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Chapter 7, Meyers
Learning: A relatively permanent change of an
organism’s behavior due to experience.
learning is inferred from a change in
behavior/performance
learning results in an inferred change in memory
learning is the result of experience
 learning is relatively permanent
 Associative Learning: learning that certain events
occur together.
 Cognitive Learning: acquisition of mental
information through observation of others, watching
events, and/or through language.

 Conditioning: the
process of learning
associations.
Classical
conditioning: we
learn to associate
two stimuli and to
anticipate events.
 Operant
Conditioning: we learn to associate
our response (behavior) and its consequence
and, as a result, to repeat acts followed by good
results and to avoid acts followed by bad
results.
 Coined
by John B. Watson. Also supported by
Ivan Pavlov.
 The
perspective that psychology:
Should be an objective science
Study behavior without reference to mental
processes.

Most research psychologists believe in the first
statement but do not agree with the second.

Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)
Russian physician/neurophysiologist
Studied digestive secretions
His work gave rise to understanding classical
conditioning.
Won the Nobel prize (1904)
Contiguity Model: believed
in a temporal association
between two events that
occur closely together in
time.
• The more closely in
in time two events
occurred, the more
likely they were to become associated.
Definitions
UCS (unconditioned stimulus): a stimulus that
naturally & unconditionally triggers a response.
UCR (unconditioned response): an unlearned
naturally occurring response to the US).
 UCS = food UCR = salivation
NS (Neutral Stimulus) does not elicit a UCR from the
subject
CS (Conditioned stimulus): originally the NS, but
after associating the NS with the UCS, it becomes a
trigger for the CR (conditioned response).
CR (Conditioned response): a learned response to
the CS after conditioning has occurred.
 Every time someone flushes a toilet in the
apartment building, the shower becomes very hot
and causes the person to jump back. Over time,
the person begins to jump back automatically
after hearing the flush, before the water temperature
changes. Identify the following:
 UCS, UCR, NS, CS, CR
UCS : hot water
UCR: jumping back
NS: toilet flush
CS: toilet flush
CR: jumping back to flush alone

You eat a new food and then get sick because of
the flu. However, you develop a dislike for the
food and feel nauseated whenever you smell it.

Identify the following:
 UCS, UCR, NS, CS, CR
UCS : flu
UCR: nausea
NS: food
CS: food
CR: nausea from the smell of the food
Acquisition: in classical conditioning, when NS is
paired and elicits a CR
 Extinction: the diminishing of a conditioned response
(CR).
In classical conditioning, repeatedly presenting the
CS without the UCS leads to the return of the NS.
 Spontaneous Recovery: occurs after extinction,
without training, the CS(NS) again elicits the CR
temporarily.
 Generalization: stimuli similar to the CS also elicit the
CR without training.
 Discrimination: the ability to tell the difference
between stimuli so that only the CS elicits the CR.


A well learned CS is paired with another NS to
produce a conditioned response (CR) to the new
NS.

Delayed Conditioning: NS is presented just before
the UCS, with a brief overlap between the two
Ex - a bell begins to ring and continues to ring
until food is presented.
Generally produces the strongest conditioning

Trace Conditioning: when the NS is presented &
then disappears just before the UCS appears.
ex - a bell begins ringing and ends just before
the food is presented.
Produces moderately strong conditioning

Simultaneous Conditioning: occurs when the US
and NS are paired together at the same time.
ex - the bell begins to ring at the same time
the food is presented. Both begin, continue,
and end at the same time.
Produces weak conditioning

Backward Conditioning: the US comes before the
NS.
ex - the food is presented, then the bell rings.
Produces no conditioning except in rare cases

Aversive Conditioning: learning that involves an
unpleasant of harmful unconditioned stimulus
Also known as counterconditioning
John B. Watson & Rosalie Raynor studied children’s
behaviors in the 1920s.
Conditioned 9 month old Little Albert to fear a
rat. His fear generalized to other animals as well.
 Although unethical, this study demonstrated how
phobias or other human emotions might develop
through classical conditioning.

John Watson - Little Albert - YouTube


Conditioned Taste Aversion: an intense dislike &
avoidance of a food because of its association with an
unpleasant or painful stimulus through backward
conditioning.
Preparedness: through evolution, animals are biologically
disposed to easily learn behaviors related to their survival
& that behaviors contrary to an animal’s natural tendencies
are learned slowly or not at all.
 Garcia Effect: when rats were exposed to a tastes (NS)
and then exposed them to radiation or drugs (UCS) that
led to nausea and vomiting (CR). The rats developed
aversions for those tastes, even if they did not get
sick for hours after the initial exposure. (John Garcia,
1981)
Cognitivist Robert Rescorla challenged Pavlov’s
contiguity model.
 The contingency model states that the CS tells the
organism that the US will follow.
 Blocking Effect: another challenge to Pavlov’s
model.
 rats that were classically conditioned to fear
(CR) the sound of a tone (CS) using electric
shock (UCS) could not be conditioned to also
fear a light alone (after paired with the tone).
Since they already associated the tone with the
impending electric shock, the light alone offered
no new information, so the conditioning effect
of the light was blocked.


Operant Conditioning: learning in which
behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforce
or diminished if followed by a punisher.

Respondent Behavior: behavior that occurs as an
automatic response to some stimulus.
Term Skinner used for behavior learned through
classical conditioning.

Operant Behavior: behavior that operates on the
environment, producing consequences.


Instrumental Learning: a form of associative
learning in which a behavior becomes more or less
probable depending on its consequences.
E.L. Thorndike: research with hungry cats using fish
as a reward to entice cats to find their way out of a
puzzle box.
The cats’ behavior tended to improve with
successive trials, illustrating Thorndike’s Law of
Effect that rewarded behavior is likely to recur.
Skinner termed Thorndike’s instrumental
learning – operant conditioning because subjects
operate on their own environment in order to produce
desired outcomes.
 Operant Chamber (Skinner Box): contained a bar or
key that an animal could manipulate to obtain food or
water reinforcer with attached devices in record the
animal’s rate of bar pressing or key pecking.
Using the Skinner box and similar devices,
behaviorists have shown that extinction, stimulus
generalization, and stimulus discrimination
occur in operant as well as in classical
conditioning.
 Developed four different training procedures working
with rats, pigeons and other animals.

Also known as the OPERANT CHAMBER
Reinforcer: any event that strengthens the behavior
that follows.
 Positive Reinforcement (reward training):
 increasing behaviors by presenting positive rewards
such as food.
 Premack Principle: a more probable behavior can
be used as
a reinforcer for
a less probable
one.


Negative
Reinforcement:
increases behaviors by
stopping or reducing
the aversive stimulus

Negative Reinforcer:
any stimulus that, when
REMOVED after a
response, strengthens
the response.
Two types of negative reinforcement:
 Avoidance behavior takes away the unpleasant
stimulus before it begins
Escape behavior takes away the unpleasant
stimulus after it has already started.
 Learned Helplessness: feelings of futility &
passive resignation that result from the inability to
avoid repeated aversive events.
Later, even if it becomes possible to avoid or
escape the aversive stimuli, it is unlikely that
the learner will respond.

 In punishment, a learner’s response is followed by
an aversive consequence which is unwanted, so the
learner stops exhibiting the behavior.
 Punishment should be immediate so that the
consequence is associated with the misbehavior,
strong enough to stop the undesirable behavior, and
consistent.
 Punishment should not be overused.
 It does not teach the learner what should be
done
 It suppresses rather than extinguishes behavior
 It may evoke hostility or passivity.
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A lion in a circus learns to stand up on a chair and jump
through a hoop to receive a food treat.
operant conditioning - standing on a chair and jumping through a
hoop are voluntary behaviors. Consequence is positive
reinforcement - food is given which increases the behavior.
Your hands are cold so you put your gloves on. In the future,
you are more likely to put gloves on when it’s cold.
operant conditioning - putting gloves on is a voluntary behavior.
Consequence is negative reinforcement - the coldness is taken
away ; the behavior of putting on gloves increases.
Your car has a red, flashing light that blinks annoyingly if you
start the car without buckling the seat belt. You become less
likely to start the car without buckling the seat belt.
operant conditioning - buckling a seat belt is voluntary. The
flashing light is a positive punishment; put seat belt on to remove
annoying flashing (consequence).
Omission Training: A response by a learner is
followed by taking away something of value from
the learner.
 By changing his/her behavior, the learner can get
back the positive reinforcer.
 ex: Time-out
 Key to success – knowing
exactly what is rewarding and
what isn’t for each individual.

Primary Reinforcer: something that is biologically
important, so it is rewarding, such as food & drink.
 Secondary (Conditioned) Reinforcer: some neutral
that when associated with a primary reiforcer,
becomes rewarding such as gold stars, money, &
tokens.
 Generalized Reinforcer: a secondary reinforcer that
can be associated with a number of different primary
reinforcers, such as money, which can buy food.
 Token Economy: operant training system used
extensively in institutions (mental hospitals, jails)
where tokens (secondary reinforcers) are used to
increase a list of acceptable behaviors. Learner
accumulates tokens & then exchanges them for
privileges.

Shaping: procedure in which reinforcers guide
behavior toward closer & closer approximations of
the desired behavior.
 Chaining: used to establish a specific sequence of
behaviors by initially positively reinforcing each
behavior in a desired sequence & then later
rewarding only the completed sequence.
Often used to teach animals a complex series of
behaviors
In general, reinforcement or punishment that
occurs immediately after a behavior has a
stronger effect than when it is delayed.

Continuous Reinforcement: reinforcing the
desired response every time it occurs.
Problem: not reinforcing the behavior even
once or twice could result in the extinction of
the behavior.
 Partial Reinforcement (intermittent schedule):
reinforcing the behavior only some of the time.
Results in slower acquisition of the behavior
but greater resistance to extinction.
Fixed Ratio schedule: reinforces only after a
fixed number of responses. The learner will
pause briefly after a reinforcement & then will
return to a high rate of responding.

Variable Ratio Schedule: reinforces a behavior
after an unpredictable number of responses. Ex. Slot
machines – gamblers will pull the level hundreds of
times as the anticipation of the next reward gets
stronger.
Fixed Interval Schedule: reinforces behaviors only
after a specified time has elapsed. Results in lots of
behavior as the time for reinforcement approaches,
but little behavior until the next time for
reinforcement approaches. Ex. Cramming for an
exam.
Variable Interval: reinforces a response at
unpredictable time intervals Ex. Studying every
night because the teacher gives pop quizzes.
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Skinner accounted for the development of superstitious
behaviors in partial reinforcement schedules he
performed with pigeons.
If food pellets were delivered when a pigeon was
performing some idiosyncratic behavior, the pigeon would
tend to repeat the behavior to get more food.
If food pellets were again delivered when the pigeon
repeated this behavior, the pigeon would repeat the
behavior over and over, resulting in the development of
superstitious behavior.
There is a correlation between the idiosyncratic behavior
and the food, but there is NO causal relationship
between the two.
Humans – lucky numbers or lucky jeans, or even lucky
charms.
skinner

Skinner emphasized external controls on behavior.

Encouraged the use of operant conditioning
principles at school, work, & at home.

He was criticized for dehumanizing people by
neglecting their personal freedom & by seeking to
control their actions.

He was criticized for deemphasizing the importance
of cognition and biological constraints on learning,
particularly among humans.


Latent Learning: learning without rewards
Maze experiment with rats:
 The first group of rats were given a reward each time
they navigated a maze correctly. This trial was repeated
over 10 days.
 The second group were not given a reward for going
through the maze – they made significantly more
errors than the rats in the rewarded group.
 On the 11th day both groups were rewarded for
completing the maze correctly.
 On the 12th day the second group navigated the maze
as well as the first group demonstrating latent
learning.
 It was hypothesized that the rats had made a mental
picture of the maze during the previous unrewarded
trials – when they were rewarded, they were motivated
to improve.
Sometimes operantly conditioned animals fail
to behave as expected.
 Sometimes Skinner box trained rats reverted to
scratching and biting the lever.
 Instinctive Drift: a conditioned response that
drifts back toward the natural or instinctive
behavior of the organism.
 For example, wild animal trainers must be
vigilant after training animals because the
animals may revert to dangerous behaviors.

 Observational Learning: learning by
observation
 Modeling: the process of observing and imitating
a specific behavior.
 Mirror Neurons: frontal lobe neurons that fire
when performing certain actions or observing
another doing so.
These neurons transform the sight of
someone else’s actions into the motor
program you would use to do the same thing
 may enable imitation, language training, &
empathy
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Pioneer in research on observational learning
Social Learning Theory: proposed that direct
reinforcement could not account for all types of learning.
There are three core concepts to social learning
theory:
-- people can learn through observation.
-- internal mental states are an essential
part of this process.
-- just because something has been learned,
it does not mean that it will result in a
change in behavior.
Asserted that Intrinsic Motivation was another important
factor to learning.
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Attention
Retention: The ability to store information
Reproduction: perform the observed behavior. Further
practice leads to improvement and skill advancement.
Motivation: must be motivated to imitate the behavior that
has been modeled
 Reinforcers play an important role in motivation. While
experiencing these motivators can be highly effective, so
can observing these reinforcers with individuals exhibiting
similar behavior.
 Ex: if you see another student rewarded with extra credit
for being to class on time, you might start to show up a few
minutes early each day.
Prosocial Modeling: positive, constructive, helpful behavior.
 Children tend to imitate what a model does & says, whether
the behavior is prosocial or antisocial.
 If the model’s actions are inconsistent, they may model the
hypocracy they see.
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Bandura demonstrated that children learn and imitate
behaviors they have observed in other people.
The children in Bandura’s studies observed an adult
acting violently toward a Bobo doll.
When the children were later allowed to play in a room
with the Bobo doll, they began to imitate the
aggressive actions they had previously observed.
It was also found that boys engaged in twice as many
acts of aggression to the BoBo doll than girls & that
boys were more prone to imitate physical acts of
violence where girls tended to imitate verbal
aggression.
Bandura - bobo doll experiment - YouTube

A lab setting experiment may not be indicative of
what takes place in reality.

Selection bias: All participants were drawn from a
narrow pool of students who share the same racial
and socioeconomic background.
Was there a long-term impact?
 Acting violently toward a doll is a lot different that
displaying aggression or violence against another.

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Unethical study: Manipulating children into
behaving aggressively was essentially teaching
children to be violent.

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Insight: the sudden appearance of an answer or
solution to a problem.
Wolfgang Kohler (1988-1967)
 Kohler attempted to demonstrate that animals can arrive
at a solution through insight rather than trial and error.
 He placed chimps (Chica, Grande, Konsul, and Sultan) in
an enclosed area and presenting them with a reward that
was out of reach, such as bananas.
 Kohler placed bananas outside Sultan's cage and two
bamboo sticks inside his cage. Neither stick was long
enough to reach the bananas. Sultan put the two sticks
together and created a stick long enough to reach the
bananas outside his cage.
Another study involved bananas suspended from
the roof. The chimps first tried to knock them down
by using a stick. Then, the chimps learned to stack
boxes on top of one to reach the bananas.
Kohler described three properties of insight
learning.
--Based on the animal perceiving the solution to
the problem.
-- Is not dependent on rewards.
-- Once a problem has been solved, it is easier to
solve a similar problem (Hothersall, 1995).
insight learning