LEARNING OBJECTIVES Define learning Learning is any relatively permanent change in behavior brought about by experience or practice Making associations and seeing contingencies The ability to modify future behavior as a result of past experience is adaptive Describe how classical conditioning was discovered and explain how it works Who discovered classical conditioning Classical conditioning is learning to make an involuntary response to a stimulus other than the original natural stimulus that normally produces the response Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov was interested in digestion and used dogs and their salvia to study digestion thus discovering classical conditioning Be able to discriminate between the key terms unconditioned stimulus response and conditioned stimulus response Unconditioned stimulus UCS In classical conditioning a naturally occurring stimulus that leads to an involuntary and unlearned response The food Unconditioned response UCR In classical conditioning an involuntary and unlearned response to a naturally occurring or unconditioned stimulus The salivation to the food Conditioned stimulus CS In classical conditioning a previously neutral stimulus that becomes able to produce a conditioned response after pairing with an unconditioned stimulus Neutral stimulus NS becomes the conditioned stimulus CS The bell Conditioned response CR In classical conditioning a learned response to a conditioned stimulus Salivation to the sound of the bell Explain how extinction occurs and discuss why spontaneous recovery often occurs after a conditioned response has been extinguished When you present the conditioned stimulus without the unconditioned stimulus the conditioned response will eventually stop and extinction will occur Ring the bell without presenting the food salivation to the sound of the bell will eventually stop As time passes this inhibition weakens especially if the original stimulus has not been present for a while In spontaneous recovery the conditioned response can briefly reappear when the original conditioned stimulus returns although the response is usually weak and short lived Discuss the Little Albert study What is a conditioned emotional response How can cognitive psychologists interested in mental processes explain something like classical conditioning John B Watson performed the Little Albert Study Albert was not at all afraid of white fluffy things in the beginning They would allow him to crawl around with a white rat and would come up behind him and bang on metal producing a really loud noise and scaring him He eventually cried at the site of all white fluffy things The point of this was to show that you could condition people to be afraid AKA a conditioned emotional response A conditioned emotional response are emotional responses that have been become classically conditioned to occur to learned stimuli such as a fear of dogs or the emotional reaction that occurs when seeing an attractive person The cognitive perspective asserts that the conditioned stimulus has to provide some kind of information or expectancy about the coming of the unconditioned stimulus in order for condoned to occur What is operant conditioning How was operant conditioning discovered and by whom Operant conditioning is the learning new behavior by watching a model perform that behavior Behavior followed by reinforcement increases chances of behavior Thorndike developed the law of effect A response followed by a pleasurable consequence will be repeated but a response followed by an unpleasant consequence will not be repeated B F Skinner named the learning of voluntary responses operant conditioning because voluntary responses are what we use to operate in the world around us What are the differences between positive and negative reinforcement In positive reinforcement a response is followed by the presentation of a positive stimulus whereas in negative reinforcement a response is followed by the removal or avoidance of an unpleasant stimulus Positive means to add a desirable stimulus Negative means to remove an aversive stimulus BOTH STRENGTHEN THE BEHAVIOR THEY FOLLOW What type of reinforcement schedule is more resistant to extinction Can you define and explain with examples the following reinforcement schedules continuous versus partial reinforcement fixed interval schedule variable interval schedule fixed ratio schedule and variable ratio schedule Continuous reinforcement is the reinforcement of each and every correct response Partial reinforcement effect is the tendency for a response that is reinforced after some but not all correct responses to be very resistant to extinction MORE RESISTANT TO EXTINCTION Fixed interval schedule is a schedule of reinforcement in which the interval of time that must pass before reinforcement becomes possible is always the same Monthly paycheck Catching fish Variable interval schedule is a schedule of reinforcement in which the interval of time that must pass before reinforcement becomes possible is different for each trial or event Fixed ratio schedule is a schedule of reinforcement in which the number of responses required for reinforcement is always the same 20 for making 5 products Variable ratio schedule is a schedule of reinforcement in which the number of responses required for reinforcement is different for each trial or event Slot machine What is punishment How does it differ from reinforcement What are some of the problems with using punishment Punishment is any event or object that when following a response makes the response less likely to happen again In punishment by application a response is followed by the application or experiencing of an unpleasant stimulus such as spanking In punishment by removal a response is followed by the removal of some pleasurable stimulus such as taking away a child s toy Demonstrates that behavior is wrong but doesn t help organism to determine what to do instead Often leads to imitation of the punisher Aggressive behavior perhaps Punishment can be made more effective by making it immediate and consistent and by pairing punishment of the undesirable behavior with reinforcement of the desired one What is shaping and how does it work Shaping is the reinforcement in simple steps in behavior through successive approximations that lead to a desired more complex behavior Useful for teaching new behaviors Potty training children What is observational learning Summarize the findings from Bandura s study
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