Chapter 6 Learning Define learning and identify the five major types of learning classical conditioning operant conditioning latent learning observational learning insight learning o Classical Conditioning A relatively permanent change in thought or behavior that results from o Learning experience animals come to respond to a previously neutral stimulus that has been paired with another stimulus that elicits an automatic response started using dogs to study salivation later noticed that his dogs showed a physiological response to cues associated with food Created by Ivan Pavlov and is a form of learning in which The food unconditioned stimulus caused salivating unconditioned response while the bell neutral stimulus did not cause salivation But when the bell is presented and then the food is given the dog will salivate in response to the food and there after the dog will start to salivate at the sight of the bell creating the bell conditioned stimulus to cause salivation conditioned response Responses are controlled by manipulated stimuli before the response o Operant Conditioning organism s behavior and whether they do the behavior is dependent on rewards or punishments Learning controlled by the consequences of the Used Thorndike s Law of Effect o Latent Learning Learning that is not directly observable Edward Tolman did a rat experiment where the goal was for the rat to escape the maze Group 1 got food every day after completing the maze Group 2 got food at the end of the 11th day Group 3 never received food for completing the maze The results showed that the rats that were always reinforced received food everyday made fewer errors but the rats that were reinforced only after the 11th day were shown to actually be learning prior to the reinforcement and made fewer errors than any other group after the 11th day o Observational Learning Bottom line Not all learning requires obvious rewards and punishments Learning occurs by watching other people s behavior and observing the resulting consequences the imitation of specific behaviors is called modeling Seen in Albert Bandura s study of the Bobo Doll where he looked at the aggressiveness in children and was asking the question whether watching an aggressive behavior causes more or less aggression he said it would cause less In one condition a woman would just sit there and play nicely with the toys and in another condition she would attack the Bobo doll while the child watched When the child was put in the room with the toys and Bobo doll and had watched the woman be aggressive they were more likely to go straight to the doll and beat it up as well Bottom line Observational learning suggests that people can learn consequences of behavior reinforcements punishments without having direct experience with them o Insight Learning Seen in an experiment by K hler where he found that Sultan his star chimpanzee discovered how to insert one bamboo stick inside another to create an extra long stick thereby allowing him to obtain food they could also figure out how to get to a banana that was suspended well above their heads o Sort of an Aha moment Describe and identify the four basic components of classical conditioning UCS UCR CS CR o Unconditioned stimulus UCS Dog food temperature o Unconditioned response UCR need to be learned Stimulus that elicits an automatic response Automatic response to a stimulus that does not Salivating sweating when it is hot outside o Conditioned stimulus CS response due to association with an unconditioned stimulus Initially neutral stimulus that comes to elicit a o Conditioned response CR Response elicited by a conditioned stimulus Bell button Salivating Summarize the processes of acquisition extinction spontaneous recovery generalization and discrimination o Acquisition A conditioned response is established and is the initial learning of an association between a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus key requirement is timing Best CS comes about 500 ms before UCS o Extinction o Spontaneous Recovery Repeated presentation of CS without UCS will eventually eliminate response to CS Sudden reemergence of a conditioned response CS after a delay in exposure to the conditioned stimulus does not erase learning just suppresses it Tendency to respond to stimuli that are similar but not identical to the CS in case of Little Albert the rat elicits the same response as the bunny Ability to distinguish between the CS and other stimuli Rat is not the same as a stack of marshmallows o Generalization o Discrimination Identify the critical role of involuntary versus voluntary behavior in distinguishing classical conditioning from operant conditioning o Classical Conditioning responses involves making associations with involuntary reflexive Organism s responses depend on the autonomic nervous system and learning involves changes in heart rate breathing and other bodily systems An example is blinking when air is blown in eye at the doctors o Operant Conditioning voluntary deliberate response involves increasing or decreasing the likelihood of a Organism s responses depend on the skeletal muscles and learning involves changes in voluntary motor behavior An example is a dog willingly eating watermelon with a button Describe Thorndike s law of effect o Law of Effect If a stimulus followed by a behavior results in a reward the stimulus is more likely to give rise to the behavior in the future but if punishments are provided the behavior will decrease in the future Used this in his study of cats and puzzle boxes where the hungry cat was placed inside a box and had to use a lever or latch to get out and receive a piece of fish After the cat happened on the solution accidentally the time it took to get out decreased over 60 trials Identify the four types of operant conditioning positive reinforcement negative reinforcement positive punishment negative punishment o Positive Reinforcement you give the animal or person something pleasurable When the frequency of a behavior is increased because Getting a gold star on homework so you do your homework next time o Negative Reinforcement because you take away something that is aversive When the frequency of a behavior is increased You put on your seat belt so the annoying noise will go away When a behavior is decreased by giving an aversive o Positive Punishment response to the behavior Getting a speeding ticket will make you less likely to speed next time When a behavior is decreased by
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