Five kinds of learning

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Five kinds of learning

• Habituation, classical conditioning, operant
  conditioning, observation, and insight

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What is learning?

• Association theory Locke, Berkeley, Mill
• Locke The tabula rasawe are what we learn.
• Berkeley But arent we more likely to learn some
  things than others?
• John Stuart Mill Laws of association
• Spatial contiguity
• Temporal contiguity
• Compare Gestalt laws of perception

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Definitions of learning

• A lasting change in behavior resulting from
  experience
• An example of natural selection within an
  individuals experience
• The result of contingency analysis
• Contiguity vs. contingency

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Habituation Ignoring a US

• Orienting responses
• Aplysia and siphon-withdrawal
• Repetitive stimuli carry no information
• Is repetitive music boring?
• Short-term habituation learning
• Long-term habituation learning

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Classical or Pavlovian Conditioning Predicting a
US

• Why do we automatically stand when we hear an
  organ play?
• Why does the sound of the cappucino machine in
  the atrium make me feel warm and comforted?
• An unconditioned reflex US ---gt UR
• An orienting reflex NS ---gt OR
• A conditioned reflex CS ---gt CR

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Pavlovs example

• US (Meat powder) UR (Drooling)
• NS (Tuning fork) OR (Turning
  head)
• CS (Tuning fork) CR (Drooling)

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Human applications of classical conditioning

• Forming associations in advertising
• Music videos?
• Toilet training
• Phobias (Watson Rayner, 1920)
• Food avoidance, and fetishes
• Psychotherapy

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Principles of classical conditioning

• Acquisition
• US intensity
• CS-US timing
• Extinction
• Spontaneous recovery
• Reconditioning
• Generalization and discrimination

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Key factors in conditioning success

• Reliability of CS-US pairing How often is CS
  followed by US?
• Uniqueness of CS-US pairing How often does CS
  happen without US?
• Differential contingency and informativeness
• pUS/ CS gt pUS/ CS
• pUS/ CS lt pUS/ CS

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Operant conditioning Controlling consequences

• Thorndike and the Law of Effect
• Skinner and operant conditioning
• Apparatus Operant conditioning chamber and
  cumulative recorder
• Discriminative stimulus, operant response,
  consequence

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Consequences

• Reinforcement
• Positive reinforcers
• Negative reinforcers
• Punishment
• Positive punishers
• Negative punishers
• Frustrative non-reward and omission Extinction
• Conditioned reinforcers and punishers

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Training methods

• Shaping Bowling and guided missiles
• Schedules of intermittent reinforcement
• Fixed Interval (FI)
• Fixed Ratio (FR)
• Variable Interval (VI)
• Variable Ratio (VR)
• Schedules and informativeness

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Discrimination learning

• Discriminative stimuli
• Occasion setting
• Concept discrimination
• A failure of discrimination Superstition
• Interim behaviors
• Terminal behaviors

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Aversive conditioning

• Punishment
• Must be strong, immediate, and reliable
• May become conditioned to SSDRs
• Escape and avoidance learning
• Taste aversion
• Psychology helps treat cancer
• Coyotes and sheep Wrap poisoned meat in sheepskin

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Observation learning

• Model behaviors Bandura, Ross, and Ross
• Vicarious observation learning
• Banduras social learning theory
• Factors influencing imitation
• Similarity
• Status
• Salience
• Success

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Insight A nominal fallacy?

• Sultan and Gestalt psychology
• Pigeons show insight only if they have learned
  that a particular component action leads to a
  goal
• Primates may use mental imagery
• Many animals may use cognitive maps.
• Neither humans nor chimpanzees will be able to
  think of objects they have never seen or imagine
  themselves performing behaviors they have never
  performed or seen others perform (Carlson
  Buskist, p. 155)

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Pavlovs dog

• Look for
• The NS
• The US
• The UR
• The CS
• The CR

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Conditioned fear in Little Albert (Watson
Rayner, 1920)
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Then, the classical conditioning
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and finally, generalization.
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Thorndike and instrumental conditioning
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Skinner and operant conditioning