Chapter 8 Learning

309 - 341
Learning

 Learning - a relatively permanent change in

an organism’s behavior due to experience
 Associative learning – main idea underlying
learning, learning that certain events go
together
 Examples, Salmon, Grey Wolves,
People/discrimination.
Classical Conditioning

 A type of learning in which an organism

comes to associate stimuli. A neutral
stimulus that signals an unconditioned
stimulus (UCS) begins to produce a response
that prepares and anticipates for the
unconditioned stimulus – Pavlonian
conditioning.
Classical Conditioning
Little
Albert
Classical
Conditioni
ng
Classical Conditioning

 Acquisition – the stage of learning, in

classical conditioning when the neutral
stimulus is being associated with the
unconditioned stimulus, in operant
conditioning when the strengthening of a
reinforced response.
 Extinction – the diminishing of a conditioned
response, when a UCS does not follow a CS
or when a response is no longer reinforced.
Conditioning

 Spontaneous Recovery – the reappearance

of a conditioned response after a rest period.
 Generalization – responding to stimuli that is
similar to the CS
 Discrimination – specifically in classical
conditioning the ability to distinguish between
a conditioned stimulus and other stimuli that
do not signal an unconditioned stimulus.
 Uses of Classical Conditioning
 Classical conditioning research is used in drug
rehab, for example someone addicted to
cocaine is encouraged not only to stop using
the drug but to stop visiting places associated
with the highs of the drugs, places, cars, etc. If
they got high in their own home they might re-
arrange the furniture, anything to make the
place different.
 Sometimes alocoholics are given a substance
to put in liquor which causes vomiting to try and
get them to associate alcohol with being sick.
 Operant Conditioning
 Operant Conditioning is what people normally think of
when they think of teaching or learning. It is a type of
learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a
reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher.
 Law of effect (B.F. Skinner) – rewarded behavior is likely
to reoccur
 Shaping behavior – procedure in which reinforcers
gradually guide behavior closer and closer to a desired
goal
 B.F. Skinner – Father of
 Behaviorism
Skinner Box or
Operant Box
 Used to teach
rats by
successive
approximations
 Operant Conditioning

Reinforcers
Reinforcer – anything that
strengthens a behavior
 Primary reinforcer –
something you naturally
respond positively to such as
food.
 Secondary reinforcer –
something that you will want
because it is associated with a
primary reinforcer. Money is a
secondary reinforcer because it
can buy primary reinforcers.
 Continuous reinforcement – reinforcing the
desired response every time it occurs
 Partial reinforcement – only reinforcing the
desired response part of the time. Results in
longer acquisition but also longer extinction.
 Respondent Behavior – behavior that
occurs automatically as a response to a
stimulus
 Operant behavior – Behavior that operates
on environment producing consequences.
Reinforcement Schedules
 Fixed-ratio schedules – behavior is reinforced
on a regular basis, for example a reward for every
response. Does not encourage rest, because rest
does not earn the reward.
 Variable-ratio schedule – rewards after a random

response, same as gambling, encourages many

responses as people try to maximize reward.
 Fixed-interval schedules – rewards at a fixed time,

produces choppy responses around the time of

reward
 Variable-interval schedules – tend to produce slow
steady responding
Punishment

 Punishment can be a very effective way to

change behavior but it also has many
negative side effects.
 Punishment may not teach people to stop a
behavior but simply not to get caught by you
doing it.
 Physical punishment can increase
aggressiveness because it teaches that
violence is a solution to a problem
 Punishment
 Children will often associate fear not only with the
punishment for the bad behavior they may also fear the
person giving the punishment.
 Random senseless punishment causes a sense of
helplessness, severe stress, and can cause depression.
 Punishment only tells people what NOT to do, it cannot tell
them what they SHOULD do.
Updating Skinner

 Latent learning, learning that happens

without reinforcement. It only becomes
apparent when a reinforcer is introduced.
 Overjustification effect – when you reward
a behavior that doesn’t need to be rewarded
and cause the subject to care about the
reward rather than the good behavior.
 Intrinsic motivation – when you do
something for its own sake
Conditioning
 Extrinsic motivation – when you do
something for an external reward.
 Biological predispositions – affect operant
conditioning as well as classical. Its more
difficult to use food to control face washing
than where a hampster digs because they
normally dig for food but don’t wash their face
for it.
 Immediate reinforcement works best in
operant conditioning, exp. Smoking.
 Skinner’s legacy
 School – teaching by machine… ability to provide
individualized, immediate reinforcement.
 Work – profit sharing, define goals and have them be
achievable
 At Home – spending behavior, having to pay utilities
curbs their usage.
Examples: cigarette taxes
Parenting: Figure out how you WANT your children to
behave and target that behavior for positive
reinforcement. Ignore whining – eventually it will
diminish. For bad behavior use an explanation and a
“time out.”
Observational Learning

 We learn when we observe others.

 Modeling – the process of observing and
imitating a specific behavior
 Mirror neurons – frontal lobe neuron that fire
when performing an action or watching
someone perform the same action – a
physiological way to explain observational
learning