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LEARNING
Chapter 6 (Bernstein), pages 194-229
What is LEARNING?
LEARNING is the adaptive process through which experience modifies preexisting behavior and understanding; relatively permanent change in behavior based
on prior experiences
plays central role in development of most aspects of human behavior
humans and animals learn primarily by:
1. experiencing events
2. observing relationships between those events
3. noting consistencies in the world around them
3 guiding questions of psychological research on learning:
1. Which events and relationships do people learn about?
2. What circumstances determine whether and how people learn?
3. Is learning a slow process requiring lots of practice OR does it involve
sudden flashes of insight?
LEARNING ABOUT STIMULI
HABITUATION and SENSITIZATION
People appear to be genetically tuned to attend to and orient toward certain kinds of events.
These novel stimuli attract attention.
loud sounds
special tastes
bright lights
pain
Learning that involves exposure to a single stimulus is referred to as non-associative
learning.
Two simple forms of non-associative learning: habituation and sensitization
Unchanging stimuli decrease our responsiveness, and we adapt to such stimuli
(habituation)
After a response to a stimulus is habituated, dishabituation, or reappearance of
the original response, occurs if the stimulus changes.
Sensitization is an increase in responsiveness to a stimulus. (e.g.,people & animals
show exaggerated responses to unexpected, potentially threatening sights or sounds,
especially when aroused.)
LEARNING ABOUT STIMULI
Richard Solomon’s OPPONENT PROCESS THEORY
New stimulus events, esp. those arousing strong emotions, disrupt a person’s equilibrium.
This disruption triggers an opposite (opponent) response (process) that eventually restores
equilibrium.
If the event occurs repeatedly, the opponent process becomes stronger and eventually
suppresses the initial reaction to the stimulus, creating habituation.
e.g., development of drug tolerance and addiction
e.g., engagement in high risk/arousal activities such as skydiving
e.g., accidental drug overdoses
NOTE: Opponent process explanations based on habituation and sensitization cannot explain
many of the behaviors and mental processes that are the focus of psychology.
Learned associations between certain environmental stimuli and certain opponent responses
affect our thoughts and behaviors as well.
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING is one type of associative learning that builds associations
between various stimuli as well as between stimuli and responses
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:
Learning Signals and Associations
Pavlov’s Discovery
Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov’s classic experiment
taught a dog to salivate to a musical tone.
First, Pavlov confirmed a dog salivates when meat is put
on its tongue (reflex) but not when a tone sounds
(neutral stimulus).
reflex a swift, unlearned automatic response to a
stimulus
neutral stimulus a stimulus that initially does not
trigger the reflex being studied
second, he repeatedly paired the tone and the meat;
each time he sounded the bell, he put a bit of meat
powder in the dog’s mouth (the tone predicted that meat
powder was coming).
eventually, the dog salivated to the tone alone...even if
no meat powder was given.
Pavlov’s experiment showed a form of associative
learning call CLASSICAL CONDITIONING.
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:
Learning Signals and Associations
CLASSICAL
CONDITIONING
a form of associative learning in which a neutral
stimulus is repeatedly paired with a stimulus that
already triggers a reflexive response until the
neutral stimulus alone triggers a similar response
unconditioned stimulus (UCS) the
stimulus that already elicits a response
without learning
unconditioned response (UCR) the
automatic response to the UCS
conditioned stimulus (CS) the neutral
stimulus that is repeatedly paired with the
unconditioned stimulus
conditioned response (CR) the reaction
resulting from the pairing of the UCS and
the CS in which the CS alone elicits a
learned or “conditioned” response
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:
Learning Signals and Associations
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:
Learning Signals and Associations
CONDITIONED RESPONSES OVER TIME
EXTINCTION the CS occurs without UCS and the association gradually
weakens until the CR disappears; the association is not erased, just
suppressed
RECONDITIONING the relearning of the CR after extinction; requires fewer
pairings of the CS with the UCS than the original learning (because
extinction does not erase the association)
SPONTANEOUS RECOVERY the sudden reappearance of the CR after
extinction but without further CS-UCS pairings
In general, the longer the time between extinction and the representation of the CS, the stronger the recovered conditioned response
was in the first place.
e.g., when a person hears a song or smells a scent associated with a
long-lost lover and experiences a ripple of emotion (the conditioned
response)
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:
Learning Signals and Associations
STIMULUS GENERALIZATION & DISCRIMINATION
STIMULUS GENERALIZATION when stimuli that resemble the CS and trigger
a CR
The greater the similarity between a new stimulus and the conditioned
stimulus, the stronger the conditioned response
e.g., ____________________
STIMULUS DISCRIMINATION when people and animals learn to differentiate
among similar stimuli
This complements generalization by preventing people (and animals) from
being completely disrupted by overgeneralization.
e.g., ____________________
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:
Learning Signals and Associations
THE SIGNALING OF SIGNIFICANT EVENTS
Classical conditioning depends on one event reliably predicting or signaling the appearance of
another.
This leads to the development of mental representations of the relationships between important
events in the environment and expectancies about when such events will occur.
FACTORS DETERMINING WHETHER AND HOW A CONDITIONED RESPONSE IS LEARNED
1. TIMING
2. PREDICTABILITY
3. SIGNAL STRENGTH
4. ATTENTION
5. BIOPREPAREDNESS
6. SECOND-ORDER CONDITIONING
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:
Learning Signals and Associations
FACTORS DETERMINING WHETHER AND HOW A CONDITIONED RESPONSE IS LEARNED
1. TIMING The timing of the CS relative to the UCS affects the speed of conditioning.
FORWARD CONDITIONING the CS precedes and thus signals the UCS; works best
when there is an interval between the CS and the UCS (from a fraction of a second to a
few seconds to more than a minute depending on the particular CS, UCS, and UCR
involved)
BACKWARD CONDITIONING the CS follows the UCS; classical conditioning works
most slowly this way (if it even works at all)
2. PREDICTABILITY not enough for the CS and the USC to just occur together; they must
reliably occur together before classical cond. occurs; cond. is quicker when the CS always
signals the UCS and only the UCS. (e.g., Moxie and Fang’s growling and biting)
3. SIGNAL STRENGTH CR learned faster when UCS is strong rather than weak; speed with
which a CR is learned also depends on the strength of the CS (e.g., intense shock, louder
tone)
4. ATTENTION The stimulus most closely attended to, most fully perceived at the moment,
dominates the others in later triggering a CR (e.g., getting stung by a wasp at the beach
after putting on sunscreen while sipping lemonade, reading a magazine, and listening to
Beyonce’)
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:
Learning Signals and Associations
FACTORS DETERMINING WHETHER AND HOW A CONDITIONED RESPONSE IS LEARNED
5. aversions...see
BIOPREPAREDNESS
It to
was
once
believed
thatseems
any CS
had
an equal
chance
of being
associated
any UCS,
but
this
equipotential
toassociations.
be
incorrect.
Some
stimuli
are
more
easilywith
associated
with
each
other,
perhaps
because
organisms
are
“genetically
tuned”
or
“biologically
prepared”
develop
certain
conditioned
(e.g.,
taste
below)
A) A taste paired with nausea will lead to an aversion to the taste. A light and/or sound paired
with nausea produces no aversion and no learning.
WHY? Something eaten is more likely to naturally cause nausea than an audio-visual
stimulus.
B) A taste paired with electric shock will not produce an aversion (learning) to the taste. But
an audio-visual stimulus, such as lights and bells, paired with an electric shock produces
aversion (learning) to pain.
WHY? In real life, organisms should be “tuned” to associate pain from a shock with external
stimuli such as sights or sounds rather than with something eaten.
In sum, animals (including humans) are prone to learn the type of associations that are most
common or relevant to their environment.
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:
Learning Signals and Associations
FACTORS DETERMINING WHETHER AND HOW A CONDITIONED RESPONSE IS LEARNED
6. SECOND-ORDER CONDITIONING This occurs when a CS is paired with a new stimulus
until the new stimulus makes the CS act like a UCS. This creates conditioned stimuli out of
events associated with it.
(e.g., a child who has experienced a painful medical procedure at the doctor’s office)
•
UCS the painful medical procedure
•
CS the doctor’s white coat (the coat signals pain to follow...the UCS)
•
CR conditioned fear of the doctor’s office because of the pain associated with
it
•
If the child later sees a white-coated pharmacist at the drugstore, then...
•
UCS becomes the white coat
•
CS drugstore (the once-neutral store signals the appearance of the white
coat)
•
CR second-order conditioned fear of white coat due to pain associated with it
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:
Learning Signals and Associations
In Review...
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:
Learning Signals and Associations
APPLICATIONS OF CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
1. PHOBIAS extreme fears of objects/situations that dont reasonably warrant such intense fears
SYSTEMATIC DESENSITIZATION the association of a new response (relaxation) with a
feared stimulus; the CR (relaxation) replaces the old CR (fear).
2. PREDATOR CONTROL
Western
ranchers
lacesheep
muttonanwith
lithium chloride
they eat it;
this makes
undesirable
food. which makes wolves and coyotes ill after
3. DETECTING EXPLOSIVES
Researchers
are attempting
to pair attractive
scents with
the smell
of drugs
or chemicals
used
to teach insects
(such as wasps)
to detect
concealed
explosives
or
drugs.in explosives
4. PREDICTING ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE
A
puffconditioning
of air in the
eye at
paired
with
a flash
of light
willAlzheimer’s
result
in a blink
in response
to
the
lightis
alone
through
classical
conditioning.
Elderly
people
who
show
an
impairment
in
the
eye
blink
are
greater
risk
for
developing
because
the
hippocampus
involved both with the eye blink conditioning and Alzheimer’s disease.
OPERANT CONDITIONING:
Learning the Consequences of Behavior
OPERANT CONDITIONING the process through which an organism learns to respond to the
environment in a way that produces positive consequences and avoids negative ones.
Edward Thorndike’s PUZZLE BOX
using a cat in a box with several strings and levers, Thorndike devised a “puzzle box” in
which the animal had to perform tasks ranging from simple to complex to escape from the
box and receive a reward.
The cat had to correctly figure out what behaviors would allow it to get out of the box and
receive the food on the other side.
Thorndike believed the behaviors that didn’t result in escape and reward would be stamped
out (weakened) and those that DID have a positive result would be stamped in
(strengthened) and remembered forever and utilized in future similar situations.
This is the basis of the theory known as the law of effect which states behaviors resulting
in rewards are strengthened while behaviors that do no result in rewards are weakened.
Thorndike described this kind of learning as instrumental conditioning because
responses are strengthened when they are instrumental (essential or influential) in
producing rewards.
A Puzzle Box
OPERANT CONDITIONING:
Learning the Consequences of Behavior
OPERANT CONDITIONING the process through which an organism learns to respond to the
environment in a way that produces positive consequences and avoids negative ones.
B. F. Skinner’s SKINNER BOX (and another one from the Psych files)
Skinner expounded upon Thorndike’s theory by emphasizing that an organism learns a
response by trying actions that operate on the environment (operant conditioning)
An operant is a response or a behavior that affects the world; it is a response that
“operates” on the environment.
Skinner devised the “Skinner box” to analyze how behavior is changed by its
consequences.
In the Skinner box, learning was measured in terms of whether an animal successfully
completed a trial (got out of the box).
The Skinner box measured learning in terms of how often an animal responded during a
specified period of time.
A Skinner Box
OPERANT CONDITIONING:
Learning the Consequences of Behavior
According to Skinner, how a subject interacts with it’s environment is based primarily on the
reinforcement or punishment the subject received.
PUNISHMENT a stimulus that, when made contingent on a behavior, decreases the strength of
the exhibited behavior
acts as a deterrent to behavior
e.g., ______________________________
REINFORCER a stimulus that, when made contingent on a behavior, increases the strength of
the exhibited behavior, increases the strength of the exhibited behavior
necessary for the continuation of a behavior
primary reinforcers any reinforcing stimuli that satisfies a biological need (food, water, sex,
warmth, etc.)
secondary (conditioned) reinforcers any previously neutral stimuli that have gained
reinforcement value after being associated with another reinforcer (grades, money, praise,
etc.)
OPERANT CONDITIONING:
Learning the Consequences of Behavior
Skinner believed ALL behavior could be explained in one of four ways: positive reinforcement,
negative reinforcement, positive punishment, and negative punishment.
“Skinner Squares”
Appetitive (Desirable Stimulus)
Positive Reinforcement
presenting a liked stimulus, behavior INCREASES
EXAMPLES:
money for good grades
pay raise for good job performance
praise and recognition for good behaviors
Negative Punishment (Omission)
removing a liked stimulus, behavior DECREASES
EXAMPLES:
grounded for breaking curfew
“timeout” for bad behavior
The Big Bang Theory
Aversive (Undesirable Stimulus)
Positive Punishment
presenting a disliked stimulus, behavior DECREASES
EXAMPLES:
spanking for misbehavior
washing mouth out with soap for using foul
language
scolding and criticism for poor behaviors
Negative Reinforcement
removing a disliked stimulus, behavior INCREASES
EXAMPLES:
fewer chores for doing well on a test
early parole for good behavior in prison
OPERANT CONDITIONING:
Escape and Avoidance Conditioning
ESCAPE CONDITIONING occurs as an organism learns to respond to stop an aversive stimulus.
e.g., To “terminate” intense cold, person may turn up the heat in his home.
e.g., ______________________________
AVOIDANCE CONDITIONING occurs when an organism responds to a signal in a way that avoids
exposure to an aversive stimulus that has not yet arrived.
e.g., To avoid the intense cold of winter, a person may fly to a warmer environment when the
leaves have fallen from the trees but before it turns cold.
e.g., ______________________________
Avoidance conditioning is one of the most important influences on everyday behavior.
Why? ______________________________
Avoidance is a very difficult habit to break, partly because avoidance responses are often
reinforced by fear reduction. Avoidance also prevents learning of alternative behaviors.
e.g., People who avoid escalators never find out they are safe.
e.g., ______________________________
OPERANT CONDITIONING:
Discriminative Stimuli and Stimuli Control
STIMULUS DISCRIMINATION occurs when an organism learns to make a particular response
in the presence of one stimulus but not another.
When this occurs, the response is under stimulus control.
e.g., Although you are repeatedly rewarded for telling jokes during lunch, you are not
likely to do so at a funeral.
e.g., ______________________________
STIMULUS GENERALIZATION occurs in operant conditioning when organisms perform a
response in the presence of a stimulus that is similar (but not identical) to the one that
previously signaled the availability of reinforcement.
e.g., You might hold the door open for different people (of different ages, gender,
ethnicity) as you enter the building the same time they do.
e.g., ______________________________
Stimulus discrimination and stimulus generalization work together in operant conditioning. We
sometimes differentiate our behaviors based on the particular circumstance (discrimination),
but we also categorize some behaviors because the rewards for those behaviors are similar
(generalization).
OPERANT CONDITIONING:
Forming Operant Behavior
SHAPING
Forming operant behavior may require multiple trials during which
SHAPING is important.
SHAPING involves creating a new behavior based on a sequence of
rewarding behaviors that come closer and closer to the ultimate
behavioral goal (successive approximations)
e.g., teaching a child to make his bed competently
1. reward for pulling up covers
2. then reward for pulling up covers smoothly
3. then reward for pulling up covers and bedspread
4. finally reward for pulling up covers and bedspread without wrinkles
OPERANT CONDITIONING:
Forming Operant Behavior
SECONDARY REINFORCEMENT
PRIMARY REINFORCERS (food, water) are innately rewarding.
SECONDARY REINFORCERS are rewards people or animals learn to
like.
A secondary reinforcer (also known as a conditioned reinforcer is a
previously neutral stimulus that when paired with a stimulus that is
already reinforcing will take on reinforcing properties.
Secondary reinforcers can greatly enhance the power of operant
conditioning BUT vary in effectiveness from person to person and from
culture to culture.
e.g., Money alone has no innate value but having it allows a person to
buy food and other comfort items.
OPERANT CONDITIONING:
Forming Operant Behavior
DELAY AND SIZE OF REINFORCEMENT
The timing of reinforcement is important.
In general, the the effect of a reinforcer is stronger when it comes soon
after a response occurs.
The size of the reinforcement is also important.
In general, operant conditioning creates more vigorous, or intense,
behavior when the reinforcer is large than when it is small.
OPERANT CONDITIONING
Strengthening Operant Behavior: Schedules of Reinforcement
CONTINUOUS REINFORCEMENT SCHEDULE
reinforcement occurs after every desired behavior is exhibited
pro: necessary for initial learning
con: subject comes to expect reinforcement each time; when not provided, the
stimulus-response connection may quickly become extinct
e.g., rewarding a dog with a treat every time it obeys a command
PARTIAL (INTERMITTENT) REINFORCEMENT SCHEDULE
reinforcement for the desired behavior is given occasionally or periodically
elicits a greater number of the desired responses (compared to continuous
reinforcement) in the long term because it is unknown when the reinforcement will
take place
four types of partial reinforcement schedules (see next slide...)
OPERANT CONDITIONING:
Strengthening Operant Behavior
SKINNER INTERVIEW
FOUR BASIC TYPES OF PARTIAL (INTERMITTENT) REINFORCEMENT SCHEDULE (Note
that ratio schedules of reinforcement are based on behaviors performed; interval schedules of
reinforcement are based on time elapsed.)
1. Fixed-Ratio (FR) reinforcement provided after a set number of correct responses
e.g., factory workers paid $15 for every five pair of gloves produced
2. Variable-Ratio (VR) reinforcement provided after a varying number of correct behaviors
e.g., a slot machine at a casino rewarding the player after a varying number of pulls
3. Fixed-Interval (FI) reinforcement provided for the first desired response after a set amount
of time has elapsed no matter how many responses have been made during the interval
e.g., radio stations telling listeners who just won a prize they are not eligible to win
again for thirty days
4. Variable-Interval (VI) reinforcement provided after the first desired response after a
varying amount of time has elapsed
e.g., father checking son’s room randomly throughout the week to see if his room has
been cleaned; if so, the son gets more time on the computer to play video games
OPERANT CONDITIONING:
Strengthening Operant Behavior
Schedules of Reinforcement and Response Patterns
Both fixed- and variable-ratio schedules produce very high rates of responding because the
frequency of reward depends on the rate of responding.
Under a fixed-interval scheduling, the rate of responding typically drops dramatically
immediately after the reinforcement and then increases as the time for another reward
approaches.
A variable-interval schedule typically generates slow but steady responding
Schedules and Extinction
When a reinforcer no longer follows an operant response, the response will eventually
disappear.
Partial Reinforcement Extinction Effect Behaviors learned under a partial reinforcement
schedule are more difficult to extinguish than those learned through continuous
reinforcement due to the uncertainty about reinforcement under the partial schedule.
Accidental Reinforcement When a reinforcer happens to follow a behavior by chance, it
can function like a partial reinforcement schedule. This may explain learned superstitions.
OPERANT CONDITIONING:
Why Reinforcers Work
Primary reinforcers satisfy basic survival needs (such as hunger and thirst).
Premack Principle
Each person has a hierarchy of behavioral preferences at any given moment.
The higher on the hierarchy an activity is, the greater it’s power as a reinforcer.
Preferences differ from person to person and from occasion to occasion.
Reinforcers may also work by exerting particular effects within the brain.
Olds and Milner found that mild electrical stimulation of certain areas of the hypothalamus
activates the “pleasure centers” of the brain.
Activation of systems that use the neurotransmitter dopamine is associated with the pleasure of
many stimuli (including food, sex, and addictive drugs).
OPERANT CONDITIONING:
Punishment
PUNISHMENT reduces the frequency of an operant behavior by presenting an unpleasant
stimulus or removing a pleasant one. This removal is called a penalty.
Remember that reinforcement strengthens behavior; punishment weakens it.
Drawbacks of Punishment
1. It only suppresses behavior; it does not erase it.
2. It can produce unwanted side effects such as associating the punisher with the punishment.
3. It’s often ineffective unless it is given immediately after the response AND each time the
response is made.
4. Physical punishment can become aggressive, even abusive, if administered in anger.
5. Children frequently punished may be more likely to behave aggressively.
6. Punishment conveys information that inappropriate behavior has occurred but does not
specify correct alternatives.
OPERANT CONDITIONING:
Punishment
Spanking and Other Forms of Punishment Used by Parents
New studies have shown spanking can be effective behavior control technique for children
between 3 and 13.
Studies show it is NOT detrimental to children’s development IF combined with other
disciplinary practices such as:
requiring child to pay some penalty for his actions
having him provide some sort of restitution to the victims
making him aware of what he did that was wrong
Guidelines for Effective Punishment
1. Punisher should specify why punishment is being given and that the behavior, not the
person, is being punished.
2. Punishment should be immediate and severe enough to eliminate the undesirable behavior.
3. More appropriate behaviors/responses should be identified by the punisher and positively
reinforced.
OPERANT CONDITIONING:
Applications of Operant Conditioning
Parents, teachers, coaches, bosses, doctors, and wardens all use Skinner’s principles every
day.
BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION
Behavior modification is simply a change in a previous behavior to a newly desired one.
e.g., teacher ignoring inappropriate behavior and rewarding appropriate behavior
TOKEN ECONOMY
A token economy is an environment that reinforces desirable behavior by rewarding the
behavior with secondary reinforcers that can be exchanged for other reinforcers.
This form of behavior modification is seen in elementary schools, prisons, and psychiatric
hospitals.
e.g., A teacher places gold stars next to students’ names on the board when they
raise their hands before talking. After a given number of stars have been obtained,
the students are rewarded with a new pencil.
COGNITIVE PROCESSES IN LEARNING
Behaviorists (like Skinner) tried to identify stimuli and responses that build and alter behavior
WITHOUT any consideration of conscious mental activity.
Cognitive psychologists believe that the mental interpretation or representation of an event is
necessary for learning to take place.
Cognitivists (and cognitive-behaviorists) argue that both classical conditioning and operant
conditioning help organisms detect causality--an understanding of what causes what.
This means the conscious mental processes organisms use to understand their
environments and to interact with them adaptively are important.
How people represent, store, and use information is important in learning.
Learning is affected by our expectations and the meaning we attach to events--both conscious
mental processes.
COGNITIVE PROCESSES IN LEARNING
Learned Helplessness
Martin Seligman proposed the idea of learned helplessness--failure to continue exerting effort for
an outcome because all previous attempts have failed.
Operant conditioning teaches organisms they have at least some control over their
environment.
However, when people (or animals) perceive that their behaviors do not influence outcomes or
consequences, they GIVE UP.
e.g., A student tries multiple study techniques but continues to fail AP Psychology tests. The
student ultimately quits studying because his mental interpretation (or thinking) causes him to
feel hopeless and to believe no matter what he does or how hard he tries, he will still fail.
personal example:
___________________________________________________________________
COGNITIVE PROCESSES IN LEARNING
Latent Learning and Cognitive Mapping
Edward Tolman’s experiment with three groups of rats in a maze suggests learning takes place cognitively and
is not always immediately observable.
Group A: rewarded for learning maze by finding food at the end; gradually improved until they were
making only a couple of mistakes in the entire maze
Group B: received no rewards and continued to make errors throughout the experiment
Group C: received no reinforcement for running the maze for the first ten days and made many mistakes;
on the 11th day, the Group C rats received a food reward for successfully completing the maze; on day
12, Group C demonstrated the same knowledge of the maze as Group A that had been reinforced from
day 1
Tolman argued that these rats demonstrated latent learning--learning that is not evident when it first occurs.
Tolman further argued the rats developed a cognitive map--a mental representation to understand complex
patterns (e.g., the maze). He suggested cognitive maps develop naturally as a result of experience, even in the
absence of any response or reinforcement.
personal
example:___________________________________________________________________
COGNITIVE PROCESSES IN LEARNING
Insight and Learning
Wolfgang Köhler, a Gestalt psychologist, placed chimpanzees in a cage and placed pieces of fruit so they were
visible but out of the animals’ reach. Many of the chimps overcame obstacles to reach the food easily.
Köhler introduced harder tasks the chimps again solved, leading him to suggest they were NOT demonstrating
the results of gradually formed associations of responses to consequences NOR practicing trial and error.
Instead, Köhler believed the chimps suddenly saw new relationships that were never learned in the past. They
had insight--an understanding of the problem as a whole.
Köhler’s observations about the animals’ problem-solving behaviors:
1.
Once a chimp solved a problem it would immediately do the same thing if faced with a similar situations.
2.
The chimps rarely tried a solution that did not work.
3.
the chimps often reached a solution quite suddenly.
Some cognitive psychologists now think insight results from a “mental trial and error”--envisioning course of
action, mentally simulating results, comparing to imagined outcomes of other alternatives, then settling on
course of action deemed most likely to aid complex problem-solving and decision-making. In other words,
insight might be a result of learning to learn--”instantly” applying previous experiences to new ones.
personal
example:___________________________________________________________________
COGNITIVE PROCESSES IN LEARNING
Observational Learning: Learning by Imitation
Watching what another person does can affect your own behavior.
Albert Bandura conducted The Bobo Doll Experiment on a group of young children to determine the effects of
observational learning (social learning)--acquiring knowledge by watching others perform a task. This
experiment proved to be one of the most influential studies in psychology. What did he find?
The children who had seen the adult rewarded for abusing and yelling at the Bobo doll imitated the
aggressive adult the most. They received vicarious conditioning--learning by seeing or hearing about
the consequences of other people’s behavior.
The children who saw the adult punished tended not to perform aggressive behaviors, but they still
learned the behaviors.
Observational learning can occur even when there are no consequences. Many children in the neutral
condition also imitated aggressive behaviors.
Bandura’s Bobo study concluded that modeling--the imitation of behavior directly observed--plays an important
role in influencing children’s behavior. His work is the basis for the campaign against media violence because
of the negative impact such exposure can have on children.
There are important criticisms of Bandura’s work worth noting. The confounding variables of previous exposure
to violence and previous exposure to the Bobo doll toy raise legitimate questions about the degree to which
social learning theory influences our behaviors.
personal
example:___________________________________________________________________