CHAPTER 6 LEARNING 3 types of learning: classical conditioning Operant conditioning Observational learning learning: a relatively permanent change in behavior, capability, or attitude that is acquired thru experience and cannot be attributed to illness, injury, or maturation CLASSICAL CONDITIONING Classical conditioning: learn that there is an association b/t one stimulus and another a stimulus is any object or event from the environment that an organism responds to one of the simplest forms of learning key figure in classical conditioning was a Russian physiologist named won the Nobel Prize in 1904 for his research on digestion his contribution to psych was by accident was studying the salivary response, how saliva plays a role in digestion used dogs, made a small incision in each side of the dog’s mouth put a tube in the thru the hole so he could catch the dog’s saliva in a container before beginning his work for the day, the dogs were always fed first, with food powder Pavlov noticed that the dogs began to salivate before the food was presented the dogs would salivate when he walked in or when they heard his footsteps Pavlov thought this was strange because he thought salivating was a reflex: an involuntary response to a certain stimulus *Ex: 2 kinds of reflexes: 1. conditioned: learned 2. unconditioned: unlearned, born doing it, it’s built into your nervous system unconditioned stimulus: something that would naturally produce a reflexive response without having to learn it unconditioned response, which is an unlearned, reflexive response to a natural stimulus in Pavlov’s experiment, the UR was the US was the unconditioned stimulus elicits an unconditioned response US ---------------------------------------------UR neutral stimulus: something that you don’t normally give a reflexive response to & is paired with an unconditioned stimulus conditioned stimulus: the original neutral stimulus, but now elicits a reflexive response conditioned response: the reflexive response to a conditioned stimulus that is learned Steps for Classical Conditioning 1. US elicits UR 2. Pair NS with US 3. Repeat NS & US pairing 4. NS turns into CS 5. CS elicits CR extinction: when the learned response is weakened & seems to disappear when the conditioned stimulus is presented w/o the unconditioned stimulus Ex: spontaneous recovery: the reappearance of an extinguished conditioned response, usually after a long period of time, or a break in training generalization: anything similar to the original conditioned stimulus elicits the conditioned response discrimination: give the conditioned response only to the original stimulus Ex: JOHN WATSON Thought that most fears in humans are classically conditioned you can create a new fear in someone thru classical conditioning Ex To reverse the fear: Classical Conditioning in Everyday Life many of our emotions, positive and negative, are a result of classical conditioning most fears and phobias are also a result of classical conditioning Ex: taste aversion:when you become classically conditioned to dislike &/or avoid certain food b/c you became sick after eating it OPERANT CONDITIONING key figure was a behaviorist named agreed with classical conditioning but felt that should also study voluntary responses operant conditioning: where you learn that there is an association b/t a behavior and its consequences Every behavior you do has a consequence Classical conditioning concentrated on involuntary responses Operant conditioning concentrates on voluntary responses Under operant conditioning, you see the response first, and then you see the consequence the consequence modifies, or changes the response the consequence is used to either increase or decrease how often a response or behavior occurs reinforce: to increase the likelihood of a behavior occurring a reinforcer is anything that will increase the likelihood of a behavior occurring Ex: shaping: you reinforce any movement toward the desired behavior useful for complex behavior Ex: superstitious behavior: you believe there is a connection b/t an act and its consequences EX: Extinction: when reinforcers are withheld Ex: extinction can cause frustration and anger Ex: Generalization: accept anything similar to the reinforcer Ex: Discrimination: accept only the reinforce Ex: discriminative stimulus: a stimulus that signals whether a behavior will be reinforced or punished Ex: discriminative stimulus— behavior— consequence— REINFORCEMENT Reinforcement 2 types of reinforcement: 1) positive reinforcement: add something good to increase the frequency of a behavior Ex: 2) negative reinforcement- remove or take away something bad to increase the frequency of a behavior Ex: primary reinforcers: fulfill basic physical needs for survival not based upon learning Ex: secondary reinforcers: also called conditioned reinforcers; acquired or learned by association with other reinforcers Ex: PUNISHMENT Punishment punishment type 1 (by application): add something bad or aversive to decrease the frequency of a behavior EX: punishment type 2 (by removal): remove or take away something good to decrease the frequency of a behavior EX: DON’T GET NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT AND PUNISHMENT CONFUSED!!! Ex: negative reinforcementpunishment- Disadvantages of punishment 1) punishment doesn’t get rid of the behavior, just suppresses it Ex: 2) punishment points out unacceptable behavior doesn’t provide an acceptable behavior as a substitute 3) punishment causes anger or hostility towards the one who delivers the punishment Ex: 4) punishment can lead to aggression if parents use physical punishment, children may use aggressive behaviors to solve their problems Not all punishment is bad EX: Suggestions for using punishment to increase effectiveness of punishment 1) apply punishment during the behavior or as soon as possible after behavior the longer the delay b/t the behavior and the punishment, the less effective the punishment will be 2) the intensity of the punishment should match the seriousness of the behavior ideally, should be as minimal as possible to suppress the behavior should be more punishing than behavior is rewarding Ex: 3) should be consistent cannot punish one day and ignore the behavior the next day 4) should not be administered in anger need to understand the purpose of the punishment is to decrease the behavior OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING Key figure: felt that you learn through observing others observational learning: observe and learn from others behavior you also observe the consequences of their behavior is also called modeling a model is the person who is doing the behavior EX: how effective a model is is related to his/her 1) status 2) competence 3) power 4) age 5) sex 6) attractiveness observational learning is useful if you are in an unfamiliar setting or situation Ex: peer pressure is an example of observational learning Ex: can learn fears thru observational learning Ex: even bad habits are learned thru observational learning Ex: Learning aggression Bobo doll experiment he showed four year old children a video of an adult beating up the Bobo doll there were three different endings to the video, but not all the children saw the endings one ending showed the adult being reinforced for beating up the doll; was given sodas, snacks, and candy another ending showed the adult being punished for beating up the doll the last ending showed nothing happening to the adult after the children saw the video they were allowed to play with the Bobo doll in a room by themselves, one child at a time from observing the children after they were alone, Bandura found that those children who watched the video with the adult being punished were less likely to beat up the doll like the adults did, they did not imitate the adults they imitated the behavior when the adult was rewarded or received no consequences Bandura proved that