Chapter Six - Learning
Newborns:
● They do not have control over their muscles, only their eyes and mouth.
20th Century:
● Psychologists mainly focused on animal learning.
○ Example 1: Rats and mazes.
○ Example 2: Pigeons and pecking disks.
The interest in animal learning arose from scientific and philosophical roots.
Structuralist:
● People who explored mental events by asking people to describe their sensations.
○ Other psychologists tried getting away from this because statements about
mental states explained nothing.
Mental States:
● The state of mind, hypothetical state that corresponds to thinking and feeling.
● Statements about mental states explained nothing at all.
○ Example 1:
○ Why did she yell at him?
○ She was angry.
○ How do you know she was angry?
○ She was yelling.
Behaviorism:
● The position that psychology should concern itself only with what people and other
animals do, and circumstances in which they do it.
Behaviorist:
● Psychologists that view discussions of mental events as sloppy language.
B.F Skinner:
● He argued that “I intend to...” and “I am about to...”
Turning statements into descriptions:
● Any statement can be converted into a description of behavior.
Thoughts and internal states:
● Do not cause behavior.
● Events in environment cause thoughts.
Jacques Loeb:
Chapter Six - Learning
●
●
●
He advocated for behaviorism
“Motions caused by light”
Caterpillars are fond of light
○ Light increases locomotion
○ If light strikes a caterpillar it moves towards light.
Stimulus Response Psychology:
● Field that attempts to explain behavior in terms how each stimulus triggers a response.
● Term was coined by Loeb.
Misleading information:
● Behavior is a product of not only the current stimuli, but also the individuals history of
experiences.
Greatest challenge:
● It is difficult to explain learning.
● Goal is to find basic laws of behaviors.
Why do behaviorists reject explanations in terms of thoughts?
● Previous events and stimulus are responsible for thoughts.
Pavlov and Classical Conditioning:
● Russian Psychologist
● He conducted many experiments which include digestion research:
○ Noticed dog secreted digestive juices
○ Called it a psychological secretion.
○ Example:
■ If you tease a dog it will lead to salvation.
■ Tease dog >> Salvation
○ Predictable and automatic
○ Pavlov called this a “conditioned reflex”
Pavlov’s Procedures:
● Assumed animals born with automatic connections were called “unconditioned reflexes.”
Unconditioned Reflexes:
● Automatic connection between a stimulus and a response.
Classical conditioning:
● Process by which an organism learns a new association between two stimuli. A neutral
stimulus and one that evokes a reflexive response.
Why is it called classical?
● Because this was studied a long time ago.
Chapter Six - Learning
Pavlov’s Experiment:
● Used excited dogs.
● Measured salvation levels with tubes.
Conditioned Stimulus:
● Precedes as unconditioned.
● At first, this stimulus does not elicit a response.
● The UCR elicits the UR.
● After pairing, the CS will elicit the CR.
○ Example:
●
The food is known as an unconditioned stimulus because it automatically causes the
dog to salivate.
Conditioned stimulus:
● Response that depends on preceding conditions.
Conditioned response:
● Whatever the conditioned stimulus elicits as a result of the conditioning.
Acquisition:
● Process that establishes or strengthens a conditioned response.
○ Example:
Chapter Six - Learning
○
Extinction:
■ To decrease a response.
■ This is NOT the same as forgetting.
Extinction:
● To decrease the conditioned response.
○ Repeatingly present the conditioned stimulus without the unconditioned stimulus.
● This is NOT the same as forgetting.
● To forget over long periods of time without any reminders.
Spontaneous recovery:
● Temporary return of an extinguished response, after a delay.
Stimulus generalization:
● Extension of a conditioned response from the training stimulus to a similar stimuli.
● The process of extendinga learned response to a new
Discriminate:
● To respond differently to a stimuli that predict different outcomes.
○ Example:
○ Using a BELL.
■ School bell
■ Fire alarm.
● Usually when you hear a school bell, it indicates that school has ended.
● The fire alarm triggers a panic response indicating that there is a fire.