Chapter 8: Learning

"Sex sells!" is a common saying in advertising. Using classical conditioning terms, explain how sexual images in advertisements can condition your response to a product.

A sexual image is a US that triggers a UR of interest or arousal. Before the advertisement pairs a product with a sexual image, the product is an NS. Over time the product can become a CS that triggers the CR of interest or arousal.

Biological Constraints

biological constraints evolved biological tendencies that predispose animals' behavior and learning. Thus, certain behaviors are more easily learned than others.

Disliking the taste of chili after becoming violently sick a few hours after eating chili

biological predispositions

Dogs have been taught to salivate to a circle but not to a square. This process is an example of_____________________________

discrimination

Learning is defined as "the process of acquiring through experience new and relatively enduring ______________________or _________________________________________ ."

the process of acquiring through experience new and relatively enduring information or behaviors

Negative reinforcement - remove an aversive stimulus

the removal of a negative stimulus following a response - it is NOT punishment o Taking a pain reliever to reduce pain (reinforces pill-taking behavior by removing pain) o Studying when you worry about a test (reinforces study behavior by reducing worry)

UR

Unconditioned response (UR) in classical conditioning, an unlearned, naturally occurring response (such as salivation) to an unconditioned stimulus (US) (such as food in the mouth).

Fixed vs Variable; combination of these two types

1) Fixed-ratio schedules reinforce behavior after a set number of responses. Coffee shops may reward us with a free drink after every 10 purchased. 2)Variable-ratio schedules provide reinforcers after a seemingly unpredictable number of responses. This unpredictable reinforcement is what slot-machine players and fly fishers experience, and it's what makes gambling and fly fishing so hard to extinguish even when they don't produce the desired results. 3) Fixed-interval schedules reinforce the first response after a fixed time period. Animals on this type of schedule tend to respond more frequently as the anticipated time for reward draws near. 4) Variable-interval schedules reinforce the first response after varying time periods. Like the longed-for message that finally rewards persistence in rechecking e-mail or Facebook, variable-interval schedules tend to produce slow, steady responding. This

4 drawbacks to physical punishment

1) Punished behavior is suppressed, not forgotten. This temporary state may (negatively) reinforce parents' punishing behavior. 2) Punishment teaches discrimination among situations. 3) Punishment can teach fear. 4) Physical punishment may increase aggression by modeling violence as a way to cope with problems.

An experimenter sounds a tone just before delivering an air puff to your blinking eye. After several repetitions, you blink to the tone alone. What is the NS? The US? The UR? The CS? The CR?

ANSWERS: NS = tone before conditioning; US = air puff; UR = blink to air puff; CS = tone after conditioning; CR = blink to tone

If the aroma of a baking cake sets your mouth to watering, what is the US? The CS? The CR?

ANSWERS: The cake (and its taste) are the US. The associated aroma is the CS. Salivation to the aroma is the CR.

Acquisition

Acquisition is the initial learning of an association. Pavlov and his associates wondered: How much time should elapse between presenting the Neutral Stimulus (the tone, the light, the touch) and the Unconditioned Stimulus (the food)? In most cases, not much—half a second usually works well.

Latent Learning

Animals, like people, can learn from experience, with or without reinforcement. In a classic experiment, rats in one group repeatedly explored a maze, always with a food reward at the end. Rats in another group explored the maze with no food reward. But once given a food reward at the end, rats in the second group thereafter ran the maze as quickly as (and even faster than) the always-rewarded rats. Dr performs well at what he learned in medical school - get's paid well in his job.

With classical conditioning, we learn associations between events we (do/do not) control. With operant conditioning, we learn associations between our behavior and (resulting/random) events.

Answers: do not; resulting

operant conditioning

Behavior that operates on the environment to produce rewarding or punishing stimuli is called operant behavior.

Contrasting Classical vs Operant Conditioning

Classical Conditioning First described by Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist Involves placing a neutral signal before a reflex Focuses on involuntary, automatic behaviors Operant Conditioning First described by B. F. Skinner, an American psychologist Involves applying reinforcement or punishment after a behavior Focuses on strengthening or weakening voluntary behaviors

Successive approximations

First, you would watch how the animal naturally behaves, so that you could build on its existing behaviors. You might give the rat a bit of food each time it approaches the bar. Once the rat is approaching regularly, you would give the food only when it moves close to the bar, then closer still. Finally, you would require it to touch the bar to get food. With this method of successive approximations, you reward responses that are ever-closer to the final desired behavior, and you ignore all other responses.

Generalization

Generalization is the concept that humans and animals use past learning in present situations of learning if the conditions in the situations are regarded as similar.

Who loves you???????

MOM DOES!!!!

Negative punishment

Negative punishment - Withdraw a rewarding stimulus. Take away a misbehaving teen's driving privileges; revoke a library card for nonpayment of fines

Primary & Conditioned Reinforcers

PRIMARY AND CONDITIONED REINFORCERS Getting food when hungry or having a painful headache go away is innately satisfying. These primary reinforcers are unlearned. Conditioned reinforcers, also called secondary reinforcers, get their power through learned association with primary reinforcers. If a rat in a Skinner box learns that a light reliably signals a food delivery, the rat will work to turn on the light. The light has become a conditioned 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.

Ivan Pavlov

Pavlov's classic experiment Pavlov presented a neutral stimulus (a tone) just before an unconditioned stimulus (food in mouth). The neutral stimulus then became a conditioned stimulus, producing a conditioned response. He and his associates explored five major conditioning processes: acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery, generalization, and discrimination.

John B Watson

Pavlov's work also provided a basis for Watson's (1913) idea that human emotions and behaviors, though biologically influenced, are mainly a bundle of conditioned responses. Working with an 11-month-old, Watson and his graduate student Rosalie Rayner (1920; Harris, 1979) showed how specific fears might be conditioned. Like most infants, "Little Albert" feared loud noises but not white rats. Watson and Rayner presented a white rat and, as Little Albert reached to touch it, struck a hammer against a steel bar just behind his head. After seven repeats of seeing the rat and hearing the frightening noise, Albert burst into tears at the mere sight of the rat. Five days later, he had generalized this startled fear reaction to the sight of a rabbit, a dog, and a sealskin coat, but not to dissimilar objects.

Positive punishment

Positive punishment - Administer an aversive stimulus. Spray water on a barking dog; give a traffic ticket for speeding. .

Expectancy

Robert Rescorla and Allan Wagner (1972) showed that an animal can learn the predictability of an event. If a shock always is preceded by a tone, and then may also be preceded by a light that accompanies the tone, a rat will react with fear to the tone but not to the light. Although the light is always followed by the shock, it adds no new information; the tone is a better predictor. The more predictable the association, the stronger the conditioned response. It's as if the animal learns an expectancy, an awareness of how likely it is that the US will occur.

Importance of Pavlov's work

The importance lies first in this finding: Many other responses to many other stimuli can be classically conditioned in many other organisms— in fact, in every species tested, from earthworms to fish to dogs to monkeys to people (Schwartz, 1984). Thus, classical conditioning is one way that virtually all organisms learn to adapt to their environment. Second, Pavlov showed us how a process such as learning can be studied objectively. He was proud that his methods involved virtually no subjective judgments or guesses about what went on in a dog's mind. The salivary response is a behavior measurable in cubic centimeters of saliva. Pavlov's success therefore suggested a scientific model for how the young discipline of psychology might proceed—by isolating the basic building blocks of complex behaviors and studying them with objective laboratory procedures.

spontaneous recovery

This spontaneous recovery—the reappearance of a (weakened) CR after a pause—suggested to Pavlov that extinction was suppressing the CR rather than eliminating it. spontaneous recovery the reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response. Page 251

stimulus

any event or situation that evokes a response.

Associative Learning

associative learning learning that certain events occur together. The events may be two stimuli (as in classical conditioning) or a response and its consequences (as in operant conditioning). One way we learn is by association. Our mind naturally connects events that occur in sequence. Suppose you see and smell freshly baked bread, eat some, and find it satisfying. The next time you see and smell fresh bread, you will expect that eating it will again be satisfying. Myers, David G.; DeWall, C. Nathan. Exploring Psychology (Page 246). Worth Publishers. Kindle Edition.

Behavorism

behaviorism the view that psychology (1) should be an objective science that (2) studies behavior without reference to mental processes. Most research psychologists today agree with (1) but not with (2). This view, which Watson called behaviorism, influenced North American psychology during the first half of the twentieth century. 1) Born as blank slates - tabula rasa 2) observable behaviors

Salivating when you smell brownies in the oven

classical conditioning

Classical Conditioning - behaviorism learning

classical conditioning a type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events.

Cognitive map

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.

Evidence that cognitive processes play an important role in learning comes in part from studies in which rats running a maze develop ______________________ _____________________________.

cognitive maps

In Pavlov's experiments, the tone started as a neutral stimulus, and then became a(n) stimulus _________

conditional stimulus

CS

conditioned response (CR) in classical conditioning, a learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus (CS).

CS

conditioned stimulus (CS) in classical conditioning, an originally irrelevant stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus (US), comes to trigger a conditioned response (CR).

Continuous reinforcement

continuous reinforcement schedule reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs.

Discrimination

discrimination in classical conditioning, the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus. DISCRIMINATION Pavlov's dogs also learned to respond to the sound of a particular tone and not to other tones. This learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus (which predicts the US) and other irrelevant stimuli is called discrimination. Being able to recognize differences is adaptive. Slightly different stimuli can be followed by vastly different consequences.

Extinction

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. What would happen, Pavlov wondered, if after conditioning, the CS occurred repeatedly without the US? If the tone sounded again and again, but no food appeared, would the tone still trigger salivation? The answer was mixed. The dogs salivated less and less, a reaction known as extinction,

After Watson and Rayner classically conditioned Little Albert to fear a white rat, the child later showed fear in response to a rabbit, a dog, and a sealskin coat.

generalization.

effect of rewards on intrinsic motivation

intrinsic motivation—the desire to perform a behavior effectively for its own sake. In experiments, children have been promised a payoff for playing with an interesting puzzle or toy. Later, they played with the toy less than did unpaid children .. Likewise, rewarding children with toys or candy for reading diminishes the time they spend reading . It is as if they think, "If I have to be bribed into doing this, it must not be worth doing for its own sake."

Knowing the way from your bed to the bathroom in the dark

latent learning

Rats that explored a maze without any reward were later able to run the maze as well as other rats that had received food rewards for running the maze. The rats that had learned without reinforcement demonstrated ____________________ __________________________________________.

latent learning

Latent Learning - definition

latent learning learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it. In football, learn the plays and then demonstrate them on the field at a later point. Reward is to win. The point to remember: There is more to learning than associating a response with a consequence; there is also cognition.

Learning

learning the process of acquiring through experience new and relatively enduring information or behaviors. learning as the process of acquiring new and relatively enduring information or behaviors. By learning, we humans are able to adapt to our environments. We learn to expect and prepare for significant events such as food or pain (classical conditioning). We typically learn to repeat acts that bring rewards and to avoid acts that bring unwanted results (operant conditioning). We learn new behaviors by observing events and by watching others, and through language, we learn things we have neither experienced nor observed (cognitive learning).

Most experts agree that repeated viewing of media violence

makes all viewers significantly more aggressive.

Some scientists believe that the brain has____________________ neurons that enable empathy and imitation.

mirror

Mirror neurons - imitation

mirror neurons frontal lobe neurons that some scientists believe fire when performing certain actions or when observing another doing so. The brain's mirroring of another's action may enable imitation and empathy. children learn from imitating caregivers monkeys learn from other monkeys by imitating behaviors

modeling

modeling the process of observing and imitating a specific behavior. We learn our language by modeling from our parents or caregivers.

B.F. Skinner

modern behaviorism's most influential and controversial figure. For his pioneering studies, Skinner designed an operant chamber, popularly known as a Skinner box (FIGURE 7.10). The box has a bar (a lever) that an animal presses (or a key [a disc] the animal pecks) to release a reward of food or water. It also has a device that records these responses. This design creates a stage on which rats and other animals act out Skinner's concept of reinforcement: any event that strengthens (increases the frequency of) a preceding response.

Children learn many social behaviors by imitating parents and other models. This type of learning is called _______________________ ___________________________________

observational learning

Your little brother getting in a fight after watching a violent action movie

observational learning

observational learning

observational learning learning by observing others. Albert Bandura's Bobo doll experiment - pg 272

Your dog racing to greet you on your arrival home

operant conditioning

Operant conditioning

operant conditioning a type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher.

Partial or intermittent reinforcement

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.

Positive Reinforcement - add a desirable stimulus

positive reinforcement increasing behaviors by presenting positive reinforcers. A positive reinforcer is any stimulus that, when presented after a response, strengthens the response. Examples: o Giving a child a compliment or candy for a job well done. o Getting paid for a completed task.

prosocial and antisocial effects of observational learning

prosocial behavior - positive, constructive, helpful behavior. The opposite of antisocial behavior. PROSOCIAL EFFECTS The good news is that prosocial (positive, helpful) models can have prosocial effects. Many business organizations effectively use behavior modeling to help new employees learn communication, sales, and customer service skills. Models are most effective when their actions and words are consistent. ANTISOCIAL EFFECTS: The bad news is that observational learning may also have antisocial effects. ....why abusive parents might have aggressive children, and why many men who beat their wives had wife-battering fathers 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, that free and easy sex brings pleasure without later misery or disease, or that men should be tough and women gentle.

Punishment

punishment an event that tends to decrease the behavior that it follows.

Reinforcement is:

reinforcement is any consequence that strengthens behavior.

Reinforcement Schedule

reinforcement schedule is a pattern that defines how often a desired response will be reinforced. Reinforcement Schedules - How do different reinforcement schedules affect behavior? In most of our examples, the desired response has been reinforced every time it occurs. But reinforcement schedules vary. With continuous reinforcement, learning occurs rapidly, which makes it the best choice for mastering a behavior. But extinction also occurs rapidly. When reinforcement stops—when we stop delivering food after the rat presses the bar—the behavior soon stops. It extinguishes.

Shaping

shaping is an operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior. bar. Like Skinner, you could tease out this action with shaping, gradually guiding the rat's actions toward the desired behavior.

Garcia and Koelling's____________________ - _______________________studies showed that conditioning can occur even when the unconditioned stimulus (US) does not immediately follow the neutral stimulus (NS).

taste aversion

Parents are most effective in getting their children to imitate them if

their words and actions are consistent.

Review question: Two forms of associative learning are classical conditioning, in which the organism associates______________________, and operant conditioning, in which the organism associates_____________________________

two or more stimuli; a response and consequence

US

unconditioned stimulus (US) in classical conditioning, a stimulus that unconditionally—naturally and automatically—triggers an unconditioned response (UR).

According to Bandura, we learn by watching models because we experience ________________________reinforcement_________________________ punishment.

vicarious reinforcement or vicarious punishment

in what ways does viewing violence contribute to violent behavior?

when observing violent behavior a person, the person learns to behavior and react in violent ways. Prolonged exposure to violence desensitizes viewers