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Myers’ PSYCHOLOGY
(7th Ed)
Chapter 8
Learning
James A. McCubbin, PhD
Clemson University
Worth Publishers
Learning
 What is Learning?
 relatively
permanent
change in an
organism’s
behavior due
to experience.
Learning
Most psychologists believe that learning
can best be measured through changes in
behavior.
Different Types of Learning
Classical Conditioning-learn by association of stimuli
Operant Conditioning-learn through reinforcement or
learning based on the association of consequences with
one’s behavior.
Social Learning-learn by observing & imitating others.
Cognitive Learning-learn through mental processes.
Association
 We learn by association
 Our minds naturally connect events that
occur in sequence
 i.e.-walk far away from the swings to avoid
getting hit.
 Associative Learning
 learning that two events occur together
 two stimuli
 a response and its consequences
Classical or Pavlovian
Conditioning
 We learn
to
associate
two stimuli
 Learning
that takes
place
without
any
choice.
Classical Conditioning Ivan Pavlov
 1849-1936
 Russian
physician/
neurophysiologist
 Nobel Prize in
1904
 studied digestive
secretions in dogs
Ivan Pavlov
was a Russian physiologist & absent minded
professor with a hot temper. Would yell
at his assistants for any slight mistake or
fine them if they were late to work.
He discovered that dogs learned to pair the
sounds of the environment where they
were fed, with the food that was being
given to them & would salivate upon
hearing the sounds.
His conclusion: that people and animals
can learn to associate neutral stimuli with
other stimuli.
What is a stimulus?
-anything that causes a reaction
What is a response?
-reaction to the stimulus
Classical
Conditioning
 Pavlov’s device
for recording
salivation
Pavlov’s Classic
Experiment
Before Conditioning
UCS (food
in mouth)
UCR
(salivation)
During Conditioning
Neutral
stimulus
(tone)
No
salivation
After Conditioning
UCS (food
in mouth)
Neutral
stimulus
(tone)
UCR
(salivation)
CS
(tone)
CR (salivation)
Classical
Conditioning
 Classical Conditioning
 organism comes to associate two stimuli
 a subject comes to respond to a neutral
stimulus as he would to another nonneutral stimulus by learning to associate
the 2 stimuli.
Classical
Conditioning
 Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)
 stimulus that unconditionally--automatically
and naturally--triggers a response
 Unconditioned Response (UCR)
 unlearned, naturally occurring response to
the unconditioned stimulus
 salivation when food is in the mouth
Classical
Conditioning
 Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
 The neutral stimulus that, after association
with an unconditioned stimulus, comes to
trigger a conditioned response
 Conditioned Response (CR)
 learned response to a previously neutral
conditioned stimulus. (The CR is usually the
same as the UCR)
Classical
Conditioning
 Acquisition
 the initial stage in classical conditioning
 the phase associating a neutral stimulus with
an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral
stimulus comes to elicit a conditioned
response
Classical
Conditioning
 Extinction
 The disappearance or diminishing
of a CR.
Classical
Conditioning
 Spontaneous Recovery
 reappearance, after a rest
period, of an extinguished CR
 Stimulus Generalization
 tendency for stimuli similar to CS
to elicit similar responses
Classical
Conditioning
 Discrimination
 in classical conditioning, the learned
ability to distinguish between a CS
and other stimuli that do not signal a
UCS
Behaviorism
 John B. Watson
 viewed psychology as
objective science
 generally agreed-upon
consensus today
 recommended study of
behavior without reference
to unobservable mental
processes
 not universally accepted by all
schools of thought today
Aversive conditioning
Conditioning to have a negative response
Mary Cover Jones
Mary Cover Jones
-student of Watson
-wondered if she could cure a child of a
terrible fear
-Subject was Peter, 3 year old who feared
rabbits.
Jones brought rabbit into room and gave
Peter food he liked. Peter learned to
associate the pleasure of food with his
feared object, & lost his fear of rabbits.
Operant Conditioning
 We learn to
associate a
response and
its
consequence
Edward Thorndike
Law of Effect
 Edward Thorndike’s principle that behaviors
followed by favorable consequences become
more likely, and behaviors followed by
unfavorable consequences become less likely.
 Thorndike believed that learning is
governed by the law of effect.
Instrumental learning -responses are
strengthened when they are instrumental in
producing rewards.
Operant Conditioning
 Operant Conditioning
 type of learning in which behavior is
strengthened if followed by reinforcement or
diminished if followed by punishment
Operant Conditioning
 B.F. Skinner
(1904-1990)
 elaborated
Thorndike’s Law
of Effect
 developed
behavioral
technology
Operant Conditioning
Skinner coined the term operant
conditioning, believed that how we turn
out in life is the result of what we learn
from all of the operations we make over
the years.
Operant Chamber
 Skinner Box
 chamber with a
bar or key that an
animal
manipulates to
obtain a food or
water reinforcer
 contains devices
to record
responses
REINFORCER
Reinforcer is the item that is the reward.
(Food, water, candy, money, extra credit)
Primary Reinforcer: a reward that is necessary for
survival
Secondary Reinforcer: a reward that we value
Reinforcement is the process or act itself,
of giving the reward.
Reinforcement is a consequence that
increases the likelihood of a behavior
Two Types of Reinforcement
POSITIVE- refers to
the addition of
getting something
that is pleasant.
Examples:
NEGATIVE – refers to
The removal of
something that is
unpleasant.
Examples:
EXAMPLES
1. We give the rat in the Skinner box food
when he presses a lever.
positive reinforcement
2. If we terminate a loud buzzing noise in
the Skinner box.
negative reinforcement
PUNISHMENT
IS ANYTHING THAT DECREASES
THE LIKELIHOOD OF A BEHAVIOR.
(Don’t get this confused with negative reinforcement.)
 aversive event that decreases the
behavior that it follows
 powerful controller of unwanted
behavior
-If we use an electric shock, every time a rat
touches a lever, that is punishment.
Shaping & Chaining-
are
techniques to teach more complex
responses.
 Shaping
 operant conditioning procedure in which
reinforcers guide behavior toward closer
approximations of a desired goal (learn
how to swim or play the piano)
Chaining
-Reinforcing the different steps in a
sequence.
Operant Conditioning
Schedules of Reinforcement
(methods of)
 Continuous Reinforcement
 reinforcing the desired response each time a
behavior occurs.
 Partial (Intermittent) Reinforcement




reinforcing a response only sometimes
results in slower acquisition
greater resistance to extinction
4 types of partial reinforcement
Schedules of
Reinforcement
 Fixed Ratio (FR)
 reinforces a response only after a
specified number of responses
 faster you respond the more rewards you
get
 “Rent 10 and get 1 free”
 Piece work
Schedules of
Reinforcement
 Variable Ratio (VR)
 reinforces a response after an
unpredictable number of correct
responses
 like gambling, lottery tickets
 very hard to extinguish because of
unpredictability
Schedules of
Reinforcement
 Fixed Interval (FI)
 reinforces the first correct response
only after a specified time has
passed.
 response occurs more frequently as
the anticipated time for reward
draws near
 Quiz every Friday
Schedules of
Reinforcement
 Variable Interval (VI)
 reinforces a response at unpredictable
time intervals
 produces slow steady responding
 like pop quiz
Cognition and Operant
Conditioning
 Cognitive Map
 mental representation of the layout of
one’s environment
 Example: after exploring a maze, rats act
as if they have learned a cognitive map of
it
 Latent Learning
 learning that occurs, but is not apparent
until there is an incentive to demonstrate it
Cognition and Operant
Conditioning
 Overjustification Effect
 the effect of promising a reward for
doing what one already likes to do
 the person may now see the reward,
rather than intrinsic interest, as the
motivation for performing the task
 Example: professional athlete
Cognition and Operant
Conditioning
 Intrinsic Motivation
 Desire to perform a behavior for its
own sake and to be effective
 Extrinsic Motivation
 Desire to perform a behavior due to
promised rewards or threats of
punishments
Observational
Learning
 Observational Learning
 learning by observing others
 Modeling
 process of observing and imitating a
specific behavior
 Prosocial Behavior
 positive, constructive, helpful behavior
 opposite of antisocial behavior, which is
negative, destructive, unhelpful behavior
Observational
Learning
 Mirror Neurons
 frontal lobe neurons that fire when
performing certain actions or when
observing another doing so
 may enable imitation, language
learning, and empathy
Albert Bandura and
Observational Learning
The Bobo Doll Experiment
In 1960 Bandura conducted a
groundbreaking experiment in
observational learning.
Known as the Bobo Doll experiment.
A child was playing in a room when an
adult in the room began a series of violent
behaviors towards an inflatable, Bobo doll.
The adult kicked, pushed, threw, punched
the Bobo doll and said things like: “Sock
him in the nose”, “Hit him down”, “Kick
him.”
Then the child was taken to a room with
many toys & was happily playing. The
child was interrupted & taken to another
room that just had the Bobo doll.
Children who had observed an adult
behaving aggressively with Bobo exhibited
more aggression than other children who
had not observed the adult model.
Those that had observed the attack were
more aggressive & mimicked exactly the
words & behaviors they had observed.
Martin Seligman
LEARNED HELPLESSNESS
-A condition in which repeated attempts to
control a situation fail; resulting in the belief
that the situation is uncontrollable, helpless.
-Martin Seligman
-1998, President of the APA
-developed Positive Psychology
-believes that L.H. is one cause of major
depression.
-Learning strategies can affect a person’s
relationship to the environment.
-ex: person learns that no matter what
they do, their actions have no affect, that
person might become lazy or feel helpless
and thus stop trying & think negatively
about themselves.