Learning

1. LearningContent Standard 5: SW understand how organisms adapt to their environment through learning and cognition

2. Learning • We are not born with a genetic plan for life • Much of what we do learn stems from experience • Adaptability: Our capacity to learn new behaviors that help us cope with changing circumstances • What we have learned can potentially change by new learning • Assumption that underlies counseling, psychotherapy, and rehabilitation processes

3. Learning • Learning: A relatively permanent behavior change due to experience • 3 types of learning • Classical Conditioning • Operant Conditioning • Observational Learning

4. How do we learn? • John Locke and David Hume agreed with Aristotle: • We learn through association • Our minds naturally connect events that occur in sequence • EX: • You see and smell freshly baked bread, eat some and find it satisfying • The next time you see and smell fresh bread, that experience will lead you to expect that eating it will once again be satisfying

5. Animals learn by association • Habituation: An organism’s decreasing response to a stimulus with repeated exposure to it • EX: Seals in an aquarium will repeat behaviors such as slapping and barking that prompt people to toss them a treat (piece of fish) • Associative Learning: Learning that certain events occur together. • EX: The seal associates slapping and barking with getting a treat

6. Conditioning • Conditioning is a process of learning associations • Classical Conditioning: We learn to associate two stimuli and anticipate events • EX: • The flash of lightning signals an impending crack of thunder (so we brace ourselves)

7. conditioning • Operant Conditioning: We learn to associate a response (our behavior) and its consequence and thus to repeat the act followed by good results and avoid acts followed by bad results • Example: • Do good on a test=feel good about ourselves, get praise from teacher and/or parents • Cheat on a test and get caught=Get reprimanded by teacher and parents, academic probation, suspension, feel guilty

8. Learning • By conditioning and by observation, we humans learn to adapt to our environments • We learn to expect and prepare for significant events such as food or pain (classical conditioning) • We learn to repeat acts that bring good results and to avoid acts that bring bad results (operant conditioning) • By watching others we learn new behaviors (observational learning)

9. Classical Conditioning • What is classical conditioning and how did Pavlov’s work influence behaviors? • Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936): Psychology’s most famous research; explored classical conditioning • John B. Watson’s work based on Pavlov • Said psychology should study how organisms respond to stimuli in their environments • Behaviorism: The view that psychology • 1) should be an objective science that • 2) studies behavior without reference to mental processes.

10. Pavlov’s Experiments • Pavlov noticed when putting food in a dog’s mouth, it caused the animal to salivate • The dog began salivating not only to the taste of the food, but to the sight of food, or the food dish, or the person delivering the food, or the sound of the person’s footsteps • Considered it annoying but important form of learning • Tried to imagine what the dog was thinking and feeling • Isolated dog in small room, secured it to a harness and attached a device to divert its saliva to a measuring instrument • Slid in the food bowl, later by blowing meat powder into the dog’s mouth • Does the sight or sound regularly signal the arrival of food, would the dog learn the link or is it salivating in anticipation of food?

11. Pavlov’s experiment • Because the salivation in response to food in the mouth was unlearned • Unconditioned response • Food stimulus • Unconditioned Stimulus

12. Pavlov’s Experiment • The response was conditioned (learned) • Conditioned response • The tone stimulus (bell) triggers the salivation • Conditioned stimulus • Check understanding (page 219)

13. Pavlov’s Experiment

14. Pavlov’s Experiment

15. Acquisition • Initial learning • In classical conditioning, the initial stage, when one links a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus begins triggering the conditioned response. • In operant conditioning, the strengthening of a reinforced response

16. Higher-order conditioning • A procedure in which the conditioned stimulus in one conditioning experience is paired with a new neutral stimulus, creating a second (often weaker) conditioned stimulus • Example: An animal that has learned that a tone predicts food might then learn that a light predicts that tone and begin responding to the light alone

17. Extinction • Pavlov discovered that when he sounded the tone again and again without presenting food, the dogs salivated less and less • The decline in salivation illustrates extinction, the diminished response that occurs when the CS no longer signals an impending US (food)

18. Spontaneous Recovery • The reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response • Pavlov found, that if he allowed several hours to elapse before sounding the tone again, the salivation to the tone would reappear spontaneously

19. Generalization • Pavlov found that a dog conditioned to the sound of one tone can also respond somewhat to the sound of a different tone that it had never been paired with • Generalization can be adaptive, as when toddlers taught to fear moving cars also become afraid of moving trucks and motorcycles

20. discrimination • In classical conditioning, the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus

21. Extending Pavlov’s Understanding Cognition: All of the mental processes associated with thinking, knowing, remembering and communicating • Cognitive Process: • Robert Rescorla and Allan Wagner (1972) showed that an animal can learn the predictability of an event • EX: If a shock always comes after a bell ringing followed by a light, an animal will fear the tone, but not the light

22. Extending Pavlov’s experiment • Cognitive Process: • Researcher Martin Seligman (1975,1991) • Found that dogs strapped in a harness and given repeated shocks with no opportunity to avoid them, learned a sense of helplessness • Later, when given an opportunity to escape, they still cowered as if without hope • People, too, when repeatedly faced with traumatic events over which they have no control, come to feel helpless, hopeless and depressed • Learned Helplessness

23. Biopychosocial Influences on Learning

24. Class Activity • On a separate piece of paper, answer the following: • Have your emotions or behaviors been classical conditioned? • Why or how? • Give an example

25. Class activity • In groups of 4: • Yes, each person in the group must write down the experiment the group came up with!!!! • Yes, you will be turning it in for a grade!!!! • Create an experiment using: • US, UR, NS, CS, CR

26. Albert Bandura: Bobo Doll Experiment • How we learn • A study of aggression: • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YclZBhn40hU • Social Learning Theory • How we learn from others

27. Operant Conditioning • Difference from classical conditioning? • Classical Conditioning: Forms association between stimuli. Also involves respondent behavior-actions that are automatic responses to stimulus (salivating in response to meat powder and later in response to the tone) • Operant Conditioning: Associate actions with consequences. Behavior operates on the environment to produce rewarding or punishing stimuli

28. Skinner’s Experiments • B.F. Skinner (1904-1990): Modern behavior’s most influential and controversial figure • Law of Effect: Rewarded behavior is likely to occur • Developed a behavioral technology that revealed principles of behavior control • Taught pigeons such unpigeonlike behaviors such as walking in a figure 8 or playing Ping-Pong • Operant Chamber: (Skinner Box) Box has a bar or key that an animal press to release a reward of food or water (records responses)

29. Shaping Behavior • Shaping: a procedure in which reinforces, such as food, gradually guide an animal’s actions toward a desired behavior

30. Discriminative Stimulus • Example: Green Traffic Light; it signals that a response will be reinforced • A stimulus that elicits a response after association with reinforcement

31. Types of Reinforces • Reinforcer: Any event that strengthens the behavior it follows (food or money, praise or attention) • Positive Reinforcement: Increasing behaviors by presenting positive stimuli (such as food) • Negative Reinforcement: Increasing behaviors by stopping or reducing negative stimuli (such as shock)

32. Types of Reinforcers • Primary Reinforcers: Getting food when hungry or a having a painful headache go away-are unlearned. When presented after a response, strengthens the response • Conditioned Reinforcers: (Secondary Reinforcers): Get power through learned association with primary reinforcers (light associated with getting food, a rat will turn on a light)

33. Reinforcement Schedules • Continuous Reinforcement: Reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs • Partial (intermittent) Reinforcement: Responses are sometimes reinforced, sometimes not

34. Reinforcement Schedules • Fixed-Ratio Schedules: Reinforce behavior after a set number of responses • EX: Free coffee after every 10 purchased • Variable-Ratio Schedule: Reinforces after an unpredictable number of responses • EX: Slot-machine players

35. Reinforcement Schedules • Fixed-Interval Schedules: Reinforce the first response after a fixed time period • EX: People checking more frequently for the mail as the delivery time approaches • Variable-Interval Schedules: Reinforce the first response after varying time intervals • EX: The sound of a bell for email that finally rewards rechecking for e-mail

36. Class activity • Work with partner: • How do different reinforcement schedules affect behavior? • Provide an example of each

37. Punishment • A reinforcement increases a behavior; punishment does the opposite • A punisher is any consequence that decreases the frequency of a preceding behavior

38. B.F. Skinner • Resisted cognitive processes have a necessary place in the science of psychology and even in our understanding of conditioning

39. B.F. Skinner • Latent Learning: • Edward Chase Tolman (1886-1959) and C.H. Honzik • Studied rats in mazes that were done in Skinner’s youth • Found that when rats exploring a maze, without a reward are like people sightseeing in a new town • Develop a cognitive map • Mental representation of the maze

40. Latent Learning Learning that becomes apparent only when there is some incentive to demonstrate learning

41. Insight learning • Some learning occurs after little or no systematic interaction with our environment • Example: We may puzzle over a problem, and suddenly the pieces fall together as we perceive the solution in a sudden flash of insight • When you suddenly realize how to solve a problem

42. Intrinsic Motivation • A desire to perform a behavior effectively and for its own sake • Excessive rewards can undermine intrinsic motivation

43. Extrinsic Motivation • The desire to behave in certain ways to receive external rewards or avoid threatened punishment • Coaches use extrinsic motivation: if you play hard, you get to experience the joy of winning

44. b.f. Skinner’s Legacy • Insisted that external influences (not internal thoughts and feelings) shape behavior • Urged people to use operant principles to influence others’ behavior at school, work and home • Knowing that behavior is shaped by its results, he said we should use rewards to evoke more desirable behavior

45. Apply Operant Conditioning • For Self-Improvement: • 1. State your goal-do it in measurable terms and announce it (IE: Study more-tell friends you want to make better grades and you will study more) • 2. Monitor how often you engage in your desired behavior-Write down the time you are spending (Log your time you study and how much time you watch TV-see how much you waste watching TV) • 3. Reinforce the desired behavior-Give yourself a reward (buy yourself an ice-cream when you finish an extra hour of studying) • 4. Reduce the rewards gradually: As your behaviors become more habitual, give yourself a mental pat on the back instead of the ice-cream

46. Learning by Observation • Also called social learning • We learn by observing and imitating others

47. Modeling • The process of observing and imitating a specific behavior

48. Bandura’s experiments • Albert Bandura (1925-Current) • Bobo Doll Experiment • What determines whether we will imitate a model? • Part of the answer is reinforcements and punishments-those who received by the model as well as by the imitator

49. Prosocial Effects • What is the impact of prosocial effects? • Prosocial Effects: Positive, constructive, helpful behavior. The opposite of antisocial behavior • Prosocial (positive, helpful) models can have prosocial effects

50. Antisocial Effects • This helps us understand why abusive parents might have aggressive children • Aggressive genes may be passed down, but it can also be in environment • The lessons we learn as children are not easily unlearned as adults, and they sometimes visited on future generations