Lesson.6.

 Pavlov,Thorndike and other researchers of learning assumed that

learning was the same wherever and whenever it occurred.But
later studies proved that there is

 Variations of learning
NEW words

 Preparedness
 Conditioned taste aversions
 Sensitive period
 Social learning approach
 Vicarious reinforcement
 Vicarious punishments
 Self efficacy
 (Refer Q.14 and Q.15)
Variations in leraning

 Objective
 Explain conditioned taste aversions and birdsong
learning differ from the types of learning that
Pavlov and Skinner studied

 Discuss the importance of Social learning

 1.Preparedness
 The concept that evolution has prepared us to learn some associations more
easily than others

 Example: cats and ancestors since ancient times have encountered many
situations in which pushing or pulling something produced a useful outcome
 (2)Conditioned taste Aversions

 If CS predicts food UCS learning proceeds most quickly

 Based on research psychologists convinced that learning occurs only between
events happening within seconds of each other.
 How ever the generalization fails in certain situations
 Consider what happens if you eat something and get sick to your stomach an
hour or so later,despite the delay between eating and feeling sick you learn
an aversion to that food
 Associating a food with illness is conditioned taste aversion
 (Create an example of your choice)
(3)Predisposition in learning(Experiment
by Garcia and Koelling)
 Hypothehsis:
 Rats that experience foot shock will learn to avoid visual or auditory signals
associated with the shock .Rats that experience nausea will learn to avoid
foods that they recently ate.
 Method
 Water deprived rates were offered a tube of Saccharine favoured water .The
tube was set up such that when a rat licked the spout of the tube it turned on
a bright light and a clicking sound.Thus each rat experienced the taste,light
and noise simultaneously.
 Half the rats received a mild foot shock 2 seconds after they started licking
the tube
 The other half received x rays which produced mild nausea. And the
procedure was repeated
 Results

 Rats that had received shock avoided the tube connected to lights and sounds
but drank normally from the tube with saccharine water.Rats that have
received xrays avoided the saccharine water but drank normally from the
tube connected to lights and sounds

 Interpretation
 Rats associate illness with what they ate
 Associate pain with what they saw or heard
 Birdsong Learning

 Infantbirds of some species must hear their songs

during a sensitive period early in life if they are to
develop a fully normal song the following spring.
During the early learning the bird makes no
response and receives no reinforcements
 Group activity
Social learning
 Class work
 What is social learning approach?
 Vicarious reinforcement
 Vicarious punishments
 Self efficacy in social learning
 Self reinforcements
 Self punishments