Fundamentals of Psychology

Chapter 4 : Learning and Human Nurture

Behavioral Learning Versus Cognitive Learning

Behaviourists maintained that psychology could be a true science only if

it disregarded subjective mental Processes and focused solely on
observable stimuli and responses.

Cognitive psychologists contend that the behavioural view is far too

limiting and that understanding learning requires us to make inferences
about hidden mental processes.

Learning Versus Instincts

Instinctive behaviour = behaviours that are not learned, i.e. behaviours

you already know how to do for the first time

Instinctive behaviour is heavily influenced by genetic programming, as

we see in bird migrations or animal mating rituals.
In humans, however, behaviour is much more influenced by learning
than by instincts.

Simple and Complex Forms of Learning

Some forms of learning are quite simple. For example, if you live near a
busy street, you may learn to ignore the sound of the traffic.This sort of
learning, known as habituation

Simple form of learning

- Habituation = involves learning not to respond to stimulation.

- Mere-exposure effect = is a psychological phenomenon by which

people tend to develop a preference for things merely because they are
familiar with them.
Complex form of learning
Classical Conditioning = learning a connection between two stimuli—as
when you associate a certain scent with a particular person who wears
that fragrance.

Operant Conditioning = When we associate our actions with rewarding

or punishing consequences, such as a reprimand from the boss or an A
from a professor.

Cognitive learning = considers how sudden “flashes of insight” and

imitative behaviour require theories that go beyond behavioural learning
to explain how we solve problems or why children imitate behaviour for
which they see other people being rewarded.

What Sort of Learning Does Classical Conditioning Explain?

Associative learning = in which a stimulus that produces a natural reflex

becomes associated with a previously neutral stimulus, which then
acquires the power to elicit essentially the same response.

Acquisition = describes when an organism learns to connect a neutral

stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus.

Describe the processes involved in classical conditioning

Pavlov’s great discovery was that his dogs could associate reflexive
responses with new stimuli—neutral stimuli that had previously produced
no response (such as the sound of the lab assistant’s footsteps). Thus,
they could learn the connection between a reflex and a new stimulus.

Pavlov and his students had discovered that a neutral stimulus (one
without any reflex-provoking power, such as a tone or a light), when
paired with a natural reflex-producing stimulus (such as food), will by
itself begin to elicit a learned response (salivation) similar to the original
reflex. In humans, classical conditioning is the learning process that
makes us associate romance with flowers or chocolate.
Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS), = a stimulus that automatically—that is,
without conditioning—triggers a reflexive response.

Unconditioned Response (UCR). = the unlearned response to a

stimulus. In other words, it is any original response that occurs naturally
and in the absence of conditioning (e.g., salivation in response to the
presentation of food).

Neutral Stimulus (NS) = is a stimulus which initially produces no specific

response other than focusing attention,such as a tone.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS) = is a learned stimulus that can eventually

trigger a conditioned response.
For example, the sound of a bell is the conditioned stimulus in Pavlov's
experiment, and the dogs salivating would be the conditioned response
Along with acquisition, Ivan Pavlov also discovered extinction
,spontaneous recovery, generalization, and discrimination

Extinction and Spontaneous Recovery

Generalization

Discrimination Learning

Higher-Order Conditioning

Review some of the areas in real life where Pavlov’s classical

conditioning techniques may be applied

American behaviourist John Watson first applied classical

conditioning techniques to human problems.

Conditioned Fears: The Notorious Case of Little Albert

Watson and Rayner conditioned an infant named Albert to react
fearfully to a white laboratory rat. They created the fear response by
repeatedly presenting the rat (an NS), paired with the loud sound of a
steel bar struck with a mallet, which acted as an aversive UCS. It took
only seven trials for “Little Albert” to react with distress at the
appearance of the rat (now a CS) alone. Five days later, Watson and
Rayner tested Albert again, and found he still showed a fear response to
rats, and the response had also generalised from the rat to other furry
objects, such as a rabbit, a dog, and a sealskin coat.

Unlike Little Albert’s short-lived aversion to furry objects, some fears

learned under highly stressful conditions can persist for years.

a classically conditioned fear response is often the basis of

post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Counterconditioning = a therapy that teaches a relaxation response to

the Conditioned response (CS).
In counterconditioning, you pair the CS (the object of the fear) with a
positive stimulus that is relaxing, such as holding a loved one’s hand,
pleasant images, or soothing music, so that exposure to the CS no
longer produces anxiety. This approach has been particularly effective in
dealing with phobias.

Conditioned Food Aversions

Almost all of us have had bad experiences with certain foods. Phil got
sick after eating pork and beans in the grade-school lunchroom, Bob
became ill after a childhood overdose of olives.In all these cases, we
associated our distress with the distinctive sight, smell, and taste of the
food—which, for years afterward, was enough to cause
feelings of nausea.

Unpleasant as it is, learning to avoid a food (or a beverage) associated

with illness has survival value.That’s why humans and other animals
readily form an association between illness and food—much more
readily than between illness and a nonfood stimulus, such as a light or a
tone.For example,Phil didn’t become wary of the trays his school
lunches were served on, Bob didn’t develop a reaction to the highchair in
which he developed his olive aversion,

Biological Predispositions: A Challenge to Pavlov

New Frontiers in Wildlife Management
Classical Conditioning in Advertising
Harnessing the Power of Classical Conditioning

How Do We Learn New Behaviours by Operant Conditioning?

Operant Conditioning = the consequences of behaviour, such as

rewards and punishments, influence the probability that the behaviour
will occur again.

(An operant, incidentally, is an observable behaviour that an organism

uses to “operate,” or have an effect on, the environment. Thus, if you are
reading this book to get a good grade on the next test, reading is an
operant behaviour.)

Rewarding consequences commonly include money,

praise, food, or high grades—all of which can encourage
the behaviour they follow. By contrast, punishments such as
pain, loss of privileges, or low grades can discourage the
behavior they follow.
As you will see, the theory of operant conditioning is
an important one for at least two reasons. First, operant
conditioning accounts for a much wider spectrum of
behavior than does classical conditioning. And second, it
explains new and voluntary behaviors—not just reflexive
behaviors.

Explain Skinner’s perspective on learning

Examine the ways that reinforcement shapes our behaviour

rein-
forcer as any stimulus that follows and strengthens a

response. Food, money, and sex serve this function for most
people; so do attention, praise, or a smile. All these are
examples of positive reinforcement, which strengthens a
response by adding a positive stimulus after the response
and making the behaviour more likely to occur again.

● Positive punishment: something is “added” to the mix that makes

the behaviour less likely to continue or reoccur (i.e., an unpleasant
consequence is introduced to the subject to discourage their
behaviour).
● Positive reinforcement: something is added to the mix that makes
the behaviour more likely to continue or reoccur (i.e., a pleasant
consequence is introduced to the subject to encourage their
behaviour).
● Negative punishment: something is “taken away” from the mix that
makes the behaviour less likely to continue or reoccur (i.e.,
something pleasant is removed from the subject to discourage
their behaviour).
● Negative reinforcement: something is taken away from the mix that
makes the behaviour more likely to continue or reoccur (i.e.,
something unpleasant is removed from the subject to encourage
their behaviour).

So using an umbrella to avoid getting wet during a downpour is a

behaviour learned and maintained by negative reinforcement;

Vintage Technology: The “Skinner Box”

Contingencies of Reinforcement

Continuous Versus Intermittent Reinforcement

Continuous Reinforcement = It’s a useful tactic early in the learning

process, because rewarding every correct response, while ignoring the
incorrect ones, provides quick and clear feedback about which
responses are desired.

Shaping, = often used in animal training, involves the deliberate use of

rewards (and sometimes punishments) to encourage closer and closer
approximations of the desired behaviour.

intermittent reinforcement =, which is the rewarding of some (but not all)

correct responses. This less frequent schedule of
reinforcement—perhaps, after every third correct response—still serves
as an incentive for your dog to sit on command, while helping to avoid
satiation. In general, whether we’re dealing with people or animals,
intermittent reinforcement is the most efficient way to maintain
behaviours that have already been learned

Extinction (in operant conditioning) = occurs when reinforcement stops,

as when a gambler gives up on a slot machine that never pays off.

What makes intermittent reinforcement so resistant to extinction?

A big advantage of intermittent reinforcement is its resistance to

extinction

Imagine two gamblers and two slot machines. One machine inexplicably
pays off on every trial, and the other, more typical, machine pays on an
unpredictable, intermittent schedule. Now, suppose both devices
suddenly stop paying. Which gambler will catch on first? The one who
has been rewarded for each push of the button (continuous
reinforcement) will quickly notice the change and stop playing, while the
gambler who has won only occasionally (on intermittent reinforcement)
may continue playing unrewarded for a long time, hoping that the next
play will pay off.

Intermittent schedules of reinforcement (INT) = are when some, but not

all, instances of a behaviour are reinforced
 Schedules of Reinforcement

-> a cognitive map is a mental image an organism uses to navigate

through a familiar environment.

-> Describe how Kohler discovered insight learning

A: Kohler placed a banana outside of the cage of a hungry chimpanzee.

He gave the chimpanzee two sticks to try to retrieve the banana. The
chimpanzee was unsuccessful using both sticks. He tried to use one
stick to push the other towards the banana.