Chapter 4 Principles of Learning The environment is always fluctuating LEARNING the process or set of processes through which sensory experience at one time can affect an individuals behavior at a future time ID: 443802
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Slide1
Basic Processes of Learning
Chapter 4Slide2
Principles of Learning
The environment is always fluctuating
LEARNING: the process or set of processes through which sensory experience at one time can affect an individual’s behavior at a future time
Experience: any effects in the environment that are mediated by the individual’s sensory systemsSlide3
Classical Conditioning: Part I
Classical conditioning is a learning process that creates new reflexes
REFLEX: a simple, relatively automatic, stimulus-response sequence mediated by the nervous system
HABITUATION: the decline in the magnitude or likelihood of a reflexive response that occurs when the stimulus is repeated several times in successionSlide4
Pavlov’s Discovery
Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)
Studied the reflexes involved in digestion
Could some other stimulus be triggering the salivating response in dogs?Slide5
Classical ConditioningSlide6
Extinction and Recovery from ExtinctionSlide7
Extinction and Spontaneous RecoverySlide8
Generalization and DiscriminationSlide9
Classical Conditioning and Behaviorism
BEHAVIORISM: (early 20
th
century) school of psychological thought that holds the proper subject of study is observable behavior, not the mind
Behavior should be studied through an environmental context, not an internal, individualistic context
John B. WatsonSlide10
Poor Little Albert…
https://
www.youtube.com
/
watch?v
=K2fVYkBbA88Slide11
John Watson
“Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select—doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors. (1930
)”Slide12
Have you been classically conditioned?
Latch-key incontinence
Urinating and running water
Conditioned nauseaSlide13
Stimulus-stimulus associatons
Pavlov’s Stimulus-Stimulus Theory
Watson’s Stimulus-Response TheorySlide14
Which theory is better?
Robert Rescorla
(1973) Rats ”freezing” in response to a loud sound.
UCS UCR
UCS CS
CS CR
So, do the rats freeze in response to the light because they associate the light with the sound, or because they have created a new light-freeze association?
Rescorla
habituated the rats to the loud sound. Remember habituation?
If S-S theory is correct, habituated rats should no longer freeze to light.
If S-R theory is correct, habituated rats will still freeze.Slide15
Learned Expectancy
Rescorla
(1998):
Classical conditioning is not a stupid process by which the organism willy-nilly forms associations between any two stimuli that happen to co-occur. Rather, the organism is best seen as an information
seeker
…
”Example: Food is associated with not only salivation but chewing, etc. However, this behavior is not elicited after conditioning (begging, tail-wagging is).Translation: The dog expects the food.Slide16
Conditioned Fear, Hunger and Sexual ArousalSlide17
Conditioned Drug Reactions
Drugs have two effects: the main effect and a compensatory effect that stabilizes the body
(seen in rats injected w/morphine in distinct
environment)
Why is only the compensatory effect able to be conditioned?
DRUG TOLERANCE: the phenomenon by which a drug produces successively smaller physiological and behavioral effects, at any given dose, if it is taken repeatedly
Overdosing
A Clockwork OrangeSlide18
Operant Conditioning I
OPERANT CONDITIONING: a training or learning process by which the consequence of a behavior response affects the likelihood that the individual will produce the response again
Edward Thorndike
(1898)
Cats in the puzzle box
LAW OF EFFECT: Responses that produce a satisfying effect in a particular situation become more likely to occur again in that situationSlide19
Burrhus
Frederic (“BF”) Skinner
Researched and popularized the theory of operant conditioning
Skinner box
REINFORCER: any stimulus change that occurs after a response and tends to
increase
the likelihood that the response will be repeated
AWARENESS need not be involved! (thumb twitch, fine motor skills)
Slide20
Principles of Reinforcement
SHAPING: procedure in which successively closer approximations to the desired response are reinforced until the response finally
occurs (we do this with people too!)
EXTINCTION: the decline in response rate that results when an operant response is no longer followed by a
reinforcer
How do you establish the first response?Slide21
Schedules of Partial Reinforcement (vs. continuous reinforcement)Slide22
Reinforcement and Punishment
INCREASES
TARGET BEHAVIOR
DECREASES TARGET BEHAVIOR
Positive Reinforcement
(Lever
Press Food pellet)+ Add something good
Positive Punishment
(Lever Press
Shock)
+
Add something bad
Negative
Reinforcement
(Lever Press
Shock off)
- Take away
something bad
Negative Punishment
(Lever
Press
removes food)
- Take away something good
Goal
Manipulation
Negative
(Removing
something)
Positive
(Introducing
something)Slide23
The Big Bang Theory
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA96Fba-WHkSlide24
Operant Conditioning II
Through
discrimination training,
an animal can be conditioned to make an operant response to a stimulus more specific than the entire inside of a Skinner Box.
Discriminative stimulus
GENERALIZATIONSlide25
The Overjustification
Effect
OVERJUSTIFICATION EFFECT: the phenomenon in which a person
performing
a task for no reward becomes less likely to perform that task for no reward after a period of time during which he or she has been rewarded for performing it
Cognitive consequences of
rewards
Behavior Analysis (or Applied Behavior Analysis)
Judge Rotenberg Educational Center (MA)Slide26
Facilitating Learning: PLAY
Exercise
or activity for amusement or recreation; has no useful purpose
Karl
Groos
’ Theory of
Play (1898): Practice species-typical behaviorthe young play more than adultsSpecies that have the most to learn play the mostPlay most at important skills
Involves repetition
Play is challenging
Play in humans: a form of imitationSlide27
Facilitating Learning: EXPLORATION
EXPLORATION: the investigation of unknown regions
A more primitive form of learning
A balance of curiosity and fearSlide28
Exploration: Information Acquisition
Tolman
and
Honzik
(1930): Rewards affect what animals
do
more than what they learnLATENT LEARNING: learning that is not demonstrated in the subject’s behavior at the time that the learning occurs but can be inferred from its effect on the subject’s behavior at some later time
Slide29
Facilitating Learning: OBSERVATION
OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING: learning by watching
others
Is it really imitation?
Stimulus enhancement:
increase in the salience or attractiveness of the object that the observed individual is acting upon
Goal enhancement:
an increased drive to obtain rewards similar to what the observed individual is receivingSlide30
Food-Aversion Learning
What is safe to eat?
Most animals learn to avoid foods that have made them ill
Food aversion differs from classical conditioning because:
A significant time delay
CS must be a taste or smell
Food Preference Learning
Animals must also learn to choose foods that satisfy a nutritional requirement, can associate certain foods with improvement in health
Humans have a preference for high-calorie foods: (evolutionary advantageous)