The Psychology of Learning Watch: How to train a brain https://youtu.be/qG2SwE_6uVM?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtOPRKzVLY0jJY-uHOH9KVU6 Learning is a fairly long lasting change in our behavior or way of thinking that takes place as a result of our experiences. If you learn something and it is stored in long term memory, it is always there—although you may have some difficulties retrieving it if you haven’t used the information in a long time. We are going to focus on 3 types of learning: Classical Conditioning, Operant Conditioning, and Observational Learning. Classical Conditioning The idea of classical conditioning was first introduced by Ivan Pavlov. He was studying animal digestion and noticed that dogs would drool not only when they saw the food, but also when they saw the person who fed them. He did his “classical” experiment with a dog and a bell. Imagine this scenario in your mind as you read it. Pavlov calls Max (dog) over and feeds him. Each time he puts the food down in front of Max, he rings a bell. When Max sees and smells the food, he instinctively salivates or drools. Pavlov does this over and over again. After doing this many, many, times, Pavlov rings the bell, but does not put out any food. Miraculously, Max drools just from hearing the sound of the bell ! Max learned to associate or connect the sound of the bell with food. Here’s the nuts and bolts of the process: Pavlov realized that Max would salivate whenever he saw the food. He labeled the food the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) and the salivation when Max saw the food, the unconditioned response (UCR). Think of it this way: Max does not have to learn to drool when he sees food. Then Pavlov took a Neutral Stimulus –something that has nothing to do with the response you are trying to produce, the bell, and paired it with the Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS), the food. When Max learns to associate the food and the bell, Pavlov then renames the neutral stimulus a Conditioned Stimulus (CS) or learned stimulus. The response of salivating to the sound of the bell then becomes the Conditioned Response (CR) Psychology of Learning 1 HINT: Whenever you see the word “conditioned”, in your mind, replace it with the word “learned”. Classical Conditioning can only take place with responses that are innate or instinctive- we’re born with them. Notice that the UCR and the CR are the same –drooling, it’s what they are responding to- that is different. Image citation: http://tolerantpeople.com/pavlovs-dogs-and-classical-conditioning/ You and I are conditioned in this way too! Label the diagram So here we are, we have a dog conditioned to drool, and a hungry person conditioned to feel hungry. BORING right? But what if I show you some more interesting ways we are classically conditioned? Smells, sights, tastes, all can become associated with a reaction. Sam and Susie have been dating for several months. Susie uses a specific hair conditioner and Sam loves the way Susie’s hair smells whenever he is close to her. It gives him what I call a WFF, Warm Fuzzy, Feeling. Sam noticed the other day when he was in Walmart that he passed by another person and he smelled the hair conditioner. Immediately he got the WFF. Whenever a Psychology of Learning 2 stimulus causes an EMOTIONAL response, we call that a Conditioned Emotional Response (CER). Label the diagram Sam close to Susie WFF Sam close to Susie while smelling conditioner WFF Sam smells conditioner WFF Sam doesn’t have to ‘learn’ to get the WFF when he is close to Susie, that’s an innate response. The smell of the conditioner and being close to Susie are paired numerous times. Finally, Sam gets the WFF when he smells the conditioner, even if Susie isn’t around. Psyc in Your life: create an example of Classical Conditioning from your own life and label it here. So now we have Sam conditioned to feel the WFF whenever he smells the conditioner that Susie uses. Will Sam continue this for the rest of his life? Will he be stuck feeling this indefinitely whenever he smells the conditioner? What if he ends up married to someone else who doesn’t use that conditioner? Thankfully for our friend Sam the feeling paired with the conditioner will eventually go away thanks to the process of extinction. Let’s say that after several months Sam and Susie break up. For a while, whenever Sam smells the conditioner, he will feel the WFF for Susie. But after repeated incidents of smelling the conditioner and not being around or seeing Susie, the day will come when Sam no longer gets the WFF when he smells the conditioner. When the CS no longer causes the CR because it is no longer paired with the UCS, we call this extinction. Ahhh… but our friend Sam is not completely out of danger. A few years later Sam is walking in the mall and smells the conditioner that Susie used to use. Out of nowhere, Sam thinks about Susie and gets the WFF. This instance of extinguished behavior coming back after a time of no exposure to the CS is called spontaneous recovery. Two More Important Concepts: Stimulus Generalization: Let’s go back to Pavlov and Max for a second. Suppose that when Pavlov conditioned Max, he used a bell that sounded like (ding, ding). Max may start responding in general to bells regardless of how they sound ! Doorbell rings, Max salivates, Christmas bells jingle, Max salivates. Before you know it Max is drooling all over the place ! Max Psychology of Learning 3 Psyc in Your Life: create an example of extinction from your own life based on your previous example of Classical Conditioning. generalizes the sound of any bell and associates it with the UCR (food). We call this stimulus generalization. Stimulus Discrimination: If Max ONLY salivates to the specific sound of the bell Pavlov used, it is because he can discriminate one sound from another. When a subject only responds to the specific stimulus used to condition them, we call this stimulus discrimination. Stimulus Generalization: Stimulus Discrimination: Psyc in your life: create an example of these concepts from your own life based on your previous example of Classical Conditioning. Taste Aversion: You get sick eating a particular food and afterward whenever you see or smell that food, you feel nauseous (like you’re going to vomit). Have you noticed that Classical Conditioning happens unconsciously? That is, we don’t consciously try to associate the UCS and the CS together. Let’s look at another type of learning where we make choices and deal with consequences. Operant Conditioning: Just like Classical Conditioning, you’ve been experiencing operant conditioning all your life. In a nutshell, you learn to do (or not do) things based on the consequences of doing them. Before we go any further, you MUST GET OUT OF YOUR MIND the everyday association you have with the words ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ meaning good and bad. When discussing Operant Conditioning: HINT: If you simply 1. Positive means you are ADDING something 2. Negative means you are SUBTRACTING something Furthermore: remember these 4 things, you will be able to answer ANY question regarding operant conditioning. 3. Reinforcers ALWAYS increase behavior 4. Punishments ALWAYS decrease behavior Operant Conditioning works because of the Law of Effect explained by Thorndike. It’s pretty straight forward. Psychology of Learning 4 Behavior that is followed by something pleasurable will be repeated while behaviors that are not followed by pleasurable experiences will not. (Really? He got famous for this?) B.F. Skinner took Thorndike’s ideas and applied them to humans. First he did experiments where he taught pigeons to bowl (this is not a joke, he used very small bowling balls). How did he do this? He reinforced small steps in the process. These small steps are called Successive approximations. A parent can teach their child to make their bed this way. HINT: Successive = one after another Approximations = “approximately correct” Aunt Linda wants to teach little Sam to make his bed. (Sam is 4 years old). Psyc in your life: Define She can’t just tell Sam that if he makes his bed, she will give him a cookie. Shaping in your own Sam has to learn to make his bed. Aunt Linda tells Sam to first move the words here. sheet to the top of the bed. When Sam does this, Aunt Linda gives him a cookie. She then tells Sam to pull the blanket up over the sheet. When Sam does this, Aunt Linda gives him a cookie. Each time Sam completes a step, Aunt Linda gives Sam a cookie (or an apple slice if Sam is overweight) until Sam finishes making the bed. After Sam can do this several times, Aunt Linda starts giving the cookie (or the apple slice) after 2 or 3 steps. Finally, after Sam has learned to make the bed, Aunt Linda only gives Sam the reinforcer after he completely makes the bed. This whole process using successive approximations is called shaping. Reinforcers don’t have to be food. Actually, a simple “good job” would have worked just as well in the previous example. This brings me to two other concepts: Primary and Secondary Reinforcers Primary Reinforcers satisfy unlearned, biological needs like food, water, sleep, and pleasurable touch (like a hug). Secondary Reinforcers are things that are not worth anything within themselves, but we LEARN that they have value in our culture. Examples: Money, Diploma, Applause, etc Secondary Reinforcers are only reinforcers in the context of a society or specific culture. Example: What good is a college diploma if you are living in a South American rainforest? What could you do with a suitcase full of $100 bills if you are stranded on a desert island? Reinforcers vs. Punishments Positive reinforcement: You add something that the subject likes (ex: cookie) to increase the target behavior of making their bed. Commonly known as a “reward”. Psychology of Learning 5 Psyc in Your Life: Create examples of primary & Secondary Reinforcers here. Negative reinforcement: You subtract (take away) something the subject doesn’t like (ex: chore of doing the dishes) in order to increase the target behavior of completing their homework by 7pm. Positive punishment: You add something that the subject doesn’t like, (ex: extra assignments) to decrease the target behavior of being late for class. Negative punishment: You subtract (take away) something the subject likes (ex: watching T.V.) in order to decrease the target behavior of talking back disrespectfully. Psyc in Your Life: Create examples of your own, here. Positive Punishment: Positive Reinforcement: Negative Punishment: Negative Reinforcement: Still confused about Classical and Operant Conditioning? Watch: Classical vs. Operant Conditioning http://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-difference-between-classical-and-operant-conditioning-peggy-andover Operant Conditioning usually works as long as three things are in play. 1. Application of reinforcers or punishments must be CONSISTANT. This means that while the behavior is initially being learned, the reinforcer or punishment must occur EVERY TIME the circumstances warrant it. Disciplining children is just Operant Conditioning; being inconsistent is one reason parents have difficulty with children “breaking the rules.” Ex: If the punishment used to decrease snack consumption before dinner is to have all electronics taken away if snacks are eaten, then EVERYTIME the child eats snacks before dinner the parent must take away all the electronics. 2. Reinforcers or Punishments must be MEANINGFUL to the subject. If the child in the prior example doesn’t enjoy using electronics, then taking them away will not reduce the unwanted behavior. The parent would have to find something that would mean something to the child if it were taken away from them. 3. Application of reinforcers or punishments must be IMMEDIATE. In other words, reinforcers or punishments must happen as soon as possible after the circumstances warrant it. If little Sam eats snacks before dinner, Psychology of Learning 6 then all his electronics should be taken away as soon as his parent finds out that he snacked. Just like Classical Conditioning, behaviors learned through Operant Conditioning are subject to extinction if reinforcers and punishments are never applied after the behavior is first learned. When one is first conditioning a behavior, one should apply the reinforcer (or punishment) or pair the two stimuli (in classical conditioning) every time, consistently. However, once the subject learns the behavior, the best way to keep the behavior from extinction is to reinforce (or punish) or pair the stimuli just once in a while, intermittently. We call this partial reinforcement. Let’s go back to little Sam and Aunt Linda. Once Sam learns to make his bed, Aunt Linda gives Sam a cookie. After say, two weeks of this, Aunt Linda only gives Sam a cookie intermittently. Sam will keep on making his bed because he never knows if he is going to get the cookie. He keeps doing it in hopes that “this time” will be the one he gets the cookie. For Sam, there is no understandable timetable because whether or not he gets the cookie seems random. This schedule of getting the cookie (reinforcement) is called variable ratio and it is only one of the four schedules of reinforcement. Schedules of Reinforcement Ratios: As you know, a ratio is a relationship between numbers. The numbers can represent many things. In discussing ratios, we are talking about the ratio of the number of responses to the number of reinforcements. In the beginning when Sam is getting continuous reinforcement for making his bed, the ratio is 1:1. 1. Variable Ratio: In a variable ratio schedule, the amount of times Sam has to make his bed to get the cookie varies. Sometimes he gets a cookie after making his bed twice in a row (2:1), then he might have to make his bed 5 times (5:1) before he gets a cookie. The number of responses required to get the reinforcer changes, not the number of reinforcers. 2. Fixed Ratio: In this type of schedule the amount of responses stays the same. Each time Sam makes his bed 3 times in a row, he gets a cookie. (3:1) Here Sam knows when he is going to get the cookie and feels in control of his environment. Another type of reinforcement has to do with intervals or (amounts) of TIME. 3. Variable Interval: This simply means that the number of responses doesn’t determine when the subject is reinforced, it just matters how much time has gone by and that time varies. Sam and Aunt Linda’s story won’t work well for this one. Let’s say Aunt Linda works for a car dealership. If she works on commission, she never knows when she will Psychology of Learning 7 Remember, Ratios have to do with # of behaviors while Intervals have to do with amounts of time. get paid because the time it takes to sell a car can be anywhere from 1 day to 5 weeks. (Poor Aunt Linda) 4. Fixed Interval: This also means that the number of responses doesn’t determine when the subject is reinforced, it matters only that a fixed amount of time has gone by. Aunt Linda gets frustrated working for the car dealership and goes to work at Target. At Target, it doesn’t matter how little or how much she sells to customers, she gets paid every 2 weeks. Psyc in Your Life: Create examples of your own, here. Fixed Ratio: Fixed Interval: Variable Ratio: Variable Interval: Watch: The Bobo Beatdown https://youtu.be/128Ts5r9NRE?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtOPRKzVLY0jJY-uHOH9KVU6 Transcript: https://nerdfighteria.info/video/219/128Ts5r9NRE Psyc in your life: make up an example of each of the schedules of reinforcement. Observational Learning Observational learning is exactly what it says, it’s learning from observing what someone else is doing. Ex: A person watches their mother change the oil in her car, and then the person copies what they saw. In this situation, the mother serves as the ‘model’. Sometimes observational learning is called modeling. According to Bandura, in order for someone to learn something via observational learning or modeling, four things must happen. 1. The observer must pay attention to the model 2. The observer must do something to retain what they have observed. 3. The observer must be able to physically perform the action. 4. The observer must have some motivation to repeat the action they observed. Psychology of Learning 8 Psyc in Your Life: List some behaviors here that you learned through modeling. Is learning through observation a good thing or a bad thing ? Depends on the model and the behavior. Despite numerous studies showing a relationship between children who watch violent behavior regularly and the tendency to become more aggressive and violent, many parents do not adequately screen and limit the types of media their children watch and listen to. As you have already begun to understand, much more is going on in our minds unconsciously that has an effect on our thoughts and emotions. For this reason, we all should be aware of what we expose ourselves to. Psyc in Your Life: List some examples of Prosocial Behaviors here. On the flipside, people, especially children, also mimic positive behavior (this time positive really does mean good). Behaviors that encourage kindness, generosity, and compassion are called prosocial behaviors. Learning that you don’t see happening: Latent Learning and the Cognitive Map Latent learning happens unconsciously and without any type of reinforcement. The interesting thing is that this information is “hidden” until we need to use it. Although there are many instances of latent learning in our lives, one familiar example is that of the cognitive map. It’s a map in your mind of a physical space. It can be a map of the city where you live, it can be the layout of your house, it can even be a map of an imaginary place like the cities and landmasses described in A Game of Thrones or The Lord of the Rings. Suppose Sam asks Susie if she know where a good furniture store is. Susie is not looking for furniture, in fact, she hasn’t bought furniture in decades. However, Susie drives by ‘Rooms to Go’ every day on her way to work. She didn’t even realize that until Sam asked her about a furniture store and she was able to tell him where one was. Susie learned the location of ‘Rooms to Go’ through latent learning. Psychology of Learning 9 Psyc in Your Life: List something YOU learned through latent learning.
