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LEARNING
MEYERS AND DEWALL
CHAPTER 6
LEARNING OVERVIEW
 HOW DO WE LEARN?
 CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
 OPERANT CONDITIONING
 BIOLOGY, COGNITION, AND LEARNING
 LEARNING BY OBSERVATION
LEARNING
 Learning – the process of acquiring new information or behaviors through experience
 Associative Learning - Our brain’s tendency to automatically notice and connect sequential
or co-occurring events
 Habits can be acquired behaviors linked to a specific context
 Conditioning – process by which we learn associations
ASSOCIATIVE LEARNING – CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
 Classical Conditioning (Pavlovian) – learning to associate two or more stimuli
 Dr. Ivan Pavlov developed classical conditioning when dogs in his research would drool
before they were given food
 Unconditioned Stimulus (US) – a stimulus that automatically triggers a response
 Unconditioned Response (UR) – an automatic unlearned reflexive response to a US
ASSOCIATIVE LEARNING – CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
 Acquisition Stage – repeatedly pair the US with a neutral stimulus (NS)
 Conditioned Stimulus (CS) – a previously neutral stimulus that becomes associated with US
 Conditioned Response (CR) – a LEARNED response to a conditioned stimulus
 Classical conditioning helps animals learn skills to survive and reproduce
ASSOCIATIVE LEARNING – CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
ASSOCIATIVE LEARNING – CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
 Extinction – weakening of conditioned response (CR) when unconditioned stimulus (US)
doesn’t follow the conditioned Stimulus (CS)
 Stimulus Generalization – expressing a conditioned response when presented with a similar
CS
 Stimulus Discrimination – learning to distinguish between similar condition stimuli
ASSOCIATIVE LEARNING – CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
 Pavlov discovered that almost all animals can be classically conditioned and how to study it
objectively
 Classical Conditioning in Everyday Life?
 John B. Watson’s Little Albert study
ASSOCIATIVE LEARNING – OPERANT CONDITIONING
 E.L. Thorndike’s Law of Effect – a behavior followed by a reward is likely to be repeated
 Classical conditioning involves automatic behaviors, operant conditioning involves behaviors you control
 B.F. Skinner used Thorndike’s law to teach animals skills
 Operant Conditioning – learning that occurs when we associate favorable or unfavorable
consequences with our actions
 Operant Chamber (Skinner Box) – a box with a mechanism that provides food/water when
pressed
ASSOCIATIVE LEARNING – OPERANT CONDITIONING
 How to INCREASE a behavior
 Reinforcer – any event that increases/strengthens a preceding response
 Shaping – gradually reinforcing behaviors that are close to the desired response “successive
approximations”
 Shaping can be used in our everyday interactions
ASSOCIATIVE LEARNING – OPERANT CONDITIONING
 Types of Reinforcers
 Positive Reinforcement – increasing/strengthening a behavior by PRESENTING a positive stimuli
 Negative Reinforcement – increasing/strengthening a behavior by REMOVING a negative stimuli
 Primary Reinforcers satisfy basic needs, secondary reinforcers are associated with primary
reinforcers
 Humans respond to both immediate and delayed reinforcers
ASSOCIATIVE LEARNING – OPERANT CONDITIONING
 Reinforcement Schedules – the frequency/timing of reinforcement can affect behavior
 Continuous Reinforcement – a behavior is reinforces after every desired response
ASSOCIATIVE LEARNING – OPERANT CONDITIONING
 Partial/Intermittent Reinforcement – responses are sometimes reinforced based on rate or timing
 Fixed Ratio Schedule – behavior is reinforced after a set number of responses
 Variable-Ratio Schedule – behavior is reinforced after a random/unpredictable number of
responses
 Fixed-Interval Schedule – behavior is reinforced only after a set time period/interval
 Variable-Interval Schedule – behavior is reinforced after a random/unpredictable period/interval
ASSOCIATIVE LEARNING – OPERANT CONDITIONING
ASSOCIATIVE LEARNING – OPERANT
CONDITIONING
 How to DECREASE a Behavior?
 Punishment – any consequence that WEAKENS/DECREASES the frequency of a response
 Positive Punishment – an undesired stimulus/event that occurs following a behavior
 Negative Punishment – removing a desired stimulus/event following a behavior
 Physical Punishment – models aggression as a tool, teaches fear, and only suppresses the
response in certain situations
 Conditioning QUIZ
BIOLOGY, COGNITION, AND LEARNING
 Behaviorism – Skinner and Watson felt that psychology should be limited only to observable
behaviors, not mental processes
 What Did They Miss?
 Biological Predispositions – organisms are better able to learn responses that help them
survive and reproduce
 Cognitive Factors – our thoughts, beliefs, and expectations influence learning
 Latent Learning – acquiring knowledge without awareness
 Overjustification - rewarding people for doing things they enjoy decreases intrinsic motion
BIOLOGY, COGNITION, AND LEARNING
 Observational Learning (Albert Bandura) – learning by observing the behaviors of others and
its consequences
 Modeling – process of imitating an observed response
 Mirror Neurons – neurons that activate when we engage in behaviors or observe other engaging in
behaviors