Theories of Learning

THEORIES OF LEARNINGYear 12 Psychology Unit 4Area of Study 1 (chapter 10, page 452)

THEORIES OF LEARNING Conditioning:

Form of learning that emphasises relationship between environmental stimuli and behavioural responses;

Stimuli are events that ‘trigger’ the responses; ‘Conditioning’ is used interchangeably with

‘learning’ but conditioning is more how we learn; Classical (respondent); Operant (instrumental).

Other forms of learning (still to come…): Observational Learning. Learning Set.

THE BIG QUESTIONS… How does your dog know it’s time for a walk? Why do certain songs have meaning to different

people? Why do people have phobias? Why can’t I ever, ever, ever eat that again?

Why do we buy ‘brand name’ products?

ALL of these things are learned through classical conditioning!

Advertisers are conditioning you to buy their product!

FINISH THESE SENTENCES… A Mars a day… Snickers: really… (or, Snickers: Get some…) Once you pop, you… The burgers are better at… Skittles: taste the… Perfect Italiano: So simple, it’s… Have a break, have a… M&M’s: melt in your mouth…

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING Simple form of learning.

Occurs through the repeated association of two (or more) different stimuli.

Learning is said to have occurred when a particular stimulus consistently produces a response that it did not previously elicit.

Learn to associate two events/stimuli and, eventually, one stands for the other in our minds.

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING Made famous by Ivan Pavlov and

his experiment: Pavlov’s Dogs.

Interested in the secrets of the digestive system: When a dog encounters food, saliva starts to pour

from the salivary glands (which then makes the food easier to swallow).

Pavlov noticed that even when no food was in sight, their saliva still dribbled: The dogs were reacting to lab coats. Every time the

dogs were served food, the person who served the food was wearing a lab coat.

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:PAVLOV’S DOGS When dogs were fed, a bell sound was heard.

They learned to associate the bell sound with food.

Because food led to the production of saliva, the bell now also led to saliva.

Eventually, the bell alone was enough to cause saliva, because in their minds it was so closely linked with food.

http://nobelprize.org/educational_games/medicine/pavlov/pavlov.html

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:PAVLOV’S DOGS UCS (Unconditioned Stimulus): trigger that already creates a

response (usually automatically/naturally). E.g. food (automatically produces saliva response).

UCR (Unconditioned Response): naturally occurring, automatic response to the UCS. E.g. saliva (automatic response to food).

CS (Conditioned Stimulus): the trigger that we are trying to condition/train a response to. E.g. bell (doesn’t naturally produce a response, we have to teach one). NOTE: this starts off as the ‘neutral stimulus’ because it has no response, but

once the conditioning is successful, it is called the ‘conditioned stimulus’.

CR (Conditioned Response): what used to be the UCR, but now we have conditioned/trained it to happen in response to the CS. E.g. saliva (taught them to produce saliva in response to bell, not food).

UCS – Good looking people, fun, sexy, cool, happiness

UCR – Feeling good / desire to be like this

NS – Coke CS – Coke CR – Feeling Good about coke / desire to buy coke

We learn to associate Coke with positive images. Coke becomes meaningful and we are more likely to purchase it over other drinks.

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:PAVLOV’S DOGS

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:KEY PROCESSES Acquisition: Overall process of pairing CS and

UCS. E.g. Pavlov’s process of pairing food with bell.

Extinction: Gradual decrease in strength/rate of CR when CS is presented alone. E.g. Over time, the bell alone produced less saliva.

Spontaneous Recovery: Reappearance of CR when CS is presented alone, after a CS-free rest period. E.g. After 24 hours without ringing the bell (rest period),

the bell is rung and saliva is produced.

Page 461

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:KEY PROCESSES Stimulus Generalisation: any stimulus that is

similar to the CS will produce the CR. E.g. Pavlov noticed that after conditioning had been

successfully completed, the dogs would salivate whenever they heard something similar to the bell sound.

Stimulus Discrimination: only the specific CS is able to trigger the CR (opposite to generalisation). E.g. If Pavlov’s dogs had only salivated when they

heard the original bell (not any other bell sound) that would be an example of stimulus discrimination.

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:APPLICATIONS Once classical conditioning has been successful, the

conditioned behaviour (e.g. fear or salivating) can occur so automatically that it appears to be an involuntary reflex (see other examples on page 465).

Because of this, conditioned behaviour is often called a conditioned reflex (automatic response that occurs as the result of previous experience).

The important thing to remember is that even though it is a reflex, it isn’t a naturally occurring one – it has been learned.

Activity: 10.7

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:REAL-WORLD EXAMPLES UCS – Walking UCR – Excitement

NS – Lead CS – Lead CR – Excitement

The dog has learned to associate the dog lead with being taken for a walk

UCS – Good times with friends

UCR – Positive mood

NS – Song CS – Song CR – Positive mood

We learn to associate the song with the good times we had

UCS – Good looking people, fun, sexy, cool, happiness

UCR – Feeling good / desire to be like this

NS – Coke CS – Coke CR – Feeling Good about coke / desire to buy coke

We learn to associate Coke with positive images. Coke becomes meaningful and we are more likely to purchase it over other drinks.

UCS –Images of attractive, fit, cool, famous, successful, tough people

UCR – Desire to achieve status of modes

NS – Nike CS – Nike CR – Desire to achieve status of models / purchase Nike

We learn to associate Nike with being fit, cool, fun, high status and successful. Thus we are more likely to purchase Nike over Big W brand because we do not associate Big W with any of these ideas.

UCS – rebellion, alternative, cool, counter culture UCR – feeling unique and hip

NS – FCUK CS – FCUK CR – FCUK making us feel unique and hip

We learn to associate FCUK with the image of rebellious cool, so we are thus more likely to purchase FCUK over Target clothing.

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:WHY WE BUY BRAND NAMES Because we are conditioned to see tangible

value that is not there!

Physically the products are often made from the same materials, sometimes even in the same factory (footwear and clothing especially)

The value we perceive is emotional!

Advertising adds emotional value to a product.

ADVERTISING ISCLASSICAL CONDITIONING Coles-Myer executive quoted in response to an official

enquiry – “non-branded footwear often incorporates the same or similar methods of construction, technology and components/materials. Moreover it is often sourced from the same factory as branded footwear. The commercial reality is that without a brand the consumer perceives no value that warrants a premium price.”

Advertising executive – “If you think about what Pavlov did, he actually took a neutral object and, by associating it with a meaningful object, made it a symbol of something else, he imbued it with imagery, he gave it added value, and isn’t that what we try and do in modern advertising”

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING HARD WIRES YOUR BRAIN – FMRI RESEARCH When subjects drank un-branded cola only the

taste sensing parts of the brain become active. When subjects could see Coke labelling the

hippocampus (memory) and parts of the frontal lobe (emotions, etc.) also became active.

Recognition and positive reaction to Coke has been hard wired into the brain.

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:WE ARE WHAT WE BUY! Nearly half of the worlds 8 – 12 year olds say

that the clothes and brands they wear describe who they are!

Advertising to children aims to create hard wired ‘brand loyalty’.

If they get you young enough they can ensure that your brain becomes wired to prefer their product.

You then continue to purchase their product out of habit.

On average people in western countries are exposed to 9,000 advertising messages a day.

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:‘LITTLE ALBERT’ EXPERIMENT Famous experiment run by John B Watson. Albert placed on a mattress then a white laboratory rat

was placed near him and he was allowed to play with it. At this point, he showed no fear of the rat.

In later trials, whenever Albert touched the rat a loud sound was made by striking a suspended steel bar with a hammer. Not surprisingly, this noise made Albert cry and show fear.

After several pairings of the two stimuli (rat and noise), Albert was presented with only the rat. He became very distressed, cried, turned away from the rat and tried to move away.

Albert had associated the white rat with the scary loud noise –he had linked the rat with the feeling of fear.

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:‘LITTLE ALBERT’ EXPERIMENT UCS (Unconditioned Stimulus): Loud noise.

UCR (Unconditioned Response): Fear, crying.

Neutral Stimulus (before conditioning): White rat.Then….

CS (Conditioned Stimulus): White rat.

CR (Conditioned Response): Fear, crying.

Stimulus Generalisation: Albert also became fearful of rabbits, furry dogs, fur coats and Santa masks.

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:ETHICS Beneficence: The possible benefits of the research should

be maximised to outweigh the possible risks to the participant (which should be minimised). Little Albert: the experimenters did not balance the possible

advantages of the research against the obvious discomfort and risk of harm to Albert.

Respect for Persons: The researcher should properly regard the welfare, rights, beliefs, perceptions, customs and cultural heritage of all individuals involved in research. Little Albert: this needed to be strictly upheld because, as an

infant, he was unable to assert himself in any way at all.

Other Ethical Issues in Classical Conditioning: Participant’s rights, voluntary participation, informed consent, confidentiality.

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:PUTTING IT INTO PRACTICE Graduated Exposure (formerly Systematic

Desensitisation): Using classical conditioning to gradually expose patient to increasing levels of the CS until it no longer produces the CR. May start with low-level fear (e.g. standing on table)

then build up to high-level fear (e.g. sky-diving).

Imaginal Exposure: visualising the CS. In Vivo Exposure: real-life experience of CS.

Usually pair fearful stimulus (e.g. heights) with relaxation response (e.g. deep breathing, staying calm).

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:PUTTING IT INTO PRACTICE

Flooding: direct & continuous contact with the fear-producing stimulus until the CR is extinguished. Patient will panic at first. May take 2 or more hours. Theory: fear response will cease when they realise that

nothing bad has happened after direct exposure.

Aversion Therapy: Using classical conditioning to inhibit (block) or discourage undesirable behaviour. Pair the unwanted behaviour (e.g. smoking) with

something unpleasant/aversive (e.g. nausea). Eventually, they will associate smoking with feeling sick

and stop wanting to smoke.

Activity: 10.9