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Learning
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Copyright © 2007 Allyn & Bacon
Learning
A relatively permanent change in behavior that
results from experience
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Habituation: The learning that occurs when
repeated exposure to a stimulus decreases an
organism’s responsiveness to the stimulus
Types of learning
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Classical conditioning
Operant conditioning
Cognitive and social learning
Copyright © 2007 Allyn & Bacon
Classical Conditioning: Examples
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Sound of a dentist’s drill: sweaty palms
Sight of significant other: smiling
Smell of a certain beverage: nausea
Noise of a can opener: cat comes running
How does this happen?
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Classical Conditioning
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Discovered (accidentally) by Ivan Pavlov
Components
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Unconditioned Stimulus (US)
Unconditioned Response (UR)
Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
Conditioned Response (CR)
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Pavlov’s Observation
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Studied digestion in dogs
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Presented meat powder
and measured salivation
Dogs started salivating
before food was
presented
Why?
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Pavlov’s Experiment: Phase 1
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Food (US): salivation (UR)
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Reflexive response
Tone: nothing
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Pavlov’s Experiment: Phase 2
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CS is repeatedly paired with the US
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A tone is sounded before the food is
presented
Acquisition
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Pavlov’s Experiment: Phase 3
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Eventually, the CS elicits a new CR.
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Classical conditioning is complete when
hearing the tone by itself causes salivation.
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Classical Conditioning:
Conditioned Emotional Response
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Avoidance learning
Conditioned emotional response
Phobias
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Little Albert
Biological preparedness
Contrapreparedness
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Easy to develop a snake phobia
Hard to develop a car door phobia
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Classical Conditioning
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Extinction
Spontaneous recovery
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Classical Conditioning
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Stimulus generalization
Stimulus discrimination
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Dissecting Conditioning
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Learning to be afraid
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Information registers in the brain
Amygdala reacts
Hippocampus helps store associations with
context
Central nucleus of amygdala kicks in
Other brain areas contribute
Sets of neurons become linked
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Classical Conditioning Applied
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Drug overdoses
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Conditioned compensatory response
Smoking: environmental cues
Therapy: systematic desensitization
Advertising: sex appeal
Anticipatory nausea
Conditioning and the immune system
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Types of Learning
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Classical conditioning
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Operant conditioning
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Cognitive and social learning
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Operant Conditioning: Examples
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Tantrums are punished: fewer tantrums
Tantrums bring attention: more
tantrums
Slot machine pays out: gamble more
Reward dog for sitting: dog is likely to
sit
How does this happen?
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Operant Conditioning
The process whereby a behavior becomes
associated with its consequences
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Thorndike’s puzzle box
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Law of Effect
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Operant Conditioning: Skinner Box
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Operant Conditioning: Principles
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Stimulus-response
Reinforcement
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Positive reinforcement
Negative reinforcement
Punishment
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Positive punishment
Negative punishment
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Effective Punishment
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Should be swift, consistent, and
appropriately aversive
Challenges
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Increase in aggressive behaviors
Fear the person who punishes
Most effective when combined with
reinforcement for desired behavior
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Reinforcement
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Primary and secondary reinforcers
Behavior modification
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Are grades in school a “token” system?
Immediate vs. delayed reinforcement
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Party tonight or study for exam in 2 days?
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Beyond Basic Reinforcement
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Generalization
Discrimination
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Discriminative stimulus
Extinction
Spontaneous recovery
Shaping
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Successive approximations
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Reinforcement Schedules
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Continuous
Partial
Fixed interval
Variable interval
Fixed ratio
Variable ratio
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Operant Conditioning and the Brain
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Dopamine
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Helps you adjust and organize your behavior
to achieve your goals
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Classical vs. Operant
Conditioning
Classical conditioning
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Learned association
between US and CS
Organism is passive
Responses elicited
Operant conditioning
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Associate response
and reinforcement
Organism is active
Responses emitted
Shared features
– Avoidance learning
– Extinction and spontaneous
recovery
– Generalization and discrimination
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Types of Learning
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Classical conditioning
Operant conditioning
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Cognitive and social learning
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Cognitive Learning
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Latent learning
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Tolman’s rats: cognitive maps
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Cognitive Learning
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Insight learning
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“Aha” experience
Sultan the chimpanzee
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Observational Learning
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Bandura’s social learning theory
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Bobo doll study
Modeling
Learning from models
Copyright © 2007 Allyn & Bacon