Learning

Learning

1. Conditioning

   • Conditioning involves learning connections between events that occur in an organism's environment

2. Classical conditoning

   • A type of learning in which stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a response that was origninally evoked by another stimulus
   • (sometimes called Pavlovian conditioning)

3. Pavlov's Demonstration: "Psychic Reflexes"

   • Ivan Pavlov (Russian physiologist)
     • He turned psychology from research focusing on subjective accounts of experience to a more objective and scientific approach
   • He de-emphasized the mind and mentalistic accounts of behaviour, and showed how learning was under the influence of experience
     • What pavlov had demonstrated was how learned associations - which were viewed as the basic building blocks of the entire learning process- were formed by events in an organisms environment
   • Subjects: dogs restrained in a harness
   • Their saliva was collected by means of a surgically implanted tube in the salivary gland
     • As research progressed, he noticed that dogs accustomed to the procedure would start salivating *before* the meat powder
       • The key is that the tone started out as a *neutral* stimulus, it did not originally produce the response of salivation.
         • Pavlov managed to change that by pairing the tone with a stimulus that DID produce the the salivation response
           • Through this process, the tone acquired the capacity to trigger the response
   • (In some experiments ) he used a simple auditory stimulus - the presentation of a tone. After the tone and meat powder been presented a number of times; the dog responded by salivating to the *sound* of the tone alone

4. Terminology and Procedures

   • The unconditioned stimulus
     • A stimulus that evokes an unconditioned response without previous conditioning. The unconditioned response is an unlearned reaction to an unconditioned stimulus that occurs without previous conditioning
   • The conditioned stimulus
     • A previously neutral stimulus that has, through conditioning, acquired the capacity to evoke a conditioned response. The conditioned response is a learned reaction that occurs because of previous conditions

5. The process of classical conditioning

   • Before conditioning
     • The unconditioned stimulus elicits the unconditioned response but the neural stimulus does not
     • During conditioning
       • The neural stimulus is paired with the unconditioned stimulus
       • After conditioning
         • The neural stimulus alone elicits the response; the neural stimulus is now a conditioned stimulus, and the response to it is a conditioned response

6. Evaluative conditioning

   • Refers to changes in the liking of stimulus that result from pairing that stimulus with other positive or negative stimuli
   • A neural stimulus is paired with unconditioned stimuli that trigger positive reactions so that the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus that elicits similar positive reactions

7. Conditioning and Physiological responses

   • Classical conditioning affects not only overt behaviours but physiological processes as well
   • Classical procedures can lead to immunosuppresion - a decrease in the production of antibodies
   • Immune resistance is only one example of the subtle physiological processes that can be influenced by classical conditioning
   • Studies suggest that classical conditioning, can also elicit allergic reactions and that classical conditioning contributes to the growth of drug tolerance and the experience of withdrawal symptoms when drug use is halted

8. Basic processes in classical conditioning

   • Acquisition: Forming new responses
     • Refers to the initial stage of learning something
   • Extinction: weakening conditioned responses
     • The gradual weakening and disappearance of a conditioned response tendency
   • Spontaneous recovery: resurrecting responses
     • The reappearance of an extinguished response after a period of nonexposure to the conditioned stimulus

9. Stimulus generalization

   • Occurs when an organism that has learned a response to a specific stimulus responds in the same way to new stimuli that are similar to the original stimulus
     • The basic law governing generalization is: "The more similar new stimuli are to the original CS, the greater the generalization"
   • Stimulus discrimination
     • (is just the opposite of stimulus generalization)
     • It occurs when an organism that has learned a response to a specific stimulus does not respond in the same way to new stimuli that are similar to the original stimulus
     • Organisms can gradually learn to discriminate between an original CS and similar stimuli if they have adequate experience with both

10. Higher order conditioning

    • A conditioned stimulus functions as if it were an unconditioned stimulus
    • Higher order conditioning shows that classical conditioning does not depend on the presence of a genuine, natural UCS
    • New conditioning responses are built on the foundation of already established conditioned responses
    • The phenomenon of higher order conditioning greatly extends the reach of classical conditioning

11. Operant conditioning

    • By B.F Skinner
    • The term was deprived from his belief that in this type of responding, an organism "operates" on the environment instead of simply reacting to stimuli
    • Operant conditioning is a form of learning in which responses come to be controlled by their consequences
    • Learning theorists originally distinguished between classical and operant conditioning on the grounds that the former regulated reflexive, involuntary responses, whereas the latter governed voluntary responses.
    • Skinner demonstrated that organisms tend to repeat those responses that are followed by favourable consequences
      • This fundamental principle is embodied in Skinner's concept of reinforcement
        • Reinforcement occurs when an event following is a response increases an organism's tendency to make that response

12. Thorndike's Law of Effect

    • Another name for"Operant conditioning"
    • Introduced earlier by Edward L. Thorndike (1913)
    • Thorndike wanted to emphasize that this kind of responding is often instrumental in obtaining some desired outcome
    • According to the law of effect, if a response in the presence of a stimulus leads to satisfying effects, the association between the stimulus and the response is strengthened
    • Thorndike viewed instumental learning as a mechanical process in which successful responses are gradually "stamped in" by their favourable effects
    • His law of effect became the cornerstone of Skinners theory of operant conditioning, although Skinner used different technology

13. Terminology and Procedures

    • Like Pavlov, Skinner created a prototype experimental procedure that has been repeated thousands of times
    • Pigeons and rats made ideal participants for his research. The focus was on observable behaviour. In a typical procedure, a rat or pigeon is placed in a operant chmaber that has come to be better known as a "Skinner Box"
      • An operant chamber, or skinner box, is a small enclosure in which an animal can make a specific response that is recorded while the consequences of the response are systematically controlled
    • Because operant responses tend to be voluntary, they are said to be emitted rather than elicited
      • Emit means to send forth
    • The Skinner box permits the experimenter to control the reinforcement contingencies that are in effect for the animal
      • Reinforcement contingencies are the circumstances or rules that determine whether responses lead to the presentation of reinforcers
    • The cumalitive recorder creates a graphic record of responding and reinforcement in a Skinner box as a function of time
    • Primary reinforcers are events that are inherently reinforcing, because they satisfy biological needs
    • Secondary, or conditioned, reinforcers are events that acquire reinforcing qualities by being associated with primary reinforcers

14. Acqusition and shaping

    • As in classical condition, acquisition in operant conditioning refers to the initial stage of learning some new pattern of responding
    • Operant responses are usually established through a gradual process called shaping
      • consists of the reinforcement of closer and closer approximations of a desired response
    • Shaping is necessary when an organism does not, own its own, emit the desired response

15. Extinction

    • It begins in operant conditioning whenever previously available reinforcement is stopped
    • A key issue in operant conditioning is how much resistance to extinction an organism will play when reinforcement is halted
      • Resistance to extinction occurs when organisms continues to make a response after delivery of the reinforcer has been terminated

16. Discrimitive stimuli are cues that influence operant behaviour by indicating the probable consequences (reinforcement or nonreinforcement) of a response

17. Positive reinforcement vs Negative reinforcement

    • Positive reinforcement
      • Occurs when a response is strengthened because it is followed by the presentation of a rewarding stimulus
    • Negative reinforcement
      • Occurs when a response is strengthened because it is followed by the removal of an averisve (unpleasant) stimulus
    • In escape learning an organism acquires a response that decreases or ends some aversive stimulation
    • In avoidance learning, an organism acquires a response that prevents some aversive stimulation from occuring

18. Punishment

    • Occurs when an event following a response weakens the tendency to make that response
    • Although punishment in operant conditioning encompasses far more than disciplinary acts, it is used frequently for disciplinary purposes
    • Side effects
      • Effects can carry over into adulthood, as studies find increased aggresion, criminal behaviour, mental health problems and child abuse among adults who were physically punished as children

19. Observational learning occurs when an prgaanism's responding is influenced by the observation of others, who are called models

20. Basic processes by Bandura

    • 1. Attention
      • 2. Retention
        • 3. Reproduction
          • 4. Motivation