Myers EXPLORING PSYCHOLOGY 7th Ed Chapter 7 Learning James A McCubbin PhD Aneeq Ahmad Ph D Modified by Ray Hawkins Ph D Worth Publishers Learning How Do We Learn Classical Conditioning Pavlov s Experiments Extending Pavlov s Understanding Pavlov s Legacy Learning Operant Conditioning Skinner s Experiments Extending Skinner s Understanding Skinner s Legacy Contrasting Classical Operant Conditioning Learning Learning by Observation Bandura s Experiments Applications of Observational Learning Learning Learning relatively permanent change in an organism s behavior due to experience Association We learn by association Our minds naturally connect events that occur in sequence Aristotle 2000 years ago John Locke and David Hume 200 years ago Associative Learning learning that two events occur together two stimuli a response and its consequences Associative Learning Learning to associate one stimulus with another Associative Learning Learning to associate one stimulus with another Associative Learning Learning to associate a response with a consequence Associative Learning Learning to associate a response with a consequence Classical Conditioning Ideas of classical conditioning originate from old philosophical theories However it was the Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov who elucidated classical conditioning His work provided a basis for later behaviorists like John Watson Sovfoto Film Ivan Pavlov 1849 1936 Pavlov s Experiments Before conditioning food Unconditioned Stimulus US produces salivation Unconditioned Response UR However the tone neutral stimulus does not Pavlov s Experiments During conditioning the neutral stimulus tone and the US food are paired resulting in salivation UR After conditioning the neutral stimulus now Conditioned Stimulus CS elicits salivation now Conditioned Response CR Acquisition Acquisition is the initial learning stage in classical conditioning in which an association between a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus takes place 1 In most cases for conditioning to occur the neutral stimulus needs to come before the unconditioned stimulus 2 The time in between the two stimuli should be about half a second Acquisition The CS needs to come half a second before the US for acquisition to occur Classical Conditioning Case study of Little Albert Film Extinction When the US food does not follow the CS tone CR salivation begins to decrease and eventually causes extinction Spontaneous Recovery After a rest period an extinguished CR salivation spontaneously recovers but if the CS tone persists alone the CR becomes extinct again Stimulus Generalization Tendency to respond to stimuli similar to the CS is called generalization Pavlov conditioned the dog s salivation CR by using miniature vibrators CS on the thigh When he subsequently stimulated other parts of the dog s body salivation dropped Stimulus Discrimination Discrimination is the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and other stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus Extending Pavlov s Understanding Pavlov and Watson considered consciousness or mind unfit for the scientific study of psychology However they underestimated the importance of cognitive processes and biological constraints Cognitive Processes Early behaviorists believed that learned behaviors of various animals could be reduced to mindless mechanisms However later behaviorists suggested that animals learn the predictability of a stimulus meaning they learn expectancy or awareness of a stimulus Rescorla Wagner 1972 Biological Predispositions Pavlov and Watson believed that laws of learning were similar for all animals Therefore a pigeon and a person do not differ in their learning However behaviorists later suggested that learning is constrained by an animal s biology Biological Predispositions Courtesy of John Garcia Garcia showed that the duration between the CS and the US may be long hours but yet result in conditioning A biologically adaptive CS taste led to conditioning but other stimuli sight or sound did not John Garcia Biological Predispositions Even humans can develop classically to conditioned nausea Pavlov s Legacy Pavlov s greatest contribution to psychology is isolating elementary behaviors from more complex ones through objective scientific procedures Ivan Pavlov 1849 1936 Applications of Classical Conditioning 1 Former crack cocaine users should avoid cues people places associated with previous drug use 2 Through classical conditioning a drug plus its taste that affects the immune response may cause the taste of the drug to invoke the immune response Behaviorism John B Watson viewed psychology as objective science generally agreed upon consensus today recommended study of behavior without reference to unobservable mental processes not universally accepted by all schools of thought today Operant Classical Conditioning 1 Classical conditioning forms associations between stimuli CS and US Operant conditioning on the other hand forms an association between behaviors and the resulting events Operant Classical Conditioning 2 Classical conditioning involves respondent behavior that occurs as an automatic response to a certain stimulus Operant conditioning involves operant behavior a behavior that operates on the environment producing rewarding or punishing stimuli Skinner s Experiments Skinner s experiments extend Thorndike s thinking especially his law of effect This law states that rewarded behavior is likely to occur again Film Yale University Library Operant Chamber Walter Dawn Photo Researchers Inc From The Essentials of Conditioning and Learning 3rd Edition by Michael P Domjan 2005 Used with permission by Thomson Learning Wadsworth Division Using Thorndike s law of effect as a starting point Skinner developed the Operant chamber or the Skinner box to study operant conditioning Operant Chamber The operant chamber or Skinner box comes with a bar or key that an animal manipulates to obtain a reinforcer like food or water The bar or key is connected to devices that record the animal s response Shaping Film Shaping is the operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior towards the desired target behavior through successive approximations Fred Bavendam Peter Arnold Inc Khamis Ramadhan Panapress Getty Images A rat shaped to sniff mines A manatee shaped to discriminate objects of different shapes colors and sizes Types of Reinforcers Reinforcement Any event that strengthens the
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