Learning
ò  A relatively permanent change in behavior or behavior
Chapter 7
Learning
PSY 1
General Psychology
Learning
ò  Reinforced Practice & Experience – the key
factor in identifying learning as the cause of
change
ò  Antecedents of response and consequences
ò  Do your interactions with the environment,
which are reinforced by desirable consequences,
lead to a fairly consistent change in your
response?
ò  Yes. – Learning took place
Behavioral Learning
IVAN PAVLOV
ò  Classical Conditioning
ò  He was studying the physiological link
between salivation and digestion among dogs.
ò  Dogs gets excited at the sight of food,
footsteps of his colleagues entering the
laboratory, and their empty food bowls.
potential caused by reinforced practice and experience
(Hergenhahn & Olson, 2005; Passser & Smith, 2007)
ò  Important concepts:
ò  Change must be relatively enduring
ò  May or may not be immediately observed – learning
was translated into performance
ò  Excludes capability or behavior that are innately learned
ò  Maturation, Fatigue, Motivation, Evolution, Other
causes of behavior change
Learning
ò  Certain conditions must exist in both learner and his
environment for learning to occur
ò  Intellectual capacity, readiness, past earning,
motivational and personality factors.
ò  A healthy balance between a desirable characteristic of
the learner and favorable factors of the environment
Classical Conditioning
ò  UNCONDITIONED STIMULUS (UCS) – the
environmental condition that causes a natural
response
ò  Unconditionally, naturally, and automatically triggers a
response.
ò  UNCONDITIONED RESPONSE (UCR) – the
natural response elicited
ò  NEUTRAL STIMULUS (NS)
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 Classical Conditioning Classical Conditioning
Two important factors

ò  Contiguity – how close together in time are the US and

CS presented; must occur simultaneously for learning to
occur
ò  Association by contiguity is the principle that ideas, memories,
and experiences are linked when one is frequently experienced
with the other; the root of association by similarity
ò  Association by similarity is the idea that one memory primes
another through their common property or properties
ò  Contingency – the degree to which the US is presented
must be consistent

Classical Conditioning Operant Conditioning

ò  Stimulus Discrimination – only produces the CR at the BURRHUS FREDERICK SKINNER (B.F. SKINNER)
situation you were conditioned or the exact situation
ò  Change in behavior is due to reinforcement and
you are in
punishment are consequences of our responses to either
ò  Stimulus Generalization – performs the same CR to all encourage or discourage their recurrence
other stimuli that are even slightly similar to the original
CS

ò  Extinction – when US is no longer presented with the

CS; CS loses its power to elicit a response, therefore,
reverts back to original nature of being – NS

Operant Conditioning Operant Conditioning

Shaping

Skinner Box ò  Gradual teaching to produce responses towards a

ò  Laboratory rat was
successfully conditioned or
taught to press a lever inside
the box by releasing food
pellets whenever it does such
behavior
final desired behavior by giving rewards to those that
are closer to the target response.
ò  The technique in which the desired behavior is
“modeled” by first rewarding any act similar to that
behavior and then requiring ever-closer
approximations to the desired behavior before giving
the reward

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 Operant Conditioning
Reinforcement
ò  Is a desirable and pleasing situation that transpires after a
response to increase the likelihood of its relative
permanence
ò  A conditioning procedure used primarily in the
experimental analysis of behavior.
ò  A strengthening of a specific behavior due to its
association with a stimulus.
ò  Refers to anything that increases the likelihood that a
response will occur
Operant Conditioning
Types of reinforcers:
ò  Positive Reinforcers – encouraging consequences
after a desirable kind of behavior; giving incentives
ò  Negative Reinforcers – involves removal of
undesirable consequences; “dislike doing”
Operant Conditioning
2. Intermittent Reinforcement Schedule –
ò  Reinforcers are given partially or at a certain non-
continuous pattern – time (interval), behavior (ratio),
constant (fixed), changing (variable)
ò  Learned behaviors are acquired more slowly with partial
reinforcement, but the response is more resistant to
extinction
Operant Conditioning
Classification of Reinforcers:
ò  Primary reinforcer (unconditional reinforcement) – positive
consequence that transpires after a response by satisfying a
biological need.
ò  Secondary reinforcer (conditioned reinforcement) –
associated with primary reinforcers; indirectly satisfies your
needs.
ò  Generalized reinforcer – results to satisfaction and
encourages behavior by just its acquisition
*** Reinforcement must be confused with reward (a type of
reinforcer)
Operant Conditioning
Reinforcement Schedules:
1. Continuous Reinforcement Schedule –reinforcer every single
time a desirable behavior is manifested
ò  Best used during the initial stages of learning in order to
create a strong association between the behavior and the
response
ò  Once the response if firmly attached, reinforcement is
usually switched to a partial reinforcement schedule.
Operant Conditioning
a. Fixed Interval Reinforcement Schedule – reinforcers
given at a specific and constant periods of time
ò  High amounts of responding near the end of the interval
ò  Slower responding immediately after the delivery of the
reinforcer
b. Fixed Ratio Reinforcement Schedule – reinforcers are
consistently introduced after a constant number or pattern of
behavior
ò  High, steady rate of responding with only a brief pause
after the delivery of the reinforcer
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 Operant Conditioning
c. Variable Interval Schedule –reinforcers at changing
and inconsistent times (unpredictable amount of time)
ò  Slow, steady rate of response
d. Variable Ratio Schedule – reinforcers at changing
number of patterns of behaviors (unpredictable amount
of time)
ò  High steady rate of responding
Operant Conditioning
Cognitive Learning
EDWARD TOLMAN
ò  Cognitive processes, thought, and insight play a
significant role in changing behaviors
ò  We learn cognitively even during behavioral conditioning
by forming and using our knowledge and expectation
Operant Conditioning
Punishment – unpleasant or unfavorable consequences after a bad
behavior which aims to dissuade such negative behavior to occur again
– eliminating unwanted behaviors
ò  Positive Punishment – adding or inflicting stimuli as a
consequence of bad behavior
ò  Negative Punishment – the removal of wanted and pleasurable
stimulus to weaken the behavior
* Risky and damaging effects: pain, low self-esteem, aggressive behavior,
emotions and relationships
* Often ineffective, in producing change as
- You naturally revert back to negative behaviors
- Fear and defensive behavior is encouraged
Operant Conditioning
ò  Discrimination – the ability to differentiate between a conditioned
stimulus and other stimuli that have not been paired with an
unconditioned stimulus; responding only to specific stimuli or condition
ò  Generalization – the tendency for the conditioned stimulus to evoke
similar responses after the response has been conditioned; responding to
other similar reinforcement or punishment
ò  Extinction – the gradual weakening of a conditioned response that
results in the behavior decreasing or disappearing; occurs after a period
of time when reinforcement is removed
ò  Occurrence: if the trained behavior is no longer reinforced or if the type of
reinforcement used is no longer rewarding
* Opportunity to relearn or countercondition behavior
Cognitive Learning
a. COGNITIVE MAPS AND
LATENT LEARNING
Cognitive Maps – a mental
representation of our
environment
ò  Maze learning of rats
ò  Learning goes beyond
simple associations
between stimuli or
responses and is possible
without the need for
reinforcement
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 Cognitive Learning
Latent Learning
ò  Learned responses are not manifested immediately until
incentives are provided for demonstrating the acquired
behavior.
ò  It occurs without any obvious reinforcement of the
behavior or associations that are learned.
Cognitive Learning
b. DISCOVERY LEARNING
ò  Understanding – the fundamental concept of learning;
comprehension (also called intellection) is a psychological
process related to an abstract or physical object, such as a
person, situation, or message whereby one is able to think
about it and use concepts to deal adequately with that object.
ò  Rote Learning – utilize learning without understanding;
mechanical learning through reception and memorization
ò  Discovery Learning – provided with the tools and path
towards “discovery” of new concepts, especially those that are
complex or unusual

Social Learning Social Learning

ò  Model – a person or an object
ALBERT BANDURA with enough attractiveness
ò  SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY (SOCIAL and perceived credibility that
LEARNING THEORY or OBSERVATIONAL captures the attention of the
LEARNING THEORY) learner.

ò  Internal & cognitive process è role of thoughts & ò  The bobo doll experiment
images to psychological functioning
ò  Modeling
ò  Attempts to explain behavior through observation & ò  Learning through modeling
perceptions of environment is highly beneficial and
practical as it allows us to
ò  Individuals learn by observing others. avoid the tedious and risky
process of trial-and-error

Social Learning
ò  Four processes that determine if you will be influenced by the
model’s behavior: attention, retention, reproduction, and
motivation

ò  Attention – cognitive process of selectively concentrating

on one aspect of the environment while ignoring other
things; allocation of processing resources
ò  Retention – the ability to retain facts and figures in
memory
ò  Reproduction – similar to recall in memory
ò  Motivation – a driving force; a psychological one that
compels or reinforces an action toward a desired goal.