Unit II: Learning

I. Conditioning
A. Classical conditioning
B. Operant conditioning
II. Cognitive factors in learning
A. Latent learning
B. Observational learning
C. PQ4R Method
III. Memory
A. Three Kinds of Memory
B. Three Processes of Memory
C. Three Stages of Memory
D. Improving Memory
I. A. Classical Conditioning
Clip from NBC’s “The
• Stimulus – a feature in the environment that is
detected by an organism or that leads to a change
in behavior
• Response – an observable reaction to a stimulus
• Conditioning – a type of learning that involves
stimulus-response connections, in which the
response is conditional on the stimulus
• It is a simple form of learning in which one stimulus (the
thought of food) calls forth a response (mouth watering)
that is usually called forth by another stimulus (the
actual food)
• Classical Conditioning Notation
• UCS  UCR (Unconditioned Reflex)
• CS + UCS  UCR (Conditioning)
• CS  CR (Conditioned Reflex)
• NS (neutral stimulus)

• UCS is also labeled US

• UCR is also labeled UR
• Russian psychologist, Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) discovered
that dogs, too, learn to associate one thing with another
when food is involved.
• He was trying to learn about digestion and the nervous
system.
• He thought that dogs salivate when meat is on the tongue
to assist digestion. Meat is the stimulus for the
production of saliva.
• He discovered that dogs started salivating when they
heard sound of food dropping in their bowl. They also
salivated when assistants entered the room.
• What does this mean?
• Dogs learned that certain events meant that food was
coming.
• Pavlov hypothesized that he could condition dogs to
salivate in response to any stimulus he chose – a bell
• An involuntary response
(UCR) is preceded by a
stimuli (UCS), or
• A stimulus (UCS)
automatically triggers an
involuntary response (UCR)
• A neutral stimulus (NS)
associated with UCS
automatically triggers a
conditioned response.
• The NS becomes a
conditioned stimulus (CS)

Casualhats.net
• US – Unconditioned Stimulus : a stimulus that causes a
response that is automatic, not learned
• UR – Unconditioned Response : the automatic response
from an unconditioned stimulus
• CR – Conditioned Response : a learned response to a
stimulus that was previously neutral, or meaningless
• CS – Conditioned Stimulus : a previous neutral stimulus
that, because of pairing with a an unconditioned
stimulus, now causes a conditioned response
• NS – Neutral Stimulus : a stimulus that causes no
response before conditioning
• Taste aversion – avoiding a certain food that has
previously made you ill

• Feeling nauseated after eating ice cream

• Chocolate ice cream = unconditioned stimulus (US)
• Nausea = unconditioned response (UR)
• Chocolate ice cream now becomes a conditioned stimulus
(CS) and the nausea is a conditioned response (CR)

• Extinction/Extinguish – when a conditioned stimulus

(CS) no longer triggers the conditioned response (CR)

• Pavlov’s dogs eventually extinguished the salivation (CR) to

the bell (CS) when food did not follow the bell many times.
• Spontaneous Recovery – the reappearance of an
extinguished conditioned response after some time has
passed
• A song (US) is played on the radio that you really enjoy, it makes
your head bop (UR). After some time the song is overplayed and
no longer makes your head bop. The UR becomes extinguished.
6 months later the song reappears on the radio and you bop your
head once again. The song has spontaneously recovered the
response
• Generalization – responding the same way to a similar
stimulus
• The ice cream that made you sick was chocolate. You generalize
and avoid all types of ice cream.
• Discrimination – the act of responding differently to stimuli
that are not similar to each other
• Chocolate ice cream made you sick. You can still eat chocolate
pudding because it is not similar enough to ice cream.
• Many fears – such the fear of heights, snakes, public
speaking – are out of proportion to the harm that can
happen from them.
• Reducing fear can happen from conditioning
• Flooding – a person is exposed to harmless stimulus until fear
responses to that stimulus are extinguished (looking out a
sixth-story window until heights are no longer upsetting)
• Systematic desensitization – people are taught relaxation
techniques to deal with fear (showing pictures of snakes while
a person is relaxed. Eventually they are shown real snakes at a
distance, then closer, then touch them.)
• Counterconditioning – a pleasant stimulus is paired with a
fearful one, counteracting the fear (eating candy while being
shown a snake, may reduce the unconditioned response of
anxiety)
• Take out your word list from yesterday
• Write up the experiment identifying the following classical
conditioning concepts in the context of this experiment:
- acquisition
- unconditioned stimulus
- unconditioned response
- conditioned stimulus
- conditioned response
- stimulus generalization
- stimulus discrimination
- extinction
- spontaneous recovery
What did you learn from this experiment?
I. B. Operant Conditioning
What is the :
1.Unconditioned stimulus
2.Unconditioned response
3.Conditioned stimulus
4.Conditioned response
• A voluntary response (R) is followed by a
reinforcing stimulus (SRF)
• The voluntary response is more likely to be emitted by the
organism.
• A reinforcer is any stimulus that increases the frequency
of a behavior
• To be a reinforcer stimuli must immediately follow the
response and must be perceived as contingent upon the
response
From CBS’s “Big Bang
• In this form of learning behavior is strengthened
because of a reinforcement.
• Linda and Janet learned that studying would result in good
grades
• Studying is the behavior
• Good grades is the positive reinforcement
• Reinforcement - The process by which a stimulus
increases the chances that the preceding
behavior will occur again.
• A dog will likely sit again, when given a treat after
performing the trick.
• Primary reinforcers – reinforcers that function due
to the biological makeup of the organism
• Food
• Water
• Warmth
• Secondary reinforcers – reinforcers that function
once the value of which is learned
• Money
• Attention
• Social approval
• Positive reinforcers – reinforcers that increase the
frequency of the behavior the follow when they
are applied
• Food
• Fun activities
• Social approval
• Negative reinforcers – reinforcers that increase
the frequency of a behavior when they are
removed
• Discomfort
• Fear
• Social disapproval
 Behavior Result Change
Positive Studying  Enjoyment of the Student studies
reinforcement material  more (increase)
Negative Studying  Decreases the Student studies
reinforcement fear of doing more (increase)
poorly on a test

Punishment Littering  Person has to pay Person stops
a fine  littering
(decrease)
• Negative reinforcement is not the same as punishment
• Negative reinforcement may also be unpleasant, but it encourages
a behavior to be removed, whereas punishment discourages a
behavior from being applied.
• It does not in itself teach alternate acceptable behavior
• A child may learn what not to do in a particular situation but does not
learn what to do instead.
• It tends to work only when it is guaranteed.
• If a behavior is punished some of the time but goes unnoticed the rest
of the time, the behavior probably will continue
• Severely punished people or animals may try to leave the
situation rather than change their behavior.
• Children may run away from home.
• Punishment can create anger and hostility.
• Children who are severely punished may take out their anger on others
• Punishment may be imitated as a way of solving problems
• If a parent hits a child when they are upset, the child may learn that
they should hit people when they are also upset
• In operant conditioning, extinction can occur just
as it does with classical conditioning.
• If a behavior is continually not reinforced, the
behavior may be extinguished.

• Michael may have studied for hours on a Calculus

exam, but still done poorly. He may choose to not
study next time because he was not reinforced to
do so.
• A timetable for when and how often reinforcement for
a particular behavior occurs.

• Continuous reinforcement – reinforcement every time

• Partial reinforcement – when reinforcement some
times
• Fixed-interval schedule – a fixed amount of time must
pass (5 minutes) between reinforcements
• Variable-interval schedule – a varying amount of time
can pass between reinforcements, the unpredictability
creates a steadier response rate
• In a Skinner Box, a rat may have to press a lever 5 times to
receive the food; at other times they may have to press the
lever 8 times to receive the food.
• Operant conditioning is a very common form of influence in everyday
life.
• Your boss may reward high performing employees with bonuses
• Parents may offer money or gifts to their children for good grades
• Shaping is a way that psychologists teaching complex behaviors by
reinforcing small steps in the right direction.
• Riding a bike – reinforce the sitting, grabbing the handle bars, stepping on the
pedals, riding with training wheels, off training wheels
• Programmed learning is a educational method developed by B. F.
Skinner which breaks learning down into small steps and later
combined into a more complicated whole. It is based on shaping.
• This method does not punish students for making errors, it helps students
correct answers.
• In the classroom, some teachers reinforce poorly behaving students
only. This may trigger other students to begin acting out to also seek
the same reinforcement for acting properly. (Wentzel, 1994)
From FOX’s “The
II. Cognitive Factors in Learning
• Behaviorists, like BF Skinner, are only interested in
studying what people do and not what they think.
• Cognitive Psychologists are willing to speak about
what people and animals know because of learning –
not just what they do.
• Learning is purposeful
• Learning is not mechanical
• People can learn by thinking or observing others
• Two kinds of learning that involve cognitive factors
are:
• Latent learning
• Observational learning
• Many psychologists today, especially cognitive
psychologists, believe that people do much of
their learning without reinforcement
• E.C. Tolman showed that rats perform as well in
mazes when they are not reinforced. They
learned the mazes and were able to recall the
layout after very little reinforcement.
• In the same way, students have a very clear
understanding of the school layout without having
to be reinforced to do so.
• Latent learning – learning that remains hidden
until it is needed.
• Observational learning -
we acquire knowledge
and skills by observing
and imitating others
(Bandura 1963).
• New students watch other
students and how they
treat the class. They then
adapt to the setting.
• Children learn to speak,
eat, and play at least
partly by observing
their parents and
others.
• Television is one of our major sources of informal
observational learning.
• Violence on television can play a negative effect
on children
• If a child watches two to four hours of TV a day,
she or he will have seen 8,000 murders and
another 100,000 acts of violence by the time she
or he has finished elementary school (Eron 1993).
• G-rated movies often have 9-10 minutes of
violence per film (Yokota & Thompson 2000)
• A joint statement from the APA and medical
associations made the following points (Holland 2000)
• Media violence supplies models of aggressive “skills,” which
children may learn by watching
• Children who see a lot of violence are more likely to view
violence as an effective way to settle conflicts
• Viewing violence can lead to emotional desensitization toward
violence in real life
• Viewing violence may lead to real life violence

• This research is a case-study comparing children who

view violence on television and those that do not.
• This is a method of learning where the learner
takes an active approach with the material.
• The steps are:
• Preview
• Question
• Read
• Reflect
• Recite
• Review
 Previewing Questioning
• Getting the general • Goals or questions that
picture of what will be are created by a learner to
fulfill by the end of
covered before a learning.
person begins • A person generally comes
studying. up with questions about a
• Familiarity with the concept that they wish to
answer.
material in general will
• This will help the learner
help a learner create a be an active part of the
cognitive map of a learning process.
lesson or unit.
1. Read for the purpose of 3. Recite what has
answering the questions been learned so that
that were created in the it becomes organized
previous step. Taking in a different way.
notes during this
process will help keep 4. Review material
information organized. with sufficient time
2. Reflect on the and a regular
information by making schedule.
connections to everyday
life so that it can
become more relevant.
III. Memory A. Three Kinds of Memory
• Once people learn to ride a bicycle, they probably
will never forget how.
• The best way to remember something is to repeat
it many times.
• People with photographic memory are rare.
• There is no known limit to how much information
you can remember.
• You can remember important events from the first
two years of life.
• There are certain tricks you can use to improve
your memory.
• How would you define it?
• What does it include
•
•
•
•
• Memory is the process by which we recollect prior
experiences and information and skills learned in the past.
• One way to classify memory is according to the different
kinds of information it contains: events, general knowledge,
and skills.
• There are three kinds of memory that people use in their life
1.Episodic memory
2.Semantic memory
3.Implicit memory
• A memory of a specific event that took place in a person’s
presence or experience.
• What you ate for dinner last night.
• What was on your last test.
• This can also take the form of flashbulb memories.
• Flashbulb memories are important events that happen that
seem to reappear as a photograph because at the time of the
event it was like a flashbulb went off.
• Your recollection of September 11, 2001
• Your first date
• Sometimes places can be involved with this type of memory.
The event can have such an impact that a person remembers
exactly what they were doing and how they were feeling at
the time
• People remember exactly where they were when JFK was
assassinated or the World Trade Center was attacked.
• General knowledge that people remember but did
not experience first hand.
• George Washington was the first president of the United
States.
• In this type of memory, the person usually does
not remember when they acquired the knowledge.
Whereas in the episodic, the person remember
when it was learned.
• You know the alphabet, but may not remember when or
where you were when you learned it
• Episodic and semantic memories are examples of
explicit memory because they are concerning
specific information (facts).
• Implicit memory consists of the skills and
procedures one has learned.
• Riding a bike
• Throwing a ball
• Swimming
• Playing an instrument
• These memories usually stay with a person for a
long period of time.
III. Memory B. Three Processes of Memory
• The 1st stage of memory is encoding or the
translation of information into a form in which it
can be stored.
• Computers encode information into storage

• Memorize the following letter list, do not write it

down. YOU HAVE 30 SECONDS.

OTTFFSSENT
• Visual codes
• Seeing information as a picture in your mind
• Acoustic (auditory) codes
• Reading to yourself or aloud and repeating
• Semantic codes
• Representing information by giving it meaning – ROY G
BIV
• The 2nd stage of memory is storage or the maintenance of
encoded information over time.
• People who want to store information in their memory use a
variety of different strategies
• Maintenance Rehearsal
• Repeating information over and over again to keep from forgetting
• Not effective for long term storage other than phone numbers
• Elaborative Rehearsal
• A memory device that creates a meaningful link between new
information and the information already known.
• For foreign language, it may be beneficial to use new vocabulary words
in sentences rather than just repeating them.
• This is a more effective and lasting way to remember new information
(Woloshyn 1994).
• Human memory is much like a filing cabinet
• Put information in an organized format, files in folders
• When new information enhances that folder, it can be
added

• Errors can occur because of this type of system.

Just like how a paper can be put into the wrong
folder, memories can be organized incorrectly.
These are called filling errors.
• The 3rd and final memory process is retrieval or locating stored
information and returning it to conscious thought.
• Some memory is so familiar that it is readily available and almost
impossible to forget.
• Names of friends and family
• Lyrics to songs or lines from a movie
• Retrieve the list of letters that were presented to you earlier and
write them down now.
• How many did you remember?
• What method of storage did you use? (visual, acoustic, semantic)
• Would it have helped you to know that the letters – OTTFFSSENT, were the
first letters of the numbers 12345678910?
• By knowing that the numbers 1-10 represent the letters, you will likely
remember the letters better – using a semantic code
• Context-dependent memories
• Memories that are only retrieved when a person is in a particular
physical location.
• A person may recall a childhood memory when they visit their
former school for the first time in many years
• If a person did not return to this context, they would have not likely
retrieved this memory.
• State-dependent memories
• Memories that are retrieved when a person is in a similar emotional
state that they were in when the memory was stored.
• People who are in a sad mood may remember information better
when they are in that mood later.
• Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon
• The belief that a piece of information is stored in our memory
although we cannot retrieve it easily
• People often try to retrieve information by saying words that are
similar in sound
III. Memory C. Three Stages of Memory
• The first stage of memory consisting of the
immediate, initial recording of information
through our senses.
• This memory trace does not last long.
• In order to store the memory something must be
done with it quickly.
• Psychologists believe that all of our senses have
sensory registers.
• Iconic memory – the sensory register that briefly
holds mental images (think “icon”)
• Eidetic imagery – the maintenance of a very
detailed visual memory over several months
• Echoic memory – the sensory register in which
traces of sounds are held and may be retrieved
within several seconds
• The second stage of memory that holds
information briefly before it is stored or forgotten.
• Remembering a phone number before dialing
• Remembering a name of someone you just met
• It is sometimes called a “working memory”
• Information in this stage tends to fade rapidly
after several seconds.
• With series of numbers people tend to remember the first
and last parts of the series the most
• Primacy effect is the tendency to remember the first part of a
series of items. May be due to having more time to rehearse
the information.
• Recency effect is the tendency to recall the last items in a
series. May be due to the freshness of the memory.
• Chunking is the organization of items into familiar or
manageable units.
• Phone numbers we segment 313-290-1313
• It would be difficult if someone said their number was
3,132,901,313
• Interference can occur when new information appears
and takes the place of what is already there.
• The third stage of memory is capable of large and
relatively permanent storage.
• To maintain information in this stage several
techniques may help
• Mechanical repetition (maintenance rehearsal) is the way
of transferring information from short-term memory to
long-term memory.
• Elaborative rehearsal is the way of relating new
information to information that you already know.
III. Memory D. Improving Memory
• This may seem like a simple issue, if you don’t think
about something, you forget it, right?
• It’s more complicated than that.

• Forgetting can occur at any one of the three stages of

memory – sensory, short-term, long-term.
• Sensory memory traces can decay in less than a second
• Short-term memory traces can decay in 10-12 seconds
• Long-term memory traces can be lost if they are mixed
with other information and are not organized

• Learning a new language can confuse other languages if

they are alike – the Roman languages
• Similar alphabets and roots
• Recognition
• A memory process in which one identifies objects or events that have
previously been encountered.
• Multiple choice tests are forms of a recognition activities. You
choose an answer that you may have seen before. They are usually
easier than constructing your own response
• Recall
• Retrieval of learned information by reconstructing the idea in your
mind.
• Essay tests are forms of recall activities.
• Relearning
• Learning material a second time, usually in less time than it was
originally learned
• In the case of Ebbinghaus’s research with nonsense syllables.
Participants could remember a list of syllables more quickly than they
could before. Even though, they were unable to remember them
without relearning.
• The most common forms of forgetting are
interference and decay.
• Interference occurs when new information shoves aside or
disrupts what has been placed in a memory.
• Decay is the fading away of a memory.
• Repression is a theory of forgetting that was brought
up by Sigmund Freud
• We forget painful memories by pushing them out of our
minds.
• Some memories are so painful or unpleasant that they make
us feel anxiety, guilt, or shame.
• This theory is controversial in contemporary psychology
• Amnesia is severe memory loss caused by brain injury,
shock, fatigue, illness, or repression.
• Dissociative amnesia is thought to be caused by
psychological trauma (an extremely upsetting experience
or series of experiences).
• Other kinds of amnesia
• Infantile amnesia is the idea that we are unable to remember
events from birth to two years of age. This may be caused by the
hippocampus in the brain being underdeveloped. Any memory
that you have of this time is likely formed by what people have
told you over and over.
• Anterograde amnesia is caused by trauma to the head (blow to
the head, electric shock, or brain surgery)
• Retrograde amnesia occurs to people who have had brain trauma
but effects the event leading up to the event. A person in a major
car accident may not remember they were even in the car.
• Memory is not concrete and born in a person, it can be
improved
• Psychologists believe that there are methods to improve
memory
1. Drill and practice
2. Relating to things that you already know
3. Form unusual associations
The symbol for tin is “Sn” – you could think of a snake in a tin
= Sn
1. Construct links
Learning Spanish may be easier if you connect it the known
word in English
1. Use mnemonic devices
Great Lakes: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior (HOMES)