March 16 2015 Chapter 5 Learning Textbook Notes Introduction Section 1 Definition of Learning Maturation changes like an increase in height or the size of the brain are another kind of change controlled by a genetic blueprint is due to biology not experience Once the maturational readiness has been reached then practice and experience play their important part 5 1 What does the term learning really mean Learning is any relatively permanent change in behavior brought about by experience or practice and is different from maturation which is genetically controlled Section 2 It Makes Your Mouth Water Classical Conditioning Ivan Pavlov 1849 1936 Russian physiologist pioneered empirical study of the basic principles of a particular kind of learning discovered classical condoning through his work on digestion in dogs Built a device that would measure amount of saliva produced by dog when they were fed a measured amount of food Salivary glands automatically start releasing saliva to help with chewing and digestion This is a normal reflex an unlearned involuntary response that is not under personal control or choice one of the many that occur in both animals and humans Stimulus any object event or experience that causes a response the reaction of an organism The food is the stimulus and salivation is the response Acquisition the repeated pairing of a NS and the UCS bc the organism is in the process of acquiring learning 5 2 How was classical conditioning first studied and what are the important elements and characteristics of classical conditioning Pavlov accidentally discovered the phenomenon in which one stimulus can through pairing with another stimulus come to produce a similar response He called this classical conditioning The unconditioned stimulus UCS is the stimulus that is naturally occurring and produces the innate or involuntary unconditioned response UCR Both are called unconditioned bc they are not learned Unconditioned unlearned Unconditioned response occurs bc of the genetic wiring of the nervous system The conditioned stimulus CS begins as a neutral stimulus but when paired with the unconditioned stimulus eventually begins to elicit an involuntary and automatic behavior on its own The response to the conditioned stimulus is called the conditioned response CR and both stimulus and response are learned Conditioned learned The conditioned response CR is not as strong as the unconditioned response UCR but it s essentially the same response March 16 2015 Pavlov paired a sound with the presentation of food to dogs and discovered several principles for classical conditioning The neutral stimulus NS and UCS must be paired several times and the CS must precede the UCS by only a few seconds ideally no more than 5 seconds apart When Pavlov tried to stretch the time between the potential CS and UCS to several minutes no association or link between the two was made Interstimulus interval ISI time between the CS and UCS can vary depending on the nature of the conditioned task and even the organism being conditioned Shorter ISIs less than 500 milliseconds have been found to be ideal for conditioning Other important aspects of classical conditioning include stimulus generalization stimulus discrimination extinction spontaneous recovery and higher order conditioning Definition of Learning any relatively permanent change in behavior brought about by experience or practice Relatively permanent aspect of learning refers to learning being associated with physical changes in the brain Although physical changes may be present we may not always be able to get to the information Classical Conditioning learning to make an involuntary response to a stimulus other than the original natural stimulus that normally produces it Discovered by Ivan Pavlov worked with salivating dogs Focused on observable measurable behavior Several key elements must be present and experienced Unconditioned stimulus UCS original naturally occurring stimulus that ordinarily leads to an involuntary response Unconditioned response UCR involuntary response to the unconditioned stimulus Conditioned stimulus CS previously neutral stimulus that begins to cause the same kind of involuntary response when paired repeatedly with the UCS Conditioned response CR response that is given to the CS Basic principles for classical conditioning to occur CS must come before the UCS CS and UCS must come very close together in time 5 sec CS must be paired with the UCS many times CS must be distinct or stand out from other competing stimuli Key features Stimulus generalization response to a stimulus that is similar to the original CS with the CR It didn t take long for the dogs to stop responding generalizing to the fake ticking sound Stimulus discrimination response to different stimuli in different ways Tendency to stop making a generalized response to a stimulus that is similar to the original CS bc the similar stimulus is never paired with the UCS March 16 2015 CR Example although the sound of the coffee grinder might produce a little anxiety in the dental drill hating person after a few uses that sound will no longer produce anxiety bc it isn t associated with dental pain Extinction presentation of the CS in the absence of the UCS leads to the reduction in the The CS alone leads to new learning During extinction the CS UCS association that was learned is weakened as the CS no longer predicts the UCS Spontaneous recovery reappearance of a previously extinguished CR After putting the metronome away for a while Pavlov put the metronome and set it ticking the dogs salivated although it was fairly weak and didn t last very long This brief recovery of the CR proves that the CR is still in there somewhere remember learning is relatively permanent It is just suppressed or inhibited by the lack of an association with the new UCS of food On the day following extinction the first presentation of the CS elicits quite a large response due to spontaneous recovery Higher order conditioning occurs when strong CS is paired with new neutral stimulus new previously neutral stimulus becomes a second CS CS is used to create another higher CS Without the UCS higher order conditioning would be difficult to maintain and would gradually fade away Section 3 Conditioned Emotional Responses Rats Robert Rescorla 1988 found that the CS has to provide some kind of info about the coming of the UCS in order to achieve conditioning The CS must predict that the UCS is coming