Ch. 7: Principles of Learning

Ivan Pavlov Physiologist who first demonstrated classical conditioning in the early 1900s In studying digestion, Pavlov noticed that dogs would salivate at the sight of the experimenter who normally fed them, even if that person had no food.

Pavlov’s Dogs The response always stays the same! Started with: Unconditioned stimulus (UCS): meat/food Unconditioned response (UCR): salivating Pair that with: Neutral stimulus (N): seeing experimenter Then you get: Conditioned stimulus (CS): seeing experimenter Conditioned response (CR): salivating The response always stays the same! It’s the STIMULUS that changes!

John B. Watson & Little Albert Taught Albert to be afraid of white rats by making a loud sound whenever Albert saw the rat. UCS: loud sound UCR: fear N: white rat = CS: white rat CR: fear paired

Stimulus Generalization Thought you could spread the emotion of fear from one object to another. Albert was also scared of white rabbits and other similar objects.

Mary Cover Jones Found that you could remove fears or phobias by associating the feared thing with something pleasant.

Classical VS. Operant Conditioning Operant: you learn as a result of your actions. Classical: things happen automatically.

B.F. Skinner Believed who we are is a product of what we learn from the things we do over time. If we get a positive outcome from doing something, we’re likely to do it again, and vice versa.

Primary Vs. Secondary Reinforcement Primary reinforcement: something necessary for psychological or physical survival that is used as a reward. Is unlearned and provides strongest incentive to learn. Secondary reinforcement: anything that comes to represent a primary reinforcer, such as money. You work hard in school because it gets you a good grade, which leads to the primary reinforcer of praise and love.

Positive vs. Negative Reinforcement Positive reinforcement: reinforcement that involves strengthening the tendency to repeat a response by following it with the addition of something pleasant. Example: Animal presses bar and gets food. Negative reinforcement: reinforcement that involves strengthening a response by following it with the removal of something unpleasant. Example: Animal gets shocked and learns to press a bar to stop the shock. In both types of reinforcement, the consequences of an action are something the organism WANTS.

Punishment Vs. Reinforcement Punishment: the process of weakening a response by following it with unpleasant consequences. Positive punishment: Adding something undesirable (like having to write lines). Negative punishment: Removing something desirable (like a fine) Punishment WEAKENS a behavior. Reinforcement STRENGTHENS a behavior.

Generalization & Discrimination Learning Generalization: a behavior that spreads from one situation to a similar one. Child pets his dog and it wags its tail, so the petting behavior is generalized to all dogs. Discrimination learning: learning to tell the difference between one event or object and another; the reverse of generalization. One dog bites the child, so he learns to tell the difference between different dogs.

Shaping Shaping: the process of gradually refining a response by successively reinforcing closer approximations of it. Want dog to jump through hoop, so first praise for approaching hoop, then make them walk over it for praise, until eventually they are jumping through.

Continuous vs. Partial Reinforcement Continuous reinforcement: reinforcement given each time a behavior occurs. Creature can quit responding if reinforcer isn’t there every time. Partial reinforcement: reinforcement not given each time an act is performed.

Schedules of Reinforcement Ratio – number of times Variable ratio: after a desired act is performed a specific (but changing) number of times. If you reinforce a pigeon for pecking, sometimes for 3 times, sometimes 10, etc, it will peck 10,000 times before giving up. Slot machines! Fixed ratio: after a desired act is performed a fixed number of times. Will perform as fast as possible to get maximum possible rewards. Doesn’t generally work great in factory settings, because people sacrifice quality for speed.

Schedules of Reinforcement Interval = amount of time Variable interval: after a desired act is performed following a variable (changing) amount of time. Fishing. Animals will keep working slowly because they know they will get a reward, they just don’t know when. Fixed interval: after a desired act is performed following a fixed amount of time. Pigeons that know they will be rewarded after 5 minutes no matter how fast they peck become very casual about it.

Albert Bandura & Social Learning Thought that other theorists ignored that people are complex and capable of making decisions.

Observational Learning Bandura showed that children who observe aggressive adult models become aggressive themselves.

Rewards Rewards have different effects on different people in different situations.

Expectancies We probably won’t try if we don’t think we can both do the action and also get the reward.