Learning Processes

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Learning Processes

• Behaviorism
• Classical conditioning
• Operant conditioning

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Adaptation to the Environment

• Learning - any process through which experience
  at one time can alter an individuals behavior at
  a future time

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Behaviorism

• The attempt to understand observable activity in
  terms of observable stimuli and observable
  responses
• John B. Watson (1913)
• B.F. Skinner (1938)

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Classical Conditioning
Whats this about LEARNING?
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Pavlovs Dogs

• Digestive reflexes and salivation
• Psychic secretion

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Classical Conditioning
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Neutral Stimulus--Bell

• Does not normally elicit a response or reflex
  action by itself
• A bell ringing
• A color
• A furry object

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Unconditioned Stimulus--Food

• Always elicits a reflex action an unconditioned
  response
• Food
• Blast of air
• Noise

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Unconditioned Response--Salivation

• A response to an unconditioned stimulus--naturally
  occurring
• Salivation at smell of food
• Eye blinks at blast of air
• Startle reaction in babies

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Conditioned Stimulus--Bell

• The stimulus that was originally neutral becomes
  conditioned after it has been paired with the
  unconditioned stimulus
• Will eventually elicit the unconditioned response
  by itself

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Conditioned Response

• The original unconditioned response becomes
  conditioned after it has been elicited by the
  neutral stimulus

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Classical Conditioning vs. Association by
Contiguity
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Classical Conditioning Phenomenon

• Extinction
• Spontaneous recovery
• Generalization
• Discrimination training

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John B. Watson and Little Albert

• Conditioned emotional responses
• Generalization
• Extinction

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Conditioned Drug Reactions

• Opposite the drug effect

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Early Operant Conditioning

• E.L. Thorndike (1898)
• Puzzle boxes and cats

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B.F. Skinners Operant Conditioning

• Did not like the term satisfying
• Invented a better appartus--the Skinner box

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Operant Conditioning Terms

• Shaping
• Consequences
• positive and negative reinforcement
• positive and negative punishment

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Reinforcement Schedules

• Continuous 1 to 1 ratio, a prize every time
• Ratio
• fixed 1 to ?, a prize every ? time
• variable ? to ?, maybe a prize, maybe not!
• Interval
• fixed announced examination
• variable pop quiz

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Classical vs. Operant Conditioning

• CLASSICAL
• Stimulus precedes the response and elicits it
• Elicited responses
• Learning as a result of association
• Pavlov

• OPERANT
• Stimulus follows the response and strengthens it
• Emitted responses
• Learning as a result of consequences
• Skinner

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The Basic Concepts of Learning Theory

• Classical conditioning
• elicits response as a result of associating
• unconditioned stimulus
• neutral stimulus
• Operant conditioning
• emitted response
• learning is a result of consequences
• reinforcers
• punishment

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Observational Learning

• Specific skills and general behavioral styles
• Banduras cognitive theory

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The Ecological Perspective

• Alternative to general-process perspective
• Learning what to eat

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Alternative Perspective

• Role of environment
• Components of learning

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Learning What to Eat

• Food-aversion learning
• Food-preference learning
• Food-selection experiment with human infants
• Social learning and food selection
• Summary of rules

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Food-Aversion Learning

• Classical conditioning or not?

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Food-Preference Learning

• Experiments with rats and thiamin

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Food Selection Experiment

• Infants ability to choose a nutritionally
  balanced meal

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Summary of Rules

• When possible, eat what your elders eat.
• When you eat a new food, remember its taste and
  smell