Chapter 5: Learning

 Learning – Any relatively permanent change in behavior brought about by

experience or practice. When people learn anything, part of the brain is
physically changed to record what was learned. Any change in the way an
organism behaves is learning. Most of our behavior is learned, while other
animals have more instincts. Humans are predisposed to things like learning a
language or walking, but they still must be learned first.
o A person born deaf might not ever develop language, even though the
hardware is there.
 Classical conditioning – The original theory of learning proposed by Ivan Pavlov,
who stumbled upon it by accident.
o Objects/situations become associated or linked with other kinds of
situations. Learning through association.
o Once the association is made, similar objects/situations can cause the
same response.
o Pavlov was in the lab studying the digestive system of dogs.
o Stimulus leads to response.
 Classical conditioning: Stimulus and response.
o Stimulus: An object, event, or experience that causes a response.
o Response: Reaction of an organism.
o Reflex response: Involuntary or uncontrolled.
o Stimulus and response is like cause and effect.
o If you put food in front of a dog, he will start drooling. Can be manipulated
as a way to teach a dog something.
 Classical conditioning: more specific definition:
o Learning to make a reflex response to a stimulus other than the original,
natural stimulus that normally produces the reflex.
o Association of ringing of bell with food for dogs.
 Elements of Classical Conditioning:
o Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): Naturally occurring stimulus that leads to
an involuntary response. Unconditioned = unlearned.
o Unconditioned Response (UCR): Involuntary response to a naturally
occurring or unconditioned stimulus. Genetically “wired” into the nervous
system.
o UCS leads to UCR.
o Food (UCS) leads to salivating (UCR).
o Neutral Stimulus – Something that has no effect on the desired outcome.
In Pavlov’s case, it’s the bell that has no meaning to the dog.
o Conditioned Stimulus (CS) – Stimulus that becomes able to produce a
learned reflex response by being paired with the original unconditioned
stimulus. Conditioned is the same thing as learned.
 o Conditioned Response (CR) – The learned reflex response to a
conditioned stimulus.
o A conditioned stimulus leads to a conditioned response.
o CS and CR – Natural response to an unnatural stimulus.
 Classical conditioning in humans
o Hate math because of bad experience in elementary school.
o Eat food that makes you sick, never eat that type of food again.
NS+UCSUCR
-BELL- -FOOD- -SALIVATING-

CSCR
-BELL- -SALIVATING-

 Classical Conditioning Concepts:

o #1: Conditioned stimulus must come before the unconditioned stimulus.
o #2: Conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus must be close
together in time (seconds apart).
o #3: Neutral stimulus must be paired with the unconditioned stimulus
several times before conditioning occurs.
 Exception: Food especially if it has a negative effect like if it makes
you sick. Then you only have to learn it once.
o #4: Conditioned stimulus is usually distinctive or stands out from other
stimuli.
 Stimulus Generalization – The tendency to respond to stimuli similar to the
conditioned stimulus. Carries over to similar things.
o Trained dog to respond to dinner bell for food. Next time, a similar bell is
rung and the dog also responds to that because it is a similar stimulus.
o Little Albert – Initially, he would be scared of the white rat, but eventually
that would transform into him being scared of all white, fluffy things.
 Stimulus Discrimination:
o Tendency to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and a similar
stimulus because the similar stimulus is never paired with the
unconditioned stimulus. The ability to separate different things.
 Dogs have a great sense of smell. They can be trained to
discriminate over time. Different dogs trained for different purposes.
Drug-sniffing dog, bomb-sniffing dog, arson investigation dog, etc.
 The dog knows the difference between the bell for the food, and the
bell for something else.
 Extinction (Classical Conditioning):
o Disappearance or weakening of a learned response following the removal
or absence of the UCS. Not reacting to a previously powerful stimulus is
extinction.
 o You associate a power drill with the dentist. Then you haven’t been to the
dentist for a while. Then you are in a new environment such as a
woodworking shop and hear the drill again. Now the drill may be
associated with something different than before. The learned response will
disappear.
 Applications of Classical Conditioning:
o Conditioned Emotional Response – When the emotional response is
classically conditioned to occur to learned stimuli.
 Phobias (irrational fears) such as of elevators, spiders, flying,
clowns, fish, etc.
 Advertising
o John B. Watson – known for his “Little Albert” experiments in the 1920s,
back when science was free for all because there were no ethical
regulations. Unethical experimentation on an infant named Albert at Johns
Hopkins University. He was conditioned to be afraid of rats and by
association other white, fluffy things.
o Advertising application – associate a product with a celebrity, athlete, or
model.
o If you eat in front of the TV always and want to lose weight, stop watching
TV because it will be difficult for you to not feel hungry in front of the TV
because of the classical conditioning.
 Learning to Fear:
o Person can learn to fear almost anything if paired with something that
causes pain, surprise or embarrassment.
o Humans are biologically predisposed to acquire some fears easier than
others (heights, snakes, spiders, water). These four are inherently
dangerous. This comes from evolutionary traits.
o Public speaking is often the number one fear and death is number two.
People would rather die than speak in front of a crowd. Probably due to
embarrassment, especially for people are who reserved and introverted.
 Taste Aversion:
o Biological predisposition to associate sickness with taste more readily than
with sights or sound.
o Can develop after one pairing of food with illness even after time delay.
o Has survival value back from the hunting and gathering days with
“unknown” fruit.
o Taste-aversion is learning is how rats avoid poison.
o Taste-aversion is usually one-time learning.
 Classical vs. Operant Conditioning:
o Classical Conditioning – Forms associations between stimuli.
o Operant Conditioning – Forms association between voluntary behaviors
and the consequences that follow.
 o Operant conditioning – If you want to train a dog to do something. As a
reward for successful behavior, you give the dog a biscuit. As a result, the
dog’s behavior will strengthen.
 Thorndike’s Experiments:
o Law of Effect – Behaviors followed by positive consequences are
strengthened, those followed by negative consequences are weakened.
o Cats escaping from the puzzle box. Over time, they took shorter times to
escape the box because getting out would be a positive consequence.
 Skinner’s Experiments:
o Behaviorist; wanted to study only observable, measurable behavior.
o Developed the Skinner Box to study operant conditioning.
o Used to manipulate a rat’s environment and therefore, manipulate his
behavior.
 Consequences:
o Reinforcement – Increases the probability that the behavior will occur
again.
 Alcoholics – Get dopamine and a feeling of escape from reality by
drinking.
o Punishment – Decreases the probability that the behavior will occur again.
 Lots of negatives go along with a drug/alcohol problem: DUI,
hangover, relationship/work issues. However, the reinforcement
has more validity for the person than the punishment. They would
rather lose their job than not get an escape from their miserable life.
o Reinforcement vs punishment: Reinforcement is much stronger than the
punishment, which is why the American prison system has a high
recidivism rate.
 Primary Reinforcer:
o An event or stimulus that is naturally reinforcing by meeting a basic
biological need.
 Food
 Drink
 Sex
 Oxygen
 Secondary Reinforcer:
o An event or stimulus that becomes reinforcing after being paired with a
primary reinforcer.
 Money
 Positive Reinforcement:
o Reinforcement of behavior by the addition or experiencing of something
pleasurable.
o Robbing a bank: The “free money”.
 Negative Reinforcement:
 o Reinforcement of behavior by the removal, escape from, or avoidance of
something unpleasant.
 Positive vs Negative Reinforcement for Increasing Behavior:
o Positive reinforcement adds a desirable stimulus. Examples could include
getting a hug; receiving a paycheck.
o Negative reinforcement removes an aversive stimulus. Examples could
include fastening a seatbelt to turn off beeping.
 Punishment:
o Punishment by Application – Presenting something unpleasant following
unwanted behavior (e.g. spanking, speeding ticket).
o Punishment by Removal – Removing a reinforcing stimulus (something
desirable) -- (e.g. time-out).
 Negative Reinforcement versus Punishment by Removal:
o Examples of negative reinforcement: Stopping at a red light to avoid
getting in an accident. Mailing an income tax return by April 15 to avoid
paying a penalty. Obeying a parent before the parent reaches the count of
“three” to avoid getting a scolding.
o Examples of punishment by removal: Losing the privilege of driving
because you got into too many accidents. Having to lose some of your
money to pay the penalty for late tax filing. Being “grounded” (losing your
freedom) because of disobedience.
 Effective Punishment should be:
o Immediate
o Consistent
o Paired with reinforcement of the desired behavior.
 Continuous Reinforcement:
o Every response results in the delivery of the reinforcer.
 If you want the dog to acquire the behavior of “sit on command”,
every time he does it, he gets the biscuit.
 Faster acquisition, but prone to extinction.
 Partial Reinforcement:
o Reinforces a response only a part of the time.
o Results in slower acquisition in the beginning but shows greater resistance
to extinction later on.
o Only some of the responses are reinforced.
o It takes longer for the dog to learn the behavior, but it is less likely he will
forget it.
 Partial Reinforcement Schedules:
o Fixed-Ratio Schedule: Reinforces a response only after a specified
number of responses. Piecework pay (paid for a certain number of items
made). For a farm worker – every bushel of oranges you pick, you get a
dollar. For factory worker—for every article of clothing you make, you get
5 cents.
 o Variable-Ratio Schedule: Reinforces a response after an unpredictable
number of responses. Hard to extinguish because of unpredictability. A
classical example of this is gambling.
o Fixed-Interval Schedule: Reinforces a response only after a specified time
has elapsed. Giving students a break every hour if they are working hard.
A paycheck that comes every two weeks.
o Variable-Interval Schedule: Reinforces a response at unpredictable time
intervals. Produces slow, steady responses. Catching fish after 2 minutes
then having to wait 20 minutes to catch the next one.
 Cognitive Learning:
o In the early days, the focus was on observable behavior.
o In the 1950s & 1960s, psychologists realized that thoughts, feelings &
expectations can influence behavior & are important.
o Cognition: Mental events that take place inside a person’s mind while
behaving.
o You can’t see a thought, but you can see the behavior resulting from a
thought.
 Latent Learning:
o Edward Tolman (1930)
o Learning remains hidden until an application is useful.
o Latent - existing but not yet developed or manifest; hidden; concealed.
o Three groups of rats – Once the rats learned they would be rewarded for
running the maze, they suddenly started demonstrating their knowledge of
how to run the maze.
o The learning was there, but there was no reinforcement for them to
demonstrate it.
 Learned Helplessness:
o Martin Seligman (1975)
o Not trying to escape from a situation due to a history of repeated failures
in the past.
o The dogs who were unable to avoid shock in the past did not avoid shock
when the opportunity became available because they repeatedly failed.
o Elizabeth Smart
 Observational Learning:
o Bandura (1961)
o Learning through imitation & modeling.
o May not involve external rewards.
o Learning/performance distinction.
o Bobo Doll Studies – little kids watch adults who were strangers interact
with inflatable dolls. Some would beat up the dolls, and others would play
nice. Some adults got punished for beating up the doll. Others got
reinforced. Those kids who saw the adults get reprimanded would not be
likely to do it.
 o Example: Child imitates adult’s speech.
o The original terminology for this was “social learning”.
o You are learning through watching others instead of receiving
reinforcement.
o Watching someone get away with something or watching someone else
get punished for something can influence our own behavior.
o “Monkey see, monkey do”.
o Animals watch a lot by watching other animals.
 Four Elements of Observational Learning:
o Attention – the learner must first pay attention to the model.
o Memory – the learner must retain the memory of what was done.
o Imitation – the learner must be capable of reproducing the actions of the
model.
o Motivation – the learner must have the desire to perform the action.