Download Learning - Dimensions Family Therapy

Learning
Learning
• Any enduring change in behavior based on
experience
• Enduring change in behavior
– If behavior does not change then learning did
not take place
• Experience
– We encounter some form of a learning event
Learning Theory
• Experience shapes behavior
– Touch a hot stove
• Learning is adaptive
– Never touch a hot stove again
• We can discover the laws of learning
through systematic experimentation
Classical Conditioning
• Unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
– Anything that stimulates an automatic
(reflexive) response
• Food
• Unconditioned reflex (UCR)
– Automatic response
• Hunger
Classical Conditioning
• Conditioned stimulus (CS)
– Pair a neutral item with a UCS
– McDonald's golden arches (neutral) & french
fries (UCS)
– The golden arches become a conditioned
stimulus (CS) for the french fries
Classical Conditioning
• Conditioned response (CR)
– The UCR (desire for french fries) becomes
associated with the CS (golden arches)
– Hunger (UCR) leads to a desire to eat at
McDonalds (CR)
Ivan Pavlov
• Ivan Pavlov noticed a peculiar phenomenon while
studying the digestive systems of dogs
• When presented with food (UCS) a dog would
salivate (UCR)
• Pavlov decided to ring a bell (neutral stimulus)
just before presenting food to a dog
• The sound of the bell (CS) quickly led to the dog
salivating
Classical Conditioning
• Pavlov’s discovery, classical conditioning,
can account for a great deal of behavior
• For example, quickly write down three
words to describe a Ferrari sports car
• Your responses were the results of classical
conditioning
Little Albert
• Little Albert was a normal, well adjusted, 9 month old
• Albert was given objects by John Watson including:
– a white lab rat
– a white coat
– other things that incorporated the color white
• Watson tested Albert’s response to a loud noise (UCS) by
banging on a steel bar directly behind his head
• Albert reacted by jumping, falling forward, and
whimpering
Little Albert
• Two months later Watson selected a white rat,
something Albert was use to playing with, as the
CS
• Now every time Albert reached out to the white rat
Watson struck the steel bar creating a loud sound
• Albert immediately became afraid of the white rat
• Albert also feared anything with the color white
such as a white coat, Santa mask, etc
Little Albert
• Watson moved Albert from the test room to a large
lecture hall, Albert reacted the same
• Watson waited for a period of time and retested
Albert, found the same negative responses
• Albert’s mother removed him from the study.
Watson never had a chance to de-program Albert
Conditioned Responses
• Conditioned taste aversions
– Nasty tasting cough syrup
• Conditioned emotional responses
– Your favorite song generates positive emotions
• Conditioned immune responses
– Chemotherapy
Stimulus Generalization
• Once you have learned to pair a given CS
with a UCS you tend to generalize to
stimuli of a similar nature
– “The first person I ever met from Greece was a
really nice person. You know, the Greeks are
nice people!”
• The more similar a stimuli is to the original
CS the more likely generalization will occur
Stimulus Discrimination
• Opposite of stimulus generalization
• Learn to respond to a restricted range of
stimuli
– My ex was from California
– I know a lot of good people from California,
my ex just isn’t one of them
Extinction
• Occurs when a CR is weakened to the point of being
eliminated
• The CS occurs without the UCS
– A police officer on beat patrol (CS) has repeated friendly
encounters with citizens in a high crime area
– Citizens gradually learn not to associate the officer with being
arrested
• Spontaneous Recovery
– Tendency for CS to come back, normally a short lived phenomena
– Citizen observes an arrest and, temporarily, regains a fear of the
police officer
Factors Affecting
Classical Conditioning
• Interstimulus Interval
– Time period between CS and UCS. The shorter
the better
• One’s Learning History
– Prior experience with similar CS
• Preparedness to Learn
– Some CS/UCS easier to learn than others
Operant Conditioning
• Operant conditioning involves one’s behavior
creating a consequence
• Operants (behaviors) that we take with the goal of
generating a response
• Law of effect - Edward Thorndike suggested that
the likelihood of a behavior being repeated
depends upon the perceived consequence of the
behavior
Law of Effect
• Will a student cheat on an exam? Law of
Effect states the student will focus on the
probable outcome:
– Excellent chance of getting caught - Probably
won’t cheat
– Little chance of getting caught - More inclined
to cheat
Classical versus Operant
• Classical Conditioning - The environment impacts
you
– Someone else links food to McDonald’s arches
• Operant (Instrumental) Conditioning - You emit
behavior to influence the environment
– You do something with the expectation of an outcome
Reinforcement
• Reinforcement involves any consequence
that increases the probability that a response
will occur
• Positive Reinforcement
– The consequence of a behavior makes the
behavior more likely to happen
-I buy my first lottery ticket and win $1000.00
-I buy more lottery tickets
Reinforcement
• Negative Reinforcement
– The termination of an adverse stimulus makes a
behavior more likely to happen. This can be
either an escape or avoidance
- Escape - I hit the mute button on the TV and the
commercial goes silent
- Avoid - I alter my route to work in order to avoid a
known speed trap
Punishment
• Punishment is any consequence that decreases the
probability of a behavior being repeated
– Positive Punishment - Involves a consequence that is
not good:
• Going to jail for DUI
– Negative Punishment - Something good is taken away
• You cheat on me and I’ll stop loving you
Problems with Punishment
• The person being punished isn’t sure what behavior caused
the punishment
– Why are you yelling at me?
• The person being punished learns to fear the punisher. The
person doing the punishing, not the behavior, becomes the
issue
– I’m not misbehaving, my dad is just a mean hateful person
• Punishment may not eliminate the rewards for a behavior
– Getting drunk and then driving home is more important than
maybe going to jail again
Problems with Punishment
• People tend to punish when they are angry and
upset
– The behavior being punished is lost in the arguing and
emotions
• Aggression leads to aggression
– Children who are physically beaten tend to become
child abusers when they become parents
Extinction
• Extinction of an operant behavior tends to
occur if the expected consequence of a
behavior fails to happen on repeated
occasions
– At first you always returned my calls during the
work day. Then you didn’t return my calls.
Now I don’t call during your work shifts.
Schedules of Reinforcement
• Continuous Reinforcement Schedule
– The consequence is the same every time the behavior is
emitted
• Partial (intermittent) schedules of reinforcement
– Behavior is reinforced only part of the time it is emitted
– Surprisingly, behaviors that emit partial reinforcement
are less likely to become extinct than are behaviors
exposed to continuous reinforcement
Schedules of Reinforcement
• Ratio Schedules
– Fixed-ratio schedule
• Reinforcement on a set schedule such as every 5th
time
– Variable-ratio schedules
• Reinforcement is unpredictable
Intermittent Reinforcement
• Discriminate Stimulus
– Contingencies are in effect so that
reinforcement only produces the desired
behavior under certain circumstances
• I will cheer loudly at sports stadiums but never raise
my voice in museums
Society & Operant Conditioning
• Operant Conditioning works both ways
– The punishment is a negative reinforcer for the parent if the child’s
behavior in question ceases.
– Increases likelihood similar forms of punishment will be used by
the parent in the future
• Behavioral economics
– Links reinforcement with economics
– If I like both Pepsi and Coke, and the price of Pepsi goes up, then I
drink more Coke
Characteristics of the Learner
• Shaping
– Involves taking a series of steps to elicit the
desired behavior
– Often used when teaching a new language
• Chaining
– Link together a sequence of existing responses
in a novel manner
– Can be used to improve athletic performance
Characteristics of the learner
• Individuals differ in their ability to be
conditioned
• Some of us learn quicker than our
classmates
• Some of us are more aggressive when
confronted with others attempts to condition
us while others’ tend to be avoidant
Drive Reduction Theory
• Drive - An internal state that impels one to act
• Reinforcers - Stimulants that reduce drives
• Primary Drives - Central to survival
– Hunger-Food
– Thirst-Water
• Secondary Drives - Culturally defined
– Money
– Frequent flier points from an airline
Role of Feelings
• A behavior that is followed by a pleasurable
feeling is reinforced
• A behavior followed by a negative feeling
will be less likely to occur
• Guilt serves as a negative feeling therefore
it may reduce guilt producing behavior
Gray’s 3 Behavioral Systems
• Behavioral Approach System - Pleasurable
emotional states and approach-oriented behaviors
• Behavioral Inhibition System - Involves potential
dangers and involves anxiety
• Fight-Flight System - In the face of terror one will
either elect to fight it out or will attempt to run
away
Social Learning Theory
• Referred to as:
– Cognitive Theory, Social Learning Theory, CognitiveBehavioral theory
• Suggests that how we construct the environment is
as important to learning as actual environmental
contingencies
– Involves one’s experiences and expectations
– For those who grew up in small towns, NYC may seem
very threatening
Latent Learning
• Suggests that learning involves the creation
of “cognitive maps” that we can recall at a
later time under the right circumstances
• Once learned, not forgotten
• One will respond to new circumstances with
old behaviors
Cognitive-Social Theory
• Proposes that one’s expectations about the
consequences of a behavior render the
behavior more or less likely to occur
– If I am friendly towards new classmates then
they will be friendly towards me
– If I ignore those in out groups they will likely
ignore me in the future
Expectancies
• Self-fulfilling prophecies involve
expectations of a given outcome leading to
behavior that ensures the outcome
– John just knows he will fail the final exam
– John doesn’t study
– Sure enough, John fails the final exam due to
his lack of preparation
Locus of Control
• Generalized expectations on whether (or not) our
behavior can bring about a desired outcome
• Internal Locus of Control - I believe I can control
my own fate
– More likely to take action
– If I study hard I will get a good grade
• External Locus of Control - I can’t control my fate
– More likely to be passive
– It doesn’t matter whether I study or not, the professor
doesn’t give good grades to student athletes
Learned Helplessness
• An expectancy that one cannot escape
adverse events
– Simply don’t try
– Often linked to depression
Observational Learning
• Also referred to as vicarious learning
• We observe the consequences of others
behaviors
– What does father do when my older brother
comes home after his curfew?
Modeling
• We tend to model behavior of someone we
admire or an authority figure
• Role models are those we emulate
• Public figures become role models whether
they want to be or not