Psych 202 1st Edition Lecture 8 Introduction to the Psychology of Learning Classical conditioning Ivon Pavlov to present Operant conditioning Burrius F Skinner to present Social learning theory Albert Bandura is a principal founder Seligman s work is also central Historical roots of modern learning theory o Pavlov was a physiologist he stumbled into research on associative learning and developed idea of classical conditioning he named is associative Use dogs They salivated when they weren t supposed to be Before he gave them food Realized the dogs were associating other things in the lab with the fact they were about to get fed One stimulus is associated with another stimulus o The legacy of Edward Thorndike The Law of Effect Consequences and the nature of it of behavior determine its survival o Legacy of B F Skinner The Behavior of Organisms Idea of contingencies of reinforcement built upon Thorndike s concepts Circumstances of how we are reinforced punished determine almost everything about us Philosophical changes in psychology from structuralism to behaviorism and beyond o History of modern psych began with Wilhelm Wundt who focused structure of consciousness the building blocks of perception Proponents structuralists Studied the elements of perception atoms of the mind by using the methodology of introspection Subjective self reporting o Psych was revolutionized by John Watson in 1920 s who articulated a radical philosophy of psych called behaviorism o Watson and the Behaviorists rejected introspection and the study of consciousness in favor of the objective analysis of behavior alone Said subjective studies are unscientific They said psych should be about the study of what can be seen and observed it should be an S R Psychology Stimuli and Responses are observable and objective and should be the sole object of study in psych o Skinner popularized behaviorism further extending its reach in academic psych through the 1960 s continuing to today Philosophical changes in contemporary views of learning o Learning is no longer conceived as S R psych alone These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute o Instead S R models dominate where O organismic events internal cognitive mental events with neurobiological underpinnings o Examples of O variables cognitive processes attitudes thinking perception vicarious learning learn thru observations of others mental maps emotional processes biological mediating variables o Social learning theory rests on S O R conceptualizations Learning I Basic concepts in classical conditioning o Classical conditioning involves a process of what Pavlov called stimulus substitution A process of associative learning wherein stimuli are associated and one comes to substitute for another Pavolv s original discovery and terminology one stimulus is associated with another diagrammed arrow automatically o UCS UCR you don t have to learn anything to respond hence unconditioned Conditioned reaction is learned reaction o CS CR o UCS unlearned stimulus CS food o UCR unlearned response CR o The UCS automatically elicits the UCR reflex o So for Pavlov the UCS was the bell and the UCR was salivation o CS previously neutral S is paired repeatedly with temporal contiguity with UCS o Over trials temporal pairings CS comes to automatically elicit a response CR that closely resembles the UCR CR is not identical to UCR reflex but instead is a learned automatic associative response with similar form o 2 MORE PICTURES Classical Conditioning o Once a stimulus acquires conditioned properties through stimulus substitution the brain also learns to Generalize among stimuli stimulus generalization Discriminate among stimuli stimulus discrimination Absence of stimulus generalization Extinguish learned associations extinction o Acquisition of CR s come to have a reaction to a CS o Extinction of CR s decreases as trials go on trial decoupling of CS and UCS o Spontaneous Recovery of CR s doesn t mean it s gone you train to get over something but you still are afraid it just in a lesser amount Emotional learning involves CC o and emotions are acquired initially and maintained as a result of classical conditioning processes o Think e g about why you like the products you use the foods you prefer Has illness even conditioned you to strongly dislike some foods Why does some music or sensation of physical touch or smells make you happy Why are you anxious with some people or slow to trust others or grumpy under particular circumstances o Point our feelings are learned through associative processes Video clip the case of little albert o John Watson applies Pavolv s associative learning classical conditioning to Albert s emotional learning of fear o o o Watson scared a little kid and wouldn t let him get over it Shows Mowrer s two factor theory of learning Factor 1 fear is learned through classical conditioning previously neutral stimuli acquire their fear inducing properties via stimulus substitution generalization and discrimination Stimulus substitution UCS UCR Gong startled Automatically elicits CS CR Rat fear Above is factor 1 of the model Rat began as neutral became CS when paired with UCS He is not afraid of rat at first he is curious Factor 2 fear is maintained through operant conditioning also called instrumental conditioning specifically Avoidance responses are operant behaviors they operate on the environment also called instrumental behaviors they have an instrumental effect on the environment Avoidance behaviors are often strengthened by their consequences called reinforcement All reinforcement involves an increase in the behavior preceding it Avoidance behavior leads to fear reduction because the consequence of the behavior involves removal of an aversive stimulus Thus avoidance is negatively reinforced which is to say it is strengthened by the reduction in fear an increase in avoidance behavior follows the removal of fear anxiety So avoidance learning withdrawal avoidance behaviors increases in frequency because it is negatively reinforced AND this guarantees that extinction cant occur because the learned effectively never confronts the CS again For little albert Stimulus substitution factor 1 Stimulus generalization Stimulus discrimination something different about the monkey but albert isn t afraid of it Extinction principle applied by Mary Cover Jones to de condition