I

Chapter 6

Learning

LECTURE OUTLINE

I. Classical Conditioning: Learning What Is Linked with What

A. Definition:

1. Classical conditioning is a simple form of associative learning that enables organisms to anticipate events.

B. Ivan Pavlov Rings a Bell.

1. Reflexes: simple automatic responses to stimuli.

2. Stimulus: an environmental condition that evokes a response from an organism.

3. Pavlov discovered that reflexes can also be learned through association.

4. These learned reflexes are referred to as conditioned responses (CR).

C. Why did Pavlov’s dogs learn to salivate in response to the tone?

1. Organisms form associations between stimuli because the stimuli are contiguous – that is they occur at about the same time.

2. Cognitive psychologists view classical conditioning as the learning of relationships among events.

a. The focus is on the information gained by the organism, which is not how the behaviorists see it (Stimulus leads to response).

D. Stimuli and Responses in Classical Conditioning.

1. Unconditioned stimulus (UCS) is unlearned: Pavlov’s meat powder elicits salivation, an unconditioned response (UCR).

2. When the dogs learned to salivate to the sound of a bell (previously neutral) the bell became the conditioned stimulus (CS) and the salivation in response to the bell is a conditioned response (CR).

E. Taste Aversion: Are All Stimuli Created Equal?

1. Taste aversions are examples of classical conditioning.

a. Taste aversions are adaptive to the organism as they motivate them to avoid potentially harmful food.

b. Different than classical conditioning because:

i. Only one association may be required.

ii. The UCS and CS do not have to be contiguous.

2. The Evolution of Taste Aversion.

a. The evolutionary perspective suggests that animals and humans would be biologically predisposed to develop aversions that are adaptive in their environmental settings.

F. Extinction and Spontaneous Recovery.

1. Extinction: the process by which a CS lose the ability to elicit CRs because the CS is no longer paired with the UCS.

a. Acquisition trials: initial pairings of a UCS and CS associated with conditioning.

b. Extinction trials: initial trials without the UCS and CS pairings.

2. Spontaneous Recovery: recovery of a CR after extinction. A function of the passage of time.

a. Spontaneous recovery, like extinction, is adaptive.

G. Generalization and Discrimination.

1. Generalization is the tendency for a conditioned response to be evoked by stimuli similar to the stimulus to which the response was conditioned.

2. Discrimination: organisms must learn that:

a. Many stimuli perceived as being similar are functionally different.

b. The organism must respond adaptively to each.

H. Higher Order Conditioning

1. In Higher Order Conditioning a previously neutral stimulus comes to serve as a learned or CS after being paired repeatedly with a stimulus that has already become learned.

I. Life Connections: Applications of Classical Conditioning

1. Little Albert.

2. Counterconditioning.

a. Used to reduce fears by introducing pleasant experiences.

3. Flooding and Systematic Desensitization.

a. Exposing the client with the feared object until the fear response is extinguished.

b. Gradually exposing the client to the feared object under circumstances where they remain relaxed.

II. Operant Conditioning: Learning What Does What to What.

A. Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1904-1990) and Reinforcement.

1. Historical contributions: Skinner Box, programmed learning, and Walden II.

B. Concepts of Reinforcement

1. Organisms learn to do something because of the effects or consequences of that behavior.

2. Operant behavior is behavior that operates on, or manipulates the environment.

3. Operant conditioning is a simple form of learning in which an organism learns to engage in certain behavior because of the effects of that behavior.

C. Methods of Operant Conditioning

1. Skinner devised an operant chamber (Skinner Box); a cage for animals used to study operant conditioning. The chambers had a lever that the animals could press to obtain reinforcements and a turning drum or cumulative recorder to measure behavior (lever presses).

2. The First Correct Response: it matters little how the first response that is reinforced is made. It could be random or guided.

a. People can be verbally guided into the desired response.

D. Types of Reinforcers

1. Any stimulus which increases the probability that responses preceding it will be repeated serves as a reinforcer.

2. Positive Reinforcers: increase the probability that the behavior will occur when they are applied.

3. Negative Reinforcers: increase the probability of a behavior when the reinforcer is removed.

4. With sufficient reinforcement operants become habits.

5. Immediate Versus Delayed Reinforcers.

a. Immediate reinforcers are more effective than delayed reinforcers.

6. Primary and Secondary Reinforcers.

a. Primary reinforcers are effective because of an organism’s biological makeup (e.g. food and water).

b. Secondary reinforcers acquire their value through being associated with established reinforcers. Sometimes called conditioned reinforcers.

E. Extinction and Spontaneous Recovery in Operant Conditioning.

1. Extinction occurs as a result of repeated performance of operant behavior without reinforcement.

2. Spontaneous recovery occurs in operant conditioning. The reward returns and the behavior increases.

F. Reinforcers Versus Rewards and Punishments.

1. Reinforcers are known by their effects.

2. Rewards and punishments are known by how they feel.

a. Some psychologists refer to reward and positive reinforcement as being synonymous.

b. Punishments are aversive events that suppress or decrease the frequency of behavior they follow.

i. Punishment often fails to achieve the goals of parents, teachers, and others.

G. Life Connections: What are the Effects of Punishment?

1. Children are less likely to develop internal moral standards.

2. Physical punishment is connected with poorer parent-child relationships.

3. Physically punished children are more likely to be aggressive toward other children.

4. Physically punished children are more likely to abuse their spouses or their own children.

5. Why not use physical punishment:

a. It hurts.

b. Punished individuals may withdraw from the situation (families, school, etc.)

c. Children learn the responses that are punished.

6. Psychologists recommend rewarding good behavior or ignoring misbehavior by using time out.

a. We must pay attention to children when they are behaving well.

b. We must be certain that children are capable of performing desired behavior.

H. Discriminative Stimuli: Do You Step On the Accelerator When the Light is Green or Red?

1. Discriminative stimuli act as cues by providing information about when an operant will be reinforced.

I. Schedules of Reinforcement: How Often? Under What Conditions?

1. Some responses are maintained by means of continuous reinforcement; reinforcement after every response. New behaviors are acquired more rapidly through continuous reinforcement.

2. Partial reinforcement can also maintain behavior. Behavior is more resistant to extinction when partial reinforcement is used.

3. Interval Schedules.

a. Fixed Interval: a fixed amount of time must elapse between the previous and subsequent times when reinforcement occurs.

b. Variable Interval: a variable amount of time occurs between reinforcements.

4. Ratio schedules.

a. Fixed ratio: reinforcement is provided after a fixed number of correct responses have been made.

b. Variable ratio: Reinforcement is provided after a variable number of correct responses.

c. Both ratio schedules maintain high rates of responding.

J. Shaping.

1. Reinforces progressive steps toward the behavioral goal.

a. Reinforce successive approximations of the goal.

K. Life Connections: Applications of Operant Conditioning.

1. Biofeedback Training: Gaining “Bleep” Control.

a. Based on the principles of operant conditioning.

b. Organisms can gain control over autonomic functions.

2. Behavior Modification in the Classroom: Accentuating the Positive.

a. Ironic conditioning of undesirable behavior.

b. Using peer approval as reinforcement.

c. Time out.

3. Programmed Learning: Step-by-Step.

a. Do not punish errors, reward correct responses.

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III. Cognitive Factors in Learning.

A. Terms:

1. Cognitive psychologists use concepts such as mental structures, schemas, templates, and information processing.

B. Latent Learning: Forming Cognitive Maps.

1. Tolman showed that rats learn about their environment in the absence of reinforcement.

a. Learning might remain hidden or latent until they were motivated to behave.

C. Contingency Theory: Does Conditioning Work Because It Provides Information?

1. Contingency theory: suggests that learning occurs only when the conditioned stimulus provides information about the unconditioned stimulus.

2. Rescorla concluded that the co-appearance of two events cannot in itself explain classical conditioning. Instead, learning occurs only when the conditioned stimulus provides information about the unconditioned stimulus. Learning theory occurs because a conditioned stimulus indicates that the unconditioned stimulus is likely to follow.

D. Observational Learning: Monkey See, Monkey May Choose to Do?

1. Albert Bandura proposed that we can acquire operants by observing the behavior of others.

a. A person who engages in a response to be imitated is a model.

b. Observers are said to be vicariously reinforced.

E. Violence in the Media and Aggression.

1. Statistics.

a. If a child watches 2 to 4 hours of TV a day, they will have seen 8,000 murders and 100,000 acts of violence by the time they finish elementary school.

2. Bandura: Effects of Violence in the Media.

a. Bandura, Ross, and Ross (1963) conducted a study using a BoBo doll. They found that children who had observed the aggressive model showed significantly more aggressive behavior toward the doll themselves.

b. Observing the model also disinhibited previously learned aggressive responses.

3. Violence is often shown to have only temporary or minimal effects.

4. Few TV programs show harmful long-term effects.

5. Consensus on the Effects of Violence in the Media.

a. Observational learning: children learn from observation

b. Disinhibition: punishment inhibits behavior

c. Increased arousal: likely to be aggressive when aroused

d. Priming of aggressive thoughts and memories.

e. Habituation: we become habituated to repeated stimuli

f. May lead to real-life violence.

6. There is no simple one-to-one connection between media violence and violence in real life.

7. Family constellations may also contribute:

a. Parental substance abuse.

b. Paternal physical punishments.

c. Single motherhood.

d. Parental rejection.

F. LIFE CONNECTIONS: Teaching Children Not to Imitate Media Violence.

1. Children who watch violent shows act less aggressively when they are informed that:

a. The violent behavior they observe in the media does not represent the behavior of most people.

b. The apparently aggressive behaviors they watch are not real.

c. Most people resolve conflicts by nonviolent means.

d. The real-life consequences of violence are harmful to the victim.

G. A Closer Look: “Little Albert”

1. Watson and Rayner in 1920 conditioned Little Albert to fear furry objects

H. A Closer Look: RoboRats? Using Operant Conditioning to Teach Rats How to Search for Survivors of Disasters

1. Talwar and colleagues used operant conditioning to guide rats through mazes

2. Murphy is skeptical wondering if the results will generalize to the real world

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