General Psychology 2301

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General Psychology 2301

• Learning

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What Is Learning?

• A relatively permanent change in behavior as a
  result of experience
• Some learning is conditioned (result of repeated
  associations of stimuli)
• We will address
• Classical conditioning
• Operant conditioning
• Observational learning

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Elements of Classical Conditioning

• US (unconditioned stimulus) ? stimulus eliciting
  natural response
• UR (unconditioned response) ? response to US
• CS (conditioned stimulus) ? neutral stimulus with
  respect to UR
• CR (conditioned response) ? learned response to CS

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Example
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Other Examples

• John Watson and the Little Albert study
• CS a white rat
• UCS a loud banging sound
• UCR fear/startle response
• Eventually Albert exhibited fear of the white rat
  
• Other instances of learning
• Positive conditioning of attraction in
  advertising
• Product name (CS) attractive model (UCS) gt
  liking (UCR)
• Negative conditioned taste aversion (CTA)
• Flavor (CS) illness (UCS) gt flavor aversion
  (UCR)

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Important Concepts

• Acquisition ? process of learning the CS-CR
  association
• Extinction ? process of deactivating the CS-CR
  association
• Spontaneous recovery ? original CS-CR association
  becomes reactivated at partial strength

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Important Concepts
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Important Concepts

• Stimulus generalization ? CR bleeds over to
  similar CSs
• Stimulus discrimination ? CR is restricted from
  bleeding over to similar CSs
• Naturally, we will generalize to similar CSs
  discrimination requires training

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Why Does Conditioning Work?

• Associations allow for prediction of our world
• Placebo effects
• Predicting others behaviors
• Conditioning is constrained, however, by biology
• Taste aversion studies

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Operant Conditioning

• Organisms make responses that have consequences
• Consequences change the likelihood of future
  responses (i.e., politician following the
  reaction of the audience)
• Response associated with cues in the environment
• We put coins in a machine to obtain food
• But we refrain when an Out of Order sign is
  placed on the machine

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Three Consequences

• Neutral consequences ? no change in future
  probabilities
• Reinforcement ? increase in future probabilities
• Punishment ? decrease in future probabilities
• Reinforcers can be primary or secondary
• Primary food, water, pain, heat
• Secondary money, praise, scolding, bad grades

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The Two Flavors of Reinforcement

• Positive reinforcement ? You get something that
  you want
• You clean your room, you get a quarter
• Negative reinforcement ? You escape something
  that you dont want
• You avoid your parents so you dont have to
  listen to them
• Can also be applied to punishment

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Skinner Box
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Schedules of Reinforcement

• Two dimensions
• Fixed variable
• Ratio interval
• Combinations
• Fixed ratio
• Fixed interval
• Variable ratio
• Variable interval

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Other Issues

• Shaping
• Creating behavior through successive
  approximations
• Biological issues
• Instinctive drift

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Does Punishment Work?

• Not usually why?
• Problem of immediacy
• Problem of consistency
• Problem of information scarcity
• Administered needlessly or mindlessly
• Creates anxiety, fear and anger in recipient
• Punishment may be temporary due to associations
  with the punisher
• Unintentional reinforcement

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What About Reinforcement?

• Rewards must be clearly tied to behavior
• Rewards can erode interest in tasks
• Rewards can lose value

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Latent Learning

• HR hungry and rewarded
• HNR hungry not rewarded
• HNR-R hungry and rewarded after halfway point

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Observational Learning

• Observational learning ? humans can learn through
  observation of models
• Requires careful attention to the model
• Must be able to organize and remember the modeled
  behavior
• Requires production and practice of the modeled
  behavior
• Person must be motivated to use the modeled
  behavior

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The Results