CHAPTER 6: LEARNING

CHAPTER 6: LEARNING

1. CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

   • Learning: any relatively durable change in behaviour or knowledge that is due to experience
   • Conditioning: involves learning connections between events that occur in an organism's environment
   • Developed by Ivan Pavlov which refers to a type of learning in which a stimulus gets the capacity to evoke a response, that was naturally evoked by a physically natural stimulus
   • It is presumed to be the cause of many of our fears
     • A phobia is an irrational fear of specific objects or situations
   • TERMINOLOGY OF CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
     • Unconditioned Stimulus (US): a stimulus that automatically leads to an observable response prior to any training (natural reflex response)
     • Unconditioned Response (UR): the observable response that is produced automatically, prior to training on presenting the unconditioned stimulus
     • Conditioned Stimulus (CS): the neutral stimulus that is paired with the unconditioned stimulus during classical conditioning
     • Conditioned Response (CR): the acquired response produced by the conditioned stimulus in anticipation of the unconditioned stimulus
     • Trial: a presentation of a stimulus or pair of stimuli
     • Evaluative Conditioning: changes in the liking of a stimulus that results from pairing the stimulus with other positive or negative stimuli
   • BASIC PROCESSES IN CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
     • Acquisition: acquiring (learning_ the new behaviour
       • something novel, unusual or intense that results in classical conditioning
         • stimulus contiguity refers to how close the stimuli are together
     • Extinction: Presenting a CS repeatedly, after conditioning (without US) that results with no response
     • Spontaneous Recovery: recovery of the extinguished CR after a period of nonexposure to the CS
     • Renewal Effect: if a response is extinguished in a different environment from where it was acquired, it will reappear again when returned to the original environment
     • Stimulus Generalization: responding to a new stimulus in a way similar to the response produced by an established CS
       • things that look, sound or feel similar share significant properties
       • Remember: little Albert with the white rat and loud noises
     • Stimulus Discrimination: responding differently to a new stimulus than one responds to established CS
       • when stimuli share properties, people often learn to discriminate
     • Higher Order Conditioning: once a conditioned stimulus elicits a response, this conditioned stimulus can be paired with another stimuli which also elicits the same response
   • THE CASE OF LITTLE ALBERT
     • Little Albert was conditioned by Watson to fear a white rat by associating it with loud noises
     • The conditioned fear then generalized to other objects
     • In addition, Watson found that Little Albert developed phobias of objects which shared characteristics of the rat

2. OPERANT CONDITIONING

   • Form of learning in which responses come to be controlled by their consequences of their own voluntary actions
     • ex: learning that studying learns o a good exam mark
   • Law of Effect (Thorndike): if a response in a particular situation is followed by a satisfying consequence, it will be strengthened; if unsatisfying. it will be weakened
   • 4 TYPES OF CONSEQUENCES
     • Two R's for Reinforcements
       • Positive Reinforcement-- reward-- receive a reward for performing a behaviour
         • you get paid from working, so you will most likely go to work again
       • Negative reinforcement--relief--experience relief from something awful
         • you take an Advil for a bad headache, your headache will go away so you will take an Advil again eventually
     • Two P's for Punishment
       • Punishment: you get yelled at for leaving your towels on the floor, you will be less likely to leave them there again the next time
         • punishments decrease the likelihood of responding in a similar way again
       • Penalty: you don't do the dishes so you can't have dessert, so the next day you will be more likely to do the dishes
   • NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT AND AVOIDANCE BEHAVIOUR
     • Escape Response: learning a response to end or decrease an aversive stimulus
       • for example- turning on a fan when it gets really hot
     • Avoidance Response: acquiring a response that prevents some aversive stimuli from even occurring at all
       • for example- turing on the fan before it gets really hot in the room
   • TERMINOLOGY OF OPERANT CONDITIONING
     • Resistance to Extinction: sometimes you want resistance (positive behaviours), that are affected by schedules of reinforcement
     • Primary Reinforcers: events that are reinforcing because they satisfy biological needs, which is like food, water and sex
     • Secondary/ Conditioned Reinforcers: associated with primary reinforcers and so acquire reinforcing qualities, such as money, good grades and attention
     • Extinction: when the response is no longer followed by a reinforcer; when the reinforcer is withdrawn the subject often increases the behaviour
     • Shaping: Rewarding the subject for completing a complex task, until the whole task is completed; such as a rat running a maze and finding cheese along the way
     • Acquisiiton: refers to the initial stage of learning a new response
     • Reinforcements: occurs when an event following a response increases the subjects tendency to make that response
   • SCEHDULES OF REINFORCEMENT
     • The rules experimenters use to determine when particular responses will be reinforced; they affect the speed and strength of the training
     • continuous: every response followed rapidly by reinforcement
     • intermittent or partial reinforcements are only delivered some of the time which. they can be Ratios or Intervals
     • GLOSSARY
       • ratio: number of responses
       • interval: time on the clock
       • fixed: always the same
       • variables: changes around an average amount
     • RATIO SCHEDULES
       • Fixed Ratio Schedules
         • number of responses required for reinforcement to stay the same
         • steady, consistent rates of responding
         • extinction when reinforcement is no longer giiven
       • Variable Ratio Schedules
         • a certain number of responses required for reinforcement, but the number changes
         • extinction takes much longer
     • INTERVAL SCHEDULES
       • Fixed Interval
         • reinforcement delivered for first response after a fixed allotment of time
         • tend to produce low rates of responding and a "scalloping" pattern
       • Variable Interval
         • allotted time before a response will yield reinforcement changes

3. OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING

   • results of observing the experiences of others, which is also referred to as social learning or modelling
   • many of the skills we are proficient in, we first learned through observational learning
   • it is the natural tendency to imitate behaviour of significant others, who include teachers or parents
   • it is strongest when the model is viewed positively or the model is rewarded for the modeled behaviour
   • television models negative behaviour such as aggression or violence
   • OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING AND MEDIA VIOLENCE
     • Watching T.V. excessively is linked to obesity, lower academic performance and violence/aggression
     • exposure media violence in children predicts aggressiveness in adolescence and adulthood
   • OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING AND MIRROR NEURONS
     • Mirror neurons are neurons that are activated by performing an action or by seeing another subject perform the same action
     • they play a role in pain and empathy and in learning motor skills

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