Chapter 8- Learning
Learning: a relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs as a result of experiences with our
environment
Three general types of learning
1. Classical Conditioning
a. Most people have a fear response while just sitting in a dentist’s chair!
b. Why? We associate the chair with pain!
c. 1927: Ivan Pavlov first described this type of learning through his exp’s with dogs
d. Classical conditioning occurs in humans too!
i. In one study using humans, a puff of air was delivered to the eyes.
ii. Before Learning:
1. Unconditioned stimulus (UCS) (puff of air to the eyes)  Unconditioned
Response (UCR) jerking of head
2. Neutral stimulus (NS) (Buzzer)  Nothing
iii. During Learning:
1. Pair NS with UCS repeatedly
2. Buzzer  Puff Blink/Jerk
iv. After Learning:
1. NS (Buzzer) is the Conditioned stimulus (CS)  UCR (blink/jerk)
becomes the conditioned response (CR)
v. Evidence shows that classical conditioning occurs with cancer patients receiving
chemotherapy.
vi. Before learning:
1. Unconditioned stimulus (UCS) (Heavy doses of chemotherapy) 
Unconditioned response (UCR) (Severe nausea)
2. Neutral stimulus (NS) (Traveling to the hospital)  Nothing
vii. During learning:
1. Pair NS with UCS repeatedly
2. Traveling chemonausea
viii. After learning:
1. NS (traveling) is the conditioned stimulus (CS) UCR (nausea) becomes
the conditioned response (CR)
e. Three important variables in classical conditioning
i. The magnitude of the UCS- The UCS (puff of air) must be sufficiently strong to
elicit the UCR (head jerk)
ii. Contiguity (or timing between receiving the NS and UCS)- For optimal learning,
the NS should occur about ½ or .5 seconds before the UCS
1. Buzzer  ½ second  Air puff
2. Tone  ½ second  Food
iii. The number of times the NS has been paired with the UCS- The more times the
NS (tone) and the UCS (food) are paired during learning, the long the learning
will last.
f. Four important properties of classical learning (All are covered very clearly in textbook)
i. Extinction
ii. Spontaneous Recovery
iii. Stimulus Generalization
iv. Stimulus Discrimination
2. Operant Conditioning (aka “instrumental learning”)
a. A learning process in which the probability that an organism (human or animal) will emit
a response is INCREASED by the subsequent delivery of a reinforcer
i. Note: the re-enforcement is delivered after a response has occurred. This
should increase the changes that the response or behavior will occur again!
b. Behavior occurs  reinforcement delivered
c. Two lines of research on operant conditioning!
i. Shaping
1. The process of reinforcing small behaviors step-by-step until the total
desired behavior is performed
2. Often used to teach small circus and amusement park animals tricks
ii. Superstitious behavior
1. In humans, superstitious behaviors are commonplace among sports
figures
a. In fact, these “sports rituals” are sometimes very complex!
2. What happens is that certain behaviors were accidentally reinforced in
the past
a. The player continues to perform those behaviors in similar
situations!
d. 2 Types of Reinforcement
Both increase the probability that a behavior will occur again
i. Positive reinforcement- The presenting of a rewarding (or pleasant) stimulus
after a behavior has occurred
ii. Negative reinforcement- The removal of negative (or unpleasant) stimulus after
a behavior has occurred.
1. The reinforcement in negative reinforcement is the termination of a
painful stimulus
2. Example: Children often learn that, if they ‘over-cry’ at the start of a
spanking, mom or dad will stop the spanking.
a. They learn that the over-crying “terminates a painful stimulus”
(the spanking)
b. This is negative reinforcement!
iii. Both positive and negative reinforcement increase the probability that a
certain behavior will happen again!
1. With positive reinforcement, get something good
2. With negative reinforcement, take away something bad
e. Punishment: Punishment decreases the probability that a certain behavior will occur
again. Here, a certain behavior leads to something bad!
i. Primary Punishment- Punishment w/ stimuli that naturally cause pain to the
organism
1. Spanking a child
2. Shocking a rat
ii. Secondary Punishment- punishment w/ stimuli that are associated with pain
(but do not actually cause physical pain)
1. Examples:
a. A frown
b. A cold stare
c. Saying “NO” loudly
d. Acting indifferent
2. Common type of secondary punishment is the removal of a pleasant
stimulus (i.e. where something good is taken away)!
a. Getting a traffic ticket
b. Being grounded
c. No TV for a week
d. Getting a time out
e. Sitting in corner
3. This is not negative reinforcement! (Remember, negative reinforcement
involves the removal of an unpleasant stimulus)
iii. Is punishment effective?
1. It does suppress simple behavior patterns for short term!
2. But, punishment has two major drawbacks that should be considered:
a. When the punisher is absent, original behaviors often return
quickly
b. Punishment can only be used to suppress behavior!
i. In other words, punishment only allows one ot
eliminate old behaviors, NOT teach new behaviors!
3. Research shows that punishment can be effective, but only under 2
conditions
a. Only secondary punishment should be used
b. Positive reinforcement should always be used with the
secondary punishment
c. The combination of secondary punishment and positive
reinforcement can be very effective in shaping behavior!
4. Why shouldn’t we use primary punishment? (especially w/ children?)
a. Approximately 80% of U.S. adults agree that it is “ok” to spank a
child “under certain circumstances”
b. Research shows very clearly that it is not “ok” to hit children
c. Spanking lead to some extremely negative consequences!
iv. Video: Remember “Turk Wendell”- He had a lot of superstitions
3. Observational Learning (aka modeling)
Here we learn behaviors simply by observing others engaged in those behaviors.
a. Four important points regarding observational learning
i. No reinforcement is needed for learning to take place
ii. Learning by watching others occurs and is not limited to humans
iii. People do not need to be actively engaged in a behavior to learn it
iv. Observational learning is not a simple process
1. It requires the study of thinking (i.e. cognitive processing
b. Albert Bandura (Stanford U.) conducted a series of studies known as “Bobo doll studies”
(read in text)