Chapter 5: How Do We Learn?

1. Chapter 5:How Do We Learn?

2. Defining Learning • A relatively permanent change in behavior or the potential for behavior that results from experience • Results from many life experiences, not just structured ones • May or may not be permanent change • May or may not show up in behavior

3. Habituation • Habituation – when a stimulus is repeated over and over again the response to the stimulus decreases • Universality • Allows us to attend to potentially threatening stimuli or to tune out non-threatening stimuli • May protect brain from overstimulation

4. Classical Conditioning: Learning Through the Association of Stimuli • Research on digestive processes: Pavlov noticed that his dogs learned to associate a cue (bell) with food • Dogs became conditioned to respond to the cue (stimuli) the same way as food – by salivating

7. The Elements of Classical Conditioning • Unconditioned stimulus (US) naturally evokes unconditioned response (UR) • Food (US) – salivate (UR) • Pair neutral (bell) and unconditioned stimuli (food) • NS becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS) that produces a conditioned response (CR) • Bell (NS) --- Salivate (CR)

8. Factors Affecting Classical Conditioning • Relationship in time: contiguity • NS/CS (bell) should precede the US (food) • Consistency and reliability: contingency • NC/CS (bell) should reliably predict the onset of the US (food)

10. Real-World Classical Conditioning • Emotional responses • Physiological responses

11. Classical Conditioning of Emotional Responses • John Watson experiments with “Little Albert” • Stimulus generalization –similar stimuli to CS may elicit CR (from rats to furry things) • Stimulus discrimination – CR occurs in response to only specific stimuli

12. Classical Conditioning of Physiological Responses: Taste Aversion • Taste aversions are often classically conditioned • Acquired easily • Single pairing is sufficient for learning • Interval between pairings can be long • Real life applications • Survival value • Diet • Aversion therapy for alcoholism and chemotherapy

13. Extinction of Classically Conditioned Responses • Extinction – presenting CS (bell) without presenting the US (food) • Pavlov’s extinction trials • Spontaneous recovery – temporary increase in CR during or after extinction

15. Operant Conditioning • Learning from the consequences of behavior • E.L. Thorndike • Worked with cat in puzzle box • Cats learned to associate behavior (pull switch) with behavior’s consequence (getting out of box)

17. E.L. Thorndike’s Law of Effect • Behaviors that lead to positive (satisfying) consequences will be strengthened and more likely • Behaviors that lead to negative, (discomforting) consequences will be weakened and less likely to be emitted

18. Positive and Negative Reinforcement • Positive reinforcement • Behavior leads to something pleasant • Negative reinforcement • Behavior is rewarded by the removal of something unpleasant • Negative reinforcement is not punishment • “Negative” means removing something • Remember that reinforcement increases behavior

19. Positive and Negative Punishment • Punishment is an unpleasant consequence that leads to a decrease in behavior • Positive punishment • Addition of something unpleasant that decreases behavior • Negative punishment • Removal of something pleasant that decreases behavior

20. B.F. Skinner and the Experimental Study of Operant Conditioning • Introduced term operant conditioning • Respondent behavior – classically conditioned behavior • Operant behavior – behavior that operates on an organism’s environment to produce consequence • Developed Skinner box for administration of reinforcements in animal experiments

21. Acquisition and Extinction • Acquisition – conditioning of a response • Behavior increases because it is reinforced • Extinction – loss of a conditioned response • Occurs because behavior is no longer reinforced • Extinction burst- temporary increase in behavior in the absence of the reinforcer • Practical applications

23. Schedules of Reinforcement • Timing and consistency of the reinforcement affects rate at which behavior is acquired or extinguished • Continuous reinforcement – behavior is rewarded each time exhibited • Simplest • Not always feasible • More vulnerable to extinction • Partial reinforcement – reward behavior only some of the time • Ratio and interval

25. Ratio Schedules of Reinforcement • Fixed ratio schedule • Set number of responses emitted before reward given • Slower extinction, high rates of responding • Variable ratio schedule • Exact number of responses needed to receive reward; vary around an average • Even slower rates of extinction, high rates of responding

26. Interval Schedules of Reinforcement • Fixed interval schedule • Behavior rewarded once some interval of time has passed • Most of responding occurs right around time reward is due with pauses after reward • Variable interval schedule • Similar to variable ratio, but interval varies • Produces steady rates of responding • Most resistant to extinction

28. Summary • Continuous reinforcement leads to high rates of responding but the quickest extinction • Ratio schedules lead to higher rates of responding than do interval schedules • Variable schedules lead to behaviors that are most resistant to extinction

29. Discrimination and Generalization • Discrimination • Learns to distinguish among similar stimulus situations and to offer a particular response only in situations where reinforcement is expected • Generalization • Emits same behavior in response to different, but similar, stimuli • Prejudice and discrimination as negative outcomes of stimulus generalization and stimulus discrimination

30. Shaping New Behaviors • First step – behavior emitted spontaneously • Shaping allows a new behavior to be conditioned by successive approximations • Real life examples • Animal training • Modifying children’s behavior

31. Decisions That Must Be Made When Using Operant Conditioning • What type of consequence? • Punishment or reinforcement • Punishment, especially of the harsh variety, is riskier and often less effective • Choosing a reinforcer that is reinforcing • Primary reinforcers are directly reinforcing • Secondary reinforcers are rewarding because they lead to primary reinforcers • Token economy

33. The High Risks of Punishment • Punishment does not teach the correct/desired behavior • Harsh punishment teaches aggression • Harsh punishment often ineffective at producing behavior changes • Harsh punishment leads to negative emotional reactions like anger, fear, and anxiety • Physical punishment should be avoided

34. Making Punishment More Effective • Tell child about appropriate behavior, then reinforce it • Minimize situations that tempt bad behavior • Use punisher that’s aversive • Punishment must occur right after behavior • Punishment must occur every time behavior occurs • Remain calm while punishing

35. The Role of Cognition in Learning • Learning theories do not emphasize mental or cognitive processes • Behaviorism – only behavior can be studied • Kohler’s studies with chimps demonstrated insight learning • Tolman’s studies with rats demonstrated latent learning • Rats developed a cognitive map or mental representation to learn

36. Social Learning or Modeling • Learn by observing other and imitating or modeling behaviors • Observational learning or modeling • Different from behaviorism • Acknowledges learning can occur without obvious change in behavior • Acknowledges role of cognition in learning process

37. Albert Bandura and the Bobo Doll Experiments • Social learning theory • Bobo doll experiments • Children watched film in which adult beat up doll then were observed interacting with own Bobo doll • three conditions: adult rewarded, adult punished or no consequences for beating doll • Children who saw rewards or no consequences more likely to be aggressive

38. Implications of Bandura’s Experiments • Don’t have to engage in behavior for learning to occur • Learning can be latent • Media aggression and modeling?

39. Social Learning Theory and Cognition • Four steps to modeling • Attention – must attend to behavior of model • Retention – must retain cognitive representation or memory of model’s behavior • Reproduction of behavior – use memories to reproduce behavior; have physical abilities to do so • Motivation – must be motivated to execute behavior