9/27/2010

Psyc100, Chapter 4, Lecture 1

•  Classical Conditioning

•  Operant Conditioning

•  Different Perspectives of learning ◦ Behavioural ◦ Cognitive ◦ Ethological perspective

•  Learning - any process through which experience at one time can alter an individual’s behavior at a future time ◦ E.g. Habituation ◦ A reduction in response to a stimulus after repeated presentations – e.g. startle response

•  The attempt to understand observable activity in terms of observable stimuli and observable responses

•  John B. Watson (1913)

◦ “Give me a dozen healthy infants and my own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll

guarantee to take any one at random and produce

teachers, lawyers …”

•  B.F. Skinner (1938)

•  Training procedure

•  Neutral stimulus elicits reflexive response through being paired with another stimulus that already elicits this reflexive response

•  Reflex = Stimulus-response sequence mediated by CNS

•  Stimulus Response = action that automatically follows an event

will

NEUTRAL STIMULUS (Bell)

elicit

will

UNCONDITIONED STIMULUS (Food)

elicit a

UNCONDITIONED STIMULUS (Food)

will

elicit a

NEUTRAL STIMULUS (Bell)

will

CONDITIONED STIMULUS (Bell)

CONDITIONED STIMULUS

elicit a

NO REACTION

REFLEX ACTION

REFLEX ACTION

CONDITIONED

RESPONSE

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Does not normally elicit a

response or reflex action by itself

Neutral

A bell ringing

A color

A furry object

stimulus

Unconditioned

Stimulus

Always elicits a reflex action: an

unconditioned response

Food

Blast of air

Noise

Unconditioned

A response to an unconditioned

stimulus--naturally occurring

Salivation at smell

of food

Response

Eye blinks at blast

of air

Startle reaction in

babies

Conditioned

Stimulus

The stimulus that was originally

neutral becomes conditioned after

it has been paired with the

unconditioned stimulus

Will eventually elicit

the unconditioned

response by itself

UCS
(drug)
	UCR
	(nausea)
CS
(waiting
room)	UCS
	(drug)
				UCR
			(nausea)
CS
(waiting
room)	CR
	(nausea)



Extinction

Learning Experience



Stimulus A

(The word ball)

Stimulus B

(Sight of a ball)

Thought of B

(Mental image of a ball)

Without food the bell elicited less and less

saliva



But, does not return animal to previous naïve

After Learning

state…

Stimulus A

(The word ball)

Thought of B

(Mental image of a ball)



Spontaneous recovery



Conditioning Procedure

Passage of time following extinction partially

renew the conditioned reflex

Neutral stimulus

Unconditioned stimulus

Unconditioned response

(Bell)

(Food)

(Salivation)

After Conditioning

Conditioned stimulus

Conditioned response

(Bell)

(Salivation)

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Acquisition

Strong

(CS+UCS)

Spontaneous

Extinction

recovery of

(CS alone)

CR

Strength

of CR

Extinction

(CS alone)

Weak

Pause

Time

•  The conditioned stimulus is not truly lost during extinction, but is Inhibited.

•  Eye-blink reflex studies (i.e. Tone + Puff of Air) in rabbits has shown that conditioning and extinction involve different sets of neurons

•  Neurons involved in conditioning excite neurons that control eye-blinks.

•  Neurons involved in extinction inhibit neurons that control eye-blinks

•  After conditioning, stimuli that resemble the CS will elicit the response even when they have never been paired before.

•  Depends on the degree of similarity between new stimuli & conditioned stimuli.

•  Further a new tone is away from the original tone, the less the dog salivated.

•  Generalisation can be abolished if the response to one is reinforced while the response to the other is extinguished

•  E.g. Conditioning to black square is generalised to grey square.

•  Grey square extinguished (no pairings)

•  Eventually conditioned the dog to discriminate a black square from a grey that was (almost) imperceptibly different from the black.

•  Allows investigations of sensory capacities

•  Generalisation occurs in both physically and semantically similar stimuli (Razran, 1939)

•  Paired words with lemon juice squirts

•  Style, urn, freeze, surf = Salivate

•  Generalised to fashion, vase, chill and wave

•  Did not generalise to homophones or orthographically similar words (e.g. Serf, stile, etc)

•  These associations must be encoded deeply (i.e. Semantic rather than surface forms)

•  John B. Watson and Little Albert

◦ first psychologist to explain human behavior in terms of Pavlovian conditioning

◦ Fear not seen as feeling but observable behavior, catching breath, stiffening body turning away

◦ This emotion can be thought of as a reflex and is therefore amenable to scientific investigation through CC

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UCS

(loud noise)

UCR

(fear)

CS

(rat)

UCS

(loud noise)

UCR

(fear)

CS

(rat)

CR

(fear)

Stimulus similar

to rat (such as

rabbit)

Conditioned fear

(generalization)

•  We don’t just react to stimuli, we often behave in ways that produce certain changes

•  Actions that result in a particular goal are known as operant responses



E.L. Thorndike (1898)



Deprived cats of food



Placed cats in puzzle box

•  On first trial cat engaged in many different behaviors until accidentally opening box

•  After 20 – 30 trails cat could open box almost immediately after entering it.

Learning = Trial and Error

Scratch at bars

After Many

Trials in Box

Push at ceiling

Situation:

Dig at floor

stimuli

Howl

inside of

puzzle box

Etc.

Etc.

Press lever

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•  Responses that produce satisfying effects in particular situations become more likely to occur again in that situation, and responses that produce discomforting effects become less likely to occur again

•  Pavlovian condition: Animal = passive agent

•  Thorndike: Animal = active agent that emits behaviour from its own accord

•  Did not like the term “satisfying” ◦ Used term “reinforcer” for any event that follows a

behavior AND

strengthens the behavior

•  Invented better apparatus: the Skinner box ◦ Animals could be kept in the box for the whole duration of the experimental session whilst multiple conditioning trials could take place

•  Consequences ◦ positive and negative reinforcement ◦ positive and negative punishment

•  Punished behavior is not forgotten, it's suppressed--behavior returns when punishment is no longer present

•  Causes increased aggression- shows that aggression is a way to cope with problems

•  Creates fear that can generalize to undesirable behaviors, e.g., fear of school

•  Does not necessarily guide toward desired behavior--reinforcement tells you what to do, punishment only tells you what not to do

•  Punishment teaches how to avoid punishment

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•  Allows complex behaviours to be conditioned

•  Process reinforces gradually more desired responses until final response is achieved

◦ E.g. The grading system in musical instrument learning

◦ Reinforcement stays consistent (certificate etc.) required behaviour becomes more complex

•  Continuous Reinforcement ◦ reinforcing the desired response each time it occurs ◦ learning occurs rapidly ◦ extinction occurs rapidly

•  Partial Reinforcement ◦ reinforcing a response only part of the time ◦ learning occurs slowly ◦ resistance to extinction

•  Continuous: 1 to 1 ratio, a prize every time

	 Ratio:
◦	fixed: 1 to ?, a prize every ? time
◦ variable: ? to ?, maybe a prize, maybe not!
	 Interval:

◦ fixed: announced examination ◦ variable: pop quiz

•  Ratio Schedules = higher response rates - the more you respond the faster you reach the set threshold and receive the UCS

•  Variable Schedules = greater resistance to extinction as you are never sure when a reward will be presented so you don’t know when is a good time to give up - it could always be “just about to pay out” (fruit machines)

•  Indicate when a reinforcer is potentially available

•  E.g. a lever press will only result in a food pellet when a red light is illuminated ◦ Red light = discriminative stimulus

•  E.g. waiting for the “ready” green light to flash on a camera before taking a picture

•  E.g. waiting until people are in a good mood before asking them a favour

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•  Primary Reinforcer ◦ An innate reinforcer ◦ Satisfies a biological need

•  Secondary Reinforcer ◦ A conditioned reinforcer ◦ An event that gains its reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer

•  Tokens are secondary reinforces

◦ Reinforcing value related to previous learning experiences ◦ E.g. Work > Money > Buy Food

•  Chimpanzees will work for tokens and save them for use later when grape vending machine is removed from enclosure

•  Clicker training

•  The most famous example was Azrin's token economy in psychiatric hospital

•  Tokens could be exchanged for cosmetics, candy, cigarettes, clothing, bedside tables, use of the TV, stereo, & sleeping late

•  Tokens were obtained by attending work and therapy as well as for good grooming, appropriate meal time behaviors, and minor housekeeping chores

•  Reduction in bizarre behaviors and increased normal behaviors and social skills

•  Advantages of Tokens

◦ Potent reinforcers  big changes in behavior ◦ Bridge the delays between target responses and back up reinforcers

◦ Backed up by a variety of items and hence are less subject to satiating.

◦ Administration does little to disrupt on going behavior

◦ Can be used with many individuals all with different back up reinforcer preferences

◦ Can be accumulated towards valuable goals

•  Disadvantages of Tokens ◦ Not usually seen in classrooms nor are food snacks or other unusual back up reinforcers ◦ Tokens, except for money and grades, are unavailable in the normal environment ◦ In some environments, people will use unauthorized means such as force/theft to obtain

 Stimulus precedes the

response and elicits it

 Stimulus follows the

response and

 strengthens it

Elicited responses

 Learning as a result of

association

 Emitted responses

 Learning as a result of

 Pavlov

consequences

 Skinner

CLASSICAL

OPERANT

7

•  In groups

•  Think of some real world (human or non- human animal) examples

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