PSY402 Theories of Learning

1
PSY402Theories of Learning

• Chapter 11 Learned Helplessness

2
Learned Helplessness Theory

• Seligman depression is learned.
• Depression occurs when people believe
• Failures are due to uncontrollable events.
• Failure will continue as long as events are
  beyond their control.
• Depression arises from helplessness.

3
Animal Research

• Step 1 -- three groups of dogs
• Inescapable shock no control.
• Escapable shock -- terminated if the dog pressed
  a panel.
• No shock
• Step 2 10 trials of signaled avoidance training
  in shuttle box.
• 2/3 of inescapable shock dogs did not learn to
  jump during step 2.

4
Helplessness in Humans

• Hiroto three groups of college students
• Uncontrollable group wrongly told that pushing
  button would end noise.
• Escapable group pushing button ended noise.
• Control no noise.
• Tested using finger shuttle box.
• Uncontrollable group did not escape

5
Characteristics of Helplessness

• Motivational impairment unable to initiate
  voluntary behavior.
• Mice in water maze.
• Nonspecific carries over to a variety tasks and
  test situations.
• Intellectual impairment incapable of benefiting
  from future experience even if they jump, dont
  learn.
• Emotional trauma neg. affect.

6
Studies of Depressives

• Show similar results to learned helplessness
  studies.
• Depressed individuals do not escape noise,
  responding like inescapable non-depressed
  individuals.
• Depressed individuals do not adjust likelihood of
  succeeding upward when they experience success.
• They credit chance not skill.

7
Criticisms of Seligmans Theory

• There is more to depression than learned
  helplessness.
• Helplessness subjects described the task as a
  skill task, even though acting as if it were a
  chance task.
• Failure to replicate performance deficits in
  humans facilitation of performance instead.
• May be due to attributions.

8
Attribution Theory

• Causal attributions of failure have three
  dimensions
• Internal-external internal traits or
  characteristics vs environmental forces
• Stable-unstable past causes will persist vs new
  forces will determine future outcomes
• Global-specific outcome relates only to one
  task vs outcome effects everything.

9
Attributional Model of Depression
10
Two Kinds of Helplessness

• Personal helplessness an individuals inability
  causes failure.
• Universal helplessness the environment is
  structured so that no one can control future
  events.
• Abramson -- both kinds lead to depression.
• Vary on external-internal dimension.
• Low self-esteem only with personal.

11
Severity of Depression

• Depression can be transient if attributed to
  global but changing conditions.
• Severe depression occurs when attributions are
• Internal
• Global
• Stable
• Better if external, specific, unstable.

12
Hopelessness Depression

• Hopelessness the expectation that desired
  outcomes will not occur.
• Learned helplessness -- no control over undesired
  outcomes.
• Accounts for anxiety without depression.
• Anxiety possibility that a person may have no
  control over negative events.
• Depression occurs when certain.

13
Pessimism

• Pessimistic explanatory style attributional
  style predicts susceptibility to depression.
• Langer a perceived control is basic to human
  functioning.
• Optimists feel they can control events, more
  successful.
• Pessimists believe they have no control over
  events.

14
Cognitive View of Phobia

• Bandura two kinds of expectancy maintain a
  phobia
• Stimulus-outcome expectancy about the nature of
  the stimulus.
• Response-outcome expectancy about the likely
  result of behavior.
• Why does phobia produce behavior with negative
  outcomes?
• Efficacy expectancy belief that one cannot
  execute a particular action.

15
Self-Efficacy

• Types of information used to establish
  self-efficacy
• Personal accomplishments, success.
• Task difficulty, amount of effort.
• Observations of success/failure of others
  vicarious modeling.
• Emotional arousal we feel less able to cope
  when agitated or tense.
• Efficacy predicts approach behavior.

16
Criticisms of Efficacy View

• Efficacy expectations may be epiphenomenal
  arise with anxiety but do not affect responding.
• Three types of anxiety
• Cognitive affects self-efficacy
• Physiological affects physiology
• Behavioral affects responding.
• Lang contribution of each depends on prior
  experience and situation.

17
Contemporary Theories

• Shift from global theories to theories about
  specific aspects of learning.
• Global theories were about operant responding not
  classical conditioning.
• An animals biology influences whether, what, and
  how fast it can learn.
• Cognitive view requires emphasis on specific
  cognitive processes.

18
Stimulus-Substitution Theory

• What is the nature of the CR is it just the UCR
  of is it different?
• Pavlov stimulus-substititon theory
• The CS stimulates the same areas of the brain as
  the UCS, producing the same response.
• Activation of CS with UCS establishes neural
  connection between brain areas.

19
Conditioned Opponent Response

• The CR and UCR are often different
• CR of fear is different than UCR of pain.
• Siegel best evidence of difference
• Morphine (UCS) produced analgesia, reduced pain
  (UCR)
• Light or tone (CS) produced hyperalgesia,
  increased pain (CR).
• Rats remove paws from heat quickly with CS,
  slowly with UCS.
• Insulin (glycemia) works the same way

20
Conditioning and Drug Tolerance

• Elimination of a CS results in a stronger
  response to the UCS, drug.
• Extinction of responding to environ-mental cues
  strengthens drug response
• Changing the context in which a drug is
  administered increases response to the drug.
• Novel environment does not elicit an opponent CR.