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Chapter Ten
The Learning Perspective
Classical Conditioning
• Pavlovian Conditioning
• Response acquired by associating one stimulus
with another
• Basic Elements:
Stage 1 (existing reflex)
US
UR
Stage 2 (pairing of stimuli)
US
UR
US
UR
CS
Stage 3 (development of
CR)
Stage 4 (completed
conditioning)
CS
CR
CS
CR
Issues Affecting
Classical Conditioning
• Conditioned response (CR) is generally
less intense than the unconditioned
response (UR)
• The greater the frequency of CS–US
pairings, the more likely conditioning will
take place
• If US is very strong, conditioning will take
place rapidly
Additional Issues in
Classical Conditioning
• Discrimination—differential responding
between classes of stimuli
• Generalization—experience of a less
intense CR to classes of stimuli similar to
CS
• Extinction—gradual weakening of CR in
response to presentation of CS without US
Emotional Conditioning
• Situations of classical conditioning in
which the conditioned response (CR) is an
emotional reaction
– Gives rise to likes and dislikes, preferences
and biases
• Associations of neutral stimuli with events that
reflexively cause good or bad feelings
Instrumental Conditioning
• Also known as operant conditioning
• Process whereby behavior that is followed
by a “positive state of affairs” is more likely
to be done again in a similar situation
– Links an action, an outcome, and the
likelihood of future action
– Recognizes contingency between response
and its consequences
– “Law of effect” as described by Thorndike
Reinforcement and Punishment
• Reinforcer = “positive state of affairs” that increase
(strengthen) the likelihood of a response
– Primary reinforcer—diminishes biological needs
– Secondary reinforcer—associated (through classical
conditioning) with primary reinforcer
– Positive reinforcement—receipt of something positive
– Negative reinforcement—removal of something negative
• Punishment—Negative or aversive outcome that
decreases the tendency of behavior that preceded it
– NOT THE SAME AS NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT
– Receipt of something negative
– Removal of something positive (time out from positive
reinforcement)
Additional Issues in
Instrumental Conditioning
• Discriminative stimulus—a stimulus that is
present when a behavior is followed by a
reinforcer
– Stimulus acts as a switch to turn behavior on and off
(cue function)
– Important in personality because it provides a
mechanism for behavioral complexity
• Generalization—responding in a similar way to
classes of similar discriminative stimuli
– Give continuity to behavior
– Provides a basis for explaining traits
• Extinction—gradual weakening of response from
lack of reinforcer
Schedules of Reinforcement
•
Continuous—behavior always followed by
reinforcement
•
Partial—behavior followed by reinforcement less
than every time
•
More resistant to extinction—partial reinforcement effect
Social Reinforcement
• Less focus on physical needs in the
reinforcement of human behavior, but rather on
the effects of smiles, hugs, praise, approval,
love, and interest and attention of others
• People are most affected by social
reinforcement
• Social reinforcers don’t require a state of
deprivation
• Invoke principles of self-reinforcement
– Self-reward of desired things
– Reaction to own behavior with self-approval
Vicarious Emotional Learning
• Also called empathy
• Experience of emotion from watching
another, experience an intense level of the
same emotion
• Is not the same as sympathy—concern or
distress at the suffering of another
• Creates opportunities for learning through
vicarious reinforcement
Vicarious Reinforcement
• Seeing a person reinforced for a behavior
increases your tendency to do a similar behavior
• Seeing a person punished for a behavior
decreases your tendency to do a similar
behavior
• Permits trial and error processes that:
– Preserve self-esteem
– Allow focus on “learning,” rather than the details of
“behaving”
• Relies on development of expectancies between
behavior and outcomes
Expectancies Concerning
Outcomes
• Outcome expectancy—evaluation of whether a
behavior will lead to a desired outcome
• Behavior determined by:
– Expectancy
– Incentive—value of desired outcome (goal)
• Difference from traditional conditioning point of
view:
– Traditional perspective doesn’t assume expectancies
matter or have causal influence on behavior
Efficacy Expectancies
• Albert Bandura
• Perceived ability to carry out a desired action
• Also known as self-efficacy
• Assumption: It’s not enough to know what needs
to be done, one must be confident in ability to do
it
Observational Learning
• Acquisition of ability by watching the behavior of
another (model)
• Requirements
– Attention—particularly to the correct aspects of the
model’s behavior
– Retention—representations in memory
• Imaginal coding—creating images and mental pictures
• Verbal coding—creating a description
– Production Competency—possession of skills
required to carry out behavior
• Influenced by prior skills and knowledge
Acquisition vs. Performance
• People don’t always do everything they
learn through observation
• Issue: What factors influence
performance?
– Observed rewards increase probability of
performance
– Observed punishment decreases probability
of performance
Modeling Aggression
• Observational learning—may provide
examples of innovative aggressive
techniques
• Vicarious reinforcement—may suggest that
violence is an appropriate way to deal with
conflict or disagreement
• Desensitization—extinguishing of negative
emotional responses to aggression and
violence
Assessment (Conditioning-Based
Approach)
• Emphasis on
– Behaviors, rather than cognitions
– Emotional responses being linked to
conditioned stimuli and thus are tied to
specific contexts
– Direct observation of behavior
• Physiological assessment—measures physical
aspects of emotional responses (used frequently in
research settings)
• Behavioral assessment—observations of overt
behavior
Assessment (Social-Cognitive
Approaches)
• Emphasizes use of self-reports
• Focus on subjective feelings, thoughts and
expectancies, rather than objective aspect
of situation
• Particular interest in responses to specific
categories of situations
– Guided by recognition that behavior can vary
greatly from situation to situation
Problems in Behavior
(Conditioning)
• Phobias—intense irrational fears
• Behavioral tendencies that are
instrumentally conditioned, but are not
functional or adaptive
Behavioral Therapy
• Phobias
– Extinction—avoiding phobic stimulus prevents
extinction
– Systematic desensitization—a form of
counterconditioning involving gradual exposure to
increasingly threatening stimuli paired with relaxation
techniques
• Contingency Management
– Alter reinforcement contingencies
Problems in Behavior (Social
Cognitive)
• Problems arise from inappropriate
emotional or behavioral tendencies from
vicarious or direct learning
• Negative expectancies can have broad
influence on behavior, particularly when
generalized
• Skill deficits can reflect incomplete
observational learning or inappropriate
models
Therapy (Socal Cognitive)
• Importance of modeling
– Therapeutic modeling for persons with skills
deficits
– Treatment of persons with phobias and fears
• Mastery model expresses no fear of feared object
• Coping model expresses initial fear, but over
comes it
– Important role of self-efficacy in producing
positive treatment outcomes