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Rizzolatti, 2006: Mirror neurons provide a neural basis for
imitation and observational behavior.
When a monkey grasps, holds, or tears something, these
neurons fire.
And they likewise fire when the monkey observes another
monkey (or human) doing so.
So strong is the human predisposition to learn by
observing that children overimitate.
Researchers can used fMRI scans to see brain activity to
model and share another's experience.
Fig. 22.7 Brain activity related to actual pain is mirrored in
the brain of an observing loved one. Empathy in the brain
shows up in emotional brain areas, but not in the
somatosensory cortex, which recieves the physical pain
input.