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CHAPTER 5
5.1 Learning refers to any enduring change in the way an organism responds based on its
experience. Learning theories assume that experience shapes behavior, that learning is adaptive,
and that only systematic experimentation can uncover laws of learning. The laws of association
are fundamental to most accounts of learning: the laws of contiguity and similarity propose that
stimuli are likely to become associated when they occur close together in time and/or resemble
each other.
5.2 In classical conditioning, an environmental stimulus triggers (or leads to) a learned
response, through pairing of an unconditioned stimulus with a previously neutral conditioned
stimulus. The result is a conditioned response, or learned reflex. Conditioned taste aversions
are learned aversions to a taste associated with an unpleasant feeling (usually nausea).
Conditioned emotional responses, including positive feelings associated with particular
situations, events, or people, occur when a conditioned stimulus is paired with a stimulus that
evokes an emotional response.
5.3 Stimulus generalization occurs when an organism learns to respond to stimuli that
resemble the CS with a similar response. Stimulus discrimination occurs when an organism
learns to respond to a restricted range of stimuli. Extinction occurs when a CR is weakened by
presentation of the CS without the UCS. Previously extinguished responses may reappear
through a process known as spontaneous recovery.
5.5 Several factors influence classical conditioning, including the interstimulus interval (the
time between presentation of the CS and the UCS), the order in which the CS and UCS are
presented, the law of prediction (degree to which the presence of the CS is predictive of the
US), the individual’s learning history (such as prior associations between the stimulus and other
stimuli or responses), and prepared learning (the evolved tendency of some associations to be
learned more readily than others). Blocking occurs when a previously learned association to a
UCS inhibits learning of a new one. When a UCS has a history of repeated presentations without
the CS, latent inhibition can slow down learning of the association. Paradoxical conditioning,
a less common type of conditioning, occurs when the CR is opposite of the UCR.
5.6 Operant conditioning means learning from consequences. Operants are behaviors that are
emitted rather than elicited by the environment. Whereas reinforcement increases the
probability of a response, punishment decreases the probability that a response will recur.
Positive reinforcement occurs when the environmental consequence (a reward or payoff) makes
a behavior more likely to occur again. Negative reinforcement occurs when termination of an
aversive stimulus makes a behavior more likely to recur. Likewise punishment can be negative
or positive. Positive punishment occurs when the consequence is an aversive stimuli; negative
punishment occurs when it is the removal of a pleasant stimuli. Superstitious behavior occurs
when the learner erroneously associates a behavior and consequence. Punishment is frequently
applied in ways that render it ineffective. Extinction in operant conditioning occurs if enough
trials pass in which the operant is not followed by the consequence previously associated with it.
5.7 In everyday life, continuous reinforcement schedules (in which the consequence is the
same each time an animal emits a behavior) are far less common than partial, or intermittent,
reinforcement schedules (in which reinforcement occurs in some ratio or after certain
intervals). In ratio schedules, rewards are presented after a certain number of responses and in
interval schedules, they are presented after a certain period of time. The schedules are fixed if
the number of responses or length of time are fixed, and variable if they are unpredicatable. A
discriminative stimulus signals that particular contingencies of reinforcement are in effect, so
that the organism only produces the behavior in the presence of the discriminative stimulus.
5.8 Learning occurs in a broader context than one behavior at a time. Humans and other animals
learn that attaining one reinforcer may affect attainment of others. Behavioral economists study
the resulting cost-benefit analyses. Cultural factors also influence operant conditioning, as
different cultures rely on different operant procedures. Characteristics of the learner influence
operant conditioning, such as prior behaviors in the animal’s repertoire, enduring characteristics
of the learner (such as the tendency to respond with fear or avoidance in the face of aversive
environmental events), and species-specific behavior (the tendency of particular species to
produce particular responses). Shaping teaches a new behavior by rewarding incremental steps,
while chaining does so by rewarding a sequence of previously learned behaviors. Operant
conditioning can sometimes even be used to teach behaviors that are outside of the realm of
normal ability or control, such as in biofeedback, when patients learn to gain some control over
autonomous responses such as heartrate.
5.9 Stimuli can be reinforcing through drive-reduction (primary reinforcers), their associations
to primary reinforcers (secondary reinforcers), and/or though eliciting emotions. The
behavioral approach system (BAS) is associated with pleasure and approach, the behavioral
inhibition system (BIS) with anxiety and avoidance, and the fight-flight system (FFS) with
terror/rage and escape/aggression. Cognitive-social theory incorporates concepts of
conditioning from behaviorism but adds cognition and social learning. Such work has
demonstrated latent learning, insight in animals, the role of locus of control, expectancies, and
explanatory styles (which can produce effects such as self-fulfilling prophecy and learned
helplessness).
5.10 Social learning refers to learning that can occur, with or without reinforcement, through
social interaction. Observational learning occurs as individuals learn by watching the behavior
of others. Learning to reproduce behavior exhibited by a model is called modeling. Vicarious
conditioning means learning by observing the consequences of a behavior for someone else.
Tutelage occurs when people learn through direct instruction.