First Chapter-> Learning (CHAPTER 5) Lecture Notes
➢ Learning: any relatively permanent change in behavior brought about by experience or
... [Show More] practice
o When people learn anything, some part of their brain is physically changed to record what they have learned
o Any kind of change in the way an organism behaves is learning
➢ Stimuli
o Environmental factors (sounds, smells, lights...) that may influence behavior
➢ Responses
o Behaviors that occur following stimuli
▪ Loud noises --> startle
➢ 1- Pavlov and Classical Conditioning
o Ivan Pavlov: Russian physiologist (person who studies the workings of the body) who discovered classical conditioning through his work on digestion in dogs
o Classical Conditioning: learning to make a reflex response to a stimulus other than the original, natural stimulus that normally produces the reflex
▪ Upgraded “input-output system (NTS)”
1/23/19
First Chapter-> Learning (CHAPTER 5) Lecture Notes
➢ Classical Conditioning Concepts
o Unconditioned stimulus (UCS/US): a naturally occurring stimulus that leads to an involuntary response
▪ Unconditioned means “unlearned” or “naturally occurring”
o Unconditioned response (UCR/UR): an involuntary, reflexive response to a naturally occurring unconditioned stimulus
o Conditioned stimulus (CS): stimulus that becomes able to produce a learned reflex response (CR) by being paired with the original unconditioned stimulus
▪ Conditioned means “learned”
▪ Neutral stimulus (NS) can become a conditioned stimulus when paired with an unconditioned stimulus
o Conditioned response (CR): learned reflex response to a conditioned stimulus
▪ Sometimes called a conditioned reflex
▪ CS: Ice cream truck
▪ CR: salivation when one hears ice cream truck bell
▪ US-> Ice cream
▪ UR-> salivation when one eats/thinks about ice cream UCS->UCR
NS->UCS-> UCR. (*NS is always presented first) (paired several x’s) CS->UCS-> UCR (Pairing of NS with UCS to become CS)
*Introduced terms in video (Generalization and Discrimination)
o Acquisition: repeated pairing of the NS (neutral stimulus) and the UCS (US); the organism is in the process of acquiring learning-first few conditioning trials
▪ Although classical conditioning happens quite easily, there are a few basic principles that researchers have discovered:
• CS must(?) come before UCS
• CS and UCS must (?) come very close together in time- ideally, only several seconds apart
• Neutral stimulus must(?) be paired with the USC several times,
often many times, before conditioning can take place
o One trial learning
o Stimulus generalization: tendency to respond to a stimulus that is only similar to the original conditioned stimulus with the conditioned response
▪ The more similar the stimulus to the original CS used during conditioning the MORE likely you are to get a CR?
o Stimulus discrimination: tendency to not make a conditioned response (CR) to a stimulus that is similar to the original conditioned stimulus, but NOT similar enough to get CR
▪ The farther you get from the original CS used during conditioning the LESS likely you are to get a CR?
o Extinction: disappearance or weakening of a learned (conditioned) response (CR) following the removal or absence of the conditioned stimulus (in classical conditioning)
▪ US (food)- CS (light)
▪ Conditioning trials of the above stimuli
▪ Strong CR (salivation)
• To extinguish, present CS ALONE, over and over again (WITHOUT UCS) -> leads to extinction
*ended with the idea that extinction is not permanent-> leads up to spontaneous recovery
1/25/19
First Chapter-> Learning (CHAPTER 5) Lecture Notes
➢ Acquisition: pairing the US and CS together through multiple learning trials
➢ Spontaneous recovery: reappearance of a learned response after extinction has occurred
o Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior b/c extinction does not mean forgetting
➢ High-order conditioning->
o Strong, established conditioned stimulus (CS1) is paired with a neutral stimulus
o Now previously neutral stimulus becomes a second conditioned stimulus (CS2)
➢ Conditioned emotional response (CER): emotional response that has become classically conditioned to occur to learned stimuli (CS): occurs naturally or experimentally -> snake- shock (vs. string-shock)
o Example 1- conditioned fear of dogs
o Example 2- the emotional reaction that occurs when seeing an attractive person
o CERs may lead to phobias- irrational fear responses.
➢ Conditioned taste aversion: development of a nausea or aversive response to a particular taste because that taste was followed by nausea reaction/vomiting
o Occurs after only one association (CS-US)
o Often, hours between CS and US
➢ Biological preparedness: the tendency of animals to learn certain associations, such as taste and nausea, with only one or few pairings due to the survival value of learning
o Fear of spiders and snakes vs Fear of chairs
Operant Conditioning
➢ Operant Conditioning: the learning of voluntary behavior through the effects of pleasant and unpleasant consequences to responses
o R-> S
➢ Thorndike’s law of effect
o If a response is followed by a pleasurable consequence, it will tend to be repeated
o If a response is followed by an unpleasant consequence it will tend to not be repeated
1/28/19
First Chapter-> Learning (CHAPTER 5) Lecture Notes
➢ Skinner’s contribution (“father of operant conditioning”)
o Skinner was a behaviorist; he wanted to study only observable, measurable behavior
o Gave “operant conditioning” its name
▪ Operant: any behavior that is voluntary
o Learning depends on what happens after the response: the consequence
➢ Reinforcement: any event or stimulus, that when following a response, increases the probability that the response will occur again
o Primary reinforcer: any reinforcer that is naturally reinforcing by meeting a basic biological need, such as hunger, thirst, or touch
o Secondary reinforcer: any reinforcer that becomes reinforced after being paired with a primary reinforcer, such as praise, tokens, or gold stars
▪ Learned or conditioned
➢ Positive and Negative reinforcement
o Positive reinforcement/reward: the reinforcement of a response by the addition or experience of a pleasurable stimulus
o Negative reinforcement: the reinforcement of a response by the removal, escape from, or avoidance of an unpleasant stimulus
o Negative reinforcement punishment
▪ Example: taking aspirin for a headache is negatively reinforced by the removal of a headache
➢ Coming two kinds of Conditioning (too wordy!)
➢ Schedules of Reinforcement
o Partial or intermittent reinforcement: a response that is reinforced after some- but not all- correct responses tends to be very resistant to extinction
o Continuous reinforcement: reinforcement of each and every correct response
▪ These are FRI schedules
o Fixed ratio schedule of reinforcement: number of responses required for reinforcement is always the same
▪ FR10
o Variable ration schedule of reinforcement: schedule of reinforcement in which the number of responses required for reinforcement is different for each trial or event
▪ VR10
▪ # varies around some average
o Fixed interval schedule of reinforcement: interval of time that must pass before reinforcement becomes possible is always the same
▪ FI20
▪ Paycheck every 2 weeks
o Variable interval schedule of reinforcement: the interval of time that must pass before reinforcement becomes possible is different for each trial or event
▪ Time interval varies around some average
▪ VI10
▪ Pop quizzes-> Getting “A” (+reinforcer)
o
➢ Punishment: any event or object that, when following a response, makes that response less likely to happen again
o 1. Punishment by application: the punishment of response by the addition or experiencing of an unpleasant stimulus
▪ Positive stimulus
o 2. Punishment by removal: the punishment of a response by the removal of a pleasurable stimulus
▪ Negative punishment
*Reiterate the difference between Reinforcement and Punishment both + and – Ended with the Problems with Punishment
1/30/19
First Chapter-> Learning (CHAPTER 5) Lecture Notes
➢ Severe Punishment
o May cause avoidance of the punisher instead of the behavior being punished
o May encourage lying to avoid punishment
o Creates fear and anxiety
o Increased aggression
o Increased apathy
➢ How to make Punishment More effective
o Punishment should immediately follow the behavior (R) it is meant to punish.
o Punishment should be consistent
o Punishment should be explained to children
o Punishment of undesirable behavior should be paired, whenever possible, with reinforcement of the desirable behavior
➢ Operant stimuli and stimulus control
o Discriminative stimulus: any stimulus, such as a stop sign or a doorknob, that provides the organism with a cue for making a certain response in order to obtain reinforcement
▪ Stimulus that signals the likelihood of reinforcement following a
behavioral response (R)
• Traffic light, vending machine light...
• Rat-> different lights
• Stimulus generalization and discrimination to lights
• Discriminative stimulus stimulus discrimination
o Shaping: positive reinforcement of simple steps, leading to a desired complex behavior (“target behavior”)
▪ Successive approximation: small steps, one after another, that lead to a particular behavior
• Baby steps
o Extinction: occurs if the behavior (R) is not reinforced
▪ One way to deal with a child’s temper tantrum is to ignore it; lack of reinforcement for the tantrum behavior will eventually result in extinction
• Spontaneous recovery days after extinction
• Extinction burst at the start of extinction
o Spontaneous recovery (reoccurrence of a once-extinguished response) also happens in operant conditioning (and classical)
➢ Behavior Resistant to operant conditioning
o Instinctive drift: tendency for an animal’s behavior to revert to genetically controlled behavior patterns
▪ Instinctive patterns of behavior
▪ there are some responses that simply cannot be trained into an animal regardless of conditioning
2/1/19
o Behavior modification: use of operant conditioning techniques to bring about desired changes in human behavior
o Token economy: type of behavior modification in which desired behavior is rewarded with tokens
First Chapter-> Learning (CHAPTER 5) Lecture Notes
➢ Time- out: form of mild “negative punishment” in which a misbehaving animal, child, or adult is placed in a special area away from the attention of others
o Essentially, the organisms are being “removed” from any possibility of positive reinforcement in the form of attention
➢ Applied Behavior analysis (ABA): modern term for a form of behavior modification that
uses shaping techniques to mold a desired behavior or response in humans
➢ Biofeedback: use of feedback about biological conditions to bring involuntary responses such as blood pressure and relaxation under voluntary control
o People learn to control autonomic processes vial feedback (usually auditory)
*Teaching people to understand how their body responds and identify cues
➢ Neurofeedback: form of feedback using devices (EEG, fMRI) to provide feedback about brain activity in an effort to modify behavior
➢ Latent learning:
o Learning that remains hidden until its application becomes useful
o Learning happening w/o consistent reinforcement
➢ Edward Tolman: early cognitive scientist -> Maze
o Best-known experiments in learning involved teaching three groups of rats in the same maze, one at a time
▪ Reward/reinforcer on last day resulted in rats learning the maze almost
immediately
➢ (Insight learning- Kohler) Insight: the sudden perception of relationships among various parts of a problem, allowing the solution to the problem to come quickly
o Cannot be gained through trial and error learning alone
o “aha” moment (r/shower thoughts)
➢ Learned helplessness: tendency to fail to act to escape from a situation because of a history of repeated failures in the past
o Dogs-> apparatus slide
o Model of Depression
▪ People try to help themselves by engaging in various behaviors (R)-> no help (S)
▪ Some people may learn to be apathetic/helpless and stop persevering ->
depression
2/4/19
First Chapter-> Learning (CHAPTER 5) Lecture Notes
➢ Observational learning (Bandura): learning new behavior by watching a model perform that behavior
o Also called vicarious learning
o Observer vs. model
o Observe RS
➢ Four Important Elements of Observational Learning
o Attention
▪ To learn anything through observation, the learner must first pay attention to the model.
o Memory [Show Less]