WHS AP Psychology
Unit 5: Learning (Behaviorism)
Essential Task 5-6: Apply learning principles to
explain phobias, taste aversion, superstitious
behavior, learned helplessness, and
biofeedback.
Learning
The process by which experience or practice results in a relatively
permanent change in behavior or potential behavior
We are
here
Classical
Conditioning
The type of learning in
which a response
naturally elicited by one
stimulus becomes to be
elicited by a different
formally neutral stimulus
Operant
Conditioning
The type of learning in
which behaviors are
emitted to earn rewards
or avoid punishments
Social
Cognitive
Learning
Theory
The type of learning in
which behaviors are
learned by observing a
model
Pavlov and Watson
B.F. Skinner
Albert Bandura
UCS, UCR, CS, CR
Reinforcement and
Punishment
Modeling and Vicarious
Learning
Essential
Task
5-:
Outline
• Phobias
• Taste aversion
• Influences of Biological Predisposition
• Superstitious behavior
• Learned helplessness
• Biofeedback.
Examples of Classical Conditioning
Phobias
After the attacks, cats become a
warning stimulus for pain causing fear
when the child sees cats.
After this botched photo, 6 ft bunny
becomes warning stimulus for
someone trying to capture you.
Systematic Desensitization
• This therapy aims to remove the fear response of a phobia, and
substitute a relaxation response to the conditional stimulus gradually
using counter conditioning.
• This is done by forming a hierarchy of fear, involving the conditioned
stimulus (e.g. a spider), that are ranked from least fearful to most
fearful. The patient works their way up starting at the least
unpleasant and practicing their relaxation technique as they go. When
they feel comfortable with this (they are no longer afraid) they move
on to the next stage in the hierarchy.
Examples of Classical Conditioning
Taste Aversion
After throwing up a food, it
becomes a warning stimulus
for getting sick.
Biological Predispositions
Pavlov and Watson believed that laws of
learning were similar for all animals.
Therefore, a pigeon and a person do not
differ in their learning.
However, behaviorists later suggested
that learning is constrained by an
animal’s biology.
Each species’ predispositions prepare it
to learn the associations that enhance its
survival.
Biological Predisposition
Photo: Bob Bailey
Biological constraints
predispose organisms to
learn associations that
are naturally adaptive.
Breland and Breland
(1961) showed that
animals drift towards
their biologically
predisposed instinctive
behaviors.
Marian Breland Bailey
Biological Predispositions
Courtesy of John Garcia
Garcia showed that the duration between the CS
and the US may be long (hours), but yet result in
conditioning. A biologically adaptive CS (taste)
led to conditioning and not to others (light or
sound).
Taste Aversion
John Garcia
Examples of operant conditioning
Superstitious
Behavior
You do things you know have
no real impact on reality
because that one time you
did it, the team won.
Learned Helplessness
• Learned helplessness is a mental state
that arises in an organism that believes
punishment is inescapable.
• The organism stops trying even when
success can be obtained.
Seligman and Maier
• an animal is repeatedly exposed to an
aversive stimulus which it cannot
escape. Eventually, the animal stops
trying to avoid the stimulus and
behaves as if it is helpless to change
the situation. When opportunities to
escape become available, learned
helplessness means the animal does
not take any action.
Even when they can be
successful, they won’ try.
Behavioral Change Using
Biofeedback
• Biofeedback is an operant technique
that teaches people to gain voluntary
control over bodily processes like heart
rate and blood pressure
• When used to control brain activity it is
called neurofeedback