Download Learning and Conditioning

Learning and Conditioning
Learning …
• … is a relatively permanent change in
behaviour that occurs as the result of practice.
Three Types of Learning Styles
• Kinesthetic: They learn best by doing
something tactile to learn the concept.
• Auditory: Auditory learners learn best by
hearing the concept explained to them.
• Visual: These individuals learn by seeing the
material in a book or behaviors that are
shown to them.
Four Basic Kinds of Learning
•
•
•
•
Habituation
Classical conditioning
Operant conditioning
Complex learning
Behaviourist Perspective
Assumption 1: Simple associations of the
classical or operant kind are the building blocks
of all learning.
Assumption 2: The same basic laws of learning
operate regardless of what is being learnt or
who is doing the learning.
Classical Conditioning …
• … is a learning process in which a previously
neutral stimulus becomes associated with
another stimulus through repeated pairing
with that stimulus.
Pavlov’s Experiments
Extinction
• If the conditioned response is never paired
again with the neutral stimulus then the
conditioned response will fade and then
disappear.
• This process is called extinction.
Conditioned Fear
• Classical conditioning
plays a role in
emotional reactions like
fear.
• Irrational fears
(phobias) can be
eliminated using
therapeutic techniques
based on classicalconditioning principles.
The Little Albert Experiment
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hBfnXA
CsOI
Generalization
• The more similar the new stimuli are to the
original conditioned stimulus, the more likely
they are to evoke the conditioned response.
• Whereas generalization is a reaction to
similarities, discrimination is a reaction to
differences.
Critical thinking question
Sometimes a person may be fearful of a neutral
object, such as loose buttons, but not know why.
How could you explain this phenomenon?
Operant Conditioning
• In operant conditioning, certain responses are
learned because they operate, or affect, the
environment.
• The likelihood that the action will be repeated
depends on its consequences.
The Law of Effect
• A series of experiments
by E.L. Thorndike
(1898): he was trying to
show that learning in
animals is continuous,
as with learning in
humans.
The Law of Effect
• Thorndike argued that
in operant learning, the
law of effect selects
from a set of random
responses only those
that are followed by
positive consequences.
Skinner’s Experiments
Types of Reinforcement and Punishment
Type
Effect
Positive Reinforcement
Increases the likelihood of the desired
behaviour
Negative Reinforcement
Increases the likelihood of the desired
behaviour
Positive Punishment
Decreases the likelihood of the undesired
behaviour
Negative punishment
Decreases the likelihood of the undesired
behaviour
Implications for Child Rearing
• A child’s temper tantrums can be reduced if
the behaviour is not reinforced with parental
attention.
Shaping …
• … is a technique that consists of reinforcing
only variations in response that deviate in the
direction desired by the experimenter.
Critical thinking question
Suppose that you are taking care of an 8-yearold who won’t make his bed and, in fact, doesn’t
seem to know how to begin the task. How might
you use operant-conditioning techniques to
teach him to make his bed?
Social Learning
• The main idea of social learning is that people
learn by watching what other people do and
then copy that behavior. This is also called
modeling.
• Bobo Doll experiment (Albert Bandura)
http://yandex.ru/video/search?filmId=D2p0etXUXI&text=Bobo%20Doll%20experiment%
20
Constructivist Theory
• Constructivism, attributed to Jean Piaget,
consists of an individual accommodating and
assimilating information and then
constructing new knowledge from their
experience.
• “Play" is a vital source of learning for children.
Aversive Conditioning
There are three different kinds of aversive
conditioning:
• Punishment
• Escape
• Avoidance
Punishment
• In punishment training,
a response is followed
by an aversive stimulus
or event, which results
in the response being
weakened or
suppressed on
subsequent occasions.
Escape and Avoidance
• Escape learning occurs to terminate an
unpleasant stimulus such as annoyance or
pain, thereby negatively reinforcing the
behavior.
• You can transform escape learning into
avoidance learning if you give a signal, such as
a tone, before the unwanted stimulus.