The Psychology of Learning?

1. The Psychology of Learning? Key Questions • What sort of learning does Classical Conditioning explain? • How do we learn new behaviors by operant conditioning? • How does cognitive psychology explain learning?

2. What is Learning? • … a process through which experience produces a lasting change in behavior or mental processes. • Lasting Change • Not Reflexes: An action that is performed involuntary or automatic as a response to a stimulus. • Behavior and mental processes • Behavior: The way one acts in response to stimulus • Mental Processes: the things we do with our mind

3. Observing Mental Processes • Empirical and Measureable Evidence • Behaviorists Belief • Cognitive Psychologists Belief

4. What does learning do for us? • Instincts: An ability to behave in a certain way coupled with a tendency to behave that way at appropriate times. • Fight-or-flight • Nursing • Eating; drinking • Seeking better resources • Blink, flinch • Display emptions

5. Simple Forms of Learning • Habituation • Not responding to stimuli • Mere exposure effect • Attraction to stimuli previously experienced • Sensitization • Becoming sensitive to emotional events or situations

6. Complex Forms of Learning • Behavioral Learning • Classical Conditioning • Operant Conditioning • Cognitive Learning

7. Learning Experiments • Research • Propose- due tomorrow 4/18 • Lab Report- due Tuesday 4/23 • Present- due Tuesday 4/23 (3 minutes)

8. Vocabulary Classical Conditioning • Neutral Stimulus • Unconditioned Stimulus • Unconditioned Response • Acquisition • Conditioned Stimulus • Conditioned Response Operant Conditioning • Positive Reinforcement • Negative Reinforcement • Extinction • Punishment • Variable Ratio Schedule • Fixed Interval Schedule • Fixed Ratio Schedule • Variable Interval Schedule

9. Classical Conditioning What sort of learning does Classical Conditioning explain?

10. Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) • Russian Physiologist studying digestion • Dogs: salivating before eating • Classical Conditioning: a basic form of learning in which a stimulus that produces an innate reflex becomes associated with a previously neutral stimulus, which then acquires the power to elicit essentially the same response.

11. Pavlov’s Dogs • Neutral Stimulus • Unconditioned Stimulus ● UCS • Unconditioned Response ● UCR • Acquisition • Conditioned Stimulus ●CS • Conditioned Response ● CR

12. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6LEcM0E0io

13. ICE CREAM • Extinction: Conditioned responses fade • Spontaneous Recovery: Conditioned responses may reappear

14. Dog Bites & Doorbell Drool • Generalization: Bit by one dog but afraid of all dogs • Discrimination: Not all bells cause salivation

15. Conditioning Human Fear * • John Watson School of Behaviorism • Little Albert • White rat (NS)+ loud noise (Aversive UCS) = fear of white rat (CR) • Generalized fear of other furry objects • http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/watson-and-little-albert.html

16. Counterconditioning Therapy • Mary Cover Jones • Peter-fear of white rats • “Degrees of Toleration” • Extinction + learning relaxation to CS = relaxed response to CS

17. What is Classical Conditioning? • Learning in which a stimulus that produces an innate reflex becomes associated with a previously neutral stimulus, which then elicits essentially the same response.

18. Answer the following question on paper and turn in it to the box by the door as you leave. • What sort of learning does Classical Conditioning explain?

19. Operant Conditioning How do we learn new behaviors by operant conditioning?

20. B. F. Skinner (1904-1990) • Psychologist Radical Behaviorist • Consequences change behavior • Remove subjectivity – only observable data • Operant Conditioning is a form of learning where the consequences of behavior, such as rewards and punishments, influence the chance that the behavior will occur again.

21. Reinforcement • Reinforcer: Reward-a condition that strengthens a response • Positive Reinforcement: A condition that encourages a response by giving a incentive • Negative Reinforcement: A condition that encourages a response by removing an aversion

22. Reinforcement Contingencies • Continuous Reinforcement • The best strategy for teaching and learning new behavior • Intermittent Reinforcement • The most efficient way to maintain behaviors already learned • Resistance to Extinction

23. Schedules of Reinforcement • Ratio Schedules: Reward given based on numbers of responses • Fixed Ratio: number of responses for reward remains constant • Variable Ratio: number of responses for reward varies • Interval Schedules: Reward is based on responses made in side a time period • Fixed Interval: Time period between rewards remains constant • Variable Interval: Time period between rewards varies

24. Shaping Behavior • Shaping: Teaching a new behavior by reinforcing responses that are similar to the desired response http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGazyH6fQQ4&feature=fvwrel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtoH5tlr-bI

25. Punishment • Positive Punishment: Application of aversive stimulus • Negative Punishment: Removal of reinforcer

26. Reflection • What is something you have learned that was the result of positive or negative reinforcement? • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guroaQRFsX4

27. Cognitive Psychology How does cognitive psychology explain learning?

28. Cognitive Psychology • The Core Concept of Cognitive Psychology is that some forms of learning must be explained as changes in mental processes rather than as changes in behavior alone.

29. Insight Learning • Wolfgang Köhler German Psychologist • Marooned in the Canary Islands WWI • Köhler: Thinking/Accessing memory essential components to learning • Sudden perception of familiar objects in new forms or relationships • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcBGAWNCipI

30. Can you see any plausible explanation for the chimps learning to get the fruit using Classical or Operant conditioning?

31. Cognitive Maps • Edward Tolman • Learning resulted from bits of knowledge and thoughts about the environment and how an organism relates to it • Mental Images = Cognitive Maps

32. Observational Learning • Albert Bandura (Social Learning) • Rewards can be effective at motivating a response even if we see others get them • BoBo doll experiment • Watching violent behavior influenced observer to act aggressively • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zerCK0lRjp8

33. Anagrams • Group 1 • BAT • LEMON • Group 2 • WHIRL • SLAPSTICK

34. Learned Helplessness • Martin Seligman • Results from experiencing uncontrollable events that cause an individual to expect future lack of control • Decreased motivation, failure to learn, sadness, anxiety, frustration

35. Latent Learning • Hidden learning that occurs without reinforcement, becoming apparent only when a reward is introduced. • Group A-Always rewarded Group B- Never rewarded Group C-Rewarded later

36. State Dependent Learning • You recall information easily when you are in the same physiological or emotional state or setting you were when you originally encoded the information.

37. Extrinsic Motivation • Factors outside of the individual and the task itself; Earning money, grades, other rewards With a partner discuss… In general, are people you know more driven by intrinsic or extrinsic motivation? Intrinsic Internal desires to engage in a task; actions that promote happiness, develop a skill, or is just the right thing to do (moral)

38. How can we motivate students intrinsically? • Maslow’s Pyramid • Deficiency and Growth Needs

39. Think-Pair-Share Think of a time during your school career when you were able to learn the subject you were studying very easily. What do you think the reasons were that you were able to learn the subject so easily? Is it easier to work on and finish jobs that you are interested in?