Download 05 Learning Notes

Learning 1
Learning: Chapter 5
Student Notes
“Between stimulus and response is a space. In this space lies our freedom
to choose our response. In these choices lie our growth and our happiness.”
-- Steven Covey in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Learning: A relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs through experience.
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING: STIMULUS RESPONSE
A form of learning in which a neutral stimulus (UCS) becomes associated with a meaningful stimulus (CS)
and begins to elicit a similar response (CR).
Unconditioned stimulus (UCS): A stimulus that naturally produces a response.
Unconditioned response (UCR): A natural response that is automatically associated with UCS
Conditioned stimulus (CS): A previously neutral stimulus that elicits the conditioned response (CR)
after being paired with the unconditioned stimulus (UCS).
Conditioned response (CR): The learned response to the conditioned stimulus that occurs after CSUCS association
CHECK:
At the start of training, the CS elicits _____ and the UCS elicits _____. After many repetitions of the CS
and UCS together, the CS elicits _____ and the UCS elicits _____.
Contiguity: learning is better when the UCS and CS are close together in time.
Contingency: learning is better when the UCS and CS occur together frequently.
Novelty: learning is better when the CS is new or unique.
CHECK:
Two people are bitten by snakes. One has never seen snakes before. The other is a trained snake handler.
Which one is more likely to develop a phobia of snakes?
Extinction: CR goes away when the UCS and CS quit occurring together.
Reconditioning: the quick relearning of a CR after extinction
Spontaneous Recovery: CR returns again after a time delay (extinction) without further conditioning
Generalization: CR occurs to a stimulus similar to the CS.
Discrimination: learning to respond to certain stimuli and not to respond to others.
CHECK:
In Pavlov’s experiment, how could you produce extinction? Spontaneous recovery?
Learning 2
OPERANT CONDITIONING: REWARD AND PUNISHMENT
Consequences of behavior produce changes in the probability of the behavior’s occurrence.
Thorndike’s Law of Effect: when a response is followed by satisfaction, that response is more likely to occur
the next time the stimulus is present (a.k.a. Trial and Error)
Positive Reinforcement
Punishment
Negative punishment/Penalty
Negative Reinforcement
The frequency of a response increases because it
is followed by a rewarding stimulus
The removal of a positive stimulus after a behavior,
decreasing the likelihood that the behavior will
occur again
An unpleasant stimulus following a behavior that
decreases the likelihood that the behavior will
occur again
The frequency of a response increases because it
is followed by the removal of an aversive
(unpleasant) stimulus
Timing: Learning is more efficient under immediate rather than delayed consequences.
Shaping: The process of rewarding successive approximations of desired behavior.
Primary reinforcement: The use of reinforcers that are innately satisfying.
Secondary reinforcement: Reinforcement that acquires its positive value through experience.
SCHEDULES OF REINFORCEMENT
In a continuous reinforcement schedule, reinforcers follow every time the response occurs.
In an intermittent reinforcement schedule, reinforcement occurs only part of the time.
Schedule
Fixed-ratio
Variable-ratio
Fixed-interval
Variable-interval
Reinforcement given
After a fixed number of responses
After a given number of responses
For the first response after a fixed time
has elapsed
The first response after a variable
period of time
Example
Factory workers paid $1 for every five items produced
Slot machine
Paycheck every Friday
Friend gives you chocolate if you are studying when she
drops by on a random basis.
PUNISHMENT
Applying a negative stimulus or removing a positive one to decrease the likelihood for a behavior.
Punishment is effective for reducing behavior, but not for teaching a desired behavior.
Can teach kids to be more creative in finding ways to not get caught.
Can teach kids to use aggression as a problem-solving strategy.
Punishment can become reinforcing.
Punishment is most effective when the individual has other options available; and,
When it is applied immediately and consistently without anger.
Learning 3
CHECK:
Senator Braintrust recommends imposing harsher penalties for growing marijuana as a way to control that
drug. Based on what you learned about punishment, is this likely to work?
CHECK:
Categorize each of the following
If you clean your room, I will take you out for pizza.
If you insult me, I will slap you.
If you wear gloves, you hands will not be cold.
If you hit your little brother, you will get no dessert.
You get a bonus for working overtime.
You stop playing banjo at 6 a.m. because your roommate threatens to kill you.
You turn off the faucet so you don’t have to listen to the incessant drip.
You drive recklessly and lose the privilege of driving the family car.
You avoid students who are coughing and sneezing so you don’t catch cold.
LEARNED HELPLESSNESS
OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING: IMITATION OR MODELING
Observational learning occurs when a person observes and imitates someone’s behavior.
Albert Bandura (1965) Bobo doll experiment.
Vicarious reward: Learning from seeing others rewarded for their behavior.
Vicarious punishment: Learning from seeing others punished for their behavior.
INSIGHT LEARNING: AH-HA!
Wolfgang Kohler, Gestalt Psychologist, W.W.I on Tenerife
Allow animals to survey the whole problem before solving it.
Familiarity, done in home cages or enclosures where comfortable.
Social motivation, tested in presence of other animals, more natural, others imitated.
“Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee
to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select – doctor, lawyer, artist,
merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities,
vocations, and race of his ancestors.”
(John B. Watson in Behaviorism, 1930)