by

Objectives
(1) Explain respondent conditioning (learning
relationships between stimuli) and operant
conditioning (learning relationships between
responses and results).
(2)Explain social learning (observation and
imitation).
(3)Explain the basic neural processes of
behavior.
 What is learning?
 Learning is a relatively permanent change in
behavior as a result of experience.

 This change is reflected in later behavior.

 We tend to associate learning with formal

education, but learning takes place in every
context.

 We learn habits, skills and information.

 Learning can be divided into associative and

non associative learning.
 Non associative learning
 Non associative learning is a simple form of learning
in the living organism. It involves one stimulus.

 Habituation and sensitization are forms of non

associative learning that occurs in all living
organisms on a cellular level.

 Here we are concerned with associative learning that

takes place in higher animals. It involves learning
about the relationship of a stimulus to other stimuli.
 Associative learning
I- Learning by trial and error
II- Learning by imitation
III- Conditioning
IV- Insight learning
 I- Leaning by trial and error
 This is a primitive way of learning used by
children and animals. It is used in solving new
problems. The solution takes place through
manipulation of the objects in the
environment.

Example: The rat in the maze experiment.

 II- Insight learning:
 The solution of the problem on mental level
before dealing with the information about the
problem and similar problems is a necessary
tool in this type of learning.
 III- Learning by imitation
 Thismethod depends on the capacity for
observation and doing exactly what others do.
This is seen in higher animals and young
children.
 IV- Conditioning

 Two types of conditioning are recognized:

classical and operant.
 Classical Conditioning
 A conditioned response is a reflex response to a stimulus that
previously elicited little or no response, acquired by pairing
the stimulus with another that normally produces the response.

 Pavlvo’s classical experiment on dogs is an example of

classical conditioning.

 Classical conditioning is a simple form of learning in which a

previously neutral stimulus (e.g. flash of light or bell sound)
consistently precedes an unconditioned stimulus (e.g. food).

 The result is that the formally neutral stimulus, now called the
conditioned stimulus, elicits the conditioned response.
This process is repeated dozens of times
for the dog to salivate
 An example in humans is represented in coupling foot
steps of the mother with feeding the baby. After
repeated coupling, the foot steps alone would elicit
suckling movements. The steps are as follows:

1-The unconditioned stimulus (touching the baby’s lips)-----

unconditioned response (suckling movement).
2- Neutral stimulus (later to be called conditioned stimulus)
Foot steps of the mother + Unconditioned stimulus (touching
baby’s lip------unconditioned response.
3-Conditioned stimulus alone (foot steps)------ conditioned
response (suckling movement).
 Operant Conditioning
 A simple form of learning in which the frequency of
spontaneously occurring response increases after the
response is reinforced (encouraged) consistently.

 Reinforcement could be positive or negative.

Example:
 If a rat is left alone in a box to experiment, and
pressing a certain lever leads to introduction of
food into box, he will learn to press the bar to
get food (positive reinforcement).

 If, on the other hand, pressure will give rise to

painful shocks, he will learn Not to press the
lever (negative reinforcement).

 In operant conditioning, the aversive

(negative) reinforcement can take the forms of:
 Punishment: a response is followed by painful
or undesired event.

 Escape:
The organism learns to terminate an
ongoing aversive event.

 Avoidance: making something that would

prevent the aversive event from happing.
 We use the term operant (or instrumental) conditioning to
describe one type of associative learning in which there is a
contingency between a behavior (BH) and the presentation of a
biologically significant event (the "reinforcer", outcome or
unconditioned stimulus: US).

 This situation resembles most closely the classic experiments

from Skinner, where he trained rats and pigeons to press a lever
in order to obtain a food reward ("Skinner-Box").

 In such experiments, the subject is able to generate certain

motor-output, (e.g. running around, cleaning, resting, pressing
the lever). The experimenter chooses a suited output (BH, e.g.
pressing the lever) to pair it with a consequence (US, e.g. a food
reward).
 Often a discriminative stimulus (SD, e.g. a light) is
present, when the B-US contingency is true. After a
training period, the subject will show the conditioned
response (CR, e.g. touching the trigger) even in
absence of the US, if the BH-US association has been
memorized.

 Such instrumental or operant conditioning is

different from Pavlovian or "classical conditioning",
where the US presentations are independent from the
behavior of the animal, but instead is contingent upon
environmental events.
 Differences between classical and operant
conditioning
Classical Operant
conditioning conditioning

Origin of the Elicited reflexively spontaneous

stimulus
Organism’s No effect The organism’s
control behavior determines
what happens
Nature of the Determined in the CNS The organism learns
response to produce new
behavior
 Laws of conditioning

1- Generalization:
This means the transfer of acquired stimulus-
response relationship to other similar or related
stimuli.

Example:
The dog respond to sounds other than bell.
 2-Discrimination
 This is a process complementary to generalization.
 Generalization is reaction to similarities, while discrimination
is reaction to differences.

Example:
If a stimulus (SI) is coupled with an unconditioned stimulus, then
another similar stimulus (S2) is presented, at first the two will
produce the response. On the following day, only S1 is
reinforced (selective reinforcement).
Further introduction of S2 will not give response. The organism
learns to differentiate between S1 and S2.
 3- Reinforcement

 It means the identification of the response by reward

(positive reinforcement) leading to approach behavior
or by punishment (negative reinforcement).
 4-Deconditioning(Extinction)
 It means the loss of acquired stimulus relationship.

Example:
 If repeated presentation of the bell sound to the dog is
not followed by food, the conditioned response
(salivation) tends to be lost.
 Extinction must be partial or complete.
 Neurotransmitters
 Glutamate, GABA, acetylcholine, dopamine, serotonin, and
norepinephrine.
Glutamate
 Glutamate is the main excitatory neurotransmitter in the brain for learning.

 The role of glutamate in synaptic plasticity can be demonstrated using

Skinner’s study of rats in operant conditioning.
 As the hungry rat has learnt that it will receive a tasty food pellet each time
it presses a lever, it is likely to press the lever repeatedly. In the rat’s brain,
the learnt behaviour (pressing the lever) to get the reward (food) causes the
release of glutamate from the presynaptic neurons into the synaptic gap
between the presynaptic and postsynaptic neurons.

Acetylcholine
 The neurotransmitter acetylcholine (ACh) has been accorded an important
role in supporting learning and memory processes in the hippocampus
 Dopamine
 The most accepted theories of the neural basis of conditioning
in mammals involve a set of limbic structures activated by the
neurotransmitter dopamine.
 Dopamine is released when the organism is presented with
stimuli relevant to learning, such as unconditioned, conditioned,
reinforcing, and discriminative stimuli.
 Dopaminergic pathways linking mesencephalic structures to
limbic structures are pivotal for reinforcement efficacy.
 Specifically, activation of the substantia nigra and ventral
tegmental area causes dopamine release in the striatum and
nucleus accumbens, where dopamine serves as a neural signal
of behavioral discrepancy.