AP Psychology - Unit 6: Learning

Difference between Operant and Classical Conditioning

*Classical conditioning * - forms associations between stimuli (CS and US) - Respondent behavior - an automatic response to a certain stimulus *Operant conditioning* - forms an association between behaviors and the resulting events

Applications of Operant Conditioning

*In School* : Skinner introduced the concept of teaching machines that shape learning in small steps and provide reinforcements for correct rewards ... electronics, told if answers are right or wrong *At Work* : Reinforcers affect productivity. Many companies now allow employees to share profits and participate in company ownership *In Sports* : Reinforcement principles can enhance athletic performance - reinforcing small successes and then gradually increasing the challenge - Superstitious Behaviors - Accidental timing of rewards - In children, reinforcing good behavior increases the occurrence of these behaviors. Ignoring unwanted behavior decreases their occurrence

Differences between Operant and Classical Conditioning

*Operant conditioning* - response = voluntary *Classical Conditioning* - response = involuntary

What's Internal and External Locus of control?

- *External Locus of Control* = the perception that chance or outside forces beyond our personal control determines our fate - *Internal Locus of Control* = the perception that you control your your own fate

What's Behavior Modification?

- A type of behavioral therapy in which the principles of Operant Conditioning (reinforcement, punishments, etc.) are used to eliminate some type of unwanted behavior - ex. a person may feel that they no longer want to smoke and so the person is given a favorite piece of candy every time a cigarette is desired but refused

Association in One Trial Learning/Taste Aversion

- association is usually a results of a single(unpleasant) experience and the particular food will be avoided in the future

What is the purpose of the Operant Chamber (Skinner Box) ?

- comes with a bar or key that an animal manipulates to obtain a reinforcer like food or water - animal presses the key and food and water appears so they it will continuously press the key --> supports idea of Law of Effect (rewarded behavior is likely to occur again)

In Classical conditioning, what is the preferred time difference between the presentations of 2 stimulus?

- half a second - longer delay --> more difficult for conditioning to occur

What did John B. Watson believe?

- he believed that he can turn any healthy baby into any specialist he choose because of conditioning

History of Classical Conditioning

- ideas of classical conditioning originated from old philosophical theories - old theories were made clear by Ivan Pavlov - works by Pavlov = basis for behaviorists like John Watson and B.F. Skinner

One Trial Learning

- involves a change in behavior that occurs with only one powerful experience

How Do We Learn?

- learn by association (Associative Learning) --> Our minds naturally connect events that occur in sequence

Observational Learning

- learn by observing and imitating others

What's Stimulus Discrimination?

- learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and other stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus

Latent Learning

- learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it - Rats exploring a maze develop a cognitive map (mental representation) - learning minus rewards

When are Mirror Neurons active?

- mirror neurons in the brains of animals and humans are active during observational learning - provides neural basis for everyday imitation/observational learning - enables empathy

What does Punishment lead to?

- negative effects 1. Results in unwanted fears 2. Conveys no information to the organism 3. Teaches discrimination among situations 4. Justifies pain to others 5. Punished behavior is suppressed not forgotten 6. May increase aggression

In order for conditioning to occur, when does the neutral stimulus come in during the process?

- neutral stimulus needs to come before the unconditioned stimulus

Positive Observational Learning

- prosocial (positive, helpful) models may have prosocial effects.

How can Operant Conditioning be applied to Self improvement (Behavior modification)?

- reinforce desired behavior 1. State your goal in measurable terms and announce it 2. Monitor how often you engage in your desired behavior 3. Reinforce/reward the desired behavior 4. Gradually reduce rewards

What's Successive Approximations?

- reward responses/behavior that is the closest to the final desired behavior and ignore all other responses

What's punishment? What's positive and Negative Punishment?

- An aversive event that decreases the behavior it follows *Positive Punishment* --> adding an aversive (negative) stimulus - ex. spanking, parking ticket * Negative Punishment * --> taking away a desirable stimulus - ex. timeout from privileges (such as time with friends) and revoked driver's liscense

Negative Observational Learning

- Bandura's studies show that antisocial models (family, neighborhood, TV, or internet) may have antisocial effects

Pavlov's Experiments -- Dog

- Before conditioning, food (Unconditioned Stimulus, US) produces salivation (Unconditioned Response, UR) --> the tone (neutral stimulus) does not - During conditioning, the neutral stimulus (tone) and the US (food) are paired, resulting in salivation (UR) - After conditioning, the neutral stimulus (now Conditioned Stimulus, CS) elicits salivation (now Conditioned Response, CR)

What is a famous experiment conducted by Albert Bandura? What did the study indicate?

- Bobo Doll Experiment (1961) - indicated that individuals (children) learn through imitating others

In order for acquisition to occur, when must the CS come in?

- CS (originally neutral stimulus) needs to be presented "half a second" before the US

What's second-order conditioning?

- CS is paired with a new NS creating a second CS - ex. tone is paired with light before food --> light is now also a CS - Higher - order conditioning produces the strongest conditioned stimulus

What are three different ways we can learn?

- Classical Conditioning -- Pavlov - Operant Conditioning -- B.F. Skinner - Learning by Observation -- Albert Bandura, Cognitive Learning

John Garcia -- Biological Predispositions

- Garcia showed that the duration between the CS and the US may be long (hours), but the conditioning would still occur - a biologically adaptive CS (taste) led to conditioning but other stimuli (sight or sound) did not

Television and Observational Learning

- Gentile et al., (2004) shows that children in elementary school who are exposed to violent television, videos, and video games express increased aggression -Imitation/Modeling - Desensitizes viewers/Indifference - television = one of the factors that may contribute to violent/aggressive behavior

Imitation Onset

- Learning by observation begins early in life (infancy)

What's Classical Conditioning (Stimulus-Stimulus Learning)? What's an example?

- Learning to associate one stimulus with another --> anticipation of events - ex. Lightning (Stimulus 1) + Thunder (Stimulus 2 = startled reactions, wincing... after repetition, see lightning (stimulus) --> wincing because of anticipation of loud noise

What was John B. Watson's famous experiment called? What type of conditioning did it involve?

- Little Albert Experiment - Classical conditioning

Biological Predispositions

- Pavlov and Watson believed that laws of learning were similar for all animals --> Therefore, a pigeon and a person do not differ in their learning - behaviorists later suggested that learning is constrained by an animal's biology... "Biological constraints predispose organisms to learn associations that are naturally adaptive."

Self-Control

- Self-Control = the ability to control impulses and delay short-term gratification for long-term rewards (fluctuates - weakens after exertion) - Internal vs. External Locus of Control - Internal - increased achievement, better health, less depressed, better at delaying gratification, less obesity, hypertension, etc.

B. F. Skinner - The Operant Chamber

- Skinner developed the Operant chamber (the Skinner box) to study operant conditioning - used Law of Effect as starting point

Rescorla & Wagner (1972)

- Studied the effects of cognitive processes on learning - The more predictable the association, the stronger the conditioned response - Predictability is a cognitive process (thoughts, perceptions, expectations) - Cognition - Pairing alcohol with a drug (awareness that nausea caused by drug reduces effectiveness)

What's Stimulus Generalization?

- Tendency to respond to stimuli similar to the CS - Pavlov conditioned the dog's salivation (CR) by using miniature vibrators (CS) on the thigh --> stimulation of other parts of the dog's body didn't produce salivation (CR), CR only appeared when sounds were produced by stimulation of parts nearest to thigh

Taste Aversion

- a conditioned response in which a person/animal establishes an association between a particular food and being/feeling ill after having it in the past

Definition of Conditioned Response (CR)

- a learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus (CS)

Definition of Learning

- a relatively permanent change in an organism's behavior due to experience

Definition of Neutral Stimulus

- a stimulus that elicits no response before conditioning

What's Shaping?

- an operant conditioning procedure --> reinforcers guide behavior towards the desired target behavior through successive approximations

Definition of Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

- an originally irrelevant stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus (US), comes to trigger a conditioned response (CR)

Definition of Unconditioned Response (UR)

- an unlearned, naturally occurring response to an unconditioned stimulus (US)

Mr. Byrne can't understand why scolding his seventh-grade students for disruptive classroom behavior makes them more unruly. Explain Mr. Byrne's predicament in terms of operant conditioning principles. Show how he could use operant conditioning techniques to a) reduce disruptive behaviors and b) increase cooperative behaviors

- scolding is not working because students may like the attention or they are not bothered by the scolding --> scolding is not a punishment in this case - in terms of operant conditioning, the consequence is the attention from the teacher so the students will continue to be disruptive - a) punishment, ignore behavior - b) reinforce positive/good behavior

What's Extinction?

- the diminishing of a conditioned response - occurs in classical conditioning when an US does not follow a CS - occurs in operant conditioning when a response is no longer reinforced - ex. Food (US) does not follow tone (CS), so salivation (CR) begins to decreases and eventually causes extinction

Learned Helplessness

- the hopelessness and passive resignation an animal or human learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive events - A state in which people conclude that unpleasant or aversive stimuli cannot be controlled - Perceive that one's actions do not lead to expected outcome - ex. Dogs exposed to unavoidable shocks (harnessed). Following exposure, when placed in a situation where they can now jump to avoid the shock, they fail to make the escape response --> dogs thought there was nothing they could do

What is Acquisition in Classical and Operant Conditioning?

- the initial stage in classical conditioning in which an association between a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus takes place so that the neutral stimulus triggers the conditioned response - in operant conditioning -- the strengthening of a reinforced response

What's Spontaneous Recovery?

- the reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response - if the CS (tone) persists alone, the CR becomes extinct again

Which schedule of reinforcement is most resistant to extinction? Why?

- variable-ratio schedule - variable-interval schedule

What is the Overjustification Effect?

- when extrinsic motivation overrides intrinsic motivation --> the overuse of bribes lead people to see their actions as externally controlled than internally appealing - if bribing is done to do something (extrinsic) then it must not be worth doing for its own sake

What are 2 types of Reinforcement Schedules?

1. *Continuous Reinforcement * : Reinforces the desired response each time it occurs 2. *Partial Reinforcement* : Reinforces a response only part of the time. Though this results in slower acquisition in the beginning, it shows greater resistance to extinction later on

What are 2 Interval Schedules?

1. *Fixed-interval schedule* : Reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed. (e.g., preparing for an exam only when the exam draws close.) 2. *Variable-interval schedule* : Reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals, which produces slow, steady responses. (e.g., pop quiz.)

What are 2 Ratio Schedules?

1. *Fixed-ratio schedule* : Reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses. e.g., piecework pay, rats get food on every 30 times they produce a response 2. *Variable-ratio schedule*: Reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses. This is hard to extinguish because of the unpredictability. (e.g., behaviors like gambling, fishing.)

What are Immediate & Delayed Reinforcers?

1. *Immediate Reinforcer* : A reinforcer that occurs instantly after a behavior - ex. A rat gets a food pellet for a bar press. 2. *Delayed Reinforcer* : A reinforcer that is delayed in time for a certain behavior - ex. A paycheck that comes at the end of a week (delayed gratification). - We are more likely to engage in small immediate reinforcers (watching TV) rather than large delayed reinforcers (getting an A in a course) which require consistent study

What are 2 types of motivation?

1. *Intrinsic Motivation*: The desire to perform a behavior for its own sake 2. *Extrinsic Motivation*: The desire to perform a behavior due to promised rewards or threats of punishments

What are the 2 main types of Reinforcers?

1. *Positive Reinforcement* : add a desirable stimulus - ex. pet a dog that comes when you call it - ex. pay the person who paints your house 2. *Negative Reinforcement* : removing an aversive (negative) stimulus - ex. taking painkillers to end pain - ex. fastening seat belt to end loud beeping sound - both increases the frequency of a behavior

What are Primary & Secondary Reinforcers?

1. *Primary Reinforcer* : An innately reinforcing stimulus like food or drink that satisfies biological needs - getting food when hungry - making headache go away 2. *Conditioned Reinforcer (secondary reinforcers)* : A learned reinforcer that gets its reinforcing power through association with the primary reinforcer (money, good grades)

What are 2 ways of coping?

1. *Problem-focused coping* = attempting to alleviate stress directly by changing the stressor or the way we interact with that stressor - Work through the conflict - Tackle the problem - May increase stress 2. *Emotion-focused coping* = attempt to alleviate stress by avoiding or ignoring a stressor and attending to emotional needs related to one's stress reaction - Reduce emotional impact of stress - Get support/comfort from others - Adaptive - Exercise - Maladaptive - Party - Risk: Ignore the problem - even when can be changed

Steps in Observational Learning - Modeling

1. Attention (behavior & consequences - vicarious reinforcement/ punishment - More powerful if the model is similar to the observer 2. Retention (store memory) 3. Reproduction (if capable) 4. Motivation - if model is rewarded for behavior --> more motivated to imitate behavior - if a model is similar to an individual, then he or she will be more likely to imitate the model's behavior

In Classical Conditioning, what are different Stimuli and Responses called?

1. Neutral Stimuli (NS) 2. Unconditioned Stimulus (US) 3. Unconditioned Response (UR) 4. Conditioned Stimulus (CS) 5. Conditioned Response (CR)

Applications of Classical Conditioning

1. Watson used classical conditioning procedures to develop advertising campaigns for a number of organizations, including Maxwell House, making the "coffee break" an American custom 2. Alcoholics may be conditioned (aversively) by reversing their positive-associations with alcohol 3. Through classical conditioning, a drug (plus its taste) that affects the immune response may cause the taste of the drug to invoke the immune response 4. Reduce fears - Pair the stimulus that elicits fear (CS) with a stimulus (US) that elicits positive emotion (UR) - or apply principles of extinction (Systematic Desensitization - fear of flying)

How long does it take before something we learn becomes habitual/automatic?

66 days

What is a Reinforcer?

Any event/consequence that strengthens the behavior it follows

What's Operant Conditioning (Response-Consequence Learning)? What are some examples?

Learning to associate a response with a consequence - ex. a seal balances ball and receives food (consequence) --> behavior to balance ball is strengthened - ex. putting in money into vending machine with no candy coming out (consequence) --> person will no longer use a vending machine

What does Edward Thorndike's "The Law of Effect" state?

The law of effect states that rewarded behavior is likely to occur again

Definition of Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

a stimulus that unconditionally (naturally/automatically) triggers a response (UR)