Unit 6 Learning

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Unit 6 Learning

• AP Psychology
• Chapter 8

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3 Types of Learning

• Classical Conditioning
• Operant Conditioning
• Learning by Observation

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Classical Conditioning

• Does Ivan Pavlov ring a bell? I mean does he
  ring a tuning fork?
• Russian physicist who won the Nobel Prize for his
  work on the digestive system.

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The Basics of Classical Conditioning

• Unconditioned Stimulus- (UCS) a stimulus that
  unconditionally- naturally and automatically-
  triggers a response
• Unconditioned Response- (UCR) the unlearned,
  naturally occurring response to the unconditioned
  stimulus

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The Basics of Classical Conditioning

• Conditioned Stimulus- (CS) an originally
  irrelevant stimulus that, after association with
  an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) comes to trigger
  a conditioned response
• Conditioned Response- (CR) the learned response
  to a previously neutral conditioned stimulus (CS)
  

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How did Pavlov do it?
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Forget Pavlov

• Lets try it in an example that may be a bit
  closer that a salivating dog
• At 719 in the morning in the halls of YHS

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Whoops! The egg and cheese biscuit had an onion
on it!!!
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Get it??
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Timing is everything!

• Pavlov was not the only person working on a
  classical conditioning experiment. He was just
  the first to have it published There was another
  guy who published an identical experiment, but I
  cant remember his nameget the point?
• Speaking of timing You must present the CS just
  before (like ½ second) the UCS to make
  acquisition possible.

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Acquisition

• The initial stage in classical conditioning the
  phase associating a neutral stimulus with an
  unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral
  stimulus comes to elicit a conditioned response,
  in operant conditioning, the strengthening of a
  reinforced response.

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Extinction and Spontaneous Recovery

• If Pavlov stopped pairing the tuning fork with
  the meat powdered over an extended period of
  time, would the dog continue to salivate with
  just the tuning fork?
• What if six months later Pavlov brought the dog
  back and paired the tuning fork and meat powder
  once again?

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Generalizing

• The tendency once a response has been
  conditioned, for stimuli similar to the
  conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses.
• Pavlovs dog would have salivated at a door bell.
• YHS student would have become sexually aroused at
  the smell of leeks, fennel, garlic, or other
  foods that are smelly like onions

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Discrimination

• The learned ability to distinguish between a
  conditioned stimulus and other stimuli that do
  not signal an unconditioned stimulus.
• Being able to recognize the difference is
  adaptive.
• Do you react the same when confronted by a lion
  as a house cat? A pit-bull or golden retriever?

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Cognitive Processes

• Some treatments have limited success.
• Alcoholics may be given a drug that makes them
  sick. Instead of associating the sickness with
  alcohol, they associate it with the drug.
• Cognitive Processes sometimes gets in the way of
  classical conditioning

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Biological Predispositions

• Pavlov and John B. Watson both believed that the
  basic laws of learning were essentially similar
  in all animals.
• An animals capacity for conditioning is
  constrained by its biology. The biological
  predispositions of each species dispose it to
  learn the particular associations that enhance
  its survival.

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John Garcia challenges behaviorist
environmentalism

• Garcia and Koelling gave rats a particular taste,
  sight, or sound (CS) and later also gave them
  radiation or drugs that led to nausea and
  vomiting (UCR).
• Rats (even when sickened several hours after
  tasting a certain flavor) avoided the flavor.
• The sickened rats only developed aversion to
  taste, not to the sights or sounds.
• It makes adaptive sense. The easiest way for a
  rat to identify tainted food is to taste it.
• Birds, which hunt by sight, appear biologically
  primed to develop aversions to the sight of
  tainted food.

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Humans

• Seem biologically prepared to learn some things
  rather than others. If you get sick eating
  mussels, you will most likely develop an aversion
  to the taste of mussels, but not to the color of
  the dish or the smell of the restaurant, or the
  music you were listening to.
• We fear snakes and spiders more than flowers
  because snakes and spiders harm humans more than
  flowers.

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Gustavsons wolves

• When wolves and coyotes were tempted into eating
  sheep carcasses laced with a sickening poison,
  they developed an aversion to sheep meat. Later
  wolves that were penned with live sheep actually
  feared them.
• Imagine the implications of controlling predators
  and agricultural pests.

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The Law of Effect

• Edward L. Thorndike- conducted a study where cats
  were caged and once some impulsive action allowed
  them to open the door and all other unsuccessful
  impulses were stamped out and the particular
  impulses leading to the successful act was
  stamped in by the resulting pleasure.
• Law of Effect- Simply put rewarded behavior is
  more likely to occur.

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In conclusion

• Learning enables animals to adapt to their
  environments.
• This explains why we may learn taste aversion
  even hours after the food has been eaten.

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Little Albert and other Applications

• John B. Watson and Rosalie Raynor (1920) showed
  how fear may be conditioned.
• Watson presented Little Albert with a white rat
  and as he reached to touch it, struck a hammer
  against a steel bar just behind his head.
• After only 7 repetitions, Albert burst into tears
  at the mere sight of the rat.
• Albert also generalized and was fearful of
  Watsons hair, a sealskin coat, and even a
  bearded Santa Claus mask.

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Hobart and Mowrers Bedwetting study

• They developed a bell and bed pad, two thin metal
  sheets with small holes that were hooked up to an
  electric bell. When the wet the bed, the
  moisture would trigger the bell and the child
  would wake up and use the bathroom (even though
  it was too late in the first few trials)
• After pairing several times that child would wake
  up with a full bladder and use the bathroom.

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Check Yourself

• The unconditioned stimulus is the ___
• The unconditioned response is ____
• The conditioned stimulus is ___
• The conditioned response is ____

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Double Check Yourself

• The unconditioned stimulus is the alarm
• The unconditioned response is waking up
• The conditioned stimulus is the sensation of a
  full bladder
• The conditioned response is waking up

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Operant Conditioning

• Learning by the consequence of your behavior. We
  are most likely to repeat reinforced or rewarded
  behavior and less likely to repeat punished
  behavior.

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What are the similarities between Classical
Conditioning and Operant Conditioning?

• They are both types of learning
• They both involve acquisition, extinction,
  spontaneous recovery, generalization and
  discrimination

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What are the differences between Classical
Conditioning and Operant Conditioning?

• Classical Conditioning forms associations between
  stimuli (a CS and the UCS it signals) It also
  involves respondent behavior- behavior that
  occurs as an automatic response to some stimuli
• Operant Conditioning involves operant behavior
  that acts or operates on the environment to
  produce rewarding or punishing stimuli.
• So askIs the organism learning associations
  between events that it doesnt control (classical
  conditioning)? Or is it learning associations
  between its behavior and resulting events
  (operant conditioning)?

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B.F. Skinner 1904-1990

• Modern behaviorisms most influential and
  controversial figure. He strongly criticized
  studying the human cognitive processes ad instead
  stated that the goal of psychology should be to
  study primarily observable behaviors.
• Operant chamber, or the Skinner Box- typically
  soundproof , with a device that an animal presses
  or pecks to release a reward of food or water,
  and a device that records these responses.
• Shaping- a procedure in which reinforcers, such
  as food, gradually guide an animals actions
  toward a desired behavior

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Shaping Behavior

• Can I get a volunteer?

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Principles of Reinforcement

• Reinforcement- any event that increases the
  frequency of a preceding response.
• If it increases behaviorit is a reinforcer.
• Positive reinforcement- strengthens a response by
  presenting a typically pleasurable stimulus after
  a response. (food, attention, money)
• Negative reinforcement- escape- An aversive
  situation is escaped from by an operant response.
  The escape response increases (take a rock out
  of your shoe and you can continue to walk)

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Reinforcers

• Primary Reinforcer- an innately reinforcing
  stimulus, such as the one that satisfies a
  biological need. (Food when hungry or being
  relieved of electric shock)
• Conditioned or Secondary Reinforcer- learned
  reinforcer (money, good grades, praise)

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Secondary Reinforcers

• Researches were able to get chimpanzees to work
  for tokens (even though chimps cant eat token).
  The chimps learned to use the tokens to buy
  bananas in a Chimp-o-mat. Token secondary
  reinforcer, Banana Primary reinforcer

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Delayed Gratification

• Unlike rats, humans do respond to reinforcers
  that are delayed.
• 4-year olds show the ability to delay
  gratification in choosing candy, they would
  rather have a big reward tomorrow than a small
  one right now.
• As these children mature, they tend to become
  socially competent and high achieving
  controlling impulses in order to achieve more
  valued rewards.

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Schedules of Reinforcement

• Fixed-ratio schedule- reinforce behavior after a
  set number of response (piecework getting paid
  every 10 boxes you assemble)
• Variable-ratio schedule- reinforce behavior after
  an unpredictable number of responses (slot
  machines)
• Fixed-interval schedule- reinforce the first
  response after a fixed time period. (teacher
  gives a spelling test every Friday)
• Variable-interval schedules- reinforce the first
  response after varying time intervals. (redialing
  after getting a busy signal on the phone)

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Schedules of Reinforcment
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QUIZSchedules of Reinforcement

• Interval means _____. Ratio means ______.
• Variable means _____. Fixed means ______.
• You baby sit and receive 8 per hour. ??
• Your boss pays you 5 per test that you correct.
  ??
• You keep calling your boy/girl friend back
  because you keep getting a busy signal. ??
• You always use your credit card because you are
  trying to win a contest in which the 1millionth
  credit card user wins free purchases. ??

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QUIZSchedules of Reinforcement

• Interval means time. Ratio means number.
• Variable means changes every time. Fixed means
  remains constant.
• You baby sit and receive 8 per hour. Fixed
  Interval
• Your boss pays you 5 per test that you correct.
  Fixed Ratio
• You keep calling your boy/girl friend back
  because you keep getting a busy signal. Variable
  interval
• You always use your credit card because you are
  trying to win a contest in which the 1millionth
  credit card user wins free purchases. Variable
  Ratio

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Punishment

• Punishment- an event that decreases behavior
• Positive Punishment- adding a stimulus that
  decreases behavior (spanking, parking ticket)
• Negative Punishment- withdrawing a desirable
  stimulus that decreases behavior (time-out,
  revoking drivers license)

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Quick Quiz(Pos reinforcement, neg reinforcement,
pos punishment, neg punishment?)

• You smack your child and they quit crying
• You take an aspirin and it relieves the pain
• You take your daughters door and she begins to
  tell the truth more often
• You put your child in time out and they stop the
  bad behavior
• You yell at your brother and his bad behavior
  gets worse.
• You give your child a new car and he continues to
  get good grades.

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Quick Quiz(Pos reinforcement, neg reinforcement,
pos punishment, neg punishment?)

• You smack your child and they quit
  cryingpositive punishment
• You take an aspirin and it relieves the
  painpositive punishment
• You take your daughters door and she begins to
  tell the truth more oftennegative reinforcement
• You put your child in time out and they stop the
  bad behaviornegative punishment
• You yell at your brother and his bad behavior
  gets worsepositive reinforcement
• You give your child a new car and he continues to
  get good gradespositive reinforcement

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Reinforcement Contingency

• The consistent relationship between a response
  and the changes in the environment it produces.
• Example An experiment in which a pigeons
  pecking a disk (the response) is generally
  followed by the presentation of grain (the
  corresponding). This consistent relationship, or
  reinforcement contingency, will usually be
  accompanied by an increase in the rate of
  pecking.
• For delivery of grain to increase only the
  probability of pecking, it must be contingent
  only on the pecking response- the delivery must
  occur regularly after that response but not after
  other responses such as turning or bowing.

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Three-Term Contingency

• Discriminative stimuli- certain stimuli that
  precede a particular response (ex a red light,
  a green arrow)
• In the presence of a green light, the act of
  crossing an intersection in a car is reinforced.
  When the light is red, such behavior may be
  punished a traffic ticket or an accident.
• Skinner called this sequence of discriminative
  stimulus-behavior-consequence the three term
  contingency and believed that it could explain
  most human action.

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Cognition and Operant Conditioning

• Latent learning- learning that occurs but is not
  apparent until there is an incentive to
  demonstrate it
• Overjustification effect- the effect of promising
  a reward for doing what one already likes to do.
• Intrinsic motivation- a desire to perform a
  behavior for its own sake and to be effective
• Extrinsic motivation- a desire perform behavior
  due to promised rewards or threats of punishment

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Applications of Operant Conditioning

• School?
• Work?
• Home?

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Learning by Observation

• Modeling- observing and imitating a specific
  behavior

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Albert Banduras Experiments (1961)