Unit 4 - Psychology

Cognitive Learning

(Transfer of Learning) -This is occurs when knowledge or a skill gained in one situation can be applied to another situation. Positive Transfer of Learning occurs when something we learned previously helps us. Negative Transfer of Learning occurs when something we learned previously hurts us.

Acquisition

(in Classical Conditioning) is defined as 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, it is the strengthening of the reinforced response through association with reinforcement or punishment.

Operant Conditioning

-A type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punishment. -Reinforcers increase behavior. -Punishments decrease behavior. -Actions have consequences.

More application

-Antisocial (unfriendly, unhelpful) models may have Antisocial effects. -Abusive parents might have aggressive children. -This may be partially genetic, but it also can be learned through modeling. -Many teenagers spend more time watching TV than they spend at school. -What effect do you think TV has on learned behavior? -Some Psychologists say that violent media can contribute to aggressive behavior and desensitization to violence. -The most recent research shows this is untrue.

Control

-Being able to influence your surroundings in some way will give you a sense of control and work to decrease stress. -This can be as simple as being allowed to arrange an office or control the lights. -An interesting thought: People with more money tend to get sick less often - this can be connected to having more control and thus less stress. -This is even seen in primates with a higher status in social groups. There are two ways to approach this control: External Locus of Control: The perception that chance or outside forces beyond our control determine our fate. Internal Locus of Control: -You are able to control your own destiny. -You are more healthy overall with an internal locus of control. -An interesting note: Some theorize that since Americans have developed feelings of an external locus of control in recent times - this might explain increased levels of depression, etc.

Conditioning and Evolution

-Classical Conditioning can help humans and animals prepare for good or bad events. -It can also help an animal survive and reproduce by helping it respond to cues to help it gain food, avoid danger, locate mates and produce offspring. -This is seen in Japanese Quails. -In one experiment, a red light was turned on before presenting an approachable female quail to a male quail. -Overtime the red light conditioned the male quails to be excited. -The Red light eventually caused them to mate quickly and release more sperm. -Thus, the red light and conditioning gave the quail a reproductive edge. -In people, think of the onion breath example from the text. -If you kiss someone with onion breath, you can associate that with kissing, so Onion breath will trigger the excitement of kissing.

Observational Learning and Modeling

-Cognition plays a role in Observational Learning (also known as Social Learning). -This is simply learning that occurs through watching others. -We learn our native languages and other behaviors by observing and imitating others. -This is done through a process called Modeling. -The process of observing and imitating a specific behavior. -Basically, you will observe someone behaving in a specific way (the model), and then mimic that behavior. -Teachers do this all the time when they demonstrate how to answer questions or provide an example.

Cognition's impact on Conditioning

-Conditioned likes and dislikes are stronger when people notice and are aware of the associations. -For humans you can't ignore cognition. -People receiving therapy for alcohol use disorder may be given alcohol spiked with a drug that makes them sick. -However if they know they are being sickened by the drug and not the alcohol the association is not formed. -So it is not only the CS-US, but the thought (cognition) that counts (especially in humans).

Latent Learning

-Edward Tolman (and C.H. Honzik) observed that rats that run a maze will develop a cognitive map, even without a reward. -A cognitive map is a mental representation of the layout of one's environment. -When they were given a reward they were able to run the maze just as quickly as rats that had been provided rewards previously. -This is known as Latent Learning - Learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it. -The point is: There is more to learning than associating a response with a consequence; there is also cognition.

Biological Constraints

-For both Classical and Operant conditioning, each species' predispositions prepare it to learn associations/behaviors that enhance its survival. -Furthermore, biological constraints predispose organisms to learn associations that are naturally adaptive. -Basically, animals will not learn or retain behaviors that conflict with their natural instincts.

Mirror Neurons (Review)

-Frontal lobe neurons that scientists believe fire when performing certain actions or watching others complete actions. -May enable imitation and empathy. -These were first seen in an experiment in Parma, Italy. -Researchers implanted wires in the frontal lobe region of the monkey's brain that enable the monkey to plan and enact movements. -For example: When a monkey put a peanut into its mouth, the device would buzz. -One day, a researcher came to the lab with an ice cream cone. -As researcher raised his hand to lick the ice cream, the monkey's device buzzed. -The monkey was motionless at the time - just watching. -It is believed that these were the Mirror Neurons at work. -The neurons fired as if the Monkey were completing the action itself.

Learned Helplessness

-If two rats receive shocks, but only one is able to press a lever to stop the shocks, the other rat will develop ulcers and have a weakened immune system. -In humans uncontrollable threats trigger the strongest stress responses. -This may lead to a state of Learned Helplessness -This is the hopelessness and passive resignation an animal or human learns when they are unable to avoid repeated aversive events. -Seligman restrained dogs and provided a punishment in the form of a shock. -He found that dogs who are restrained and unable to avoid an aversive stimulus will cower without hope even when they are no longer restrained. -This is learned helplessness -Even in people this loss of control will lead to stress, poor health and even depression.

Reinforcement

-If you are looking to reinforce a behavior, you must present reinforcement within 30 seconds of the behavior. -Humans are able to respond to delayed reinforcers. -We can associate a reinforcer with a behavior long after the fact. -This can also be called Delayed Gratification. -This was an experiment done with children. -They were offered a piece of candy or two pieces if they waited until the researcher got back to eat it. -Many times the kids just ate the candy. -Further research showed that the kids that could delay gratification were more successful later in life.

Pavlov and Behaviorism

-Ivan Pavlov is most famous for his work on Classical Conditioning. -It is important to note that while he observes and describes Classical Conditioning - He does not invent it. It existed before it was described by psychologists. -He and John B. Watson are famous for believing Psychology should be an objective science based on observable behavior. -This is Behaviorism - The view that Psychology should be an objective science (1) and study behavior without reference to mental processes (2). -Today most agree with point 1, but not point 2.

Coping

-Life is full of problems and stress - we need to learn to Cope. -That is, alleviate stress using emotional, cognitive, or behavioral methods. -We address stress directly with Problem-Focused Coping. -This is attempting to alleviate stress by changing the stressor or the way we interact with that stressor. -Think about working a problem out directly with a person. -In this method we will feel a sense of control and we can change the circumstances or ourselves to deal with the situation. -There is also Emotion-Focused Coping -In this method we avoid or ignore a stressor and attend to emotional needs related to one's stress reaction. -Rather than working the problem out with the person you may turn to others for comfort. -You can also use hobbies, etc to distract yourself. -This can be bad at times and your distractions could always make the problem worse.

B.F. Skinner

-Modern Behaviorism's most influential and controversial figure. -Expands on Edward L. Thorndike -Known for the Law of Effect: -Behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely, and that behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences become less likely. -To do so, Skinner creates an Operant Chamber (AKA a Skinner Box) -The chamber contains a bar or key that the animal can manipulate to obtain a food or water reinforcer. -The box will also record the responses and the rate of responses. -Animals put in this chamber act out Skinner's concept of reinforcement. -This is any event that strengthens the behavior it follows.

Biological Predisposition

-Natural or biological behaviors are learned to aid survival. -Conditioning that follows these natural behaviors are more effective.

Overjustification Effect

-Occurs when an expected external incentive such as money decreases intrinsic motivation to produce a task. -If you did something once for fun, but then get paid for it, it will be harder or impossible to return to doing it for fun. -Rewards must continue to be offered to sustain the activity.

Pavlov's Legacy

-Pavlov's work can be applied to virtually all living organisms. -He showed that learning could be studied objectively. The dog's saliva was measured by the cubic centimeter - no one had to guess what the dog was thinking. It inspired other work. John Watson's work with Little Albert which attempted to show that human emotions were a bundle of conditioned responses.

Primary and Conditioned Reinforcers

-Primary Reinforcers are innately reinforcing stimuli. -Like the Unconditioned Stimulus/Response these are unlearned - they are just naturally occurring. -Again, food is a good example. -Conditioned or Secondary Reinforcers are stimuli that gains its reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer. -These are learned associations. -Money is a good example, as it can be used to buy food.

Applying Social Learning

-Prosocial (positive, helpful) models have prosocial effects. -You will learn better when you can observe a knowledgeable or experienced person. -A person who is helpful or nonviolent can promote this behavior in others. -Parents will pass on these sorts of traits to their children as well through modeling. -Modeling is most effective when the actions and words are consistent. -Tell a child to read and surround them with books. -Exposed to a hypocrite they tend to imitate the hypocrisy.

What is learning?

-Psychologists define Learning as the process of acquiring new and relatively enduring information or behaviors. We learn by association -Our minds like to connect events that occur in sequence. -If you smell something good, then eat it and it is good, when you smell it again you will expect it to be satisfying to eat again. -Associations can be subtle. -We associate a red pen with correcting work. -If you are given a red pen you will likely spot more errors and give lower grades. -Associations also feeds habitual behaviors -The more we do something, like walking certain routes to class, the more the behaviors become associated with the context. You will take the same route in the same context. -On a side note, it will take about 66 days for a new behavior to become a habit. Habituation: -An organism's decreasing response to a stimulus with repeated exposure. -If someone squirts you with water, your reaction will diminish over time. -If someone shocks you after squirting you, your reaction would intensify. By linking those two events together it becomes Associative Learning: -Learning that certain events occur together. These can be two stimuli or a response and its consequences. The process of learning associations is called Conditioning: -In Classical Conditioning you associate two stimulus (any event or situation that provokes a response) to anticipate an event. -A flash of lightning occurs before thunder. -In Operant Conditioning we learn to associate a response (our behavior) and its consequence. More on both of these soon...

Punishment

-Reinforcement increases a behavior. -Any kind of reinforcement encourages behavior. -Don't be fooled by Negative Reinforcement - it is not a punishment. -Rather, think of it like math: Positive adds a behavior and Negative subtracts it. Punishment decreases a behavior. -Touching the hot stove will teach you to not touch it again. -A can opener might make the cat come running, but if you call it with the can opener in order to lock it in a room, it might learn to stop coming. -Punishment tells you what not to do. -Reinforcement tells you what to do.

Skinner's Controversy

-Remember, Skinner is very much a behaviorist. -This means that for him, your internal thoughts and feelings do not influence your behavior - instead, external influences shape behavior. -Thus, if behavior is shaped by outside resources we should use rewards to evoke more desirable behaviors. -This upsets people - Critics say this dehumanizes people by neglecting personal freedom. -Skinner argued that we are already controlled by external consequences - we might as well use them to help people.

Other effects of Cognition

-Some learning comes with little or no interaction with our environment. -That is known as insight - a sudden realization of a problem's solution. -It is different from latent learning because it is abrupt - there was no time to learn from the environment. -This can be seen in Kohler's work with Chimpanzees -Wolfgang Kohler saw insight learning in his Chimpanzees -One example consisted of placing bananas outside of their cage, out of reach. -He then gave them two poles, neither of which was long enough to reach the bananas. -Kohler showed them how to put a stick on their finger, but this was not the solution. -Suddenly they put the sticks together so they were long enough to reach the bananas. -This is abrupt, sudden, or insight learning.

Self Control

-The ability to control impulses and delay short term gratification for greater long term rewards. -This ability predicts better grades, success, and lower risks of depression. -Can be fluctuate. -Researchers have found that using willpower depletes blood sugar and shows neural activity associated with mental focus. -With attention and energy we can grow our willpower/self regulation.

Operant Conditioning PT.2

-The lever or human face, etc, are considered a discriminative stimulus. -That is a stimulus that elicits a response after an associating with reinforcement. -Pigeons can and have been trained to discriminate between flowers, people, cars, chairs, etc. -After learning this they can usually identify the category a new picture belongs in. -When/If you have kids, be careful to know what you are reinforcing. -If a child whines for something, and then gets it, the whining is reinforced.

Punishment and Parenting

-There are four major drawbacks to using physical punishment in parenting. -Punished behavior is suppressed, not forgotten. -Punishment teaches discrimination among situations. -Does it end the behavior or do kids learn to just not do that around their parents? -Punishment can teach fear. -Remember generalization. The punishment can cause the child to fear the parent. -Physical Punishment may increase aggression by modeling aggression as a way to cope with problems. -Spanked children are more at risk for aggression, depression and low self-esteem. THE OTHER SIDE Some Psychologists say the previous issues only matter because they can trigger pre-existing conditions: -If you adjust for pre-existing conditions, many psychologists feel that a swat is an acceptable back up to other tools such as timeouts, reasoning and reinforcement. -Not everyone is convinced. In the end, the biggest thing that Punishment teaches is how to avoid punishment: -If you want a behavior to be learned, Reinforcement is much better.

Token Economy

-This is a system where the reinforcer is a symbol or "token" that can be exchanged for other reinforcers. -Think of earning points to eventually get a reward. -This can be reinforced on different schedules of course.

Associative Learning

-This is learning that certain events occur together. -Classical Conditioning and Operant Conditioning are both forms of Associative Learning. -Classical Conditioning forms associations between stimuli. -A CS begins to trigger the same response as the US.

Instinctual Drift

-This is the tendency of an animal to revert to instinctive or biological behaviors that interfere with a conditioned response. -A raccoon can be trained to put coins in a piggy bank, but it may also follow its instinctive behavior to put tokens on the ground or turn them over in their hands/wash them like they do with food.

Blocking Effect

-This occurs when, during the conditioning process, the CS is presented with a second CS that has already been associated with the US. -Once it has learned one reliable CS it will not learn another. -This is seen in the previous example with the rat/shocks.

Imitation

-Visible in many animals -Rhesus macaque monkeys will make up quickly after a fight if they grew up with forgiving adults. -Chimpanzees pass down ideas about foraging and tool behavior through their family groups. -Imitation is very big in humans. -Think about popular culture. -Catchphrases, fashions, ceremonies, foods, traditions, morals, and fads are all spread through imitation. (Silliest example I can find: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0M_kpxLXXM) -Babies can copy an adult sticking out their tongue and eventually can learn to look where an adult is looking (among other behaviors). -2-5 year old children can over imitate. -They will do most of what they observe. -For example if they are shown you have to wave a stick before you pull open a drawer, they will repeat the behavior.

Humans and Mirror Neurons

-We are not currently certain if the human ability to imitate or feel empathy is the result of mirror neurons or distributed brain networks. -Regardless, we know that the ability to feel empathy and infer resides in the brain. -This ability is also known as theory of mind. -This works in a number of situations. -Our faces mirror a loved ones when they are upset. -We laugh when others laugh. -A smoker's brain will simulate smoking when watching someone else smoke. -Brain activity underlies our social nature.

How do we reinforce and create a behavior?

-You can tease out the behavior by shaping. -This is gradually guiding behavior closer and closer towards the desired behavior. -If you were to do this with a rat you would: -Observe the rat's behaviors to build on its existing behavior. -Feed it when it gets close to the lever you want it to push. -Do this more as it gets closer. -Then reward it for touching the lever and only that. -Eventually this will shape the desired behavior. -Shaping has allowed for other discoveries. -For example: Pigeons could be taught to peck when they saw a human face and not other shapes. -Therefore, we know that pigeons can recognize human faces. Chaining: -In terms of learning, chaining is when you add small behaviors together to create a larger, more complicated, and sophisticated behavior. -Think of toilet training children - You have to go through the steps, not just tell them to go to the bathroom.

Conditioned Response (CR).

A learned response to a previously neutral stimulus. (Conditioned = Learned)

The food was the Unconditioned Stimulus (US).

A stimulus that unconditionally (naturally and automatically) triggers a response. (Unconditioned = Unlearned.)

Conditioned Stimulus (CS).

An originally irrelevant stimulus that after association with an unconditioned stimulus comes to trigger a conditioned response. (Conditioned = Learned)

Unconditioned Response (UR).

An unlearned, naturally occurring response to an unconditioned stimulus. (Unconditioned = Unlearned.)

Albert Bandura

Best known for his work in Observational Learning. Specifically, Bandura is known for his experiment known as "The Bobo Doll experiment" but did not like to be known as that... In this experiment, a child works on a drawing while in another part of the room an adult is playing with tinker toys.

Cognitive Processes and Conditioning

Contingency Theory: -This argues that types of learning exist that are not explained by operant and classical conditioning. -Basically, there might be expectations of consequences that shape behavior. -So under Contingency Theory, a pairing of CS and UCS do not always produce learning - there is some prediction in there as well. Robert Rescorla: -For learning to take place, a stimulus must provide the subject information about the likelihood that certain events will occur. -Basically, Rescorla (and Allan Wagner) showed animals can learn the predictability of an event. -For example: If a shock is always preceded by a tone, and then may also be followed by a light, a rat will fear the tone but not the light. -The tone is a better predictor - it has a stronger association to the shock

Extinction and Spontaneous Recovery

Extinction refers to the diminishing of a conditioned response. This will occur when the Unconditioned Stimulus (US) no longer follows the Conditioned Stimulus (CS). Back to Pavlov - If the food stopped appearing after the tone, the dog would salivate less and less. Spontaneous Recovery refers to the reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response. When Pavlov came back hours later, the dog would again salivate to the tone. Extinction suppresses, but does not entirely eliminate a response.

Generalization and Discrimination

Generalization refers to the tendency to respond to a similar stimuli to the conditioned stimulus to elicit a similar response. -The dogs would salivate to slightly different tones. -This helps us as we can generalize fears which protect us. -Children taught to fear moving cars will also fear trucks, motorcycles, etc. -However, this can also trigger negative feelings, as in victims of abuse feeling anxiety or fear when presented with symbols of their abuse. -So while the dogs would salivate to different tones, they could be taught different reactions to different tones. -This is Discrimination - the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus.

Terms applying to Reinforcement/Punishment

Immediacy: -An immediate consequence is better than a delayed effect. -There is a window for reinforcing or creating behaviors. Contingency: -To be most effective, reinforcement should occur consistently after responses and not at other times. Satiation/Deprivation: -The effectiveness of a reinforcement will be reduced if a subject is satisfied. Likewise, it will work well if they are deprived. Premack Principle: -More probable behaviors will reinforce less probable behaviors. -Basically, subjects are more likely to complete a less desirable activity if it leads to a desirable activity. -Thus, activities can be reinforcers.

Motivations for learning.

Intrinsic Motivation: -This is the desire to perform a behavior for its own sake. -Do you take the class because you find it interesting? Then you are intrinsically motivated. -A side note: The over use of rewards can lead to a problems - Why do it if I have to be bribed to do it? -Don't forget the Overjustification Effect. Extrinsic Motivation: -This is a desire to perform a behavior in order to receive a reward. -If you are taking this class for a grade or the AP credit, you are extrinsically motivated.

John Garcia

Most known for his research on taste aversion and tested this through an experiment about rats.

Ways to Decrease Behavior

Positive Punishment- Provides an aversive stimulus. Spanking a child for misbehaving. Negative Punishment- Withdraws a rewarding stimulus. Losing your car when you break a rule. (Criminal Behavior is more influenced by the speed of the response rather than the severity of the punishment. More chance of getting caught is a better deterrent than strong sentences.)

Positive and Negative Reinforcement

Positive Reinforcement strengthens a response by presenting positive reinforcers: -It is also any stimulus that strengthens a response when it is presented afterwards. -It adds a desirable stimulus. -Food is a good positive reinforcer. Negative Reinforcement strengthens a response by reducing or removing something negative. -It is also any stimulus that when removed after a response, strengthens the response. -It removes and aversive stimulus -Hitting the snooze button is a negative reinforcement. -Negative Reinforcement is not Punishmen

Reinforcement Schedules

Reinforcement Schedules: the pattern that defines how often a desired response will be reinforced, can vary. -They all have pros and cons. Continuous Reinforcement: -Reinforce the desired response every time it occurs. -For example: Giving a rat a piece of food every time it touches a lever. -Rapid learning and rapid extinction. Partial (Intermittent) Reinforcement: -Reinforces a response only part of the time. -For example: Gambling on slot machines. It may or may not pay off, but people will keep doing it. -Slower learning, but more resistance to extinction. -The next four are schedules of partial reinforcement. Fixed-ratio schedules: -Reinforcement after a specific number of responses. -For example: Collecting 100 coins in Mario will give you an extra life. -Leads to high, steady responding until the reinforcement is delivered. -After reinforcement there is usually a brief pause before responding continues. Variable-ratio schedules: -Reinforcement after an unpredictable number of responses. -For example: Slot machines - you never know when they will pay off. -The more you respond, the more chances of reinforcement. -Think of gambling - people keep going seeking that pay off. Fixed-Interval Schedules: -Reinforces a response after a specific amount of time has passed. -For example: A paycheck. -Typically an animal will increase their responses as they get close to the time for reinforcement. Variable-interval schedules: -Reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals. -For example: Checking your e-mail will randomly provide reinforcement. -Tends to produce slow, steady responding.

Bobo Doll Experiment

Researchers physically and verbally abused a clown-faced inflatable toy in front of preschool-age children, which led the children to later mimic the behaviour of the adults by attacking the doll in the same fashion. Example: (Can you see the truth in this? If your older sibling got in trouble for something, do you know not to do it? What have you learned from watching your parents as you've grown up? Remember, learning this way is Observational Learning. What your parents/teachers/siblings etc. have done is Modeling.)

Cognitive Learning

The acquisition of mental information, whether by observing events, by watching others, or through language. -Observational Learning is one form of cognitive learning. -This lets us learn from others experiences. -More in this in a few days.

Higher Order Conditioning

The procedure in which the conditioned stimulus in one experience is paired with a new neutral stimulus, creating a second, often weaker, conditioned stimulus. (Example: A dog is conditioned to salivate (CR) at the sound of a tone (CS). If you introduce a light (NS) before the tone (CS), eventually you can remove the tone and the dog will salivate (CR) at the sight of the light alone.)

Classical Conditioning

a type of learning where one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events. (Conditioned = Learned)