Psychology Chapter 7: Learning

B.F. Skinner

"Radical" behaviorist Behaviorists focus on how the environment shapes your behavior (How do you learn from the environment?) Trained pigeons using positive reinforcement Project Orcon never took off but it really laid the groundwork for understanding how we can use reinforcement and punishment (operant conditioning) to shape behavior

Instrinic Motivation

- A desire to perform a behavior effectively for its own stake - Excessive rewards can destroy this

Extrinsic Motivation

- A desire to perform a behavior to receive promised rewards or avoid threatened punishment - Extrinsic rewards used to signal a job well done can be effective

Contingency

- A future event or circumstance that is possible but cannot be predicted with certainty - Not a reliable indicator

Classical Conditioning Generalization

- A new stimulus similar to the original conditioned stimulus tend to elicit a response similar to the original conditioned stimulus - When you respond to too many things - Ex: Pavlov's dogs started to salivate at anything that sounded like a bell - You get bit by a dog and you become afraid of dogs forever

Conditioned Reinforcer

- A stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer; also known as a secondary reinforcer - Our lives are filled with conditioned reinforcers-- money, good grades, a pleasant tone of voice- - each of which has been linked with more basic rewards

Positive Reinforcement

- Add something desirable (Add something to the situation that will increase the behavior) (Ex: Professor offers extra credit for students who got to review session) - Increasing behaviors by presenting positive reinforcers. A positive reinforcer is any stimulus that, when presented after a response, strengthens a response

Shaping

- An operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior - Rewarding successively closer approximations of a desired behavior Ex: Finger guns at dog Reward dog when she lays down Then reward her when she rolls over Then reward her when she rolls over and plays dead Then reward her only when she plays dead when you do the finger guns Your slowly building up to the behavior that you want You reward the behaviors as they get closer and closer to the final behavior that you're looking for and along the way you stop rewarding behavior that isn't close to the target anymore

Operant Conditioning (OC) If it is a behavior you can choose to do its operant conditioning!

- Associate a voluntary behavior and a consequence - A type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher Is based on the likelihood of a behavior being repeated is determined by the consequences of that behavior - Allows us to learn from the consequences of our voluntary behaviors! (Ex: Eating a bad food and realizing we should never eat it again!!)

Continuous Reinforcement

- Behavior is reinforced every time it happens - Not always the way the world works - Desired behavior is reinforced every time it occurs - Most effective when teaching a new behavior - Creates a strong association between behavior and response Ex: You get a candy bar from your parents every time you get a good grade - Reward or reinforce the behavior every single time it happens (You want to do it at the beginning) - Once you've established that behavior, you want to start to phase out the reward and make the reward variable/unpredictable because that will help that behavior stick around longer

Discrimination

- In classical conditioning, the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and similar stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus. (In operant conditioning, the ability to distinguish responses that are reinforced from similar responses that are not reinforced

Fixed-Ratio Schedule

- In operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses - You reward based on a predictable number of behaviors (Ex: Dog gets a treat every third time he sits Reinforcement happens after a fixed number of behaviors

Operant Conditioning Discrimination

- In operant conditioning, learning that the same behavior is not going to be reinforced the same in different situations "Learning to tell the difference" - Ex: : You tell a joke at work and you go home and tell it again to your parents but they don't get it

Operant Conditioning Generalization

- In operant conditioning, performing the reinforced behavior in a different situation Ex: You tell a joke at work and you go home and tell it again to different people

Operant Conditioning Extinction

- In operant conditioning, when the behavior is no longer reinforced, it will decrease in frequency - Extinction is all about the behavior going away and its just how it happens - Ex: You have told the joke so many times that people aren't laughing anymore and you stop telling it because you aren't being reinforced anymore

Associative Learning

- Learning that certain events occur together. The events may be two stimuli (as in classical conditioning) or a response and its consequence (as in operant conditioning) - We learn to associate two things

Observational Learning

- One form of cognitive learning, lets us learn from others' experiences Ex: Chimpanzees sometimes learn behaviors merely by watching others perform them - Cognition supports this term in which higher animals, especially humans, learn without direct experience - Learning that occurs by observing and imitating others

Classical Conditioning Discrimination

- Process of learning to respond to certain stimuli and not others - Learn to tell the difference between the different stimuli - Ex: Pavlov's dogs learned to tell the difference between the dinner bell and other bells - You get bitten by a Bulldog and become afraid of them but when you see a Chihuahua you don't get scared

Fixed-Interval Schedule

- Schedule of reinforcement you reinforce based on a predictable amount of time that's passed (You get a paycheck every two weeks) - Reinforcement happens after a fixed amount of time

Taste Aversion Learning

- Special" form of classical conditioning because: - Only takes once for a formerly neutral stimulus (a taste) to become associated with nausea - Occurs even if the taste had nothing to do with getting sick - Ex: Can't eat fudge again because when you had it you got really sick

Negative Reinforcement

- Take away something undesirable (Subtract something from the situation that will increase or encourage the behavior) (Ex: Professor takes away final exam for students who already have an A in the class) - NOTE: Negative reinforcement is NOT punishment

Antisocial Effects of Observational Learning

- The bad news is that observational learning may also have antisocial effects - This helps us understand why abusive parents might have aggressive children, why children are more likely to lie, etc. - The lessons we learn as children are not easily replaced as adults, and they are sometimes visited on future generations - TV shows, movies, and online videos are sources of observational learning - While watching, children may learn that bullying is an effective way to control others

Extinction

- The diminishing of a conditioned response; occurs in classical conditioning when an unconditioned stimulus (US) does not follow a conditioned stimulus (CS); occurs in operant conditioning when a response is no longer reinforced - In operant conditioning, when the behavior is no longer reinforced, it will decrease in frequency - Extinction is all about the behavior going away and how it happens Ex: You have told the joke so many times that people aren't laughing anymore and you stop telling it because you aren't being reinforced anymore

Generalization

- The tendency, once a response has been conditioned, for stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses (In operant conditioning, generalization occurs when responses learned in one situation occur in other, similar situations) - Generalization can be adaptive, as when toddlers who learn to fear moving cars also become afraid of moving trucks and motorcycles

Little Albert

- Watson classically conditioned him to have a phobia of white mice - Made an unpleasant noise at the same time - Albert then learned to associate the terrible noise with the white mice - Watson learned that it was possible to classically condition fear

Classical Conditioning Extinction

- Weakening of the conditioned response when the US is absent - Gradually, the CS loses its power to produce the CR without this continued association - If you don't continuously pair the CS with the US then the CS loses its power - Ex: Ringing the bell, but not feeding the dogs (Dinner bell doesn't mean dinner anymore) - Psychologists use this to get rid of your phobia (Afraid of dogs but you play with dogs and learn to not become afraid of them) CS = Dog CR = Fear

Partial Reinforcement

- You're not reinforcing the behavior each and every single time it happens - Most effective once a behavior has been established - New behavior is less likely to disappear - Various partial reinforcement schedules available to suit individual needs Ex: You get a candy bar here and there from your parents when you get a good grade, you'll keep doing it cause you don't know when that next reward is going to come

Variable-Interval Schedule

- Your reinforced after an unpredictable amount of time has passed Ex: Your boss at work walks around randomly during the day. You don't know when she's going to walk around, it's based on an unpredictable amount of time - Reinforcement happens after a variable amount of time

Variable-Ratio Schedule

- Your reinforced after an unpredictable number of behaviors has passed Ex: You keep pulling the lever on slot machines because maybe the next time will be the time it results in a payoff - Reinforcement happens after a fixed amount of time - In operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses

Preparedness

A biological predisposition to learn associations, such as between taste and nausea, that have survival value

Cognitive Map

A mental representation of the layout of one's environment. For example, after exploring a maze, rats act as if they have learned a cognitive map of it

Reinforcement Schedule

A pattern that defines how often a desired response will be reinforced

Higher-order conditioning

A procedure in which the conditioned stimulus in one conditioning experience is paired with a new neutral stimulus, creating a second (often weaker) conditioned stimulus. For example, an animal that has learned that a tone predicts the tone and begin responding to the light alone. (Also called second-order conditioning)

Skinner Box

A way to completely control an animal's environment This allows researchers to study how reinforcement and punishment influence behavior

Positive Punishment

Add something undesirable (Adding something unpleasant to the situation that will decrease the chance of that behavior happening) (Ex: Parent spanks a child when they do something bad to decrease the chances that the child will repeat that behavior- adding pain)

Interval

Amount of time passed

Primary Reinforcer

An innately reinforcing stimulus such as one that satisfies a biological need (They are unlearned)

Stimulus

Any event or situation that evokes a response

Punishment

Any event that is meant to decrease the behaviors

Reinforcement

Any event that strengthens/increases the behavior it follows

Classical Conditioning - If it is a behavior that happens involuntary on reflex its classical conditioning!

Associate an involuntary response and a stimulus

Aversive Conditioning

Associating something negative (drugs/alcohol) with an unpleasant stimulus Ex: Antabuse: It is a drug that if you ingest it, it will make you violently ill if you also ingest alcohol or even mouthwash

Behavior modification or applied behavior analysis

Behavior modification, or applied behavior analysis, involves using operant conditioning principles to change people's behavior You focus on changing their behaviors rather than what they think

Respondent Behavior

Behavior that occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus

Operant Behavior

Behavior that operates on the environment, producing consequences

Spontaneous Recovery

Conditioned response returns, without any further training after it was previously extinct

Variable

Different (Not predictable)

Ivan Pavlov

Explored the phenomenon of classical conditioning

Mirror Neurons

Frontal lobe neurons that some scientists believe fire when we perform certain actions or observe another doing so. The brain's mirroring of another's action may enable imitation and empathy

Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

In classical conditioning, anything in the environment that elicits that reflexive response, that automatic reflexive, untrained behavior

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

In classical conditioning, something neutral in the environment that is paired with the unconditioned stimulus over and over again until eventually you don't need it anymore (Ex: The bell in the dog study)

Conditioned Response (CR)

In classical conditioning, that same response, but now in response to the conditioned stimulus

Acquisition

In classical conditioning, the initial stage, when one links a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus begins triggering the conditioned response. In operant conditioning, the strengthening of a reinforced response.

Unconditioned Response (UR)

In classical conditioning, the unlearned, naturally occurring response to the unconditioned stimulus (US), such as salivation when food is in the mouth

Operant Chamber

In operant conditioning research, a chamber (also known as a Skinner box) containing a bar or key that an animal can manipulate to obtain a food or water reinforcer; attached devices record the animal's rate of bar pressing or key pecking

Reinforcement and Punishment

Instead on focusing on personality, all behavior is viewed in terms of....

Pavlov's work laid for the foundation for psychologist

John B. Watson's ideas

Conditioned

Learned

Latent Learning

Learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it

Unconditioned

Not learned

Ratio

Number of Behaviors

Prosocial Behaviors

Positive, constructive, helpful behavior. The opposite of antisocial behavior

Partial (Intermittent) Reinforcement Schedule

Reinforcing a response only part of the time; results in slower acquisition of a response but much greater resistance to extinction than does continuous reinforcement

Continuous Reinforcement Schedule

Reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs

Fixed

Same (Predictable)

Systematic desentization - We do it in a systematic way (Start slow and go up from then)

Slowly expose someone to the thing that they fear until they eventually learn to not be afraid of that thing anymore

Negative Punishment

Take away something desirable (Take away something in order to discourage behavior) (Ex: A parent might take away a child's phone or computer as punishment so the child is less likely to repeat that behavior)

Cognitive Learning

The acquisition of mental information, whether by observing events, by watching others, or through language

Contiguity

The conditioned stimulus must be a reliable indicator that the unconditioned stimulus will happen at least during the acquisition phase (learning phase)

Learning

The process of acquiring new and relatively enduring information or behaviors

Modeling

The process of observing and imitating a specific behavior

Instinctive Drift

The tendency of learned behavior to gradually revert to biologically predisposed patterns

Behaviorism

The view that psychology Should be an objective science that Studies behavior without reference to mental processes. Most research psychologists today agree with (1) But now with (2). John Watson

Law of Effect

Thorndike's principle that behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely, and that behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences become less likely