TRIAL AND ERROR LEARNING

1. TRIAL AND ERROR LEARNING Oooops.....try again!

2. TRIAL AND ERROR LEARNING • There are many learned behaviours that CANNOT be explained by classical conditioning. • Behaviour acquired voluntarily is not adequately explained by classical conditioning. • Much learning occurs as a result of trial and error.

3. TRIAL AND ERROR LEARNING • When we try something new and it gains the approval of others, the chances are it won’t be the last time we do it. Wearing new outfit and getting compliments or a joke that gets laughter as a response. • We all adjust our behaviour according to the outcomes or consequences it produces. • Adjustments usually result in an increase or a decrease in the likelihood of that behaviour occurring again.

4. TRIAL AND ERROR LEARNING • The process we go through when learning to make responses in order to obtain or avoid consequences is known as “instrumental conditioning” now commonly referred to as “operant conditioning”. • Key processes of operant conditioning are based on studies of trial and error learning.

5. TRIAL AND ERROR LEARNING • Trial and error learning involves learning by trying alternative possibilities until the desired outcome is achieved. • It usually involves a number of attempts (trials) and a number of incorrect choices (errors) before the desired outcome is achieved. • Once learned, the behaviour will usually be performed quickly and with fewer errors.

6. TRIAL AND ERROR LEARNING • It is a relatively simple way of learning to adjust to the environment and deal with everyday challenges. • It involves: • 1. MOTIVATION (desire to attain a goal) • 2. EXPLORATION (increase in activity – either purposeful or random) • 3. RESPONSES – correct or incorrect • 4. REWARD – correct response is made and rewarded

7. TRIAL AND ERROR LEARNING • Reward leads to the repeated performance of the correct response, strengthening the association between the behaviour and it’s outcome.

8. Thorndike’s cats – trial and error • Early 1900s US psychologist Edward Lee Thondike • Put a hungry cat in a “puzzle box” and placed a piece of fish outside the box where it could be seen (and smelt) but was just out of cat’s reach. • To get the food the cat had to learn to escape from the box by operating a latch to release a door on side of box by pushing down on a paddle (kind of lever) inside the box.

9. Thorndike’s cats – trial and error

10. Thorndike’s cats – trial and error • Thorndike measured learning in this situation by recording the time it took the cat, on consecutive trials, to escape from the box. • After using some ineffective strategies, the cat pushed the lever and the door opened. • Cats escape from box to get a treat • At first its all trial and error • When cat put back in box, went through a series of incorrect responses before pushing the lever again and being rewarded with escape and food.

11. Thorndike’s cats – trial and error • Cat became progressively quicker at escaping from box. • After about 7 trials, the cat went straight to the lever. It had become a deliberate response that the cat had learnt due to the consequences of making the response.

12. Thorndike’s cats – trial and error • When successful the behaviour was rewarded. • This good consequence strengthens the behaviour. • This led Thorndike (1911) to develop the law of effect. • Law of effect – good consequence more likely to be repeated, bad consequence not. • Instrumental learning – the cat is active in achieving its own escape and reward

13. Law of effect • The Law of Effect states that a behaviour that is accompanied or closely followed by “satisfying” consequences is more likely to recur (strengthened) and a behaviour that is accompanied or closely followed by “annoying” consequences or discomfort is less likely to recur (weakened). • Thorndike used the term instrumental learning to refer to the process through which an organism learns the association between behaviour and its consequences. (The cat became instrumental in obtaining its release to get the food).