Learning

Learning is defined as a persistent, enduring change in behavior or knowledge due to experience.

Acquisition

• How do we acquire new knowledge or skills? – Conditioning

• A process of learning associations between environmental events and behavioral responses.

• Two types– Classical – involves automatic or reflexive behavior

– Operant – involves the acquisition of new voluntary actions

– Social Learning• The acquisition of learning through the observation of others

What’s this about

LEARNING?

Classical Conditioning

Ivan Pavlov

• Russian physiologist

• Nobel Prize for work on digestion

• His studies of dogs led to classical conditioning

Pavlov’s Dogs

• Digestive reflexes and salivation

• Acquisition: The application of Laws of Association in the formation of new conditioned reflexes

Classical Conditioning• Behaviors that are classically conditioned are those

which involve the learning of involuntary responses

• Responses over which the learner has no control and to which he or she responds reflexively or "automatically."

• Examples include – a dog salivating at the sound of the dinner bell – someone becoming nauseous at sight of "creamy-looking"

food when mayonnaise once made them ill, etc.• Pairing of a neutral stimulus (NS) with unconditioned stimulus

(natural) to elicit an unconditioned response (UCR)• It usually takes repeated pairings before a neutral stimulus

becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS) no longer needs the reinforcing properties of the uncond. Stimulus (UCS) to elicit a cond. Response (CR)

Classical Conditioning

UNCONDITIONED STIMULUS REFLEX ACTIONwill

elicit a

UNCONDITIONED STIMULUS

NEUTRAL STIMULUSREFLEX ACTIONwill

elicit a

CONDITIONED STIMULUSCONDITIONED STIMULUSwill

elicit aCONDITIONED

RESPONSE

NEUTRAL STIMULUSwill

elicit NO REACTION

Neutral Stimulus (NS) Bell

• Does not normally elicit a response or reflex action by itself– A bell ringing

– A color

– A furry object

Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) Food

• Always elicits a reflex action: an unconditioned response– Food

– Blast of air

– Noise

Unconditioned Response (UCR) Salivation

• A response to an unconditioned stimulus--naturally occurring– Salivation at smell of food

– Eye blinks at blast of air

– Startle reaction in babies

Conditioned Stimulus (CS) - Bell

• The stimulus that was originally neutral becomes conditioned after it has been paired with the unconditioned stimulus

• Will eventually elicit the unconditioned response by itself

Conditioned Response (CR)

• The original unconditioned response becomes conditioned after it has been elicited by the neutral stimulus without the UCS

John B. Watson and Little Albert• Conditioned Albert to fear fuzzy things• Watson believed in only the study of observable behavior

and that everything is learned from environmental factors• NS

– White rat

• UCS– Loud noise

• UCR– Fear

• CS– White rat

• CR– Fear of rat

•Various Procedures for Pairing the CS and US in Classical Conditioning

•Delay pairing, where there is an overlap in the presentation of CS and US leads to the best conditioning. •Trace pairing, where there is a delay between onset of US and the end of the CS leads to good conditioning. Less than 2 seconds•Simultaneous pairing of CS and US, interstimulus interval = 0, leads to poor conditioning. •Backward pairing, where the US is presented first and then followed by the CS leads to poor conditioning.

•

                                          

      

Two Theoretical Models Of Classical Conditioning

• Contiguity– Based on the work of

Pavlov

– Conditioning will occur whenever a CS and a UCS are paired

• Contingency– Based on the work of

Robert Rescorla and Allan Wagner

– The CS must reliably predict the UCS for conditioning to occur

– Attention is important– Studies in blocking by

Leon Kamin supports this theory

Let's review these concepts.• Unconditioned Stimulus: a thing that can already elicit a

response. • Unconditioned Response: a thing that is already elicited by a

stimulus. • Unconditioned Relationship: an existing stimulus-response

connection. • Conditioning Stimulus: a new stimulus we deliver the same time

we give the old stimulus. • Conditioned Relationship: the new stimulus-response

relationship we created by associating a new stimulus with an old response.

• There are two key parts. First, we start with an existing relationship, Unconditioned Stimulus ---> Unconditioned Response. Second, we pair a new thing (Conditioning Stimulus) with the existing relationship, until the new thing has the power to elicit the old response

Classical Conditioning Phenomenon

• Extinction

• Spontaneous recovery

• Generalization

• Discrimination

• Extinction: A procedure for the elimination of a conditioned reflex. After a period where the CS is not paired with the UCS.– Examples: teacher ignoring student's disruptive behavior in

order not to give her attention; a girl ignoring phone calls (i.e., using caller i.d. or answering machine to find out who's calling and not picking up the phone if its an unwelcome caller), etc.)

• Spontaneous Recovery: An extinguished behavior reoccurs (responding to the CS) after rest period.

• Generalization: After an organism is conditioned to respond to a stimulus, it also responds, though less strongly, to different, but similar stimuli, forming a stimulus generalization.

• Discrimination: After conditioning a response to a stimulus, similar stimuli do not elicit that response. Discrimination is believed to be based upon inhibition, a more complete discussion of both generalization and discrimination is included in our investigation of instrumental conditioning.

• Higher-Order Conditioning – Higher-order conditioning is the chaining of conditioned

stimuli, so that the CS, in turn, signals another CS. – The procedure involves a CS being paired with a US

(UCS) so that it elicits a CR and then that CS is paired with another neutral CS.

– After a few trials the new CS is able to elicit the CR without ever being paired with the original US.

• Conditioned Emotional Response: – Disruption of ongoing behavior due to exposure to a CS

that elicits fear.

Behavioral Therapy or Modification:• Systematic desensitization: Establishes positive CR, for example

relaxation, in the place of negative ones such as fear or anxiety. Slowly expose them to their fears + relax

• Flooding: The client is exposed with an aversive or anxiety producing CS but the avoidance response is blocked, until the client relaxes. Throw them into the water

• Aversion therapy: The drug (CS) is paired with emetic (US) causing vomiting (UR) leading to the client hating or avoiding the drug. – Pair a nausea producing drug (antabuse) with alcohol

• Counter-Conditioning: – Counter-Conditioning involves the substitution of a new behavior for an old

one, after a CR is acquired, the organism is conditioned to a new CR that is contrary to the nature of the original CR.

• Teaching relaxation techniques to have a person relax instead of fear things like spiders and snakes

• example

Early Operant Conditioning

• Edward L. Thorndike (1898)

• Puzzle boxes and cats

• Instrumental Learning– An organism’s behavior is instrumental in

producing an environmental change that in turn affects the organism’s behavior

– Law of Effect• Behaviors are encouraged when they are

followed by rewarding consequences and discouraged when followed by punishing consequences

B.F. Skinner’s Operant Conditioning

• Burrhus Friederich Skinner

• Did not like the term “satisfying”

• Invented a better appartus--the Skinner box

Operant Conditioning Terms• Shaping

– Technique whereby successive approximations of a geometric figure are reinforced

– When trying to train people or animals to be able to perform difficult tasks you reward them along the way

• Chaining – Reinforcing them only after they have done a number of

tasks

• Consequences– positive and negative reinforcement

– Punishment– Omission

These can occur in Operant Conditioning

• Extinction

• Spontaneous Recovery

• Discrimination

• Generalization

• Acquisition

• Association

Types of Reinforcers

• Primary– Basic needs being met

• Food, water, waste reduction, sleep etc.

• Stimulus needs as well such as curiosity, manipulation and exploration

• Secondary– Reinforcers that are associated with or used to acquire

primary reinforcers• Money, tokens, power

• They have to be learned

Aversive Conditioning• Punishment

– Usually causes hatred of the enforcer– Effective punishment is often intense and immediate– Usually only creates a temporary suppression of the undesired behavior– Can reinforce the use of aggressive behavior to attain goals

• Negative Reinforcement– Responding the correct way to avoid an unwanted reinforcer– Two types

• Escape (During)– Behavior to stop an aversive event– Taking an aspirin to stop a headache

• Avoidance (Before)– Behavior occurs when a signal warns the individual that an aversive event is likely– Taking aspirin prior to a stressful day

• Learned Helplessness– Decrease in responding that occurs after exposure to uncontrollable aversive

events. You can’t escape or avoid– Martin Seligman believes the Learned Helplessness helps explain depression

and some poor job performance

Reinforcement Schedules

• Continuous: 1 to 1 ratio, a prize every time

• Intermittent/Partial- only some correct responses are rewarded– Ratio- number of responses must occur before

being reinforced• fixed: 1 to ?, a prize every ? time

• variable: ? to ?, maybe a prize, maybe not!

– Interval- amount of time must occur before being reinforced

• fixed: announced examination

• variable: pop quiz

Classical vs. Operant Conditioning

CLASSICAL• Stimulus precedes the

response and elicits it

• Elicited responses

• Learning as a result of association

• Pavlov and Watson and Mary Cover Jones

OPERANT• Stimulus follows the

response and strengthens it

• Emitted responses

• Learning as a result of consequences

• Skinner and Thorndike

The Basic Concepts of Learning Theory

• Classical conditioning– elicits response as a result of associating

• unconditioned stimulus

• neutral stimulus

• Operant conditioning– emitted response

– learning is a result of consequences• reinforcers

• punishment

Observational Learning Albert Bandura’s cognitive theory

Social Learning Theory• People can learn by observing the behavior of others

and the outcomes of those behaviors. • Learning can occur without a change in behavior,

because people can learn through observation alone.

• Cognition plays a role in learning. Over the last 30 years social learning theory has become increasingly cognitive in its interpretation of human learning.

• Awareness and expectations of future reinforcements or punishments can have a major effect on the behaviors that people exhibit.

• Social learning theory can be considered a bridge or a transition between behaviorist learning theories and cognitive learning theories.

Modeling and SLT• The observer is reinforced by the model.

– a student who changes dress to fit in with a certain group of students has a strong likelihood of being accepted and thus reinforced by that group.

• The observer is reinforced by a third person. – The observer might be modeling the actions of someone

else, for example, an outstanding class leader or student. The teacher notices this and compliments and praises the observer for modeling such behavior thus reinforcing that behavior.

• Many behaviors that we learn from others produce satisfying or reinforcing results. – a student in my multimedia class could observe how the

extra work a classmate does is fun. This student in turn would do the same extra work and also receive enjoyment.

• Consequences of the model’s behavior affect the observers behavior vicariously. This is known as vicarious reinforcement.

• Bandura illustrated this by having students watch a film of a model hitting a inflated clown doll.

• One group of children saw the model being praised for such action. Without being reinforced, the group of children began to also hit the doll .