CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
● Learning in which a neutral stimulus comes to bring about a response after it is paired with a stimulus
that naturally brings about a response
Pavlov’s experiment
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Current example of CC
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UNCONDITIONED STIMULUS (UCS)
NEUTRAL STIMULUS (NS)
NS
UCS
CONDITIONED STIMULUS (CS)
UNCONDITIONED STIMULUS (UCS)
NEUTRAL STIMULUS (NS)
NS
UCS
CONDITIONED STIMULUS (CS)
UNCONDITIONED RESPONSE (UCR)
UCR
CONDITIONED RESPONSE (CR)
UNCONDITIONED RESPONSE (UCR)
UCR
CONDITIONED RESPONSE (CR)
Things to understand and remember about Classical Conditioning…
● An unconditioned stimulus leads to an unconditioned response.
● Unconditioned = unlearned and untrained
● Conditioned = learned and trained
● During conditioning, a previously neutral stimulus is transformed into the conditioned
stimulus
● Unconditioned response and conditioned response are similar
Other CC terms to know…
● Acquisition:
● Extinction:
● Spontaneous recovery:
● Stimulus generalization:
● Stimulus discrimination:
EXTENDING and APPLYING CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
J.B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner
○ 1st to apply classical conditioning to people – “Dozen Children”
○ Coined the term “behaviorism”
○ Little Albert – conditioning fear
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UNCONDITIONED STIMULUS (UCS)
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UNCONDITIONED RESPONSE (UCR)
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NEUTRAL STIMULUS (NS)
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NS
UCS
CONDITIONED STIMULUS (CS)
UCR
CONDITIONED RESPONSE (CR)
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Counterconditioning – therapeutic technique used my many counselors today to alleviate fears/anxieties
○
Taste-aversion: dislike or avoidance of a particular food because of previous discomfort or illness
Cognitive Influences
○ Contingency model (of classical conditioning) – Robert Rescorla
● A is contingent upon B when A depends upon B and vise versa…in other words, the presence of
the CS(NS) must predict the presence of the UCS
● An individual’s response to a stimulus is based on his expectations of he thinks will happen,
rather than just a “knee-jerk” reaction to that stimulus
○
Insight learning: form of cognitive learning in which problem solving occurs by means of sudden
reorganization of perceptions (not necessarily CC)
● Wolfgang Kohler – found chimps could solve complex problems by combining simpler
behaviors the had previously learned separately
Biological Influences
○ Classical conditioning – animals and humans are biologically prepared to make certain connections
more easily than others…these connections help keep us alive
OPERANT CONDITIONING
B.F. Skinner
● Created the “Skinner Box” -- a highly controlled environment used to study operant
conditioning processes with laboratory animals
● To teach animals, Skinner used process of shaping, or guiding an animal using reinforcement
toward a desired behavior
● Reinforcement: any event that increases the likelihood of repeating a response
■ Types of reinforcers
●
Primary reinforcers: satisfy some biological need and work naturally
●
Secondary (conditioned) reinforcers: stimulus that becomes reinforcing because of
its association with a primary reinforcer
●
Positive reinforcer: increase in response by adding/giving a positive stimulus
●
Negative reinforcer: increase in response by removing an aversive (negative)
stimulus
■ Schedules of reinforcement
● Continuous – reinforce behavior every time
● Partial (intermittent) – reinforce only some of the time
○ Fixed-ratio: reinforce after a certain number of responses
○
Variable-ratio: reinforce after a varying (average) number of responses
○
Fixed-interval: reinforce after a fixed time period has elapsed
Variable interval: time between reinforcers varies around some average
● Punishment: any stimulus that decreases the likelihood of repeating a response
■ Types of punishment
● Positive punishment: decrease a response by applying an aversive stimulus
○
●
Negative punishment (omission training): decrease a response by taking away a
reinforcer (positive consequence)
■ Is punishment good or bad?
● Punishment is often the quickest route to changing a behavior that might be
dangerous
● Yet…research has shown that…
○ punishment is often ineffective
○ physical punishment can convey that physical aggression is okay or cause
unintended emotional reactions to the punisher
○ punishment does not offer viable alternate options for more appropriate
behavior
Cognitive Influences on Operant Conditioning
○ Cognitive map: a mental representation of a physical space that one uses to navigate that space
■ Edward Tolman – showed that learning is not simple behaviors by placing rats in a maze
and “blocking” the normal route to the goal, so animal had to find detour around blockage
○
Latent learning: learning that occurs without reinforcement
■ Tolman – allowed rats to freely wander maze for several hours, during which time they
received no reinforcement
Biological Influences
○ Researchers have found that animals will not perform behaviors that go against their natural
inclinations, regardless of how great the reward (this is known as “instinctive drift”)
OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING
Albert Bandura
● Learn by watching others and imitating specific behaviors (modeling)
● Bandura believes observational learning takes place in 4 steps
1. Paying attention and perceiving critical features of another person’s behavior
2. Remembering the behavior
3. Reproducing the action
4. Being motivated to learn and carry out the behavior
● Bobo doll experiment
● Young children watched a film of an adult attacking a Bobo doll (5 ft. tall inflatable punching
toy) and when given opportunity later to play with Bobo doll, most children attacked the Bobo
doll in much the same way they had seen the adult act
● What does this say about violence on TV?
■ Between the ages of 5 and 15, the average child will witness at least 13,000 violent deaths
on television
■ Most experts agree that watching high levels of media violence makes viewers more
susceptible to acting aggressively
Other implications of observational learning
● Does that mean that everything we see, we imitate?
● Not necessarily…
■ we are especially likely to imitate those who we perceive to be similar to ourselves as well
as those who are successful and admirable
■ we are also likely to look at the consequences of our model’s behavior…if the behavior is
followed by a reinforcer we are much more likely to imitate than if the behavior is followed
by a punishment
● Models are most effective when their actions and words are consistent