Psych- Chapter 6 - Learning

Pavlov's Classical Conditioning Model

UCS (meat powder) is paired with a neutral stimulus (metronome clicking) and produces UCR (salivation). Then the metronome is presented alone, and CR (salvation) occurs.

TV/ video game violence impact on violence - (Less/More impact)

Video Game = Less impact - Less realistic, violence shown may be hard to imitate (shooting spaceships), violence against non-humans. Video Game = More impact - Identifying with an aggressor, active participation, practicing whole action sequences, repeated/continuous violence, rewards for violence.

Classical (Pavlovian) conditioning

form of learning in which animals come to respond to a previously neutral stimulus that had been paired with another stimulus that elicits an automatic response. ex. Dogs start drooling when they anticipate meat.

conditioning

forming associations among stimuli - once we form these associations ex connection between our mother's voice and her face - we need only recall one element of the pair to retrieve the other

Variable ratio (VR) schedule

pattern in which we provide reinforcement after a variable number of responses, with the number varying randomly around some range. - ex. A pigeon on a VR 10 schedule might receive a piece of bird feed after 6 pecks, then after 1 peck, then after 21 pecks, with the average ratio being 10. -irregular

Terminology of Operant Conditioning: Reinforcement

outcome or consequence of behaviour that strengthens the probability of the behaviour. - Positive reinforcement (presentation of a stimulus) - Negative reinforcement (the removal of a stimulus)

It can be adaptive ..

- To learn about what is safe (ex. food), important (ex. fear of dangerous animals) - To learn new skills (ex. surgeons) It can be maladaptive....

Insight learning - Wolfgang Kohler and insight learning study with chimps. What did the evidence from this study suggest?

- Wolfgang Kohler- one of the founders of Gestalt Psychology. - Conducted studies w four chimpanzees. Placed bananas outside the cage, w 2 bamboo sticks inside cage that by themselves weren't long enough to reach bananas - however monkey had an "aha reaction", stuck one inside the other and was able to reach bananas. - Solutions to his problems didn't appear to reflect trial and error, as did Thorndike's cats, but rather *insight*, the sudden understanding of the solution to a problem. (and from then on got it right just about every time) - However, his observations were anecdotal and unsystematic - only videotaped some of his monkey's problem-solving, possible some could have engaged in trial and error before figuring out each problem. Also they were all about the same age, so could have engaged in observational learning. - Kohler's work suggests that at least some smart animals can learn through insight rather than trial and error. There's good evidence that humans can, too. .

Positive punishment

- adding a negative outcome - typically involves administering a stimulus that the organism wants to avoid. - presenting a stimulus; decreases target behaviour - ex. physical shock or a spanking, or an unpleasant social outcome like laughing at someone. Scolding by a pet owner, reducing a dog's habit of chewing on shoes.

Why are these neurons called "mirror neurons"?

- called mirror neurons because they're the same cells that would have become activated had the animal performed the same movement. ex. standing in line behind someone to use an ATM machine, however this one is slightly diff than the one you are used to using - watch the person in front of you - and you know exactly what to do

Where are mirror neurons located in the brain?

- cell in the prefrontal cortex that becomes activated by specific motions when an animal both performs and observes that action.

Observational learning of aggression Bandura, Ross and Ross (1961) - Bobo doll study

- children can learn to act aggressively by watching aggressive role models. - Albert Bandura; Bobo doll study - Baundra and colleagues set out to test whether children who observed an adult behaving violently toward a toy would also behave violently toward a toy. Research methods review: 1. What is their primary hypothesis? 2. If you were to do this experiment, what would be the control and experimental conditions? Answer: 1. Hyp: to see if children exposed to seeing violence would repeat violent behaviour 2. Control & Experimental conditions: Children not behaving violently vs behaving violently?? (or watching adults behave violent vs not?) Results: Children who saw the aggressive model were more likely to act aggressively than children who saw non aggressive model.

Thorndike's Puzzle Box experiment and "aha reaction"

- classic puzzle box research seemed to suggest that cats solve problems solely through trial and error. (aha learning was not the case of Thorndike's puzzle box experiment- found cats escape time gradually decreased- cats we're learning through trial and error through the steady buildup of S-R associations) -Thorndike concluded all learning, including all human learning, occurs by trial and error. S-R bonds are gradually "stamped into" the organism by reward.

latent inhibition

- difficulty in establishing classical conditioning to a conditioned stimulus we've repeatedly experienced alone, that is, without the unconditioned stimulus. - a familiar stimulus is more difficult to condition than an unfamiliar stimulus.

When is discipline considered to be a punishment?

- discipline is only punishment if it decreases the probability of the behaviour.

Classical conditioning and drug tolerance

- found that ppl who used drugs in a particular setting ex. always administering drug in the same room, developed an enhanced tolerance to the drug in that setting. - ex. ppl who have a beverage that tastes like beer become less intoxicated vs. a fruity beverage. This is because the cues associated w ingestion of alcohol can come to elicit, through classical conditioning, an opposite effect to alcohol, thereby compensating/balancing the effects of alc. - Conditioned compensatory response - a CR (controlled response) that is the opposite of the UCR (uncontrolled response) and serves to compensate for the UCR. - helps counteracts the effects of the drug. - ex. heroin = decreases blood pressure. If drug addict always injects heroin in the same setting (dirty club bathroom stall) then body starts to become familiar with this, and naturally increases the body's bp when addict enters the stall, before heroin is injected. This helps bp prevent bp from dropping too low. Unfortunately, this also means that addict could easily overdose if heroin is injected in a nondrug-related setting.

Habituation and sensitization in our daily lives...

- give examples of stimuli that occur in your (daily) lives that could lead to either a habituation or sensitization response

Discovery Learning

- giving students experimental materials and asking them to figure out the scientific principle on their own. - direction instruction - which we simply tell students how to solve problems, is usually more efficient than discovery learning.

extinction (classical conditioning)

- gradual reduction and eventual elimination of the conditioned response after the conditioned stimulus is presented repeatedly without the unconditioned stimulus. - (In operant conditioning, the gradual reduction and eventual elimination of an operant response when reinforcement for that response is no longer present) (ex. dog stops drooling after repeatedly not getting the reward when the sound of the metronome was heard) - extinction = active, not passive process - during extinction a new response, which in the case of Pavlov's dog was the absence of salivation, gradually "writes over" or inhibits the CR (salvation). Extinguished CR does not vanish completely; it's merely overwritten by the new behaviour. This contrasts with some forms of traditional forgetting.

Operant Conditioning

- learning controlled by the consequences of the organism's behaviour - aka instrumental conditioning - the organism's response serves an instrumental function (gets something out of the response) behaviourists refer to the behaviours produced by the animal to receive a reward as operants because the animal "operates" on its environment to get what it wants. ex. dropping a dollar into a soda machine, or asking out an appealing classmate - (operants) - A form of conditioning in which an organism learns the consequences of its behavior. - Behaviors with a positive outcome are more likely to occur in the future.

Cellular Basis of Learing

- modification of synapses - Sensitization: increased neurotransmitter effect. Habituation: decreased neurotransmitter effect. - Increased or decreased effects can result from changes in neurotransmitter release, post-synaptic receptors, physical remodelling of synapses etc. habituation: changes in synapses- connections in neurons change over time with exposure.. less neurotransmitter being released. sensitization: opposite to habituation.. more neurotransmitter being released. - Learning in model organisms: give clues to the basic processes, neurotransmitters involved in learning in higher organisms -'Conserved' processes and proteins - ex. autism-related proteins in C. elegans - scientists look at the proteins related to autism, found both in worms and humans, study effects. (worms = decreased habituation)

Fixed ratio (FR) schedule

- pattern in which we provide reinforcement following a regular number of responses - ex. On an FR 15 schedule, we give a rat a food pellet for every 15 lever presses. -regular

Fixed interval (FI) schedule

- pattern in which we provide reinforcement for the first response following a specified time interval. - ex. on an FI two minute schedule, we give the rat a food pellet for the first lever press it makes after two minutes have elapsed since the last food pellet. -regular

Variable interval (VI) schedule

- pattern in which we provide reinforcement for the first response following a variable time interval, with the actual intervals varying randomly around some average. - ex. on a VI 60-second schedule, we could give the rat a food pellet for the first response after a 20-second interval, then after an 80-second interval, then after a 90-second interval, with the average interval being 60 seconds. -irregular

The Law of Effect

- principle asserting that if a stimulus followed by a behaviour results in a reward, the stimulus is more likely to give rise to the behaviour in the future. - "If a response, in the presence of a stimulus, is followed by a satisfying state of affairs, the bond between stimulus and response will be strengthened." - (if we're rewarded for a response to a stimulus, we're more likely to repeat that response to the stimulus in the future) - Some psychologists refer to early forms of behaviourism as S-R psychology (S= stimulus, R= response) - S-R theorists believe that most of our complex behaviours reflect the progressive accumulation of associations between stimuli and responses. ex sight of friend and saying hello. - maintain that everything we do is voluntary, and result from the gradual buildup of S-R bonds due to the law of effect. - Thorndike's Puzzle Box experiment - "Aha Reaction" - Insight learning - insight- grasping the underlying nature of a problem

Schedule of Reinforcement

- refers to the pattern in which reinforcement is given. - pattern of reinforcing a behaviour (animals' behaviour differ depending on patterns of delivering reinforcement)

Partial reinforcement

- reinforcement given only some of the time - (aka intermittent reinforcement) - only occasional reinforcement of a behaviour, resulting in slower extinction than if the behaviour had been reinforced continually.

Partial and Continuous reinforcement have different effects on:

- responding, acquisition, extinction etc!

Putting classical and operant conditioning together

- similarities between both: ex. acquisition, extinction, stimulus generalization etc. - brain imaging studies demonstrate that these two forms of learning w activations in diff brain regions. - Classically conditioned fear reactions are based largely in the amygdala. - Operantly conditioned responses are based largely in brain areas rich in dopamine, which are linked to reward. - these two types of conditioning often interact. -two-process theory: we need both classical and operant conditioning to explain the persistence of anxiety disorders. - Ex. People acquire phobias by means of classical conditioning. Then once they have the phobia, they start to avoid their feared stimulus whenever they encounter it. They experience a reduction in anxiety that negatively reinforces their fear. - ex. when you see a dog have a phobia of dogs - neg reinforcement involves the removal of a stimulus - in this case anxiety - that makes the behaviour associated w it more likely. Operantly conditioning themselves to make their fears more likely to persist.

Sensitization

- some cases of repeated exposure to stimuli lead to sensitization - responding more strongly over time. (enhanced response to repeated stimulation) - Most likely when a stimulus is dangerous, irritating, or both. ex. studying while the person beside you keeps whispering to the point you can't concentrate.

renewal effect (classical conditioning)

- sudden reemergence of a conditioned response following extinction when an animal is returned to the environment in which the conditioned response was acquired. - CR has been previously extinguished in a diff environment reappears in the environment where conditioning orig occurred.. ex. drug rehab - may help to explain why people with phobias - who've overcome phobias often experience a reappearance of their symptoms when they return to the environment in which they acquired their fears. ex. bitten badly by a snake in a specific part of a forest - years later, still experience fear when returning to that place.

Learning Objectives (lecture)

(1) Define learning and understand the cellular basis of learning. (2) Compare and contrast habituation and sensitization; give examples of each in model organisms and day-to-day life. (3) Analyze examples of classical conditioning and be able to identify the US, UCR, CS, CR and how acquisition, extinction, stimulus generalization, stimulus discrimination and higher order conditioning apply. (4) Identify and discuss real-world examples of classical conditioning.

Alternative explanations for media violence and real-world aggression? - 4 lines of evidence: correlational studies, longitudinal studies, laboratory studies, and field studies.

- 4 lines of evidence: correlational studies, longitudinal studies, laboratory studies, and field studies. - *Longitudinal Studies:( track children's behaviour over time - Children who choose to watch violent TV shows commit more violent acts years later. - *Experimental studies*: expose subjects to violent or nonviolent media and examine behaviour. - Subjects who view violent media behave more aggressively (yelling, administering electric shocks) -correlational, longitudinal, & field studies have strong external validity (generalizability to the real world), but weak internal validity (the extent to which they permit cause-and-effect inferences) - Laboratory studies = weak in external and strong in internal validity. Can these provide evidence for a causal link?? - Studies point in same direction: at least some causal relation between media violence and aggression. -HOWEVER, correlational studies do NOT prove causation - aren't true studies.

Mirror neuron

- Activated by performing or seeing another monkey/ person perform the action. • May partly underlie imitation/observational learning • May set the stage for social behaviour • Have been found in monkeys (and kind of in humans)

Classical conditioning and Advertising

- By repeatedly pairing the sights and sounds with photographs of attractive men and woman; marketing whizzes aim to establish a classically conditioned connection between their brands and positive emotions. - Latent inhibition - a familiar stimulus is more difficult to condition than an unfamiliar stimulus. - Found it was easier for advertisers to condition a positive response with an already familiar brand than with an unfamiliar new one.

Principles of Classical Conditioning:

- Classical conditioning occurs in three phases: 1) acquisition 2) extinction 3) spontaneous recovery

Applications of Operant Conditioning - Overcoming Procrastination

- David Premack, in his research on monkeys, found that we can positively reinforce a less frequently performed behaviour w a more frequently preformed behaviour. \ - If you find yourself putting off studying or a writing assignment, think of behaviours you'd typically perform given the chance - ex hanging w friends, going for a run - then reinforce yourself w these higher frequency behaviours only after you've completed your homework.

Learning in C. elegans (worms)

- Discovered by the Rankin lab here at UBC - Worms exhibit a reversal response to stimuli (ex. being touched by a hair, tapping of a plate, etc) - move in the opposite direction - worms display habituation with repeated exposure

Cognitive Models of Learning

- Early behaviourists didn't believe that thought played much of a role in learning. - Skinner was an advocate in radical behaviourism - observable behaviour, thinking, and emotion are all governed by the same laws of learning, namely, classical and operant conditioning. - thinking and emotion are behaviours, just not observable - didn't believe that thinking was any diff from any other behaviour. - thought cognitive scientists who believe that thinking plays a central role in causing behaviour were pseudoscientists. - argued cognitive psychology invokes unobservable and ultimately meaningless concepts - like "mind" to explain behaviour - Most psychologists today do not agree w Skinners assessment of psychology- and believe that the story of learning in humans is incomplete w out at least some role of cognition (thinking)

Desensitization

- Exposure to violence makes us less sensitive to violence/suffering - (violent video game experiment- measure skin conductance, heart rate did not rise much/was dampened when real life aggressive behaviour was observed afterward)

Biological Influences On Learning: - 3 powerful examples:

- For many decades, most behaviourists regarded learning as entirely distinct from biology.. - Yet we now understand that our biology influences the speed and nature of our learning in complex and fascinating ways. - 3 powerful examples: 1. Conditioned Taste Aversions 2. Preparedness and Phobias 3. Instinctive Drift

Classical conditioning exercise:

- Give examples remembering to list: - subject - US - UCR - CS - CR - Also try to think of how acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery, stimulus generalization, stimulus discrimination and higher order conditioning may apply to your examples.

Mary Cover Jones and exposure therapy

- If classical conditioning can contribute to our acquiring of phobias, it can also contribute to overcoming them. - Mary Cover Jones- Little Peter, exposure therapy - Modern day psychotherapists use similar practices to eliminate phobias - they may pair feared stimuli w relaxation or other pleasurable stimuli.

Operant Conditioning: Superstitious Conditioning

- In a classic operant conditioning study, Skinner placed food-deprived pigeons in a Skinner box while delivering reinforcement (bird feed) every 15 sec independent of heir behaviour- the birds received reinforcement regardless of what they did. After a few days, Skinner observed that 6/8 pigeons had acquired strange and varied behaviours, ex. making 2-3 turns between reinforcements or swinging their heads. - *Superstitious behaviour*: actions linked to reinforcement by sheer coincidence. - *superstitious conditioning*: The behaviour that the pigeon just happened to be performing immediately prior to being reinforced was strengthened- remember that reinforcement increases the probability of a response- so the pigeon kept on doing it. - There's no actual association between superstitious behaviour and reinforcement, although the animal things there is. - ex. knocking on wood, crossing fingers etc. - athletes are notoriously superstitious

John Watson and "Little Albert" study and classical conditioning

- Initially "Little Albert" liked white rats. Watson then paired the presence of the rat with ear-splitting noise of a steel bar being struck with a hammer. He was then conditioned to fear white furry objects.

Ivan Pavlov

- Initially interested in digestion - Noticed that animals salivated before being presented w food-must have learned something about what predicts appearance of food.

"Aha Reaction" (insight learning)

- Insight learning: Once an individual solves the problem, he or she gets the answer right almost every time after that. (was not the case of Thorndike's puzzle box experiment- found cats escape time gradually decreased- cats we're learning through trial and error through the steady buildup of S-R associations)

Classical conditioning and Phobias - John Watson vs Freudian view

- John B. Watson (founder of behaviourism) set out in part to falsify the Freudian view of phobias, which proposes that phobias stem from deep-seated conflicts buried in the unconscious. To do so, they conducted the -"Little Albert" study. - Mary Cover Jones' response to John Watson's conditioning study

Associative learning - 2 main types

- Learning the relationships between two stimuli -Two main types: 1) Classical (Pavlovian) Conditioning 2) Operant Conditioning

Applications of Classical Conditioning:

- Little Albert Experiment

Media violence and real-world aggression - Question: Does exposure to media violence contribute to real-world violence?

- Many correlational studies have found that children who watch violent TV are more aggressive. - prove that they're correlated, however cannot prove that A causes B.

S-O-R Psychology: Throwing thinking back into the mix

- Over the past 30/40 years psychology has moved away from S-R (stimulus response) psychology to S-O-R psychology (stimulus organism response). - organism's response depends on what this stimulus means to it. - Different reactions in ppl (ex telling 2 friends that it bothers you when they're late) - Skinner would have invoked friends diff learning histories - how each friend has been trained to react to criticism. - S-O-R theorists (believe that cognition is central to explaining learning) would contend that the diff in reactions stem from how they interpreted your criticism. - S-O-R theorists don't deny that classical & operant conditioning occur, but they believe they usually depend on thinking. - Cognitive conditioning - our interpretation of the situation affects conditioning, suggests that conditioning is more automatic, mindless process (ex. someone who's been classically conditioned by tones and shock to sweat - if she's told shocks will no longer happen = stops sweating) - Emphasize the role of expectations in learning - classical conditioning only occurs if the CS regularly predicts the occurrence of the UCS. ex. Pavlov's dogs heard the ticking of the metronome, they *thought*- "Ah, I think meat powder is on it's way"

Behaviourism

- Psychological approach concerned with observation and measurement of behaviour - Ivan Pavlov - John. B. Watson - B. F. Skinner - testable observations

Applying observational learning:

- Public awareness and social change campaigns - Ex. High school students shown video of models donating blood; blood donations increased. (Sarason et al., 1991) - Soap operas encourage national literacy (Smith, 2002(

Skinner discovered that different reinforcement schedules yield distinctive patterns of responding:

- Ratio schedules tend to yield higher rates of responding than interval schedules. - if a dog gets a treat every five times he rolls over, he's going to roll over more often than if he gets a treat for rolling over every 5 min, regardless of whether he rolls over once or 20 times during that interval. - Variable schedules tend to yield more consistent rates of responding than fixed schedules. - If we never know when our next treat is coming, it's in our best interests to keep emitting the response in case the very next response produces the reinforcer. - Fixed schedules tend to produce a pause after each reinforcer, because the next reinforcer is necessarily some distance away. - Variable ratio (VR) schedules usually yield the highest rates of responding of all. ex. casinos

Learning Styles

- suggests an individual's preferred or optimal method of acquiring new information - according to proponents of this view,some students are: -"analytical" learners (break down probs into diff components) - "holistic" learners (viewing prob as a whole) - "verbal learners" (prefer to talk through prob) - "spatial" learners (prefer to visualize prob in their heads) - *Learning styles = myth!!* - Lacking in reliability: Same student - diff results over time. - Catering to specific types of learning styles do not enhance learning. - haven't stood the test of careful research - difficult to assess learning style reliably. - Most of us are a blend of multiple styles - studies have revealed that tailoring diff methods to ppl's learning styles doesn't result in enhanced learning. Rather, most research shows that teaching approaches like setting high standards and motivation work best. -learning styles seem to be more fiction than fact.

Negative punishment

- taking something desirable away - involves the removal of a stimulus that the organism wishes to experience. - removing of a stimulus; decreases target behaviour - ex. favourite toy or an article of clothing. Confiscating a favourite toy, stopping the child from throwing future tantrums.

Instinctive Drift

- tendency for animals to return to innate behaviours following repeated reinforcement. - ex. racoons were being trained to pick up coins and drop then in piggy bank. They were able to train them to pick them up, however they couldn't get them do drop in piggybank - rather they reverted to an innate behaviour (rinsing) - treating tokens like pieces of food. - instinctive drift suggest that we can't fully understand learning w out taking into account innate biological influences, bc these influences place limits on what kinds of behaviours we can train through reinforcement.

Positive reinforcement

- the *presentation of a stimulus* (what we would usually think of as a pleasant stimulus) following a behaviour that strengthens the probability of the behaviour. - Presenting a stimulus; increases target behaviour - ex. giving a child a Hershey's Kiss when he picks up his toys. Giving a gold star on homework resulting in a student studying more. -Positive reinforcement: administer a rewarding stimulus (e.g. food, water, attention etc.)

Negative reinforcement

- the *removal of a stimulus* (what we would usually think of as an unpleasant stimulus) following a behaviour that strengthens the probability of the behaviour. - Removing a stimulus; increases target behaviour - ex. ending a child's time-out for bad behaviour once she's stopped whining. ** Static on phone subsides when you stand in a specific spot in your room, causing you to stand there more often. - Negative reinforcement: remove a stimulus (e.g. stop a loud noise)

Learning in Aplysia (sea slugs)

-Habituation: repeated poking leads to a reduced withdrawal response -Sensitization: electric shock, even if repeated, leads to enhanced later responses

When would Skinner consider actions "reinforcements"

-In both cases (pos or neg reinforcement) the most frequent outcome is an increase or strengthening of the response. Skinner would call these actions "reinforcements" *only if they make the response more likely to occur in the future.*

Phobias

-Phobias from things we never (or rarely) encounter - relates back to our ancestors troubling encounters when trying to survive. - Can be conditioned - Evolutionary predisposition for certain fears. - Many phobias may be acquired by classical conditioning - ex. some adverse outcome was coupled with the stimulus sometime earlier in life.

Continuous reinforcement

-a reinforcement is given every time the operant is performed - simplest pattern - reinforcing a behaviour every time it occurs, resulting in faster learning but faster extinction than only occasional reinforcement

Are these studies (correlational, longitudinal, field and lab studies) reliable?

-correlational, longitudinal, & field studies have strong external validity (generalizability to the real world), but weak internal validity (the extent to which they permit cause-and-effect inferences) - Laboratory studies = weak in external and strong in internal validity.

The principle reinforcement schedules vary along two dimensions:

1) The consistency of administering reinforcement (some reinforcement contingencies are fixed, whereas others are variable) 2) The basis of administering reinforcement (some reinforcement schedules operate on ratio schedules(# of responses it emits) , whereas others operate on interval schedules (time elapsed since last reinforcement))

Key Concepts in both types of conditioning:

1. Acquisition 2. Extinction 3. Spontaneous recovery 4. Stimulus generalization 5. Stimulus discrimination

Modeling as a 4 step process:

1. Attention (to the model's behaviour) 2. Retention (in memory) 3. Reproduction (be physically capable) 4. motivation (to display the behaviour) - Model rewarded vs punished for aggressive behaviour - - children who saw model being punished for aggressive behaviour were less aggressive. BUT when offered a reward to imitate the model (act aggressively), all children were able to do so.

Types of Learning

1. Non-Associative - learning about one stimulus - Habituation & sensitization 2. Associative - when we link 2 stimulus together - Classical, Operant 3. Cognitive learning models - learning and observing - latent and observational (after midterm II)

Operant vs. Classical Conditioning: 3 main differences:

1. Responses in classical conditioning are reflexive, while those in operant conditioning are (relatively) voluntary. 2. In classical conditioning, stimuli precede the behavior, while in operant conditioning, the reinforcing stimulus only appears after the behavior. 3. Classical conditioning is mediated by the autonomic nervous system, operant conditioning is mediated by skeletal muscle.

4 major reinforcement schedules:

1. fixed ratio (FR) schedule 2. fixed interval (FI) schedule 3. variable ratio (VR) schedule 4. variable interval (VI) schedule - *Fixed vs variable*: regular vs. irregular - *Ratio vs. interval*: reinforcement given for making a certain number of responses vs. being given at particular time points.

Learning Fads: Do they work? - 4 popular techniques

1. sleep-assisted learning 2. accelerated learning 3. discovery learning 4. learning styles

Conditioned Taste Aversions

- Sauce bearnaise syndrome (conditioned taste aversion) - classical conditioning can lead us to develop avoidance reactions to the taste of food. Contradicts previous examples of classical conditioning- like Pavlov's dogs: - conditioned taste aversions typically require only one trial to develop; in contrast to most classically conditioned reactions which require repeated pairings between CS and UCS. - delay between CS and UCS in conditioned taste aversions can be as long as 6-8 hrs - conditioned taste aversions tend to be remarkably specific and display little evidence of stimulus generalization. ex. avoided lasagna but ate spaghetti, and other similar dishes. - common in cancer patient- Health psychologists ask patients to eat an unfamiliar *scapegoat food* - a novel food of which they aren't fond of - prior to chemotherapy. (Taste aversion becomes conditioned to scapegoat food rather than to patients' preferred food) - Animals more easily develop conditioned aversions to stimuli that tend to trigger nausea in the real world (sensitive to taste) - The finding contradicts the assumption of *equipotentiality*: The claim that we can classically condition all CSs equally well to all UCSs - a belief held by many traditional behaviourists. -Garcia found that certain CSs, such as those associated w taste, are easily conditioned to certain UCSs, such as those associated w nausea.

How did Skinner define reinforcements and punishments

- Skinner argued that certain actions that superficially appear to be punishments are actually reinforcers. He defined reinforcements and punishments solely in terms of their consequences. - ex. a child kicking at a wall and gets yelled at by his mother - if his bad behaviour increases after the punishment, because he is kicking the wall to get attention - this may appear to others as an unpleasant stimulus (being yelled at) however it may be a pleasant stimulus to the child (getting attention). Therefore this may be positively reinforcing rather than punishing.

Accelerated Learning

- Superlearning or Suggestive Accelerative Learning and Teaching Techniques (SALTT) - supposedly allow ppl to pick up new info at anywhere from 25 to several hundred times their normal learning sleeps. - Relies on a mixture of several techniques - like generating expectations for enhanced learning, getting students to visualize info they're learning, playing classical music, breathing in a reg rhythm. - When combined, these techniques supposedly allow learners to gain access to intuitive aspects of their minds that otherwise remain inaccessible. - Evidence of the effectiveness of SALTT does not come close to matching the extraordinary claims - almost all students show that it does not produce enhanced learning

Applications of Operant Conditioning - Animal training

- Through operant conditioning, behaviourists train rats and other organisms to develop learned habits. - They typically do this by a procedure called: *shaping by successive approximations* (shaping): - conditioning a target behaviour by progressively reinforcing behaviours that come closer and closer to the target. - reinforcing behaviours that aren't exactly the target behaviour but that are progressively closer versions of it - then gradually fading (decreasing the frequency of) our reinforcement for the not- exactly-right behaviours over time. -Often combine shaping w a technique called chaining - link a number of interrelated behaviours to form a longer series - each behaviour in the chain becomes a cue for the next behaviour in the chain. (ex. Skinner taught pigeons to play ping-pong.. all contemporary animal trainers rely on Skinnerian principles)

Operant Conditioning in the real world

- Training of animals and parenting - Therapeutic uses - e.g. applied behavioral analysis - Token economies - Superstitions - Phobias

Do humans, like monkeys have mirror neurons?

- Using brain imaging techniques, researchers have identified what appears to be a similar mirror neuron system in humans but they've yet to identify individual mirror neurons, as they have in monkeys. No one knows for sure what mirror neurons do or why they're in our brains - neuroscientists have conjectured that such neurons play a central role in empathy. (ex. when we see someone hurting, we also feel pain)

Disgust Reactions

- We easily acquire disgust reactions. ex. fudge shaped like dog pooh. - reactions are probably a product of classical conditioning. - In many cases, disgust reactions are tied to stimuli that are biologically important to us, like animals or objects that are dirty or potentially poisonous.

Same Song, Second Verse

Acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery, stimulus generalization, and stimulus discrimination. (terms which we've crossed path in our discussion of classical conditioning - terms apply much to operant conditioning too)

Part 3 of Psych- Learning Cont'd (Nov 4) Learning Objectives:

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to: • Define latent and observational learning • Explain the 4 basic processes of observational learning • Describe the findings of the Bobo Doll study • Critically analyze findings on media violence and aggression • Describe the underlying neural mechanisms of observational learning.

Differences between operant and classical conditioning - Differ in 3 important ways:

Differ in 3 important ways: *1) Target behaviour is:* *Classical conditioning*: elicited automatically - "pulled out" of the organism by the UCS, and later the CS. UCR is automatic response that doesn't require training. *Operant conditioning*: emitted voluntarily - generated by the organism in a seemingly more voluntary, less automatic fashion. *2) Behaviour is a function of.:* *CC*: Stimuli that precede the behaviour - the animals reward is independent of what it does. Pavlove gave dogs meat powder regardless of whether or how much they salivated. *OC*: consequences that follow the behaviour - the animal's reward is contingent on behaviour- dependent on what it does. If they animal doesn't emit a response, it comes out empty handed *3) Behaviour depends primarily one:* *CC*: Automatic nervous system - learning often involves changes in heart rate, breathing, perspiration and other bodily functions OC: skeletal muscles - learning often involves changes in voluntary motor behaviour.

Operant Conditioning - Extinction, Stimulus Discrimination, Stimulus Generalization.

Extinction - In operant conditioning, extinction occurs when we stop delivering reinforcement to a previously reinforced behaviour. ex. When parents stop giving child his favourite toy when he screams, he may initially scream harder to get what he wants (an example of extinction burst). Eventually the child will realize it won't work and give up the screaming behaviour. Stimulus Discrimination - Group of investigators used food reinforcement to train pigeons to distinguish paintings by Monet from those by Picasso. That's stimulus discrimination, because the pigeons learned to tell the difference between two different types of stimuli. Stimulus Generalization - Pigeons also displayed stimulus generalization. They distinguished paintings by impressionist artists whose types were similar to Monet, from paintings by cubist artists similar to Picasso.

Classical Conditioning and Sexual Preference Fetishes

Fetishism - sexual attraction to non-living things - good reason to believe that fetishism arises in part from classical conditioning - ex. Michael Domjan's classical conditioning experiment to instill a fetish in male Japanese quails - Jim Pfaus, Concordia - Males who have initial sexual experiences with females wearing jackets (or sent) prefer partners with those attributes later.

Insight learning

Insight- grasping the underlying nature of a problem. - "aha" moment - sudden realization of the solution/answer to the problem - provides evidence for a different type of learning: no trial and error needed to learn. (whereas conditioning and reinforcement does) - monkey and peanut example

B.F Skinner and Reinforcement

Skinner box - small animal chamber constructed by Skinner to allow sustained periods of conditioning to be administered and behaviours to be recorded unsupervised. - Thorndike's discoveries on the law of effect laid the groundwork for research on operant conditioning... B.F. Skinner then kicked it up a notch using electric technology. - Skinner believed that reinforcement is generally much more effective than punishment in shaping children's behaviour.

Sleep-Assisted Learning

Sleep-assisted learning: learning new material while asleep - made some extraordinary claims regarding technique's potential... ex. on Amazon.com you can download various audio clips that can purportedly help learn languages, lose weight, etc all while asleep. - To the extent that sleep-learning tapes "work" - probably because subjects hear snaches of them while drifting in and out of sleep. - Recent evidence demonstrates that while asleep, participants can acquire classically conditioned responses to smells - the fact that we can learn classically conditioned association while asleep doesn't mean that we can learn new facts - let alone new languages - while asleep.

Shaping

Some operants are complex: reinforce behaviors similar to the operant until the subject can complete the full operant. Ex. Getting dog to jump up against the wall.

Applications of Classical Conditioning to Daily Life - 5 everyday applications of classical conditioning:

W out classical conditioning, we couldn't develop physiological associations to stimuli that signal biologically important events, like things we want to eat -or want to eat us. Many of the physiological responses we display in classical conditioning contribute to our survival. Ex salivation, moist skin. - 5 everyday applications of classical conditioning: - advertising, the acquisition of fears and phobias, drug tolerance, the acquisition of fetishes, and disgust reactions.

Competence vs. performance

What we know vs. showing what we know Competence - what we already know Performance - showing what we know

Stimulus generalization (classical conditioning)

classical conditioning: - process by which conditioned stimuli similar, but not identical, to the original conditioned stimulus elicit and conditioned response - something that is similar to initial stimuli creates same response (operant conditioning: the increased probability of responding in the presence of stimuli similar to the original Sd (discriminative stimulus)) - ex. Pavlov found that following classical conditioning, his dogs salivated not merely to the original metronome sound but sounds similar to it. - In class example - Snail & tape that had similar shape - Stimulus generalization occurs along a generalization gradient: The more similar to the original CS the new CS is, the stronger the CR will be. - ex. found that dogs drooled most to the original sound, with progressively less salivation to sounds that were less and less similar. - typically adaptive, because it allows us to transfer what we've learned to new things. ex. once you've learned how to drive your car, you can borrow a friends car w out relearning how to drive.

Higher Order Conditioning

developing a conditioned response to a conditioned stimulus by virtue of its association with another conditioned stimulus *- higher-order conditioning helps explain the seemingly mysterious "power of suggestion". Merely hearing "Want a glass of lemonade?" on a hot summer day can make us feel thirsty" - New stimuli become paired w the conditioned stimulus to produce the conditioned response - If CS1 leads to CR1, if CS2 is repeatedly paired with CS1, one day it will lead to CR1, even in the absence of CS1. - things that can be conditioned on top of one another.. ex. bell = food. Bell+coloured light = food. Colored light = salivation

Latent Learning

learning that's not directly observable (or apparent from behaviour) at the time it occurs (Tolman, 1932) -Reinforcement isn't necessary for learning!! - Tolman's rats trials -(learning was there all along, just no motivation) - Edward Chace Tolman - First psychologist to challenge the radical behaviourist account of learning - difference between competence (what we know) and performance (showing what we know) - distinction is important because it implies that reinforcement isn't necessary for learning. - cognitive maps - mental representation of how a physical space is organized - The latent learning research challenged strict behavioural models of learning, because their work suggested that learning could occur without reinforcement. This research falsified the claim that reinforcement is necessary for all forms of learning. It also suggested that thinking, in the form of cognitive maps, plays a central role in at least some forms of learning. - Tolman and Honzik's Maze Trials: study of latent learning in rats. The rats that weren't reinforced until day 11 suddenly dropped in the # of errors upon receiving reinforcement. The rats were learning all along, even though they weren't showing it.

punishment

outcome or consequence of a behaviour that weakens the probability of the behaviour - can either be *positive* or *negative* depending on whether they involve administering a stimulus (positive) - or taking one away (negative).

Preparedness and Phobias

preparedness - evolutionary predisposition to learn some pairings of feared stimuli over others owing to their survival value. - certain stimuli, like steep cliffs and poisonous animals, posed a threat to our early human ancestors - that's why we have phobias of such things even though we rarely encounter them. ex. monkeys can acquire fears of snakes by means of observable learning - they didn't acquire fears of non dangerous stimuli (ex flowers) suggesting a role for evolutionary predisposition in the development of fears. - Illusory correlation - a statistical mirage; it's the perception of a nonexistent association between 2 variables. - Preparedness may render us likely to develop illusory correlations between fear-provoking stimuli and neg consequences. - ex. electric shock experiment paired w pics of snakes and of electrical outlets - ppl who feared snakes related random shocks w snakes - Genetic influences prob play a role in the acquisition of certain phobias. - some ppl appear predisposed genetically to develop phobias given a history of certain classical conditioning experiences. - Some people who have phobias have never actually encountered their fear - this makes it unlikely that classical conditioning alone can explain all cases of phobia.

stimulus discrimination: (classical conditioning)

process by which organisms display a less pronounced conditioned response to conditioned stimuli that differ from the original conditioned stimulus - similar stimuli does not elicit the conditioned response - opposite to stimulus generalization (In operant conditioning: Display a less pronounced response to stimuli that differ from the original Sd) - ex. we can enjoy scary movies, because when viewing a tornado tearing through a town, we'd respond more strongly if it was tearing through our town. - learned to discriminate between televised stimulus and the real-world version of it, and modify our response as a result. - Stimulus discrimination is usually adaptive, because it allows us to distinguish among stimuli that share some similarities but that differ in important ways. Ex. without it, if you got bit by a dog, you would be scared to pet a dog in the future. - ex. react to your phone ringing but not the other ppls.

habituation

process of responding less strongly over time to repeated stimuli (reduced response to repeated stimulation) - LEARN to ignore it - Eric Kandel uncovered the biological mechanism of habituation in Aplysia (sea slug) - retracts its gill when pricked, but then habituates (stops retracting gill) if pricked repeatedly. - not all repeated stimuli lead to habituation; only those that we deem safe or worth ignoring- we typically don't habituate to powerful stimuli - psychologists study habituation by measuring perspiration (sweat).

Discriminitive Stimulus

stimulus associated with the presence of reinforcement - The stimulus (or context) that signals presence of reinforcement (i.e. that the organism should perform the operant at this time to receive the reinforcement) - ex. snapping finger to get a dog to come - dog may approach us for a much-appreciated petting. (for the dog our finder snapping is a discriminative stimulus- it will receive positive reinforcement) - ex. friend waving at us - it signals to us that our friend wants to chat - thereby reinforcing us for responding to her wave.

Unconditioned stimulus (UCS)

stimulus that elicits an automatic response without prior conditioning. - ex. the meat powder in dog experiment.

3 key concepts in Skinnerian psychology

1) reinforcement 2) punishment 3) discriminative stimulus

Chaining

Combining operants.

Thorndike's Law of Effect

If a response is followed by a positive outcome, the relationship between stimulus and response will be strengthened.

Social Cognitive Theory (Baundra, 2006) - modeling as a 4 step process

Modeling as a 4 step process: 1. Attention (pay attention to the model's behaviour) 2. Retention (in memory) -remember 3. Reproduction (be physically capable) - realistic 4. Motivation (to display the behaviour)

Unconditioned response (UCR)

automatic response to a nonneutral stimulus that does not need to be learned. - response is a product of nature (genes), not nurture (experience). - ex. salivation in dog experiment - naturally drool in response to food.

Disadvantages of punishment

can produce anxiety, only tells organism what *not* to do.

learning

change in an organism's behaviour or thought as a result of experience - exposure(s) to environmental stimuli lead to persistent changes in behaviour (or thinking) *adaptive (often) -living organisms can respond to things in the environment... being repeatedly exposed to those things in the environment = how we learn - even simple organisms (that have a simple nervous system) ex. jellyfish, are capable of learning - repetitively poke at it, it will gradually move away

spontaneous recovery (Classical conditioning)

classical conditioning: - When a previously extinguished conditioned response reappears. - usually occurs some time after extinction (In operant conditioning- an extinguished operant response after a delay following extinction) - ex. Pavlov presented the CS (tone from a metronome) alone again and again and extinguished the CR (salivation) because there was no UCS (meat powder) following it. Two hours later, he presented the CS again and the CR returned - the animal hadn't really forgotten the CR, it had just suppressed it.

Conditioned stimulus (CS)

initially neutral stimulus that comes to elicit a response due to association with an unconditioned stimulus - ex. the dog, which previously did nothing when it heard the metronome except perhaps turn its head toward it, now salivates when it hears the metronome. - The conditioned response, in contrast to the unconditioned response, is a product of nurture (experience), not nature (genes)

Observational learning

learning by watching others. (Baundra, 1965) - form of latent learning - allows us to learn w out reinforcement. - Albert Baundra: Conditioning can happen through observation.

acquisition (classical conditioning)

learning phase during which a conditioned response (or operant response) is established. (both in classical conditioning and operant conditioning) - Learning of the conditioned response (CR) by repeatedly pairing the conditioned stimulus (CS) with the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) - being repeatedly paired- shows greater response over time

Conditioned Response (CR)

response previously associated with a nonneutral stimulus that is elicited by a neutral stimulus through conditioning - ex. repeatedly paired the neutral stimulus with the unconditioned stimulus; when presented the metronome alone, it elicited a response- salivation.

Therapeutic uses of operant conditioning:

token economy - systems, often set up in psychiatric hospitals, for reinforcing appropriate behaviours and extinguishing inappropriate ones. - Typically, psychologists who construct token economies begin by identifying target behaviours. Secondary reinforcer: neutral object that becomes associated w a primary reinforcers Primary reinforcer: item or outcome that naturally increases the target behaviour - Applied behaviour analysis (ABA) for autism makes extensive use of shaping techniques - mental health professionals offer food & other primary reinforcers to individuals w autism was they reach progressively closer approximations to certain words/sentences. Children w autism who undergo ABA training emerge w better language and intellectual skills than those who don't.