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Ch 5 learning. How the environment influences our behavior. learning. More than just picking up knowledge or a skill: A semi-permanent change in behavior brought by experience or practice. The four pillars of learning. Classical Conditioning – gaining automatic connections
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Ch 5 learning How the environment influences our behavior.
learning • More than just picking up knowledge or a skill: • A semi-permanent change in behavior brought by experience or practice
The four pillars of learning • Classical Conditioning – gaining automatic connections • Operant Conditioning – repeating what works, avoiding what doesn’t • Social Learning – being influenced by those we admire
Classical Conditioning • Learning to make an involuntary (reflex) respond to a stimulus other than the original natural stimulus • Reflex- involuntary response • Unconditioned stimulus UCS- a naturally occurring stimulus that leads to a reflex • Unconditioned response UCR- an involuntary (reflex) response to a naturally occurring or UCS
Classical Conditioning • Neutral Stimulus NS- Stimulus that has no affect on the desired response • Conditioned Stimulus CS- Stimulus that becomes able to produce a learned reflex response • paired with the original unconditioned stimulus • Conditioned Response CR-Learned reflex response to a conditioned stimulus
background • It all started with Ivan Pavlov and his study of the digestive system • Research based on work with animals • Studied the automatic connection between food (meat) in the mouth and the flow of digestive juices • UCS (meat in mouth) > UCR (saliva)
The big idea • Start with an unconditioned reflex – an automatic connection between a stimulus and a response (meat>saliva)
Big idea part 2 • Develop new automatic responses by repetitively pairing an originally neutral stimulus with an UCS
Let’s say that a different way • An air puff in the eye (UCS) will always make us blink (UCR) • Flashing a red card won’t
But if we repetitively flash the red card, shortly followed by the air puff, eventually, • Just flashing the red card will make us blink !
examples • That particular corner at your high school • The torturer’s black shoes • The whistling of a V1 “shrieker” • The song from that certain summer that reminds you of ….. • Smell of food your grandma made
Stimulus Generalization • Other stimuli that is similar can lead to the same response • Stimulus Discrimination • When a person/animal is able to learn to respond different stimuli in different ways
Extinction and Recovery • When the response “Dies Out” • Remove the reinforcement CS and the CR will weaken and disappear • Spontaneous Recovery • The CR can briefly reappear when the original CS returns • Will be weak and short lived
Unraveling the connection • In CC, extinction takes place when we repeatedly present the CS without the UCS following it
More perspectives • CC prepares us for significant events by identifying events that commonly predict them • Gives us advance warning of upcoming threats and opportunities • The more unfamiliar the CS or the more powerful the UCS the faster the CR takes
Other aspects • The process that establishes or strengthens a CR is called acquisition • A CS can even be a thought
All together now • First we build the CS>CR connection through acquisition, • Then we unravel it through extinction, • If we then stop presenting the CS for a while, once we resume its use, • The CR will return, but not for long, unless it is again paired with the UCS
Extending the connection • The CR can occur even without presentation of the exact CS which formed it, if the new CS is similar enough • Stimulus generalization – the extension or broadening of a CR from the original CS to another, similar stimulus • The more similar the entire setting is, the more likely the new connection will form
Narrowing connections • If differing stimuli, although quite similar to the CS, are never, or rarely, followed by the UCS, then the CR will not emerge • Stimulus discrimination – differing responses to differing stimuli that have been followed by differing events
Is it just timing? • The concept of blocking • If a CS/CR link has been established, pairing a new CS will not work no matter how hard you may try • Conditioned taste aversion
The power of prediction • It’s reliability that counts, the CS’ ability to accurately and consistently predict the UCS. • The UCS must be more likely to occur after the CS.
The big picture • CC involves visceral reactions involving the sympathetic nervous system – you feel it in your gut. • It prepares us for important challenges and threats. • But it does not tell us what to do.
The next step • For how we learn voluntary, planned behaviors, we turn to operant conditioning.