PSY 2012 General Psychology
Chapter 6: Learning
Samuel R. Mathews, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
The Department of Psychology
The University of West Florida
Which is learned?
• Sneezing when dust gets in your nose
• Blinking your eye when a puff of air hits it
• Drooling when you taste a lemon
• Increasing heart rate when you see a
spider
What is NOT “learning?”
• Instincts: behaviors that occur as a result
of the organism’s genotype
• Reflexes: behaviors that occur as a result
of an automatic reaction to some
environmental change or condition
Defining Learning
• Relatively permanent change in behavior
or mental state based on experience
– Relatively permanent change: Can be altered
with future learning
– Behavior: Some response to a situation or
event
– Mental state: knowledge, attitude, belief,
strategy
Theories of Learning
• Behavioral or Environmental Theories:
– Change in the individual’s behavior or mental
state is in response to something in the
environment
– By controlling the environment, one’s learning
can be controlled
– Only those behaviors we can directly observe
are worthy of study
Theories of Learning
• Cognitive Theories of Learning:
– Change in the individual’s behavior or mental
state is based on internal mental processes
not directly observable
– The environment only indirectly influences our
behaviors and mental states
– Internal states and processes are legitimate
objects of study
Behavioral or Environmental Theories of
Learning
• Habituation: after repeated exposures to a
stimulus, our response to it decreases
– What did we discuss in Sensation/Perception
that is related to this?
• Exposure Effect: preference for a stimulus
to which we have had previous exposures
– Seeing a face in a crowd that belongs to
someone in the class who we do not know
Behavioral or Environmental Theories of
Learning: Classical Conditioning
• Identify a stimulus  response relationship that
occurs naturally (e.g. eye blink in response to a
puff of air)
• Identify a stimulus that does not elicit the
response naturally (e.g. a tone)
• Present the tone immediately prior to the puff of
several times
• When the tone elicits the blink without the puff,
then Classical Conditioning has occurred
Classical Conditioning
• The puff of air eye blink reflex did not
have to be taught or conditioned
– The puff of air then, is the Unconditioned
Stimulus (UCS)
– The eye blink is the Unconditioned Reflex
(UCR)
– The UCSUCR reflex requires NO
LEARNING
Classical Conditioning
• The tone did not initially elicit an eye blink.
– The tone eye blink connection was neutral at the
onset of the conditioning
• Following the conditioning trials, the tone was
conditioned to elicit the eye blink
• The tone became the Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
and the eye blink the Conditioned Response
(CR).
• CS (tone)  CR (eye blink).
Classical Conditioning
• Alex has a startled reaction to the sound of
a loud “pop.” immediately before the loud
pop, a light flashes. After several times,
Alex has a startled reaction to the flash of
light.
• What is the UCS?
• What is the UCR?
• What is the CS?
• What is the CR?
Classical Conditioning
• Sam fed his dog, Olga, each morning. He
would pour food from the container into
her food bowl and Olga would smell the
food and come to the kitchen to eat. Soon,
the noise made by the food when Sam
poured it into the bowl would bring Olga to
the kitchen to eat her food.
• What was the UCS?
• What was the UCR?
• What was the CS?
• What was the CR?
Classical Conditioning
• Terminating the behavior—Extinction
– When the Conditioned Stimulus is presented
repeatedly without the Unconditioned
Stimulus, the Conditioned Response ceases
to occur.
– If Sam made the sound of Olga’s food being
poured into the bowl and did not put food into
the bowl Olga would stop running to the
kitchen when she heard the sound.
Classical Conditioning
• Recovering the behavior—Spontaneous
Recovery
– If the CS is withheld for some time and
reintroduced, the CR returns at some level
– If Sam stops making the noise of Olga’s food
dropping in her food bowl for some days and
they makes the noise again, Olga is likely to
come. She will most likely return more slowly
and perhaps only look into the kitchen to
check for food.
Classical Conditioning
• Stimulus Generalization: the elicitation of
the Conditioned Response by similar but
different stimuli
– In Alex’s example above, if Alex had a startle
reaction to a different light he would be
demonstrating stimulus generalization.
Classical Conditioning
• Stimulus Discrimination: the organism
produces the Conditioned Response to
one Conditioned Stimulus but not to a
similar but different stimulus.
– Alex (see above) startles to a flash of red light
(CS) but not to another light of similar
intensity but different color.
Operant Conditioning: Learning New
Behaviors
• B.F. Skinner’s “Radical Behaviorism:
– The factor controlling an organism’s behavior
was the consequence of that behavior.
– There was no need to hypothesize internal
processes.
– The only appropriate object of study is overt,
observable behavior
– The laws governing “learning” via operant
conditioning were the same for all organisms.
Operant Conditioning: Learning New
Behaviors
• Key concepts in Operant Conditioning
– Reinforcement: “Any condition that follows and
strengthens a behavior.” (Zimbardo, et al., 2006, pg.
236)
• Positive Reinforcement: an event that occurs
after a response that increases the likelihood of
that response occurring again
• Negative Reinforcement: removal of an aversive
condition that increases the likelihood of that
response occurring again
– Extinction: similar to Extinction in Classical
Conditioning—removing the reinforcement tends to
terminate the behavior
Reinforcement
• Jennifer’s father decided to give her a trip
to Paris if she made the dean’s list. She
made the dean’s list and received the trip
to Paris.
– Is this positive or negative reinforcement?
– Why do you think so?
Reinforcement
• David had a habit of leaving his keys in his
car when he filled up with gasoline. Once
he locked his keys in his car. He had a
buzzer installed such that it sounded when
the keys were in the car and the engine
was turned off. When he removed the
keys, the buzzer stopped.
– Is this positive or negative reinforcement?
– Why do you think so?
Reinforcement Contingencies
• Contingencies reflect conditions that must be
met in order for reinforcement to be dispensed;
• The reinforcement must be meaningful to the
organism (e.g. food for a dog)
• The reinforcement must follow the behavior;
Reinforcement Contingencies: Timing and
Schedules of Reinforcement
• Continuous reinforcement: the reinforcement
is administered following each behavior;
– Excellent for initial learning of new behaviors;
– Problems:
• Habituation to the reinforcer: the reinforcement
loses its reinforcing qualities
• Satiation: the organism becomes glutted with the
reinforcer.
Reinforcement Contingencies: Timing and
Schedules of Reinforcement
• Intermittent Reinforcement: periodic
administration of the reinforcement.
– Maintains behaviors with fewer reinforcement
trials following initial learning;
– More resistant to extinction
Reinforcement Contingencies: Timing and
Schedules of Reinforcement
• Ratio Schedules: based on the number of responses
before a reinforcement is administered.
• Fixed Ratio: reinforcement is contingent on a
certain number of responses and that number is
constant. As the number of responses approaches
the required number, the rate of response
increases
• Variable Ratio: the number of responses for which
a behavior will be reinforces varies. Typically some
average number is maintained over trials. The rate
of responding tends to be consistent.
Reinforcement Contingencies: Timing and
Schedules of Reinforcement
• Alexander works at a manufacturing plant and is
paid a certain amount for every 35 units he
produces.
• Upon which schedule is his pay based on a fixed
or variable ratio?
• Lucy likes to play the slot machines in the
casino. She never knows how many times she
will play before a payoff.
• Is her winning based on a fixed or variable ratio?
Reinforcement Contingencies: Timing and
Schedules of Reinforcement
• Interval Schedules: Based on the amount of time
between reinforcement. The first response following the
minimum time is reinforced.
– Fixed Interval: reinforcement is contingent on the
first response following a set amount of time. Rate of
behavior increases slightly as the interval
approaches.
– Variable Interval: the amount of time between
reinforcement is typically varied around some
average. In uncontrolled settings, the variance is not
controlled around an average.
Reinforcement Contingencies: Timing and
Schedules of Reinforcement
• Damon receives $24.00 each hour he works and is paid
every week for 40 hours work.
• Is this a fixed or variable interval schedule?
• Elecia is a supervisor in a technology development firm.
She makes unscheduled visits to the office in which her
staff works. Her staff members never know when Elecia
will arrive.
• Is this a fixed or variable interval schedule?
Food and Money: Primary and Secondary
Reinforcers
• If the reinforcer is based on a natural
biological need or drive it is a primary
reinforcer
– Food, Water, Sex, Oxygen
• If the reinforcer is a related to but in reality
not based on a natural biological need, it
is a secondary or conditioned reinforcer
– Money, Praise, Grades
Doing what I like for Doing what I Do Not
Like to Do
• The Premack Principle:
– Using a desired or high frequency behavior to
reinforce a less desirable or lower frequency
behavior;
• If you do your chores, you can go to the movies
with your friends;
• If you complete your paper assignment early, you
can enjoy the weekend before it is due.
Using the Stick instead of the Carrot:
Punishment
• Punishment: any condition that follows and
reduces the likelihood of a behavior
– Positive Punishment: a condition that occurs
following a behavior and reduces the likelihood of that
behavior
– Negative Punishment: removal of a desirable
condition following a behavior that reduces the
likelihood of that behavior.
Using the Stick instead of the Carrot:
Punishment
• Alison’s parents take away her instant
messaging service to get her to study and
improve her grades.
– Is this positive or negative punishment?
• Simone was placed on restriction for
violating her parents’ curfew.
– Is this positive or negative punishment?
Punishment vs. Reinforcement
• Punishment does not usually result in long
term behavioral change;
• Punishment does not provide a vehicle for
building a more desirable behavior;
• Reinforcement gives the reinforcing
individual more control over others’
behavior;
• Punishment typically leads to escape
behavior;
Something to help you remember:
• Reinforcement always increases the
likelihood of the behavior;
• Punishment always decreases the
likelihood of the behavior;
• Positive means doing or giving something
following the behavior
• Negative means stopping or taking
something away.
Problems for thought:
• Jamal wanted his dog to learn to walk on a
leash. In order to train the dog Jamal bought a
“choke” collar that constricted the dog’s neck
when the dog ran too fast.
• Is this an example of positive reinforcement,
negative reinforcement, positive punishment, or
negative punishment?
• Why?
Problems for thought
• Aaron’s parents wanted him to improve his
grades. They decided they would allow him to
stay out an extra hour on Saturday night if he
made the A-B honor roll.
• Is this an example of positive reinforcement,
negative reinforcement, positive punishment, or
negative punishment?
• Why?
The Cognitive Revolution
• Two events marked the transition from a radical
behavioral or environmental perspective on
learning to one that involved cognition
– Noam Chomsky published a critique of Skinner’s
perspective on language development:
• Skinner proposed that all language was learned through
conditioning;
• Chomsky proposed that the high degree of creativity,
diversity, and inconsistency in any individual’s language
negated a strictly behavioral approach
The Cognitive Revolution
– The development of the computer as a way to
process information:
• Led to the recognition that information can be
transformed in representation, processed, and
reproduced in the original form;
• Researchers and scholars used the computer as a
metaphor for conducting research on the mental
processes viewed as inaccessible by behaviorists.
The Cognitive Revolution
• Gestalt Psychology (Kohler):
– Saw problem solving as the culmination of mental
processes that created representations of the
problem situation;
– Behaviorists lacked explanations of “insight” learning;
• Social Learning Theory (Bandura)
– Individuals could learn a behavior by observing others
engaging in the behavior and being reinforced;
– Individuals form a mental representation of the
behavior prior to practicing the behavior.
Cognitive Psychology: Learning and Mental
Processes
• Cognitive Psychology covers much:
– Memory
– Problem Solving
– Decision Making
– Intellectual Skills
These aspects of the human condition will
follow in the next chapters.