Learning: The Role of ExperienceUnit 7, Chapters: P&S:5; M:8; B:6

Case Studies:

Carol: Thanks to six sessions of psychotherapy, Carol’s life is normal again. She is now free from the intense fear of something most of us take for granted: riding in a car. Carol was severely injured in a car crash and hospitalized for months. A year later, she began visiting a therapist to help with the fear that began when her husband came to take her home from the hospital. To help Carol, the therapist used a highly successful procedure based, in part, on century-old principles of learning discovered in laboratory investigations involving salivating dogs.

Wrestling: A judge in New York City prohibited two teenage brothers from watching

professional wrestling on television because they were becoming too violent. The boys

vigorously practiced body slams and choke holds, repeatedly injuring one another. Their frightened mother reported that her 13 year

old son tried to apply a “sleeper hold” on her as she was cooking in the kitchen. The

judge told the mother that either she had to prohibit the boys from watching wrestling, or he would have the family’s TV set removed,

and might place the boys in foster homes.

Vegas: Outside a Las Vegas casino, a woman volunteers her time soliciting donations for a local charity. Though hot and tired, she remains upbeat and thanks each person who drops money in her collection can. Inside, exhausted and down to his last dollar, a man has been playing the slot machines for 36 hours.

Learning:I’m not talking about Studying

• Each of the behaviors we just read about share one thing: they were all learned.

• Genetics create the potential for behaviors to occur (Carol could be an anxious person, or maybe our gambler has a family history of addictive personalities), but genetics alone cannot induce the specific behavior.– Ancient man had no reason to fear cars… though

fearing things that hurt him makes sense. • Learning is the process by which experience

produces a relatively enduring change in an organism’s behavior or capabilities.

“Knowing How” vs. “Doing”

• Behavior theorists concentrate more on the behaviors we perform than those we know.

• Ex: The boys knew how to perform a choke hold, so did mom, they had all seen it on T.V. However, only the boys performed the hold.

Three Types of Learning

• Classical Conditioning- two stimuli become associated with one another such that one stimulus triggers the response that was previously triggered by the other stimulus

• Operant Conditioning-organisms associate their responses with specific consequences

• Observational Learning-observers imitate the behavior of a model

Classical Conditioning

• The reason your mouth waters when you smell freshly baked cookies…

• Why you feel good when you go to a particular spot where something good has happened in the past…

• You have come to associate two stimuli (Grandma and Ollady Perfume) such that one stimulus (the perfume) comes to elicit a response (feeling happy) that originally was elicited by the other stimulus (seeing Grandma).

Ivan Pavlov and His Wonderful Salivating Dogs!

• 1860’s: Pavlov studies digestion, presenting food to dogs and measuring their salivation.

• With repeated testing, he noticed that the dogs began to salivate before they were given food (when they heard footsteps approaching)

• Remember- it is the underlying principle, not the specific findings, that are important here.

Classical Conditioning: Basic Principles

• Acquisition: the period during which a response is being learned.

Before Conditioning

Classical Conditioning: Basic Principles

• Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): a stimulus that elicits a reflexive or innate response without prior learning

• Unconditioned Response (UCR): a reflexive or innate response that is elicited by a stimulus without prior learning

Classical Conditioning:Basic Principles

• Next: the bell and the food are paired, and the dog salivates (called a learning trial)

During Conditioning

Classical Conditioning:Basic Principles

• After several learning trials, the dog will salivate when the noise of the bell is presented alone.

• The Bell is now a Conditioned Stimulus• Salivation is now considered a Conditioned Response

After Conditioning

Classical Conditioning:Basic Principles

• Typically, a CS must be paired multiple times with an unconditioned stimulus to establish a strong conditioned response.

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Classical Conditioning:Basic Principles

• If the UCS is especially aversive, single-trial learning can occur (such as Carol’s car accident).

Before ConditioningCar No fear, No anxiety

During Conditioning

Car (cs)+ Fear, Anxiety (UCR)

Traumatic Accident (ucs)

After ConditioningCar (cs) Fear, Anxiety (cr)

Higher-Order Conditioning

• Taking Pavlov a step further, if we take the Bell tone, and pair it with another neutral stimulus (ex: a black square of paper), the dog will eventually salivate upon being show the black paper only, even though it was never directly tied to the presentation of food.– The conditioned response is weaker with a

higher-order CS, and will extinguish sooner

Classical Conditioning:Extinction

• The benefit of knowing how to give someone a phobia is that you also know how to take it away

• Extinction: the process in which the CS is presented repeatedly in the absence of the UCS, causing the CR to weaken and eventually disappear– Each occurrence of the cs with a ucs is called

an extinction trial

Classical Conditioning:Spontaneous Recovery

• Occasional re-pairings of the CS and the UCS (ex: the bell’s tone and the food) are required to maintain a CR. However…

• Spontaneous Recovery: the reappearance of a previously extinguished CR after a rest period, without new learning trials

Generalization and Discrimination

• Once a CR is acquired, the organism responds to stimuli that are similar, but not identical to, the original CS– Carol is afraid of cars that had nothing to do

with her accident

• Discrimination occurs when a CR occurs to one stimulus, but not to other similar stimuli– Carol is afraid of cars, but not plains, bicycles,

or trains

Using all of this research

• John B. Watson took the research a step farther, applying it to creating a phobia in a young child.

• Little Albert: 11 month old Albert was conditioned to be fearful of a white rat.– Originally, Albert was not afraid of rats, but was afraid

of loud noises – Watson and Rayner paired the two stimuli, and after

several pairings the sight of the white rat alone would cause Albert to cry.

– Albert was exposed to other similar stimuli several days later (a rabbit, a bearded Santa Claus mask), and displayed fear

Therapy

• Exposure Therapy: a patient is exposed to a stimulus (CS) that arouses an anxiety response (fear) without the presence of the UCS– Systematic

desensitization: patient learns relaxation techniques first, and is gradually exposed to the stimulus

– Flooding: exposes the person to the phobic stimulus

Mary Jones and Peter’s fear of Rabbits

1. Rabbit anywhere in room triggers fear2. Rabbit 12 feet away tolerated3. Rabbit 3 feet away tolerated4. Rabbit close in cage tolerated5. Rabbit free in room tolerated6. Rabbit touched when free in room7. Rabbit allowed on tray of high chair8. Holds rabbit in lap9. Fondles rabbit affectionately10. Lets rabbit nibble his fingers

Aversion Therapy

• Used to create an aversion (repulsion) to a stimulus that triggers an unwanted behavior by pairing it with a noxious UCS.– Ex: treating pedophiles: therapist shows

patient a picture of a child, while he administers an electrical shock

• Produce mixed results: usually short-term changes that extinguish over time

Biology and Conditioning

• The body can be taught responses. • Allergic Reactions: asthma and a

plastic goldfish• Immune System: rats given sweet

water paired with an immunosuppressant will eventually experience a suppressed immune system upon being given sweet water alone.