Psychology Unit Four
Learning and Cognition
Classical Conditioning
• Stimulus: anything that produces a reaction from
a person or animal
– Light, sound, etc.
• Response: reaction to a stimulus
• Conditioning: learning
• Classical conditioning: learning in which one
stimulus brings the response of another stimulus
– Occurs when stimuli have been associated with each
other.
– EX: When the school bell rings, you…?
Types of stimuli
• Unconditioned Stimuli (UCS): stimulus that causes the
response that is automatic and not learned
• Unconditioned response (UCR): the automatic
response itself
• Conditioned stimuli (CS): learned stimulus that leads
to response
• Neutral stimulus: previously unassociated with response
• Conditioned response (CR): learned response to
stimuli that were previously neutral
– Often the same or similar to an unconditioned response
Pavlov’s Dogs
• Was working to see relationship between
nervous system and digestion
• Bell ring leads to salivation
• Rang bell and then presented with food
Adapting to the environment
• Taste Aversions: learned avoidance of certain foods
– Dislike, illness, bad associations
• Extinction: when a conditioned stimulus is no longer followed by an
unconditioned stimulus, it will lose its ability to recall conditioned
response
– Occurs when conditioned stimulus is disconnected from
unconditioned stimulus.
• Pavlov’s dogs stop salivation when a bell is rang if meet is not produced
• Generalization: responding to similar stimuli that are not identical
• Discrimination: responding differently to stimuli that are different
from one another
– Sick of apples? Eat a plum.
Applications
• Flooding: used to reduce fears
– Exposed to the harmless stimulus until fear responses are
extinguished
• Systematic desensitization: also used to reduce fear
– Taught relaxation techniques then gradually exposed to
stimulus
• Counter Conditioning: pleasant stimuli associated with
fear
– Given a cookie as viewing fearful rabbit
• Bell and Pad method for bed wetting
– Noise or vibration when wet
– Wakes the child, teaches them to use the bathroom
1.
Tamara normally feeds her cat
canned cat food. She noticed that
every time she uses her electric can
opener, her cat comes to the
kitchen. What is the conditioned
stimulus?
A.
B.
C.
D.
2.
the car accident
Robert's fear and anxiety
music by Journey
driving in a car
Robert developed a conditioned
response of fear and anxiety to
hearing music by Mozart. If he
were to have the same response
to any classical music, it would
be called
A.
B.
C.
D.
the cat food
the sound of the electric can opener
the cat coming to the kitchen
Tamara
Robert had a serious car accident
while Mozart was playing on his
stereo. Now, every time Robert
hears a Mozart song, he feels
frightened and panicked. What is
the unconditioned stimulus?
A.
B.
C.
D.
3.
4.
acquisition.
counter conditioning.
spontaneous recovery.
Generalization.
Juan developed a fear of dogs
after being attacked by one. His
counselor helped him to
overcome this fear by teaching
him to relax in the presence of
dogs. Eventually, he was no
longer afraid of dogs. Which of
the following processes
occurred?
A.
B.
C.
D.
extinction
Systematic desensitization
discrimination
counter conditioning
Operant Conditioning
• People and animals learn to do certain things and
not others because of the results of what they
do.
– Learn from consequences of actions
– Engage in behavior that results in desirable
consequences
• Food, an A on a test, social approval
– Avoid behaviors that result in negative consequences
• Pain or failure
• Different from Classical in the fact that voluntary
responses have more control of outcomes
Rewards and Punishments
• Rewards: increase the frequency of a behavior
(interchangeable with positive
reinforcements)
• Punishments: decrease the frequency of a
behavior
– Doesn’t teach acceptable behavior
– Consistency matters
– May leave the situation instead of change
– Can create anger and hostility
Reinforcers
• Goal is to continue a behavior
• Primary: food, water, warmth (not taught the
value)
• Secondary: money, attention, approval (learned)
1. Positive reinforcer
• Subject gets something they like (reward)
• Much more likely to work!
• You win the game, you get chocolate, you try to win again
next time!
2. Negative reinforcer
• Behavior continues by REMOVING something unpleasant
• Girlfriend glares at you, you say “sorry”, girlfriend stops
glaring
Pos vs Neg Reinforcement/Punishment
Schedules of Reinforcement
• Continuous Reinforcement: occurs every time
the behavior occurs.
– Maintained only when reinforced
• Partial reinforcement: only reward at certain
points (not reinforced every time)
– Tend to be more long term
– Note 4 schedules for partial reinforcement
Interval schedules
• Reward after certain TIME
• Fixed Interval: a fixed amount of time passes
between reinforcement time
– Rats learned that food was coming at 1 min
intervals and began to push lever as the min mark
approached
• Variable Interval: time varies between
reinforcement
– Reading quizzes
Ratio Schedules
• Reward after certain # of responses
• Fixed Ratio: reinforcement after a certain
number of correct responses
– Store punch cards (buy 9, 10th is free)
• Variable Ratio: provided after varying correct
responses
– Slot machines
Extinction
• Only occurs after repeated performance and
no reinforcement
Applications
• Shaping : applying operant conditioning in “baby
steps”
– Person gets feedback on small portions of a skill/task
– Eventually learns entire action
• Programmed Learning: teaching machine
– Repeats steps until they are correct
– Multiple test taking
• Classroom discipline: ignoring bad behavior
unless harmful and giving attention to positive
behaviors