CHAPTER 6 TYPES OF LEARNING

Learning Goal One: Explain what learning is.

Goal Two: Describe classical conditioning.

How sniffer dogs are trained

Search and rescue

Provide assistance in disasters

Intensive training using learning principles

Recertified every two years based on performance criteria

Types of Learning A. Learning involves a relatively permanent change in

behavior.

B. Behaviorism is a theory of learning that involves observable behavior. It does not include mental activity such as thinking, wishing, and hoping.

C. Associative learning occurs when an association is made between two events. Conditioning occurs when you have learned about the association. There are two types of conditioning: classical conditioning and operant conditioning.

D. Observational learning occurs when an individual observes and then imitates another individual’s behavior.

Classical Conditioning Classical conditioning occurs when a

neutral stimulus is associated with a meaningful stimulus and then acquires a similar response.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c4_l2oe22U

Pavlov’s Studies Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist, is a

pioneer in classical conditioning. He conducted research looking at digestion in the body. He discovered that dog’s salivated to more than just meat powder being placed in their mouth. The dogs salivated to the sight of the meat powder, the individual that brought the meat powder, and the sound of the door closing when the meat powder arrived.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OLdb9Vh10E

Components The dog’s behavior included both learned and

unlearned components. The unlearned components are known as reflexes.

An unconditioned stimulus (UCS) is a stimulus that brings about a response without any prior learning.

An unconditioned response (UCR) is the unlearned response to the UCS.

The conditioned stimulus (CS) is a neutral stimulus that when associated with the UCS elicits a conditioned response.

A conditioned response (CR) is the learned response of the CS.

Acquisition a. Acquisition is the learning of the

association between the stimulus and the response.

b. The timing interval between the CS and UCS determines the contiguity in time and space. Conditioned responses are learned best when the CS and UCS occur close together.

c. Not only must there be contiguity, but there also must be contingency, which is the predictability of the occurrence of one stimulus from presence of another stimulus.

Generalization and Discrimination a. Generalization occurs when a new

stimulus that is similar to the original stimulus elicits a response that is similar to the CR.

b. Discrimination is learning to respond to certain stimuli while not responding to others.

Extinction and Spontaneous Recovery

a. When the UCS is taken away and no longer associated with the CS, then extinction occurs. Extinction is the weakening of the CR in the absence of the UCS.

b. Spontaneous recovery occurs when the CR returns after a time delay without any further conditioning occurring.

c. Renewal refers to the recovery of the conditioned response when the organism is placed in a novel context.

Classical Conditioning in Humans

Explaining Fears

a. Classical conditioning provides an explanation for phobias, which are described as irrational fears.

b. John Watson and his graduate student Rosalie Rayner described phobias in an experiment involving an infant named Albert. They brought a white rat into the room and Albert was not afraid of the rat; he played with it. Later, when Albert played with the white rat, Watson made a loud noise behind Albert’s head and Albert began to cry out of fear from the loud noise. The next time Watson and Rayner brought the white rat into the room Albert started crying at the sight of the white rat. He associated the white rat with the previous loud noise that occurred the last time he was playing with the white rat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hBfnXACsOI

Breaking Habits a. Therapists use counterconditioning, which

occurs when the CR is weakened because the stimulus is associated with a new response that is not compatible with the unwanted behavior.

b. Aversive conditioning is a form of treatment that consists of repeated pairings of a stimulus with a very unpleasant stimulus. To reduce drinking, every time a person drinks an alcohol beverage, he or she also consumes a mixture that induces nausea.

Classical Conditioning and the Placebo Effect

The principles of classical conditioning help us to explain how the placebo effect works in research on the immune system and the endocrine system.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qcrSm1PxJU

Classical Conditioning and the Immune and Endocrine Systems

a. Even the human body’s internal organ system can be classicaly conditioned. Research has found evidence that suggests classical conditioning can produce immunosuppression, a decrease in the production of antibodies, which can lower a person’s ability to fight a disease.

b. Similar results in the endocrine system have been found that link the taking of placebo pills with an increase in secretion of hormones that were produced when patients had previously been taking the actual drugs.

c. Stress also has an important role in the learned associations between conditioned stimuli and immune and endocrine functioning.

Taste Aversion Learning A special type of classical conditioning is called

taste aversion, by which an individual learns an association between a particular taste and nausea. It is a special case because it only requires one pairing of the neutral stimulus with the conditioned response.

To combat this special type of learning, researchers have designed specific medications with flavorful, more appealing tastes to reduce the often negative responses to these drugs. This way, the patient is more likely to develop taste aversion to the flavor and not to the medication itself.

Classical Conditioning and Advertising

Many advertisers use classical conditioning by associating something naturally good, which is the UCS, with something neutral, which is the CS. When these stimuli occur together the neutral stimulus brings on the same response as the naturally occurring response.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JOmlHoAWlY

Classical Conditioning and Drug Habituation

a. When drugs are taken at a certain time of day and in a certain place, the body will react in anticipation of the upcoming drug ingestion. Habituation refers to the decreased responsiveness to a stimulus after repeated presentations.

b. This aspect of drug use has been found to play a role in death caused by drug overdose. The drug user usually takes the drug in a certain place, for example their bedroom. A CR is acquired to this location. Because of classical conditioning, as soon as the drug user enters the bedroom the person’s body begins to prepare for the upcoming drug ingestion in order to lessen the effects of the insult of the drug. But, let’s say the drug user is at a friend’s house and they go into the friend’s bedroom to take the drug. The effect of the drug is greater because there was no CR built up for the friend’s bedroom and therefore, the body is not prepared for the drug ingestion.

Classwork Use Activity Handout 6.1: Identify the UCS, CS, UCR and CR

students choose a phobia and then search on the Internet for information regarding that phobia. They should then write a one to two page paper summarizing what they found in their research. They should also ideas for counterconditioning of their phobia.

Advertising: In a group, have students design an advertisement using the principles of classical conditioning. As an alternative, have the group of students recall a specific advertisement and illustrate the principles of classical conditioning for that advertisement in a short presentation. To make this activity more interactive, have the group bring in the item that the advertisement is for to use as a “prop” during their presentation.

Learning Goal Three: Discuss operant conditioning.

B. F. Skinner developed what is known as operant conditioning, which is a form of associative learning where the consequences of behavior produce changes in the probability of a behavior’s occurrence.

1. Operant behaviors are voluntary and bring about either rewards or punishments.

2. Just as in classical conditioning, contingency is important in operant conditioning.

Thorndike’s Law of Effect E. L. Thorndike established the power of

consequences of an individual’s behavior. In his historical experiment, he placed a hungry cat inside a box. The cat could exit the box and receive a reward of food if it could figure out how to manipulate a string by pulling to lift a door for escape. After many attempts, the cat pulled the string and escaped. With subsequent trials the cat increased its time of escape.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDujDOLre-8

Thorndike’s Law of Effect The law of effect established by Thorndike

states that those behaviors followed by positive outcomes will be strengthened and those behaviors followed by negative outcomes will be weakened.

Thorndike’s theory that a connection between the stimulus and response is needed for an individual to learn about the consequences of their behavior is called the S-R theory.

Skinner’s Approach to Operant Conditioning

Skinner believed that the basic principles of operant conditioning could be applied to all species. During WWII, he carried out studies using pigeons to guide missiles. He placed pigeons in the warhead of the missile and the pigeon would peck at a moving image on a screen and would receive a food reward when it kept the designated target in the center of the screen. The U.S. military never used Skinner’s pigeon-guided missile concept.

Skinner wrote a novel called Walden Two where he presented his ideas about a scientifically managed society that could be fully operated through operant conditioning.

Skinner https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_ctJqjlrHA The term shaping refers to rewarding

approximations of a desired behavior. Each step toward the desired behavior is rewarded until the desired behavior occurs.

The concept of shaping can be used to examine complex behaviors of service dogs.

Research indicates a connection between brain activity and operant conditioning that helps us determine which reinforcers are rewarding.

Principles of Reinforcement

Reinforcement occurs when a stimulus or an event strengthens the probability of a behavior occurring again.

Positive and Negative Reinforcement

Positive reinforcement occurs when something is given as a reward to increases the likelihood of the behavior occurring again.

Negative reinforcement occurs when something bad is taken away to increase the likelihood of a behavior occurring again.

Principles of Reinforcement

A special kind of response to negative reinforcement is called avoidance learning. In this case, the organism learns that by making a particular response, a negative stimulus can be altogether avoided. However, in some cases, this can produce learned helplessness which means that the organism has learned that it has no control over negative outcomes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6pWdIjAdn8

Primary and Secondary Reinforcement

Primary reinforcement involves reinforcers that are biological in need, meaning they are needed for survival. Some primary reinforcers are food, water, sex, etc.

Secondary reinforcers gain their positive value through experience. They are usually used to gain access to primary reinforcers. Money is a good example of a secondary reinforcer.

Generalization, Discrimination, and Extinction

Generalization

Generalization occurs when the same response is given to similar stimuli.

Discrimination

Discrimination occurs when an individual responds to stimuli that signal when a behavior will or will not be reinforced.

Extinction

Extinction occurs when a previously reinforced behavior is no longer reinforced and therefore, the individual is less likely to perform the behavior.

Schedules of Reinforcement Continuous reinforcement occurs when the

behavior is reinforced every time it occurs.

b. Partial reinforcement occurs when the behavior gets reinforced only some of the time.

Schedules of reinforcement determine when a behavior will be reinforced. A fixed-ratio schedule reinforces a behavior after a set number of behaviors. For example, if the schedule is a FR-5 schedule then the behavior will be rewarded after it occurs five times.

Schedules of Reinforcement A variable-ratio schedule occurs when a

behavior is reinforced after an average of times it occurs, but that average is unpredictable. A good example of a variable-ratio schedule is slot machines. The payout on the slot machines is set, but the player doesn’t know when that is.

There will be a win, but it will occur at some random number of plays.

Schedules of Reinforcement A fixed-interval schedule rewards the

desired behavior after a specific amount of time has passed. An example of a fixed-interval schedule is election time. Politicians beef up their campaigns around election time and then after they are elected they become more relaxed until election time rolls around again.

Time is the key here.

Schedules of Reinforcement A variable-interval schedule occurs when

the desired behavior is rewarded after a varying amount of time has passed. Pop quizzes are a good example of variable-interval schedules because the students do not know when the quizzes will occur, but they do know there will be a quiz at some point in time.

You never know when.

PunishmentThe effect of punishment is usually used to extinguish some behavior.

Punishment decreases the likelihood of a behavior occurring again.

In the case of punishment, the behavior is weakened; therefore, it is not the same as negative reinforcement.

Positive punishment occurs when something bad is given to decrease the likelihood of a behavior occurring again.

Negative punishment occurs when something good is taken away to decrease the likelihood of a behavior occurring again. A time-out is a form of negative punishment. In this situation, the child is removed from a positive reinforcement situation.

Evaluating the Use of Punishment with Children

All too often parents turn to aversive stimuli such as yelling or spanking to decrease an unwanted behavior, but this generally does not work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5EXnnJ9VwM

Timing, Reinforcement, and Punishment

Immediate Reinforcement and Delayed Reinforcement

In operant conditioning the shorter the time span between the behavior and reinforcer the better. It works best if it is a few seconds. This is especially true in lower intelligence animals. Humans, however, have the ability to learn from delayed reinforcers.

Sometimes in life the decision comes down to whether to receive a small, immediate reinforcer or wait for a larger reinforcer.

Immediate punishment is more effective than delayed punishment. Again. this is more the case with lower animals than with humans.

Immediate and Delayed Reinforcement and Punishment

Sometimes the potential delayed consequences are negative, but the immediate consequences are difficult to override. Such is the case with eating and obesity. Individuals know that eating too much and gaining weight is a health risk, but the immediate satisfaction of eating is often too great to stop the overeating.

When the delayed consequences are punishing but the immediate consequences are reinforcers, the immediate ones usually win.

Choosing Effective Reinforcers for Children

Not all reinforcers are the same for all children.

Natural reinforcers for students such as praise and privileges are usually recommended over candy or stars. Activities are the most common reinforcers that teachers use in the classroom.

The Premack principle states that a high-probability activity can be used to reinforce a low-probability activity. Probability means the likelihood of occurrence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCgnOKpMvwA

Applied Behavior Analysis a. Also called, behavior modification, Applied Behavior

Analysis uses operant conditioning techniques to change human behavior by analyzing and manipulating unwanted behaviors through the enhanced use of rewards and punishers.

b. If we can figure out what rewards and punishers are controlling a person’s behavior, we can change them- and impact the behavior itself.

c. Applied behavior analysis has a wide range of uses: training autistic individuals, children and adolescents with psychological problems, instruction of effective parenting, and to enhance environmentally conscious behaviors.