Introduction to Psychology

1
Introduction to Psychology

• Class 12 Learning 2
• Myers 224-255
• July 5, 2006

2

• Writing Assignments
• Speaking of media effects
• - A much-more-than-a-million dollar fantasy
  bra
• - Tyra Banks gives her successor baby wings
• - Medical dramas and plastic surgery (foot
  surgery to wear heels?)
• - Are eating disorders becoming fashionable?
• - Was Team America violent?
• List of water bodies

3
Homework!

• Dog salivates for food
• Human food wrapped in paper/plastic
• Repetitive paper/plasticfood association
• Dog salivates to the sound of candy wrapper
• Dog salivates to the sound of a newspaper!

4
Other examples

• Discrimination?
• Extinction?
• Spontaneous recovery?
• Generalization?

5
Applications of CC

• Predictability When rats are shocked more
  regularly after a light (CS1) is flashed and less
  regularly after a tone (CS2) is flashed, they
  develop a stronger fear response (CR) to the
  light than sound
• UCS and UCR in that
  example?

6

• Learned helplessness hopelessness and passive
  resignation an animal or human learns when unable
  to avoid repeated aversive event. Dogs are put in
  a harness, without the ability to escape, and
  shocked. They learn to be helpless, and cower
  even in very easily escapable aversive events
  that are made to occur subsequently. This is
  similar to the giving up that occurs in some
  people, especially the clinically depressed.
• Perceived control Obviously, a sense of
  perceived personal control is important for
  mental health, even in such controlled
  environments as prison.
• Thought What one loses in learning
  helplessness is the perception of personal
  control.

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• Counter-conditioning
• - Aversive conditioning antabuse
• (Replace a positive response to alcohol with a
  negative response of nausea)
• - Systematic desensitization virtual reality
  treatment for a flying phobia
• (Progressive relaxation based on slowly
  increasing exposure to flying)

8
Operant Conditioning

• A type of learning in which behavior is
  strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or
  diminished if followed by a punisher
• Based on Thorndikes Law of Effect (Behaviors
  followed by favorable consequences become more
  likely)

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• Respondent behavior occurs as an automatic
  response to some stimulus
• Operant behavior Behavior that operates on
  the environment to produce reward or punishment
• Shaping reinforcers guide behavior to the
  desired goal by rewarding successive
  approximations

10
Reinforcement

• A reinforcer strengthens the behavior that it
  follows (primary food, secondary grades)
• Positive reinforcement adds a desirable
  stimulus
• E.g. getting a hug, a good grade, a cookie on
  finishing homeworkall reinforce studying
• Negative reinforcement removes an aversive
  stimulus
• E.g. fasten a seatbelt to turn off the beep,
  push snooze, smoke a cigarette to relieve stress

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Schedules

• Fixed-ratio reinforcement after fixed number of
  responses
• Variable-ratio reinforcement after variable
  number of responses
• Fixed-interval reinforcement after a fixed time
  interval
• Variable-interval reinforcement after a
  variable time interval

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Punishment

• A punisher weakens the behavior that it follows
• Positive punishment adds an aversive stimulus
• E.g. spanking, parking ticket
• Negative punishment removes a desirable
  stimulus
• E.g. curfew, revoked drivers license

13
Applications of OC

• Reinforcement immediate vs. delayed
• Goal vague vs. specific
• Progress monitored vs. unmonitored
• Motivation intrinsic vs. extrinsic (dealing
  with extinction)

14
Priming

• Name a laundry detergent
• Tide?
• List of water-bodies is the prime
• Evidence of associative learning
• Also a part of how we can be affected by the
  mediawithout even knowing it

15
Thought for the day

• How else (other than priming) are learning and
  memory intertwined?