PSY 201 1st Edition Lecture 12 Outline of Last Lecture I Classical Conditioning continued II Operant Conditioning III Movie Outline of Current Lecture I II III IV Continuation of movie classical conditioning Problems with behaviorism a Cognitive processes in learning b Evolutionary considerations Biological basis of learning Summary Current Lecture I II Thorndyke s mazes to study behavior a Behaviorism study of how habits can change John Watson a Study of behavior in the field rather than lab b Studied sea birds behavior and nesting strategies and recognition of nest i Experiement selected a nest and moved the egg slightly to the left or right He was trying to see if the bird would return to the nest or the egg 1 The bird returned to the nest and went through all the motions of sifting the sand regardless of the egg s absence 2 Demonstrated attachment to the nest ii Experiment altered the height of the nest but this didn t bother the bird as long as the egg hadn t been moved sideways 1 Concluded the birds were using landmarks to find their nests and that they had developed rigid habits patterns of walking landmarks for nests c Once learned habits are resistant to change i Using rats Watson tried to find the power of rewards to fix habits 1 A rat that was trained to run a long distance to receive the food attempts to go past the food ignoring the change 2 A rat that was trained to run a short distance to receive the food stops halfway even though there is no barrier 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 III IV V B F Skinner a Studied how behavior can be altered i Skinner box 1 Animals learn to tap a disk for food rewards a The scheduling of rewards effects the speed of learning i Example rat receives food whenever it presses the lever 1 When the lever only produced food every thirty seconds the rat learned more quickly to do the task b With rewards almost any behavior can be taught or learned Behavior and evolution a Zoologists believed that behavior was merely a product of evolution rather than learned b Inheritance is at the root of most behavior c Relationship between inheritance and learning i Study of the chaffinch songbird 1 Songs are virtually the same across the world but develop slight differences across regions 2 Songs were transcribed into a pattern ii Experiment the scientist took deaf chicks from their nests and raised them in a soundless laboratory so that they wouldn t grow up hearing the grown chaffinch s songs to determine how much of the song is learned 1 Part of the song developed instinctively without the bird having been exposed to other birds songs 2 Played adult song tapes to a different group of young birds the younger birds memorized the details of the song Classical conditioning continued a Use classical conditioning to explain and treat phobias b Watson s experiment i Little Albert 1 Presented him to a fuzzy white rat NS the child had no natural fear of it 2 When the child was given the rat a loud noise suddenly enacted behind him UCS which caused him to have a fearful response UCR 3 In time the child learned to associate the rat CS with the fear from the loud nose CR c Use of classical conditioning to treat drug addiction i Treating tolerance decrease in response to the drug 1 Drug UCS produces the tolerance response UCR VI 2 A familiar setting NS paired with the drug produces the tolerance response UCR 3 This setting becomes a CS over time so therefore this will trigger a tolerance response CR a If you take the drug in an unfamiliar setting after this you get no tolerance response and therefore may overdose Cognitive processes in learning a Not everything is learned through reinforcement of classical conditioning b Cognitive views of learning i Organisms develop mental model of relationship between the events in the environment and develop unconscious reflexes 1 Classical conditioning CS indicates that UCS will follow rather than CS substituted for UCS 2 Operant conditioning acquiring an act outcome representation rather than strengthening a response c Cognitive maps i Tolman ii Example rats learn an internal representation of a maze rather than just memorizing lefts and rights creating a kind of cognitive map 1 When faced with change in starting place the rats were at first confused but were seemingly able to consult a map and then route themselves to the goal a Latent learning i 3 types of conditions no food reward regular reward and rewarded on day 11 after ten days learning the maze 1 Measured number of errors to get to food 2 Rats who were rewarded on day 11 performed as well as rats who were rewarded daily a Those rats had created a cognitive map 3 Unrewarded rats made on average more errors but still learned the layout of the maze d Observational learning i Monkey see monkey do 1 Monkey operates slot machine by seeing a human go through the processes 2 Babies imitate facial expressions 3 Bandura the Bobo doll VII VIII a Two groups of children one who watched a film where an adult punched a Bobo doll and one who watched a film where an adult played nicely with all the toys i The kids were placed in the room with all the same toys ii Those who saw the violent version of the video were more violent towards the doll Evolutionary considerations a Behaviorism any response can be connected with a stimulus i Example classical conditioning depends on a predisposition to certain things ii Example operant conditioning means that not all rewards are equivalent 1 Instinctual drift some rewards lead to disruption of training a Training raccoons and pigs to put coins in a piggy bank for food i Treated token as if it were the food because they associated coin with reward ii Response drifted towards instinctive response and it interfered with conditioning b Food aversions learning mechanism to associate taste and smell of food with illness after an illness occurs after food is eaten i NS CS taste or smell of food causes UCS illness which leads to UCR which is food aversion c Learning involves changes in the brain remember the neuron mantra cells that fire together wire together i Neural basis of positive reinforcement in operant conditioning is release of NT such as dopamine 1 The amount released is correlated to the effectiveness of the reward a Pleasure centers planted electrodes in the brains of rats that stimulate the reward centers of the