Fall 2011 Copyright 2011 PSYCHOLOGY 110 PROFESSOR MINOR SET 1 September 22 2011 II What is learning FUNDAMENTALS OF LEARNING BASIC CONCEPTS Prediction of behavior A Source of variance II Def of learning A Common sense B Scientific III Heuristics A Clark Hull B Neisser vs Garcia C Systems Analyses D Evolution IV Structure of Behavior A Reactions B Actions I Source of variance One example of this would be picking a trait and mapping it to find the distribution Like IQ A Common sense definition process of acquiring storing and utilizing knowledge To test this you would have to set up an experiment Step one for this could be manipulating the environment People didn t do that for a long time they would just sit around and think about how they think William James wrote a number of books on psychology even though he never did an experiment He had really good insights Edward Thorndike was his student He started experimental psychology in this country B Scientific Definition Thorndike and James came up with it Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior as a result of experience this is done through experience interactions with the environment Behavior is how we measure learning Non associative not learned Associative learning Experience Thorndike says we need to vary experience and study the changes in behavior He argues that there are only 3 FUNDAMENTAL TYPES OF EXPERIENCE Variance genes environment g e error GE on phenotype Associative Learned Nonassociative unlearned like aging effects How do you learn think of a problem then take naps The little man in your head homunculus tells us how to do things while we nap it s unconscious 1 Present you with a stimulus and record the behavior habituation and sensitization S 2 Present you with a sequence of stimuli classical Pavlovian conditioning S1 S2 3 Wait until you respond and then present a stimulus that relies on that response instrumental Thorndikian conditioning R S 2 CATEGORIES OF BEHAVIOR 1 Reactions innate behaviors encoded in genome UNLEARNED Innate behaviors you get them when you get your genes some aren t expressed right away and some disappear 2 Actions LEARNED REACTIONS simple to complex 1 Kinesis non directed motor movement Ex wood louse aka rolly pollies light and a decrease in humidity stimulate them to move dark and humid places inhibit movement so they end up under rocks In the late 1960 s early 1970 s psychology broke in two 2 Taxis directional movement Ex worms see light and go the other way negative photo taxis Plants have positive photo taxis Neisser got a computer when they were still very new and thought that a computer was a good model of how the human brain worked o This was the start of cognitive psychology Garcia who used to be at UCLA disagreed with this He said that it is all biological and comes from evolution The brain is a biological organ which evolved to control behavior o This was the start of psychobiology 3 Reflex Sensory afferent Motor efferent The experiment then is to do one of those and record the behavior change Then you can see how you acquire store use information 4 Action Pattern Complex Ex Herring Gull The female has a red spot on the bottom of her beak this is the sign stimulus for the baby herring gull who once they see it will peck at it the baby pecking at it is the sign stimulus for the mother to vomit into the baby s mouth Action patterns are also seen in mating rituals The biological organ is divided up Information Acquisition System Output is Motivation Emotion System Behavior Production System 5 Actions flexible neural learning system Behavior is LEARNED can be adapted within our lifetime Ex Learning to drive a manual car Information acquisition is the cognitive system where you perceive the world pure learning if we could isolate it Motivational emotional will affect how you respond to a stimulus Three types of actions 1 Instrumental conditioning R S learning the consequences of your behavior Some action some consequence and you will change your response based on if you like that consequence or not Ex rats pressing a bar for food 2 Internalized Actions probably limited to higher primates and humans you can assess the outcome of something you don t have to try it out to figure out what something does Behavior production is how your nervous system makes behavioral output END OF LECTURE 3 Habits similar to action patterns unconscious happen because something occurred repeatedly with a consistent outcome Ex When a red light comes on while you are driving you stop History Heuristics A way of looking at a problem Clark Hull telephone analogy o The brain worked like a telephone in a telephone the crank would send a signal to the operator who would them connect your node to the node you wanted to talk to the brain is a big switch board with nodes of knowledge you gain associations between nodes 2 September 27 2011 Evolution of Intelligent Behavior ppt on blackboard website o o If Darwin was right then our ancestors were submissive and psychotic because otherwise they never would have left the trees to go to the savanna where there were predators and no food Evolution of Man Anthropods split into monkeys and hominoids Hominoids hominids homo sapiens We lost hair from running around savanna hot and sweaty are bipedal Aquatic Ape Theory o If we were wading around in water it would make sense that we were hairless and bipedal and have a lot of fat even as babies o Our fat is bonded to our skin not muscle like other species o We need omega 3 fatty acid or we get neurodegenerative disease o We can hold our breath and can swim and love water Others can t o Our hair pattern is closest to dolphins Ardipithecus ramidus Lucy picture is wrong her nose should be facing down noses turned down for swimming otherwise you would drown o She was thought to be able to use tools o Large occipital lobe to be able to swing from trees o Frontal lobe for planning increased o Temporal lobe increased language symbolism emotion w limbic system o Ethiopia looked very different in Lucy s time lush trees Homo habilis handy man getting taller more social structure o Omnivore scavenger o Bone marrow calorie rich fatty Homo erectus almost a real homo sapien o Tool maker fire maker o Slow and weak but has fire o No longer breeding based on dominance and estrous Intelligent behavior is best now This accelerates evolution o Downfall Can t talk o Traveling all over Homo neanderthalensis o Have language o More successful