LEARNING: BEHAVIORISM
DEFN of Learning: a
PERMANENT
CHANGE in behavior
due to EXPERIENCE
or practice (that it’s
permanent, that
there is a change,
and it’s due to
experience are key)
What is Behaviorism?
Major perspective - studies scientifically
observable behaviors, not unconscious drives.
Names: Pavlov, Watson, Skinner, Bandura
Includes classical conditioning, operant
conditioning, and observational learning
Nurture not nature
Behaviorism Basic Premise:
Behavior is motivated EXTERNALLY from
OUTSIDE – not internally (opposes
psychodynamic and humanistic schools of
thought)
A+
A
AB+
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Classical Conditioning
It all started with:
Ivan Pavlov
Ivan Pavlov and his Drooling Dogs
Russian scientist,
studying saliva
and digestion –
father of
CLASSICAL
CONDITIONING
Basic Defns:
1) STIMULI: a change in environment that
affects a sense organ or gland
2) RESPONSE: a change in a muscle or
gland
What is classical conditioning?
• When your brain and nervous
system make an association
between 2 stimuli (things).
• Example: food and a bell
(Ivan Pavlov)
Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): (the
meat) a stimulus that naturally and
automatically triggers a response.
Unconditioned Response
(UCR): (drooling to meat)
the unlearned, naturally
occurring response to the
UCS.
Conditioned Stimulus (CS): (the bell) an
originally irrelevant stimulus that, after
association with the UCS, comes to
trigger a response.
Conditioned
Response (CR):
(drooling to the bell)
the learned response
to a previously
neutral stimulus.
e
• 1. Sara is watching a storm. A bolt of
lightening is followed immediately by a huge
crash of thunder and makes her jump. This
happens several more times. The storm starts
to move away and there is a gap between the
lightening bolt and the sound of thunder, yet
Sara jumps at the lightening bolt.
• What is the:
• UCS
• UCR
• CS
• CR
• 2. Steve's mouth waters whenever he eats
anything with lemon in it. One day, while
seeing an advertisement showing lemons, his
mouth begins to water.
• What is the:
• UCS
• UCR
• CS
• CR
Pavlov spent the rest of his life outlining his
ideas. He came up with 5 critical terms that
together make up classical conditioning.
•
•
•
•
•
Acquisition
Extinction
Spontaneous Recovery
Generalization
Discrimination
Acquisition (pairing food with bell)
• The initial stage of learning.
• The phase where the neutral stimulus is
associated with the UCS so that the neutral
stimulus comes to elicit the CR (thus
becoming the CS).
Does timing matter?
•The CS should come before the UCS
•They should be very close together in timing.
Extinction
• The diminishing of a conditioned response.
• Will eventually happen when the UCS does
not follow the CS.
• Dog stops drooling to bell
Is extinction permanent?
Spontaneous Recovery
• The reappearance. After a rest period, of an
extinguished conditioned response.
• Dog drools to bell again
Generalization
• We fear things similar to the original
stimulus
Discrimination
• The learned ability to distinguish between a
CS and other stimuli that does not signal UCS.
Dog drools to a bell, but not a gong
Garfield
John B. Watson
“Give me a dozen healthy infants, wellformed, and my own special world to bring
them up in, and I’ll guarantee to take any
one at random and train him to become any
type of specialist I might select – doctor,
lawyer, merchant-chief, and yes, beggar
man or thief, regardless of his talents,
penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations,
and race of his ancestors.”
What is the Little Albert
experiment?
• John Watson classically conditioned a baby
to fear a white rat. Then the baby feared all
furry things.
Stimulus Generalization
The Baby was given the rat while Watson
sounded a loud, scary clank. Now the baby
is afraid of all furry things.
Cognitive Processes
Early behaviorists believed
that learned behaviors of
various animals could be
reduced to mindless
mechanisms.
However, later behaviorists
suggested that animals learn
the predictability of a
stimulus, meaning they learn
expectancy or awareness
Biological Predispositions
 Pavlov and Watson believed
that laws of learning were
similar for all animals.
Therefore, a pigeon and a
person do not differ in their
learning.
 However, behaviorists later
suggested that learning is
constrained by an animal’s
biology.
Conditioned Taste Aversions
Can you think of a
food that you once
had a bad experience
with that still produces
a feeling of nausea
when you encounter
it?
– Can you think of a
benefit to food
aversions?
John Garcia
Garcia showed that the time
duration between the CS and the
US may be long (hours), but yet
result in conditioning.
Rats avoid drinking or eating from
containers that made them sick.
– They associated flavored water
with illness.
How can we apply classical
conditioning?
Applications of Taste Aversion
• treating alcoholism, using
the drug Antabuse
– causes nausea and violent
vomiting when combined
with alcohol
– attempts to create a taste
aversion to alcohol
• Problem: alcoholics tend to
stop taking Antabuse so they
can drink again
– but when used properly,
Antabuse does reduce total
amount of alcohol consumed
Applications of Taste Aversion
• humane methods of
controlling predators,
agricultural pests?
– coyotes & wolves ate sheep
carcasses laced with nauseainducing poison; developed
aversion to sheep meat
• wolves penned with sheep
later seemed to fear it!
Pavlov’s Legacy
Pavlov’s greatest
contribution to
psychology is isolating
elementary behaviors
from more complex
ones through objective
scientific procedures.
Applications of Classical Conditioning
Watson used classical
conditioning procedures to
develop advertising
campaigns for a number
of organizations, including
Maxwell House, making
the “coffee break” an
American custom.
What is operant conditioning?
• Behaviors are a result of
reinforcements and
punishments.
• B.F. Skinner is the famous guy.
Edward Thorndike
• Law of Effect:
rewarded
behavior is
likely to recur.
• Cat in box
Thorndike’s Puzzle Box
• Edward Thorndike (18741949): created a puzzle box:
cage with latched door that
could only be opened by
pressing lever inside
– cats became quicker and
quicker to press lever once
they figured it out
– Law of Effect: rewarded
behaviors are more likely to
be repeated
B.F. Skinner
B.F. Skinner
• Most influential behaviorist
– Envisioned a utopian society based upon his
theories
– Skinner Box
– Ping-pong playing and figure 8 walking
pigeons
• Shaping – training with rewards
Skinner Box
How are these similar?
What is Shaping?
• Gradually reinforcing a behavior until
perfect. (ex: feed pigeon for turning 30 deg,
then 60 deg, eventually full circle)
Reinforcement – increasing desired
behavior
– Positive Reinforcement – giving something
to increase a behavior (example?)
– Negative Reinforcement – taking away
something bad to increase a behavior
(example?)
Punishment – reducing behavior
• - positive punishment giving something bad
to reduce a behavior (example?) spanking =
aversive stimulus
• - negative punishment – (omission training)
taking away something good to reduce a
behavior
(example?)
The following are examples of
what???
Answer choices are:
positive punishment
negative punishment
positive reinforcement
negative reinforcement
Spanking a child for using markers
to draw on your bedroom wall.
Positive Punishment
Giving candy for correct answers.
Positive Reinforcement
Nagging and nagging until you
do the dishes.
Negative Reinforcement
Child whines and cries until he
gets his candy at the store.
The child is _____ _____ the parent
for getting candy.
The parent is _____ ______ the
child for whining.
Taking away cell phone
privileges to reduce low grades.
Negative punishment
Stop jamming toothpicks up
one’s fingernails in exchange for
information
Draw a cartoon representing
• Positive, negative punishment
• Positive, negative reinforcement
• 4 cartoons
Can all animals be taught
anything?
What is Instinctive drift?
• Animals will drift (or revert) back to
instinctual behaviors while performing
tasks.
• Example: Pigs will deposit coins in a piggy
bank but will push the coins through the
mud and flip it around on its way.
Reinforcement
Schedules
Continuous
Reinforcement
• Reinforcing the desired response every
time it occurs.
Quick Acquisition
Quick Extinction
Partial Reinforcement
• Reinforcing response
part of the time.
• The acquisition
process is slower.
• Greater resistance to
extinction.
Fixed-ratio Schedules
• A schedule that reinforces a response only
after a specified number of responses.
Example: I give cookie monster a cookie
every FIVE times he sings “C is for cookie”.
Variable-ratio Schedule
• A schedule of
reinforcement that
reinforces a response
after an
unpredictable
number of responses.
Fixed-interval Schedule
• A schedule of
reinforcement that
reinforces a response
only after a specified
(fixed) time has elapsed.
Example: People checking the oven to see if
the cookies are done.
Variable-interval Schedule
• A schedule of
reinforcement that
reinforces a response
at unpredictable time
intervals.
Pop Quizzes
Summary
• Partial
reinforcement
• Continuous
reinforcement –
reinforce every
time (best for
animals)
FR
FI
VR
VI
Schedules of reinforcement
• Fixed – predictable
• Variable – not predictable (varies)
• Ratio – every 3 responses, every 10 responses
• Interval – time every month, 4 minutes
Fixed-ratio schedule
FR
Variable-ratio schedule
VR
Fixed-interval
FI
Variable-interval
VI
1. _______________ Paid 10 dollars for every 20 puzzles solved
• FR
2. _______________ Studying for a class that has surprise quizzes
• VI
3. _______________ Slot machines are based on this schedule
• VR
4. _______________ Doing 20 pushups a day to stay fit
• FR
Fixed-ratio schedule
FR
Variable-ratio schedule
VR
Fixed-interval
FI
Variable-interval
VI
5. _______________ Playing Bingo
6. _______________ Getting a paycheck at the end of 2 weeks
7. _______________ A strike in bowling
8. _______________ Calling your mechanic to see if your car
is fixed
9. _______________ Frequent flyer program
where you get points every 100 m.
10. ______________ Waiting for a sunny day to
go to the beach
11. ______________ Wife is watching boxing
match with husband-she receives a kiss at the end
of every 3-minute round
What is Observational (Social)
Learning Theory?
• Albert Bandura: Bobo
doll. We learn by
observing the behavior
of others and from
imagining the
consequences of our
own behavior.
Observational (Social) Learning
Theory Cont.
• Modeling: we imitate people who we
– Resemble
– Identify with
– View as successful
• Vicarious Reinforcement and Punishment
Bobo doll experiment
• Albert Bandura allowed children to watch
an adult play with a bobo doll.
• The experimental group watched a video of
an adult playing violently with the doll
• The control group watched a boring video.
• The experimental group children imitated
the violent behavior.
• Insight Learning: This is an extension of
the term, insight which was identified by
Wolfgang Kohler while studying the
behavior of chimpanzees. He said that
insight learning is a type of learning or
problem solving that happens all-of-asudden through understanding the
relationships of various parts of a problem
rather than through trial and error.
Sultan, one of Kohler's chimpanzes, learned
to use a stick to pull bananas from outside of
his cage by putting pieces of stick together.
Given two sticks that could be fitted together
to make a single pole that was long enough
to reach the bananas, aligned the sticks and
in a flash of sudden inspiration, fitted the
two sticks together and pulled in the
bananas. He didn't do this by trial and error,
but had a sort of sudden inspiration or
insight.
Classical Conditioning
(to tune of You Are My Sunshine)
You are my Pavlov,
The dogs of Pavlov
You paired the food
with the lights and bells
Response was very involuntary
You taught
classic conditioning well
OPERANT CONDITIONING
His name is Skinner, oh BF Skinner
You put the lab rats
inside your box
With reinforcements,
and even punishments
Consequences shape the response
Learning Quiz
1. The major perspective that studies
how our behaviors are shaped by our
environment is
a. psychodynamic b. behaviorism
c. humanistic
d. biomedical
2. Classical conditioning was
studied by
a. Pavlov b. Bandura
c. Freud d. Skinner
3."Little Albert," a very young boy, was
conditioned to be afraid of a rat. He also
became fearful of white furry rabbits and
bearded men. This is an example of
a. spontaneous recovery
b. higher order conditioning
c. extinction
d. stimulus generalization
4. A coach who benches a player for
poor performance is using
a. aversive conditioning
b. modeling
c. negative reinforcement
d. punishment
5. Advertisers try to use higher
order (classical) conditioning by
a. pairing images that evoke good feelings
with pictures of their products
b. sounding loud tones at key points in the
ad
c. reducing fear or anxiety as they
repeatedly show the same commercial
d. associating the UCS with a cognitive
response
6. _____ occurs when making a
response removes an unpleasant
event.
a. positive reinforcement
b. extinction
c. negative reinforcement
d. punishment
7. Your young niece has a temper
tantrum in the store when you two are
shopping. If you buy her a toy you are
a. being practical
b. being kind
c. encouraging more tantrums
d. discouraging more destructive
behaviors
8. He was famous for the Little
Albert experiment
a. Albert Bandura
c. Ivan Pavlov
b. Sigmund Freud
d. John Watson
9.The Little Albert experiment
illustrated
a. How fears can be learned
b. generalization
c. unethical experimentation
d. all of the above
10. Which of the following is an example of
shaping?
a. A dog learns to salivate at the sight of a box of dog
biscuits
b. A new driver learns to stop at an intersection when
the light changes to red
c. A parrot is rewarded first for making any sound,
then for making a sound similar to “Laura,” and then
for “speaking” its owner's name
d. A psychology student reinforces a laboratory rat
only occasionally, to make its behavior more resistant
to extinction
11. People who get sick after eating at a
restaurant STILL won’t eat at that
restaurant even when they know it
wasn’t the restaurant’s fault. This is
called
a. instinctive drift
b. Garcia effect
c. secondary conditioning
d. Cheech and Chong syndrome
12. Parents nag and nag you
until your grades go up. They
stop nagging when your grades
go up. This is
a. positive reinforcement
b. negative reinforcement
c. positive punishment
d. negative punishment
13. Every time you call your boyfriend he’s
depressed angry and disappoints you in
every way. As a result, you don’t call him
anymore. The boyfriend is unknowingly
_____ you for calling him.
a. positively reinforcing
b. negatively reinforcing
c. positively punishing
d. negatively punishing
14. Albert Bandura’s Bobo
Doll experiment illustrated
a. negative reinforcement
b. social learning theory
c. classical conditioning
d. operant conditioning
15. Many psychologists cite Bandura’s
research to illustrate how
a. teens conform to fashion fads
b. introverted personalities succeed in high
school
c. exposure to violent TV and games leads to
violent behavior
d. abused women justify staying with their
husbands.