How do we learn?
Most learning is associative learning
• Learning that certain events occur together.
Three Main Types of Learning
•Classical Conditioning
•Operant Conditioning
• Cognitive Processes in Learning
Observational Learning
Latent Learning
Abstract Learning
Insight Learning
Classical Conditioning
It all started with:
Ivan PavlovPhysiologist
researching
salivation!
Demonstration—
Salivate!
Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): a
stimulus that naturally and automatically
triggers a response.
Unconditional Response
(UCR): the unlearned,
naturally occurring
response to the UCS.
Conditioned Stimulus (CS): an
originally irrelevant stimulus that, after
association with the UCS, comes to
trigger a response.
Conditioned
Response (CR): the
learned response to a
previously neutral
stimulus.
Second Order Conditioning
• AKA Higher Order Conditioning
• After the dog salivated to the bell, then
they paired a light with the bell and the
dog began to salivate to the light.
• EX--If someone is conditioned that drinking
alcohol is cool and then whenever they see
someone drinking they are also smoking, then
will also be conditioned that smoking is cool.
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
• 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? Timing is
EVERYTHING!
•The CS should come before the UCS
•They should be very close together in timing.
Timing
• Delayed conditioning—Best one—
CS then US while CS is still present
Less Effective Methods:
• Trace Conditioning—CS, Break, US
• Simultaneous Conditioning—CS and US
together
• Backward Conditioning—US and then CS--
Demonstration—
Bell!
Real World Example
Taste Aversions
• John Garcia—conditioning of
aversion through association
• Adaptive—Survival
• Salient—Noticeable
• Aversive Conditioning!
• What is your personal taste aversion?
Extinction
• The diminishing of a conditioned
response.
• Will eventually happen when the UCS
does not follow the CS.
• Real World Example--
Is extinction permanent?
Spontaneous Recovery
• The reappearance, after a rest period, of
an extinguished conditioned response.
• Real World Example--
PAVLOV!!!!
Generalization
• The tendency, once a response has been
conditioned, for stimuli similar to the CS to
elicit similar responses.
• Real World Example--
Discrimination
• The learned ability to distinguish between
a CS and other stimuli that does not signal
UCS.
• Real World Example--
Demonstration—
Squirt bottle!
Little Albert—John B. Watson