Learning

Learning

1. The most common types of learning are: 1. Habituation 2. Classical Conditioning 3. Operant Conditioning 4. Observational Learning

   • Habituation: New stimulus introduced to our environment we change our attention and focus on it
   • Orienting Reflex: Protects us from danger, if no danger we stop using it

2. Learning: Any relatively durable change in behavior or knowledge that is due to experience

3. Classical Conditioning

   • Contiguity: Refers to how close together the NS/CS and USC occur in time.
     • Conditioning is stronger if the unconditioned stimulus immediately follows the neutral stimulus/conditioned stimulus
   • Contingency: Refers to the degree to which the natural stimulus/ conditioned stimulus reliably signals the presentation of the unconditioned stimulus. (Inconsistency leads to weaker conditioning).
   • Learning that occurs when a neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired with an unconditioned stimulus; because of this pairing, the neutral stimulus becomes a stimulus with the same power as the unconditioned stimulus to elicit the response in the organism
   • Two Types
     • Acquisition: Initial stage of learning something (like dog drooling over sound of buzzer for food)
     • Extinction: The process of removing the association between the unconditioned stimulus and the conditioned stimulus. If the use is no longer there then the response extinguishes

4. Stimuli

   • Unconditioned Stimulus (US): A stimulus that naturally elicts a response in an organism
   • Unconditioned Response (UR):The response that is elicted by an unconditioned stimulus
   • Neutral Stimulus (NS): A stimulus that dose not respond naturally elict an unconditioned resonse in an organism
   • Conditioned Stimulus (CS): A stimulus that elicts a conditioned response in an organism