Measuring Learning

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Measuring Learning Conditioning
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Learning ConditioningMarkers of Proto-Psyche

• Theory of evolution by natural selection
• All living things have arisen by evolution from
  common ancestors
• Human characteristics have evolutionary
  precursors
• Mind in evolution
• Precursors of mental life must be evident in
  animal behavior

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Psychology of Learning

• Romanes Anecdotal Reports
• Objective Measures
• Classical Conditioning
• Instrumental Conditioning

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Classical Conditioning

• A procedure in which learning occurs with respect
  to one event as the result of the presentation of
  two events in a defined temporal relationship.
• This procedure was first used by Ivan Pavlov.

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Pavlov His Dogs
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Classical Conditioning Examples

• Salivary conditioning
• Invented by Pavlov
• Eyeblink conditioning
• Emotional conditioning
• CER
• Drug conditioning
• Flavor aversion conditioning
• Garcia effect
• Sexual conditioning

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Classical Conditioning Terminology

• Unconditioned Stimulus (US or UCS)
• Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
• Unconditioned Response (UR or UCR)
• Conditioned Response (CR)
• Acquisition
• Reinforced CS (CS )
• Extinction
• Nonreinforced CS (CS -)

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An Example Little Albert

• Little Albert was not afraid of rats and rabbits
  until John Watson and Rosalie Raynor gave him
  paired presentations of a rat and a sudden loud
  sound that scared him.
• US Loud Noise
• CS Sight of White Rat
• UR Distress, Fear
• CR Distress, Fear

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Instrumental Conditioning

• A procedure in which learning occurs with respect
  to a 3-term relationship of stimulus, response,
  and reinforcer. This procedure was first
  systematically studied by Edward Thorndike and
  was developed further by B.F. Skinner.

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Thorndike Skinner
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Classical vs. Instrumental Conditioning

• Pigeon key-pecking
• Autoshaping A key light is followed by food
  delivery, regardless of what the pigeon does
• Operant keypecking A key light is followed by
  food delivery, only if the pigeon pecks the key

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Instrumental Conditioning Examples

• Lever-pressing by rats
• Invented by Skinner
• Key-pecking by pigeons
• Invented by Skinner
• Maze learning
• T-maze, radial maze, water maze
• Shuttle box

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Instrumental Conditioning Terminology

• Discriminative Stimulus
• (SD or S? )
• Operant response
• Reinforcement
• - Positive reinforcement
• - Negative reinformcement
• Reinforcement Schedule
• Shaping

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Operant Conditioning Chamber
Rat Operant Chamber
Debbie Skinner in her baby box
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Functional Definitions

• Stimulus
• A stimulus is an event in the presence of which a
  reinforced response occurs with a changed
  frequency
• Response
• A response is a behavior which changes in
  frequency as a result of the presentation of
  reinforcement in the presence of a stimulus
• Reinforcement
• A reinforcer is an event which leads to a change
  in frequency of a response in the presence of a
  stimulus

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An Example Chuckie

• Chuckie was a nonverbal, nonsocial child who sat
  by himself and rocked for hours. Ivar Lovaas
  used behavior modification procedures to teach
  Chuckie to speak, initially reinforcing his
  responses with food
• Stimulus picture of cat
• Response cat
• Reinforcer M M

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Four Basic Schedules

• Fixed Interval
• FI Scallop
• Variable Interval
• Steady Responding
• Fixed Ratio
• Break Run
• Variable Ratio
• Steady Responding

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Reinforcement Schedules

• Interval
• Time based
• Ratio
• Response based
• Concurrent
• Two schedules, two responses
• Chain
• Successive schedules

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Generalization / Discrimination

• Spontaneous generalization
• Effects of discrimination training
• Intradimensional training
• 1 kHz 3 kHz -
• Interdimensional training
• 1 kHz white noise -
• Extradimensional training
• steady light flickering light -