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Learning
Thoughts on Learning
“Learning is not compulsory. Neither is survival.”
– W. Edwards Demming
“Education is what survives when what has been learned has been
forgotten.”
– B.F. Skinner
“I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how
to do it.”
– Pablo Picasso
What is Learning?
A relatively permanent change in behavior
that results from experience
Types of Learning
• Classical conditioning
• Operant conditioning
• Cognitive and social learning
Classical Conditioning: Examples
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Sound of a dentist’s drill: sweaty palms
Smell of mom’s perfume: smiling
Sight of certain restaurant: nausea
Noise of a can opener: cat comes running
Smell of a hospital: weakened immunity
Classical Conditioning
• Discovered (accidentally) by Ivan Pavlov
Pavlov’s Observation
• Studied digestion in dogs
Pavlov’s Experiment: Phase 1
• Food (US): salivation (UR)
– Reflexive response
• Tone (CS): nothing (CR)
Pavlov’s Experiment: Phase 2
• CS is repeatedly paired with the US
– A tone is sounded before the food is presented
Pavlov’s Experiment: Phase 3
• Eventually, the CS elicits a new CR
– Hearing the tone by itself causes salivation
Classical Conditioning:
Conditioned Emotional Response
• Avoidance learning
• Conditioned phobias
– Little Albert
Classical Conditioning
• Extinction
• Spontaneous recovery
Classical Conditioning
• Stimulus generalization
• Stimulus discrimination
Higher Order Conditioning
• Pair CS1 with a new CS2
• CS2: CR
• But, CR will be weaker
Classical Conditioning Applied
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Drug overdoses
Smoking: environmental cues
Systematic desensitization
Advertising: sex appeal
Taste aversion
Conditioning and the immune system
Types of Learning
• Classical Conditioning
• Operant Conditioning
• Cognitive and Social Learning
Operant Conditioning: Examples
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Tantrums are punished: fewer tantrums
Tantrums bring attention: more tantrums
Slot machine pays out: gamble more
Reward dog for sitting: dog is likely to sit
Operant Conditioning
• Thorndike’s puzzle box
– Law of Effect: actions that have positive outcomes are likely repeated
• Skinner box
Operant Conditioning: Principles
• Stimulus-Response
• Reinforcement
– Positive reinforcement
– Negative reinforcement
Effective Punishment
• Should be
– Swift
– Consistent
– Appropriately aversive
• Challenges
– Physical punishment may be imitated
– May fear the person who punishes
• Most effective when paired with reinforcers
Reinforcement
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Primary reinforcers
Secondary reinforcers
Behavior modification
Immediate versus delayed reinforcement
Beyond Basic Reinforcement
• Generalization
• Discrimination
– Discriminative stimulus
• Extinction
• Spontaneous recovery
Building Complex Behaviors
• Shaping
– Gradual reinforcement of successive approximations of target behavior
– Used to train animals to do complex tricks
Reinforcement Schedules
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Continuous reinforcement
Partial reinforcement
Fixed interval
Variable interval
Fixed ratio
Variable ratio
Reinforcement Schedules
Classical versus Operant Conditioning
Classical conditioning
– Learned association between US and CS
– Organism is passive
– Responses elicited
Operant conditioning
– Associate response and reinforcement
– Organism is active
– Responses emitted
Types of Learning
• Classical conditioning
• Operant conditioning
• Cognitive and social learning
Cognitive Learning
• Latent learning
– Tolman’s rats: cognitive maps
Cognitive Learning
• Insight learning
– “Aha” experience
Observational Learning
• Bandura’s Bobo doll study