PSY 402

Theories of Learning
Chapter 1 What is Learning?

What is Learning?

Learning is:

An experiential process
Resulting in a relatively permanent change
Not explained by temporary states, maturation, or
innate response tendencies.

Three Limits on the Definition

The change that occurs during learning is a

potential for behavior that depends on other
conditions.
Learning is not always a permanent change.

What can be learned can be unlearned.

Changes also occur for other reasons

maturation, motivation.

Three Kinds of Learning

Adaptation to the environment

Classical conditioning

Habituation & sensitization

Also known as Pavlovian conditioning,
respondent conditioning, S-S learning.

Instrumental or operant conditioning

Also known as S-R learning.

Roots of Learning Theory

The discovery of reflexes

Functionalism
British Associationists

1.3 (A) Ren Descartes; (B) Ren Descartes came up with the concept of reflex action

Man, the Machine

Descartes proposed that the body operates

mechanically via reflex actions, similar to
machinery.
Reflexes are activated by stimuli in the
environment.
A reflex connects a stimulus (S) with a
response (R).

This concept is used throughout learning theory.

The Role of Mind

Descartes proposed that the mind could

overrule the action of bodily reflexes.
Hobbes disagreed, arguing that the mind too
operated reflexively.

Hedonism all human thought is governed by

seeking pleasure and avoiding pain.

De la Mettrie observed that humans and

animals are similar, and the body can affect
the mind, as well as vice versa.

1.4 Two famous British Empiricists

John Locke

David Hume

British Empiricists (Associationists)

Locke, Hume, Berkeley

The mind is a blank slate (tabula rasa) at birth.
Knowledge is built up from sense impressions
combined to form complex ideas.

Associations bind these impressions together.

Complexity is built from simple parts
Example of the apple sweetness, redness,
roundness, associated with taste, smell to form the
idea (concept) of an apple.

1.5 Immanuel Kant

Nature vs. nurture

Nativists (nature) vs. empiricists (nurture).

Rationalism Kant argued that the mind is prepared
to respond to its environment at birth.

A priori assumptions or ideas organize experience.

We are born knowing about causality, substance, and a
variety of other concepts.
This idea is called preparedness.

The extreme version of this philosophy is called

structuralism.

1.6 (A) Charles Darwin; (B) Drawing from one of Darwins notebooks

Evolution & Natural Selection

Darwin there is a continuity between

humans and animals and both struggle for
survival.
Perhaps the mind itself has evolved.
Functionalism because behavior promotes
survival, we can study behavior to understand
its adaptive function.

Functionalists

Dewey lower animals have reflexes,

humans have a flexible mind
James people have instincts, not reflexes

The difference is whether the behavior can be

changed or interrupted

Brucke internal biochemical forces motivate

behavior in all species.

Criticisms of Functionalism

The variety of behavior across cultures is

inconsistent with universal human instincts.
Infants seem to have few innate instincts.
Labeling everything an instinct doesnt aid
understanding much.

Bernard cataloged 2000+ instincts

Comparative Psychology

Romanes collected stories of animal behavior.

Morgan observed that dogs were not as clever as
humans in performing certain tasks.

Complex animal behaviors may be built from laboriously

learned simple processes.
We cannot judge from the observed result but from the
process of learning.

Morgans canon behavior should not be explained

by a complex process if a simpler one works
(parsimony of explanation).

1.7 (A) C. Lloyd Morgan; (B) Morgans dog, Tony

Behaviorism

A search for the laws governing learning.

Associations are formed based on:

Emphasis on experience.
Avoidance of mentalistic concepts.
Resemblance (similarity)
Contiguity in time or place
Cause and effect

We can generalize from animals to humans.

Early Experiments

Thorndike S-R learning with cats in puzzle box.

Pavlov S-S learning with dogs salivating for meat
powder.
Watson S-S learning with humans, such as Little
Albert and the white rabbit.
Skinner S-R learning with rats in Skinner boxes
(operant chambers). A radical Behaviorist.
Tolman the gadfly of Behaviorism, arguing that
even rats have minds and think about their actions.

1.8 (A) Edward Thorndike; (B) Two puzzle boxes Thorndike used to study the intelligence of cats

Thorndikes Laws

Also called S-R learning.

Law of effect A chance act becomes a
learned behavior when a connection is formed
between a stimulus (S) and a response (R)
that is rewarded.
Law of exercise the S-R connection is
strengthened by use and weakened with
disuse.

Thorndikes Laws (Cont.)

Law of readiness motivation is needed to

develop an association or display changed
behavior.
Associative shifting a learned behavior
(response) can be shifted from one stimulus to
another.

Once a behavior is learned, the stimulus is

gradually changed.
Fish + stand up, then stand up alone.

1.9 (A) Ivan Pavlov; (B) Pavlovs classical conditioning set-up

Pavlovs Conditioned Reflex

Conditioning -- a stimulus that initially

produces no response can acquire the ability
to produce one.
Learning occurs through pairing in time and
place of one stimulus with another stimulus
that produces a response.
This is a kind of associative shifting, but the
response is involuntary.

Pavlovs Studies

1.10 John B. Watson

Watson & Raynor

Human fears can be acquired through

Pavlovian (classical) conditioning.

Rat paired with loud noise

Stimulus generalized to other white objects
(white rabbit, white fur coat)

Mary Cover Jones developed

counterconditioning -- a technique for
eliminating conditioned fears.

Acquisition of fear-inhibiting response

Little Albert

1.11 (A) B. F. Skinner; (B) A modern Skinner box

Ethics of Learning Research

Animals and humans are now protected by

oversight and ethical guidelines.
Pain or injury to animals must be weighed
against and justified by the knowledge to be
gained.
Electric shock typically is uncomfortable and
upsetting but not physically harmful.

The Operant vs Respondent Distinction

How voluntary is behavior?

Operant vs respondent distinction:

Respondent behavior is controlled by what

happens first (antecedents), elicited by stimuli in
the environment.
Operant behavior is controlled by the
consequences of behavior in the past, emitted by
the organism based on prior experience.

1.12 Edward C. Tolman developed operational behaviorism

Tolmans Operational Behaviorism

Tolman proposed that behavior can be

described in terms of unobservable mental
constructs.
Thirst is a construct that relates antecedents to
observed behavioral responses.
Constructs are widely used in psychology.

Cognitive psychology emerged out of Tolmans

early research demonstrating constructs in rats.

1.13 A theoretical construct like thirst is not directly observable (Part 1)

1.13 A theoretical construct like thirst is not directly observable (Part 2)