Unit 4: Learning

Unit 4 Overview: Learning

“Introduction”

● "Some psychologists focus their study on how humans and other animals learn 📚 and
how some experiences can lead to changes in behavior and mental processes. Because

the process of learning requires both physiological and psychological processes to work

together 🧠
○ Observable behaviors and how those behaviors can be changed or reinforced

○ How the individual’s observations of other peoples’ behaviors influences in that

individual’s mental processes and resulting behaviors

● Three different types of learning

○ Classical conditioning → acquisition of reflexive behaviors that are in response to

an environmental stimulus

○ Operant conditioning → voluntary or largely controllable behaviors that are

followed by an environmental responses → usually involves providing something

or taking away something that changes the chance of the behaviors happening

again

○ Observational learning → learned through modeling someone’s behavior

“Psychologists to Know”

● Albert Bandura

○ Bobo doll experiment

■ Children watched a film of an adult beating on a bobo doll. Later on, when

put into a room that contains various toys including the bobo doll, children

were more likely to model or imitate the aggressive behaviors they earlier

observed, compared to a control group of children who did not view the

film

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● Ivan Pavlov

○ Reflexive responses of dogs

○ Groundwork for classical conditioning

● Robert Rescorla

○ Contingency model of conditioning

○ Not all stimulus-response pairings result in conditioning → largely dependent

upon the cognitive interpretation as to whether the pairing is logical

● Edward Lee Thordlike

○ Law of effect

■ Suggests that behavior that has a favorable consequences will be

strengthened while behavior that is followed by an unfavorable

consequence will be weakened

● Groundwork BF Skinner’s operant conditioning

● Edward Tolman

○ Latent learning

■ Mental representation or cognitiv map of maze

■ Cognitive processes were present in spite of the stark behaviorist claim

that thoughts were unobservable

● John B Watson

○ Fear responses can be learned

○ Little Albert → conditioned to fear arat

■ Stimulus generalization

● John Garcia

○ Biological constraints to conditioning

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■ Internal body processes are more readily conditioned to stimuli that are

experienced internally (taste)

■ External bodily experiences are more readily conditioned with external

stimuli

○ Garcia Effect

■ Humans are readily conditioned to the sense of taste, since it is closely

associated with our survival

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4.1 Introduction to Learning

“Three Types of Learning”

● Classical conditioning: a process in which the environment presents an organism with a

stimulus, which in turn causes the organism to react in a certain way

○ Stimulus causes a response → responses are involuntary or reflexive

● Operant Conditioning: organism performing a behavior that is voluntary or non-reflexive

and leads to the environment reacting in a certain way (provide a consequence, either

pleasant or unpleasant) → consequence influences the likelihood of the organism

performing the task again

● Observational Learning: learning by observing

○ Imitate the behavior

○ One could model voluntary or involuntary, reflexive behaviors to another

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4.2: Classical Conditioning

“Classical Conditioning”

● Ivan Pavlov (Pavlovian Conditioning)

● The environment presenting a stimulus that makes the organism respond in a certain

way

● The Stimulus

○ Anything that is perceivable by the five major senses

○ Response: reflexiv, non-voluntary behavior

■ Something that one cannot readily control

■ Examples:

● Heart beat / Heart rate

● Breathing / respiration

● Salivation

● Startle Response

● Shivering

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○ Stimulus-response pairings (contingencies) = the result of the experiences to our

own environments

■ We learned to react to certain stimuli in a certain way

■ Conditioned response (CR): when a response to a stimulus is the result of

learning

■ Conditioned stimulus (CS): the stimulus that causes the conditioned

response

○ Stimulus-response pairings (contingencies) are natural, innate, and unlearned

■ We are born to react to certain stimuli in a certain way

■ Unconditioned response (UR): when a response to a stimulus is natural

and unlearned

■ Unconditioned stimulus (US): the stimulus that causes the unconditioned

response

“Conditioning Processes”

● During the acquisition stage, a neutral stimulus (NS), which does not produce a

noticeable response, acquires the ability to affect the same response as the

unconditioned response

○ After numerous pairings of the neutral stimulus and unconditioned stimulus, the

neutral stimulus creates the response by itself

○ Neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus → conditioned response

● If conditioned stimulus is presented numerous times without being paired with

unconditioned stimulus → conditioned response may be ceased

○ Extinction: when a conditioned stimulus no longer produces a conditioned

response

○ Spontaneous recovery: time following extinction when a conditioned stimulus

restarts to create the conditioned response

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● Stimulus generalization (generalization): when stimuli that are similar to the conditioned

stimulus also produce the conditioned response

● Stimulus discrimination: fails to produce a conditioned response to stimuli that are similar

to the conditioned stimulus, and only produces the conditioned response to actual

conditioned stimulus

● Not all conditioning is built on an original unconditioned stimulus-unconditioned response

pairing

○ Higher order conditioning → conditioning that is built on previously established

conditioning

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💨
Key Term Definition Example and Emoji
Representation (pretend
represents a whistle)

Neutral Stimulus Stimulus that elicits no response In the Pavlov's dog example, the
(NS) (before any conditioning happens) whistle is the NS. If it is blown

💨 😑
before conditioning, the dog does
nothing. →

Unconditioned Stimulus that implicitly triggers a The US is the dog's food. When
Stimulus (US) response. (before any conditioning the dog sees food, it already has a

🦴 🤤
happens) reaction and becomes hungry.
→

Unconditioned A natural response to the US. The UR is salivation. When a dog

Response (UR) (before any conditioning happens) sees the dog food (US), it

🦴 🤤
automatically salivates because it's
hungry. →

Conditioning The goal of this experiment is to In order to do this, Pavlov showed

make the dog salivate when the the dog food while blowing the
whistle is blown. This obviously whistle. Eventually, the dog began

💨
isn't a natural reaction, so you to associate the whistle with food

🦴 🤤
must classically condition the dog and salivate when hearing it. +
to react like that. →

Conditioned The NS turns into the CS. The CS The whistle is now the CS since
Stimulus (CS) is what one would learn to the dog began to associate food

💨 🤤
respond to. (after conditioning with the sound of a whistle.
occurs) →

Conditioned A learned response to a CS. (after Salvation to the whistle is the

Response (CR) conditioning occurs) conditioned response. The dog
learned and, again, began to
associate the sound of the whistle

💨 🤤
with food, salivating when he
hears it. →

Acquisition When the NS and US are linked Before, the whistle triggered no
together so that the NS triggers response. However, during
the CR. Through acquisition, the conditioning, food and the whistle

🦴 💨
NS becomes the CS. were linked and now the whistle

🤤
causes salivation. → which
→

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Extinction When the CS no longer causes Overtime, the dog will learn that
the CR to happen. there is no food that comes with
the sound of the whistle and it
stops salivating when a whistle is

💨 😑
blown. This is called extinction.
→

Spontaneous When the CS suddenly begins to When the dog starts to salivate at
Recovery trigger the CR. (randomly after the sound of the whistle after a

💨 🤤
extinction) long time of not doing that.
Randomly . . . →

Generalization Triggering the CR to a stimulus The dog begins to salivate when it

similar to the CS. hears the sound of a whistle and
the sound of a bell, even though it

💨 🤤
isn't conditioned to salivate to the

🔔 🤤
sound of the bell. → and
→

Discrimination When the CR only occurs to a The dog doesn't salivate at the
specific CS. sound of every whistle—it only

🔊💨 🤤
salivates to the sound of a
particular whistle. →

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4.3: Operant Conditioning

● Operant conditioning: when a behavior leads to an environmental response → affects

the likelihood of the behavior happening again

● E.L. Thordlike

○ Law of Effect: behaviors that had a favorable outcome were strengthened, while

behaviors that had an unfavorable outcome were weakened

● B.F. Skinner

○ Described different types of consequences that can occur and the ways in which

they might be presented that could affect the presentation of the behavior

“Reinforcement and Punishment”

● Reinforcement: greater likelihood that the behavior will occur again

● Punishment: lessened likelihood that the behavior will happen again

● Positive: something is presented, given or appears

● Negative: something disappears or is taken away

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Operant Conditioning Term Description Outcome Example

Positive Reinforcement Add or increase a Behavior is You get a cookie for an “A.” 🍪
pleasant stimulus strengthened

Negative Reduce or remove Behavior is Taking painkillers (removes pain),

an unpleasant strengthened the behavior of taking painkillers

Reinforcement
stimulus is strengthened.

Positive Punishment Add an unpleasant Behavior is Give more homework for

stimulus weakened misbehavior ✍️

Negative Punishment Reduce or remove Behavior is No phone 📱 after breaking

pleasant stimulus weakened curfew

“Limitations to Operant Conditioning”

● Insight learning “a-ha moment”: when one suddenly realizes the solution to a problem

○ Some organisms are capable of discovering the solution to the problem without

having the proper reinforcements to guide them to the solution

● Latent learning (Edward Tolman)

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○ Rats did not show any noticeable improvement in maze in the absence of

reinforcement, when reinforcement is provided, decrease in time.

○ Rats knew the solution to the maze but did not express behaviorally ⇒ they had

a cognitive map

● Not all types of stimuli will necessarily be conditioned with all types of responses

○ John Garcia → people are more readily predisposed to be conditioned to taste if

the corresponding response eis internal

○ Cognitive interpretations of conditioning

■ If a person believes that a particular stimulus, as opposed to the intended

stimulus, causes the conditioning, then the intended stimulus that was

intended to produce the conditioning will not occur

“Reinforcement Schedules”

● Fixed: reinforcement occurs in a predictable pattern

● Variable: reinforcement is not predictable and is not known when the next reinforcement

will occur

● Interval: certain amount of time must pass by

● Ratio: certain number of behaviors must be performed before the reinforcement

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Reinforcement Explanation Real World Example

Schedule

Fixed Ratio Rewarded after a specific number of You get paid $100 bucks after

responses #️⃣ writing 2 columns.

Variable Ratio Rewarded after an average but Put money in a slot machine. It

unpredictable number of responses pays out after a number of

plays, but the player is uncertain

of the number because it varies.

Fixed Interval Rewarded after a set amount of time has People who earn a monthly

elapsed 📅 salary

Variable Interval Rewarded after an average but Person checks email messages

unpredictable amount of time has and is rewarded with a message

elapsed at varying times.

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4.4: Social and Cognitive Factors in Learning

“Modeling”

● Learn behaviors by observing others

○ Imitate or model behaviors through perceptions of others

● Bobo Doll Experiment

○ Albert Bandura → children who observed an adult being aggressive with toy were

more likely to show aggressive behaviors

○ Four processes of observational learning

■ Attention: must be focused on the action taking place

■ Retention:: must be able to recall the action that was observed in order to

imitate

■ Reproduction: must have the physical and mental capability to complete

the activity to imitate it

■ Motivation: must have a perceived incentive to imitate and complete the

behavior

● Mirror neurons

○ Mirror neurons in the frontal lobe that some researchers believe are responsible

for observational learning → the brain fires the same way as the person we are

mirroring/watching

● Prosocial Behavior

○ Positive, helpful behavior

○ Parenting → modeling good behaviors

● Antisocial Modeling

○ A child may view aggressive or angry behaviors and mirror it

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“Behavior Modification”

● Un-shaping Negative Behavior Through Punishment

○ Punishments

■ Unshape the behavior

■ Decreases the undesired behaviors

○ Positive punishments

■ Unwanted consequence is given for negative behavior

● Example: speeding ticket

○ Negative punishments

■ Desired item or opportunity is removed as a result of bad behavior

● Example: phone restriction

● Reshaping Good Behavior Through Reinforcement

○ Reinforcement

■ Promotion of good behaviors

○ Positive reinforcement

■ Desirable stimulus is added as a result for good behavior

● Example: praising a child for completing their homework

○ Negative reinforcement

■ Undesirable stimulus is removed as a result of good behavior

● Example: seat belt alarm

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