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Learning—It is all about Change
Humans as well as animals have instincts. Relatively consistent reactions
to some stimuli or events in our environments.
But it would not be adaptive to have all our responses determined.
Survival is increased with we have the ability to show adaptive change.
How does change in behavior occur?
•  Early British philosophers suggested change occurs depending on the
associations that we experience in the events in our lives (Associationism).
•  When two events are contiguous in time we learn to associate one with the
other (Hobbes & Locke).
Behaviorists in psychology adopted associationism as their model and set
about examining the rules that govern how this change in
relationship of events takes place.
Pavlov s dog experiments. The discovery of psychic reflexes
Important terms in Classical Conditioning
•  Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)- the stimulus which
automatically leads to an Unconditioned response Food
•  Unconditioned Response (UCR)- an involuntary response to a
particular stimulus Salivation
•  Conditioned Stimulus (CS)- the previously neutral stimulus that
is paired with the Unconditioned Stimulus Bell
•  Conditioned Response (CR)- the response that has been learned
to a Conditioned Stimulus Salivation
Before
Conditioning
NS
Bell
No response
UCS
Meat Powder
UCR
Salivation
During Conditioning
CS(NS)
Bell
UCS
Meat Powder
UCR
Salivation
After Conditioning
E. B. Twitmeyer
Watson s Demo
CS
Bell
CR
Salivation
John Watson and Little Albert Jones
Conditioning Emotional Responses
Learned Phobia
CS rat
UCS loud noise
CR fear
UCR fear
Mother Love??
CS mom
UCS food
CR pleasure
UCR pleasure
Do you and your S.O. have your song.
From whom would you buy a Pepsi?
Conditioned Emotional Responses
Watson s goals:
•  Complex emotions (such as fear) are learned and not result of unconscious processes
Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world
to bring them up in and I ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him
to become any type of specialist I might select – doctor, lawyer, artist,
merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents,
penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors.
or
7
Question
Classical Conditioning.
Gary Gustie is going to take the Sarah Sorority out for the first time and
asks Joe Cool what he might do to make it more likely that she will
fall for him. Joe says take her to a restaurant with the music and the
food she enjoys, and talk about things she is interested in. If Joe is
right how might classical conditioning explain it?
Since Mildred saw Hitchcock s Psycho She won t use the shower.
Andy becomes afraid when there are male Arabic passengers on his plane
flight.
Jane and Kristin played together on the volleyball team that won a
national championship. Now when they see each other they can t help
giving each other high fives and giggling.
Joe totaled his car at the intersection of sunrise Drive and the Gustavus
exit. Now when he approaches that intersection his stomach tightens.
George recently lost his father with whom he often played golf. Since his
death he has lost interest in the game.
CS
Gary
à
Gary à
UCS
à
Music, Rest., etc
UCR
Enjoyment
Enjoyment
Unfortunately Sarah gets sick on the cheese cake and now every time she
sees Gary she wants to barf. Explain how that happened.
Higher Order Conditioning
First order
Needle(CS) Drug(UCS) Vomiting(UCR)
Needle(CS) Vomiting(CR)
Second order
Alcohol(CS) Needle(CS) Vomiting(CR)
Alcohol(CS) Vomiting (CR)
Third order
Room(CS) Alcohol(CS) Needle(CS) Vomiting(CR)
Room(CS) Vomiting(CR)
Note: In Higher Order Conditioning the CS is able to function as a
reinforcer (UCS).
Acquisition-Extinction-Spontaneous Recovery
Pavlov s Beliefs
Pavlov was a strong believer in associationism
and thought that the CS becomes a substitute
for UCS. This happened because the two
stimuli occur close together in time
(contiguity).
How is the bell a substitute for food?
Believed conditioning process responsible for
complex behavior as well as simple.
Excitation and Inhibition.
CS and UCS Interval and Conditioning
CS
Forward Delayed—Strong Conditioning
UCS
Forward Trace—Weak if any Conditioning
CS
UCS
Simultaneous—Weak if any Conditioning
•  Pavlov's schizophrenic and masochistic dogs
CS
UCS
CS
Backward—CS Inhibitory
UCS
Problems with Associationism
Conditioned Taste Aversion
Behaviorists believed that associations between events were
unrestrained. Any stimulus event could be associated with
any other stimulus event, and that associations took
numerous trials for the connection to be established. In the
60s it became obvious that his was not the case.
If a flavor is followed by an illness experience, animals will
avoid the flavor in the future. Conditioned taste aversion gave
the behaviorist fits. Occurred in one trial over a very long
interval.
•  Learned taste aversions
•  The association of particular stimuli with rewards and punishers.
CS
Taste
à
CS
à
Flavor
UCS à
Toxic event
CR
Nausea
UCR
Nausea
Preparedness or Belongingness. Not all stimuli
equally likely to be associated with UCS.
Explains basis for many phobias
CS
Light
Sound
Saccharin
Taste
Group with Shock
Shock UCS (Pain)
Avoidance
Avoidance
No
Avoidance
Group with X-Ray
X-Ray UCS (Nausea)
No
Avoidance
No
Avoidance
Avoidance
Thorndike s Puzzle box
Operant Conditioning
Edward Thorndike and his puzzle box for cats. Cats showed no
insight but engaged in trial and error learning controlled by
reinforcement.
•  Stimulus -> Response -> Reinforcement
•  box
paddle
release
•  Stimulus
•  Dinner
Response
Tell a joke
Reinforcement Effect
Friends laugh Tell another
Law of Effect:
•  The consequences of a response determine the tendency to repeat the
response.
–  Positive consequences increase the tendency to repeat the response.
–  Negative consequences decrease tendency to repeat the response.
•  No need to assume intellectual processes.
Classical and Operant Conditioning
Classical conditioning
•  Involves ELICITED behavior.
•  The reinforcement is not determined by the subject. UCS
automatically causes behavior to occur.
Operant conditioning
•  Involves EMITTED behavior.
•  Reinforcement depends on the behavior of the subject. Specific
voluntary behaviors leads to rewards.
Operant Conditioning
BF Skinner and Skinner Box
•  Greater control over reinforcement and the environment
•  Automatic recording
•  Operant Conditioning obeyed same principles of acquisition,
extinction, spontaneous recovery, and discrimination and
generalization.
OC Focus on Reinforcement
Skinner s definition of reinforcement:
•  Any stimulus or event that increases the likelihood of the behavior
that led to it
•  Problem with the law of effect. Some stimuli can be both punishers
and reinforcers, eg., parental attention.
Reinforcement Principles
•  Large reinforcements work better than small, but many
reinforcements produce better learning.
•  Timing of reinforcement very important (New York Blackout).
–  S-R-S-R-S-R-S-R
When Reinforcement Becomes Non-Contingent
Kinds of Reinforcers
Primary Reinforcer
•  Stimulus satisfies basic biological need e.g., food, water, escape
from shock.
Secondary Reinforcer
•  Stimulus has no reward value of its own but acquires it from being
associated with a primary reinforcer e.g., money, grades and
awards, social (good boy)
•  Secondary Reinforcer is basically a CS in a Classical Conditioning
paradigm.
–  Common method of training is to use magazine click to train
rats.
CS(click) à UCS(food) à UCR(Pleasure)
CS(click) à CR(Pleasure)
The Overjustification Effect
Intrinsic rewards-those things you do because they re
personally satisfying, reading the sports section in the
morning
Extrinsic rewards-those things you do because you receive
external rewards for completing them, work-study in the
marketplace
What would happen to those things you enjoy doing if you
received an external reward?
Shaping with Secondary Reinforcers
Shaping.
•  Gradually shifting reinforcement toward response you desire.
•  R(Acceptable response) à Reinforcement(CS click)
How would you shape your professor?
Skinner s Recording of Responses
• Fixed Ratio
The Partial Reinforcement Effect
• Variable Ratio • Fixed Interval • Variable Interval
– Reinforcement– after
Reinforcement
X number – 
after
ofReinforcement
random number
– 
after
Reinforcement
fixed time after random time
responses
of responses, with
interval,
mean of
XX
interval, with mean time equal to X
Continuous Reinforcement
•  Subject reinforced every time it makes the correct response
Partial or Intermittent Reinforcement
•  Subject not reinforced every time it makes the correct response
PRE
•  Very high response rates
•  Very resistant to extinction (pre)
•  Response rate less dependent on subject s motivation
Categorize the following:
Reinforcers and Punishers
Finding
Winning
Working
Hitting
Getting
Exams.
money
on
on
a mail
home
acommission
slot
on run
the
machine
sidewalk
Reinforcers
All Reinforcers increase likelihood of the response
All Punishers decrease likelihood of the response
Two types of reinforcement
•  Positive Reinforcement - Something positive added to encourage
a response.
–  Child is playing nicely with friend and his dad tells him I like
that.
•  Negative Reinforcement (Escape or Avoidance learning)
Something aversive removed to encourage a response.
–  Child is yelled at by his parents until he plays nicely
Which technique would be more effective for the parent?
Punishers
Types of Punishers
•  Punishment (Passive Avoidance Learning)- Something aversive
added to suppress a response.
–  Child is mean to his sibling and mother spanks him
•  Negative Punishment Time-Out (Omission training)Something positive removed to suppress response
–  Child is mean to his sibling and his mother takes him out of
the playroom and requires to sit in a corner for 5 minutes.
Negative reinforcement vs. Punishment
Negative Reinforcement vs. Punishment
Punishment
Is Punishment Effective?
•  Most people who speed are not put off by the threat of a
speeding ticket and fine. Why?
•  Punishment depends on fear elicitation. However, each time you
transgress without getting caught is like an extinction trial.
Becomes weaker and weaker.
•  You have a friend who smokes? Should you try to scare
her into stopping? Will it last?
Reinforcement or Punishment?
Punishment, Neg. Reinforcement, Pos. Reinforcement, or Time-out?
•  Your brother locks you in your room and plays the Barney theme song until
you tell him what Mom and Dad are giving him for his birthday.
•  You win a $1,000.00 scholarship for your high GPA.
•  You don’t go into your friend’s apartment because her smoking gives you a
headache.
•  Your SO gives you a hug when you tell them they look great.
•  You don’t tell sexist jokes in mixed company because your friends quit
talking to you when you do.
•  You put on your sunglasses because the bright sun is making your eyes hurt.
•  You get an A on the psych exam? An F?