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Learning and Behaviorism

• Three major areas of learning– Classical Conditioning: Pavlov– Instrumental /Operant Conditioning: Skinner – Social Learning Theory: Bandura

Learning questions• What is Behaviorism?• Who was Pavlov?• What is classical conditioning?• What is UCS, UCR, CS, CR? (same card)• What is acquisition? extinction?• What is stimulus generalization? • What is stimulus discrimination?• What was the Baby Albert experiment?• What is spontaneous recovery?• What is Operant Conditioning?• Who was BF Skinner?• What is positive reinforcement? Negative Reinforcement? Positive

punishment? Negative punishment? Aversive stimulus?• Fixed ratio schedule, variable ratio schedule?• Primary vs secondary reinforcers?• Who was Albert Bandura and his Bobo doll experiment?• What is social learning theory?

What is Behaviorism?

• School of psychology- studies scientifically observable behaviors, not unconscious drives.

• Behaviorists like tabula rasa (blank slate)

• Free will is an illusion.

• Includes classical, operant and social learning theory

John B. Watson

“Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own special world to bring them up in, and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select – doctor, lawyer, merchant-chief, and yes, beggar man or thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors.”

Classical Conditioning

It all started with:

Ivan Pavlov

What is classical conditioning?• When your brain and nervous

system make an association between 2 stimuli (things).

• Example: food and a bell

A song and making out with your “friend”

Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): a stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers a response.

Unconditional Response (UCR): the unlearned, naturally occurring response to the UCS.

Conditioned Response (CR): the learned response to a previously neutral stimulus.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS): an originally irrelevant stimulus that, after association with the UCS, comes to trigger a response.

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Come up with your own examples of Classical Conditioning

What is the Little Albert experiment?

• John Watson classically conditioned a baby to fear a white rat. Then the baby feared all furry things.

Pavlov spent the rest of his life outlining his ideas. He came up with 5 critical terms that

together make up classical conditioning.

• Acquisition

• Extinction

• Spontaneous Recovery

• Generalization

• Discrimination

Acquisition• The initial stage of learning.

• The phase where the neutral stimulus is associated with the UCS so that the neutral stimulus comes to elicit the CR (thus becoming the CS).

Does timing matter?

•The CS should come before the UCS

•They should be very close together in timing.

Extinction• The diminishing of a conditioned response.

• Will eventually happen when the UCS does not follow the CS.

Is extinction permanent?

Spontaneous Recovery

• The reappearance. After a rest period, of an extinguished conditioned response.

Generalization

• The tendency, once a response has been conditioned, for stimuli similar to the CS to elicit similar responses.

Stimulus Generalization

The Baby was given the rat while Watsonsounded a loud, scary clank.. Now the babyis afraid of all furry things.

Discrimination

• The learned ability to distinguish between a CS and other stimuli that does not signal UCS.

How can we apply classical conditioning?

Applications of Taste Aversion• treating alcoholism, using the

drug Antabuse– causes nausea and violent vomiting

when combined with alcohol– attempts to create a taste aversion to

alcohol

• Problem: alcoholics tend to stop taking Antabuse so they can drink again– but when used properly, Antabuse

does reduce total amount of alcohol consumed (Brewer et al., 2000; Chick et al., 1992)

Applications of Taste Aversion• humane methods of controlling

predators, agricultural pests?– coyotes & wolves ate sheep

carcasses laced with nausea-inducing poison; developed aversion to sheep meat (Gustavson et al., 1974, 1976)

• wolves penned with sheep later seemed to fear it!

– similar results with baboons in African gardens, raccoons attacking chickens, ravens & crows feeding on raven eggs

• Stimulus Discrimination: learning to respond differently to two stimuli because different outcomes follow them.

• A dog may drool to a bell, but not a gong.

Extinction

• If a conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus, then the conditioned response will disappear. This is known as extinction. If a dog learns to associate the sound of a bell with food and then the bell is rung repeatedly, but no food is presented, the dog will soon stop salivating a the sound of the bell.

Conditioned Taste Aversion

• Link a food with illness– CS paired with UR

• Preparedness• Concern for patients

receiving chemotherapy

The Garcia effect

• People get sick after eating at a restaurant so they won’t eat at that restaurant, even if they know the food was safe.

• 1. Sara is watching a storm. A bolt of lightening is followed immediately by a huge crash of thunder and makes her jump. This happens several more times. The storm starts to move away and there is a gap between the lightening bolt and the sound of thunder, yet Sara jumps at the lightening bolt.

• What is the:

• UCS

• UCR

• CS

• CR

• 2. Steve's mouth waters whenever he eats anything with lemon in it. One day, while seeing an advertisement showing lemons, his mouth begins to water.

• What is the:

• UCS

• UCR

• CS

• CR

Operant Conditioning

• Also known as Instrumental Conditioning• Thorndike and his cats• Key difference from Classical

Conditioning: subject’s behavior determines an outcome and is subsequently impacted by that outcome

• Operant generally applies to skeletal muscles, classical to visceral responses

What is operant conditioning?

• Behaviors are a result of reinforcements and punishments.

• B.F. Skinner is the famous guy.

Edward Thorndike

• Law of Effect: rewarded behavior is likely to recur.

Thorndike’s Puzzle Box• Edward Thorndike (1874-

1949): created a puzzle box: cage with latched door that could only be opened by pressing lever inside– cats became quicker and

quicker to press lever once they figured it out

– Law of Effect: rewarded behaviors are more likely to be repeated

B.F. Skinner

C’mon gimmie a kiss!

B.F. Skinner

• Most influential behaviorist– Envisioned a utopian society based upon his

theories– Skinner Box – Ping-pong playing and airplane flying pigeons

• Shaping – training with rewards

Skinner Box

How do you shape behavior?What is shaping?

Shaping is like “training.” You shape or change a behavior through reinforcements and punishments.

Shaping

• A procedure in Operant Conditioning in which reinforcers guide behavior closer and closer towards a goal.

Operant Conditioning Chamber“Skinner box”

Conditioning

Reinforcer• Any event that STRENGTHENS the

behavior it follows.

Two Types of Reinforcement:

Positive and Negative

Reinforcement – increasing desired behavior

– Positive Reinforcement – giving something good to increase a behavior (example?)

– Negative Reinforcement – taking away something bad to increase a behavior (example?)

Punishment – reducing behavior

• - positive punishment giving something bad to reduce a behavior (example?) spanking = aversive stimulus

• - negative punishment – (omission training) taking away something good to reduce a behavior

(example?)

Positive Reinforcement

• Strengthens a response by presenting a stimulus after a response.

Negative Reinforcement

• Strengthens a response by reducing or removing an aversive stimulus.

The following are examples of what???

Answer choices are positive punishment, negative punishment, positive

reinforcement, negative reinforcement

Spanking a child for writing “crip” on your car door.

Giving candy for correct answers.

Nagging and nagging until you do the dishes.

Child whines and cries until he gets his candy at the store.

Taking away cell phone privileges to reduce low grades.

Stop jamming toothpicks up one’s fingernails in exchange for

information

Can all animals be taught anything?

Instinctive drift

• Animals will drift (or revert) back to instinctual behaviors while performing tasks.

• Example: Pigs will deposit coins in a piggy bank but will push the coins through the mud and flip it around on its way.

• Behaviorists successfully taught a raccoon to deposit wooden coins into a metal container for food reinforcement. But soon the raccoon started rubbing the coins together and dipping them (not dropping them) into the container. It was performing the motor program raccoons use to "wash" food in a stream. This interfered with the trick to such an extent the Brelands had to give up on it. Instead, they trained the raccoon to "play basketball." The basketball was so large that the raccoon did not attempt to wash it.

Reinforcement Schedules

Continuous Reinforcement

• Reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs.

Quick Acquisition

Quick Extinction

Partial Reinforcement

• Reinforcing a response only part of the time.

• The acquisition process is slower.

• Greater resistance to extinction.

Fixed-ratio Schedules

• A schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses.

Example: I give cookie monster a cookie every FIVE times he sings “C is for cookie”.

Variable-ratio Schedule

• A schedule of reinforcement that reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses.

Example: I give Homer a donut at random times when he says “DOH!!!”

Fixed-interval Schedule• A schedule of

reinforcement that reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed.

Example: I give Bart a Butterfinger every ten minutes after he moons someone.

Variable-interval Schedule• A schedule of

reinforcement that reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals.

Pop Quizzes

Schedules of Reinforcement• early Skinnerian experiments used

continuous reinforcement: reinforcing the desired behavior every time it occurs– partial reinforcement:

reinforcement given only intermittently

– continuous leads to faster initial learning...

• ...but partial is more resistant to extinction

• ...and continuous reinforcement only happens sometimes in real world

Schedules of Reinforcement

• Continuous Reinforcement – give treat every time

• Fixed-ratio schedule – fixed # of responses determines reinforcement. Rapid and steady response rate with pause after reward (ex. Pigeon gets food after every 3 pecks)

• Variable-ratio schedule – steady response rate (give dog treat unpredictably)

More Schedules – Interval Training

• Fixed-interval schedule – reinforcement is based upon the passage of time. Pause after reward and then an ever increasing rate of response

• Variable-interval schedule – slow but steady response rate

What is Social Learning Theory?

• Albert Bandura: Bobo doll. We learn by observing the behavior of others and from imagining the consequences of our own behavior.

Social Learning Theory Cont.

• Modeling: we imitate people who we– Resemble– Identify with– View as successful

• Vicarious Reinforcement and Punishment

Bobo doll experiment

• Albert Bandura allowed children to watch an adult play with a bobo doll.

• The experimental group watched a video of an adult playing violently with the doll

• The control group watched a boring video.

• The experimental group children imitated the violent behavior.

• Insight Learning: This is an extension of the term, insight which was identified by Wolfgang Kohler while studying the behavior of chimpanzees. He said that insight learning is a type of learning or problem solving that happens all-of-a-sudden through understanding the relationships of various parts of a problem rather than through trial and error.

Sultan, one of Kohler's chimpanzes, learned to use a stick to pull bananas from outside of his cage by putting pieces of stick together. Given two sticks that could be fitted together to make a single pole that was long enough to reach the bananas, aligned the sticks and in a flash of sudden inspiration, fitted the two sticks together and pulled in the bananas. He didn't do this by trial and error, but had a sort of sudden inspiration or insight.

Classical Conditioning(to tune of You Are My Sunshine)

You are my Pavlov, The dogs of Pavlov

You paired the food with the lights and bells

Response was very involuntaryYou taught

classic conditioning well

OPERANT CONDITIONING

His name is Skinner, oh BF Skinner

You put the lab rats

inside your box

With reinforcements,

and even punishments

Consequences shape the response

Don’t forget to write your answers on a separate piece of paper to grade when you’re

done!

1. Once Pavlov’s dogs learned to salivate to the sound of a tuning fork, the tuning fork was a(n)

a) unconditioned stimulus

b) neutral stimulus

c) conditioned stimulus

d) unconditioned response

2. Shaping is

a) a pattern of responses that must be made before classical conditioning is completed

b) rewarding behaviors that get closer and closer to the desired goal behavior

c) completing a set of behaviors in a succession before a reward is given

d) giving you chocolate pudding to increase the likelihood you will eat more carrots

3. John loves to fish. He puts his line in the water and leaves it there until he feels a tug. On what reinforcement schedule is he rewarded?

a) fixed ratio

b) fixed interval

c) variable ratio

d) variable interval

4. Chimpanzees given tokens for performing tricks were able to put the tokens in vending machines to get grapes. The tokens acted as

a) primary reinforcers

b) classical conditioning

c) secondary reinforcers

d) unconditioned reinforcers

5. Try as you might, you are unable to teach your dog to do a somersault. He will roll around on the ground, but he refuses to execute the gymnastic move you desire because ofa) preparednessb) instinctive driftc) chainingd) shaping

6. Watson and Rayner’s classical conditioning of “Little Albert” was helpful in explaining that

a) some conditioned stimuli do not generalize

b) human emotions such as fear are subject to classical conditioning

c) drug dependency is subject to classical as well as operant conditioning

d) small children are not as easily conditioned as older children

7. Jamel got very sick after eating some mushrooms on a pizza at his friend’s house. He didn’t know that he had a stomach virus at the time, blamed his illness on the mushrooms, and refused to eat them again. Which of the following is the unconditioned stimulus for his taste aversion to mushrooms?

a) pizzab) stomach virusc) mushroomsd) headache

8. If a previous experience has given your pet the expectancy that nothing it does will prevent an aversive stimulus from occurring, it will likely

a) be motivated to seek comfort from you

b) experience learned helplessness

c) model the behavior of other pets in hopes of avoiding it

d) seek out challenges like this in the future to disprove the expectation

9. While readying to take a free-throw shot, you suddenly arrive at the answer to a chemistry problem you’d been working on several hours before. This is an example of:

a) insight

b) backward conditioning

c) latent learning

d) discrimination

10. Which of the following is an example of positive reinforcement?

a) Buying a child a video game after she throws a tantrum.

b) Going inside to escape a thunderstorm.

c) Assigning a student detention for fighting.

d) Getting a cavity filled at the dentist to halt a toothache.

11. The first step in a behavior modification program is to

a) gather baseline data

b) specify the antecedent

c) specify the target behavior

d) design a program

12. In classical conditioning, the stimulus that is originally neutral in regard to the response to be learned is the

a) unconditioned stimulus

b) unconditioned response

c) conditioned stimulus

d) conditioned response

13. Typically, most people woulda) enjoy being negatively reinforced or punishedb) dislike being negatively reinforced or punishedc) enjoy being negatively reinforced and dislike being punishedd) enjoy being punished and dislike

being negatively reinforced

14. Classical conditioning could account for how a child learns to

a) sing a song

b) tie shoe laces

c) print letters

d) fear the dark

15. The initial stage of learning a response is called

a) extinction

b) contiguity

c) acquisition

d) conditioning

Chapter 6 Answer Key

1. C

2. B

3. D

4. C

5. B

6. B

7. B

8. B

9. A

10. A

11. C

12. C

13. C

14. D

15. C

Essay Question Possibilities!!

• One of the following essay questions will appear on your test, be familiar with all of them!!

Essay Question # 1

• Explain how a specific phobia could be acquired through classical conditioning, being sure to identify the unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, conditioned stimulus, and conditioned response in your example. Also, using classical conditioning, indicate how the phobia could be eliminated.

Essay Question # 2

• Provide specific, everyday examples (for instance, from child-rearing) of the following operant-conditioning phenomena: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, and punishment.

Essay Question # 3

• Compare the acquisition procedures in classical and operant conditioning. What is the essential differences between the two types of conditioning?

Essay Question # 4

• Briefly describe observational learning, and explain how it relates to classical and operant conditioning.

Essay Question # 5

• Design a self-modification program to improve your study habits.

Good Luck!

• Make sure to double check all of your answers and study them for the upcoming exam. Remember, AT LEAST FIVE of the questions from this quiz will make some sort of appearance on the chapter test along with one of the essay questions.

• Take advantage of this study guide and good luck on your test!