Download The Learning Perspective History and cultural context: • Origins from

The Learning Perspective
History and cultural context:
 Origins from the start of the 20th century
 A contrast to introspection and psychoanalytical theory
 Ivan Pavlov and John B. Watson developed a which emphasized environmental
stimuli and behavioural response
 It grew in popularity the first fifty years
 It became the dominant framework for experimental research.
Framework:
Key concepts:
 Classical conditioning:
“the study of learning which involves reflex responses, in which a neutral stimulus
comes to elicit an existing reflex response due to learning.”
 Pavlov found that ringing a bell and then immediately giving the dog some food,
the bell came to evoke the same response as the food itself – salvation.
 Salvation at the presence of food is a basic neural reflex that requires no learning.
 Reflex responses; unconditional responses (a reflexive response produces by a
specific stimulus, such as pupil contraction to bright light)
 The stimulus which elicits (triggers) an unconditional response (like food)is
called an unconditional stimulus; (a stimulus which elicits (triggers) a
reflexive (unconditioned) response.)
 conditioned refers to learned
 the bell = neutral stimulus which normally has an orienting response, (a stimulus
which initially produces no specific response other than provoking attention; as
conditioning proceeds the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus)
 the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus.
 salivating which is the response is called a conditioned response, since it comes
from the bell, the conditioned stimuli (a response to a previously neutral stimulus
which has become a conditioned stimulus by repeated pairing with an
unconditioned stimulus)
 The same response to different stimuli, by forming an association.
 blocking, one CS is already good enough, e.g. flashing a light to signal food is
unnecessary, if a bell already serves that purpose.
 Classical conditioning seems to be a very fundamental form of learning in a
variety of species, but of little significance in people.
 stimulus generalization; in classical conditioning, the tendency to produce a CR to
both the original CS and to stimuli which are similar to it in some way (like a bell,
and another bell)
 Stimulus discrimination; Pavlov, dog who started salivate when it saw a black
square because it was a CS, but it also started to salivate when it saw a grey
square because of stimulus generalization, but when Pavlov continued to give
food after the black square, and none after the grey square, the dog stopped
salivating by seeing the grey square. (selective responding to the CS, but not to
stimuli which are similar in some way, as result of learning) stimulus discrimination
always requires training.
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Operant Conditioning
as important as classical conditioning is, it must be recognized that it only deals
with how new stimuli some to control existing involuntary responses.
deals with how voluntary (emitted) responses change over time as a function of
their consequences.
Thorndike studied situations where an animal was actively interacting with its
environment. In a typical experiment, a cat was confined in a “puzzle box”, a
cage-like structure from which it could free itself by pressing a lever. Thorndike
increased the incentive by depriving the animals of food prior to the testing, and
then placing food outside the puzzle box, where it was visible to the cat. The cats
learned to press the lever, thereby escaping and obtaining the food. (1898).
The satisfying outcome was what led behaviour being repeated.
The law of effect: The satisfying outcome was what led behaviour being repeated.
Behaviour with no outcome declined.
Skinner-blackbox-mind and body, he insisted that mental states are both
inaccessible to study and irrelevant to understanding of behaviour.
Radical behaviourism: a position adopted by Skinner and Watson which argues
that mental states are both inaccessible to scientific study and irrelevant to
understand behaviour.
Skinner developed an apparatus which would allow running continuous trials, with
behaviour automatically recorded, known as the Skinner box.
behaviourism, by focusing on observable events, sets its own limits on what can
be studied. Thoughts, feelings and other inner mental states cannot be studied
empirically, and so have no place in behaviourist theory. Genetic variation, while
presumable contributing to differences among individuals, is also ignored, because
traditionally it was not measurable.
Learning: a change in behaviour which occurs as the result of experience.
Extinction: in classical conditioning, the cessation of responding when the CS is
presented repeatedly without being paired with the UCS. Like Pavlov, and taking
away the UCS, and then the CR was removed.
Spontaneous recovery: in classical conditioning, the reoccurrence of the CR when
the CS is presented after some time has elapsed since extinction training. Like
when Pavlov redid the CS to the dog after having extinct the CR.
Higher Order Conditioning: a form of classical conditioning in which a previously
established conditioned stimulus is used as if it were an unconditioned stimulus to
create conditioning to a new stimulus. (like Pavlov and a dog who learned to
salivate from the sound of a buzzer, where introduced to a black square, and then
pushing the buzzer, and then the dog started to salivate) (Pavlov couldn’t put a
third stimulus on when it was food, but he could do that with leg withdrawal (from
an electro-shock), that may tell us more about the significance of aversive stimuli
like electric shock than it does about higher order conditioning as such.) (some
speculate on how language learning may be closely linked to higher order
conditioning.)
Conditioned Emotional Response (little Albert): an emotional response such as fear
which is established through classical conditioning.
Conditioned Drug and Immune Responses: a dog was given a drug together with a
specific sound, this drug made the dog vomit, and then the dog started vomit just
by the sound. This is also usually seen in normal life.
Reinforcer: A reinforcer is a stimulus which, when it follows a response, results in a
change in the probability of the response recurring.
Reinforcement is the process by which a reinforcer increases the probability of a
response.
Primary reinforcer: a stimulus whose capacity to act as a reinforcer is based on an
innate biological significance, such as food, water or electric shock.
Conditioned reinforcer: stimuli which act as reinforcers but are not based on
biological survival, such as praise, money or criticism.
Positive reinforcement: a stimulus which when it follows a response serves to
increase the probability of the response in the future.
Negative reinforcer: an aversive stimulus which when it follows a response serves
to decrease the probability of the response in the future.
Contingency of reinforcement: a description of the relationship between a
response and a reinforcer. (Tim getting a cookie after finishing his peas at dinner,
and therefore he will in the future eat his peas)
Positive reinforcement: a process of increasing the probability of a response by
immediately following the response with a desirable stimulus (a positive
reinforcer)
Punishment: a process whereby a response is followed by a negative reinforcer,
which results in a decrease in the probability of the response.
Negative reinforcement: a process for increasing the probability of a response in
which a response immediately leads to termination or withholding of an aversive
stimulus (negative reinforcer); note that since the response increases in
frequency, it is not equivalent to punishment.
Omission: a process whereby a response is followed by terminating or withholding
a positive reinforcer, which result in a decrease in the probability of the response.
(a girl comes home late from town, therefore her parent withhold her driving
privileges (positive reinforcer) to make sure that the response doesn’t happen
again.)
Shaping: the process of guiding the acquisition of a new response by reinforcing
successive approximations to the desired response.
Extinction: in operant conditioning, a drop in responding when reinforcement is
discontinued. (like praise that is no longer giving to the kid that picks up its toys.)
Continuous reinforcement: a reinforcement schedule in which every response is
followed by a reinforcer.
Partial reinforcement: a contingency of reinforcement in which reinforcement
does not follow every response.
Schedule of reinforcement: a description of the conditions which determine when a
response will be followed by a reinforcer.
Fixed ratio schedule: the ratio is measured as FR x, where x is the number of
responses the organism must make in order to get a reinforcer. Continuous
reinforcement has the FR l, since each response leads to a reinforcer.)
Variable ratio schedule: a reinforcement contingency defined in terms of the
average number of responses required to receive a reinforcer; thus, VR 8 means
that on average every eight response is reinforced.
(In ratio schedule, since getting a reinforcer depends on making the specified
number of responses, performance tends to occur at relative high rate. The
situation is somewhat different with interval schedules, where time is the crucial
factor.)
Fixed interval schedule: a reinforcement contingency defined by the amount of
time that must pass since the previous reinforcer was given, before a response will
receive a reinforcer; thus FI 5 min. means a fixed interval of 5 minutes.
Variable interval schedule: a reinforcement contingency defined by the average
time interval which must elapse since the last reinforcer before a response will be
reinforced; thus on a VI l5 sec. schedule, over a long period the average duration
would be fifteen.
Discriminating stimuli: (like a boy eating spaghetti, and is only getting scolded by
his mom, while his dad is giving him a positive reinforcer (letting him eat the
spaghetti with his fingers), and therefore his behaviour differs when he eats in the
present of his dad or mom. Here are the parents the discriminative stimuli.)
A stimulus which signals the contingency of reinforcement available.
Non-contingent reinforcement: a situation where reinforcers sometimes occur
independently of any specific response: chance forms of reinforcement. (like finding
money on the pavement)
Behaviour modification: the application of conditioning techniques to altering
human behaviour, particularly those behaviours identified as abnormal.
Contiguity: the principle that a reinforcer must occur immediately after a response
in order for learning to occur.
Aversive control of behaviour: negative reinforcer, the way organisms react to
negative reinforcers. As noted previously, there are two ways in which aversive
control is used: punishment is used to reduce the frequency of a response, whereas
negative reinforcement is used to increase a response.
Autonomic conditioning: (also called learned operant control of automatic
responses) the conditioning of changes in autonomic (involuntary) responses (such
as heart rate or blood pressure) by means of operant reinforcement.
Biofeedback: a general term for application of the process of autonomic
conditioning; the name refers to the fact that in humans reinforcement is based
on providing an individual with information (feedback) about physiological
processes (bio) which are not normally observable.
Species-specific behaviour: behaviours which are characteristics of all members of
a particular species; these response patterns (sometimes popularly called
instincts) apply to behaviours such as mating, finding food, defence and raising
offspring.
Preparedness: a concept developed by Martin Seligman to describe the degree to
which physiological structure influences the occurrence of behaviour.