Learning

Learning is defined as a change in an organism’s behavior or thoughts as a result of experience. The

phenomenon of learning lies at the heart of just about every domain of psychology. Habituation is the
earliest and simplest form of learning. It is the process by which we respond less strongly over time to
repeated stimuli. A great deal of learning depends on associating one thing with another, and to forge
connections between two or more stimuli.

Classical conditioning

Most of our knowledge of the principles of learning comes from the work of the Russian physiologist, Ivan
Pavlov, whose primary research was digestion in dogs. In his experiments, Pavlov noticed that the dogs
often started to salivate not only to the meat powder itself but also to previously neutral stimuli that had
become associated with it such as the sound of the person's footsteps who fed them the powder. This process
of association by which the dogs learned to anticipate food is now called classical conditioning or
Pavlovian conditioning: a form of learning in which animals come to respond to a previously neutral
stimulus that had been paired with another stimulus that elicits an automatic response.

According to the Classical Conditioning phenomenon, a neutral stimulus comes to elicit a conditioned
response (CR)—a response that is similar to a naturally occurring, unconditioned response (UCR).
Thereby, the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS) when it is paired with an
unconditioned stimulus (UCS) that naturally elicits an unconditioned response (UCR). There are three
phases of classical conditioning – acquisition, extinction, and spontaneous recovery. During acquisition,
we acquire the CR by pairing the CS and the UCS over and over again. In the process of extinction, the CR
decreases and eventually disappears when the CS is repeatedly presented alone without the UCS.
Spontaneous recovery of the CR can occur, however, when we are again put in the situation in which the
original conditioning occurred. Sometimes a CR occurs to a stimulus that is very similar to the original CS, a
process called stimulus generalization. At other times, the CS is seen as clearly distinct from other stimuli
and therefore the CR occurs only to that CS, and not to other stimuli in the environment, a process called
stimulus discrimination. A new CS can also be created by pairing an old CS with a new CS. This process is
called higher-order conditioning because it goes beyond the initial ordering of events of the CS predicting
the UCS.

Classical conditioning applies to many areas of everyday life such as advertising, the acquisitions of fears,
phobias, and fetishes. I shall attempt to demonstrate the classical conditioning phenomenon with an example
from my own experience as a child. When I was about 10 years of age, we went on a family vacation to the
Six Flags theme park here in California. I was very excited at being allowed to ride a rollercoaster but no one
foresaw what came next. I had a massive panic attack while on the rollercoaster and had to be taken to the
emergency room. . Now the mere thought of a rollercoaster makes me very nervous. Almost 20 years have
passed and I am still afraid of roller coasters even though I have never again been on one since that day. This
is an example of classical conditioning since fear is an automatic response.

U.S. (panic attack)  U.R. (fear)

C.S. (rollercoaster) C.R. (fear)

Another example could be the how the smell of a fresh baked apple pie from Marie Callender’s makes my
mouth water and every time I cross the restaurant I can almost smell the apple pie. Here,

U.S. (smell of apple pie)  U.R. (makes mouth water or salivates)

C.S. (sight of Marie Callender’s) C.R. (makes mouth water or salivates)
Operant conditioning

Operant conditioning is another type of conditioning, which differs from classical conditioning in three
important ways. Instead of depending on a stimulus that naturally elicits a reflex response, as in classical
conditioning, operant conditioning depends on the voluntary or emitted responses. Secondly, reward is
contingent on behavior in operant conditioning while being unconditional in classical conditioning. Lastly,
behavior is dependent on autonomic nervous system in classical conditioning while being dependent on
skeletal muscles in operant conditioning.

The most important law of operant conditioning is psychologist Thorndike’s Law of Effect that states that
if stimuli followed by pleasant consequences or rewards are more likely to elicit behavior in the future. The
law of effect was put to test by psychologist B. F. Skinner, who used a Skinner box or an operant
chamber to record the behaviors of animals following different consequences. Applying Thorndike’s law
of effect, Skinner suggested that reinforcement always increases target behavior, and it can be a reward
(positive reinforcement) or the taking away of stimulus (negative reinforcement). This action is different
from punishment, which involves either giving an unpleasant stimulus (positive punishment) or taking
away something pleasant (negative punishment) to decrease target behavior. Any stimulus that signals the
presence of reinforcement is called discriminative stimulus (SD).

Reinforcement (RF) can be continuous or partial, and can be given consistently (fixed) based either on time
(interval) or on the number of times (ratio) a behavior occurs, or it can be given inconsistently (variable), on
average over a set amount of time (interval) or the average of a number of times (ratio) a behavior occurs.
These different schedules of reinforcement result in different patterns of responding.

Operant conditioning plays a role in a number of everyday experiences such as parenting practices, animal
training, weight loss plans, studying effectively, and also to sometimes reinforcing superstitions. As an
example of operant conditioning, I would like to reflect on my own parenting skills. When my child gets a
good report card home, we all go out and celebrate with an ice cream. This makes her feel special and
encourages her to do even better in school. Here, the stimulus is ice cream that increases target behavior of
studying well. This shows positive reinforcement.

SD (ice cream)  Response (study more)  positive RF

An example of negative reinforcement would be when my child cleans her room without my telling her to in
order to avoid being scolded. Here the stimulus is her being scolded which goes away with increasing the
target behavior of cleaning her room.

SD (scolding)  Response (clean room)  negative RF

Putting Classical and Operant Theory together:

Even though classical and operant conditioning are both associated with the activation of different brain
regions, they often interact and work together to maintain behaviors, especially unwanted behaviors such as
phobias. Phobias can be acquired through classical conditioning by pairing a neutral stimulus with
something that really causes pain. These responses can be permanent unless the person is subjected to the
extinction process where they confront the fear without the presence of the unconditioned stimulus. Phobias
can be acquired through operant conditioning by repeatedly reinforcing avoidance of a mildly fearful
situation. Phobias are maintained by operant conditioning through negative reinforcement by avoiding the
object or situation that causes the phobia. As the anxiety is reduced, the avoidance behavior is negatively
reinforced and the phobia is maintained.