LEARNING Learning a systematic relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs through experience Behaviorism a theory of learning that focuses solely on observable behaviors discounting the importance of such mental activity as thinking wishing and hoping Emphasizes the general laws that guide behavior change and make sense of human life Learning is the same as humans and animals Term coined by John B Watson Associative learning learning that occurs when we make a connection or an association between two events Conditioning process of learning these associations Two Types 1 Classical Conditioning organisms learn the association between two stimuli learn to anticipate events 2 Operant Conditioning organisms learn the association between a behavior and a consequence such as a reward organisms learn to increase behaviors that are followed by rewards and to decrease behaviors that are followed by punishment observational learning learning that takes place when a person observes and imitates another s behavior relies on mental processes pay attention remember and reproduce Classical conditioning learning process in which a neural stimulus becomes associated with a meaningful stimulus and acquires the capacity to elicit a similar response Ex baby stung by bee reaching for flower afraid of flowers Pavlov classical conditioning with dog experiment Reflexes automatic stimulus response connections Unconditioned stimulus UCS a stimulus that produces a response without prior learning food in Pavlov s experiment Unconditioned response UCR an unlearned reaction that is automatically elicited by the unconditioned stimulus involuntary in Pavlov s experiment it was the salivating to the food baby crying from the bee sting Conditioned stimulus CS a previously neutral stimulus that eventually elicits a conditioned response after being paired with the unconditioned stimulus bell in Pavlov s experiment flower for baby Conditioned response CR the learned response to the conditioned stimulus that occurs after conditioned stimulus unconditioned stimulus pairing Similar to unconditioned responses but not as strong baby crying salivating PAGE 158 acquisition the initial learning of the connection between the unconditioned stimulus and the conditioned stimulus when these two stimuli are paired CS is repeatedly presented followed by the UCS Eventually CS will produce a response Contiguity and contingency must both be present Contiguity means that the CS and UCS are presented very close together in time even a mere fraction of a second Bell must ring right before food to make the connection Contingency means that the CS must not only precede the UCS closely in time it must also serve as a reliable indicator that the UCS is on its way Dog couldn t randomly hear a bell throughout the day Generalization classical conditioning the tendency of a new stimulus that is similar to the original conditioned stimulus to elicit a response that is similar to the conditioned response Prevents learning from being tied to specific stimuli Discrimination classical conditioning the process of learning to respond to certain stimuli and not others Only gave the dog food after ringing the bell not after any other sounds Extinction classical conditioning the weakening of the conditioned response when the unconditioned stimulus is absent without the continued association with the UCS the CS loses its power to produce the CR Spontaneous recovery the process in classical conditioning by which a conditioned response can recur after a time delay without further conditioning Remembering something you thought you forgot thinking of an ex when youre somewhere you two used to go Renewal the recovery of the conditioned response when the orgranism is placed in a novel contex Can be powerful to overcome Drug addiction Counterconditioning a classical conditioning procedure for changing the relationship between a conditioned stimulus and its conditioned response One types is systematic desensitization Systematic desensitization a method of therapy that treats anxiety by teaching the client to associate deep relaxation with increasingly intense anxiety producing situations Uses classical conditioning by pairing a stimulus with a state of relaxation Aversive conditioning a form of treatment that consists of repeated pairings of a stimulus with a very unpleasant stimulus Ex electric shock and nausea inducing substances Immunosuppression a decrease in the production of antibodies which can lower a person s ability to fight disease Robert Ader and Nicholas Cohen revealed that classical conditioning can reveal this Found out using lab rats Taste aversion a special kind of classical conditioning involving the learned association between a particular taste and nausea Requires the pairing of a neural stimulus a taste with the unconditioned response of nausea to seal that connection often for a long time Respondent behavior form of classical conditioning behavior that occurs in automatic response to a stimulus such as a nausea producing drug and later to a conditioned stimulus such as a nausea producing drug and later to a conditioned stimulus such as sweet water that was paired with the drug Classical conditioning explains how neutral stimuli become associated with unlearned involuntary responses Not as effective in explaining voluntary behaviors Operant conditioning instrumental conditioning a form of associative learning in which the consequences of a behavior change the probability of the behavior s occurrence Developed by B F Skinner Chose term operant to describe the behavior of the organism Contingency plays a key role Skinner s Operant Conditioning action followed by a reinforce is more likely to be repeated A reinforce is defined as any outcome that increases rate of responding Action followed by a punisher is less likely to be repeated A punisher is any outcome that decreases the rate of responding Law of effect Thorndike s law stating that behaviors followed by positive outcomes are strengthened and the behaviors followed by negative outcomes are weakened Presents the basic idea that the consequences of a behavior influence the likelihood of that behaviors of that behavior s recurrence Behavior can be followed by something good or something bad Skinner believed that mechanisms of learning were the same for all species Shaping rewarding approximations of a desired behavior Ex shaping can be used to train a rat to press a bar to obtain