General Psychology

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General Psychology

• Chapter 5 Learning

Life is not measured by the breaths we take, but
by the moments that take our breath away.
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Classical Conditioning

• Classical conditioning is a learning process in
  which one stimulus is associated with, and comes
  to predict, another stimulus, thus leading to a
  similar response.

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• The Unconditioned Stimulus (US) is unlearned and
  leads to an automatic response, the Unconditioned
  Response (UR)
  
• The Conditioned Stimulus (CS) is a neutral
  stimulus that, after repeated pairing with an
  unconditioned stimulus, becomes associated with
  it and leads to a Conditioned Response (CR)

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• Pavlov
• Conducted a study on dogs where he collected the
  saliva that the dogs would secrete naturally in
  response to food placed inside the mouth
  
• he then observed saliva collecting when the dogs
  heard their food dishes rattling, when they heard
  the laboratory assistants coming to feed them,
  and when they saw the attendant who fed them or
  saw food

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• Pavlov demonstrated that dogs could be
  conditioned to salivate to a variety of stimuli
  never before associated with food
  
• Meat powder (US) salivation (UR)
• Bell (CS) just before meat powder salivation
  (CR)

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Modern Day Pavlovs Pets

UR
CS
US
CS
CR
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So what does this have to do with us?

• It influences our behavior, thoughts, and emotions

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• You can learn something similar.
• Look at the next page and try to relax, imagining
  yourself there

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Other terms to know

• Extinctionthe CS is presented repeatedly without
  the US, so you stop responding to the CS
  
• Often used in therapya snake is repeatedly
  presented to you (live or in imagination)
  
• without any harm coming to you
• Spontaneous recoveryafter extinction has
  occurred, you respond weakly again to the CS
  
• After you and your love have broken up and you no
  longer like the smell of his/her cologne, you
  catch a whiff of it a month later and feelings of
  love stir again, though weakly

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• Generalizationyou respond with the CR to stimuli
  that are similar to the CS
  
• A war veteran jumps when a book falls with a
  bang, reminding the veteran of bombs in war
  
• Discriminationyou dont respond to stimuli that
  are similar to the CS
  
• You dont jump at the sound of the coffee
  grinder, even though it first reminds you of the
  dentists drill

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• Higher-order conditioning
• Conditioning that occurs when conditioned stimuli
  are linked to form a series of signals
  
• E.g. You start to shake at just the sight of the
  lab for blood work or the dentists office
  because you associate it with the original CS

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Benefits of Classical Conditioning

• It allows us to predict and prepare
• It can be biologically adaptive
• It can be biologically protective

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Biological bases

• The Limbic system
• The hippocampus makes the memories
• The amygdala attaches strong emotional/ fear
  responses to memories

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• Factors influencing classical conditioning
• There are four major factors that facilitate the
  acquisition of a classically conditioned
  response
  
• How reliably the conditioned stimulus predicts
  the unconditioned stimulus
  
• The number of pairings of the conditioned
  stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus
  
• The intensity of the unconditioned stimulus
• The conditioned stimulus occurs just before the
  unconditioned stimulus

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Other Examples

• What happens when you smell coffee?

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• What happens when you smell the perfume or
  cologne of your first love?

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• What happens when you see this man (Hitler)?

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• What happens when you see and smell these foods?

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• What happens at the eye doctors when they puff
  air in your eye?

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What happens when you hear and see this?
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Advertisements and Commercials

• Take 2 minutes and write down any ads that come
  to mind. Share them with your group and compare
  ideas. Plan to share with the class?
  

XC opportunity describe five print or TV ads
and ID the US, UR, CS, CR for each (due in one
week)
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Taste Aversions

• If youve ever had food poisoning, you usually
  avoid that food for a long time!
  
• Addictions treatment sometimes purposely uses
  taste aversion to treat some alcoholics
  
• Use a drug (Anabuse) that makes the person very
  ill if they drink anything with alcohol

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Sometimes classical conditioning gets in the way

• Chemotherapy
• Patients become so ill, they associate food, the
  hospital, nurses, doctors, and other cues with
  the chemo
  
• If give a unique, strong food first, patients are
  less likely to associate the illness with the
  chemo and related cues and instead blame the food

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• Drug users
• Relapse is so likely because of the cues
  associated with using in their environments

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• Phobias/emotional conditioning
• Blood drawn/injections
• Dentist
• Loud noises

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Instilling phobias

• Watson and Rayner conducted a study to prove that
  fear could be classically conditioned
  
• The subject of the study was known as Little
  Albert
  
• Loud noise (US) Fear, crying (UR)
• Presented white rat (CS) just before loud noise
• White rat (CS) Fear, crying (CR)

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Idea

• Go to the following website and read the original
  article by Watson and Rayner regarding Little
  Albert.
  
• Website http//psychclassics.yorku.ca/Watson/e
  motion.htm

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Why are phobias so easily conditioned?

• We are biologically predisposed to fear things
  that can harm us
  
• You are more likely to develop a phobia to
  snakes, bees, spiders, heights than to flowers,
  leaves, grass, the desert
  
• You develop taste aversions so you will avoid
  poisonous foods

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• Watson also had ideas for removing fears and laid
  the groundwork for some behavior therapies used
  today
  
• Watson and Jones found 3-year-old Peter, who was
  afraid of rabbits, and tried Watson's
  fear-removal techniques on him
  
• Peter lost his fear by pairing candy with the
  sight of the rabbit, which moved closer each time

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You try it

• Pair up. One of you will be the experimenter, the
  other the participant. Choose one of the
  following
  
• Experimenter stands behind the participant and
  uses a pencil to tap the desk 3 times and then
  the students head. Do this 5 times in a row and
  on the 6th time, tap the desk but not the
  persons head. See what the participant does.
  Wait 2 minutes and tap the desk again. What
  happens?
• Take the resting pulse of the participant.
  Experimenter taps pencil on the desk 5 times and
  then participant gets up and hops on 1 leg for 30
  seconds. Take pulse. Repeat this 4 more times.
  Participant then rests for 2 minutes. Tap desk
  again 5 times but do not have participant hop.
  Take pulse.
• Record your data.

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Use It in Your Life

• Pick one or two places to do all of your
  studying
  
• You will learn to associate that environment with
  learning
  
• Even better, study in the empty classroom where
  you will be tested
  
• The place should be one that is not already
  associated with non-learning activities (e.g.,
  dont use your bed)

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Operant Conditioning

• B. F. Skinner
• Pioneer in operant conditioning
• Believed that the causes of behavior are in the
  environment and do not result from inner mental
  events, such as thoughts, feelings, or perceptions

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• Operant conditioning
• A type of learning in which the consequences of
  behavior are manipulated in order to increase or
  decrease that behavior in the future
  
• Reinforcer
• Anything that strengthens a response or increases
  the probability that it will occur
  

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• Positive and negative reinforcement
• Positive reinforcement
• A reward or pleasant consequence that follows a
  response and increases the probability that the
  response will be repeated
  
• E.g. A child who gets an MM for using the big
  potty is more likely to use it in the future.
  
• Negative reinforcement
• The termination of an unpleasant stimulus after a
  response in order to increase the probability
  that the response will be repeated
  
• E.g. If you are grounded until you clean your
  room, you are more likely to clean it in the
  future to avoid grounding.
  

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• Primary and secondary reinforcers
• Primary reinforcer
• A reinforcer that fulfills a basic physical need
  for survival and does not depend on learning
  
• Examples are food, water, sleep,
• warmth/ coolness, sex
• Secondary reinforcer
• A neutral stimulus that becomes reinforcing after
  repeated pairings with other reinforcers
  
• Examples are money, grades, praise, attention,
  approval

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• Shaping behavior
• Shaping
• An operant conditioning technique that consists
  of gradually molding a desired behavior
  (response) by reinforcing responses that become
  progressively closer to the desired behavior

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• Extinction
• The weakening and eventual disappearance of a
  learned response when reinforcers are withheld
  
• When parents stop praising homework, the child
  stops turning it in
  
• Temper tantrums end when parents stop giving in
  to them
  
• Spontaneous recovery also occurs in operant
  conditioning
  
• The return of a previously extinguished response
• A brief tantrum reoccurs just to see what Mom and
  Dad will do

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• Generalization in operant conditioning is the
  tendency to make the learned response to a
  stimulus similar to the one for which it was
  originally reinforced
• After learning to use the big potty at home, the
  child is able to use the restroom in public
  places
  
• Discrimination in operant conditioning involves
  learning to distinguish between a stimulus that
  has been reinforced and other stimuli that may be
  very similar
• Some children refuse to use a public bathroom
  because it has not been reinforced
  

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• Schedules of reinforcement
• Continuous reinforcement
• Reinforcement that is administered after every
  desired or correct response
  
• You get a smiley face ? every time you get an A
  on a paper
  
• Most efficient way to condition a new response
• Once the response has been conditioned, partial
  or intermittent reinforcement is often more
  effective in maintaining or increasing the rate
  of response

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• Partial reinforcement
• A pattern of reinforcement in which some but not
  all of the correct responses are reinforced
  
• The two types of schedules of reinforcement
• Ratio schedules
• A certain number of responses must be made before
  one of the responses is reinforced
  
• Interval schedules
• A given amount of time must pass before a
  reinforcer is administered
  

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• Fixed-ratio schedule
• A schedule in which a reinforcer is given after a
  fixed number of correct responses
  
• Effective way to maintain a high response rate
• You get to go outside to play after you finish 2
  pages of homework

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• Variable-ratio schedule
• A schedule in which a reinforcer is given after a
  varying number of nonreinforced responses based
  on an average ratio
  
• Results in higher, more stable rates of
  responding than a fixed-ratio schedule
  
• GamblingYou get money randomly but only if you
  keep playing (lotto, slot machines)
  

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• Fixed-interval schedule
• A schedule in which a reinforcer is given
  following the first correct response after a
  fixed period of time has elapsed
  
• You get paid every 2 weeks as long as you went to
  work
  
• A characteristic of the fixed-interval schedule
  is a pause or a sharp decline in responding
  immediately after each reinforcement and a rapid
  acceleration in responding just before the next
  reinforcer is due

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• Variable-interval schedule
• A schedule in which a reinforcer is given after
  the first correct response following a varying
  time of nonreinforcement based on an average
  time
• Your studying pays off when your teacher gives
  you a pop quiz
  
• Maintains remarkably stable and uniform rates of
  responding, but the response rate is typically
  lower than that of the ratio schedules
  

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• Punishment
• The removal of a pleasant stimulus or the
  application of an unpleasant stimulus, which
  tends to suppress a response
  
• Lowers the probability of a response by
• Following it with an aversive or unpleasant
  consequence (scolding, fine) positive
  punishment
  
• Following it with the removal of a pleasant
  stimulus (time out, remove privilege) negative
  punishment
  

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Increases behavior
Decreases behavior
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• Disadvantages of punishment
• Punishment does not extinguish an undesirable
  behavior rather, it suppresses that behavior
  when the punishing agent is present. But the
  behavior is apt to continue when the threat of
  punishment is removed and in settings where
  punishment is unlikely.
• Punishment indicates that a behavior is
  unacceptable but does not help people develop
  more appropriate behaviors. If punishment is
  used, it should be administered in conjunction
  with reinforcement or rewards for appropriate
  behavior.

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• The person who is severely punished often becomes
  fearful and feels angry and hostile toward the
  punisher. These reactions may be accompanied by a
  desire to retaliate or to avoid or escape from
  the punisher and the punishing situation.
• Punishment frequently leads to aggression. Those
  who administer physical punishment may become
  models of aggressive behavior.
  

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• Alternatives to punishment
• Many psychologists believe that removing the
  rewarding consequences of undesirable behavior is
  the best way to extinguish a problem behavior
  
• Using positive reinforcement, such as praise,
  will make good behavior more rewarding

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• Making punishment more effective
• Punishment is most effective when it is applied
  during the misbehavior or as soon afterward as
  possible. Interrupting the problem behavior is
  most effective because doing so abruptly halts
  its rewarding aspects.
• Ideally, punishment should be of the minimum
  severity necessary to suppress the problem
  behavior. The intensity of the punishment should
  match the seriousness of the misdeed.

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• To be effective, punishment must be applied
  consistently. A parent cannot ignore misbehavior
  one day and punish the same act the next.
  
• No matter which punishments are used, you need 3
  times as many rewards as punishments for it to be
  effective
  

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• Learned helplessness
• The learned response of resigning oneself
  passively to aversive conditions, rather than
  taking action to change, escape, or avoid them
  learned through repeated exposure to inescapable
  or unavoidable aversive events
• Associated with depression
• Result of severe punishment

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• Observational learning/Modeling
• Bandura
• Contends that many behaviors or responses are
  acquired through observational learning, or as he
  more often calls it now, social-cognitive
  learning
• Observational learning
• Learning by observing the behavior of others and
  the consequences of that behavior learning by
  imitation
  
• An observer must also be physically and
  cognitively capable of performing the behavior in
  order to learn it
  

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• Disinhibitory effect
• Displaying a previously suppressed behavior
  because a model does so without receiving
  punishment
  
• Inhibitory effect
• Suppressing a behavior because a model is
  punished for displaying the behavior

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• Learning from television and other media
• Research demonstrating the influence of models on
  behavior has raised concerns about what viewers,
  particularly children, learn from television
  
• Bandura
• Suspected that aggression and violence on
  television programs tend to increase aggression
  in children
  
• Demonstrated how children are influenced by
  exposure to aggressive modelslive, film, or
  cartooneven years later into adulthood
  
• Banduras research provided the impetus for
  studying the effects of televised violence and
  aggression in all entertainment media (TV, video
  games)

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