Download Learning slide show- classical conditioning

LEARNING
INHERITED
BEHAVIOURS AND
CLASSICAL
CONDITIONING
Defining Learning
 Humans are born very poorly equipped for
independent survival and must spend most of the
first 10 to 15 years of their lives learning to survive.
 The word learning refers to the relatively
permanent changes in behaviour and cognition as
a result of experience.
 It is ongoing, adaptive, can be intentional or
unintentional, active or passive.
Learning is relatively
permanent…
 Learning is defined as being relatively permanent
because it cannot be something that is present
one moment and gone the next, or ‘here today and
gone tomorrow.’
Learning can be intentional
or unintentional…
 Learning can occur intentionally; such as when
someone makes the choice to learn how to play
the piano and takes lessons.
 Learning can be unintentional; such as while
watching or hearing someone else playing the
piano.
Learning can be active or
passive…
 Learning can be active, such as reciting your times
tables in order to remember them.
 Learning can be passive, such as when hearing
about an important event on the news or reading
something in the newspaper.
Learning is a change in
behaviour…
 The notion of change is an important part of the
definition of learning, because something must be
different about the organism after learning has
taken place.
 This change may be immediate, or it may be
delayed and occur over a period of time after the
learning.
BEHAVIOUR NOT
DEPENDENT ON LEARNING
 Learning account for most of the
behaviours that are observed in humans
and animals, however not all behaviour
has to be learned.
 What are some behaviours you can think
of that are not learned?
BEHAVIOUR NOT
DEPENDENT ON LEARNING
 Reflexes
 Fixed-action patterns
REFLEX ACTIONS
 Automatic, involuntary behaviours that do not
require prior experience and occur in the same
way each time are known as reflexes.
 Blinking when wind blows in your face
 Moving your hand from a hot object
 Reflexes allow people to deal with specific stimuli
that are important for their protection or survival
through rigid, automatic responses.
FIXED-ACTION PATTERNS
 A fixed-action pattern of behaviour occurs when
all members of a species produce an identical
response to the same specific environmental
stimuli.
 The mechanisms that control the behaviours are
‘fixed’, in that they are genetically programmed into
the animal’s nervous system and appear to be
unable to be changed as a result of learning.
 A fixed-action pattern of behaviour is a behaviour
inherited by every individual member of a species,
or if the behaviour is sex-specific, by all members
of one sex in the species.
 Fixed-action patterns differ from reflexes in that a
reflex, although inborn, usually consists of a single
or simple response, whereas a fixed-action pattern
is more complex, usually consisting of a sequence
of responses.
 Eg. Salmon migrate thousands of kilometres
through ocean waters to spawn in the rivers in
which there were born.
BEHAVIOUR DEPENDENT
ON MATURATION
 Maturation is a developmental process leading
towards maturity, based on the orderly sequence
of changes that occur in the nervous system and
other bodily structures controlled by genetic
inheritance.
 Crawling at 8-10 months of age.
 During puberty, the change in a boy’s voicebecoming deeper.
DIFFERENT KINDS OF
LEARNING
 There are many different ways to learn that are not necessarily
different from one another.
 An individual can shift from one type of learning to another in many
real-life situations.
 The form of learning that we will be looking at is called conditioning.
 Conditioning is a form of learning that emphasises the relationship
between stimuli and responses. Stimuli are events that trigger
responses.
 Conditioning is to do with how learning occurs.
CLASSICAL
CONDITIONING
Ivan Pavlov
 Russian psychologist Ivan Pavlov was the first to
describe classical conditioning as a learning
process when he was investigating the digestive
system of dogs.
 He was particularly interested in the role of salivary
secretions in the digestion of food.
 Today he is better remembered for his work on
classical conditioning.
 Pavlov surgically moved the salivary gland of a
dog into its cheek, and put a tube into the gland
which was attached to a test tube.
 The dog was placed into a harness to prevent any
sudden attempts to escape during the test period.
 Pavlov knew that dogs would salivate if food was
placed in their mouths, but he noticed that they
would also salivate before they were given food.
 At the time he believed that digestion involved a
series of reflexes, so he set out to discover what
stimulus caused this response of salivation even
before the dogs received food.
 Various stimuli were presented to the dog, and the
effects on its rates of salivation were measured.
 Pavlov noticed that the dogs began to salivate to
other stimulus’ other than the food. For example when
the lab technician entered the room to give the dogs
the food they began to salivate. Salivation was
caused by the lab technician and not the food.
 Pavlov began to test this using other stimulus’ such
as a bell, a musical tone, clapping, a light…
 The dogs had learnt to associate different stimuli with
food which caused them to salivate, rather than the
food being the cause.
Key elements of classical
conditioning
 Classical conditioning refers to a form of learning
that occurs through the repeated association of
two (or more) different stimuli.
 A stimulus is any event that elicits (produces) a
response from an organism.
 A response is a reaction by an organism to a
stimulus.
 There are four key elements of classical conditioning.
The unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned response,
conditioned stimulus and conditioned response.
 The unconditioned stimulus (UCS) is any stimulus
that consistently produces a particular, naturally
occurring, automatic response. (Food).
 The unconditioned response (UCR) is the
response that occurs automatically when the UCS is
presented.
 It is reflexive, involuntary response that is predictably
caused by a UCS. (Salivation).
 The conditioned stimulus (CS) is the stimulus that is
neutral at the start of the conditioning process and
does not normally produce the unconditioned
response. (Lab technician).
 Through repeated association with the UCS, the CS
triggers a very similar response to that caused by the
UCS.
 Association refers to the pairing or linking of one
stimulus with another stimulus. Lab technician and
food.
 The conditioned response (CR) is the learned
response that is produced by the CS. (Salivation).
Classical conditioning
example:
 Flora has a cat name Tiger. Tiger loves eating
FishDelish, a brand of cat food, which Flora feeds to
Tiger every night. Flora is curious about Tiger’s
behaviour, and she wants to understand how Tiger has
come to behave and respond in a particular way.
 Flora’s routine when she comes home from work is as
follows: she puts her keys on the kitchen sink (which
makes a clanging noise each time), then she prepares
Tiger’s dinner.
 After several days of this routine, Flora noticed that
Tiger would run up to her and salivate whenever she
put her keys on the sink.
BEFORE
CONDITIONING
DURING
CONDITIONING
AFTER
CONDITIONING
Neutral stimulus
(NS):
Neutral stimulus
(NS):
Conditioned stimulus
(CS):
Unconditioned
stimulus (UCS):
Conditioned response Conditioned response
(CR):
(CR):
Unconditioned
response (UCR):
Learning Activity 3:
Identifying elements
of classical
conditioning.
KEY PROCESSES IN
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
 The key processes in classical conditioning are:
-
Acquisition
Extinction
Stimulus generalisation
Stimulus discrimination
Spontaneous recovery
ACQUISITION
 In classical conditioning, each paired presentation of
the CS with the UCS is referred to as a trial.
 Acquisition is the overall process during which the
organism learns to associate two events (the CS and
the UCS).
 During acquisition, the presentations of the CS and
the UCS occur close together and always in the
same sequence.
 The duration of the acquisition phase is determined
by how many trials is takes for the CR to be learned.
 The shorter the period of time between the
presentation of the CS and the UCS the faster the
acquisition.
 The end of the acquisition phase is said to occur
when the CS alone produces the CR. At this point,
conditioning is said to have taken place.
EXTINCTION
 A conditioned stimulus-response association is not
necessarily permanent.
 The strength of the association may fade over time or
disappear altogether.
 Extinction is the gradual decrease in the strength or
rate of a CR that occurs when the UCS is no longer
presented.
 Some behaviours are extinguished quickly, others
take longer to extinguish.
SPONTANEOUS
RECOVERY
 Extinction of a conditioned response is not always
permanent.
 Spontaneous recovery is the reappearance of a
CR when the CS is presented, following a rest
period, after the CR appears to have been
extinguished.
 Spontaneous recovery does not always occur, and
when it does it is short lived.
 The CR tends to be weaker than it was originally
(during acquisition).
 If the extinction procedure is repeated several
times, eventually the CR will disappear altogether
and spontaneous recovery will not occur at all.
STIMULUS
GENERALISATION
 Once an organism has learned to respond to a
conditioned stimulus, other stimuli that are similar
to the CS may also trigger the CR, but usually at a
reduced level.
 Stimulus generalisation is the tendency for
another stimulus- one that is similar to the original
CS- to produce a response that is similar (but not
necessarily identical) to the CR.
 The greater the similarity between stimuli, the greater
the possibility that a generalisation will occur.
 Stimulus generalisation has a valuable adaptive role,
but can also be detrimental in some situations.
STIMULUS
DISCRIMINATION
 In classical conditioning, stimulus discrimination
occurs when a person or animal responds to the
CS only, but not to any other stimulus that is
similar to the CS.
 Eg. If someone is afraid of a particular dog, but is
not bothered by any other breed of dog in a similar
situation.
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
OF BEHAVIOUR
 Classical conditioning is one of the simplest forms of
learning.
 Classically conditioned behaviours are like reflexes in
that they occur involuntarily, however they are unlike
reflexes in that they are learned.
 A conditioned reflex is an automatic response that
occurs as a result of previous experience.
 A conditioned reflex requires little conscious thought
or awareness on the part of the learner.
 By learning to associate stimuli in our everyday
experience, we gain information about our
environment, some of which we take for granted but
which is nevertheless valuable.
 Eg.
 Packing up your books at the sound of the bell for the
end of the lesson
 Answering the door bell or phone when it rings
 Listening for thunder after a flash of lightening
 Conditioned reflexes include a range of behaviours,
one of the most researched is the emotional response.
 Sometimes an emotional response such as fear or
anger to a specific stimulus is learned through classical
conditioning.
 A conditioned emotional response is an emotional
reaction that usually occurs when the autonomic
nervous system produces a response to a stimulus
that did not previously trigger that response.
 Eg. Cringing at a dentist drill.
 While it might be beneficial to form a fear of
something that could harm you, it may be
psychologically harmful to form a fear about
something that does not normally harm you.
 Read Little Albert.
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
IN PRACTICE
 Classical conditioning is used in many therapeutic
settings, which aim to rid people of undesirable
behaviours.
 Aversion therapy
 Systematic desensitisation
 Treatment of persistent bedwetting
AVERSION THERAPY
 When people develop unwanted behaviours (that
are harmful) such as substance abuse, gambling
addiction, inappropriate sexual behaviours, it is
often difficult to help them permanently stop the
unwanted behaviour.
 It is especially hard when the behaviour is followed
by a sense of pleasure or relief.
 Aversion therapy is a form of behaviour therapy
that applies classical conditioning principles to
inhibit (block) or discourage undesirable behaviour
by associating it with an aversive (unpleasant)
stimulus.
 This may be a feeling of disgust, pain or nausea.
 The aim is to suppress or weaken the undesirable
behaviour.
 Eg. To stop nail biting- painting nails with a foul
tasting substance.
 The association between the unpleasant stimulus and
the unwanted behaviour is learned very quickly.
 Aversion therapy was first used in the 1930’s to treat
alcoholism, by giving alcoholics an electric shock
whenever they could see, taste or smell alcohol.
 Today instead of using electric shocks, alcoholics are
given nausea inducing drugs paired with alcohol
consumption to make the patient feel ill.
 UCS- NAUSEA DRUGS
 UCR- FEELING ILL
CS- ALCOHOL
CR- FEELING ILL
 The limitation to this is that some alcoholics will avoid
alcohol while taking the drugs but return to it once
therapy is finished.
 This means that the learned aversion often fails to
generalise to situations other than those under which
the learning takes place. Therefore at times the
results of aversion therapy are often short lived.
SYSTEMATIC
DESENSITISATION
 In most cases, a classically conditioned response will
become extinguished if the UCS is not paired with the
CS at least occasionally.
 Systematic desensitisation is a kind of behaviour
therapy that attempts to replace an anxiety or fear
response with a relaxation response through a
classical conditioning procedure.
 This means the client must associate being relaxed
with the anxiety or fear stimulus by a series of graded
steps.

Joseph Wolpe developed this theory and his steps
are as follows:
1.
2.
Teach the person to relax.
Break down the fear arousing stimulus into a series
of graded steps.
Steps are graded from most fear arousing to least
fear arousing.
3.

Eg. Consider a person with a fear of flying.
Most frightening
Experiencing mid-air turbulence
Taking off
Taxiing down the runway
Boarding the plane
Waiting to get on the plane
Travelling to the airport in a car
Buying a plane ticket
Least frightening
 The therapist would then ask the patient to imagine
the least frightening scene on the list. When they can
imagine doing this they would be ask to imagine the
next step and so on.
 In the end the patient should be able to imagine the
most fearful stimulus without becoming afraid.
 Real life desensitisation is the most successful.
 This eventually leads to the fear of flying being
eventually overcome.
TREATMENT OF PERSISTENT
BEDWETTING
 Some children persist in wetting their beds long after
they are toilet trained an out of nappies.
 This is called enuresis.
 Although some cases are caused by physiological
problems the condition is frequently found to be
associated with problems during:
-toilet training
-stressful situations
-underlying emotional responses.
 It is believed that enuresis was caused by an
individual failing to wake up in response to the stimuli
arising from a full bladder and that classical
conditioning could fix this.
 If a person could awaken when the bladder was full
the problem would be fixed.
 A buzzer was used to awaken the sleeping person
following the stimulation from a full bladder.
 After a series of these presentations, in theory, a
person should awake only to the feeling of a full
bladder and not the buzzer.
 A gauze pad was positioned appropriately so that the
first drop of urine was detected and set of a circuit
which sounded the buzzer.
 This proved to be a successful method for curing bed
wetting.
ETHICAL ISSUES IN
CONDITIONING BEHAVIOUR
 Confidentiality- a participants right to privacy,
meaning that in a study details about the
participants identity cannot be revealed unless
their written consent is obtained.
 In Little Alberts case, his details were published
along with his photos in a research article without
the written permission from his mother.
 Voluntary participation- the researcher must try to
ensure that participants’ involvement in the research
is voluntary. Participants must not be put under any
pressure to take part in the study.
 Although Little Alberts mother did volunteer her son
to participate in the experiment on conditioning, it is
questionable whether she was informed as to what
was actually going to happen to her son in the
experiment.
 Informed consent- wherever possible participants
must be appropriately informed of the nature and
purpose of the investigation. This must be
appropriately documented.
 It is unlikely that Little Alberts mum was properly
informed about what was going to occur throughout
the experiment and the conditions that she was
agreeing to. There is no documented paperwork to
indicate otherwise.
 Withdrawal rights- The researcher must inform
participants of the nature of the research and that
they are free to participate or to decline to participate
or to withdraw from the research.
 Little Alberts mother was not with her child when he
was being conditioned and Little Albert was too
young to make the decision himself. Meaning that
even if he should have been withdrawn he could not
have. Related to the lack of informed consent.
 Deception- when it is necessary for scientific reasons
to conduct a study without fully informing participants
of its true purpose prior to commencement, the
researcher must ensure that participants do not suffer
distress from the research procedure.
 If Little Alberts mother was not informed about the
exact procedure for the conditioning experiment there
is an element of deception involved. This is unethical
as the experiment did cause distress for Little Albert
and his mother was presumably not informed about
this.
 Debriefing- The researcher must provide an
opportunity for participants to obtain appropriate
information about the nature, results and conclusion
of the experiment.
 According to the experimenters Little Alberts mother
moved away before the experimenters had a chance
to debrief her and reverse Alberts conditioned
behaviour. Other reports suggest that although the
experimenters knew well in advance the mother was
leaving, they did not attempt to follow the debriefing
guidelines.
ONE-TRIAL LEARNING
AND TASTE AVERSION
 Take a minute to think of a food you don’t like… Why
don’t you like it?
 These reasons are personal and subjective.
 Sometimes our dislike of food occurs suddenly, yet
with little consideration.
 This is called taste aversion.
TASTE AVERSION
 A taste aversion is a conditioned response that
results from a person or animal establishing an
association between a particular food and being or
feeling ill after having consumed it at some time in the
past.
 There is an association between the CS (taste/smell)
and the UCS (nausea), the difference is that it is
usually acquired with just one trial.
ONE-TRIAL LEARNING
 One-trial learning is a form of learning involving a
change in behaviour that occurs with only one
experience.
 While one-trial learning has some of the
characteristics of classical conditioning, there are
various aspects which do not follow this model.
One-trial learning
 Classically conditioned responses usually take a
number of associations or pairings to occur, and
they can extinguish relatively quickly.
 One-trial learning is quickly acquired and
considerably resistant to extinction.
 In classical conditioning the CR occurs
immediately after the CS is presented, whereas in
one-trial learning the CR can occur as much as a
day or so after the food.
One-trial learning
 In one-trial learning generalisation does
not normally occur.
 Read John Garcia experiment page 457.