Behaviorism
and
Learning
•Superstitious behavior and applications of
Behaviorism
•Social Learning Theory
•Introduction to Learning and Memory (chapter
7)
Skinner and Superstitious Pigeons
• Power of accidental
reinforcement
– Skinner put pigeons in a box
– Every 15 seconds, they were
given a grain of food
– 6 of the 8 pigeons developed
specific behaviors (turning
clockwise, pecking at wall)
Applications of Operant Conditioning
• Teaching language and behaviors to
autistic children
–Lovaas Autism video
–Clockwork Orange clip
• Token Economy
–Earning tokens for desired behaviors
–Applied in treatment of schizophrenics
Behavior modification
• Alcoholics: Conditioning nausea using
Antabuse
• Pedophiles: Pairing shock with pictures of
children
• Phobias: Pairing relaxation with the feared
stimuli
• Heroine: naltrexone (opioid receptor
antagonist)
Reinforcement and Punishment
Reinforcement Schedules
How Does Watching
Others Affect Learning?
Learning Can Be Passed on
through Cultural Transmission
The Meme
Meme
• Unit of cultural transmission
– Behaviors
– Traditions
– Religious beliefs/rituals
– Art/cultural artifacts
– Lifestyles/food habits
• Memetics
IMO: Monkey Genius
Meme: Dawkins
• Memes are analogous to genes
– Genes: instructions for making proteins
– Memes: instructions for carrying out behavior
• 3 ingredients of natural selection
– Variation
– Inheritance
– Selection
Memes: continued
• Memes seem to meet all three
requirements
• 3 attributes of a “successful replicator”
– Fidelity: copying accuracy
– Fecundity: copying frequency
– Longevity: the characteristic of remaining
distributed in the population long enough for
selection pressures to act
Learning Can Occur
through Observation
• Observational learning is powerfully
adaptive
Albert Bandura
• Bandura’s Bobo doll observational
studies suggest aggression is
learned
Bobo Doll Experiment (1961)
• Bobo Doll
video segment
Observational Learning
• Observational
Learning occurs
through vicarious
reinforcement.
A. Bandura (1925-)
• ‘Learning would be
exceedingly laborious,
not to mention
hazardous, if people
had to rely solely on the
effects of their own
actions to inform them
what to do’ (1977).
Animals and Humans
Imitate Others
• Human babies imitate facial
expressions early in life
• Modeling = imitation of observed
behavior
• “Vicarious reinforcement” influences
the probability of modeling and
imitation and results in “vicarious
learning”
Social learning theory
• Classical and operant conditioning
can be learned through observation
with attention & retention.
Observational Learning
• Learning by observing and
imitating the behavior of others
• Modeling
–Process of observing and imitating
behavior
Cognition and Learning
• Cognitive Map
–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
• TV viewing linked to adult
violence (Johnson, 2002)
What to focus on: Ch 6
•
•
•
•
•
Classical and Operant conditioning
Social learning theory
Memes and cultural transmission
Dopamine
Neuronal learning
Memory
• Function of Memory
– Allows conscious access to your
personal past and to the collective
(historical) past.
– Enables effortless continuity of
experience
– Memory Clip