Learning Chapter 6

LearningChapter 6

AP PsychologyAlice F. Short

Hilliard Davidson High School

Chapter Preview

• Classical Conditioning• Operant Conditioning• Observational Learning• Factors That Affect Learning• Learning and Health and Wellness

Types of Learning

• learning - a systematic, relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs through experience

• behaviorism – a theory of learning that focuses solely on observable behaviors, discounting the importance of such mental activity as thinking, wishing, and hoping

• associative learning / conditioning – learning that occurs when we make a connection, or an association, between two events

• observational learning – learning that occurs when a person observes and imitates another’s behavior

Types of Associative Learning• classical conditioning – learning process in which a neutral stimulus becomes

associated with a meaningful stimulus and acquires the capacity to elicit a similar response

• operant conditioning – (a.k.a. instrumental conditioning) a form of associative learning in which the consequences of behavior change the probability of the behavior’s occurrence– operant references behavior of the ORGANISM

Classical Conditioning: Terminology

• helps to explain involuntary behavior• unconditioned stimulus (UCS)• unconditioned response (UCR) • neutral stimulus (NS)• conditioned stimulus (CS)• conditioned response (CR)

Classical Conditioning: Pavlov

Classical Conditioning: Terminology• unconditioned stimulus (UCS) – a stimulus that produces a response

without prior learning• unconditioned response (UCR) – an unlearned reaction that is

automatically elicited by the unconditioned stimulus• neutral stimulus (NS) – a stimulus that does not elicit an unconditioned

response• conditioned stimulus (CS) – a previously neutral stimulus that

eventually elicits a conditioned response after being paired with the unconditioned stimulus

• conditioned response (CR) – the learned response to the conditioned stimulus that occurs after conditioned stimulus-unconditioned stimulus pairing

• reflex – an automatic stimulus-response (S-R) connection

Activity Handout 6.1Identify the UCS, CS, UCR and CR

Read through the examples below and then identify the UCS, CS, UCR, and CR

in each of the examples.

• Pamela is walking her child at the mall and a lady walks by and stops to see the baby. The lady has a shiny, noisy bangle of bracelets that are the same as the ones Pamela wears. When the lady reaches down to pat the baby on the head, the bangles make noise and the baby starts making suckling noises.

• UCS food (milk)• CS the noise from the bracelets• UCR suckling noises• CR suckling noises

Activity Handout 6.1Identify the UCS, CS, UCR and CR

Read through the examples below and then identify the UCS, CS, UCR, and CR

in each of the examples.

• Scott’s dog waits every afternoon in the front room for Scott to come home. He knows when he hears the garage door open, Scott will come in and take him out for a walk. One evening Scott leaves to go get something at the grocery store. As he is leaving, he hits the garage door opener and the dog starts running around like crazy.

• UCS going on a walk• CS garage door• UCR dog’s excitement• CR dog’s excitement

Activity Handout 6.1Identify the UCS, CS, UCR and CR

Read through the examples below and then identify the UCS, CS, UCR, and CR

in each of the examples.

• Elmer really likes to cook with onions and he puts onions into almost everything he makes. He usually starts dinner every day around 5:00 p.m. As he is cutting the onions, the grandfather clock chimes five times because it is 5:00 p.m. Elmer is also crying because cutting the onions makes his eyes water. One evening he is at a friend’s house because they are going out to dinner later. He and his friend are watching TV and the clock chimes five times when it is 5:00 p.m. Elmer’s eyes start to water.

• UCS onions• CS clock chiming five times• UCR crying• CR crying

Classical Conditioning: Procedure

• acquisition– UCS produces a UCR (reflex)– neutral stimulus (NS) paired with a UCS– after pairings, NS produces a CR– the NS has become a CS

• contiguity – time between CS and UCS• contingency – is CS regularly followed by the

UCS?

Classical Conditioning: Pavlov

• Unlearned/Reflexive– UCS – meat powder– UCR – dog salivates

• NS – sound of Pavlov’s bell (prior to pairings with meat powder)

• Learned– CS – sound of Pavlov’s bell– CR – dog salivates

Classical Conditioning: Pavlov

Classical Conditioning

• Generalization– CRs may appear after various NS that are similar to

the CS• Discrimination– CRs appear after the CS but not after other CSs– discrimination generally learned by presenting

other CSs without the UCS

Classical Conditioning• Extinction

– CR is weakened by presenting the CS without the UCS– Pavlov rang the bell but did not present food, and the dog

stopped salivating

• Spontaneous Recovery– CR recurs after a time delay and without additional learning– when Pavlov rang the bell the next day, the dog salivated

• Renewal– recovery of the CR when organism is placed in novel context

Classical Conditioning

• classical conditioning -

Classical Conditioning: Applications• Phobias

– Watson and Rayner (1920) – Little Albert– white rat (CS) paired with loud noise (UCS)– fear of rat (CR), fear of loud noise (UCR)– fear of other animals (generalization)

• Counterconditioning– associate CS with new, incompatible CR– CS paired with new UCS– aversive conditioning – a form of treatment that consists of

repeated pairings of a stimulus with a very unpleasant stimulus• antabuse – a drug treatment for alcoholism since 1940s

Classical Conditioning: Applications• placebo effect – the effect of a substance or procedure (such as taking a

pill) that is used as a control to identify the actual effects of a treatment (example: drop in pain)

• immune (disease) and endocrine (hormones) responses– immunosuppression – a decrease in the production of antibodies, which can

lower a person’s ability to fight disease– sympathetic nervous system (part of autonomic nervous system that responds

to stress)• taste aversion

– between taste and nausea– unique (only 1 pairing required)

• advertising – associative learning• drug habituation – decreased responsiveness to a stimulus after repeated

presentation– preparing – body “braces” self

A SHORT Time to Ponder

• How might parents and schools accidently condition undesirable behaviors? Relate this to immunosuppression.

• Could you condition yourself to eat healthy? How?

• What routines do you have that might be triggering unconscious conditioned responses? Think habituation and preparing.

A SHORT Activity

• With a partner or group of three, create a table or diagram in your spiral to explain the placebo effect using classical conditioning terminology.

• With the same partner or group of three, create a table or diagram in your spiral to explain the advertising of a specific product using classical conditioning terminology.

Operant Conditioning

• operant conditioning – (a.k.a. a form of associative learning in which the consequences of a behavior change the probability of the behavior’s occurrence– operant references behavior of the organism– better explains voluntary behaviors– the consequences of a behavior change the

probability of that behavior’s occurrence

Operant Conditioning• Thorndike’s Law of Effect

– consequence strengthens or weakens a S – R connection– behaviors (reactions) followed by positive outcomes are strengthened– behaviors (reactions) followed by negative outcomes are weakened– not technically operant conditioning– “trial and accidental success”

• B.F. Skinner– expanded on Thorndike’s work– named operant conditioning– maintained that his research with pigeons demonstrated the usefulness

of operant conditioning techniques for behavior control– shaping (reward approximations of the desired behavior)– “You have permission to be as smart as a seeing eye dog.”

- Mr. Hickey

Activity Handout 6.2How Do You Shape This Behavior?

Look over the list of behaviors below and choose three of the behaviors.

Explain how you would go about (what steps you would use) shaping each of the behaviors you chose.

• Riding a bicycle• Jumping rope• Brushing your teeth• Making cookies• Potty training• Getting someone to complete their homework • Each example should include:

– the concept of beginning the training by rewarding any approximation of the behavior

– then gradually only rewarding the actual behavior.

B.F. Skinner• “I did not direct my life. I didn't

design it. I never made decisions. Things always came up and made them for me. That's what life is.”

• “Give me a child and I'll shape him into anything.”

• “The consequences of an act affect the probability of its occurring again.”

• “The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.”

• “Society attacks early, when the individual is helpless.”

Skinner Box

Skinner Box (1930s)• Developed by B. F. Skinner, a Skinner box is a chamber that contains

a bar or key that an animal can press or manipulate in order to obtain food or water as a type of reinforcement. – recorded each response provided by the animal– recorded unique schedule of reinforcement that the animal was assigned

• design of Skinner boxes– varied depending upon the type of animal and the experimental variables.– chamber that includes at least one lever, bar, or key that the animal can

manipulate• lever is pressed, food, water, or some other type of reinforcement might be

dispensed – Other stimuli can also be presented including lights, sounds, and images.

In some instances, the floor of the chamber may be electrified.• purpose of a Skinner box -could carefully study behavior in a very

controlled environment. • Example determine which schedule of reinforcement led to the highest rate of

response in the study subjects

B.F. Skinner4 Ways to Shape Behavior

1. positive reinforcement2. negative reinforcement3. positive punishment4. negative punishment

Comparing Operant Procedures

Operant Conditioning: Reinforcement

• reinforcement – the process by which a rewarding stimulus or event (a reinforcer) following a particular behavior increases the probability that the behavior will happen again

• Reinforcement increases behavior.– positive reinforcement increases behavior– negative reinforcement increases behavior

• Positive Reinforcement– behavior followed by rewarding consequence– rewarding stimulus is “added”– example: telling joke – listener laughing

• Negative Reinforcement– behavior followed by rewarding consequence– aversive (unpleasant) stimulus is “removed”– example: putting on gloves cold gone

Operant Conditioning: Reinforcement• positive reinforcement increases behavior• negative reinforcement increases behavior

Principles of Reinforcement: Avoidance Reinforcement

Avoidance Reinforcement (a.k.a. avoidance learning) – an organism's learning that it can altogether avoid a negative stimulus by making a particular response…by making a particular response, a negative stimulus can be avoidedExample: previously failed test studying a lot in the future avoid future failing grades

NOTE: changing behavior permanently

Principles of Reinforcement:Learned Helplessness

Learned Helplessness - an organism’s learning through experience with unavoidable negative stimuli that it has no control over negative outcomes…an organism learns it has no control over negative outcomesExample: student fails in school whether studies or not student gives up on studying if student studied now would be successful (different class, gained additional skills, etc.) but continues to give up on trying

2 Types of Reinforcers• Primary Reinforcers

– innately satisfying– pleasurable w/o learning– examples: food, water, sexual satisfaction

• Secondary Reinforcers– learned / conditioned reinforcer– become satisfying through experience (learning)– repeated association with a pre-existing reinforcer– token economy – behaviors are rewarded with tokens (such as

poker chips or stars on a chart) that can be exchanged later for desired rewards (such as candy or money)

– examples: grades, paychecks

Schedules of Reinforcement• Generalization (in operant conditioning)

– performing a reinforced behavior in a different situation– stimulus “sets the occasion” for the response– responding occurs to similar stimuli

• Discrimination (in operant conditioning)– responding appropriately to stimuli that signal that a behavior

will or will not be reinforced– stimuli signal when behavior will or will not be reinforced

• Extinction (in operant conditioning)– behavior decreases when reinforcement stops

• Spontaneous Recovery

Schedules of Reinforcement

• schedule of reinforcement – specific patterns that determine when a behavior will be reinforced

• Continuous Reinforcement• Partial Reinforcement (vocabulary)– fixed set– variable not set / unpredictable– ratio #– interval time

4 Schedules of Partial Reinforcement• Fixed Ratio (FR)

– reinforcement follows a set # of behaviors– not used in casinos (problem / beat system)

• Variable Ratio (VR)– reinforcement follows an unpredictable # of behaviors (e.g., an average)– used in casinos: consistent, but not predictable– resistant to extinction

• Fixed Interval (FI)– reinforcement follows behavior that occurs after a set amount of time has

elapsed– behavior increases before anticipated event– example: elections

• Variable Interval (VI)– reinforcement follows behavior that occurs after an unpredictable amount of

time has elapsed– example: pop quizzes

Schedules of Reinforcement

Punishment

• punishment decreases behavior.

• Positive Punishment– behavior followed by aversive consequence– aversive (unpleasant) stimulus is “added”

• Negative Punishment– behavior followed by aversive consequence– rewarding stimulus is “removed”– example: timeout; jail (freedom removed)

Punishment

• punishment – a consequence that decreases the likelihood that a behavior will occur

Comparing Operant Procedures

Activity Handout 6.3Which Schedule Is It?

For each of the scenarios below, determine which schedule is being used such as positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, and

negative punishment. Explain why you chose your answer.

• Libby gets twenty dollars for every A she brings home on her report card.• Schedule: positive reinforcement

• For every A that Tim gets on his report card he doesn’t have to do his chores for two days.• Schedule: negative reinforcement

• Every time the dog rolls over he gets a doggy treat.• Schedule: positive reinforcement

• Jim comes home way after curfew and his parents take his car keys away for a week.• Schedule: negative punishment

• Sally talks back to her mom and she gets grounded for three weeks.• Schedule: negative punishment

Controversy Over Punishmentp. 192

• corporal punishment– used by 70-90% of parents in the U.S.– correlational research studies

• problems associated with punishment• why should parents avoid spanking?• is physical punishment necessary?

Operant Conditioning: Timing of Consequences

• Timing of Consequences– immediate versus delayed reinforcement– immediate versus delayed punishment– immediate versus delayed reinforcement and

punishment• obesity; smoking; drinking

Operant Conditioning:Applied Behavior Analysis

• Applied Behavior Analysis– behavior modification• work and school performance• training autistic children• to instruct individuals on effective parenting• to enhance environmentally conscious behaviors

(recycling, not littering)• to promote workplace safety• to improve self control

Activity Handout 6.4How Do You Change the Behavior?

Read over the negative behaviors listed below. Choose three of the behaviors and explain

how you would go about changing that behavior into a more positive behavior. Use the steps of behavior modification that were discussed in the chapter.

• Talking back to your parents• Getting bad grades in school• Taking toys on the playground that do not belong to you• Kicking and hitting your sister• Writing on the table with crayons while coloring• Splashing water all over the bathroom floor while taking a bath• Using your mother’s lipstick to draw pictures on the walls

Answers should include the following steps:• 1. define the problem• 2. commit to change• 3. collect information about yourself• 4. design a self-control program including self-talk, self-instruction, or self-reinforcement• 5. maintenance: establish follow-up checks and plans for when progress is not maintained

Observational Learning

• learning that occurs when a person observes and imitates behavior (modeling)

• Albert Bandura – Social Cognitive Theory• four processes– attention– retention– motor reproduction– reinforcement

• vicarious reinforcement• vicarious punishment

Observational Learning:Bandura’s Model of Observational Learning

• observational learning – learning that occurs when a person observes and imitates another’s behavior

Albert Bandura… and Bobo Clowns,which are creepy…

• Bobo doll experiment (1961, 63) - experiments conducted by Albert Bandura studying children's behavior after watching an adult model act aggressively towards a Bobo doll– There are different variations – measured the children's behavior after seeing the model

get rewarded, punished or experience no consequence for beating up the bobo doll

– empirical demonstration of Bandura's social learning theory It shows that people not only learn by being rewarded or punished itself (behaviorism), they can learn from watching somebody being rewarded or punished, too (observational learning)

– important because they sparked many more studies on the effects of observational learning • practical implication, e.g. how children can be influenced

watching violent media

Cognitive Factors in Learning:E.C. Tolhman (1932)

• purposiveness – the idea that much of behavior is goal-directed– studying

• behavior does not illustrate purpose (college, etc.)

• Purposive Behavior in Humans– goal directed– goal setting– self-regulation and self-monitoring

Cognitive Factors in Learning

• expectancy learning– information value– expectancies – acquired from people’s experience with their

environment• latent learning / implicit learning – unreinforced

learning that is immediately reflected in behavior– latent = stored cognitively– evident when you walk around a new setting to get a “lay of

the land”– DISCUSSION: How can latent learning and learning the “lay

of the chapter” influence success in AP Psychology?

Cognitive Factors in Learning:Insight Learning

• insight learning – a form of problem solving in which the organism develops a sudden insight into or understanding of a problem– requires thinking “outside the box”… or “outside

the bun” • setting aside previous expectations and assumptions

– Wolfgang Kohler• the stick problem• the box problem

Cognitive Factors in Learning: Wolfgang Kohler and Insight Learning

• Wolfgang Kohler• the box problem and the stick problem

A SHORT Time to Ponder:Cognitive Factors in Learning

• Do cognitions matter?• Does learning involve more than environment-

behavior connections?

Other Factors in Learning

• Biological Constraints– instinctive drift – the tendency of animals to revert

to instinctive behavior that interferes with learning• inability to learn or reverting to animal tendencies after

learning (biology sometimes wins)– preparedness – the species-specific biological

predisposition to learn in certain ways but not in others• taste aversion in humans• fear of snakes in most animals (b/c they are creepy)

Noam Chomsky

• believed we are prewired to learn language

Other Factors in Learning

• Cultural Influences– classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and

observational learning = universal– culture • influences degree

– example: Mexican American students prefer observational learning; Euro-American students direct instruction

• influences content (geography, religion, etc.)

Other Factors in Learning: Psychological Constraints

• Psychological Constraints– mindset: fixed v. growth– mindset – the way our beliefs about ability dictate what goals we set

for ourselves, what we think we can learn, and ultimately what we do learn• fixed mindset – believe that their qualities are carved in stone and cannot

change– failure = lack of ability (belief that if failing, will continue to fail)– … still failing

• growth mindset (incremental theory) - believe their qualities can change and improve through their effort– failure = what you need to learn– … showing growth

• developing a growth mindset– Understand that you intelligence and thinking skills are not fixed but can change.– Become passionate about learning and stretch your mind in challenging situations.– Think about the growth mindsets of people you admire.– Begin now.

Learning and Health and Wellness

• Factors influencing degree of stress– predictability of stressor– control over stressor– improvement of (reduction in) stressor– outlets for frustration

Activity Handout 6.5Have you Learned to be Stressed?

Research has provided some insightful aspects in regards to how we deal with

stress. Under each component of the stress response, identify one or two examples from your own life illustrating the functionality of that component. • Predictability:

• Any answer that reflects on how events that are perceived as predictable are considered less stressful in general than unpredictable situations.

• Control:

• Any answer that includes the idea of how having personal control over situations that happen in our lives is deemed less stressful than having the feeling of a lack of control over aversive stimuli.

• Improvement:

• Any answer that shows how a perception of improvement over one’s circumstance, even in a situation that is objectively worse than another, is related to lowered stress.

• Outlets for Frustration:

• Any answer that includes examples of ways to deal with stressful situations (productive or maladaptive).

• From a learning perspective, how does stress operate in your life? What can you do to decrease the amount of stress you are under?

• Answers may vary.

Chapter Summary

• Explain what learning is.• Describe classical conditioning.• Discuss operant conditioning.• Understand observational learning.• Discuss the role of cognition in learning.• Identify biological, cultural, and psychological

factors in learning.• Describe how principles of learning apply to health

and wellness.

Chapter Summary

• Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs through experience.

• Classical Conditioning– association between two stimuli– terminology: CS, CR, UCS, UCR– generalization and discrimination– extinction and spontaneous recovery– phobias and counterconditioning

Chapter Summary

• Operant Conditioning– stimulus - response - consequence– positive and negative reinforcement– positive and negative punishment– schedules of reinforcement

• Observational Learning– attention, retention, motor reproduction, and

reinforcement

Chapter Summary

• Cognitive Factors in Learning– purposive behavior– insight learning

• Other Factors in Learning– biological, cultural, psychological constraints

• Learning and Health and Wellness– variables aggravating stress