AP PSYCHOLOGY

2018/2019

Chapter 6: Learning (7-9%) 10 pages

Overview

● Learning
○ A long lasting change in behavior resulting from experience
○ Learning measured by behavior
○ Must result from experience (cant be innate or biological like puberty)

Classical Conditioning

● Ivan Pavlov
○ Russian Physiologist
○ Found that dogs learn to salivate to simply the sounds that they regularly hear
before being fed
○ Developed classical conditioning:
■ new stimuli (sounds) associated with stimuli (food) will produce similar
responses as the old stimuli(food)
● Classical Conditioning Process
○ Unconditioned stimulus (US or UCS)
■ the original stimulus that elicits a response
■ elicits a natural, reflexive response
■ produces the unconditioned response (UR or UCR)
■ EX: food
■ if continually paired with a neutral stimulus, they will be associated
● EX: sounds
○ Conditioned stimulus (CS)
■ a neutral stimulus that is paired with an unconditioned stimulus
■ No longer neutral stimulus
■ EX: sounds
■ elicit a conditioned response (CR)
● EX: salivation
○ Acquisition
 ■ learning has occurred once the animals respond to the CS without the
US
■ repeated pairings of CS and US yield a stronger CR
■ most effective conditioning:
● present CS first
● introduce US while CS is still evident
● ^^Delayed conditioning
○ Ineffective learning methods
■ trace conditioning
● presentation of CS
● short break
● presentation of US
■ simultaneous conditioning
● CS and US presented at same time
■ backward conditioning
● presentation of US
● Then presentation of CS
● Particularly bad
● Extinction
○ unlearning
○ The CS no longer elicits the CR
○ Achieved by presenting the CS without the US repeatedly
■ Breaking association of the 2
○ Ring the bell repeatdely w/out brining food - dog will know
● Spontaneous Recovery
○ After extinction, the CR briefly reappears upon presentation of the CS
sometimes
● Generalization
○ The tendency to respond to stimuli that is similar in some way to the CS
■ subjects can be trained to discriminate
● Tell difference btwn various stimuli
● John Watson and Rosalie Rayner
○ Conditioned Albert (a little boy) to fear a white rat
■ paired it with a loud noise → he cries
■ Albert generalized to other fluffy white things
○ US - loud noise bc causes a natural reaction (fear)
○ CS - rat
○ Illustrates aversive conditioning
■ Conditioning to have a negative response to something
■ EX: to stop biting your nails, you might put nail polish on it
● Higher-Order Conditioning
 ○ Second order conditioning
○ The CS acts as a US in order to condition a response to a new stimulus

Biology and Classical Conditioning

● We are biologically prepared to make certain connections more easily than others
○ learned taste aversions
■ pairing nausea with a new food
■ helpful for the survival of the species
■ If you taste something and its bad the first time, youll most likely develop
an aversion to it
● Salient stimuli create a more powerful CR
● Garcia and Koelling’s Experiment
○ illustrated that rats more easily make some connections than others
■ ABLE: noise with shock
■ ABLE: nausea with sweet water
■ NOT ABLE: noise with nausea
■ NOT ABLE: sweet water with shocl
■ Able bc they are Adaptive
■ Garcia Effect: ease @ which these animals learn taste aversions
Operant Conditioning

● Definition
○ Learning based on the association of consequences with one’s behavior
● Edward Thorndike
○ Experiment
■ locked a cat in a puzzle cage
■ cat had to get out to get food
■ time required decreased over trials
■ concluded that the cat learned new behavior without mental activity
○ Law of effect
■ if the consequences of a behavior are pleasant:
● the stimulus-response (S-R) connection will be strengthened
● the likelihood of the behavior will increase
■ vice-versa
○ Instrumental learning
■ the consequence was instrumental in shaping future behaviors
● B.F. Skinner
○ Coined the term operant conditioning
○ Skinner box
■ has a way to deliver food to an animal and a lever to press or disk to
peck in order to get the food
 ■ reinforcer- the food
■ reinforcement- the process of giving the food
● anything that makes a behavior more likely to occur is a
reinforcer
● positive reinforcement
○ the addition of something pleasant
● negative reinforcement
○ the removal of something unpleasant
■ escape learning
● allows one to terminate an aversive stimulus
● EX: making ruckus in a class u hate an then being sent out
■ avoidance learning
● enables one to avoid the aversive stimulus all together
● EX: Cutting the class u hate
● Punishment
○ Affecting behavior by using unpleasant consequences
○ Positive punishment
■ the addition of something unpleasant
○ Negative punishment
■ “omission training”
■ the removal of something pleasant

Punishment vs. Reinforcement

● Punishment is most effective if:

○ delivered immediately after unwanted behavior
○ Harsh
● Harsh punishment may result in anger or fear
● Shaping
○ rewarding approximations of the desired behavior
○ increases the likelihood and speed of the subject stumbling upon the
desired behavior for the first time
○ Mold a single a behavior
■ EX: a ret doing a bar press
● Chaining
○ teaching subjects to perform a number of responses successively in order to get
a reward
○ Link together a # of separate behviors into a more complex activity
■ EX: rat named Barnabus who learned to run through a veritable obstacle
course to get food
● Acquisition: learns skill
● Extintion: loses skill bc no more reward
● Spontaneous Recovery: if skill isnt lost even w/out training extinction
● Generalization: picks up similar skill
● Discrimination: picks up only the skill trained for
● Discriminative stimulus
○ in discrimination, the special conditions under which the subject learns to
perform the desired behavior
● Primary reinforcers
○ are rewarding in and of themselves
food, water, rest
● Secondary reinforcers
○ things we have learned to value
○ praise, the chance to play a video game
○ Money - special case
● Money
○ a generalized reinforcer because it can be traded for almost anything
● Token economy
○ a practical application of generalized reinforcers
○ used in prisons, mental institutions, schools
○ every time people perform a desired behavior, they are given a token
■ can be traded for any one of a variety of reinforcers
● Premack principle
○ the reinforcing properties of something depend on the situation
○ whichever of two activities is preferred can be used to reinforce the
other activity

Reinforcement Schedules

● Continuous reinforcement
○ rewarding the behavior each time
○ best when first teaching a new behavior
■ once behavior is learned, partial reinforcement schedules yield higher
response rates
● Partial-reinforcement effect
○ behaviors will be more resistant to extinction if the animal has not been
reinforced continuously
● Ways they differ
○ what determines when reinforcement is delivered
■ number of responses made- ratio schedule
● Ratio schedules result in higher response rate than
interval scedules
■ the passage of time- interval schedule
○ the pattern of reinforcement
 ■ constant- fixed schedule
■ changing- variable schedule
● Fixed-ratio (FR) schedule
○ provides reinforcement after a set number of responses
○ Once an animal gets used to a fixed scedule, a break in the pattern will
lead to extinction
○ FR-5 schedule
■ subject will be rewarded after the fifth response
■ EX: FR-5 for the rat will be reward given at the 5th bar press
○ BEST
● Variable-ratio (VR) schedule
○ provides reinforcement based on a varying number of responses
○ More resistant to extinction than fixed
○ VR-5 schedule
■ average number of responses required to get a reward is five
■ EX: VR-5 for the rat would be reward at 2md, 9th, 3rd, and 6th
bar press
○ BEST
● Fixed-interval (FI) schedule
○ requires that a set amount of time elapse before a response results in a
reward
○ FI-3 minute schedule
■ rewards the first response that occurs after three minutes
● Variable-interval (VI) schedule
○ varies the amount of time required to elapse before a response will
result in reinforcement
○ VI-3 minute schedule
■ subject will be rewarded for the first response made after an
average of three minutes
● Variable schedules are more resistant to extinction than fixed schedules

Biology and Operant Conditioning

● Instinctive drift
○ the tendency for animals to forgo rewards to pursue their typical patterns of
behavior
○ Animals won’t perform certain behaviors that go against their natural
inclinations

Cognitive Learning
 The Contingency Model of Classical Conditioning

● The contiguity model

○ the Pavlovian model of classical conditioning
○ the more times two things are paired, the greater the learning that will occur
○ contiguity (togetherness)
■ determines the strength of the response
● Contingency model
○ Robert Rescorla
■ a revised version of the Pavlovian model
● takes into account more complex circumstances
● Basically hes like there needs to be a clear connection between
the two for learning to happen
■ rests upon a cognitive view of classical conditioning

Observational Learning (Modeling)

● Albert Bandura
○ studying modeling helped him formulate social-learning theory
● said to be Species-specific
○ it only occurs between members of the same species
● Basic components:
○ observation
○ Imitation
○ a mental representation of the observed behavior must exist to enable
imitation
○ Like how hazef hears me recite and can easily memorize suras
● Bobo doll experiment
○ children exposed to adults who modeled aggressive behavior against Bobo doll
○ children left alone with a bobo doll
○ they exhibited almost identical aggressive behavior
○ Bandura and Ross 1963
○ showed that children learn violent behavior through observation

Latent Learning

● Becomes obvious only once a reinforcement is given for demonstrating it

● latent=hidden
● Knowledge is hidden until say a reward reveals it
● Edward Tolman’s experiment
○ three groups of rats:
■ always got a reward for completing the maze
 ■ never got a reward
■ not rewarded during the first half of trials, rewarded in second
half
○ group 3
■ during the first half their performance was very similar to the group that
never got a reward
■ performance improved dramatically and suddenly once they began to
be rewarded for finishing the maze
○ conclusion
■ the rats must have learned their way around the maze in the first half
performance did not improve because it had no reason to
■ dramatic improvement in second half resulted from latent learning
■ Their learning became evidenced once they were given a reason

Abstract Learning

● Understanding concepts in order to secure a reward

● Studies show that pigeons can understand concepts and are not simply forming Stimular
response connections (which Thorndike and Skinner argued)

Insight Learning

● When one suddenly realizes how to solve a problem

● Bc of gradual strengthening of the stimulus response connection suggested by
behaviorists
● Wolfgang Kohler’s Experiment
○ suspended a banana from the ceiling out of reach of a group of chimpanzees
■ room had many boxes
○ chimps spent most time running around in frustration
○ suddenly, they piled up the boxes, climbed up, and grabbed the banana