Download Pg. 202 Second-Order Conditioning

Bernstein: Ch. 6 “Learning”
Pg. 194 Adaptation= to adjust to new environments and experiences by integrating new knowledge
“Learning is an adaptive process through which experience modifies pre-existing behavior and
understanding”
Psych Research about learning has 3 main questions:
1. Which events and relationships do people learn about?
2. What circumstances determine whether and how people learn?
3. Is learning a slow process requiring lots of practice, or does it involve sudden flashes of insight?
Non-Associative Learning: Habituation and Sensitization
We are naturally in-tune to stimuli- loud noises, special tastes, pain…
Novel Stimuli- things we have not experienced before, attract our attention
Habituation= is a form of adaptation, a form of learning, that “Our attention to unchanging stimuli
decreases over time…
After our response o a stimulus has habituated, it may quickly return if he stimulus changes
Dis-habituation- the reappearance of your original response to when a stimulus changes
Sensitization- simple form of learning, is an increase in responsiveness to stimuli… example exaggerated
responses to unexpected, potentially threatening sights or sounds, especially dureing periods of
emotional arousal…
Sensitization and habituation help us adapt to our environment.
Pg. 196 Richard Solomon (study, opponent process theory)tries to explain how habituation occurs “new
stimulus events- especially those that arouse strong positive or negative emotions- disrupts
psychological homeostasis. This disruption creates an opposite process that counteracts the disruption
and eventually restores equilibrium. … eventually if the stimuli occurs often enough the opponent
process occurs more rapidly. Eventually it will suppress the initial response…”
See page 196 overdose explanation
Associative Learning
Pg. 197 Classical Conditioning: Learning Signals and Associations
Ivan Pavlov, Russian physiologist, Nobel Prize 1904 for research on digestive processes. He found
salivation occurred when no food was present. He wanted to find out if salivation occurred without an
obvious physical cause. He paired a natural stimulus with a neutral stimulus and gradually the neutral
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stimulus by itself created the same response. The dog learned the that the neutral stimulus (a tone or
something else) signaled the food.
Conditioned Responses over Time: Extinction and Spontaneous
Recovery:
Extinction: If the conditioned stimulus continues to occur without being followed at least occasionally by
the unconditioned stimulus, the conditioned response will gradually disappear.
Reconditioning occurs when the unconditioned stimulus and the conditioned stimulus are paired again,
then the conditioned stimulus will return with the same strength.
Spontaneous Recovery occurs when after extinction, the conditioned stimuli causes the response again
but without further CS-UCS pairing. Sounds (music), smells or other stimuli, when associated with
strong emotional connections at an earlier time, can illicit reflexes/arousal years later after the UCS
disappears.
Pg. 199 Stimulus Generalization and Discrimination
Stimulus Generalization occurs after a conditioned response is learned when stimuli that are similar but
not identical to the conditioned stimulus also elicit the response. The greater similarity between a new
stimulus and the conditioned stimulus, the stronger the conditioned response.
Stimulus discrimination is the concept where people and animals learn to discriminate between stimuli.
Pg. 200 The Signaling of Significant Events
What determines whether and how a conditioned response is learned?
Timing: classical conditioning works best when the conditioned stimulus preceded the unconditioned
stimulus. (tight time sequence is best)
Predictability: classical conditioning proceeds most rapidly when the conditioned stimulus always signals
the unconditioned stimulus and only the unconditioned stimulus.
Signal Strength: a conditioned response will be greater if the unconditioned stimulus is strong than if
weak… also strength adds to how quickly the conditioned response is learned. (more intense stimuli
gets noticed)
Attention: the stimulus you are paying attention to at the time of conditioning will be the stimulus
associated with the conditioned stimulus.
Biopreparedness: humans and animals may be biologically predisposed (prepared) to develop certain
conditioned associations. (Conditioned Taste Aversion)
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Pg. 202 Second-Order Conditioning
After a conditioned stimulus is learned it can act as a unconditioned stimulus and a new association can
trigger the response.
Applications of Classical Conditioning:
Phobias: are extreme fears of objects or situations that are less dangerous than the reaction suggests.
Can be treated by systematic desensitization: creates a new response to a stimuli that had
been associated with fear, so they associate relaxation with a feared stimulus.
Taste Aversion Conditioning:
To prevent predatory animals from eating other stock animals, associations are created with stock
animals paired with nauseous substances. The predators eat the “processed” animals and get sick thus
being conditioned to associate nausea with the stock animal.
Operant Conditioning: Learning the Consequences of Behavior
People learn associations between their actions and the stimuli that follow; between behavior and its
consequence.
1. Edward Thorndike (1905)- psychologist researcher, animal intelligence and problem
solving…
Law of Effect: Thorndike found; “If a response made in the presence of a particular stimulus is
followed by satisfaction (reward) then that response is more likely to be made the next time the
stimulus is encountered.” (Reinforcement: increases probability that an operant behavior will occur
again.)
Responses that produce discomfort are less likely to be performed again.
BF Skinner (1938) said organisms learn to operate on the environment. How is behavior changed
by its consequences? Skinner Box used to study and isolate behavior and consequences.
Instrumental Conditioning:
Experimenter defines each opportunity for organism to produce a response
Conditioning is measured by how long it takes for the responses to appear.
Operant Conditioning
Organism can make a response anytime
Conditioning is measured by rate of responding
Basic Components of Operant Conditioning:
Stimulus Generalization, Stimulus Discrimination, Extinction, Spontaneous Recovery (are also present in
Operant conditioning)
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Organism learns responses by operating on the environment.
Skinner wanted to analyze how behavior is changed by its consequences
Operant = is a response that has some effect on the world
A response that operates on the environment
A response that provokes a consequence
Skinner Box: research tool used to measure learning based on how often an animal responds
Operant Conditioning depends on the concept of reinforcement:
Positive Reinforcement:
Behavior is strengthened when something pleasant or desirable occurs.
Behavior then reinforcement
Negative Reinforcement:
Behavior is strengthened
Behavior results in termination of something unpleasant. (so you behave well to remove discomfort)
Pg. 207
2. Escape and Avoidance Conditioning:
Escape/avoidance is the effect of negative reinforcement.
Escape Conditioning: A person or animal learns responses that stop aversive stimulus.
We learn to avoid pain take pain pills
We learn to avoid crying child buy them a toy…
Avoidance Conditioning:
A person/animal responds to a signal to avoid an aversive stimulus that has not yet arrived
Fear reduction is a big issue
Can also be a mix of classical + operant conditioning.
Adds the cognitive argument “In order for people to learn to avoid an unpleasant event (example make
one up) they must have established an expectancy or other mental representation.” (This is a mental
process)
3 Pg. 209 Discriminative Stimuli and Stimulus Control
Discriminative Stimuli:
Stimuli that signals whether a reinforcer is available if a certain response is made. (Environmental
Stimuli)
Stimulus Control also known as Stimulus Discrimination:
When an organism learns to make a particular response in the presence of one stimulus but not another
Forming and Strengthening Operant Behavior
4. Shaping:
Reinforcing successive approximations
Responses that come successively close to the desired response
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(building behavior until desired results occur)
5 Pg. 211 Primary and Secondary Reinforcement:
Primary reinforcers are things that are innately rewarding- food, water
6. Secondary Reinforcers: (Also called conditioned reinforcer)
Previously neutral stimulus that when paired with a stimulus that is already reinforcing + will take on
reinforcing qualities…
Secondary reinforcers are important to build and maintain behavior even when primary reinforcer is
absent.
Money is secondary reinforcer: Reinforcing power lies in its association with the many rewards it buys.
Social Approval is another secondary reinforcer
7. Delay and Size of Reinforcement:
Timing of reinforcement impacts strength of behavior.
The effect of the reinforcement is strengthened when it comes soon after a response occurs.
Delayed punishment or reinforcement has less impact on reducing behavior
Size/strength of reinforcement direct relationship with behavior- stronger reinforcement stronger
behavior to get that reinforcement
Schedules of Reinforcement
Continuous Reinforcement- reinforcement that always occurs
8. Partial or Intermittent Reinforcement- reinforcement occurs intermittently
Schedules answer the questions when and how are reinforcement given?
1. Fixed Ratio- Reinforcer following a fixed number of responses… every 10th time=food *
2. Variable Ratio- 9
 reinforcement comes after a varying # of responses
 Provide a reinforcement after a given # of responses
 The number can vary
 Predictions are difficult to make about which response would result in reinforcement
 A factor is identified as the Average # of responses
 Relates to gambling
3. Fixed-interval- 10
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Reinforcer provided for the first response that occurs after some fixed time has passed since last
reward
No matter how many responses have been made during interval
4. Variable-interval- 11
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Reinforce 1st response after some period of time.
Amount of time varies
Unpredictable
Different schedules of reinforcement produce different patterns of responding.
Fixed Ratio and Variable Ratio schedules- produce high rates of behavior overall. Because, the
frequency of the reward depends directly on the rate of responding.
Pg. 213 Schedules and Extinction- 12
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If an operant response is no longer followed by reinforcer then response may eventually extinguish
Spontaneous recovery is still possible
Behaviors learned under partial reinforcement schedule are more difficult to extinguish vs.
continuous reinforcement
Superstitious Behavior is partial reinforcement= accidental reinforcement strengthens actions that
precede a response and appear to cause the reinforcement
13. Why Reinforcers Work:
Brain and Bio-psychology
Electrodes stimulate pleasure centers in certain parts of the hypothalamus
Dopamine = drugs activate pleasure centers
All this relates to reinforcement, example rats will continuously press a bar when electrodes are
stimulating part of the hypothalamus.
14. Pg. 215 Punishment
Weakens behavior
Reduces the frequency of an operant behavior- by presenting an unpleasant stimulus or removing a
pleasant one.
Responsesstimulus(weakens behavior)
Drawbacks to Punishment:
1. It does not erase an undesirable habit only suppresses it
2. Punishment can produce unwanted side effects can create fear of punisher
3. Punishment is ineffective unless it is given immediately after response and each time the response is
made, especially with children
4. Punishment can become aggression
5. Punishment can lead to imitated behaviorAggressive behavior in children
Pg. 217 Effective Use of Punishment
1. Person giving punishment should explain why + connect to changing behavior (can help eliminate
fear)
2. Punishment should be immediate (problem potential attention reinforcing)
3. Inform offender how to behave +reinforce appropriate behavior
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15. Pg. 220 Cognitive Processes in Learning:
Traditional behaviorists believed that “stimuli, responses, and consequences build and alter overt
behavior… learning results from the automatic, unthinking, formation or modification of associations
between observable events.”
All behavior is observable, everything is observable to behaviorists.
Traditional behaviorists pay almost little or no attention to the role unconscious mental activity
associated with learning.
Cognitive Approach to learning:
Cognitive psychologists accept Classical and Operant conditioning but say there are mental processes
going on that- help us understand causality… conditioning adds to how we represent, store, and use
information.
They cite the concept of expectancy as evidence of mental processes… example an expected or
unexpected stimulus impacts the response- this is a mental process. Basically we think about our
expectations… Also we ascribe meaning o experiences and this is a cognitive process… example we have
expectations about the stimuli. We also make judgments about meaning and that relates to how
reinforcement might be more rewarding…
Pg. 221 Learned Helplessness
M.Riley Pg. 223 Latent Learning (Tolman study rats and a maze)= learning that is not evident
when it first occurs.
16. P224 Cognitive Maps (Tolman study rats)= mental representation of how the maze was
arranged, developed naturally, without reinforcement based on experience.
Pg. 224 Insight and Learning (Kohler study chimpanzees) problem solving, insight=
sudden understanding of the problem as a whole… different theories “mental trial and error, process in
which people envision a course of action, mentally stimulate its results, compare it with the imagined
outcome of other alternatives, and settle on the course of action most likely to aid complex problem
solving and decision making.”
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