Introduction to Psychology

1. Introduction to Psychology Class 12: Learning 2 Myers: 224-255 July 5, 2006

2. Writing Assignments • Speaking of media effects… - A much-more-than-a-million dollar “fantasy” bra - Tyra Banks gives her “successor” baby wings - Medical dramas and plastic surgery (foot surgery to wear heels?) - Are eating disorders becoming fashionable? - Was Team America violent? • List of water bodies…

3. Homework! • Dog salivates for food • Human food wrapped in paper/plastic • Repetitive paper/plastic—food association • Dog salivates to the sound of candy wrapper • Dog salivates to the sound of a newspaper!

4. Other examples • Discrimination? • Extinction? • Spontaneous recovery? • Generalization?

5. Applications of CC • Predictability: When rats are shocked more regularly after a light (CS1) is flashed and less regularly after a tone (CS2) is flashed, they develop a stronger fear response (CR) to the light than sound UCS and UCR in that example?

6. Learned helplessness: hopelessness and passive resignation an animal or human learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive event. Dogs are put in a harness, without the ability to escape, and shocked. They learn to be helpless, and cower even in very easily escapable aversive events that are made to occur subsequently. This is similar to the “giving up” that occurs in some people, especially the clinically depressed. • Perceived control: Obviously, a sense of perceived personal control is important for mental health, even in such controlled environments as prison. Thought: What one loses in “learning” helplessness is the perception of personal control.

7. Counter-conditioning: - Aversive conditioning: antabuse (Replace a positive response to alcohol with a negative response of nausea) - Systematic desensitization: virtual reality treatment for a flying phobia (Progressive relaxation based on slowly increasing exposure to flying)

8. Operant Conditioning • A type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher • Based on Thorndike’s “Law of Effect” (Behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely)

9. Respondent behavior: occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus • Operant behavior: Behavior that “operates” on the environment to produce reward or punishment • Shaping: reinforcers guide behavior to the desired goal by rewarding successive approximations

10. Reinforcement • A reinforcer strengthens the behavior that it follows (primary: food, secondary: grades) • Positive reinforcement: adds a desirable stimulus E.g. getting a hug, a good grade, a cookie on finishing homework—all reinforce studying • Negative reinforcement: removes an aversive stimulus E.g. fasten a seatbelt to turn off the beep, push snooze, smoke a cigarette to relieve stress

11. Schedules • Fixed-ratio: reinforcement after fixed number of responses • Variable-ratio: reinforcement after variable number of responses • Fixed-interval: reinforcement after a fixed time interval • Variable-interval: reinforcement after a variable time interval

12. Punishment • A punisher weakens the behavior that it follows • Positive punishment: adds an aversive stimulus E.g. spanking, parking ticket • Negative punishment: removes a desirable stimulus E.g. curfew, revoked driver’s license

13. Applications of OC • Reinforcement: immediate vs. delayed • Goal: vague vs. specific • Progress: monitored vs. unmonitored • Motivation: intrinsic vs. extrinsic (dealing with extinction)

14. Priming • Name a laundry detergent • Tide? • “List of water-bodies” is the prime • Evidence of associative learning • Also a part of how we can be affected by the media—without even knowing it

15. Thought for the day • How else (other than priming) are learning and memory intertwined?