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Learning and Memory
What is Learning?
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A relatively permanent change in behavior
caused by experience
What is Classical Conditioning?
Type of learning where a stimulus gains the power
to cause a response
 The stimulus predicts another stimulus that already
produces that response
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In other words…learning by association
What are stimulus & responses?
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Stimulus - anything in the environment that
one can respond to
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Response – any behavior or action
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Pavlov & a dog anyone?????
Classical Conditioning
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Ivan Pavlov
Russia
What is learning?
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Classical Conditioning: A
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learning process in which
associations are made between a
natural stimulus and a neutral
stimulus.
Pavlov’s doggy . . . Again . . .
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Classical Conditioning
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Pavlov began his experiments by
ringing a tuning fork and then
immediately placing some meat
powder on the dogs tongue. He
chose the tuning fork because it
was a neutral stimulus.
Neutral Stimulus: A stimulus
that does not initially elicit any
part of the unconditioned
response.
Classical Conditioning
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Well, after a few times the dog begins to
salivate by merely hearing the sound,
even if there was no food within it’s sight.
Pavlov demonstrated that a neutral
stimulus (here, the tuning fork) can cause
a formerly unrelated response.
This occurs if it is presented regularly just
before the stimulus (here, the food) that
normally brings about a response (here,
salivation.)
Classical Conditioning
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According to Pavlov, every human or animal has
a set of unconditional or involuntary responses.
Such responses include blushing, shivering,
being startled, and salivating.
In this experiment, food was the unconditional
stimulus.
Unconditional Stimulus (UCS): An event
that elicits a certain predictable response
typically without previous training.
Classical Conditioning
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A few other important things:
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Unconditioned Response (UCR): An
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organism’s automatic (or neutral) reaction to the
Unconditioned stimulus. (Example = salivation).
Under normal conditions, the sound of a tuning
fork would not cause salivation. The dog had to
be taught, or conditioned to associate this sound
with food.
An ordinarily neutral event that, after training,
leads to a response such as salivation is termed a
conditioned stimulus.
Classical Conditioning
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Conditioned Stimulus (CS): A once-neutral
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event that, through learning, elicits a given
response after a period of training in which it
has been paired with an unconditioned stimulus.
The salivation that is caused by the tuning fork
is called a conditioned response.
Conditioned Response (CR): The learned
reaction to a conditioned stimulus.
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Usually same behaviors as the UCR
Acquisition
Process of developing a learned
response
 The subject learns a new response (CR)
to a previously neutral stimulus (CS)
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Acquisition
Classical Conditioning
Extinction and Spontaneous
Recovery
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A classically conditioned response,
like any other behavior, is subject to
change.
Pavlov discovered that if he
stopped presenting food after the
sound of the tuning fork, the sound
gradually lost its effect on the dog.
After he repeatedly struck the
tuning fork without giving food, the
dog no longer associated the sound
with the arrival of food – the sound
of the tuning fork no longer caused
the salivation response.
Extinction and Spontaneous Recovery
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Pavlov called this effect extinction!
Extinction: The gradual disappearance of a
conditioned response when the conditioned stimulus is
repeatedly presented without the unconditioned
stimulus.
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Yet, even though the conditioned response has been
extinguished, it does not mean that the CR has been
completely unlearned.
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Spontaneous Recovery:
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The return of an extinguished classically conditioned
response after a rest period
Spontaneous Recovery
Generalization and Discrimination
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In the same set of experiments, Pavlov also
studied the process of generalization and
discrimination.
Generalization: Responding similarly to a
range of similar stimuli.
Example: When Pavlov attempted to train the
dog to salivate at the sight of a circle…it worked
after multiple trials!
The dog had generalized it’s response to include
a similar stimulus.
Generalization and Discrimination
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Pavlov was later able to do the opposite,
teaching the dog to respond only to the circle by
always pairing meat powder with the circle but
never pairing it with a different object like an
oval.
In doing this, he taught his dog discrimination.
Discrimination: The ability to respond
differently to similar but distinct stimuli.
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The subject learns that one stimuli predicts the
UCS and the other does not.
Behaviorism
View that psychology should restrict its
efforts to studying observable behaviors, not
mental processes
 Founded by John Watson
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Little Albert
11-month-old infant
 Watson and Rosalie Rayner, conditioned
Albert to be frightened of white rats
 Led to questions about experimental ethics
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Little Albert – Before
Conditioning
Little Albert – During
Conditioning
Little Albert – After
Conditioning
Little Albert - Generalization
Operant Conditioning
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Ok, so, suppose you have a dinosaur! Yes a
dinosaur!
Your dinosaur is wandering around the
neighborhood, sniffing trees, checking garbage
cans, and looking for a squirrel to chase.
A kind neighbor sees the dinosaur and tosses a
bone out of the kitchen door to it.
The next day the dinosaur is likely to stop at the
same door on it’s rounds. Once again your
neighbor produces another bone, so the dinosaur
becomes a regular visitor!
Why?
Operant Conditioning
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Well I’ll tell ya why! Hold your horses!
Well, ummm, see, there’s this, well,
ummm, thing called, like, operant
conditioning.
Operant Conditioning: Learning in
which a certain action is reinforced or
punished, resulting in corresponding
increases and decreases in occurrence.
Operant = operates due to a change
Reinforcement
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Reinforcement: Stimulus or event follows a
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response and increases the likelihood that the
response will be repeated.
Examples of reinforcers:
Social Approval
 Money
 Extra privilages
 Giving a dog a treat when it shakes your hand.
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Primary and Secondary Reinforcer’s
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Primary Reinforcer:
Stimulus that is naturally
rewarding, such as food
or water.
Secondary Reinforcer:
Stimulus such as money
that becomes rewarding
through its link with a
primary reinforcer.
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Something you have
learned to value!!! (money,
grades, etc)
Schedules of Reinforcement
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Fixed-Ratio Schedule: A pattern of reinforcement in
which a specific number of correct responses is
required before reinforcement can be obtained.
Variable-Ratio Schedule: A pattern of reinforcement in
which an unpredictable number of responses are
required before reinforcement can be obtained.
Fixed-Interval Schedule: A pattern of reinforcement in
which a specific amount of time must elapse before a
response will elicit reinforcement.
Variable-Interval Schedule: A pattern of reinforcement
in which changing amounts of time must elapse before
a response will obtain reinforcement.
Shaping and Chaining
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What is Shaping?
Shaping: A technique in which the
desired behavior is “molded” by first
rewarding any act similar to that
behavior and then requiring evercloser approximations to the desired
behavior before giving the reward.
In other words, positive reinforcement is
used to “sculpt” new responses out of the
old, possibly negative, ones.
Shaping and Chaining
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Response Chain:
Learned Reactions that
follow one another in
sequence, each reaction
producing the signal for
the next.
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Examples: Swimming,
Basketball, Lacrosse,
Baseball, Hockey,
Football, etc.
One Example of a Response Chain
Punishment
(Aversive Control)
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Punishment (Aversive
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Control): Process of
Influencing behavior by
means of some form of
“unpleasant” stimuli!
Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!
Funny Fishies!
Negative Reinforcement
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In the concept of negative reinforcement, a
painful or unpleasant stimulus is removed. The
removal of unpleasant consequences increases
the frequency of a behavior.
Negative Reinforcement: Increasing the
strength of a given response by removing or
preventing a painful stimulus when the response
occurs.
Cognitive Learning
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Cognitive Learning focuses on how information
is obtained, processed, and organized. Such
learning is concerned with the mental process
involved in learning. Latent Learning and
Learned Helplessness are examples of cognitive
learning.
Cognitive Learning: Form of altering
behavior that involves mental processes and may
result from observation or imitation.
Cognitive Learning
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Examples:
1. Latent Learning. Latent learning is not
demonstrated by an immediately observable change
in behavior at the time of the learning. Although
the learning typically occurs in the absence of a
reinforcer, it may not be demonstrated until the
reinforcer appears.
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Example: Have you ever had to locate a building or a street in
a section of Chicago, or Crystal Lake that you are unfamiliar
with? You may have been through that section of town before
and remember details such as an unusual sign or building.
Remembering these details may have helped you find the
building or street you were looking for. In other words, you
learned some details you were not intending to.
Cognitive Learning
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Examples:
2. Learned Helplessness. Learned
helplessness is a condition in which repeated
attempts to control a situation fail, resulting in
the belief that the situation is uncontrollable.
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Example: You do poorly on a math test the first
time you try and decide it was because you had not
studied enough. The next test, you do poorly again
and decide it was because you did not feel well. On
the third test, you once again score poorly…You
give up and decide that you “are just dumb,” giving
up on math.
Modeling and Behavior Modification
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Modeling!
Wait….No…The other kind of
modeling!
Modeling: Learning by imitating
others; copying behavior!
This is how the majority of people
learn how to act in new situations
(sports, concerts, etc.)
Modeling and Behavior Modification
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The term “behavior modification” often appears
in magazine articles describing research on
changing people’s behavior through drugs,
“mind control,” or even brain surgery.
In fact, it is none of these things.
Behavior Modification: Refers to the
systematic application of learning principles to
change people’s actions and feelings.
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Example: Giving your little brother a quarter to go
away! (also which type of reinforcement???)