Download LEARNING BY ASSOCIATION: CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

Learning
Learning
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Learning by Association: Classical Conditioning
Changing Behavior Through Reinforcement and Punishment: Operant Conditioning
Learning by Insight and Observation
Using the Principles of Learning to Understand Everyday Behavior
LEARNING
• Learning
– a relatively permanent
change in behavior or
knowledge resulting from
experience
Learning
Conditioning
Classical
Conditioning
Observational
Learning
Operant
Conditioning
Insight
LEARNING
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Some famous learning theorists: (clockwise from top
right) Ivan Pavlov, John Watson, B. F. Skinner
Learning by Association: Classical Conditioning
Learning By Association: Classical Conditioning
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Learning Objectives
1. Describe how Pavlov’s early work in classical conditioning influenced the understanding of
learning.
2. Review the concepts of classical conditioning, including unconditioned stimulus (US),
conditioned stimulus (CS), unconditioned response (UR), and conditioned response (CR).
3. Explain the roles that extinction, generalization, and discrimination play in conditioned
learning.
LEARNING BY ASSOCIATION: CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
• Classical conditioning
– learning that occurs when a
neutral stimulus becomes
associated with a stimulus
that naturally produces a
behavior
LEARNING BY ASSOCIATION: CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
THE PERSISTENCE AND EXTINCTION OF CONDITIONING
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acquisition
– The CS and the US are repeatedly paired together and behavior increases.
extinction
– The CS is repeatedly presented alone, and the behavior slowly decreases.
spontaneous recovery
– After a pause, when the CS is again presented alone, the behavior may again occur
and then again show extinction.
THE PERSISTENCE AND EXTINCTION OF CONDITIONING
• Generalization
– The tendency to
respond to stimuli
that resemble the
original conditioned
stimulus
• Discrimination
– The tendency to
respond to stimuli
that are similar but
not identical
THE ROLE OF NATURE IN CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
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Behaviorists argued that conditioning is based entirely on experience, and that nature plays no
role.
Psychologists have found, however, that nature can influence the way associations are formed
in some instances of classical conditioning.
– Nature influences the classical conditioning processes involved in the learning of phobias,
in the development of taste aversions, and in post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD).
THE ROLE OF NATURE IN CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
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Phobia
– a strong and irrational fear of a specific object, activity, or situation
– We are more likely to develop phobias related to objects that were harmful in our
evolutionary past.
Taste aversion in food conditioning
– Potentially harmful associations are learned very quickly.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
– Strong associations are formed with stimuli related to traumatic events.
LEARNING BY ASSOCIATION: CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
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Key Takeaways
– In classical conditioning, a person or animal learns to associate a neutral stimulus (the
conditioned stimulus, or CS) with a stimulus (the unconditioned stimulus, or US) that
naturally produces a behavior (the unconditioned response, or UR). As a result of this
association, the previously neutral stimulus comes to elicit the same response (the
conditioned response, or CR).
– Extinction occurs when the CS is repeatedly presented without the US, and the CR
eventually disappears, although it may reappear later in a process known as spontaneous
recovery.
LEARNING BY ASSOCIATION: CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
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Key Takeaways, continued
– Stimulus generalization occurs when a stimulus that is similar to an already-conditioned
stimulus begins to produce the same response as the original stimulus does.
– Stimulus discrimination occurs when the organism learns to differentiate between the CS
and other similar stimuli.
– In second-order conditioning, a neutral stimulus becomes a CS after being paired with a
previously established CS.
– Some stimulus/response pairs are more easily conditioned than others because they have
been particularly important in our evolutionary past.