Five kinds of learning

1. Five kinds of learning Habituation, classical conditioning, operant conditioning, observation, and insight

2. What is learning? • Association theory: Locke, Berkeley, Mill • Locke: The tabula rasa—we are what we learn. • Berkeley: But aren’t we more likely to learn some things than others? • John Stuart Mill: Laws of association • Spatial contiguity • Temporal contiguity • Compare Gestalt laws of perception

3. Definitions of learning • A lasting change in behavior resulting from experience • An example of natural selection within an individual’s experience • The result of contingency analysis • Contiguity vs. contingency

4. Habituation: Ignoring a US • Orienting responses • Aplysia and siphon-withdrawal • Repetitive stimuli carry no information • Is repetitive music boring? • Short-term habituation learning • Long-term habituation learning

5. Classical or Pavlovian Conditioning: Predicting a US • Why do we automatically stand when we hear an organ play? • Why does the sound of the cappucino machine in the atrium make me feel warm and comforted? • An unconditioned reflex : US ---> UR • An orienting reflex: NS ---> OR • A conditioned reflex: CS ---> CR

6. Pavlov’s example • US (Meat powder) UR (Drooling) • NS (Tuning fork) OR (Turning head) • CS (Tuning fork) CR (Drooling)

7. Human applications of classical conditioning • Forming associations in advertising • Music videos? • Toilet training • Phobias (Watson & Rayner, 1920) • Food avoidance, and fetishes • Psychotherapy

8. Principles of classical conditioning • Acquisition • US intensity • CS-US timing • Extinction • Spontaneous recovery • Reconditioning • Generalization and discrimination

9. Key factors in conditioning success • Reliability of CS-US pairing: How often is CS followed by US? • Uniqueness of CS-US pairing: How often does CS happen without US? • Differential contingency and informativeness • pUS/ CS > pUS/ CS • pUS/ CS < pUS/ CS

10. Operant conditioning: Controlling consequences • Thorndike and the Law of Effect • Skinner and operant conditioning • Apparatus: Operant conditioning chamber and cumulative recorder • Discriminative stimulus, operant response, consequence

11. Consequences • Reinforcement • Positive reinforcers • Negative reinforcers • Punishment • Positive punishers • Negative punishers • Frustrative non-reward and omission: Extinction • Conditioned reinforcers and punishers

12. Training methods • Shaping: Bowling and guided missiles • Schedules of intermittent reinforcement • Fixed Interval (FI) • Fixed Ratio (FR) • Variable Interval (VI) • Variable Ratio (VR) • Schedules and informativeness

13. Discrimination learning • Discriminative stimuli • Occasion setting • Concept discrimination • A failure of discrimination: Superstition • Interim behaviors • Terminal behaviors

14. Aversive conditioning • Punishment • Must be strong, immediate, and reliable • May become conditioned to SSDRs • Escape and avoidance learning • Taste aversion • Psychology helps treat cancer • Coyotes and sheep: Wrap poisoned meat in sheepskin

15. Observation learning • Model behaviors: Bandura, Ross, and Ross • Vicarious observation learning • Bandura’s social learning theory • Factors influencing imitation: • Similarity • Status • Salience • Success

16. Insight: A nominal fallacy? • Sultan and Gestalt psychology • Pigeons show insight only if they have learned that a particular component action leads to a goal • Primates may use mental imagery • Many animals may use cognitive maps. • “Neither humans nor chimpanzees will be able to think of objects they have never seen or imagine themselves performing behaviors they have never performed or seen others perform” (Carlson & Buskist, p.155)

17. Pavlov’s dog • Look for: The NS The US The UR The CS The CR

18. Conditioned fear in Little Albert (Watson & Rayner, 1920)

19. Then, the classical conditioning…

20. …and finally, generalization.

21. Thorndike and instrumental conditioning

22. Skinner and operant conditioning