Psychology Lecture Notes
Chapter 7
Learning
Learning a relatively permanent change in a organism's behavior due to experience.
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).
-Most of us would be unable to name the order of the songs on our favorite CD. Yet hearing the end on one-piece cause (by association) and anticipation of the next.-Likewise, when singing your national anthem, you associate the end of each line with the beginning of the next. (Pick a line out of the middle and notice how much harder it is to recall the previous line).
- Answer this question: What letter comes before P in the alphabet?
Notice how you back up and go forward to get it. "LMNO ... got it!
Conditioning: Conditioning is the process of learning associations. In classical conditioning, we learn to associate two stimuli and thus to anticipate events.
In operant conditioning, we learn to associate a response and its consequence and thus to repeat acts followed by rewards and avoid acts followed by punishment.
We may have been conditioned to say please. When we said please, we got dessert. When we didn't eat our vegtables, we did't get dessert. We are now conditioned to say please.
Observational learning, we learn from others' experiences and examples.
-I learned how to dance by watching others on the dance floor.
-I may also have learned to manipulate people effectively by watching how others were successful.
Classical and operant conditioning and by observation-we humans learn and adapt to our environments. We learn to expect and prepare for significant events such as food or pain (classical conditioning). We also learn to repeat acts that bring good results and to avoid acts that bring bad results (operant conditioning). By watching others, we learn new behaviors (observational learning).
Now the book labels the elements in the conditioning process.
We have the example of Pavlov's dogs where he trained the dog to salivate at the sound of a bell. Prior to the training, the dog would salivate when he saw or smelled food. Because the salivation response to food was unlearned, Pavlov called it and unconditioned response (UCR).
And because the food was not a stimulus they were using to condition, Pavlov called the food stimulus an unconditioned stimulus (UCS).
As the experiement progressed, salivation was the response to the tone. It was conditional upon the dog's learning the association between the tone and the food. The salivation became the conditional response (CR) to the conditioned stimulus (CS) the tone.
Now how does this fit into our lives outside training our dogs? Well, I have been conditioned to stop at red lights when I am driving. I am conditioned so well that I find that when I am driving and I see any red light, my foot comes off the gas for a second until I realize that it is simply a red neon advertisement. (CS) red light, (CR) stop.
Extinction, which is the diminishing of a conditioned response occurs in classical conditioning when an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) does not follow a conditioned stimulus (CS): occurs in operant conditioning when a response is no longer reinforced.
-Example:A wife whose husband had just become a police officer, received a phone call that he husband had been shot. After rehabilitation, the husband went back to work. For a while, whenever the phone rang, the wife's heart would race and she would be overcome with anxiety. Months later, after many phone calls while her husband was at work, and no bad news, she no longer has an anxiety attack each time.
Spontaneous recovery the reappearance, after a rest period, of and extinguished conditioned response.
-Example: If her husband was hurt and she received a phone call to tell her of the news, she would immediately revert back to the attacks when he returned to work a second time.
Acquisition
To understand the acquisition, or initial learning, of the stimulus-response relationship, Pavlov and his associates first had to confront the question of timing.
-If you give the stimuli and get your response immediately and consistantly, the behavior will be acquired more readily than if either the response is delayed or is infrequent. What that means is that if you want to efficiently condition a behavior, you must reinforce it everytime and immediately.
-Example: If I want you to learn to say please and thank you, I must remind you everytime you fail to use those terms. If I remind you every once in a while, the change in the behavior is less likely to be learned or to stick. or if I remind you to say please and thank you an hour after you should have said it, it will not be as effective.
Related terms:
Partial (intermittent) reinforcement: reinforcing a response only part of the time: results in slower acquisition of a response but much greater resistance to extinction then does continuous reinforcement.
Reinforcer: in operant conditioning, any event that strengthens the behavior it follows.
Continuous reinforcement: reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs.
Generalization: Pavlov demonstrated generalization by attaching miniature vibrators to various parts of the dog's body. After conditioning salivation to stimulation of the thigh, he stimulated other areas. The closer a stimulated spot was to the thigh, the stronger the conditioned response.
-Example: My earlier driving example fits here as well. I am conditioned to stop when I see a red light. Generalization is when I find myself braking when I see any red light. Say one from a neon sign. I then realize that it is not a red light and continue. But I generalized the color red from the lights to any red.
Discrimination: in classical conditioning, the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and stimuli that do not signal and unconditioned stimulus.
-Example: When I am able to see and know not to stop at every red colored light, I am discriminating between two like stimulus.
Shaping is an operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and closer approximations of a desired goal.
-Example: If I was training a dog to climb a ladder, I would reinforce his behavior every time he made a move that got him closer to completing the task, say up one rung.
Direct experience: The acquisition of knowledge through personal experiences.
-I jumped out of a moving car. I learned that it was bad.
Now there are other ways in which we learn: .
Models: Those whom we learn our observational learning. These can be anyone. All that is needed is that we see the model has possessing what we want.
-Example: When a professional athlete wears a specific style of clothes, we see others dress similarly because they are modeling.
When a professional athlete that a teen admires misbehaves and is not held accountable, the teens also learns this message which is called Vicarious reinforcement. Defined it means:When the person we are using as a model is reinforced for a behavior, we are vicariously reinforced.
But who do we select as models? Which have the strongest influence on learning and behavior?
Peers
as models
-Our strongest reinforcements come from peers. There are many reasons for
this.
1. We want their approval so we are willing to imitate or model them.
2. We are in their presence so frequently that they naturally effect our thinking.
3. They help us identify ourselves into a group.
Parents as models
-Also very strong. Reasons:
1. Around for the early years when we are learning so much and our perceptions are still developing.
2. Sen as our first heroes. They are the ideal.
One last question. Which affect behavior to a greater degree, experience or observation?
Tough question. We do more observational learning in our youth and more direct experiencial learning as we grow older. It is a debate that continues in psychology. Sorry, no clear answer.
