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Unit 6 Myers
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Habituation: An organism’s decreasing
response to a stimulus with repeated
exposure to it
◦ Sea slug withdraws its gills when disturbed by a
squirt of water. Overtime the sea slug will
withdrawal the response
◦ Learned associations feed our habitual behaviors
◦ Behavior associated with context
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Associative: Learning that certain events
occur together
– Observational learning
– Classical conditioning: may be two stimuli
• Lightening example
– Operate conditioning: response + consequence
• Seal: ball, food
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We learn to expect and prepare for significant
events such as food or pain ___________. We
learn to repeat acts that bring good results to
avoid acts that bring bad results___________.
By watching others we learn new
behaviors______________.
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Ivan Pavlov and John B. Watson shared both a
disdain for “mentalisitic” concepts (such as
consciousness) and a belief that the basic
laws of learning were the same for all animals
Basic form of learning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvCIgNK_y4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nq6pekM
6sZQ
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Read page 218-219 (Pavlov’s Experiments)
Unconditioned response-salvation in response to
food in the mouth
Unconditioned stimulus-food
Conditioned response-salvation is in response to
the tone
Conditioned stimulus- tone (previously neutral)
*UR and CR are almost always the same response
it’s the stimulus the elicits the response that is
different
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE8pFWP5QD
M (Office-Altoid experiment)
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IF the aroma of cake baking sets your mouth
to watering, what is the US? The CS? The CR?
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Classical Conditioning: When one links the
neutral stimulus (US) so that the neutral
stimulus begins triggering the CR.
The CS must procede the US by about ½ to 1
sec in order to bring about the CR
Girlfriend and onion example
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Conditioning helps up survive and
reproduce-by responding to cues that help it
gain food, avoid dangers, locate mates, and
produce offspring
Higher-ordering conditioning: a new neutral
stimulus can become a CS. Just needs to be
associated with previously neutral stimulus
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The diminished responding (CR-salvia) that
occurs when the CS (tone) no longer signals
an impending US (food)
Pavlo found that if he allowed several hours
to elapse before sounding the tone again,
the salivation to the tone would reapper
spontaneously.
– This proves that extinction suppresses the CR
rather than eliminating it
– Girlfriend and onion example
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Quite automatic
Tendency to respond to stimuli similar to the
CS (Pavlo the closer a stimulated spot was to
the thigh, the stronger the CR)
Can be adaptive
Food poisoning example
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Result of overtraining
Learned ability to distinguish between a CS
and other irrelevant stimuli
Being able to recognize differences is
adaptive because of vastly different
consequences
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Cognitive Processes (thoughts, perceptions,
expectations)
Biological Constraints on an organism’s
learning capacity
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An animal can learn the predictability of an
event
The more predictable the association, the
stronger the conditioned response (ex: tone
before light before shock)
The animal learns an expectancy, an awareness
Learned helplessness: hopelessness an animal
or human learns when unable to avoid traumatic
events
Classical conditioning treatments that ignore
cognition often have limited success
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Animal’s capacity for conditioning is
constrained by its biology
Each species predisposition prepare it to
learn the associations that enhance its
survival
John Garcia challenged the idea that all
association can be learned equally well
◦ Taste aversion
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Taste aversion: examples? Food poisoning?
– Secondary disgust: reminds disgusting in its own
right
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Our ancestors who learned taste aversion
were unlikely to eat toxic food and therefore
survive and reproduce
Nausea, anxiety pain and other bad feelings
serves as a good purpose (alerts the body to
a threat)
Learning enables an animals to adapt to their
environment
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Many other responses to many other stimuli
can be classically conditioned in many other
organisms
Showed us how a process such as learning
can be studied objectively
Set the stage for behaviorism to emerge
WWII article
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Former drug users and drug-using context
Body’s disease-fighting immune system
(taste accompanies a drug that influences
response)
Watson’s and “Little Albert” operate
conditioning (provided a basis)
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Organisms associate their own actions with
consequences. Actions followed by reinforces
increase; those followed by punishers
decrease
Behavior that operates on the environment to
produce rewarding or punishing stimuli is
operant behavior
Hot and Cold Example
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Operant vs. Classical
Is the organism learning associations
between events it does not control
Is it learning associations between its
behavior and resulting events
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Law of effect: rewarding behavior is likely to
recur
Skinner designed an operant chamber, where
an animal hits a bar or key to release a
reward of food or water and the device
records these responses
Skinner: WWII and pigeons
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Reinforcers such as food guide desired
behavior
First build on existing behaviors
Successive approximations-reward responses
that are ever-closer to the desired behavior
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Helps us understand what nonverbal
organisms perceive
Reward/shape unintentionally (kid examplewhining)
Shaping is important because animals rarely
performed desired behaviors
Discrimination is used to show which type of
stimulus gets the reaction that is reinforced
(red vs. green light)
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Any event that strengthens a preceding
response
May tangible reward such as food or money
or praise or attention or an activity (study
breaks)
What’s reinforcing in one situation may not
be in another (like…..)
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Positive Reinforcement-strengthens a response
by presenting a pleasurable stimulus
◦ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXh2n0aPyw (paino)
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Negative Reinforcement-strengthens a response
by reducing or removing something undesirable
or unpleasant
◦ Snooze bottom, aspirin
◦ Negative removes a punishing event (not
punishment!!!!!!)
◦ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euINCrDbbD4 (big
bang theory-operate conditioning)
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Primary-getting food when hungry are
unlearned
Conditioned-learned through association
◦ Money, good grades, pleasant tone of voice, rat
example of light in skinner box
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If the delay last longer than 30 seconds of the
act and the reinforcement, the rat will not
learn to press the bar to receive the food
Humans can respond to delayed reinforces
◦ Example???
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Learning to control our impulses (maturity)
(marshmellow video)
However, small but immediate consequences
are more alluring than big but delayed
consequences (EX??)
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Continuous Reinforcement: reinforcing the
desired behavior every time it occurs
◦ Until a behavior is mastered (quick results)
◦ Problem of extinction
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Partial reinforcement: responses are
sometimes reinforced sometimes not
◦ Slot machines
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLD17r0U2D0
◦ Even occasionally giving in: tantrums
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Fixed-ratio: reinforce behavior after a set number
of responses
◦ Reward us with free drink after every 10 purchased
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Variable-ratio: provide reinforcers after an
unpredictable number of responses (slot machines)
Fixed-interval: reinforce the first response after a
fixed time period (checking mail on delivery day)
(anticipation)
Variable-interval: reinforce the first response after
varying time intervals (email)
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__________schedule involve a time element.
Time must pass before reinforcement will
occur
__________schedule are dependent on the
behavior itself. A certain number of behaviors
are needed before reinforcement will occur.
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Reinforcement increase a behavior;
punishment does the opposite
It decreases the frequency of a preceding
behavior
Studies show that criminal behavior is not
deterred by threat of severe consequences
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Punished behavior is suppressed not
forgotten
◦ Spanking
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Punishment teaches discrimination
◦ Effective? Children learn to swear elsewhere
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Punishment can teach fear
Physical punishment may increase
aggressiveness by modeling aggression as a
way to cope with problems
◦ Spanked children are at increased risk for
aggression
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Positive (adding) punishment Negative
(subtracting) punishment:
Spanking________
Time-out________
Parking ticket_____
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Parents: reframe threats to positive incentives
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◦ Examples?
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Cognition and Operate Condition
Animals and people develop a cognitive map,
a mental representation of the maze.
◦ Rat/maze, freshmen/high school
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Latent Learning: learning that becomes
apparent only when there is some incentive to
demonstrate it
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Some learning occurs after little or no
systematic interaction with our environment
(insight: sudden novel realization)
Intrinsic motivation: a desire to perform a
behavior effectively for its own sake
Extrinsic motivation: a desire to perform a
behavior to receive promised rewards or
avoid punishment
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Excessive rewards can undermine intrinsic
motivation
◦ Promising a reward can backfire
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Rewards can be effective if used neither to
bribe nor to control but to signal a job well
done (most improved awards)
Cognitive dissonance-reconcile a conflict
between attitudes and actions. Change their
attitudes to support the actions
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Biological Understanding
◦ Biological constraints predispose organism to learn
association that are naturally adaptive
◦ Instinctive drift: even trained animals act naturally
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Applications of Operant Conditioning
School: students must be told immediately
what they did right or wrong and must be
directed to the step to be taken next
Sports: reinforce small successes and then
gradually increase the challenge
◦ Shooting/basketball
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Applications of Operate Conditioning
Work: Partial ownership (benefits from
rewards and potential risks), rewards to
increase productivity
Home: Give children attention and praise for
behaving well!!! (target specific, reward it,
watch it increase)
Self: state goals, monitor, reinforce, & reduce
rewards gradually
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Forms of associative
learning
Involve acquisition,
extinction,
spontaneous recovery,
generalization, and
discrimination
Cognitive processes
and biological
predispositions
Both/Same
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Classical: organism
associates different
stimuli that it does not
control and responds
automatically
Operate: organism
associates it operant
behaviors (those that
produce a reward or
punishing stimuli) with
their consequences
Differ
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Higher animals can learn without direct
experience through observational learning
(social learning)
We learn all kinds of specific behavior by
observing and imitating models (modeling)
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Mirror neurons: A neural basis for imitation
and observational learning
When monkey sees, these neurons mirror
what another monkey does
Imitation shapes our human behavior
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PET scans of different brain areas reveal that
humans have a mirror neuron system that
supports empathy and imitation
Helps children to infer another mental state
We grasps others’ state of mind-often feeling
what they feel-by mental stimulation
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We find ourselves yawning after observing
another’s yawn
Harder to frown when viewing a smile
Seeing a loved one’s pain, our faces mirror
their emotion
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Bobo doll experiment
◦ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHHdovKHDNU
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Those who viewed the model’s actions were
much more likely to lash out at the doll
By watching, we learn to anticipate a
behavior’s consequences in situation like
those we are observing. We are likely to
imitate people we perceive as similar to
ourselves, as successful, or as admirable
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Prosocial models can have prosocial effects
MLK drew on the power of modeling
(nonviolent action for social change)
Observational learning of morality begins early
They are most effective when their actions and
words are consistent
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Observational learning may have antisocial
effects (absusive parents-aggressive children,
men who beat their wives and wife-battering
fathers)
Research suggests that exposure to media
violence tends to lead to more expressions of
aggression
◦ However, it does not mean that EVERY person
exposed to media violence will become more
aggressive
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Violence viewing effect stems from:
◦ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrHFB2KP8fc
(Marlin Mason)
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Imitation-observed a sevenfold increase in
violent play immediately after children viewed
a more violent show (power rangers)
◦ Imitated/modeled violent acts
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Pro-longed exposure desensitizes viewers
◦ Become more indifferent (brawl, sexual violence)