Learning theories

Learning theories

1. The learning approach comes from behaviorism.

   • Behaviorists believe we all born as blank slates.
     • They believe we can change peoples responses, as no responses are set except simple reflexes. Therefore behaviorist therapy aims to change responses and help people learn to respond more positively to the world.
       • Animals learn things in the same way, this means that behaviorists see humans as similar to animals, therefore we can do experiments on animal learning and generalize the findings to humans.
     • Nurture side of nature vs. nurture.
   • They believe we are all born identically everything about us is shaped by our interactions with the environment. They say everything about our personality is programmed by the world around us.
     • For example we can be influenced by parents, friends, school and media etc. The reasons for individual differences are that everybody has a different set of environmental stimuli which shape their behavioral responses.
     • Differs from other approaches, in that you don't have any 'inner' personalities. Your personality is simply the way you respond to environmental stimuli.
     • Stimulus: anything in the environment that has an impact on us. Can be simple and direct e.g. cold weather, being hit, eating food that tastes nice to us. Or something more complex e.g. being criticized, winning money, being stared at, seeing a speed limit sign.
     • Response: this is how we respond to these stimuli. We have a few instinctive responses/ reflexes e.g. we shiver when cold, flinch when hit and jump at loud noises. However the rest of our responses are learnt e.g. we laugh at a joke, cry when insulted, shout at a football match and slow down at a speed limit.

2. Social learning theory: We learn by copying others. e.g. we copy the dress sense of people we admire.

3. Operant conditioning: We learn by being rewarded or punished. e.g. you tell a joke and people laugh, so you repeat this joke to others.

4. Classical conditioning: We learn when 2 things happen at the same time (or one thing happens just before another). e.g. the cat hisses just before it scratches you. You soon learn that hissing and scratching go together and to get out of the way when the cat hisses.

   • Involves learning by association; learning to associate two things that occur together
   • Pavlov's 1927 experiment with salivation in dogs.
     • Origionally did work on the digestive system. Whilst studying this stumbled on a phenomenon. His ambition was to discover the neural mechanisms controlling glandular secretion during digestion. He measured the secretions during the course of a meal by inserting small tubes in a duct in an animals mouth which collected saliva.
       • All went well until the dogs became experienced subjects. After several sessions the dogs began to salivate before being fed, as soon as the lab assistant entered the room. What had been discovered was a form of learning which one stimulus predicts the occurrence of another. In this case the appearance of the lab assistant predicted the appearance of food.
         • Pavlov designed eperiments to discover exactly why the dogs were salivating before being given the oppourtunity to eat. He suspected that salivation might be triggered by stimuli that were initially unrelated to eating. Somehow, these neutral stimuli came to control what is normally a natural reflecive behabiour.
           • He placed an inexperienced dog in a harness and occasionally gave it small amounts of food powder. Before placing the food powder a bell or a buzzer was sounded or some other auditory stimulus. At first the dog showed only a started response to the sound, perking its ears and turning its head forward. After a dozen or so pairings the dog began to salivate when the bell rang, so placing the food powder in the dogs mouth was no longer necessary to elicit salivation, sound by itself was sufficient.
             • Pavlov showed that a neutral stimulus can elicit a response similar to the original reflex when the stimulus predicts the occurrence of a significant stimulus.
           • Classic conditioning only occurred when the presentation of the bell and the food powder was in short succession. If there was a long delay the animal never learned to salivate when it heard the sound. Thus, the sequence and timing of events are important factors in classical conditioning.
             • Before conditioning: The process starts with an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) that automatically provokes an unconditioned response (UCR). The stimulus and response are called unconditioned because the response is bound to happen.
               • During conditioning: The UCS is then paired with a neutral stimulus (NS). It is neutral because at this stage is does not produce the response. The UCS still gives the UCR as before, not the NS.
                 • After conditioning: After a few pairings, the NS on its own produces the response and at this stage, when the NS is producing the response on its own, it becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS). The response is now a conditioned response (CR)- it is conditioned to occur in response to the stimulus alone.
                   • UCR (unconditioned stimulus)- a stimulus that causes an automatic or reflex response.
                   • UCR (unconditioned response)- an automatic reflex response.
                   • NS (neutral stimulus)- a stimulus that causes no response.
                   • CS (conditioned stimulus)- a stimulus that when linked with an unconditioned stimulus, causes a learnt conditioned response.
                   • CR (conditioned response)- a learnt response to a conditioned stimulus.
   • Principles of classical conditioning: Extinction- If a conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus then the conditioned response will disappear. E.g. when the bell kept ringing without food the dogs eventually stopped salivating.
   • Principles of classical conditioning: Spontaneous recovery- If a response is classically conditioned and then extinguished, the response may suddenly reappear when the conditioned stimulus is presented after a delay. E.g. The bell was not rang for 2 weeks after ringing the bell with no food which extinguished the conditioned response, he then did ring it and the dogs salivated.
   • Principles of classical conditioning: Stimulus generalization- Once a response has been conditioned to a conditioned stimulus, similar stimuli will also elicit that response. The more closely the other stimuli resemble the CS, the more likely they will elicit the CR. E.g. Pavlov discovered once a dog learned to salivate when it heard a bell it would also salivate when it heard a bell with a different tone or a buzzer.