1. WHY AM I DROOLING? CONDITIONING VERSUS COGNITIVE LEARNING
Lesson Plan 5

2. Competency Describe conditioning from a behaviorist perspective.
Differentiate between classical and operant conditioning.
Summarize cognitive learning concepts.
Explore the dissonance between conditioning and cognitive learning.

3. Overview
John Watson, who was an extreme environmentalist—meaning he thought the environment had more effect on human behavior than genetics—made this statement in 1928: Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own special world to bring them up in, and I'll guarantee to take any one of them at random and train him to be any type of specialist I might select—doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant- chief, and, yes, beggarman and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors.

4. Behaviorism
Research on learning is influenced by this school of thought
Human behavior defined by observable acts or events
Does not take into account mental capabilities such as mind, will, or thought
Conditioning- associations between environmental stimuli
Stimulus-response (S-R) Psychology
Classical and operant conditioning explains much of human behavior
Environmental rewards and punishers maintain or discourage specific behaviors

5. Classical Conditioning
Learning, behaviorism, and conditioning all related to form classical conditioning
Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior
Behaviorism emphasizes the study of observable behavior and the role of environment in changing behavior
Conditioning- association between something in the environment and the organism’s responses
Classical conditioning- process previously neutral stimuli begins to elicit a response because of an association to stimuli that already elicits that response
Ivan Pavlov- most well-known in classical conditioning

6. Principles of Classical Conditioning
Acquisition- initial learning stage of classical conditioning- neutral stimuli become conditioned stimuli that create conditioned responses
Extinction- process of a behavior response being unlearned. Involves the weakening and eventual disappearance of a learned response. Conditioned stimulus is no longer paired with the unconditioned stimulus.
Higher-order conditioning neutral stimulus can become a conditioned stimulus by pairing with an already established conditioned stimulus. (Food bowl/salivate; light and food bowl/salivate; light/salivate)
Stimulus generalization - properties of a new stimulus elicit responses from a previously conditioned stimulus. When a new stimulus that resembles a conditioned stimulus elicits the conditioned response.
Stimulus discrimination - different conditioned stimuli elicit different conditioned responses. Tendency of a subject to respond differently to two or more similar stimuli.
Spontaneous recovery is the re-emergence of the learned response after the obvious extinction.

7. Operant Conditioning
Basic Law of Learning- “Behavior becomes more likely or less likely to occur, depending on its consequences.”
Focus on environmental consequences- heart of operant conditioning
Learning process depends on the consequences of the behavior
Operant conditioning responses are complex and not reflexive
Operant conditioning is the process by which a response is more or less likely to occur depending on its consequences. Reinforcement, punishment or neutral consequences are the results of behavior.
A neutral consequence neither increases nor decreases the probability that the response will recur.
Reinforcement (which is a consequence of choices we make) strengthens the response, increasing the probability that it will recur.
Punishment (which is also a consequence of choices we make), weakens the response, decreasing the probability that it will recur.

8. Operant Conditioning 2 types of reinforcement
Positive reinforcement is any pleasant consequence following a response that makes the response more likely to occur again.
Negative reinforcement is the removal of any unpleasant consequence following a response that makes the response more likely to occur again.
2 types of punishers
A positive punisher is at work when something unpleasant or aversive occurs as a consequence following a chosen behavior.
A negative punisher is applied when something pleasant is removed as a consequence following a chosen behavior.

9. Principles of Operant Conditioning
Extinction- weakening and eventual disappearance of a learned response. In operant conditioning, extinction occurs when a response is no longer followed by a reinforcer.
Stimulus generalization- the tendency for a response has been reinforced (or punished) in the presence of one stimulus to occur (or be suppressed) in the presence of other, similar stimuli. Stimuli that are similar to the original stimulus are more likely to trigger a response.
Stimulus discrimination- tendency of a response to occur in the presence of one stimulus but not in the presence of other, similar stimuli that differ from it on some dimension.
Continuous reinforcement- results in quicker learning. When we first acquire a response, we learn more quickly if the desired response is reinforced each time it occurs. We are learning on a continuous reinforcement schedule. However, once a desired response is occurring reliably, it will be much more resistant to extinction if it is rewarded only part of the time that it actually occurs. Only some of the responses emitted will be directly rewarded. This maintenance schedule of learning is called an intermittent or partial schedule of reinforcement.
Shaping- successive approximations of a desired response are reinforced until that response is learned in its entirety. Shaping is used to teach complex behaviors.

10. Cognitive Learning Concepts
Most learning theories heavily influenced by behaviorism.
Learning theories thought most learning could be explained by Behavioral ABC’s
Antecedents (events preceding behavior)
Behavior
Consequences
Behaviorist thought the mind was a “black box”- the inner workings could only be observed
By the 1930s some wanted to begin to study the inner workings

11. Latent Learning
Edward Tolman-behaviorist researcher
Watched his rats pausing in their mazes and seemed to be deciding their direction. He wanted to study decision-making with C.H. Honzik
Results demonstrated latent learning
Latent learning is learning which is not immediately expressed in some observable performance.
Latent learning is significant not for the specific response, but knowledge about responses and their consequences
Much of human learning remains latent until circumstances allow or require its expression
According to Wade and Tavris (2003), we learn how the world is organized through the acquisition of knowledge about responses and their consequences. It is this knowledge that invites creativity and flexibility in planning and goal attainment.

12. Social-Cognitive Learning Theories
1950- Dollard and Miller proposed a major shift in radical behaviorism
New prospective- social-learning theory
Most learning acquired through observing other people in a social context, not through conditioning
Behavior is learned and maintained through observation and imitation of others.
Behavior is learned and maintained through positive consequences.
Such learning is cognitively processed.
Humans make decisions and plans; have expectations and form beliefs through environmental observations.

13. Conditioning and Cognitive Learning Dissonance
Behavioral and social-cognitive perspectives differ in philosophy, but both emphasize ability of individuals and societies to grow and change.
We can be proactive. We can change reinforcers
Steven Covey (1990) insists that the basic attribute of self-awareness gives us the ability to choose our responses to the stimuli that enter our lives.
We may not be able to choose that environment at the moment. It is not what happens to us but our response to what happens to us that truly matters. By choosing our actions and reflecting upon them, we can exercise our uniquely human endowments of self- awareness, imagination, conscience and independent will. We can change ourselves and maintain that change over time.

14. Homework
Readings: Lesson Plan 7 and supplemental readings and Lesson Plan 8 and supplemental readings
Assignments: Discussion 7.1 or 8.1 or 8.2
Assignment: Breaking the Norm (2-3 page paper) 40pts- Due November 1st 14

15. Video Options A Beautiful Mind Crash Girl, Interrupted Thirteen
The Experiment
The Butterfly Effect
What About Bob
The Long Kiss Goodnight
Analyze This
I Am Sam
Matchstick Men
Ordinary People
Prime