LEARNING

HOW TO TRAIN

FISH and

OTHER ANIMALS

Learning

• How can you tell if a fish or person is learning?

• How can a person discriminate if an organism is exhibiting a learned behavior and not an instinctual behavior?

WHAT IS LEARNING?

• Any change in behavior

• To a specific situation

• That is not instinctual

• And is repeated over and over again

• In similar circumstances

Types of Learning

• 1. Classical Conditioning

• 2. Operant Conditioning

IVAN PAVLOV

PAVLOV’S EXPERIMENTS

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

• Is a type of learning in which an organism elicits a reflex or an emotion (involuntary responses) to a normally neutral stimulus.

– Ex. A person having a knee jerk when they see a doctor in a white coat

– Ex. A person feeling fear when they see red flashing lights behind them

CLASSICAL CONDITIONINGPARADIGM

• When an unconditioned stimulus is paired with a neutral stimulus the organism elicits an unconditioned response.

• If repeated over and over again the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus and elicits a conditioned response similar to the unconditioned response associated with it.

vocabulary

• UCS (unconditioned stimulus) is a stimulus such as a loud noise, contact, or food that an organism involuntarily responds to.

• CS (conditioned stimulus) – a neutral stimulus, such as a bell or red light, that an organism normally doesn’t respond to but does begin to respond to as a result of association with a UCS

Vocabulary 2

• UCR (conditioned response) a response that involuntarily occurs (ex reflex, emotion) as a result of an unconditioned stimulus.

• CR (conditioned response) a response (ex. reflex, emotion) to a normally neutral stimulus that has been paired with an unconditioned stimulus

PAVLOV’S EXPERIMENTS

• BELL + FOOD SALIVATION

• NS + UCS UCR

• ____________________________

• BELL SALIVATION

• CS SALIVATION

ACQUISITION

• FOR MOST SPECIES

• The neutral stimulus must be presented first followed by the UCS within ½ second to elicit the response.

• With repetition the NS becomes the CS meaning the CS elicits a response similar to that of the UCS

BEFORE CONDITIONING

DURING CONDITIONING

AFTER CONDITIONING

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING AND THE CLASSROOM

• In the area of classroom learning, classical conditioning primarily influences emotional behavior. Things that make us happy, sad, angry, etc. become associated with neutral stimuli that gain our attention.

EXAMPLES OF CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

• Neutral Stimulus + UCS UCR

• You + Tapping on tank Fear

• CS CR

• You Fear

• _____________________________

• You + Food Digestive enzymes

• YOU Digestive enzymes

THINK

• What other examples of classical conditioning can you think of?– Reflexes – with fish– with people

– Emotions – with fish– with people

Human Examples

• Neutral Stimulus + UCS UCR

• Grade of F + Parent Screaming Fear

• CS CR

• Grade of F Fear

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING AND EMOTION

• For example, if a particular academic subject or remembering a particular teacher produces emotional feelings in you, those emotions are probably a result of classical conditioning.

• Neutral Stimulus + UCS UCR• Grade A + Hug Happy• CS CR• Grade A Happy

Stimulus Generalization

• When a stimulus that is slightly different but similar is presented the organism may respond similarly.

• NS +UCS UCR

• Red light + Food Salivation

• CS CR

• Red Light Salivation

• Pink Light Salivation

Examples of Stimulus Generalization

• What examples of stimulus generalization can you think of in regard to classical conditioning?

• How is stimulus generalization related to drug overdose?

• How is it related to phobic behavior and neurosis?

JOHN WATSON’S CLAIM

• Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up 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, even beggarman and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors." (1930)

LITTLE ALBERT

LITTLE ALBERT

Little Albert Video

• Watch and enjoy

EXTINCTION

• When a CS is no longer followed by a UCS over a long period of time then the stimulus may no longer elicit a CR.

• Bell followed by no food may cause the dog to stop salivating when it hears the bell.

• Red flashing lights not followed by a siren or police may no longer elicit fear

OPERANT CONDITIONING

OPERANT CONDITIONING

• Operant conditioning is a form of learning in which responses come to be controlled by their consequences. It is also called stimulus-response learning.

• Stimulus Response (consequence)

• Human swim to top of tank (food)

• Learners connect certain stimuli with certain responses

OPERANT CONDITIONINGTHEORISTS

• Edward Thorndike, John Watson, and B. F. Skinner were the major theorists behind operant conditioning.

• It means to operate on or be influenced by the environment.

EDWARD THORNEDIKE1874 - 1949

• Graduate of Wesleyan

• Harvard• Columbia• Devised ways to

conduct learning experiments and measure intelligence in children

THORNDIKE’SLAW OF EFFECT

• Responses that are closely followed by satisfaction will become firmly attached to the situation and therefore more likely to reoccur when the situation is repeated.

• Conversely, if the situation is followed by discomfort, the connections to the situation will become weaker and the behavior of response is less likely to occur when the situation is repeated.

THORNDIKE’S EXPERIMENTS

• For example, Thorndike performed research (summarized in Thorndike, 1911) on the ability of cats to learn to escape from a "puzzle box" (see Figure 1). Cats placed within the box had to learn to push a lever, pull on a wire loop, pull on a string, turn a "button," lift a latch, or push aside a door, in order to escape from the box. In some experiments, the cat had to perform two or three of these actions sequentially before the door would open. In still other conditions, the door opened only after the cats licked or scratched themselves. Cats were rewarded for these behaviors by food, which was placed outside the box.

Thorndike’s Puzzlebox

EXAMPLES OF LAW OF EFFECT

JOHN WATSON’S CLAIM

• Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up 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, even beggarman and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors." (1930)

JOHN WATSON’S RESEARCH

• Emphasized the study of observable behavior rejecting theories of introspection and the unconscious mind

• Influenced Burrhus Frederic Skinner

B. F. SKINNER1904 - 1990

• Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten. 

• Created Skinner Box• Conducted behavioral

studies on rats (shaping)

• Father of Behavior Modification

SKINNER BOX

TYPES OF REINFORCEMENT(REWARDS)

• 1. Primary – stimuli that meet a basic biological need such as:

• Food• Water• Proper temperature• Touch • Sex

TYPES OF REINFORCEMENT

• 2. Secondary Reinforcers – are rewarding because they are associated with primary reinforcers.

• Money• Grades• Praise• Trophies• Award certificates

MAJOR TECHNIQUES USEDIN OPERANT CONDITIONING

Outcome Outcome

STIMULUS Increase

behavior

Decrease

behavior

positive Positive

Reinforcement

Add stimulus

Response Cost

Remove Stimulus

negative Negative

Reinforcement

Punishment

Schedules of Reinforcement

• Continuous – reward every time

• Fixed Interval- after every x times

• Fixed Ratio- after x seconds

• Variable Interval – after around x times

• Variable Ratio – after around x minutes

SHAPING

• Sometimes an organization will not on their own elicit the desired response. You can gradually get them to perform the desired response by rewarding successive approximations of the desired response.

• Ex. Want fish to eat food inside glass bottle, but fish won’t go in. Reward fish for going closer to bottle, then closer, etc.

DISCRIMINATION LEARNING

• Learning to do one behavior instead of another to get a reward.

• Ex. Choosing to go to mirror building instead of class because class is boring and mirror building I associated with good food and friends.

• Fish chooses to eat only on left side of tank, not right side because you only feed it on left side.

Discrimination Learning Diagram

• Stimulus Generalization – respond to a similar stimulus in the same way expecting the same desired consequence

• Extinction – the stopping of a response because it is not followed by the desired consequence

Discrimination Learning

Discussion

• Learned Helplessness

• Use of Punishment