Lectures 3 & 4 - Learning SHDH1017 Introduction to Psychology Lecturer Esme Sung Lesson Plan • (A) Definitions • (B) Classical Conditioning • (C) Operant Conditioning • (D) Observational Learning • (E) Conclusion 2 (A) Definitions • What is learning? • Learning refers to any relatively permanent change in ____________(overt actions) or mental processes (thought/feelings) resulting from experiences. • Behaviourism • focus on observable, measurable behaviours (disregard the role of unobservable mental processes, e.g., memory, motivation, etc.) • Conditioning involves learning _____________between events that occur in an organism’s environment. 3 (B) Classical Conditioning • (1) Basic Ideas • a process in which an originally neutral stimulus (NS) becomes associated with an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) through repeated __________, and acquires the ability to evoke a response that was originally elicited by the UCS • Ivan Pavlov (B) Pavlov’s Experiment Fig 6.1 Classical conditioning apparatus (Pastorino & Doyle-Portillo, 2022) 5 (2) Mechanism (3 phases) Before conditioning Neutral stimulus (NS) Unconditioned stimulus (UCS) 6 No response (NR) Unconditioned response (UCR) (UCS) – a stimulus naturally elicits an instinctive response (UCR) – a natural response triggered by an UCS (2) Mechanism (3 phases) During conditioning Neutral stimulus (NS) (pairing) 7 A neutral stimulus (NS) is paired with the UCS (2) Mechanism (3 phases) After conditioning Conditioned stimulus (CS) Conditioned response (CR) Conditioned stimulus (CS) – NS becomes the CS to elicit a CR Conditioned response (CR) – an acquired response (the original UCR) triggered by the CS 8 9 10 (B) Classical Conditioning • (3) Processes • Acquisition • The trials during which the CS-UCS association is learned. • Extinction • If CS is presented alone with no UCS repeatedly, the CR will gradually diminish. • Spontaneous recovery • Reappearing of an extinguished response after a period of nonexposure to the CS. 11 (Weiten, p. 193) Fig 6.6 Acquisition, extinction, and spontaneous recovery 12 Applications of classical conditioning – [Case of Little Albert ] The Little Albert Experiment [Video: 1:24 - 5:07] • “Albert”, 11-month old • Conditioned to the fear of a white laboratory rat • Albert’s fear generalised to anything white and furry 13 (B) Classical Conditioning • (5) Other conditioning concepts • Stimulus generalisation • Tendency to respond to other stimuli (e.g., tuning fork) that are similar to the CS (e.g., bell) • Stimulus discrimination • Ability to distinguish between a CS and similar but irrelevant stimulus • (6) Any daily examples of CC? 14 • Smell of the clinic (NS) + Injections (UCS) • Cringe (UCR) → (CR) (C) Operant/Instrumental Conditioning (1) Basic Ideas • Key Person: B.F. Skinner • A learning process through which the frequency of a behaviour increases or decreases as a result of its _______________ • Thorndike’s Law of Effect • says that if some random actions are followed by pleasurable consequences or reward, such actions are strengthened and will likely occur in the future • primarily applied to skeletal responses; voluntary action • Acquisition through ___________ (塑造): the reinforcement of closer and closer approximations of a desired response – [Video] • Skinner (the trainer) trained (shaped) a rat (the trainee) to progress from mere standing to actual lever-pressing through a series of short steps to get food • Immediate (contiguous) consequence is more effective than the delayed ones. Shaping the lever press response [Video 15 Lever Pressing The Skinner Box 16 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v =PQtDTdDr8vs&feature=related> (C) Operant/Instrumental Conditioning (2) Mechanism Behaviour/Response Press the lever Consequences 1) Pleasant /Unpleasant Stimulus 2) Present (+) /Remove (-) Effects on Behaviour/Response Press lever ↑ increase or ↓ decrease 17 (3) Two Types of Operant Conditioning • Reinforcement increases or strengthens the likelihood of the particular behaviours • Punishment decreases or weakens the likelihood of the particular behaviours. • Four ways to modify behaviour • 1) Positive reinforcement • ____________(+) of ____________ _stimulus or a reward as a consequence • e.g. give a raise in salary /prize to increase good performance in the job • 2) Negative reinforcement / Escape & Active avoidance • ____________ (-) of _________________stimulus as a consequence • e.g. terminate headache by increasing intake of aspirin 18 (C) Operant/Instrumental Conditioning Four ways to modify behaviour • 3) Negative Punishment • __________(-) of ___________ stimulus as a consequence • e.g. taking away favourite toys to decrease misbehaviour • 4) Positive Punishment • Application or presentation (+) of ______________ stimulus as a consequence • e.g., give spanking to decrease misbehaviour 19 Punishment vs Negative Reinforcement Four Kinds of Consequences GOAL • Punishment and negative reinforcement – lead to opposite effects on behaviour • Punishment – ___________the behaviour or reduces the probability of recurring • Negative reinforcement – ____________ the occurrence of a response Increase Behaviour Decrease Behaviour Positive (Add) Negative (Remove) Positive Reinforcement Negative Reinforcement Bonus for working hard leads to more hard work Aspirin relieving headache leads to more aspirin use Positive Punishment Negative Punishment Getting speeding ticket leads to less speeding Losing the privilege to hang out late with friends Continuous vs intermittent reinforcement • Continuous Reinforcement • A particular response is always reinforced • e.g. teaching your dog to sit on command - you will give it a reward (i.e. food) for every correct response • Intermittent (Partial) Reinforcement • A particular response is sometimes but not always reinforced • e.g. You give your dog a bone for every 3 correct responses (not rewarding it for every correct response) • Resistant to extinction (in operant conditioning) – a response that has been learned before is weakened by the absence or removal of reinforcement (4) Schedules of Reinforcement • A specific pattern of presentation of reinforcers over time • Ratio: certain ___________of responses (effort) • Fixed vs variable • Interval: certain period of _________ • Fixed vs variable • 4 combinations • Fixed ratio schedule (FR) • reward is provided after a fixed number of responses • E.g. • Variable ratio schedule (VR) • reward is provided after a unpredictably varying number of responses 23 • E.g. (4) Schedules of Reinforcement • Fixed interval schedule (FI) • reward is provided after a fixed amount of time • E.g. • Variable interval schedule (VI) • reward is provided after an unpredictably varying amount of time • E.g. 24 (4) Schedules of Reinforcement Fig 6.8 Partial reinforcement of a rat in a Skinner box and patterns of response. A steeper slope indicates a faster rate of response. 25 Class Exercise • Identify the following schedules of reinforcement. • Customers get a sticker/stamp from the supermarket for every 50 dollars they spend, then a designated amount can be used to exchange for a gift. • You are calling a very busy 24-hour customer hotline and waiting for someone to answer your call. • Last month, Judy has applied for several degree programmes at various local universities. So far, she received conditional offers from two universities’ programmes 26 (D) Observational Learning (1) Basic Ideas • Key Person: Albert Bandura • New responses are acquired after watching others’ behaviour and consequences • The learning of new behaviours through _______________and _____________of a model • E.g. sports, driving a car, how to interact with friends • E.g. The children learned the aggressive behaviour by imitating the aggressive role models (adults) 27 (D) Observational Learning (D) Observational Learning 29 (D) Observational Learning (2) Bandura’s Bobo doll experiment • Bandura found that children who had watched the film of the aggressive model behaved _________ aggressively toward the Bobo doll than those children who had watched the film of the nonaggressive model. • Bandura’s study demonstrated that we can learn through _____________ or _____________, with no reinforcement necessary . 30 (D) Observational Learning (3) “Learning” vs. “Performance” • To perform is based on the ____________ to reproduce that learned behaviour. (4) 4 Key Processes • ______________– model’s behaviour and its consequences • Memory / Retention – stored in your memory • _______________________________ – based on one’s ability / • Motivation – considering the benefits to oneself competence (5) Applications in daily lives? 31 (E) Conclusion 1) 3 Types of Learning Theories • From behavioural to cognitive approach • Are our behaviours mechanical and entirely controlled / triggered by the environmental stimuli? (quite passive external) • Role of thinking (more active internal) 2) Focus of Next Topic: Memory (Ch. 7) 32 (E) Conclusion 3) References Ciccarelli, S. K., & White, J. N. (2015). Psychology (Global edition, 4th ed). Pearson. *** Assigned Readings - Ch. 6 pp.232 - 279 ***Pastorino, E. E., & Doyle-Portillo, S. M. (2022). What is psychology? Foundations, applications, and integration (5th ed.). Cengage Learning. Weiten, W. (2017). Learning. In Psychology: Themes and variations (Briefer version, 10th ed., pp. 182 - 221). Cengage Learning. 33 (E) Conclusion 4) Video Demonstration • BBC “Predators” part 3 (15:40 – 20:15) 5) Web Resources 1) Video on Learning - Ivan Pavlov: Classical Conditioning https://www.psychotube.net/learning-psychology/ivan-pavlov-classical-conditioning/ 2) Behaviour Analysis and Learning http://psych.athabascau.ca/html/aupr/ba.shtml 3) Learning Theories http://www.instructionaldesign.org/theories/ 4) Clips for class – videos on learning https://clipsforclass.com/learning 5) Positive Behavioural Interventions & Support 34 https://www.pbis.org/
