Learning
What is Learning? a relatively permanent change in an organism’s behavior due to experience
Behaviorism The psychological domain that argues that psychology should be an objective science
Pavlov Russian scientist that studied the affect of salivation on digestion Problem: Dogs would start salivating before they got food. Solution: Forget the digestion, let’s study learning!
Learning Pavlov noticed the dogs salivated naturally when they ate. He paired bringing food with ringing a tone. After a while he rang the tone, but didn’t bring food. What did the dogs do?
Classical Conditioning A form of learning where an organism learns to associate stimuli
4 Parts of Classical Conditioning Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)- something that causes a natural response Unconditioned Response (UCR)- what happens naturally as a result of the UCS Conditioned Stimulus (CS)- a previously neutral stimulus that, after learning, produces the natural response Conditioned Response (CR)- same as UCR, but in response to the CS
4 Parts of Pavlov UCS- UCR- CS- CR-
4 Parts of Pavlov UCS- Food UCR- Salivation CS- Tone CR- Salivation
Other examples? Flinching when seeing lightning Shocking animals after a tone Fear of drawing/tests
Parts of Learning
Parts of Learning Acquisition- gaining learning Extinction- when the CS is no longer paired with the UCS, learning is lost Spontaneous recovery- after extinction, if one waits awhile, learning can come back
Generalization Conditioned responses occurring for similar stimuli (even ones that aren’t conditioned) Example: Children fearing cars and learn to avoid motorcycles and trucks as well
Discrimination The ability to tell the difference between stimuli Example: Being afraid of pit bulls but not beagles
Examples of Classical Conditioning http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hBfnXACs OI (John Watson, Little Albert) http://teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?title=T he_Office_Conditioning&video_id=247611 (The Office)
Aversive Conditioning Using classical conditioning to keep animals (people) away from harmful substances Developed by Garcia after studying taste aversions in rats What things won’t you eat any more?
Applications of Classical Conditioning Teaching people new things Psych Therapy Aversive Conditioning
Operant Conditioning A type of learning that teaches using reinforcement and punishment
B.F. Skinner English major who decided to study psychology as a graduate student Focused on Thorndike’s law of effect: rewarded behaviors will likely be continued Taught animals tricks
Principles of Operant Conditioning Reinforcement- Something that causes a behavior to increase Positive- good behavior results in a reward Negative- good behavior results in taking away something bad Punishment- Something that causes a behavior to decrease
Shaping When behavior is trained through closer and closer approximations
Types of Reinforcement Primary- innately satisfying (meets a need) Food Secondary- paired with primary to become satisfying Money Immediate- happens right now Get a treat for answering a question Delayed- reward comes in the future Graduating high school
Reinforcement Schedules Fixed-interval- behavior is reinforced for the first desired response after a specific time Baking time on a cake Variable-interval- behavior is reinforced for the first desired response after a variable time length Getting e-mail Fixed-ratio- behavior is reinforced after a specific number of responses You can take a break from homework after completing 2 assignments Variable-ratio- behavior is reinforced after an unpredictable amount of responses Traveling salesperson
Punishment Reduces behavior Why? Applying something undesirable Taking away something desirable
Motivation Extrinsic- Outside of you Rewards and punishments Intrinsic- Inside of you Event is valuable for its own sake
Legacies of BF Skinner Computers at school Rewards at school/work Child-rearing
Cognition in learning Sometimes we learn without being conditioned Known as latent learning
Observational Learning We learn things from watching others Monkey see, monkey do
Albert Bandura Bobo Doll experiment Children watched a video of an adult beating up a Bobo doll Children beat up the Bobo doll http://www.youtube. com/watch?v=eqNaLe rMNOE
Biological Basis? Mirror Neurons- fire when performing an action or see someone else doing it Provides the foundation for observational learning