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Definition of Learning:
Learning refers to the relatively
permanent change in a subject’s
behavior to a given situation brought
about by repeated experiences in that
situation, provided that the behavior
change cannot be explained by
instinct, maturation, or temporary
states.
Are the examples given, examples of learning?
1. The cessation of thumb sucking by an infant.
– Due to maturation
2. The acquisition of language in children.
– Learning
3. A computer program generates random opening moves for its first
100 chess games and tabulates the outcomes of those games. Starting
with the 101st game, the computer uses those tabulations to influence
its choice of opening moves.
– Learning
4. A worm in places in a T maze. The left arm of the maze is brightly lit
and dry; the right arm is dim and moist. On the first 10 trials, the
worm turns right 7 times. On the next 10 trials, the worms turns right
all 10 times.
- Learning
Are the examples given, examples of learning?
5. Ethel stays up late the night before the October GRE administration
and consumes large quantities of licit and illicit pharmacological
agents. Her combined score is 410. The night before the December
GRE administration, she goes to bed early after a wholesome dinner
and a glass of milk. Her score increases to 1210. Is the change in
scores due to learning. Is the change in pretest regimen due to
learning?
– Change in score: Due to temporary state. Change in pretest regimen: Learning
6. A previously psychotic patient is given Dr. K’s patented
phrenological surgery and no longer exhibits any psychotic behaviors.
- Change in behavior due to surgery, not repeated experiences
7. A lanky zinnia plant is pinched back and begins to grow denser
foliage and flowers.
- Due to maturation
Are the examples given, examples of learning?
8. MYCIN is a computer program that does a rather good job of
diagnosing human infections by consulting a large database of rules it
has been given. If we add another rule to the database, has MYCIN
learned something?
- Debatable
9. After pondering over a difficult puzzle for hours, Jane finally figures
it out. From that point on, she can solve all similar puzzles in the time
it takes her to read them.
- Learning (if pondering = trial & error and other problems solving techniques)
10. After 30 years of smoking two packs a day, Zeb throws away his
cigarettes and never smokes again.
- Learning: repeated experiences (smoking) and their negative effects (breathing,
cancer, bad breath)
Acquisition
Discrimination
Extinction
Spontaneous
Recovery
Associations
Generalization
Unconditioned
Response (UCR)
Unconditioned
Stimulus (UCS)
Pavlov
Conditioned
Stimulus
(CS)
Conditioned
Response (CR)
Classical Conditioning: the process of learning the
association between two stimuli.
Classical Conditioning: Pavlov’s Dogs
Before
UCS
During
UCR
Boy, do I
ever salivate
a lot!
UCR
Boy, do I
ever salivate
a lot!
CS
UCS
After
CS
CR
What’s wrong with
me? Now I’m
salivating at
a bell!
An MIT student spent an entire summer going to the
Harvard football field every day wearing a black and
white striped shirt, walking up and down the field for
ten or fifteen minutes throwing birdseed all over the
field, blowing a whistle and then walking off the field.
At the end of the summer, it came time for the first
Harvard home football game, the referee walked onto
the field and blew the whistle, and the game had to be
delayed for a half hour to wait for the birds to get off
of the field. The guy wrote his thesis on this, and
graduated.
Unconditioned
Stimulus?
Unconditioned
Response?
Conditioned
Stimulus?
Conditioned
Response?
Birdseed
Fly to field & eat
Black & White
Striped Shirt
Fly to field to eat
The initial learning process. The
pairing of the CS with the UCS.
Learning takes place when the CS is
presented 1/2 second prior to the
UCS.
The tendency, once a
response has been
conditioned, for stimuli
similar to the conditioned
stimulus to produce a
similar response.
CR produced in response
to specific stimuli and not
to other stimuli that do
not signal an UCS.
The ability to distinguish
between similar CS.
Bald Gentlemen vs. Skin
heads; Pit Bull vs. Poodle
A decrease in the CONDITIONED RESPONSE that
occurs when the UNCONDITIONED STIMULUS no
longer follows the CONDITIONED STIMULUS.
SPONTANEOUS RECOVERY: the reappearance of the
extinct conditioned response in the presence of the
conditioned stimulus
Applications of Classical Conditioning
Is human behavior nothing more
than a bunch of conditioned
behaviors?
Case of “Little Albert”
John Watson
UCS
Loud Noise
UCR
Fear
CS
White Rat
CR
Fear
Applications of Classical Conditioning
Case of “Little Albert”
Five days later Albert shows
generalization to other white,
furry objects.
e.g. Baby Albert was conditioned to fear a white r
but also feared
cotton balls, rabbits, white sweaters, etc.
Extinction:
After a period of time passes when CS is not paired with
UCS, CS
returns to being an NS
e.g. Baby Albert would eventually cease to be afraid of
white
fluffy things after
they were not paired with
a horrible and frightening noise
Do cognitive processes and
biological constraints affect
classical conditioning?
Cognition
Rescorla and Wagner (1972): animals learn to “expect”
an unconditioned stimulus; this shows cognition at work:
the animal learns the predictability of a second associated
event after the first
Conditioning an alcoholic with a nauseating drink might
not work because they are “aware” of what causes the
nausea---the drink, not alcohol.
Martin Seligman found that dogs given repeated shocks with
no opportunity to avoid them developed a passive resignation
called learned helplessness.
In new situation, animals that escaped the first shocks
learned personal control and were able to able to easily
escape shocks thereafter.
Biology vs. Environment
Garcia and Koelling:
-Animals can learn to avoid a drink that will make them
sick, but not when it’s announced by a noise; so Pavlov was
wrong in claiming that any stimulus could serve as a
conditioned stimulus.
-We are biologically prepared to learn certain associations
and not others: we learn to fear snakes, but not flowers
-Taste aversions result from biology. The smell and taste of
a nauseating food become the CS for sickness.
-Secondary disgust: an aversion that reminds a person of
something that is considered disgusting in its own right. Ex.
You won’t eat a piece of chocolate formed like dog feces.
Ivan Pavlov-His Legacy
• Classical Conditioning
principles can be
applied to all
organisms, from
earthworms to people
• Measurable, objective
procedures…not a
guessing game
Applications of CC
• Health (ex: drug use, alcoholism)
• John Watson’s Little Albert Experiment: Led to
the question-Can fears be extinguished?
• Rape-People & Locations serving as
Conditioned Stimuli leads to a Conditioned Fear
response
• Advertising
Types of Conditioning
Classical
Operant
Process of associating
two stimuli
Process of associating
a response & its
consequence
Lightening
Pulling candy machine
lever
Thunder
Delivery of candy bar
During which type of conditioning does an
organism learn associations between events
that it doesn’t control?
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
During which type of conditioning does an
organism learn associations between it’s own
behavior and resulting events?
OPERANT CONDITIONING
Thorndike: Law of Effectrewarded behavior is likely
to reoccur.
Skinner: Skinner Box
& “behavioral
technology”
Shaping – reinforcers guide behavior toward closer
approximations of a desired goal.
Successive Approximations-method used to shape organisms
Shaping
Demonstration
Principles of Reinforcement
Reinforcer - any event that increases the frequency
of the preceding event
Positive Reinforcers
Introduce (+) stimulus
(e.g., food)
Negative Reinforcers
Remove (-) stimulus
(e.g., electric shock)
Reinforcers ALWAYS strengthen behavior!
More Reinforcement
Primary Reinforcers
Innately satisfying,
Not learned
(e.g., getting food)
Secondary Reinforcers
Associated with primary
reinforcers & learned
(e.g., praise)
Reinforcers ALWAYS strengthen behavior!
Still More Reinforcement
Immediate Reinforcement
Reinforce immediately preceding
behavior (e.g., nicotine)
Delayed Reinforcement
Reinforcement at some point
after behavior occurs
(e.g., paychecks)
Reinforcers ALWAYS strengthen behavior!
STIMULUS  RESPONSE  REINFORCEMENT/PUNISHMENT
Reinforcers ALWAYS strengthen behavior!
Something that
Happens TO an
organism
Behavior performed
By the person or
Animal.
Types of Reinforcers:
1.
Positive-something good happens & strengthens behavior
2.
Negative-something bad is taken away & strengthens behavior
3.
Primary-pleasant in their own right-food (positive), being
relieved of pain (negative)
4.
Secondary (also called Conditioned)-is associated with a primary
reinforcer (classical conditioning)
5.
Immediate –reinforcer that immediately follows the response-ex:
drugs
6.
Delayed -reinforcer that is postponed to well after the desired
behavior-ex: long-term reward (safe sex vs. immediate sex)
PUNISHMENT-decreases
frequency of preceding behavior
•Effective When? Strong,
Immediate, Consistent
•Undesirable When? Increases in
aggression, fear (avoidance
behavior), low self esteem,
depression, performance of behavior
in “safe” conditions, no guidance
toward desirable behavior.
REINFORCEMENT
SCHEDULES
VARIABLE RATIO - reinforcement after a random
# of responses. Greater resistance to extinction, but
initial learning is slower than continuous
reinforcement. Ex: Gambling.
FIXED
INTERVAL reinforcement
after a specific
amount of time.
Ex: Checking the
mail.
FIXED RATIOreinforcement after
specific # of
responses.
Ex: Piece-work
VARIABLE INTERVALreinforcement after random amount
of time. Most resistant to extinction.
Ex: Pop Quizzes
Latent
Learninglearning
that is not
apparent
until a
reward is
presented to
demonstrate
the
learning.
Rat that is never reinforced
continues to make many errors in
completing the maze.
Rat that is
always
reinforced gives
evidence of
learning
throughout
trials.
Rat that explored the maze
for 10 days, then given a
reward on Day 11, shows
signs of Latent Learning.
Tang & Hall Study (1995)
This toy is
great-I’m
going to play
with it all
the time!
Hey kids! I’ll
pay you to
play with that
toy
“If I’m not getting paid, why
bother.” OR “If I have to be
bribed, then it must not be that
great of a toy.”
OVERJUSTIFICATION EFFECT-decreasing intrinsic motivation
for a behavior after an extrinsic reward is provided.
Salary
Performance
Biology & Operant Conditioning
• Naturally adaptive behaviors are easier to
condition (example: Pigeons avoid shock by
flapping wings but slower to learn to flap
wings for food.)
• “Instinctive Drift”- animals reverting back to
predisposed behavior rather than conditioned
behavior.
Skinner’s Legacy
• Give rewards that
promote desired
behavior
• Personal freedom? Not
in Skinner’s world.
Operant Conditioning
Applications
School Work Home
Computers &
Immediate
Reinforcement
On-line
Testing/Interactive
Software
Sports & Incremental
Reinforcement
Increase ProductivityProfit Sharing
Parenting-reward
good behavior,
ignore whining
Rewards work when
Goal settingbehavior is wellreward your own
defined and obtainable
desired behaviors
Praise can be an
Spending Behavior
effective managerial
technique
Albert Bandura’s Bobo-doll experiment:
Aggressive behaviors learned through
observation of a model.