Download Welcome to Psychology 41G

Classical Conditioning
• Operant Conditioning
• Observational Learning
• Punishment
•
Think about:
1.) How do people / animals learn? Try
and brainstorm five ways.
2.) Why do people learn? Brainstorm three
reasons.
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Nearly every organism exhibits some type of
learning to survive in its environment

The ability to adapt to the environment is often the
key to determining which organisms survive and
pass their genes to future generations
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From an evolution perspective learning is viewed as
an adaptive behavior that underlies natural selection
and promotes the survival of the fittest
Learning:
- is defined as a change in behavior that occurs as a
result of experience.
There are three basic types of learning:
1. Classical Conditioning:
- Learning that occurs when two stimuli (things) are
paired together and become associated with each other.
- This association is a learned behavior !!!!
2. Operant Conditioning:
- Learning that occurs when the participant must make a
response to produce a change in the environment they
are in.
- This change is in response to rewards (reinforcements) or
punishments (consequences)
Think of an example
3.Observational Learning:
- Learning that occurs through watching and imitating
the behaviors of others
Think and write an example
Conditioning:
- Refers to the fact that the learner is “conditioned”
or taught an association between two stimuli
(things)
Example: Bell and the end of class
or Pavlov ringing the bell and his
dogs’ drooling
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Two unrelated things are paired together (Learned
Association)
 Neutral Stimulus (Bell) + Unconditioned Stimulus
(Food), the Neutral Stimulus is transformed into a
Conditioned Stimulus
 Remember the Unconditioned Stimulus always causes
an Unconditioned Response (Drool)
Then due to this pairing eventually you can remove the
Unconditioned Stimulus (Food) and the new Conditioned
Stimulus (Bell) will elicit the same Unconditioned Response
(Drool), which is now referred to as the Conditioned
Response.
1. Neutral Stimulus
Unconditioned Stimulus
Paired with
2. Paired enough times, and
eventually we can take out
the unconditioned stimulus
3. Finally the Neutral Stimulus
will cause the unconditioned
response.
Always causes
Unconditioned Response
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Step 1:
 Neutral Stimulus = Sound
Step 2: Pair two unrelated things
 Neutral Stimulus (sound) + Unconditioned
Stimulus (food) = Unconditioned Response
(drool)
Step 3: Due to this pairing
 Neutral Stimulus (Bell) ---(becomes) ----Conditioned Stimulus (sound)
Step 4: Conditioned has occurred
 Conditioned Stimulus (sound) = Conditioned
Response (Drool).
The premise for this example is based on the fact
that most of us have been conditioned to flinch
when we see someone about to stick a pin into a
balloon.
Initially the pin is the __________ because it alone does not
elicit any particular response.
Once the pin is used to pop a balloon and therefore is paired
or associated with a loud bang that causes someone to jump
or become frightened it then becomes the ______________
The loud bang the balloon makes when it pops would be the
__________ and the jump or startle you feel when you hear
the loud pop would be the ___________.
After pairing the pin with the loud noise numerous times
eventually someone just pretending to use the pin to pop the
balloon will make you flinch.
Now the pin which is the ________ causes you to flinch which is
The ____________.

In this experiment John Watson conditioned a 9month old infant “Little Albert” to fear a white rat.
1. Initially Albert showed no fear of the rat and even allowed it to
crawl on him
2. While Albert played with the rat – Watson hit a large steel rod
with a hammer making a sudden deafening noise
3. Albert became extremely startled and scared
4. Each time the loud noise was paired with the presence of the
rat. Albert cried in fear
5. After numerous pairings of the two stimuli – Albert
started crying at the sight of the rat, even when there
was no noise
6. He eventually came to fear any object that resembled
a rat, such as a white rabbit and even the white
whiskers on a Santa Claus Mask
7. Albert developed a phobia for rats and other white
objects
Identify:
1. Neutral Stimulus:
2. Unconditioned Stimulus:
3. Unconditioned Response:
4. Conditioned Stimulus:
5. Conditioned Response:
Identify:
1. Neutral Stimulus: White Rat
2. Unconditioned Stimulus: Loud Noise
3. Unconditioned Response: Startle
4. Conditioned Stimulus: White Rat
5. Conditioned Response: Startle Response to White
Rate

Watson’s study was important because it was one of
the first experiments to show that an emotional
reaction, such as fear, could be classically
conditioned.
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1. Every time someone flushes a toilet in the
apartment building, the shower becomes very
hot and causes the person to jump back. Over
time, the person begins to jump back
automatically after hearing the flush, before the
water temperature changes.
US:
UR:
CS:
CR:
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1. Every time someone flushes a toilet in the
apartment building, the shower becomes very
hot and causes the person to jump back. Over
time, the person begins to jump back
automatically after hearing the flush, before the
water temperature changes.
US: Hot Water
UR: Jumping Back
CS: Toilet Flush
CR: Jumping Back to the Toilet Flush
Starwars
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2. You eat a new food and then get sick
because of the flu. However, you develop a
dislike for the food and feel nauseated
whenever you smell it.
US:
UR:
CS:
CR:
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2. You eat a new food and then get sick
because of the flu. However, you develop a
dislike for the food and feel nauseated
whenever you smell it.
US: Flu Sickness
UR: Nausea
CS: New Food
CR: Nausea to New Food
University Demo
The Office
3. An individual receives frequent injections of
drugs, which are administered in a small
examination room at a clinic. The drug itself
causes increased heart rate but after several
trips to the clinic, simply being in a small room
causes an increased heart rate.
 US:
 UR:
 CS:
 CR:
2. An individual receives frequent injections of
drugs, which are administered in a small
examination room at a clinic. The drug itself
causes increased heart rate but after several
trips to the clinic, simply being in a small room
causes an increased heart rate.
 US: Drug
 UR: Accelerated Heart Rate
 CS: Small Room
 CR: Accelerate heart rate due to room
Boughen

Chances are good that you are afraid of some object
or situation that most other people do not fear.
Classical conditioning offers some insights into this,
as many of our fears and anxieties may have been
classically conditioned.

On your journal tracking activity sheet brainstorm
and explain an example where a fear may have been
classically conditioned.
Phobia:
- Refers to an irrational fear of an object, situation, or
activity that is out of proportion to the actual danger
it poses
- Because many phobias create so much anxiety they
often interfere with normal functioning and
therefore are classified as anxiety disorders.
Phobia’s and Classical Conditioning:
We frequently hear about people who have
Claustrophobia:
- an intense fear of enclosed places.
Task: Pretend you are a psychologist dealing with a patient
who has come to you with a case of extreme Claustrophobia.
During therapy you discover your patient was locked in a small
space as a child and left there for awhile, during which time
he/she experienced intense feelings of anxiety and fear. Using
the
principles of classical conditioning, explain how this experience
may have lead to the conditioning of his/her present
Claustrophobia.
One explanation:

Being locked or trapped in a small space would act
as the Unconditioned Stimulus because it caused
you to become very badly frightened (Which would
act as the unconditioned response).

Now you fear anything that remotely resembles a
closed space, such as elevators, small rooms etc.
(Which act as conditioned stimulus) because you
have learned to associate these things with the
feeling of fear or anxiety (Conditioned Response).

Psychologists have developed this procedure to help
eliminate phobias, by using the principles of
Classical Conditioning
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It involves slowly classically conditioning a desired
response (relaxation) to the phobic stimulus
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This process can be extremely slow and take many
years
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responses to other stimuli that are similar to the
Conditioned Stimuli
Example: White rat – white cat – Santa mask
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Response only to a specific Conditioned Stimuli
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Requires the stimuli to be clearly distinguishable
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Example: Dogs only drooling to a specific tone
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Involves the development of an aversion to a flavor
that has become associated with illness
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Example: Throwing up after eating a specific food,
the sight / smell of the food then causes you to feel
sick
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The process though which the strength of the
Conditioned Response is decreased until it is
eliminated
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Easiest was to do this is to present the Conditioned
Stimulus without the Unconditioned Stimulus
repeatedly
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At times a classically conditioned participant seems
to “forget” that extinction has occurred
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It refers to when the Conditioned Response recovers
some of the strength it lost during the previous
extinction sessions
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Eventually the amount of spontaneous recovery
decreases until finally it does not occur at all . . .
Then only has true extinction occurred
Operant Conditioning:
- Learning that occurs when the participant must
make a response to produce a change in the
environment in
- This change is in response to rewards
(reinforcements) or punishments (consequences)
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Your Operant Conditioning Booklets – Homework
check on Monday – 10 Marks
Catch up work on outstanding assignments – Cut off
for this report card is today 3pm
Final Project

Correct Booklets – Need to know for Test / Exam
Purposes
Just like in Classical Conditioning, in Operant
Conditioning Generalization and Discrimination occurs

In Operant Conditioning participants have not
necessarily been conditioned to respond to a
particular stimulus

Instead participants use stimuli as cues or signals
that certain behaviors will be reinforced or punished
Discriminative Stimulus:
Any signal that tells a participant that their response or
behavior will be reinforced or punished
Example: Green light in a Skinner Box
Or
Your mother’s “serious” look !! !

Just like in Classical Conditioning, Generalization
works the same in Operant Conditioning

Participants often learn to Generalize the
appropriate response or behavior that they have
made to similar stimuli in the past
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For example: Your mother reinforces your polite
behavior at home, so when you go to school you act
polite because you assume your teacher will do the
same
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Generalization is not always good though, just like
in Classical Conditioning, participants need to
develop Discrimination as well.
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For example: Your child might run up and meet a
relative whenever they come to the door, but you
wouldn’t want your child to run up to an adult
stranger at the door.
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Animals, children and adults learn which behaviors
are appropriate in different situations through
Operant Conditioning (reinforcements and
punishments)
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For example: Behaviors appropriate for a sports
even are not appropriate for weddings, even though
both situations have a common stimulus, which is
the crowd of people.
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On Journal Sheet:
 Brainstorm and explain two
“Discriminative Stimulus’ in your own life
 Brainstorm and explain one example of
where the Generalization of a behavior
would be a good thing, and then one where
it would be a bad thing
 Repeat for the Discrimination of a behavior.
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See handout of rats running maze
Think of real world examples…
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Effect of a reinforcer (either + or -) is to increase the
likelihood of a target response or behavior being
repeated
A punisher has the opposite effect – it decreases the
likelihood of a target response or behavior being
repeated
Just as there are positive and negative reinforcers,
there are positive and negative punishers
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Positive Punishers: Undesired (bad) stimuli or
events are presented
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Negative Punishers: Pleasant Stimuli or events are
removed
Think of one example of a Positive Punisher
Think of one example of a Negative Punisher.
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Reinforcement (+ or -) increases the likelihood that
the subject will repeat the behavior

Punisher (+ or -) decreases the likelihood that the
subject will repeat the behavior
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1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
State whether the following forms of punishment
are positive or negative:
Fine for having built your fence of city property.
Jail time
Being grounded
Paying interest on taxes that you owe
Parking ticket
School suspension
Zero on a quiz because you were late.
Speeding ticket
Community service
When punishment is used properly, it can eliminate
undesirable behaviors. If punishment is to be used
effectively psychologist say six criteria must be met:
1.
2.
The punisher should be delivered (positive) or taken
away (negative) immediately after the response that
is to be eliminated
The punisher should be strong enough to make a real
difference
3. The punishment should be administered after each
and every undesired response
4. There should be no unauthorized escape form the
punisher
5. If you are using a punisher you should be prepared
for the possibility of aggressive behavior
6. Provide the participant with an alternative desired
behavior that can replace the punished behavior
Agression
Alternative
No Escape
Every Time
Strong
Immediately
Punishment
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Most psychologist believe it is difficult to punish
effectively
Instead they believe the best solution would be to
reinforce an alternative desired behavior
This philosophy originated with the educator E.L.
Thorndike in the early 1900s
Created the influential theory known as the Law of
Effect which states:
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Presenting a reinforcer leads to the strengthening of
learning or new responses
Whereas presenting a punisher leads to the weakening or
unlearning of responses
For Each; list a Possible Punishment, and reinforcement that you would use. Then state
which method you feel would be more effective.
Behaviour
Getting to class on time.
Put their shoes in the closet
when they enter a home.
Students swearing in the
hallways at school
chewing nails
smoking
Getting to work on time
Handing in Assignments on
time.
Possible Punishment
Possible Reinforcement
of desired behaviour

For many years psychologist believed that a
participant had to actually perform a response for
learning to occur
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In early 1960s Albert Bandura changed this view
with his famous “Bobo Doll” Experiment
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Lead to the development of the Theory of
Observational Learning.
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Learning that occurs through watching and imitating
the behavior of others
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Because the observation of others is a central factor
in this form of learning, this approach is often called
the Social Learning Theory
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Observational Learning is sometimes just called
modeling, and is a wide spread phenomenon even
found among a number of animals
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Example: Monkeys fearing snakes experiment
•Monkeys in lab,
when exposed to
snakes were not
afraid.
•Monkeys from lab
watched Monkeys
in nature freak
when they saw
snakes.
•When Monkeys in
lab were exposed
to snakes they
freaked out.
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Key to Observational Learning is that the participant
identifies with the person being observed
The ability to put ourselves in another person’s
place for a moment and imagine the effects of a
reinforcer or a punisher is a phenomenon called:
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Vicarious Reinforcement
Vicarious Punishment
In your notes write 2 examples of each
A Canadian children’s writer once stated in a
speech about the need for heroes that,
“if we do not provide our children with heroes
they will go to other places to find them . . . The
worse kind of places . . . gangs, books,
television shows, and movies. . . where lust is so
often mistaken for love, violence is so often
mistaken for courage . . . where the hero is
really not so different from the villain.”
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Conducted by Albert Bandura in the 1960s
Hypotheses:
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Will children behave the same way as an adult they
observed.
Experiment:
A random sampling Young children were split into 2
groups.
 One group watched an adult play nicely with a bobo
doll.
 The second group watched an adult play
aggressively with a bobo doll.
 100 % of the time the child behaved the same way as
the adult they observed.
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For Observational Learning to be effective the following
five conditions must be met:
1. You must be able to pay attention to what the person is
doing and to what happens to him or her
2. Need to store the memory of what you have observed
3. Must be able to repeat or reproduce the behavior you
observed
4. You must have motivation to learn / copy behavior
5. You must pay attention to discriminative stimuli
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The knowledge that children model behaviors of
adults has led to concerns about the possible effects
of media violence
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On a positive note children also learn good
behaviors by viewing others, such as generosity,
empathy, and tolerance.
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Observational Learning has also been used to reduce
or eliminate phobias
Behavior Modification:
- Using the principles of learning to change
inappropriate behaviors.
1. How does Jane Elliot’s simulation recreate or symbolize a
smaller version of society? Periods or events in History?
2. What was the psychological impact of discrimination on the
children? What things changed when the children were in the
inferior group? Why do you think this was?
3. In your response what is the root cause of discrimination? Is
racism a learned response? Explain.
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Students may work on:
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Any old outstanding work
All Unit 3 Journal Entries that were due on Monday Nov. 24th:
 Conditioning Activity Sheet
 Classical / Operant Conditioning Video Guide Sheet
 Journal Activity Tracking Sheet [Balloon activity, Little Albert Activity, Phobia
Activity]
 Operant Conditioning Journal Reflection
 Observational Learning Video and 16 Mark Individual Reflection
 Super Nanny Analysis or Article Review
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Test Review – Test Part I Monday Dec.1st, Part II
Tuesday, Dec. 2nd:
Go through review material – If missing material borrow notes
from peers
 Study for Test
