Learning and Memory

1. Learning and Memory

2. What is Learning? • A relatively permanent change in behavior caused by experience • What is Classical Conditioning? • Type of learning where a stimulus gains the power to cause a response • The stimulus predicts another stimulus that already produces that response • In other words…learning by association

3. What are stimulus & responses? Stimulus - anything in the environment that one can respond to Response – any behavior or action Pavlov & a dog anyone?????

4. Classical Conditioning • Ivan Pavlov • Russia • What is learning? • Classical Conditioning:A learning process in which associations are made between a natural stimulus and a neutral stimulus. • Pavlov’s doggy . . . Again . . .

5. Classical Conditioning • Pavlov began his experiments by ringing a tuning fork and then immediately placing some meat powder on the dogs tongue. He chose the tuning fork because it was a neutral stimulus. • Neutral Stimulus:A stimulus that does not initially elicit any part of the unconditioned response.

6. Classical Conditioning • Well, after a few times the dog begins to salivate by merely hearing the sound, even if there was no food within it’s sight. • Pavlov demonstrated that a neutral stimulus (here, the tuning fork) can cause a formerly unrelated response. • This occurs if it is presented regularly just before the stimulus (here, the food) that normally brings about a response (here, salivation.)

7. Classical Conditioning • According to Pavlov, every human or animal has a set of unconditional or involuntary responses. • Such responses include blushing, shivering, being startled, and salivating. • In this experiment, food was the unconditional stimulus. • Unconditional Stimulus (UCS):An event that elicits a certain predictable response typically without previous training.

8. Classical Conditioning • A few other important things: • Unconditioned Response (UCR): An organism’s automatic (or neutral) reaction to the Unconditioned stimulus. (Example = salivation). • Under normal conditions, the sound of a tuning fork would not cause salivation. The dog had to be taught, or conditioned to associate this sound with food. • An ordinarily neutral event that, after training, leads to a response such as salivation is termed a conditioned stimulus.

9. Classical Conditioning • Conditioned Stimulus (CS):A once-neutral event that, through learning, elicits a given response after a period of training in which it has been paired with an unconditioned stimulus. • The salivation that is caused by the tuning fork is called a conditioned response. • Conditioned Response (CR): The learned reaction to a conditioned stimulus. • Usually same behaviors as the UCR

10. Acquisition • Process of developing a learned response • The subject learns a new response (CR) to a previously neutral stimulus (CS)

11. Acquisition

12. Classical Conditioning

13. Extinction and Spontaneous Recovery • A classically conditioned response, like any other behavior, is subject to change. • Pavlov discovered that if he stopped presenting food after the sound of the tuning fork, the sound gradually lost its effect on the dog. • After he repeatedly struck the tuning fork without giving food, the dog no longer associated the sound with the arrival of food – the sound of the tuning fork no longer caused the salivation response.

14. Extinction and Spontaneous Recovery • Pavlov called this effect extinction! • Extinction: The gradual disappearance of a conditioned response when the conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus. • Yet, even though the conditioned response has been extinguished, it does not mean that the CR has been completely unlearned. • Spontaneous Recovery: • The return of an extinguished classically conditioned response after a rest period

15. Spontaneous Recovery

16. Generalization and Discrimination • In the same set of experiments, Pavlov also studied the process of generalization and discrimination. • Generalization: Responding similarly to a range of similar stimuli. • Example: When Pavlov attempted to train the dog to salivate at the sight of a circle…it worked after multiple trials! • The dog had generalized it’s response to include a similar stimulus.

17. Generalization and Discrimination • Pavlov was later able to do the opposite, teaching the dog to respond only to the circle by always pairing meat powder with the circle but never pairing it with a different object like an oval. • In doing this, he taught his dog discrimination. • Discrimination:The ability to respond differently to similar but distinct stimuli. • The subject learns that one stimuli predicts the UCS and the other does not.

18. Behaviorism • View that psychology should restrict its efforts to studying observable behaviors, not mental processes • Founded by John Watson

19. Little Albert • 11-month-old infant • Watson and Rosalie Rayner, conditioned Albert to be frightened of white rats • Led to questions about experimental ethics

20. Little Albert – Before Conditioning

21. Little Albert – During Conditioning

22. Little Albert – After Conditioning

23. Little Albert - Generalization

24. Operant Conditioning • Ok, so, suppose you have a dinosaur! Yes a dinosaur! • Your dinosaur is wandering around the neighborhood, sniffing trees, checking garbage cans, and looking for a squirrel to chase. • A kind neighbor sees the dinosaur and tosses a bone out of the kitchen door to it. • The next day the dinosaur is likely to stop at the same door on it’s rounds. Once again your neighbor produces another bone, so the dinosaur becomes a regular visitor! • Why?

25. Operant Conditioning • Well I’ll tell ya why! Hold your horses! • Well, ummm, see, there’s this, well, ummm, thing called, like, operant conditioning. • Operant Conditioning:Learning in which a certain action is reinforced or punished, resulting in corresponding increases and decreases in occurrence. • Operant = operates due to a change

26. Reinforcement • Reinforcement: Stimulus or event follows a response and increases the likelihood that the response will be repeated. • Examples of reinforcers: • Social Approval • Money • Extra privilages • Giving a dog a treat when it shakes your hand.

27. Primary and Secondary Reinforcer’s • Primary Reinforcer:Stimulus that is naturally rewarding, such as food or water. • Secondary Reinforcer:Stimulus such as money that becomes rewarding through its link with a primary reinforcer. • Something you have learned to value!!! (money, grades, etc)

28. Schedules of Reinforcement • Fixed-Ratio Schedule: A pattern of reinforcement in which a specific number of correct responses is required before reinforcement can be obtained. • Variable-Ratio Schedule:A pattern of reinforcement in which an unpredictable number of responses are required before reinforcement can be obtained. • Fixed-Interval Schedule:A pattern of reinforcement in which a specific amount of time must elapse before a response will elicit reinforcement. • Variable-Interval Schedule:A pattern of reinforcement in which changing amounts of time must elapse before a response will obtain reinforcement.

29. Shaping and Chaining • What is Shaping? • Shaping: A technique in which the desired behavior is “molded” by first rewarding any act similar to that behavior and then requiring ever-closer approximations to the desired behavior before giving the reward. • In other words, positive reinforcement is used to “sculpt” new responses out of the old, possibly negative, ones.

30. Shaping and Chaining • Response Chain: Learned Reactions that follow one another in sequence, each reaction producing the signal for the next. • Examples:Swimming, Basketball, Lacrosse, Baseball, Hockey, Football, etc.

31. One Example of a Response Chain

32. Punishment(Aversive Control) Funny Fishies! • Punishment (Aversive Control):Process of Influencing behavior by means of some form of “unpleasant” stimuli! • Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!

33. Negative Reinforcement • In the concept of negative reinforcement, a painful or unpleasant stimulus is removed. The removal of unpleasant consequences increases the frequency of a behavior. • Negative Reinforcement:Increasing the strength of a given response by removing or preventing a painful stimulus when the response occurs.

34. Cognitive Learning • Cognitive Learning focuses on how information is obtained, processed, and organized. Such learning is concerned with the mental process involved in learning.Latent Learning and Learned Helplessness are examples of cognitive learning. • Cognitive Learning:Form of altering behavior that involves mental processes and may result from observation or imitation.

35. Cognitive Learning • Examples: • 1. Latent Learning.Latent learning is not demonstrated by an immediately observable change in behavior at the time of the learning.Although the learning typically occurs in the absence of a reinforcer, it may not be demonstrated until the reinforcer appears. • Example:Have you ever had to locate a building or a street in a section of Chicago, or Crystal Lake that you are unfamiliar with?You may have been through that section of town before and remember details such as an unusual sign or building.Remembering these details may have helped you find the building or street you were looking for. In other words, you learned some details you were not intending to.

36. Cognitive Learning • Examples: • 2. Learned Helplessness. Learned helplessness is a condition in which repeated attempts to control a situation fail, resulting in the belief that the situation is uncontrollable. • Example:You do poorly on a math test the first time you try and decide it was because you had not studied enough.The next test, you do poorly again and decide it was because you did not feel well.On the third test, you once again score poorly…You give up and decide that you “are just dumb,” giving up on math.

37. Modeling and Behavior Modification • Modeling! • Wait….No…The other kind of modeling! • Modeling: Learning by imitating others; copying behavior! • This is how the majority of people learn how to act in new situations (sports, concerts, etc.)

38. Modeling and Behavior Modification • The term “behavior modification” often appears in magazine articles describing research on changing people’s behavior through drugs, “mind control,” or even brain surgery. • In fact, it is none of these things. • Behavior Modification:Refers to the systematic application of learning principles to change people’s actions and feelings. • Example: Giving your little brother a quarter to go away! (also which type of reinforcement???)