1. What is learning?a. Defined: The acquisition of new knowledge, skills, or responses form experience that result in a relatively permanent change in the state of the learner- 4 main types of learningo Classical conditioning Defined: when a neutral stimulus evokes a response after being paired with a stimulus that naturally evokes that response Ivan Pavlov- Won the Nobel prize in 1904 for his research on salivation in dogs Key Terminology- Unconditional Stimulus (US)o A stimulus that reliably produces a naturally occurring reaction in an organism (a stimulusthat elicits a response without prior learning)- Unconditioned response (UR)o A reflexive reaction that is reliably produced by an unconditioned stimulus (a response that does not have to be learned)- Conditioned Stimulus (CS)o A stimulus that is initially neutral and produces no reliable response in an organismuntil after an association has been learned.- Conditioned response (CR)o A reaction that resembles an unconditioned response but is produced by a conditioned stimulus (a response that has been learned)  Watson’s Little Albert Behaviorism: No need to talk about inner mental processes (thinking, reasoning) Watson’s Famous Quote (1928) hahaha- The nature/nurture debate revisited (tabula rasa) Generalization and Discrimination- Generalization: the CR is ovserved even though the CS is slightly different from the original CSo Santa’s beard produces a CR that similar to the CR produced by the rat- Discrimination: The capacity to distinguish between similar but distinct stimulio Santa’s beard produces a CR that is weaker than the CR produced by the rat- Two sides of the same coin- the more generalization, the less discrimination  CC o Operant (instrumental) Conditioning Thorndike’s “Law of Effect”: Behaviors leading to good outcomes are more likely to be repeated; those leading to bad outcomes are less so OC: a type of learning in which the consequences influence the likelihood that a behavior will be repeated in the future B. Reinforcement and Punishment- Reinforcement:o Anything that increases the probability of an organism repeating a behavior- Punishmento Anything that decreases the probability of an organism repeating a behavior Each can be either “positive” or “negative”- Positive: Something is addedo Ex reinforcement Compliments on a shirt  increased wearingo Ex punishment Spanking  decreased fighting with sister- Negative: Something is subtracted o Ex reinforcement Seat belt ding in car  increased seatbelt wearingo Ex punishment Paying less attention to a child  fewer tantrums- The terms “positive “ and negative” have nothing to do with pleasure or pain Reinforcement- PositiveClassical Condition Operant Condition* Learned association between US and CS* organism is passive* behaviors are reactive*Think: Pavlov’s dogs, watsons little alber* Associate behavior with reinforcement* organism is active* behaviors are proactive* Thorndikes cats, skinner’s pigeons/ratso Observation (social) learningo Implicit learning (book)CIII. Operant Conditionb. Reinforcement Schedulesi. Continuous reinforcement: reinforcement for every actii. Intermittent reinforcement: only some responses are reinforced1. Fixed interval a. After a set amount of time (biweekly paychecks)2. Variable Intervala. After varying amounts of time (pop quiz)3. Fixed ratioa. After a set number of acts (paid by the job, not hourly)4. Variable ratioa. After a varying number of acts (slot machines)c. Shaping:i. Reinforcing behaviors that are progressively closer to a desiredbehaviorii. How would you teach a dolphin to jump through a hoopd. Superstitious behaviori. When the organism falsely associates behavior with a reward1. More likely to happen with intermittent reinforcementii. Skinner set the food dispenser to delier food ever 15 seconds1. Pigeons would repeat whatever random behaviors had preceded the food iii. Athletes1. Not showering  homeruns2. Not stepping on the base lines  giving up fewer hitsClassical Conditioning Operant ConditioningLearned association between US and CSOrganism is passiveBehaviors are reactiveThink: Pavlov’s dogs, Watson’s Littler AlbertAssociate behavior with reinforcementOrganism is activeBehaviors are proactiveThink: Thorndike’s cats, skinner’s pigeons/ratsV. Challenges to strict Behaviorism1. The behaviorist tradition and the insights of classical and operant conditioning were very successfula. They explained real life situations, they were very replicable, they were based on a simple set of principles, etc.2. But psychologists soon discovered that behaviorism was no sufficient to explain everythinga. The mind returns to psychologyA. Expectationsa. Why didn’t pavlov’s dogs salivate to Pavlov?i. He was not a reliable indicator of the arrival of foodb. The Rescorla-Wagner model: includes a cognitive component – the expectationc. The model predicts that conditioning should be easier with an unfamiliar CSd. Familiar eents already have expectations associated with them, so newconditioning is more difficultB. Cognitive Maps – Mental representations of the environmenta. Edward Tolman – 1930s-1940si. Latent Learning- Something is learned bu not manifested as a behavioral change until sometime in the futureb. The Fan Mapi. Behavoirists would predict that the rats wouldtake paths 8 or 9on the fan mapii. If rats form a mental map, they will take path 5C. Taste Aversionsa. Some classical condition effects are evolutionarily designed to be more efficientb. Garcia’s Studies with ratsi. CS: Visual, auditory, tactile, taste or smellii. US: Toxic substances, radiationc. No conditioning to the visual, auditory, and tactile CS, yes to the taste and smell CSi. Biological preparedness:1. A propensity for learning particular kinds of associations over othersii. Patients undergoing chemotherapy are often given strange flavors prior to treatment so that they don’t develop aversions to everyday foodsD. Animal misbehaviora. Some things just vant be trainedb. If animals learn that a coin is a substitute for food, they will start to treat a coin like foodi. Pigs will root with the coins as if they were digging them upii. Raccoons will rub the coins in their paws as if they were foodc. These animals’ Evolutionary history has predisposed them to treat food a certain way, and it is very hard to train them