Learning

1. Learning 7-9% of the AP Exam

2. What is Learning? Give an example of something that is NOT learned? Give an example of something you have learned, ever!

3. What is Learning? • Try this activity! • Which of these situations are examples of learning and which are not?

4. What is learning? • The acquisition of language in children. • The cessation of thumb sucking by an infant. • A computer game generates random moves for its first 100 chess games and tabulates the outcomes of those games. • Mia stays up late the night before her SAT and consumes large quantities of coffee. Her scores are not sufficient to gain admission into the college of her choice. The next time she takes the SAT, she gets to bed early, eats a healthy breakfast and gets to the test site 30 minutes before the test. Her score improves.

5. What is learning? • A previously psychotic patient is given a particularly effective drug that calms symptoms. • A lanky zinnia plant is pinched back and begins to grow denser foliage and flowers. • After pondering over a difficult puzzle for hours, Mike finally figures it out. From that point on, he can solve all similar puzzles very quickly. • After 30 years of smoking two packs a day, Zeke throws away his cigarettes and never smokes again. • Original source: Rocklin, T. Defining Learning: Two classroom activities. Teaching of Psychology, 14, 228.

6. What is Learning? • Learning refers to the relatively permanent change in subject’s behavior to a given situation brought about by his/her repeated experience in that situation provided that the behavior change cannot be explained on the basis of native response tendencies, maturation or temporary states of the subject (fatigue, drugs, etc.)

7. Distinction between Performance Learning Can only be inferred from performance Not always an accurate measure of behavior • Exhibited behavior • What is the role of mental process and cognition in this distinction?

8. Classical Conditioning The sad case of E. B. Twitmyer (1904) ***A footnote in history

9. Twitmyer

10. But back to Classical Conditioning • Classical conditioning – “learning” or better stated an association that takes place when an originally neutral stimulus comes to produce a conditioned response that it did not previously elicit (produce). • This refers to an involuntary response.

11. Terms to know • Unconditioned stimulus (UCS) • Unconditioned response (UCR) • Neutral stimulus (N) • Conditioned stimulus (CS) • Conditioned response (CR) • Get these from your textbook!

12. Look at this. . . • UCS ==== UCR • N + UCS === UCR • With repeated pairings • CS === CR

13. UCS==== UCR

14. N + UCS====== UCR

15. Repeated pairings. . . CS=== CR

16. SO. . . Who gives the shots? WHY?

17. El Capellon de la Virgen, Lope de Vega (1600s) • Saint Ildefonso used to scold me and punish me lots of times. He would sit me on the bare floor and make me eat with the cats of the monastery. These cats were such rascals that they took advantage of my penitence. They drove me mad stealing my choicest morsels. It did no good to chase them away. But I found a way of coping with the beast in order to enjoy my meals when I was being punished.

18. I put them in a sack and on a pitch black night I took them out under an arch. First I would cough and then whale the daylights out of the cats. They whined and shrieked like an infernal pipe organ. I would pause for a while and repeat the operation- first a cough and then a thrashing.

19. I finally noticed that even without beating them, the beasts moaned and yelped like the very devil whenever I coughed. I then let them loose. Thereafter, whenever I had to eat off the floor, I would cast a look around. If an animal approached my food, all I had to do was to cough and how that cat did scat!

20. Acquisition • Involves repeated pairings of the CS and UCS

21. Extinction • The gradual weakening and eventual disappearance of the CR • Involves repeatedly presenting the CS without pairing it with the UCS

22. Spontaneous Recovery • Occurs when a previously extinguished CR suddenly reappears after a period of no training

23. Generalization • Occurs when stimuli similar to the CS produce a CR • The more similar the stimuli are to the CS, the greater the likelihood of generalization • Example?

24. Discrimination • Occurs when stimuli similar to the CS do not produce a CR • The more similar the stimuli are to the CS, the greater the difficulty of discrimination

25. Ever heard of this guy, Pavlov?

26. Famous demonstrations • Ivan Pavlov • Dog’s digestive systems • Noble Prize (1904) • Ivan and Phil 3 mins • Noted for classic studies in animal conditioning

27. Look at this. . . • UCS ==== UCR • Meat powder salivate • N + UCS === UCR • Tone Meat powder salivate • With repeated pairings. . . • CS === CR • Tone Salivate

28. YUMMY! I am going to try to classically condition you to a salivation response to the word “PAVLOV.” You will receive a small sample of sweetened lemonade mix. As I read about Ivan Pavlov, each time I say the word “Pavlov,” dip a moistened finger tip in the lemonade mix and touch your tongue. Will you salivate? At a point in the reading, I will ask you to stop the use of the lemonade powder with the word “Pavlov.” Did you continue to salivate? What happened?

29. Did it work? • Other examples? • Air Puff Activity

30. Review of Classical Conditioning • How it works • Air Puff Activity • Taste Aversions • Little Albert • Little Albert 4 mins

31. A Classic Study • John B. Watson • Conditioned “emotion” • Fear response in humans (1920) • Little Albert

32. Little Albert • Here is the story • Look for classical conditioning terms previous mentioned

33. Watson fired from university! • WHY? • What type of career change did he make? • Watson is famous in another line of work, do you know what he is noted for?

34. Taste Aversions • John Garcia • Reading

35. Theoretical Models of Classical Conditioning • Contiguity Model- argues conditioning will occur whenever a CS and a UCS are paired (based on closeness of time and space) • Based on the work of Pavlov

36. Theoretical Models of Classical Conditioning • Contingency Model • Argues the CS must reliably predict the UCS for conditioning to occur • Contiguity is not sufficient • Based on the work of Robert Rescorla and Allen Wagner (1988)

37. Today • Instrumental Learning • Operant Learning (Conditioning)

38. But first,

40. Instrumental Learning • A process in which an organism performs some learned task which is instrumental in producing a desired result. • Conditioning is usually measured by how long it takes the subject to respond appropriately

41. Instrumental Learning • Means that an organism’s behavior is instrumentalin producing an environmental change that in turn affects the organism’s behavior • S  R relationship • Based on the work of E. L Thorndike

42. Edward L. Thorndike • Fundamental principle of “Law of Effect” • Behaviors are encouraged when they are followed by rewarding consequences and discouraged when they are followed by punishing consequences

43. Cat-in-the-box

44. Operant Conditioning • B. F. Skinner • Operant conditioning can be used to influence the likelihood of an organism’s response by controlling the consequence of the response • Organism must operateon the environment

45. How Skinner studied operant conditioning • The Skinner Box • Lower animals used (criticism) • Timing of reinforcements is an important factor. • Skinner 4 mins

46. Issues in Operant Conditioning • Shaping- a technique whereby successive approximations of a behavior are reinforced (often used for training animals to do a sequence of tasks) • Chaining- “hooking” together of multiple behaviors that have been shaped

47. Discriminative Stimulus- defined as a stimulus that signals or informs the organism of the availability of reward or punishment. Examples? • Extinction- occurs in operant conditioning when a behavior no longer produces a reinforcer, behavior eventually ceases

48. 6 1/2 mins super behaviors

49. Differences between classical and operant conditioning Classical Conditioning Involuntary (reflexive) including emotion Association of events; CS announces UCS CR decreases when CS is repeatedly presented alone Natural predispositions constrain what S and R can be easily associated • Behavior • Acquisition • Extinction • Biological Predisposition

50. Differences between classical and operant conditioning Operant Conditioning Voluntary (nonreflexive), goal seeking Association of response with consequence (R,P) Responding decreases especially when consistent reinforcement stops Best learned behaviors are similar to natural behaviors (instinctive drift) • Behavior • Acquisition • Extinction • Biological Predisposition