Definition of Learning

1. Definition of Learning • From a Dictionary: “To gain knowledge or understanding of, or skill in, by study, instruction, or investigation.” • Problems • 1. Learning does not always involve a “gain” or benefit; for example, psychological disorders, prejudices, and maladaptive behaviors like procrastination. • 2. Learning is not always intentional. “Incidental learning” occurs without intent or instructions to remember the information later. For example... Remembering the location of your classrooms. • Domjan Textbook: “Learning is an enduring change in the mechanism of behavior involving specific stimuli and/or responses that result from prior experience with those of similar stimuli and responses.” p.14 • 1. "Enduring Changes" to rule out behavioral changes that result from • Short-term memory • Fatigue • Change in stimulus conditions – loud noise

2. Definition of Learning • “Learning is an enduring change in the mechanism of behavior involving specific stimuli and/or responses that result from prior experience with those of similar stimuli and responses.” p.14 • 2. "Mechanisms of behaviour" because behaviour is determined by many factors • learning as an internal process, a state of knowledge • learning often takes place without immediately being shown in behavior • Studies of latent learning support a distinction between learning, an internal process, and behavior or performance, an observable process. • may be changes in performance due to factors other than learning such as motivational state “hunger” (see learning performance distinction) • 3. "Resulting From Prior Experience" to rule out changes that result from • maturation (neuromuscular development) which is generally seen as preparing a species to learn a skill rapidly • examples would be the development of walking and the learning of language

3. Learning – Performance Distinction • Evidence of learning • Learning is inferred by change in performance • To say that learning has taken place, we must observe a change in behavior either as • a new response • suppression of previous responses • Learning is inferred from behavior but is not the same thing as behavior • Other than learning what could influence the performance of behavior? • Fatigue —"the mind is willing but the flesh is weak" • Motivation — latent learning example; • rat in a maze is not motivated to perform • adding food to the maze improves performance • Maturation — could also affect performance but would not call it learning (i.e., child reaching cookie jar on top of counter) • Change in stimulus conditions, change • “Therefore, a change in performance cannot automatically be considered to reflect learning.” p. 14

4. Functional Basis of Learning • The importance of learning for survival appears obvious • Learning enables animals to deal with the demands of a changing environment. • Animals learn about stimuli in their environment • serve as signals for some important outcome • a particular odor could indicate that there is food or a predator nearby. • Animals also learn about their own behavior • A certain action will produce a particular outcome • running to escape from a predator • Why is learning a central issue in psychology? • 1. "Profiting by experience" seems increasingly important as one looks at phylogenetically more complex animals. • 2. Learning is automatic and more pervasive than most people think. • 3. Almost all areas of psychology use learning principles. Developmental; Educational; Clinical; Behavioural Neuroscience

5. Learning and levels of Analysis • Learning can be studied at a variety of levels • function of learning at the behavioral level is to facilitate an organism’s interactions with its environment • systems level may be examined as neural mechanisms • at the level of individual neurons and synapses, with an emphasis on molecular and cellular mechanisms • developmental changes as learning as a function of age • adaptive significance related to the process of evolution

7. Levels of Analysis Behaviorism - focuses on an individual's behavior Neuroscience - to the entire science of the nervous system Neurobiology - the biology of the nervous system

8. The Unconscious Mind • Why We Behave • “Most of a person’s every day life is determined not by their conscious intentions and deliberate choices but mental processes that are put into motion by features of the environment that operate outside of the conscious awareness and guidance” (p. 462) • Bargh, J. A., & Chartrand, T. L. (1999). The unbearable automaticity of being. American Psychologist, 54, 462-479.

9. The Unconscious Mind • Contemporary psychological explanation of the unconscious mind • subliminal information processing makes the unconscious mind appear dumb • This is an unrealistic model of unconscious processing • Recent social psychology research on unconscious processes • unintentional nature and the inherent lack of awareness • People are often unaware of the reasons and causes of their own behavior • conscious decision making is not the only influences on behavior • Evidence from neurology, patients with frontal lobe damage • Evidence from priming studies • Priming is the presentation of a stimulus that activates a concept in memory • People asked about their life on sunny days reported being more satisfied than those on rainy days. Effect disappears if the weather is brought to their attention • When primed with “elderly” words like Florida, gray, wise, wrinkle, forgetful walked 20% slower than control participants

10. The Unconscious Mind • Unconscious control of individual social behavior • behavior produced by environmental factors and not by the individual’s conscious awareness and intentions • access to unconscious processing of information is limited • actually this is know from many examples of cognitive research on information process • a limited attentional cognitive mechanism • Yet the priming and the patient studies do complement and support each other in demonstrating the same two principles: • that an individual’s behavior can be directly caused by the current environment, without the necessity of an act of conscious choice or will; • and that this behavior can and will unfold without the person being aware of its external determinant.

11. The Unconscious Mind • We are predisposed to prefer certain objects and aspects of our environment over others • our tendencies to approach or avoid aspects of our environment • faster to make approach movements of the arm when responding to positive situations • faster to make avoidance movements when responding to negative situations • Social Behavior as Unconsciously Guided by the Current Context • “chameleon effect” • mimic posture and gestures of others during social interactions • priming the professor stereotype results in higher scores on a knowledge quiz • priming the elderly stereotype results in slower walking and poorer memory • Without some consideration of these issues, automatic behavior, judgment, and goal pursuit will continue to seem somewhat magical and mysterious to many people

12. Methodology in the Study of Learning • Analysis of learning as causes of behaviour study the effect of prior experience on behaviour • Types of Causal Mechanisms • Efficient Cause • Necessary and sufficient conditions for producing a behavioural outcome • Experience with specific stimuli that produce learning • Material Cause - (Proximal) physical changes in the nervous system that mediate learning • Formal Causes - Theories or models of learning expressed as mathematical, computational, or theoretical constructs • Final Causes - (Ultimate) explanations of learning in terms of biological function of the learning, survival and reproduction

13. Methodology in the Study of Learning • Experimental Approach • efficient causes inferred by experimental manipulations • experimental manipulations constitute the "training procedure" • use experimental techniques to infer causal factors • to separate actual learning from other sources of behavioral change, systematic experimentation must be performed • learning research usually done with the use of experimental (as opposed to observational or correlational) methodology • See Figure 1.7

14. Baseline FIGURE 1.7 Two versions of the fundamental learning experiment. In the left panel, two groups of individuals are compared. The training procedure is provided for participants in the experimental group but not for those in the control group. In the right panel, a single individual is observed before and during training. The individual’s behavior during training is compared to what we assume its behavior would have been without training.

15. Methodology in the Study of Learning • The General-Process Approach • General laws expressed in terms of basic or elemental processes • Assumption: learning phenomena are products of elemental processes that operate similarly in different learning situations • Applicable to many species and situations • Methodological implications of general-process assumptions • Most principles of learning elucidated with use of nonhuman animal subjects • Learning studied in convenient situation, in expectation that principles widely applicable i.e. Skinner’s Operant Conditioning See Figure 1.8 • Proof of the Generality of learning Phenomena • Confirmation of general-laws of learning requires study of diverse species across different situations

16. Use of Nonhuman Animals in Research on Learning • Comparison across species • Evolutionary and biological considerations • Neuroscience grounded in behavioural science • Advantages • Principles may be simpler • Practical • Control in laboratory experiments of previous experience • Some manipulations possible only with nonhuman animals • Disadvantages • Abnormal behavior in laboratory animals • Comparison to humans is difficult • Ethics of nonhuman animal research

18. Use of Nonhuman Animals in Research on Learning • Rationale for the Use of Nonhuman Animals in Research on Learning • experimental methods are needed to investigate learning phenomena • Experimental control of past experience • processes of learning may be simpler • in animals reared under controlled laboratory conditions • evolution and biological bases of learning

19. Use of Nonhuman Animals in Research on Learning • Laboratory Animals and Normal Behavior • Domesticated strains of laboratory animals • After many generations of inbreeding and long periods of captivity they have abnormal behavior • Boice (1977) put 5 male and 5 female albino rats in an outdoor enclosure • reproduced normally and reached a stable population of about 50 members. • Boice (1973) commented, “The domesticated rat may be a good model for domestic man” (p. 227). • “most human beings live in what are largely “artificial” environments.” Domjan (p. 24)

20. Use of Nonhuman Animals in Research on Learning • Public Debate About Research with Nonhuman Animals • The Humane Treatment of Laboratory Animals • strict federal standards • to protect welfare of laboratory animals • supervision of animal research • What Constitutes the Ethical Treatment of Animals? • Animal rights are not the same as human rights • a laboratory mouse or rat is protected • mice or rats in the walls of the building are not protected • Should Human Beings Benefit From the Use of Animals? • Alternatives to Research with Animals • Not for studies of learning processes