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 learning o 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 stimulus that 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 organism until 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 CS o Santa s beard produces a CR that similar to the CR produced by the rat Discrimination The capacity to distinguish between similar but distinct stimuli o 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 Punishment o Anything that decreases the probability of an organism repeating a behavior Each can be either positive or negative Positive Something is added o Ex reinforcement Compliments on a shirt increased wearing o Ex punishment Spanking decreased fighting with sister Negative Something is subtracted o Ex reinforcement Seat belt ding in car increased seatbelt wearing o Ex punishment Paying less attention to a child fewer tantrums The terms positive and negative have nothing to do with pleasure or pain Reinforcement Positive Classical Condition Operant Condition Learned association between US and CS Associate behavior with reinforcement organism is passive organism is active behaviors are reactive behaviors are proactive Think Pavlov s dogs watsons little Thorndikes cats skinner s pigeons rats alber o Observation social learning o Implicit learning book C III Operant Condition b Reinforcement Schedules i Continuous reinforcement reinforcement for every act ii Intermittent reinforcement only some responses are reinforced 1 Fixed interval a After a set amount of time biweekly paychecks 2 Variable Interval a After varying amounts of time pop quiz 3 Fixed ratio a After a set number of acts paid by the job not hourly 4 Variable ratio a After a varying number of acts slot machines c Shaping i Reinforcing behaviors that are progressively closer to a desired behavior ii How would you teach a dolphin to jump through a hoop d Superstitious behavior i When the organism falsely associates behavior with a reward 1 More likely to happen with intermittent reinforcement ii Skinner set the food dispenser to delier food ever 15 seconds 1 Pigeons would repeat whatever random behaviors had preceded the food iii Athletes 1 Not showering homeruns 2 Not stepping on the base lines giving up fewer hits Classical Conditioning Operant Conditioning Learned association between US and CS Associate behavior with reinforcement Organism is passive Organism is active Behaviors are reactive Behaviors are proactive Think Pavlov s dogs Watson s Littler Think Thorndike s cats skinner s Albert pigeons rats V Challenges to strict Behaviorism 1 The behaviorist tradition and the insights of classical and operant conditioning were very successful a 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 everything a The mind returns to psychology A Expectations a Why didn t pavlov s dogs salivate to Pavlov i He was not a reliable indicator of the arrival of food b The Rescorla Wagner model includes a cognitive component the expectation c The model predicts that conditioning should be easier with an unfamiliar CS d Familiar eents already have expectations associated with them so new conditioning is more difficult B Cognitive Maps Mental representations of the environment a Edward Tolman 1930s 1940s i Latent Learning Something is learned bu not manifested as a behavioral change until sometime in the future b The Fan Map i Behavoirists would predict that the rats wouldtake paths 8 or 9 on the fan map ii If rats form a mental map they will take path 5 C Taste Aversions a Some classical condition effects are evolutionarily designed to be more efficient b Garcia s Studies with rats i CS Visual auditory tactile taste or smell ii US Toxic substances radiation c No conditioning to the visual auditory and tactile CS yes to the taste and smell CS i Biological preparedness 1 A propensity for learning particular kinds of associations over others ii Patients undergoing chemotherapy are often given strange flavors prior to treatment so that they don t develop aversions to everyday foods D Animal misbehavior a Some things just vant be trained b If animals learn that a coin is a substitute for food they will start to treat a coin like food i Pigs will root with the coins as if they were digging them up ii Raccoons will rub the coins in their paws as if they were food c These animals Evolutionary history has predisposed them to treat food a certain way and it is very hard to train them otherwise VI Observational learning Observational learning defined o Learning that takes place by watching the actions of others No direct reinforcement o Instead vicarious reinforcement Seeing others being reinforced or punished influences one s behavior o Bandura s