Learning theory
Dr. Gabriel Andrade
Learning theory
• Learning is the acquisition of new behavior
patterns.
• Behaviorist theory
• Nowadays, some people give it a bad name,
but it is basic in Psychology
Pavlov’s experiments
• Pavlov wanted to study the
digestive system of dogs
• He realized that dogs
salivated at the sight of
their keeper; they
salivated in the absence of
actual food
• Every time the dog was
provided with food, a bell
rang. Eventually, the dogs
salivated as a response to
the bell, even without the
food
Classical or associative conditioning
• It arises not as a result of consequences, but
merely due to association
• Unconditioned stimulus: food
• Unconditioned response: food-saliva
• Conditioned stimulus: bell
• Conditioned response: bell-saliva
Response acquisition, extinction, and
stimulus generalization
• Acquisition: the conditioned response is
learned
• Extinction: the conditioned response
decreases if the conditioned stimulus is never
used again
• Stimulus generalization: a new stimulus that
resembles a conditioned stimulus causes a
conditioned response paired with the
unconditioned stimulus
Pavlovian theory and eating
behaviors video:
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgCvNSQ
82Iw
Conditioning and eating disorders
• Treatment often focuses on the management
of craving
• Craving is triggered by cues, both external
and internal, via the process of classical
conditioning
• The person encounters a reminder of food
and the association stimulates craving
• This model also applies to substance abuse
Learned helplessness
• By classical conditioning, the animal learns that there is an
association between an aversive stimulus and the inability to
escape.
• Subsequently, the animal makes no attempt to escape when
shocked or when aced with any new aversive stimulus;
instead, the animal becomes hopeless and apathetic.
• Learned helplessness in animals may be a model system for
depression (often characterized by hopelessness and apathy)
in humans.
• Antidepressant treatment increases escape attempts in
animal models.
Skinner and the rat
• Skinner put a rat in a maze
• When the rat pressed a button, it got an
electric shock
• When the rat pulled the lever, it got food
• What did the rat end up doing?
Operant conditioning
• Behavior is determined by its consequences
for the individual. The consequence, or
reinforcement, occurs immediately following
a behavior
• Rewards and punishment; stick and carrots
Difference between classical and
operant conditioning
Types of operant conditioning
Schedules of reinforcement
Systematic desensitization
• Increasing doses of the fear-provoking
stimulus are paired with a relaxing stimulus
to induce a relaxation response
• The person shows less anxiety when exposed
to the fear-provoking stimulus in the future
• Treatment of phobias and anxiety
• If bad eating habits are a result of anxiety,
then systematic desensitization is a good
option
Aversive conditioning
• Classical conditioning
• Used to pair a maladaptive but pleasurable stimulus
with an aversive or painful stimulus so that the two
become associated.
• The person ultimately stops engaging in the
maladaptive behavior, because it automatically
provokes an unpleasant response
• Covert sensitization: the patient imagines the
undesirable behavior instead of actually engaging in
it, and then either imagines or is exposed to an
unpleasant stimulus
• Smoking, alcoholism, pedophilia
Video on aversive
therapy and eating:
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpsM7g
8oxX0
Token economy
• Works best in psychotic or intellectually
disabled patients
• Desirable behavior (e. g., shaving, hair
combing, eating vegetables) is differentially
reinforced by a reward or positive
reinforcement (e. g., the token)
• The person increases the desirable behavior
to gain the reward
• Operant conditioning
Biofeedback
• hypertension, migraine and tension
headaches, chronic pain, fecal incontinence
• The person is given ongoing physiologic
information (e. g., blood pressure
measurement)
• People learn strategies that enable them to
achieve voluntary control over the processes
involved
Video on biofeedback
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSPgdFeR
k8w
Shaping and modeling
• Shaping: rewarding
closer and closer
approximations of
the wanted behavior
until the correct
behavior is achieved
• Modeling: a type of
observational
learning