Chapter 5 Learning Objectives
LO 5.2.C Describe how classical conditioning is involved in avoiding a food associated with aversive outcomes.
A pairing of a stimulus with an unpleasant outcome can produce aversive conditioning. This happens such as when a person may eat a certain food such as sushi. You may have eaten this a few hours before you became ill then believed for it to be the cause of your illness when it had no real relation to your sickness.
LO 5.2.D Describe how classical conditioning can affect reactions to medical treatments, including a patient's reaction to a placebo.
Classical conditioning can affect reactions to medical treatments. This happens when a specific drug is an unconditioned stimulus for nausea and vomiting while other neutral stimuli like sights and smells of a clinic become the conditioned stimulus by association. Patients with cancer can acquire classically conditioned anxiety response to anything that is involved with their chemotherapy. However, placebos are injections or pills that contain no active ingredients and no direct effects on the problem, but with expectations of feeling better, it creates an aversion response that reduces their anxiety.
LO 5.2.A Provide an example of how classical conditioning takes place in forming preferences.
Classical conditioning involves behaviorism and how the environment or prior experiences plays on our behavior. It explains our emotional responses to objects, people, events, and places typically through a neutral stimulus. It's even seen in advertising to make a product more appealing like when you see people having a good time or a specific item triggers an emotional response persuading you to buy.
L.O 5.1.A Explain the key elements of classical conditioning.
Classical conditioning is a process where a neutral stimulus becomes associated with a stimulus that already elicits a response. It starts with the unconditioned stimulus which is natural and automatically triggers a response without prior learning. The unconditioned response occurs in the reaction to the unconditioned stimulus. A neutral stimulus that is associated with the unconditioned stimulus then becomes conditioned. Conditioned responses are elicited by the CS and occur once the conditioned stimulus has been associated with the unconditioned.
L.O 5.1 B Discuss basic principles of classical conditioning, including extinction and recovery, higher-order conditioning, and stimulus generalization and discrimination.
In extinction, the conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus, and the conditioned response eventually disappears, although it may reappear (spontaneous recovery). ex. ringing dogs food bell without food but ends up working the next day. In higher-order conditioning, a neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus by being paired with an already existing conditioned stimulus. ex: Food dish (CS) light (new NS) = conditioned too. In stimulus generalization, after a stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus, a similar stimulus may produce the same or similar reaction. (piano key C Is like D) In stimulus discrimination, different responses are made to two or more stimuli that are similar but different. ex. (dog salivate to key c because its followed by food but key d doesn't have food causing him to discriminate between the two sounds)
LO 5.3. Discuss how Edward Thorndike's research served as the basis for operant conditioning.
In operant conditioning, behavior becomes more or less likely to occur depending on its consequences. His research started by placing a cat in a puzzle box while it tried to reach a piece of fish located outside of the box. After a few attempts, the cat learned how to get out and receive the piece of fish. The focus of this was to understand the behavior from external causes of an action and its consequences.
LO 5.6.A Define latent learning, and give an example of how it might work in the daily life of a college student.
Latent learning is when no obvious reinforcer is present during learning and a response is not expressed until later when reinforcement does become available. What appears to be acquired in latent learning is not a specific response but the knowledge about responses and their consequences. This applies to a college student where one may be given materials to study but doesn't until they end up failing most exams. The student then learns to be successful upon the skills he was previously given.
LO 5.4.B Discuss some of the misconceptions surrounding both the work of B. F. Skinner and the general goals of operant conditioning.
Many misconceptions are formed around Skinner due to misunderstandings. Many believed Skinner denied the existence of consciousness. However he believed that perception, emotions and thoughts are as real and we can study them through our own sensory responses. The components of our consciousness are behaviors due to punishes and reinforcers, but that our thoughts/feelings cannot explain behavior. It explains why people do what they do. With the application of operant conditioning it teaches new responses and reduces problematic behavior.
LO 5.6.B Define observational learning, and give an example of how it might occur during childhood.
Observational learning is a process where an individual learns new responses by observing the behavior through another person rather than direct experiences. But with social-cognitive, people who live through events develop beliefs and perceptions. It's a way people learn lessons and create an emphasis on personal views/beliefs. A child typically observes and learns through the actions of others. When they see another child not receive what they want through a specific action such as screaming, the child learns not to do it.
LO 5.4.A Describe the basic principles of operant conditioning, including extinction and recovery, stimulus generali zation and discrimination, and schedules of learning and shaping.
Operant conditioning is associated with behavior and its consequences. Extinction takes place when a response is no longer followed by a reinforcer/reward but can occur again with spontaneous recovery. Intermittent (or partial) reinforcement used, it resists extinction as long as positive results occur in once a while. Continuous reinforcement leads to rapid learning. Intermittent is more preferred than continuous because it allows a response to occur persistently. In stimulus generalization, a new stimulus creates a similar response to the previously conditioned stimuli The discriminative stimulus is when a specific stimulus signals a response that is followed by a type of consequence. This can occur when a light serves as a discriminative stimulus by bringing a reward but is followed by a consequence when the light is off. Shaping is used to train behaviors with gradual responses and using successive approximations to reward behaviors increases similarity to close responses. However, there are limits by genetic dispositions and physical characteristics. Indistinictive drift is the tendency for an organism to revert to instinctive behavior.
LO 5.5.A List and discuss reasons why punishment often fails to effectively change behavior.
Punishment, is used to discourage bad behavior, but it is frequently misused and can have unintended consequences. It is often used in a wrong manner because of the emotion in the moment; it may produce rage and fear; its effects are often only temporary; it is hard to administer immediately; it teaches little about the kind of behavior that is wanted instead, and it may provide attention, that is rewarding. Overall, the severity of a punishment makes no difference but the important factor is consistency.
L.O. 5.3.B Distinguish between reinforcement and punishment and provide examples of the different types of reinforcement and punishment: primary and secondary, and positive and negative.
Reinforcement strengthens or increases the probability of a response alike to a reward, whereas punishment weakens or decreases the probability of a response. --Primary reinforcers are naturally reinforcing because they satisfy a biological need involving food, water, etc., --Secondary strengthens responses through the association of other reinforcers. Things such as money have power over people's behaviors because they can be exchanged for primary reinforcers. --Positive reinforcements involve rewards received after doing something good (Response followed by pleasurable stimulus) --Negative reinforcement is when you finally decide to do something because of being nagged. (Response followed by unpleasant stimulus) A similar relationship is found for punishers. -Primary punishes inherently punish through heat, pain, or cold where a --Secondary punishes contain an associated stimulus. (Critiscism or bad grades) --Positive punishment is when something unpleasant occurs following behavior like when friends tease you for studying --Negative punishes when that pleasure is removed following behavior. (Lose time with friends due to studying)
LO 5.5.B Discuss reasons why rewards may backfire and not produce their intended results for behavior.
Reinforcers can also be misused. Rewards that are given out as in efforts to raise children's self-esteem, do not reinforce or improve academic performance. Extrinsic reinforcement should be used carefully and not overdone. These reinforcements tend to convince a person to do an activity solely off of the rewards like money and attention, and become less enjoyable and may be seen as work. Intrinsic reinforcers however are good rewards for the self satisfaction and not on external sources.
LO 5.2.B Provide an example of how classical conditioning can create learned fears, and describe how the process of counter conditioning takes place.
We can learn to fear through associations if paired with pain or embarrassment. In the example of the boy Albert, he learned to be afraid of rats (the NS) with a loud noise (the US). He later generalized that fear with other furry objects that were closely related such as white rabbits. However, the process of counterconditioning is the pairing of a conditioned stimulus with a stimulus that creates an unwanted conditioned response. This does the opposite of creating the fear but taking away the fear associated with positive actions of the stimulus and leads to new learning that overrides the old.
LO 5.1.C Explain why the stimulus to be conditioned should precede the unconditioned stimulus in classical con ditioning.
What an animal or person learns in classical conditioning is not just an association between the unconditioned and conditioned stimulus, but for the stimulus to be conditioned the neutral stimulus needs reliable signals to predict the unconditioned stimulus. This was said to be by Robert Resconda in 1988.
Difference between operant conditioning and classical
classical conditioning depends on developing associations between events and responses while operant conditioning involves learning from the consequences of our behavior.
