Chapter 4: Learning
I.
Classical Conditioning: paired learning
A. Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior that results from experience.
B. Classical Conditioning was accidentally discovered by Ivan Pavlov
1. Discovered while he was studying the salivation reflex in dogs.
C. Components of classical conditioning:
1. Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): food
2. Unconditioned Response (UCR): salivation to food
3. Conditioned Stimulus (CS): sound of a tone
4. Conditioned Response (CR): salivation to tone
D. Factors that affect classical conditioning:
1. Reverse order conditioning.
a. Normally, food (UCS) immediately follows presentation of tone (CS).
b. When tone (CS) precedes food (UCS), there is no conditioning.
2. In food aversions, delay between UCS and CS may be longer and still be effective
D. Types of classical conditioning
1. Avoidance learning is a type of classical conditioning in which the CS is paired with an unpleasant
UCS so that the organism tries to avoid the CS.
2. A conditioned emotional response - emotional response elicited by a previously neutral stimulus.
3. John Watson and the “Little Albert” study proved that fear responses in humans can be classically
conditioned.
E. Not all responses can be conditioned from all stimuli.
1. Biological preparedness allows some conditioned responses to be readily learned.
2. Counterpreparedness makes it difficult to condition responses from some stimuli.
F. Extinction is the process through which a CS weakens and disappears after the repeated presentation of a
CS without the presence of the UCS.
1. Extinction does not lead to forgetting of the CR; rather it leads to new learning that overlays the old
learning, that the CS no longer leads to the UCS
2. Once learned, the stimulus-response connection is never eliminated.
3. Spontaneous recovery is process by which after extinction has occurred, the CS will again elicit a CR.
G. Stimulus generalization is the tendency for the CR to be elicited by neutral stimuli that are similar to the
original CS.
1. Stimulus discrimination is the ability to distinguish among similar conditioned
stimuli and respond only to actual conditioned stimuli.
H. There is evidence that mental processes lie between stimulus and response during classical conditioning.
I.
Brain mechanisms involved in fear conditioning.
1. Three distinct brain processes are involved:
a. Parts of the cortex register the stimulus.
b. A part of the amygdala processes the sensory information about the stimulus that triggers the
conditioned fear.
c. Another part of the amygdala, the central nucleus, leads to behaviors that express the fear response.
d. Conditioning causes the neurons to fire together so that the stimulus automatically elicits the fear
response.
J. Applications of classical conditioning
1. Emotional responses, responses to medication, deaths caused by drug overdoses,
therapy techniques, and advertising all can involve classical conditioning.
2. Ader & Cohen’s research suggests that even the immune system can be
conditioned.
3. Animals can be trained with classical conditioning.
K. Food or taste aversion involve classically conditioned avoidance of certain foods or
tastes when they are paired with stimuli that elicit nausea.
II. Operant Conditioning is the process by which a behavior becomes associated with its
consequences.
A. History of operant conditioning
1. Edward L. Thorndike’s research with cats and a puzzle box led to his formulation of the Law of Effect,
which states that actions that subsequently lead to a satisfying state of affairs are more likely to be
repeated.
2. B. F. Skinner developed the “Skinner Box” for work with pigeons; it allowed him to measure their
behavior and feed them .
B. Principles of operant conditioning
1. Relies on principle of reinforcement, in which the consequences of a behavior lead to a higher
frequency of the behavior occurring later on.
2. Reinforcement works best when it involves a response contingency.
3. There are different types of reinforcers:
a. Positive reinforcement is when a desired reinforcer is presented after the occurrence of the desired
behavior.
b. Negative reinforcement is when an unpleasant event or circumstance is removed after the
occurrence of the desired behavior.
4. Punishment is the occurrence of an unpleasant event as a consequence of a response, decreasing the
likelihood of the recurrence of that response.
a. Punishment is most effective if it has three characteristics:
(1) It should occur immediately after the undesired behavior.
(2) It must be consistent.
(3) It must be aversive without being abusive.
b. Dangers of using punishment
(1) It does not eliminate the capacity to engage in the problem behavior. This can be seen in
occurrences of avoidance learning.
(2) Physical punishment may elicit increased aggressive behavior in the person being punished.
(3) Through classical conditioning, the person being punished may learn to fear the punisher.
Punishment works best when combined with reinforcement
5. There are different levels of reinforcement:
a. Primary reinforcers are events or objects that are inherently reinforcing.
b. Secondary reinforcers are events or objects that are not inherently reinforcing, but take on their
reinforcing value through learning. Behavior modification brings about behavioral change through
the use of secondary reinforcers.
6. The timing of reinforcement can affect its value. Immediate reinforcement is generally more
effective, especially with animals, than delayed reinforcement.
7. Generalization, discrimination, extinction, and spontaneous recovery all occur in
operant conditioning as well as in classical conditioning. Shaping is the gradual process of reinforcing
an organism for engaging in behavior that gets closer to the desired behavior (successive approximations).
8. There are various reinforcement schedules that can affect the frequency and pattern of an organism’s
response.
a. Continuous reinforcement is when reinforcement is given for each desired response.
b. A partial reinforcement is when reinforcement is only given intermittently.
c. An interval schedule is a partial reinforcement schedule based on time.
(1) A fixed interval schedule is a reinforcement schedule in which reinforcement is given for a
response emitted after a fixed interval of time.
(2) A variable interval schedule is a reinforcement schedule in which reinforcement is given for a
response emitted after a variable interval of time. This creates a slow, but extremely consistent
response pattern.
d. Ratio schedule is a partial reinforcement schedule based on a specified number of emitted
responses.
(1) A fixed ratio schedule is a reinforcement schedule in which reinforcement is given after a
fixed ratio of responses.
(2) A variable ratio schedule is a reinforcement schedule in which reinforcement is given after a
variable ratio of responses. This is the reinforcement schedule that is most resistant to
extinction
C. Brain mechanisms involved in conditioned learning.
1. Conditioned learning involves two major phases:
a. We learn to discriminate the proper situation in which to make a response.
(1) The hippocampus and the neurotransmitter acetylcholine are involved in this phase of the
learning process.
(2) Scopolamine blocks learning during this phase.
b. We learn the stimulus-response association itself, (by noting the consequences
of the response in operant conditioning). The neurotransmitter dopamine in
the nucleus accumbens, in the amygdala, is critical in the reward being effective.
2. Classical versus operant conditioning. Have many similarities and some differences (listed in table 5.2),
major difference is that they each use different neural systems.
III. Cognitive and Social Learning
A. Cognitive learning is the acquisition of information that often is not immediately acted on but is stored for
later use: Tolman’s work with rats running mazes for rewards discovered latent learning.
B. Insight learning occurs when a person suddenly grasps what something means and incorporates that new
knowledge into old knowledge: Wolfgang Kohler’s work with a chimpanzee named Sultan is the most
well-known in this area.
C. Observational learning occurs through watching others, rather than through
reinforcement.
1. Albert Bandura developed social learning theory to explain how much of what we
learn is learned in a social context.
2. Bandura focused much of his work on the process of modeling.
3. Several characteristics of models can make observational learning more effective. These include being
an expert, attractive, socially powerful and having high status.