Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Chapter 6
Definition
Learning is a relatively permanent change in an
organisms behavior due to experience.
Learning is more flexible in comparison to the
genetically-programmed behaviors of Chinook
salmon, for example.
-Instinctively programmed to know
where to swim, what to eat,
and how to protect themselves.
How Do We Learn?
We learn by association. Our minds
naturally connect events that occur in
sequence.
2000 years ago, Aristotle suggested this
law of association. Then 200 years ago
Locke and Hume reiterated this law.
Stimulus-Stimulus Learning
Learning to associate one stimulus
with another.
Stimulus-Stimulus Learning
Learning to associate one stimulus
with another.
Behavior-Consequence Learning
Learning to associate a behavior
with a consequence.
Behavior-Consequence Learning
Learning to associate a response
with a consequence.
Dots
JAWS
UCS: Shark Attack
Classical Conditioning
Ideas of classical conditioning originate from old
philosophical theories. However, it was the
Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov who elucidated
classical conditioning.
Sovfoto
Skinner
Watson
Pavlovs Experiments
Before conditioning, food
(Unconditioned Stimulus, UCS) produces
salivation (Unconditioned Response, UCR).
However, the tone (neutral stimulus, NS) does not.
Pavlov clip
Pavlovs Experiments
During conditioning, the neutral stimulus (tone)
and the UCS (food) are paired,
resulting in salivation (UCR).
After conditioning, the neutral stimulus
(now Conditioned Stimulus, CS) elicits salivation
(now Conditioned Response, CR)
Acquisition
Acquisition is the initial stage in
classical conditioning in which an
association between a neutral stimulus and an
unconditioned stimulus takes place.
Acquisition
The CS needs to come half a second before the US
for acquisition to occur.
UCS
CS
CS
UCR
UCS
CR
Extinction
When the UCS (food) does not follow the
CS (tone), CR (salivation) begins to decrease and
eventually causes extinction.
Spontaneous Recovery
After a rest period, an extinguished CR (salivation)
spontaneously recovers, but if the CS (tone) persists
alone, the CR becomes extinct again.
Stimulus Generalization
Tendency to respond to
stimuli similar to the CS is
called generalization.
Pavlov conditioned the
dogs salivation (CR) by
using miniature vibrators
(CS) on the thigh. When he
subsequently stimulated
other parts of the dogs
body, salivation dropped.
Stimulus Discrimination
Discrimination is the learned ability to distinguish
between a conditioned stimulus and other stimuli that
do not signal an unconditioned stimulus.
UCR
CS
CR
That 70s Show clip
Acquisition
Generalization
Discrimination
Extinction
Spontaneous
Recovery
Little Albert
Behaviorist: John Watson
Little Albert
John B. WatsonBehavioral psychologist
Young baby, Little Albert, was an orphan
Presented Little Albert with a white ratfluffy and
cute
Upon initial contact, L.A. had no fear response to the
rat
As L.A. reached for the white rat, a hammer was
struck against a steel bar above his headscared
himya think?!?!?
After 7 trials, L.A. burst into tears at the sight of the
rat!!
5 steps to classical
conditioning:
UCS
UCR
CS
CR
Spanking
Whimpering
Newspaper
Whimpering
UCS
UCR
CS
CR
Monkey attack
Tense, sweaty, nauseous
Animal cages
Tense, sweaty, nauseous
UCS
UCR
CS
CR
Db cheeseburger
Sick
seeing Jacks restaurant
nausea
UCS
UCR
CS
CR
Popping a balloon
flinching
Handing over balloon
flinching
UCS
UCR
CS
CR
chemotherapy
nausea
hospital
nausea
Jose has five dogs at home; he has always been an animal lover.
When Joses friend James asked him to come over to help train
his new pit-bull, Beast, he gladly obliged. When Jose reach out to
pet Beast the dog lunged forward and bit his hand. Jose was very
sore and needed six stitches. Jose still loves caring for other dogs,
but just seeing Beast in the window makes his hand throb.
UCS
UCR
CS
CR
Getting attacked
Hurt/pain
Seeing Beast
Hurt/pain
Pavlovs Legacy
Pavlovs greatest contribution
to psychology is isolating
elementary behaviors from
more complex ones through
objective scientific
procedures.
Ivan Pavlov
(1849-1936)
Applications of Classical
Conditioning
Brown Brothers
Cognitive Processes
Early behaviorists believed that learned
behaviors of various animals could be reduced
to mindless mechanisms.
Applications of Classical
Conditioning
1. Alcoholics may be
conditioned (aversively) by
reversing their positiveassociations with alcohol.
2. Through classical
conditioning, a drug (plus
its taste) that affects the
immune response may
cause the taste of the drug
to invoke the immune
response.
Biological Predispositions
Even humans can develop classically to
conditioned nausea.
Biological Predispositions
Pavlov and Watson believed that laws of
learning were similar for all animals.
Therefore, a pigeon and a person do not differ
in their learning.
However, behaviorists
later suggested that learning
is constrained by an animals
biology.
Biological Predispositions
John Garcia
Behaviorism
The view that psychology
1. Should be an objective science
2. Should study behavior without
mental processes
Today,
most psychologists
agree with
#1 but not #2
OPERANT conditioning
OPERANT BEHAVIOR
Behavior that operates (depends) on the
environment and produces consequences
Classical Conditioning
& Operant Conditioning
A. Classical
conditioning forms
associations between
stimuli (CS and US).
B. Operant conditioning
forms an association
between behaviors and
the resulting events.
Classical Conditioning
vs.
Operant Conditioning
Classical natural and automatic,
biological, Pavlov's dogs didnt choose to
salivate. N/A/B.
Operant your actions are associated with
consequences. The animal or person makes
a choice about what it does. Consequences
can be good or bad.
62
Reinforcers
Any event that strengthens the behavior it follows.
Behavior:
Positive Reinforcement
63
Positive Reinforcement
Add a desired stimulus
Reward for a good behavior
Money for As on a report card
Negative Reinforcement
Removing an aversive or bad stimulus
Doing SOMETHING to remove a BAD stimulus
NEGATIVE = REMOVE
Do not confuse with PUNISHMENT
The behavior is still STRENGTHENED
Taking aspirin for a headache
Parent giving in to a nagging child to stop
nagging at the grocery store
Shutting off alarm clock
Putting on seat belt
Unit #6 Learning
Outline
Reinforcers
Any event that strengthens the behavior it follows.
Behavior:
68
Skinners Experiments
Skinners experiments extend Thorndikes
thinking, especially his law of effect.
This law states that
rewarded behavior is likely to occur again.
69
Ways to
Decrease Behavior
Positive Punishment
Spanking
Receiving a parking ticket
Negative Punishment
given
Something
Removed
Punishment
An aversive event that
decreases the behavior it follows.
Behavior:
Punishment
Although there may be some justification for occasional
punishment (Larzelaere & Baumrind, 2002), it usually
leads to negative effects.
Lets Practice!
SHAPING DEMO!
Shaping
Operant conditioning procedure in which
reinforcers guide behavior towards closer
and closer approximations of the desired
target behavior.
Positive Reinforcement
Use of
Reinforcers &
Punishments clip
Unit #6 Learning
Outline
REVIEW
PR; NR; PP; NP
Step 1: Identify the behavior/issue
Step 2: Is it a behavior we want to increase
(reinforcement) or decrease (punishment)?
Step 3: Was something added (positive) or
taken away (negative)?
** YES it can depend on the perspective
you are looking at it!! ASK if confusedor
clarification!
Negative reinforcement
involves the removal of
a negative condition in
order to strengthen a
behavior!
Punishment, involves
either presenting (+) or
taking away (-) a
stimulus in order
to weaken a behavior.
Scratching
Lets Practice!
Lets Practice!
Positive
Reinforcement
Sheldon gives Penny a
chocolate every time
she changes her
behavior to be less
annoying (quieter/lower
pitched/leave room/etc.)
Lets Practice!
Positive
Punishment
The coach tries to
change his players poor
efforts on the field by
applying a punishment
of yelling at her (added)
Negative
Punishment
Umpire wants coaches
bad behavior to stop, so
he punishes coach by
throwing him out of the
game (removed)
Lets Practice!
Negative Reinforcement
Raymond agrees to cancel the
fruit of the month club
subscription to remove the
aversive stimulus of his
parents complaining/nagging
him about it.
Positive
Reinforcement
Lets Practice!
Negative Punishment
The Soup Nazi takes away
Georges soup to punish
him for complaining about
lack of bread.
Negative
Reinforcement
Reinforce customers
behavior of ordering to
AVOIDmaking Soup
Nazi mad.
Positive Punishment
Elaine???
Please answer.
Continuous vs. Partial Reinforcement?
FIXED=SET
RATIO=NUMBER
INTERVAL=TIME
VARIABLE=RANDOM
RATIO
2 for 1
10,000 for 1
free flight
50 calls for pay
Summary of Schedules
Fixed-Ratio Schedule: Set # of correct responses
must be given before you are rewarded ( Buy 2, get 1
free, ratio/no time)- Causes fast responding as people
realize how often they are going to be reinforced
Fixed-Interval Schedule: The 1st correct response
after a set amount of time is rewarded (paid every 2
weeks, bus schedules, TIME associated)
Variable Ratio Schedule: The # of correct responses
required for a reward is random , highly resistant to
extinction (Gambling, lottery)
Variable-Interval Schedule: Rewarded after a random
time period (pop quizzes/if you study, checking
voicemailwill get reward)
In... ...a fixed interval: Mopsy can pull on the lever as much has he
wants, but he is only given a pellet every 10 minutes (for example). In a
fixed ratio, this length of time never changes, so Mopsy will be less
likely to pull the level very often once he is conditioned (except near the
ten-minute mark, of course).
...a fixed ratio: Mopsy gets a pellet after pulling the lever 25 times (for
example). Regardless of the time it takes, if he pulls the lever 200
hundred times, he will have gotten 8 pellets.
...a variable ratio: is basically random; Mopsy will get a pellet for
pulling the lever after 3 times, then after pulling it 207 times, then after
pulling it 172 times... he gets a pellet based on pulling the lever, not
based on time, however, the number of times he has to pull the lever to
get the pellet changes, leading to the highest likelihood that Mopsy will
continue to pull the lever. (this one is a high factor in gambling
addictions, if you can imagine why!)
...variable interval: Mopsy is given a pellet at random times regardless
of the number of times he pulls the lever. For example, he may receive a
pellet after 10 minutes, then 6.5 minutes, then an hour.
Schedules of Reinforcement
Latent Learning
(only apparent when there is incentive to demonstrate it)
L
A
T
E
Intrinsic Motivation:
The desire to perform a
behavior for its own
sake.
Extrinsic Motivation:
The desire to perform a
behavior due to
promised rewards or
threats of punishments.
Intrinsic
Extrinsic
Overjustification Effect
When a behavior that was intrinsically
motivating (perform for own sake) becomes
extrinsically motivating (perform due to
reinforcers or punishers) due to the rewards
associated with the behavior.
Genuine love to play piano but your
parent starts to pay you $100/hour to play.
Playing now becomes extrinsically motivating
bc of the money. No longer play bc you love
it!
Overjustification Effect
Salaries:
Teachers, social workers, police, firefighters
vs. professional athletes, celebrities, lawyers
Intrinsic
Extrinsic
Biological Predisposition
Biological constraints
predispose organisms to
learn associations that are
naturally adaptive.
(i.e. pigeons pecking to
obtain food)
Breland and Breland
(1961) showed that
animals drift towards their
biologically predisposed
instinctive behaviors
(instinctive drift).
Skinners Legacy
Skinner argued that behaviors were shaped by
external influences instead of inner thoughts and
feelings. Critics argued that Skinner
dehumanized people by neglecting their free will.
Applications of Operant
Conditioning
Skinner introduced the concept of teaching
machines that shape learning in small steps and
provide reinforcements for correct rewards.
LWA-JDL/ Corbis
In School
Applications of Operant
Conditioning
Reinforcement principles can enhance athletic
performance.
In Sports
Applications of Operant
Conditioning
Reinforcers affect productivity. Many companies
now allow employees to share profits and
participate in company ownership.
At work
Applications of Operant
Conditioning
In children, reinforcing good behavior increases
the occurrence of these behaviors. Ignoring
unwanted behavior decreases their occurrence.
Operant conditioning:
Operant behavior, a behavior that operates
(depends) on the environment
produces rewarding or punishing stimuli.
Classical
Conditioning
Operant
Conditioning
Learn associations
between events we dont
control
Automatic Response
A: associating events, CS
announces UCS
E: CR decreases when
CS is repeatedly
presented alone
SR: Reappearance of CR
G: respond to stimuli
similar to CS
D: distinguish btwn CS
and other stimuli that
dont signal UCS.
Expectations developed
Associative
learning
(conditioning)
Learning =
change in
behavior due to
experience
Learn associations
btwn behavior &
resulting event
Voluntary Response,
depends on environ.
A: associating
response
w/consequence
(Reinf. Or Pun)
E: responding
decreases when
reinforcement stops
SR: reappearance of
an extinguished
response
G: your responses to
similar stimuli are
also reinforced
D: organisms learn
that ONLY CERTAIN
responses will be
reinforced
Latent Learning
Schedules of
Reinforcement
Learning by Observation
Herb Terrace
Herb Terrace
Higher animals,
especially humans,
learn through observing
and imitating others.
Mirror Neurons
Learning by observation
begins early in life. This
14-month-old child
imitates the adult on TV
in pulling a toy apart.
Imitation Onset
Bandura's Experiments
Please answer:
What are mirror neurons?
Banduras Bobo Doll Experiment linked
observational learning with punishments &
rewards. Explain the benefits as well as
the dangers of this finding.
Applications of Observational
Learning
Unfortunately,
Banduras studies
show that antisocial
(negative, harmful)
models (family,
neighborhood or TV)
may have antisocial
effects.
Modeling Violence
Video
Game clip