Learning – A behavioural View

2. “Learning refers to the change in a person’s behaviour to a given situation brought about by repeated experiences in that situation, provided that the behaviour change cannot be explained on the basis of native response tendencies, maturation, or temporary states of the subject (e.g., fatigue, drugs, etc.).” Learning – A behavioural View

3. a given situation (the ANTECEDENT) leads to or causes behaviour which results in experience (the CONSEQUENCE) which if repeated under similar circumstances will lead to learning as shown by the emergence of new behaviours. Learning is connecting of antecedents behaviours and consequences Learning – A behavioural

4. The ABC’s Antecedents Behaviours Consequences Compulsive computer games Antecedents: Time: Late at night Place: In the study With whom: Alone Tasks: Data analysis, reports, marking State: Pressured, anxious, bored Resources: Instant games

5. The ABC’s Behaviours: Behaviour 1: playing solitaire frequency: 14/31 nights in one month intensity: continuous play at speed duration; 1-5 hours Behaviour 2: playing hearts, etc

6. The ABC’s Consequences: Immediate: Stress relief, excitement Short-term (next 1-5 hours):involved, focussed, not worried Transitions/end:tired, irritated, annoyed worried at own stupidity, Medium term: more pressure, less confidence, more anxiety Long term: lower work performance, tired, relationships affected

7. B.F. Skinner (1953) – principle of reinforcement • “Skinner box” • Emission of response • Reinforcement contingencies • Cumulative recorder Operant Conditioning

8. Fig. 6.10a, p. 179

9. Fig. 6.10b, p. 179

10. Fig. 6.10c, p. 179

11. Figure 6.9 Reinforcement in operant conditioning

12. Acquisition of a new response • Shaping • Extinction • Stimulus Control • Generalization • Discrimination Basic Processes in Operant Conditioning

13. Primary Reinforcers • Satisfy biological needs • hunger, thirst, sex, warmth, exercise, sleep, security, companionship, knowledge/power, novelty, • Secondary Reinforcers • Conditioned reinforcement - when unconditioned stimuli are paired with primary reinforcers they can become powerful reinforcers in the absence of the primary reinforcer once the relationship is learned. • Secondary reinforcers include money, the bells and lights on gambling machines, status symbols, good grades • Secondary reinforcers need to retain a relationship to primary reinforcers to continue to exercise power Reinforcement: Consequences that Strengthen Responses

14. Beer as a CS for sexual excitement or the pleasure of owning a fast car, or a secondary reinforcer, when you can’t have either a sexy girlfriend or a fast car

15. Increasing a response: • Positive reinforcement = response followed by rewarding stimulus • Negative reinforcement = response followed by removal of an aversive stimulus • Escape learning • Avoidance learning • Decreasing a response: • Punishment – presentation of an aversive stimulus or • removal of a positive one • Problems with punishment Consequences:Reinforcement and Punishment

16. Figure 6.14 Positive reinforcement versus negative reinforcement

17. Figure 6.16 Comparison of negative reinforcement and punishment

18. Continuous reinforcement – slot machine • Intermittent (partial) reinforcement • Ratio schedules • Fixed – piece work • Variable – gambling machines • Interval schedules • Fixed - weekly wage, semester course results • Variable - every so often you get a compliment for your work, you avoid erratic drivers (variable negative reinforcement) Schedules of Reinforcement

19. Figure 6.13 Schedules of reinforcement and patterns of response

20. Biological Constraints on Conditioning • Instinctive Drift 2.00 to 6.00 • Conditioned Taste Aversion – one trial learning • Arbitrary vs. ecological conditioned stimuli • Language Learning – Transformational grammar • Cognitive Influences on Conditioning • Latent learning • Response-outcome relations • Signal relations Changing Directions in the Studyof Conditioning

21. Sentence 2 The boy the dog bit ran away Sentence 1 how do we learn to connect the non-contiguous pieces. Chomsky says language has an innate deep structure of transformational grammar that recognises subject-object-agency relations

22. Figure 6.19 Latent learning

23. Albert Bandura • Observational learning • Basic processes • attention • retention • reproduction • motivation Observational Learning

24. Figure 6.20 Observational learning

25. Arab spring

26. British Riots

27. Television Effects

28. NZ2003 TV Violence study

29. TV violence and other effects Appendix to US Surgeon General’s report 2000