Learning

Learning

1. Learning is any relatively durable change in behavior or knowledge that is due to experience. Conditioning involves learning connections between events that occur in an organisms environment.

2. Classical conditioning

   • Classical conditioning initially developed by Ivan Pavlov, refers to a type of learning in which a stimulus gets the capacity to evoke a response that was originally evoked by a physically natural stimulus. Pavlov helped turn psychology in the direction of the scientific approach.
   • Phobias suggest that many irrational fears can be traced back to experiences that involve classical conditioning. Evaluative conditioning refers to changes in the liking of a stimulus that result from pairing that stimulus with other positive or negative stimulus. Classical conditioning can lead to immunosuppression which means a decrease in the production of antibodies. Drug tolerance may also be partly due to classical conditioning because of the reason a user needs more and more to get the same effect.
   • Acquisition refers to the initial stage of learning something (behavior). Extinction is the gradual weakening and disappearance of a conditioned response tendency. Spontaneous recovery is the reappearance of an extinguished response after a period of non-exposure to the conditioned stimulus.
   • Stimulus generalization occurs when a 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.
   • Stimulus discrimination 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.

3. Operant Conditioning

   • Operant conditioning is a form of learning in which responses come to be controlled by their consequences (voluntary actions)
   • 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 aversive (unpleasant) stimulus. Punishment occurs when an event following a response weakens the tendency to make that response.
   • Acquisition refers to the initial stage of learning some new pattern of responding. shaping which consists of the reinforcement of closer and closer approximations of a desired response. Extinction refers to the gradual weakening and disappearance of a response tendency because the response is no longer followed by a reinforcer.
   • Schedule of reinforcement are rules that an experimenter uses to determine when particular responses will be reinforced (strongly affects speed and strength of training). Ratio meaning a number of responses (number of lever presses). Inverval is time on the clock. Fixed is always the same. Variable means changes (around an average amount).
   • Punishment: consequences that decrease the likelihood of responding in a similar way again ex. time out-fun removed for misbehavior, driver loses license.
   • Evolutionary perspective on learning is a very general process because the biological bases of learning and the basic problems confronted by various organisms are much the same across species.
   • Bandura is a researcher who studied effects of viewing adult aggressive behavior on children; study involved a film of an adult hitting "Bono" doll, children acted out what they observed, the adult was either praised or punished.

4. Observational Learning

   • Observational learning occurs when an organism's responding is influenced by the observation of others, who are called models.
   • Mirror neurons are neurons that are activated by performing an action or by seeing another monkey or person perform the same action.