What is Learning?
Abdul H. Mohammed
School of Social Sciences
Växjö University
Sweden
IBRO Advanced Behavioural Neuroscience School, ICIPE, Nairobi, Kenya
December 13-20, 2008
Lund
October 2007
Carolus Linnaeus (1707–1778). Species
Plantarum (Stockholm, 1753).
Species Plantarum is the landmark work in
which Linnaeus applied his integrated system
of classifying, naming and describing plants to
account for all plants then known to western
science. His system of binomial
nomenclature was first used
comprehensively here. He analyzed much of
the previous botanical literature and linked
references from previously published
descriptions to his own treatments of plants,
providing a synthesis of botanical knowledge
on an unprecedented scale.
Statue of Linné outside the city library in Lund
The Linnaean garden has been maintained and can still be visited in Uppsala today
What is Learning?
Definition of Learning
“To gain knowledge or understanding of, or skill in, by
study, instruction, or investigation.”
Definition of Learning
From Textbooks:
Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior,
or behavior potential, that occurs as the result of
practice or experience.
Latent learning
We have knowledge we do not know we
have --and may never know until an
appropriate stimulus is experienced.
This is latent learning.
Socrates: “I know that I do not know”
Latent Learning is a form of learning that is not immediately
expressed in an overt response; it occurs without obvious
reinforcement to be applied later.
Latent learning is when an organism learns something in its life, but
the knowledge is not immediately expressed. It remains dormant,
and may not be available to conciousness until specific
events/experiences might need this knowledge to be demonstrated.
For instance a child may observe a parent setting the table or
tightening a screw, but does not act on this learning for a year; then
he finds he knows how to do these things, even though he has never
done them before.
•
•
Tolman, E. C. & Honzik, C. H. "Insight" in
Rats,
University of California Publications in
Psychology, 1930.
Tolman’s Latent Learning
Latent Learning: A Classic Experiment
(Tolman & Honzik, 1930)
GROUP 1: On every trial, these rats received food
when they reached the goal box.
GROUP 2: These rats never received food. They
were simply removed from the maze when they got to
the goal box.
GROUP 3: These rats got no food on Trials 1 to 10.
But on Trial 11, and every trial afterwards, they
received a food reward.
GR 1 —
GR 3 —
6
8
GR 2 —
2
4
Group 3 matched
Group 1, and then
did even better!
0
Average Errors
10
Latent Learning: A Classic Experiment
(Tolman & Honzik, 1930)
1
10 11
Trials (1 Trial per Day)
17
Latent Learning: A Classic Experiment
(Tolman & Honzik, 1930)
Conclusion
We must observe a change in behavior to say that
learning has occurred, but if no change occurs, we
can draw no conclusion. Learning may be present
“beneath the surface.”
This supports a distinction between learning and
performance.
Tolman on Why
He Worked with
Rats
“They do not go on binges the night before one has
planned an experiment; they do not kill each other off in
wars; they do not invent engines of destruction, and if they
did, they would not be so inept about controlling such
engines; they do not go in for either class conflicts or race
conflicts; they avoid politics, economics, and papers on
psychology. They are marvelous, pure, and delightful.”
Tolman (1945)
Beyond Freedom and Dignity
“Beyond Freedom and Dignity
[1971] was a misleading title.
It suggested that I was against
freedom and personal worth. I
did not advocate imposing
control; control existed and
should be corrected.”
Skinner (1976)
Sept. 1971
Operant conditioning is the modification of
behavior (the actions of animals) brought about
by the consequences that follow upon the
occurrence of the behavior.
In simple terms, behavior operates on the
environment producing various effects.
Operant conditioning differs from Pavlovian
conditioning, like the dog's salivation or the knee-jerk,
has neither much effect on the environment, nor is its
occurrence changed by its effectiveness or
ineffectiveness in the environment.
scatter hoarding
Why do scatter hoarding birds store very much food?
Extreme environment:
- short days, 3h
- low temperatures, -20° - - 30° C
- little food (no insects or seeds)
- long winters, nov - apr
Why store food?
- fat is expensive to carry
- caches are insurance
Pernau J.F.A, 1720: Angenehme Landlust allerhand Vögel
zufangen und abzurichten
The one who searches for
evidence that the animals
have some kind of mind
(Verstand) should let a
marsh tit fly in a room...put a
tree in the room...let it get
used to the environment.
Then starve it for half a
day...let is store hemp
seeds from a tray. When it
retrieves the seeds it
appears to possess some
kind of memory that cannot
be explained with "Instinctu
naturali". Pernau J.F.A,
1720:
- hc important for spatial memory
- food hoarding birds retrieve food by memory
- large scale caching requires special memorisation ability
- memory specialisation may require hc enlargement
- survival of baby neurons increase during intensive hoarding
- families with hoarders have larger hippocampi than non hoarders
Categorization of hoarding between species
1. Nonhoarders
2. Hoarders of
intermediate
specialisation
3. Highly specialised
hoarders
Episodic-likememory during cache recovery by scrub jays
Nicola S. Clayton & Anthony Dickinson
The recollection of past experiences allows us to recall
what a particular event was, and where and when it occurre
a form of memory that is thought to be unique to humans.
It is known, however, that food-storing birds remember the
spatial location and contents of their caches.
Scrub jays (Aphelocoma coerulescens) remember ‘when’
food items are stored
Jays demonstrate memory of where and when particular
food items were cached, thereby fulfilling the behavioural
criteria for episodic-like memory in non-human animals.
The ”What, Where and When” of unique experiences
Correlation between hoarding capacity and hippocampus volume
- storing could select for larger hippocampus
- storing could directly affect hippocampus morphology
?
Anders Brodin, Lund University
“Insect and mammalian olfactory systems
are strikingly similar. Therefore, Drosophila
can be used as a simple model for olfaction
and olfactory learning. However, the brain
of adult Drosophila is still complex. We
therefore chose to work on the larva with its
yet simpler but adult-like olfactory system.”
Martin Heisenberg
• Test performance of individuals from two
treatment conditions is compared: One
received odorant A with the positive
reinforcer and odorant B with a negative
one (A+/ B-); During test, differences in
choice of A versus B of individuals having
undergone these different treatment
conditions is seen thus indicating
associative learning.
Rodents are able to:
• discriminate a novel from a familiar object (onetrial object recognition),
• detect a mismatch between the past and present
location of a familiar object (one-trial object–place
recognition)
• can discriminate different objects in terms of their
relative recency (temporal order memory), i.e.,
which one of two objects has been encountered
earlier.
The novelty-preference paradigm
•
•
•
•
•
One-trial object recognition task
One-trial object–place recognition task
One-trial object–context recognition task
Temporal order memory task
Episodic-like memory task
Learning and Memory:
Multiple Memory Systems Model
Thompson and Kim (1996)
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 93, 13 439.
Object recognition memory – a common test of
declarative memory
Declarative memory is defined as the conscious
memory for facts and events and is often further
divided into episodic memory (memory for personal
events) and semantic memory (memory for general
information) (Squire and Zola-Morgan,1988; Squire
and Zola, 1996).
Delay
Delay
I. Novel object
II. Object-place recognition
Delay
Delay
Object-context
Delay
Delay
Temporal order
Delay
Delay
Episodic-like memory
Sources of Phenotypic Variance
• Genetic Effects
• Systematic Environmental Treatments
• Uncontrolled Pre-Test (Rearing)
Environmental Effects
• Idiosyncratic Environmental Effects that
Occur During Testing
Idiosyncratic Testing
Environment Effects
• The Bad Day Effect
• Events that occur prior to and/or during
testing that alter test behaviour (eg. a large
temperature fluctuation or a disturbance in
the colony or testing room)
•The Clumsy Test Effect
•Stresses to the animal induced just prior to
testing (eg. unusual difficulty extracting the
animal from its home cage or in placing it in
the test apparatus)
•The Stinky Apparatus Effect
•Uncontrolled residual sensory cues in the
test apparatus that alters the subject´s
behaviour
•The Faulty Scoring Effect
•Temporary data recording problems,
ranging from altered sensitivity of
electronic monitoring devices to inattentive
observers who are scoring behaviour
•The Slammed Door Effect
•Sudden sensory intrusions or disturbances
that occur during testing
•The ”What do I do now” Effect
•Variations in tester responses to
unanticipated actions of the animal being
tested (eg. jumping from the apparatus)
Tolman’s Cognitive Maps