Download Learning - teacherver.com

Learning
Learning
is a relatively permanent change
in behavior that occurs through
experiences.
Learning is extremely
important for both humans and
animals in terms of survival,
function and adaptation. A
century of research on learning
on lower animals suggests that
principles generated initially
from lower animals can also be
applied to human beings.
Types of Learning
1. Associative Learning
a type of learning where an organism makes a
connection or association made between two events.
Conditioning: a process of learning associations
2. Observational Learning
3. Verbal Learning
Classical
Conditioning or
Pavlovian
Theory
Classical Conditioning
- an organism learns the association between
two stimuli
Respondent behavior: meaning, behavior
occurs automatically and this explains how
neutral stimuli bring out INVOLUNTARY
RESPONSES
 Result: organisms learn to anticipate events
Major concepts:
UCS (unconditioned stimulus)
>>stimulus that produces a response without prior
learning.
UCR (unconditioned response)
>> response that is automatically obtained because of
the UCS.
NS (neutral stimulus)
>> a stimulus that cannot elicit any response but
becomes associated with a meaningful stimulus. Once
associated, it acquires the capacity to produce similar
responses.
Major concepts:

CS (conditioned stimulus)
>> a previously neutral stimulus that results in a
conditioned response after being associated with an
UCS.

CR (conditioned response)
>> learned response to the CS that occurs after CSUCS link. It Is similar to the UCR.
Important Principles:
1. Acquisition
>> initial step in learning association.
Time interval
 defines contiguity or connectedness in time & space of a stimulus
 gap between a particular stimulus to the unconditioned stimulus
Contingency
 predictability of one stimuli occurring because of the presence of
another stimuli.
Important Principles:
2. Generalization
>> if another stimuli is more similar to the
original stimulus, it will result to similar
responses. We don’t have to relearn
everything we sense.
3. Discrimination
>> learning to respond to certain stimuli & not to
respond to others because generalization is
not always beneficial.
Important Principles:
4. Extinction
>> weakening of the conditioned responses in
the absence of unconditioned stimulus.
Without continued association between UCS
& NS, CS losses power to produce CR
5. Spontaneous Recovery
>> a conditioned response can occur after a
time delay without further conditioning
Implications
Classical conditioning can also
explain & help humans in several
ways such as dealing with phobia,
cultivating pleasant emotion,
analyzing health problems &
consumer behavior.
Implication
1.
Phobias extreme fear or Irrational fear.
Behaviorists claim that fears can be learned
through classical conditioning, thus it can be
cured through counter conditioning.
Counter conditioning weakens a CR by
associating fear- provoking stimulus with a
new response that is incompatible with fear.
2. Pleasant Emotion
>> it is a positive emotion. Classical
conditioning is also involve not only to
unpleasant emotions like fear. This can
explain our favorite songs, place & food.
3. Health Problems
>> asthma, headaches, high blood pressure
are sometimes due to stress but behaviorist
can explain these phenomena by claiming
that these certain responses are caused by
stimuli that become conditioned to produce
physiological responses.
4. Consumer psychology
>> advertisers now a days use
psychology in determining how
consumers think, feel & reason in
selecting among variants, brands,
products & services. Women are
associated with sexual arousal in men.
Thus including women alcoholic
beverages repeatedly conditions
consumers to think that the drink is
actually associated with masculinity,
sexuality & excitement.
Operant
Conditioning
Operant Conditioning…
- is the use of consequences to modify the
occurrence and form of behavior
- is distinguished from Pavlovian conditioning in
that, operant conditioning deals with the
modification of voluntary behavior through the
use of consequences, while Pavlovian
conditioning deals with the conditioning of
behavior so that it occurs under new
antecedent conditions
Operant Conditioning…
-
-
-
A type of associative learning where the
consequences of behavior change the
chances or probability of the behavior’s
occurrence.
describes an organisms response to
environment. Emphasizes on the ACTIVE
and VOLUNTARY nature of an organism to
respond.
Also called instrumental conditioning
American psychologist B.F. Skinner 1938
coined the word “operant” that means:
 that behavior operates on the environment and
vice versa
 and that voluntary responses or behavior that
operates on the environment produces
rewards & punishment.
 Skinner & other behaviorist created the
Skinner box (rat and food pellets and levers,
also includes electric shocks.)
through the skinner box behaviorist were
able to assume basic principles such as
rewards, reinforcements, punishments.
… observed the behavior
of cats trying to escape
from home-made puzzle
boxes.
When first constrained in
the boxes, the cats took a
long time to escape. With
experience, ineffective
responses occurred less
frequently and successful
responses occurred more
frequently, enabling the
cats to escape in less time
over successive trials.
In his Law of Effect, Thorndike theorized
that successful responses, those
producing satisfying consequences, were
"stamped in" by the experience and thus
occurred more frequently. Unsuccessful
responses, those producing annoying
consequences, were stamped out and
subsequently occurred less frequently. In
short, some consequences strengthened
behavior and some consequences
weakened behavior.
Reinforcements & Punishments
Reinforcement, and punishment, the core ideas
of operant conditioning, are either positive
(introducing a stimulus to an organism's
environment following a response), or
negative (removing a stimulus from an
organism's environment following a
response).
Four contexts of operant conditioning:
Here the terms "positive" and "negative"
are not used in their popular sense, but
rather: "positive" refers to addition, and
"negative" refers to subtraction.
What is added or subtracted may be either
reinforcement or punishment. Hence positive
punishment is sometimes a confusing term, as
it denotes the addition of punishment (such as
spanking or an electric shock), a context that
may seem very negative in the lay sense.

Reinforcement is a consequence that
causes a behavior to occur with greater
frequency.

Punishment is a consequence that causes a
behavior to occur with less frequency.
1.
Positive reinforcement occurs when a
behavior (response) is followed by a favorable
stimulus (commonly seen as pleasant) that
increases the frequency of that behavior. In
the Skinner box experiment, a stimulus such
as food or sugar solution can be delivered
when the rat engages in a target behavior,
such as pressing a lever.
2. Negative reinforcement occurs when a
behavior (response) is followed by the
removal of an aversive stimulus (commonly
seen as unpleasant) thereby increasing that
behavior's frequency.
In the Skinner box experiment, negative
reinforcement can be a loud noise
continuously sounding inside the rat's cage
until it engages in the target behavior, such as
pressing a lever, upon which the loud noise is
removed.
3.
Positive punishment occurs when a
behavior (response) is followed by an
aversive stimulus, such as introducing a
shock or loud noise, resulting in a decrease
in that behavior.
4.
Negative punishment occurs when a
behavior (response) is followed by the
removal of a favorable stimulus, such as
taking away a child's toy following an
undesired behavior, resulting in a decrease in
that behavior.
REINFORCEMENTS
•
Primary reinforcements: uses reinforces
that are innately satisfying.
•
Secondary reinforcement: it acquires its
positive values through experiences
that was learned .
Schedules of Reinforcements:
timetable when a behavior will be reinforced
i.
FIXED RATIO:
reinforces behavior
only after a set number of behaviors.
(E.g sales commission)
RESULT: performance drops right after reinforcement
ii.
VARIABLE RATIO:
behavior is
reinforced on an
average # of times
but on an unpredictable basis.
RESULT: produces steady rates of behavior that is
most resistant to extinction
Schedules of Reinforcements:
timetable when a behavior will be reinforced
iii. FIXED INTERVAL: reinforcement is
determined by the time elapsed since last
behavior was rewarded.
(E.g. election, salary etc.)
RESULT : behavior peaks near the time of reinforcement
iv. VARIABLE INTERVAL:
behavior is
reinforced after an inconsistent amount of
time has elapsed.
(E.g. surprise quizzes, fishing, etc.)
RESULT : behavior is slow and consistent because it is difficult
to predict a reward
PUNISHMENTS
EDWARDS 1999: claimed that
punishments shows models of
behaviour in handling stress.
It also instils fear, rage, and
avoidance to children.
He says that it only teaches children
what NOT TO DO instead of what TO
DO.
Important Principles
- Generalization: give similar responses to
similar stimuli
- Discrimination: responding only to a
stimuli that signal that a behaviour will or
will not be reinforced.
- Extinction: occurs when a previously
reinforced behaviour is no longer
reinforced.
Implication
1.
Applied Behavioral Analysis/
Behavior Modification: divert behavior
from destructive to constructive by setting
consequences and reinforcing adaptive
actions while less adaptive tactics are not.
2. Education: choosing effective reinforcements
and individualizing particular reinforcements.
Observational
Learning

also called imitation or modeling

developed by Albert Bandura. He didn’t
like the trial and error models because
learning would be hazardous. He affirmed
that we need competent models to learn.

Bandura had 4 steps: attention, retention,
motor production and reinforcement/
incentive conditions for learning to occur.
Verbal
Learning

is only true for humans. It involves activities that
need the use of language like speaking, writing,
reading, reciting.

Memory plays an important role in learning
because, like operant conditioning, it should be an
active process. Memorization, like operant
conditioning also increase the probability of a
behavior in a given signal or appropriate context.
Cognitive
Factors in
Learning

Classical and Operant conditioning
ignored the possibility that cognitive
factors such as memory, thinking,
planning, expectations setting to be
involved in learning.

Cognitive vs. Behavioral: behaviorist do
not deny that thinking processes have
roles in learning but since such
processes can’t be observed directly,
they can hold back environmental
conditions that dictates behavior

1932 E.C. Tollman’s purposiveness: believed
that much of our behavior is goal-directed. He
believed it is necessary to understand entire
behavioral sequences to understand why they
display such behavior.
(e.g. why high school students study hard? Is it
because they get reinforced or because they want to have
good jobs in the future?)

Wolfgang Kohler: insight learning: a form of
problem solving in which organisms develop a
sudden insight or understanding of the problem’s
solution.
(e.g. stick and box problem)
Biological and
Cultural Factors
in Learning
the organism’s body either permits or hinders
learning.
E.g. flying, breathing underwater, morphing.


Preparedness is the term, used by physiologists
to indicate that biological/physiological
predisposition dictates us on how to learn in a
certain way.

We cannot learn something we do not
experience. Cultural differences also affect how
we can discover our potential to do a particular
behavior. Learning often requires practice, and
certain behaviors are practiced MORE in some
cultures than in others.