Learning Reward Part 2 Punishment weakening or reducing the probability of a behavior o An averse stimulus is not always a punisher e g if there is a class clown the teacher may try to punish him by not letting him go outdoors for recess but he may actually enjoy staying inside during recess o Punishment is not always effective e g not everyone who speeds gets a speeding ticket Examples of reinforcement o A parent giving in to a whining child and buys it candy giving in is negatively reinforced for the parent and whining is positively reinforced for the child o When someone has a phobia of germs their phobia is negatively reinforced if they wash their hands after touching a doorknob o Staying at home to avoid overwhelming social anxiety negatively reinforces staying at home The overjustification effect o Taking drugs to remove boredom from your life negatively reinforces taking drugs o When someone is rewarded for something that is already rewarding o It changes the meaning of the behavior o The reward provides unneeded justification for the behavior o E g getting a trophy for winning a soccer game soccer is already fun o E g giving a student money for getting an A getting good grades is already satisfying and giving them money makes them want to get good grades so they can get more money not to feel good Social learning o Learning in a social context learning from observing other people o Social learning theory emotions Focuses on the importance of observing modeling behaviors attitudes and Learning involves cognitive behavioral and environmental influences Bandura and the bobo doll experiment video Children were divided into 2 groups a control group that watched a model play normally with the bobo doll and a group that watched a model play violently and beat up the bobo doll The children who watched the violent model also played violently with the model while the control group played normally with it This implies that aggression is learned if children are hit by their parents when they are younger they are more likely to grow up to be aggressive and violent as well Two more groups were created a group that watched the model be rewarded for playing violently with the bobo doll and a group that watched the model be punished for violently playing with the bobo doll The group that watched the model be rewarded had the highest rate of children that played aggressively with the doll Direct reinforcement punishment is not necessary for learning Bandura s social learning with phobias Research showed that a child who is afraid of a dog but is able to observe a child repeatedly playing with a dog will significantly reduce the fear of the dog Implication phobias respond to social learning as well Learning and the biology of reward o Brain function Dopamine is involved in motivation emotion It is crucial for positive reinforcement The absence of dopamine reduces drive and motor control The experience of pleasure results from the activation of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens in the limbic system Amphetamines cocaine increase dopamine Secondary reinforcers such as money good grades etc may activate dopamine systems o Self stimulation is a model of reward Inter cranial self stimulation ICSS activates dopamine receptors In an experiment a rat could press a bar and its accumbens were stimulated It didn t eat or drink it just kept pressing the bar until it died An addiction to gambling almost like an addiction to drugs activates dopamine receptors Fun fact oreos are almost as stimulating as cocaine Developmental Psychology The study of the psychological growth of individuals Focus on the psychological responses that characterize the different stages of life Stages of life prenatal infancy childhood adolescence early adulthood middle adulthood late adulthood Nature vs nurture predetermined processes we are environment matter Critical periods nature concept o Nature argument we unfold maturation process according to genetically o Nurture argument we are a blank slate at birth and the environment determines who o In reality both nature and nurture factor into who we develop into both genetics and o A critical period in which an experience must occur for normal development o E g learning language visual information if a child has cataracts at birth and they are removed later on they still will not be able to see because there is no path to the visual cortex and attachment if babies don t receive physical comfort when they are young they will have long term attachment problems o Sensitive periods also exist periods in which certain things are easier to learn than in other periods of life e g learning a second language is easier as a child than when you o Piaget 4 stages of cognitive development how children think and progress are older Important developmental theories o Kohlberg 3 levels of moral development o Erikson 8 levels of psychosocial development Jean Piaget 1896 1980 o 4 stages of cognitive development Sensorimotor stage from birth to 2 years old involves sense of touch and motor skills develop schemas through sense motor skills object permanence develops realizing that even if you can t see an object it still exists Video who is that in the mirror young children think they see another child when they look in the mirror but as they get older they realize it is their reflection Preoperational 2 6 years old involves cognition learning language skills an object thinking symbolically this object is called a pencil a word represents can t perform operations yet e g when asked when a child s brother had a brother the child would say no egocentric thinking e g a child asking over the phone if a parent liked a picture they just drew the parent can t see the picture Theory of mind video knowledge o Learning that different people have different thoughts and o Learning to manipulate others minds by lying o Children were told a story that Mary has money in a box she leaves and John takes that money and puts it in his tin The children are asked where Mary will look for the money upon her return Those that have not developed theory of mind will say the tin while those that have will say the box Concrete operational 6 11 years Can perform concrete operations Understand conservation o Things conserve their properties even if they change shape or location o E g water is poured from a short fat glass into a tall thin cylinder 6 11 year olds will know that there was the same amount of water in the glass as