Social Psychology Chapter 5

Cognitive Map

- A mental representation of a place. Rats use this map to visualize the path through a maze for their reward.

Primary vs. Conditioned Reinforcer

- A primary reinforcer is a reinforcer that is naturally reinforcing for a specific species. If this reinforcer has never before been encountered, it will still have its same reinforcing effect the first time an organism experiences it. - A conditioned reinforcer is a reinforcer that acquires its reinforcing value by being associated with a primary reinforcer. EX (Primary): From the day it is born and for the rest of its life, a fox will feel rewarded for finding prey and thus repeat its successful tracking behaviors. EX (Conditioned): Elizabeth excitedly anticipates her weekly paycheck so that she can spend the money on rent, food, water, and electricity.

Bobo Doll Experiment

- Experiment undertaken by Bandura. It highlight the effects of observational learning. He had children watch adults engage in aggressive behavior. The children matched the behavior.

Observational Learning

- Learning in which responses are acquired after observing another's behavior and the consequences of their behavior. - We learn through modeling the behaviors of others. EX: A child watches their parents.

Latent Learning

- Learning that occurs but is not apparent until the learner has an incentive to demonstrate the learning. - Rats were allowed to wander around a maze, without reward, for some time. When the reward was planted, these same rats could navigate the maze much faster than rats who had never seen the maze before.

Positive vs. Negative Punishment

- Positive punishment is a response that is followed by the presentation of an aversive stimulus. (+) - Negative punishment is the removal of a reinforcing stimulus following a behavior. (-) EX (positive): When we fail to complete tiger running on time, coach adds extra sprints to our schedule. EX (negative): Sarah lost ten minutes of her recess after she threw her lunch at Jonny.

Operant Conditioning

- B. F. Skinner taught that operant conditioning describes learning as the process by which VOLUNTARY behaviors are shaped and maintained based on their consequences. - One such consequence is reinforcement. Reinforcement occurs when a stimulus/event follows an operant and increases the likelihood of the operant being repeated. - An operant is an observable behavior that an organism uses to "operate" in the environment. - Another consequence might be punishment. This causes the opposite effect of reinforcement: punishments decrease the likelihood that an operant will be repeated. EX: See examples of positive and negative reinforcement (these are the two types of reinforcement that comprise operant conditioning).

Law of Effect

- Edward L. Thorndike discovered that behaviors in animals which were followed by a satisfying effect were strengthened, while those that were followed by a displeasing effect were weakened. As time goes on, animals (like humans) learn which behaviors to repeat in order to elicit the same pleasing result. EX: In Thorndike's experiments, he placed hungry cats in "puzzle" boxes with food nearby. The cats engaged in a process of trial and error until they escaped and got the food. Upon reentering a box, the cat could more easily repeat their successful behaviors and escape.

Extinction and Spontaneous Recovery

- Extinction is the process by which a conditioned stimulus ceases to be associated with its conditioned response. This is done by disassociating the conditioned stimulus with the unconditioned stimulus. After some time, the conditioned stimulus once again becomes neutral and fails to elicit the conditioned response. - Spontaneous Recovery is the way in which a conditional response which might have seemed to disappear was not eliminated/erased, only buried, reappears. After a period of time in which a conditional stimulus which had been gradually disassociated with its conditional response is "buried", the conditioned stimulus can be reintroduced and trigger spontaneous recovery. EX (Extinction): Pavlov began to ring the bell without presented the dogs with the normal unconditioned stimulus (the food) and found that the dogs' conditioned response (salivation) faded and disappeared over time. EX (Spontaneous Recovery): Pavlov found that after the dogs disassociated the conditioned stimulus with the conditioned response of salivation, the reintroduction of the same conditioned stimulus could result in a total recall of the former association.

Insight

- Flashes of insight when dealing with a problem where we have been experiencing trial and error. - We suddenly "see" the answer. This is called cognitive learning, which is explained as changes in mental processes rather than behavior alone.

Little Albert Study

- John B. Watson founded behaviorism, a science which studies a much more objectively observable occurrence: behaviors. Watson went on to identify fear, rage and love as the natural unconditioned reflexes that could be brought on by certain stimuli. - The Little Albert Study was undertaken by Watson and his partner Rayner. Their purpose was to demonstrate that classical conditioning's principles can also be applied to humans. The two assessed an infant named Albert from a young age and found his unconditioned response to an unconditioned stimulus, a loud sound, to be as expected: fear. The two partners then went about trying to condition Albert to fear a white rat. Every time Albert reached for or saw the rat, they would clang a metal bar (the unconditioned stimulus) and elicit Albert's unconditioned response (fear). After pairing the sight of the rat with the clang of the bar seven times over the course of two testing sessions, Albert was terrified (his conditioned response) of the rat (the conditioned stimulus). Thus, Watson and Rayner conditioned Albert to fear the rat. Additionally, they observed that Albert feared any furry animal or object. This is an example of stimulus generalization.

Taste Aversion

- Learned taste aversions occur when a subject comes to avoid what was an unconditioned stimulus (a food) after experiencing an unpleasant unconditioned response (sickness, aches, etc.) following the UCS. -This phenomenon seems to contradict classical conditioning since aversions result even when the UCS and UCR occur hours and even a full day apart. Also, taste aversions show that the specific UCS does make a difference, unlike what Pavlov thought. It has been found that subjects who experience taste aversion only associate the discomfort (the UCR) with an internal stimulus (the food). This finding can also be seen in animals as explained by John Garcia and his colleagues. EX: A few hours after eating an apple, I got a headache. To this day, I avoid eating apples at all costs.

Stimulus Generalization vs. Stimulus Discrimination

- Stimulus generalization refers to how stimulus that are similar but not identical to a conditioned stimulus can elicit the same conditioned response. - Stimulus discrimination refers to the process by which different stimuli can be distinguished between and thus those similar to the actual conditioned stimulus do NOT elicit the same conditioned response. EX (S.G.): Pavlov used low pitched tones to achieve the same effect as he did with the bell. He could also use high pitched tones and observe the same conditioned response of salivation. EX (S.D.): Pavlov then trained the dogs to differentiate between low and high pitched tones by giving treats after high pitched tones. This lead the dogs to engage in stimulus discrimination. Through this, the dogs only salivated when they heard the high pitched tone.

Classical Conditioning

- This deals with previously existing behaviors that occur automatically in response to a stimulus. - As shown by Pavlov's studies of dogs behavior (salivating before being presented with a treat), classical conditioning teaches a new stimulus-response sequence. - Classical conditioning is essentially the learned association between two stimuli: the neutral and unlearned, natural stimuli (Pavlov is neutral, the food is unlearned, natural). When these two stimuli are repeatedly paired with each other, an association between the two forms. This is a learned association. The response is always REFLEXIVE. EX: In Pavlov's experiment, all the dogs salivated when given treats by Pavlov. As time went on, the dogs began to salivate when Pavlov walked into the room or even when the dogs heard his footsteps.

Biological Preparedness

- This idea states that organisms are innately predisposed to form associations between certain stimuli and responses. When a stimulus/response combo is not one that the organism is predisposed to, an association may not occur or may only occur with great difficulty. Internal pains are associated with something an organism consumed, while external discomfort is attributed to an outside stimulus. EX: In experiments done by Garcia, rats only associated the pain of indigestion with a solution they drank. This is partially because rats have evolved to have a strong sense of taste. They use this sense to identify which foods/drinks should be avoided, as they found in Garcia's experiment. (The rats did not make the same association between bright lights with the indigestion. This is partially because rats have evolved to have weak eyesight.)

Negative Reinforcement

- This is a response following an aversive stimulus that removes/subtracts (-) from the strength of an aversive stimulus. - By weakening the aversive stimulus (physical or psychological discomfort), the chances of us repeating that same operant increase. EX: When I have a headache (aversive stimulus), I take a couple Advils (operant). The pain fades after half an hour, leaving me calm and pain-free. The next time I get a headache, Advil is where I turn for relief.

Positive Reinforcement

- This is a stimulus following an operant that causes us to want to continue to repeat said operant. - The positive stimulus is strengthened because the positive (+) reinforcement is added. It is not necessarily a "good" stimulus. - Reinforcing stimuli vary for different people, species, age groups, etc. EX: Joe found that when he ran an extra lap in cross country, his coach praised him (+). So, Joe continued to run extra laps in the following practices.

UCR vs. CR

- UCR describes the unlearned/natural response to a stimulus. - CR describes a response to stimulus that is learned from a previously neutral stimulus that has become a CS because of a learned association with a natural stimulus. - UCR and CR appear to be the same response on the surface, but they are caused by two different types of stimuli (UCS and CS). EX (UCR): The dogs in Pavlov's experiment responded by salivating when food was given to them. EX (CR): Pavlov's bell resulted in the dogs salivating after the bell came to be a conditioned stimulus through repetition. Thus the salivation in this case is a conditioned response.

UCS vs. CS

- UCS describes an unconditioned/unlearned stimulus, i.e. a stimulus that automatically elicits a natural response. - CS describes a stimulus that begins as being neutral, i.e. a stimulus that is not originally associated with a desired behavioral response, yet comes to be over time when a new association is formed (the bell in Pavlov's experiment elicited salivation from the dogs after extended repetition of ringing followed by treats). EX (UCS): The food in Pavlov's experiment. This stimulus automatically makes the dogs salivate. EX (CS): The bell in Pavlov's experiment. This stimulus eventually came to elicit the same response, but only once the dogs learned to associate its tone with the promise of treats did they salivate.

Schedules of Reinforcement

An interval schedule has a subject rewarded after a certain time interval. A ratio schedule has a subject rewarded after a certain number of responses. Fixed Interval: Paycheck every week Fixed Ratio: Punch card: every ten = reward Variable Interval: Pop quiz, baby-sitting gig Variable Ratio: Slot machines

Continuous Reinforcement and Intermittent Reinforcement

Reward every time vs. reward only sometimes.