Download Conditioning and Learning

CONDITIONING AND LEARNING

Learning- it is a relatively permanent change in
behavior due to experience, excluding motivation,
fatigue, maturation, disease, injury or drugs
A. TYPES OF LEARNING
- Associative Learning – occurs whenever a person
or an animal forms a simple association among
various stimuli and / or responses.
 - Cognitive Learning – understanding knowing,
anticipating, or otherwise making use of
information-rich mental processes

1. ASSOCIATIVE LEARNING
reinforcement is key – any event that increases the
probability that a response will occur again.
 a. events that precede a response are antecedents
 b. events that follow a response are consequences

c. classical conditioning – an antecedent stimulus
that doesn’t produce a response is linked with one
that does
 d. operant conditioning - learning is based on the
consequences of responding
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I. CLASSICAL CONDITIONING – IVAN PAVLOV
A. Pavlov’s Experiment: bell, meat powder,
salivation
 1. the bell began as a neutral stimulus (NS)
 becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS) because of
learning will create a response.
 2. meat powder (which causes salivation) is an
unconditioned (unlearned) stimulus (US)
 when done several times the dogs began to salivate
when they heard the bell
 the bell, which had no effect, began to create the
same response that food did

3. salivating is an innate reflex, so it is an
unconditioned response (UR)
 4. when the bell produced salivation, the dog was
making a new response, thus salivation became a
conditioned (learned) response (CR)
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II. PRINCIPLES OF CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
A. Acquisition (training) a conditioned response
must be reinforced (strengthened)
 B. Higher Order Conditioning
 1. a well-learned CS is used to reinforce further
learning
 2. the CS has become strong enough to be used like
an unconditioned stimulus

C. Expectancies
 1. during conditioning, the brain learns to expect
that the US (reflex) will follow the CS (learned
response). As a result, the brain prepares the body
to response to the US (reflex)
 D. Extinction and Spontaneous Recovery
 1. Conditioning can be weakened by removing
reinforcement, leading to extinction
 2. the reappearance of a response following
apparent extinction is spontaneous recovery

E. GENERALIZATION
1. Other stimuli similar to CS may trigger a
response – stimulus generalization
 F. Discrimination
 1. The ability to respond differently to various
stimuli
 many children learn to discriminate voice tones
associated with pain from those associated with
praise or affection.

III. CLASSICAL CONDITIONING IN HUMANS
A. Conditioned Emotional Response – gut
responses
 many involuntary, autonomic nervous system
responses (fight or flight reflexes ) are linked with
new stimuli and situations by classical conditioning

B. LEARNED FEARS
1. some phobias begin as conditioned emotional
responses – learned emotional reaction to a
previously neutral stimulus.
 phobias are fears that persists even when no
realistic danger exists.
 2. stimulus generalization and higher order
conditioning can spread CERs to other stimuli;
what began as a limited fear may become a
disabling phobia

3. the amygdala is responsible for emotions and is
not effected by cognitive learning – you can’t read
about it to lose the fear.
 4. conditioned fears do respond to a therapy called
desensitization – gradually exposing the phobic
person to feared stimuli while he/she remains calm
or relaxed

C. VICARIOUS (SECONDHAND)
CONDITIONING
1. when we learn to respond emotionally to a
stimulus by observing another person’s emotional
reaction
 conditioning can occur indirectly
 2. Vicarious classical conditioning – when we learn
to respond emotionally by observing another
person’s emotional reactions
 the emotional attitudes we develop toward foods,
political parties, ethnic groups, escalators, etc. are
probably conditioned not only by direct
experiences, but vicariously as well.

V. OPERANT CONDITIONING
we associate responses with their consequences
 1. acts that are reinforced then to be repeated – the
law of effect (the probability of a response is altered
by the effect it has) – learning is strengthened each
time a response is followed by a satisfying state of
affairs
 learning is based on the consequences of
responding (wearing certain clothes, telling jokes)

Classical Conditioning is passive
 In Operant conditioning, the learner actively
“operates” on the environment

A. POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT
Operant reinforcer– any event that follows a
response and increases its probability of occurring
again.
 what is reinforcing for one person may not be for
another.

B. ACQUIRING AN OPERANT RESPONSE
1. Information and contingency - like classical
conditioning, operant learning is based on
information and expectancies – we learn to expect
that a certain response will have a certain effect at
certain times
 2. a reinforcer works best when it is response
contingent - tells a person that a response was
“right” and worth repeating.
 3. Timing – is effective when it rapidly/immediately
follows a correct response

C. Shaping – the gradual molding of responses to a
desired pattern
 D. Operant Extinction – learned responses that are
not reinforced gradually will fade away.
 E. Negative Reinforcement – making a response
removes an unpleasant event
 negative reinforcement increases responding by
ending discomfort
 F. Punishment – following a response with an
unpleasant consequence. It decreases the likelihood
that the response will occur again

V. OPERANT REINFORCERS
1. Primary Reinforcers are natural, nonlearned, and
rooted in biology: they produce comfort, end
discomfort, or fill an immediate physical need:
food, water, sex
 2. Secondary reinforcers are learned: money,
praise, attention, approval, success, affection,
grades

a. token reinforcer – money, gold stars, poker chips
– tangible secondary reinforcers
 b. social reinforcers – learned desires for attention
and approval; influence human behavior

3. FEEDBACK – INFORMATION ABOUT THE
EFFECT A RESPONSE HAD
if you are trying to learn something, reinforcement
comes from knowing that you achieved a desired
result
 most effective when it is frequent, immediate, and
detailed

V. PARTIAL REINFORCEMENT

most of our responses are more inconsistently
rewarded. In daily life, learning is based on partial
reinforcement, in which reinforcers do not follow
every response.
VI. STIMULUS CONTROL – STIMULI THAT
CONSISTENTLY PRECEDE A REWARDED RESPONSE
TEND TO INFLUENCE WHEN AND WHERE THE
RESPONSE WILL OCCUR.
many of the stimuli we encounter each day act like
stop or go signals that guide our behavior
 A. Operant stimulus generalization – is the
tendency to respond to stimuli similar to those that
preceeded operant reinforcement; when similar
antecedents are present.

B. Discrimination – to respond differently to varied
stimuli; you learn to differentiate between
antecedent stimuli that signal reward and
nonreward
 this has a tremendous impact on human behavior.
Learning to recognize different automobile brands,
birds, animals, wines, music, etc. depends on
operant discrimination in learning.

IX. PUNISHMENT
a punisher is any consequence that reduces the
frequency of a target behavior.
 A. Vairables Affecting Punishment
 must be given contingently
 might reinforce bad behaviors; it can be either the
onset of an unpleasant event or the removal of a
positive state of affairs.

1. The effectiveness of punishers depends on their
timing, consistency, and intensity.
 2. severe punishement can be extremely effective in
stopping behavior
 mild punishment usually only temporarily
suppresses a response

B. THE DOWNSIDE OF PUNISHMENT
1. aversive – painful or uncomfortable; as a result,
people/ situations associated with punishment tend
to become feared, resented, or disliked (classical
conditioning)
 2. encourages escape and avoidance learning – we
learn to make a response in order to end an aversive
stimulus
 3. it increases aggression as a response to
frustration.

C. USING PUNISHMENT WISELY
1. Use the minimum punishment necessary to
suppress misbehavior
 2. Avoid harsh punishment such as spanking
 3. Don’t use punishment at all if you can discourage
misbehavior in other ways
 4. Apply punishment, during, or immediately after,
misbehavior, if not possible wait for the next
instance of misbehavior
 5. Be consistent
 6. Expect anger from a punished person
 7. Punish with kindness and respect
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