Essentials of Psychology,
by Saul Kassin
CHAPTER 5
:
Memory, Learning,
Behavior
©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
and
Learning
Classical Conditioning
Operant Conditioning
Observational Learning
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Learning
Ethology
– The study of the behavior of animals in their
natural habitat.
• Fixed Action Pattern
– A species-specific behavior that is built into
an animal’s nervous system and triggered
by a specific stimulus.
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Learning
Ethology
Stickleback Models
• An example of a fixed
action pattern can be
seen in the stickleback
fish. This fish attacks
all forms that have a red
belly, even those that do
not look like a fish. The
red belly is the stimulus
that triggers this fixed
action pattern.
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Learning
Defining Learning
• A relatively permanent change in
knowledge or behavior that results from
experience.
– Adaptation by learning is flexible.
– Humans adapt to life’s demands by learning
and not by instinct.
– The key to learning is association.
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Learning
Habituation
• The tendency of an
organism to become
familiar with a stimulus
as a result of repeated
exposure
Habituation of Fear
– It is the simplest form of
learning.
– Note here that rats
repeatedly exposed to a
cat’s odor, and no cat, hid
less over time.
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Learning
Classical Conditioning
– A type of learning in which an organism
comes to associate one stimulus with another
(also called Pavlovian conditioning).
• Classical Conditioning involves learning
that one event predicts another.
• This type of learning involves
•
•
•
•
An unconditioned stimulus
An unconditioned response
A conditioned stimulus
A conditioned response
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Classical Conditioning
Pavlov’s Discovery
• An unconditioned stimulus (US)
– A stimulus (an event) that triggers an unconditioned
(involuntary) response.
• Examples: food, loud noises, painful stimuli
• In Pavlov’s experiments, the US was the food.
• An unconditioned response (UR)
– An unlearned response to an unconditioned
stimulus.
• Examples: salivation to food, jumping when hearing a loud
noise, moving away from something painful
• In Pavlov’s experiments, salivation to the food was the UR.
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Classical Conditioning
Pavlov’s Discovery
• A conditioned stimulus (CS)
– A neutral stimulus (an event) that comes to evoke a
classically conditioned (learned) response due to
being presented shortly before the US.
• In Pavlov’s experiments, the CS was the bell.
• A conditioned response (CR)
– A learned response to a classically conditioned
stimulus.
• In Pavlov’s experiments, salivation to the bell was the CR.
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Classical Conditioning
Pavlov’s Discovery
Pavlov’s Apparatus
• Pavlov classically conditioned dogs to salivate.
Salivation was measured by a pen attached to a
slowly rotating cylinder of paper.
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Classical Conditioning
Pavlov’s Discovery
• Before Conditioning
– Unconditioned Stimulus (US) elicits
Unconditioned Response (UR)
• Meat powder leads to salivation
– Neutral stimulus elicits no particular response
• Bell leads to orienting response only, no salivation
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Classical Conditioning
Pavlov’s Discovery
• During and After Conditioning
– Conditioning: Neutral Stimulus is Paired with the
Unconditioned Stimulus
• Bell rings, then meat powder is delivered
• This procedure is repeated several times
– After Several Trials of pairing the bell with the
food
• When Bell rings, dog salivates
• The Bell is now a Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
• Salivation is a Conditioned Response (CR)
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Classical Conditioning
Pavlov’s Discovery
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Classical Conditioning
Basic Principles
• Acquisition
– Formation of a learned response to a stimulus
through presentation of an unconditioned stimulus
• Extinction
– Elimination of a learned response by removal of the
unconditioned stimulus
• Spontaneous Recovery
– Re-emergence of an extinguished conditioned
response after a rest period
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Classical Conditioning
Basic Principles
The Rise and Fall of a Conditioned Response
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Classical Conditioning
Basic Principles
Temporal Relations in Classical Conditioning
• In forward pairing, the
CS precedes the US.
– Easiest conditioning
• In simultaneous
pairing, the CS and
US occur together.
• In backward pairing,
the CS follows the US.
– Most difficult
Time
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Classical Conditioning
Basic Principles
• Stimulus Generalization
– The tendency to respond to a stimulus that is
similar to the conditioned stimulus
• Discrimination
– In classical and operant conditioning, the
ability to distinguish between different
stimuli
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Classical Conditioning
Basic Principles
• With repeated pairing, a
neutral stimulus can be
linked with a CS.
Higher-Order Conditioning
– The bell (CS) is paired
with a black square.
• This neutral stimulus
becomes a CS.
– In the example, the
black square elicits
salivation.
• One CS was used to create
another CS.
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Classical Conditioning
Pavlov’s Legacy
The Conditioning of Little Albert
• An 11-month old boy – named
“Albert” – was conditioned to
fear a white laboratory rat.
– Each time he reached for the rat,
Watson made a loud clanging
noise right behind Albert.
• Albert’s fear generalized to
anything white and furry.
– Including rabbits and a Santa
Claus mask
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Learning
Operant Conditioning
• Thorndike put cats into puzzle boxes and
the time it took for them to escape
decreased over the number of attempts.
• Law of Effect
– Responses followed by positive outcomes are
repeated, whereas those followed by negative
outcomes are not.
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Operant Conditioning
The Principles of Reinforcement
• Operant Conditioning
– The process by which organisms learn
to behave in ways that produce
reinforcement.
• Reinforcement
– Any stimulus that increases the
likelihood of a prior response.
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Operant Conditioning
The Principles of Reinforcement
• Punishment
– Any stimulus that decreases the
likelihood of a prior response.
• Shaping
– Using reinforcements to guide an
animal or person gradually toward a
specific behavior.
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Operant Conditioning
The Principles of Reinforcement
Types of Reinforcement & Punishment
Increases
Behavior
Present
Stimulus
Remove
Stimulus
Decreases
Behavior
Positive
Positive
Reinforcement Punishment
(give money)
(give chores)
Negative
Reinforcement
(take away
chores)
Negative
Punishment
(take away
money)
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Operant Conditioning
The Principles of Reinforcement
Schedules of Reinforcement
• Simple reinforcement
schedules produce
characteristic response
patterns.
• Steeper lines mean
higher response rates.
• Ratio schedules produce
more responses than do
interval schedules.
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Operant Conditioning
Practical Applications
Using Reinforcement to Boost Job Performance
• All salesclerks were
observed for a 20-day
baseline period.
• Then, half were given
cash bonuses for good
performance, half
were not.
• The ones given cash
bonuses improved job
performance.
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Operant Conditioning
Practical Applications
• Condition Oneself to Break a Bad Habit
– Identify specific target behavior to change
– Record baseline
– Formulate a plan
• To increase a behavior, use reinforcement
• To extinguish behavior, avoid situations where it
occurs or remove reinforcements
– Implement the plan, revise as needed
– Maintain the change
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Operant Conditioning
New Developments
Rats in a Maze: Evidence for a Cognitive Map
• Tolman trained rats in this
maze, with all alleys open.
• If “Block A” in place, rats
chose green (shorter) path.
• If “Block B” in place, rats
chose blue path.
– Green path is also
blocked.
• Rats take the shortest
detours, navigating as if
they have an internal map.
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Operant Conditioning
New Developments
• Latent Learning:
Latent Learning
Learning that occurs but
is not exhibited in
performance until there
is an incentive to do so.
• Some rats found food
every time (red line)
• Some rats never found
food (blue line)
• Some rats found food on
Day 11 (green line)
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Operant Conditioning
New Developments
Hidden Cost of Rewards
• Preschoolers played with felt-tipped markers
and were observed.
• Divided into 3 groups:
– Given markers again and asked to draw
– Promised a reward for playing with markers
– Played with markers, then rewarded
• Children who drew with the markers to get the
reward were now less interested in them.
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Observational Learning
– Learning that takes place when one
observes and models the behavior of
others.
• Studies of Modeling
– Children and others model both antisocial and
prosocial behavior.
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Observational Learning
The Process of Modeling Involves:
• Attention
– One must pay attention to a behavior and its
consequences.
• Retention
– One must recall what was observed.
• Reproduction
– Observers must have the motor ability to reproduce the
modeled behavior.
• Motivation
– Observer must expect reinforcement for modeled act.
Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
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