Chapter 4: Learning (Behaviorism)

1. Chapter 4: Learning (Behaviorism) • Classical Conditioning • Operant Conditioning • Observational Learning

2. Behaviorism • Dominated Psychology in the first half of the 20th Century. • Dealt with behavior only, not mental processes.

3. What is Learning? LO 5.1 Learning • Learning: any relatively permanent change in behavior brought about by experience or practice • When people learn anything, some part of their brain is physically changed to record what they have learned.

4. Pavlov and Classical Conditioning LO 5.2 Classical Conditioning • Ivan Pavlov: Russian physiologist (person who studies the workings of the body) who discovered classical conditioning through his work on digestion in dogs • Classical conditioning: learning to make a reflex response to a stimulus other than the original, natural stimulus that normally produces the reflex

5. Classical or Pavlovian Conditioning • Ivan Pavlov • 1849-1936 • Russian physician/ neurophysiologist • Nobel Prize, 1904 • studied digestive secretions

6. Classical or Pavlovian Conditioning • Pavlov’s device for recording salivation

7. Pavlov’s Apparatus for Studying Classical Conditioning in Dogs

8. Classical Conditioning Concepts LO 5.2 Classical Conditioning • Unconditioned stimulus (UCS): a naturally occurring stimulus that leads to an involuntary response • Unconditioned means “unlearned” or “naturally occurring.” • Unconditioned response (UCR): an involuntary response to a naturally occurring or unconditioned stimulus

9. Classical Conditioning Concepts LO 5.2 Classical Conditioning • Conditioned stimulus (CS): stimulus that becomes able to produce a learned reflex response by being paired with the original unconditioned stimulus • Conditioned means “learned.” • A neutral stimulus can become a conditioned stimulus when paired with an unconditioned stimulus.

10. Classical Conditioning Concepts LO 5.2 Classical Conditioning • Conditioned response (CR): learned reflex response to a conditioned stimulus • sometimes called a conditioned reflex • CS: ice cream truck • CR: salivation when hear ice cream truck bell

11. Classical or Pavlovian Conditioning: Respondent Behavior • Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) • stimulus that unconditionally- naturally and automatically - triggers a response • Unconditioned Response (UCR) • unlearned, naturally occurring response to the unconditioned stimulus • salivation when food is in the mouth

12. Classical Conditioning: Respondent Behavior • learning in which a neutral stimulus acquires the capacity to elicit a response after being paired with another stimulus that naturally elicits that response • Unconditioned response (UCR): automatic response to a stimulus • Unconditioned stimulus (UCS): naturally and automatically elicits a response • Conditioned response (CR): learned response to a previously neutral stimulus • Conditioned stimulus (CS): after repeated pairings with UCS, elicits the same response

13. Classical or Pavlovian Conditioning: Respondent Behavior • Conditioned Stimulus (CS) • originally neutral stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus, comes to trigger a conditioned response • Conditioned Response (CR) • learned response to a previously neutral conditioned stimulus

14. Before Conditioning UCS (food in mouth) Neutral stimulus (tone) UCR (salivation) No salivation During Conditioning After Conditioning UCS (food in mouth) CS (tone) Neutral stimulus (tone) UCR (salivation) CR (salivation) Pavlov’s Classic Experiment

15. UCS (passionate kiss) UCR (sexual arousal) CS (onion breath) UCS (passionate Kiss) UCR (sexual arousal) CS (onion breath) CR (sexual arousal) Classical or Pavlovian Conditioning

16. Classical Conditioning

17. Classical Conditioning UCR Frightened UCS Dog Bite UCR Frightened CS Sight of Dog UCS Dog Bite CR Frightened CS Sight of Dog

18. Classical Conditioning UCR Racing Heart UCS Car Crash UCR Racing Heart CS Squealing Brakes UCS Car Crash CR Racing Heart CS Squealing Brakes

19. Classical Conditioning UCR Racing Heart UCS Kiss UCR Racing Heart CS Sight of Significant Other UCS Kiss CR Racing Heart CS Sight of Significant Other

20. Classic Conditioning Allows Animals to Learn to Predict Events • Learning theorists once believed that the learning in classical conditioning is unintentional and automatic (classic behaviorism). • Most contemporary learning theorists now believe classical conditioning involves quite a bit of “mindfulness”because, (through the conditioning process) humans and other animals are learning to reliably predict upcoming events.

21. Classic Conditioning Allows Animals to Learn to Predict Events • Psychologists once believed that the key to acquiring a conditioned response was the sheer number of CS-UCS pairings. • However, the order and timing of CS-UCS pairings is also very important because it provides valuable information about the upcoming occurrence of the unconditioned stimulus.

22. Utility: Avoiding aPredator’s Attack through Classical Conditioning—Step 1

23. Avoiding a Predator’s Attack through Classical Conditioning—Step 2

24. Avoiding a Predator’s Attack through Classical Conditioning—Step 3

25. Classical Conditioning Concepts LO 5.2 Classical Conditioning • Acquisition: the repeated pairing of the NS and the UCS; the organism is in the process of acquiring learning • Although classical conditioning happens quite easily, there are a few basic principles that researchers have discovered: • The CS must come before the UCS. • The CS and UCS must come very close together in time—ideally, only several seconds apart. • The neutral stimulus must be paired with the UCS several times, often many times, before conditioning can take place.

26. Classical Conditioning Concepts LO 5.2 Classical Conditioning • Stimulus generalization: the tendency to respond to a stimulus that is only similar to the original conditioned stimulus with the conditioned response

27. 60 Drops of saliva in 30 seconds 50 40 30 20 10 Hind paw Pelvis Shoulder Front paw 0 Thigh Trunk Foreleg Part of body stimulated Generalization

28. Classical Conditioning Concepts LO 5.2 Classical conditioning • Extinction: the disappearance or weakening of a learned response following the removal or absence of the unconditioned stimulus (in classical conditioning) or the removal of a reinforcer (in operant conditioning)

29. Extinction and Spontaneous Recovery

30. Classical Conditioning Concepts LO 5.2 Classical Conditioning • Spontaneous recovery: the reappearance of a learned response after extinction has occurred • Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior.

31. Animals Differ in What Responses Can Be Classically Conditioned • Early learning theorists assumed that the principles of conditioning were similar across all species, but subsequent research indicates that this assumption is incorrect. • Animals often differ in what responses can be conditioned. • In some animals, some responses can be conditioned much more readily to certain stimuli than to others. • An animal’s biology steers it toward certain kinds of conditioning.

32. Taste aversion study by Garcia and Koelling Rats learned to avoid a light-noise combination when it was paired with electric shock, but not when it was followed by X rays that made them nauseous. In contrast, rats quickly learned to avoid flavored water when it was followed by X rays, but they did not readily acquire an aversion to this same water when it was followed by shock. It is also adaptive that in taste aversion, strong conditioning develops despite the long delay between the CS (the taste) and the UCS (the nausea).

33. Biological Constraints on Taste Aversion in Rats

34. Classically Conditioned Phobias Phobias: exaggerated and irrational fears of objects or situations Such intense fear reactions often develop through classical conditioning. We can develop a phobia toward anything, but some objects (snakes) or situations elicit phobic reactions more easily than others.

35. Conditioned Emotional Response LO 5.3 Conditioned Emotional Response • Conditioned emotional response (CER): emotional response that has become classically conditioned to occur to learned stimuli, such as a fear of dogs or the emotional reaction that occurs when seeing an attractive person • CERs may lead to phobias—irrational fear responses.

36. Conditioning of “Little Albert”

37. UCS (loud noise) UCR (fear) CS (rat) UCS (loud noise) UCR (fear) CS (rat) CR (fear) Stimulus similar to rat (such as rabbit) Conditioned fear (generalization) Little Albert’s Fear Conditioning

38. Classical Conditioning UCR Startle UCS Loud Noise UCR Startle CS Bunny Rabbit UCS Loud Noise CR Startle CS Bunny Rabbit

39. John B. Watson: Famous Behaviorist • Conditioned Emotional Responding • Extreme Nurture (learning) position • Fear learned through stimulus generalization? • Emotion-evoking Advertising

40. UCS (drug) UCR (nausea) CS (waiting room) UCS (drug) UCR (nausea) CS (waiting room) CR (nausea) Nausea Conditioning among Cancer Patients

41. Why Classical Conditioning Works LO 5.3 Conditioned Emotional Response • Cognitive perspective: modern theory in which classical conditioning is seen to occur because the conditioned stimulus provides information or an expectancy about the coming of the unconditioned stimulus (cue, signal, warning)