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Learning
What does Learning mean?

Learning is any relatively permanent
change in behavior brought about by
experience or practice
 **
Different from maturation that is controlled
by genes
 “relatively permanent” means that some
part of the brain is physically changed to
record learning: process of memory
Applying Learning

If you were designing the ideal slot
machine, how could you apply the
principles of learning to ensure that people
play the machine over and over again
despite winning very little money? How
does your ideal slot machine compare to
state lotteries or mail contests?
Applying Learning

Think of cases in your own life when punishment
worked effectively and other cases when it did
not. What were the differences between the two
situations? Why did it work in some cases but
not in others? How do your own experiences
compare to the discussion in the text on the
circumstances under which aversive control is
likely to be most effective? Can you add new
conditions to those listed in the text?
Classical Conditioning

1st studied by Ivan Pavlov
digestive system in dogs – salivation
when eating
 Studying
Reflex – involuntary response - salivation
 Stimulus causes a Response – Food causes
Salivation

 Change
in Study: Dogs began to salivate
before food was given – this began the study
of classical conditioning
Classical Conditioning

Def. learning to make a reflex response
to a stimulus other than the original,
natural stimulus that normally
produces the reflex
 Pavlov
accidentally discovered that one
stimulus can, through pairing with another
stimulus, come to produce a similar response
Elements of
Classical Conditioning
Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) – a
naturally occurring stimulus that leads to
an involuntary Unconditioned Response
 Unconditioned Response (UCR) –
involuntary response to a naturally
occurring or Unconditioned Stimulus

 Both
are not learned
Elements of
Classical Conditioning
Neutral Stimulus (NS) – stimulus that has
no effect on the desired response
 Conditioned Stimulus (CS) – stimulus
that becomes able to produce a learned
response by being paired with the original
Unconditioned Stimulus
 Conditioned Response (CR) – learned
response to a Conditioned Stimulus

How Does It Work?

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1) Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) elicits the
Unconditioned Response (UCR)
2) Neutral Stimulus (NS) is introduced by itself &
does not elicit the desired response
3) Neutral Stimulus (NS) is paired with the
Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)
4) Neutral Stimulus (NS) is presented on its own,
thus becoming the Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
5) Conditioned Stimulus (CS) elicits/causes the
Conditioned Response (CR)
Putting It All Together

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Major Understanding – neutral stimulus & UCS
must be paired several times & the CS must
precede the UCS by only a few seconds (no
more than 5)
Stimulus Generalization – stimuli similar to
UCS will evoke CR but to a lesser degree
Stimulus Discrimination – presentation of
stimulus similar to CS without UCS leads to this
stimulus not producing a CR
 “Fake”
stimulus allows subject to discriminate against
real stimulus (CS)
Putting It All Together

Extinction – weakening & eventual
disappearance of the CR following the
removal of UCS
 Response
“dies out” but it doesn’t have to be
permanent***

Spontaneous Recovery – reappearance
of CR after extinction
 Usually
weak & short-lived
Higher-Order Conditioning

Occurs when a strong CS is paired with a
neutral stimulus, causing the neutral
stimulus to become a 2nd conditioned
stimulus
 Without
UCS, higher-order conditioning can
be difficult to maintain
Conditioned Emotional
Responses

Watson & “Little Albert” – demonstrated
that an emotional disorder called a phobia
could be learned through classical
conditioning – Conditioned Emotional
Response (CER)
 Exposed
a baby to a white rat (UCS) & a
loud noise (CS), producing conditioned fear
(CR) of the rat
 Vicarious Conditioning – classical
conditioning of a reflex response/emotion by
watching the reaction of another person
Other Conditioned Responses
Taste Aversions – occur when an
organism becomes nauseated after eating
a certain food – becomes aversive to the
organism
 Biological Preparedness – conditioned
responses that are more easily learned,
cause humans to associate certain stimuli
with danger to survival

 Survival
Mechanism
Why Does Classical
Conditioning Work?

Stimulus Substitution – CS becomes a
substitute for the UCS by being paired close
together in time
 CS

must predict that the UCS is coming
Cognitive Perspective – CS has to provide
some kind of information or expectancy about
the UCS in order for conditioning to occur
 Presenting
the CS after the UCS does not result in
conditioning
Operant Conditioning

Def. Learning of voluntary behavior
through the effects of pleasant or
unpleasant consequences to
responses
 Law
of Effect: a response followed by a
pleasurable consequence will tend to be
repeated, but vice versa for an unpleasant
consequence: Thorndike’s Puzzle Box
B.F. Skinner – Behaviorist

Creator of Operant Conditioning –
believed voluntary responses are what we
use to operate on the world around us
 Focused
on the effects of consequences on
behavior
 Learning depends on what happens after the
response
 2 main components: Reinforcement &
Punishment
Reinforcement

Def. Process of strengthening a
response by following it with
pleasurable, rewarding consequence
 “What’s
in it for me” – the reason we learn
 Skinner’s Box – rats learned to press down
on a bar to get food; bar = reinforcement
Reinforcement

Primary Reinforcer – satisfy a basic
natural drive (food, water)
 Used
more easily for infants, toddlers, preschoolers, & animals

Secondary Reinforcer – something that
becomes reinforcing only after being
paired with a primary reinforcer
 comes
from the process of classical
conditioning
Reinforcement

Positive Reinforcement – response
followed by the presentation of a
pleasurable stimulus
 Something

valued or desirable; added
Negative Reinforcement – response
followed by the removal/avoidance of an
unpleasant stimulus
 Something
unpleasant; removed/avoided
Reinforcement
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1) Cole’s father nags him to wash the family car.
Cole hates being nagged, so he washes the car
so his father will stop nagging him.
2) Tucker learns that talking in a funny voice get
him a lot of attention from his classmates, so
now he talks that way often.
3) Jana is a server at a restaurant & always tries
to smile & be pleasant because that seems to
lead to bigger tips.
4) Felicity turns her report in to her teacher on
the day it is due b/c papers get marked down a
letter grade for every day they are late.
Punishment

Def. any event or stimulus, which when
following a response, makes that
response less likely to happen again
 Punishment
weakens responses,
Reinforcement strengthens responses
Punishment
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Punishment by Application – response
is followed by the experiencing
(application) of an unpleasant stimulus
 Adding

to the situation
Punishment by Removal – response
followed by the removal of some
pleasurable stimulus
 Removing
something valued/desirable
 More accepted in child development