• Our capacity to learn new behaviors that enable us to cope with changing circumstances

• Successful adaption requires both nature (the needed genetic predispositions) and nurture (a history of appropriate learning).
Example: Infants to 5 year olds learn to associate different facial expressions with their accompanying behaviors and tones of voice.

• A relatively permanent change in behavior that results from experience interacting with the world
• Seal balances ball receives food
• Balances ball again to gain more food

Most learning is associative learning
• Learning that certain events occur together
• Linking two events
=

Classical Conditioning
Operant Conditioning
Observational Learning

• Do you cringe at the sound of a dentist’s drill??
• Do you salivate when passing your favorite restaurant??
• How did you learn these behaviors?
• It all started with Ivan Pavlov, his dogs, and classical conditioning

• A type of learning where a stimulus (something that we can respond to) gains the power to cause a behavior or action
• In Pavlov’s case the stimulus was the food
– What behavior did it cause in the dogs??
• Others stimuli??
– What about Psychology class??
– What power does it have?

Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): a stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers a response.
Leads To…
Unconditional Response (UCR): the unlearned, natural reflex brought on by the UCS.

Neutral Stimulus (N): a stimulus that before conditioning does not lead to a particular response
X

Conditioned Stimulus (CS): an originally irrelevant (neutral) stimulus that, after training (or pairing) becomes associated with the UCS.
Conditioned Response (CR): the learned response to the CS

Pavlov spent the rest of his life outlining his ideas. He came up with 5 critical terms that together make up classical conditioning.
• Acquisition
• Extinction
• Spontaneous Recovery
• Stimulus Generalization
• Stimulus Discrimination

• The initial stage of learning something.
• The phase where the neutral stimulus (NS) is associated with the UCS so that the NS comes to elicit the CR (thus becoming the
CS).
Does timing matter?
YES
WHY??
Ideally the UCS should be paired with the
NS right away to gain the greatest level of conditioning

• The diminishing of a conditioned response (CR)
• Will eventually happen when the UCS does not follow the CS.
Is extinction permanent?

The reappearance, after a rest period, of an extinguished CR
Involves reconditioning
- - this conditioning will be learned much quicker

• The tendency, once a response has been conditioned, for stimuli similar to the CS to elicit similar responses.
– The greater difference between the original stimulus and the related stimulus, the weaker the conditioned response is

• The learned ability to distinguish between a CS and other stimuli that do not cause a response (CR)
X

Generalization, Discrimination, Extinction, or
Spontaneous Recovery
• Sinbad was frightened by a barking, lunging spaniel. Now he is afraid of all dogs.
– generalization
• Sheila was frightened by a German Shepherd when she was 5, but now she is happy whenever she sees a dog.
– extinction
• Nathan hates the sight of a bee, but loves to watch hummingbirds.
– discrimination
• When Kim was small, she got sick after eating a bad oyster. Now she reuses to eat anything that comes out of the sea.
– generalization
• Romeo loves the smell of his girlfriend’s perfume, but thinks all other kids of perfumes are unpleasant.
– discrimination
• Jamie had finally recovered from her fear of roller coasters, but one night when she was walking by the amusement park, the sudden screeching noise of the roller coaster made her heart jump in fear.
– Extinction and Spontaneous recovery
• Leonardo used to love the scent of his girlfriend’s perfume, but now that they’ve broken up, it’s just another odor to him.
– extinction

How about fear?
Are we born with it or do we acquire it??
Classical Conditioning and
Little Baby Albert

• John Watson and Rosalie Rayner
– Little baby Albert and fear conditioning
• Robert Rescorla
– Importance of cognition in learning and conditioning
– predicting events – knowing the difference between what is expected to happen and what actually happens
– “Flush” example
• John Garcia
– Taste aversion
• A dislike to a particular food or drink acquired through classical conditioning