Don't Assume - Learning seems to be one process that many people take for

granted (just assume it happens and happens basically the same way for most
people) but know very little about.

Please don't forget that we have a full page dedicated to the topic of Learning and
Conditioning. You can see it here:
http://alleydog.com/topics/learning_and_behavior.php

Ask The Right Questions

So, how do we learn? How do other animals learn? Do we learn the same way? What
are our limitations? Can we learn anything? Is there one right way to learn? To
answer these questions, we need to first establish a definition of learning. Our
definition is comprised of several different components:

How Do We Define the Learning Process?

The 4 Factors That Form The Definition of Learning:

1) learning is inferred from a change in behavior/performance*

2) learning results in an inferred change in memory
3) learning is the result of experience
4) learning is relatively permanent

It is the combination of these 4 factors that make our definition of learning. Or, you
can go with a slightly less comprehensive definition that is offered in many text
books: Learning is a relatively durable change in behavior or knowledge that is due
to experience.

What is Behavior Potential?

This means that behavior changes that are temporary or due to things like drugs,
alcohol, etc., are not "learned".

* Behavior Potential - once something is learned, an organism can exhibit a behavior

that indicates learning as occurred. Thus, once a behavior has been "learned", it can
be exhibited by "performance" of a corresponding behavior.
It is the combination of these 4 factors that make our definition of learning. Or, you
can go with a slightly less comprehensive definition that is offered in many text
books: Learning is a relatively durable change in behavior or knowledge that
is due to experience.

We are going to discuss the two main types of learning examined by researchers,
classical conditioning and operant conditioning.

I. Classical Conditioning

Classical Conditioning can be defined as a type of learning in which a stimulus

acquires the capacity to evoke a reflexive response that was originally evoked by a
different stimulus.

A. Ivan Pavlov - Russian physiologist interested in behavior (digestion).

1) Pavlov was studying salivation in dogs - he was measuring the amount of

salivation produced by the salivary glands of dogs by presenting them meat powder
through a food dispenser.

The dispenser would deliver the meat powder to which the animals salivated.
However, what Pavlov noticed was that the food dispenser made a sound when
delivering the powder, and that the dogs salivated before the powder was delivered.

He realized that the dogs associated the sound (which occurred seconds before the
powder actually arrived) with the delivery of the food. Thus, the dogs had "learned"
that when the sound occurred, the meat powder was going to arrive.

This is conditioning (Stimulus-Response; S-R Bonds). The stimulus (sound of food

dispenser) produced a response (salivation). It is important to note that at this point,
we are talking about reflexive responses (salivation is automatic).

2) Terminology (if you are still confused by these definitions, please look in the non-
Psychology jargon glossary on the AlleyDog.com homepage):

a) Unconditioned Stimulus (US) - a stimulus that evokes an unconditioned response

without any prior conditioning (no learning needed for the response to occur).

b) Unconditioned Response (UR) - an unlearned reaction/response to an

unconditioned stimulus that occurs without prior conditioning.

c) Conditioned Stimulus (CS) - a previously neutral stimulus that has, through

conditioning, acquired the capacity to evoke a conditioned response.

d) Conditioned Response (CR) - a learned reaction to a conditioned stimulus that

occurs because of prior conditioning.
*These are reflexive behaviors. Not a result from engaging in goal directed behavior.

e) Trial - presentation of a stimulus or pair of stimuli.

Don't worry, we will get to some examples that make this all much more clear.

3) Basic Principles:

a) Acquisition - formation of a new CR tendency. This means that when an organism

learns something new, it has been "acquired".

Pavlov believed in contiguity - temporal association between two events that occur
closely together in time. The more closely in time two events occurred, the more
likely they were to become associated; s time passes, association becomes less
likely.

For example, when people are house training a dog -- you notice that the dog went
to the bathroom on the rug,. If the dog had the accident hours ago, it will not do any
good to scold the dog because too much time has passed for the dog to associate
your scolding with the accident. But, if you catch the dog right after the accident
occurred, it is more likely to become associated with the accident.

There are several different ways conditioning can occur -- order that the stimulus-
response can occur:

1. delayed conditioning (forward) - the CS is presented before the US and it

(CS) stays on until the US is presented. This is generally the best, especially when
the delay is short.

example - a bell begins to ring and continues to ring until food is presented.

2. trace conditioning - discrete event is presented, then the US occurs. Shorter the
interval the better, but as you can tell, this approach is not very effective.

example - a bell begins ringing and ends just before the food is presented.

3. simultaneous conditioning - CS and US presented together. Not very good.

example - the bell begins to ring at the same time the food is presented. Both begin,
continue, and end at the same time.

4. backward conditioning - US occurs before CS.

example - the food is presented, then the bell rings. This is not really effective.

b) Extinction - this is a gradual weakening and eventual disappearance of the CR

tendency. Extinction occurs from multiple presentations of CS without the US.

Essentially, the organism continues to be presented with the conditioned stimulus

but without the unconditioned stimulus the CS loses its power to evoke the CR. For
example, Pavlov's dogs stopped salivating when the dispenser sound kept occurring
without the meat powder following.

c) Spontaneous Recovery - sometimes there will be a reappearance of a response

that had been extinguished. The recovery can occur after a period of non-exposure
to the CS. It is called spontaneous because the response seems to reappear out of
nowhere.

d) Stimulus Generalization - a response to a specific stimulus becomes associated to

other stimuli (similar stimuli) and now occurs to those other similar stimuli.

For Example - a child who gets bitten by black lab, later becomes afraid of all dogs.
The original fear evoked by the Black Lab has now generalized to ALL dogs.

Another Example - little Albert (I am assuming you are familiar with Little Albert, so I
will give a very general example).

John Watson conditioned a baby (Albert) to be afraid of a white rabbit by showing

Albert the rabbit and then slamming two metal pipes together behind Albert's head
(nice!). The pipes produced a very loud, sudden noise that frightened Albert and
made him cry. Watson did this several times (multiple trials) until Albert was afraid
of the rabbit. Previously he would pet the rabbit and play with it. After conditioning,
the sight of the rabbit made Albert scream -- then what Watson found was that
Albert began to show similar terrified behaviors to Watson's face (just looking at
Watson's face made Albert cry. What a shock!). What Watson realized was that
Albert was responding to the white beard Watson had at the time. So, the fear
evoked by the white, furry, rabbit, had generalized to other white, furry things, like
Watson's beard.

f) Stimulus Discrimination - learning to respond to one stimulus and not another.

Thus, an organisms becomes conditioned to respond to a specific stimulus and not to
other stimuli.

For Example - a puppy may initially respond to lots of different people, but over time
it learns to respond to only one or a few people's commands.

g) Higher Order Conditioning - a CS can be used to produce a response from another

neutral stimulus (can evoke CS). There are a couple of different orders or levels.
Let's take a "Pavlovian Dog-like" example to look at the different orders:

In this example, light is paired with food. The food is a US since it produces a
response without any prior learning. Then, when food is paired with a neutral
stimulus (light) it becomes a Conditioned Stimulus (CS) - the dog begins to respond
(salivate) to the light without the presentation of the food.

first order:
1) light -- US (food) 2) light -- US (food)
\--> UR (salivation) \--> CR (salivation)

second order:

4) tone -- light
3) tone -- light
\--> CR (salivation )
\--> CR (salivation)

Group counseling is a form of therapy, which posits that people benefit from shared
experiences. Usually group counseling is focused on a particular issue, for example
obsessive-compulsive disorder or anger management. While a therapist usually manages
group counseling, contributions from other members in the group are considered valuable
since all in the group share similar issues.

One of the main principals behind group counseling is the idea that dealing with specific
issues may cause isolation, and a feeling that one is alone in facing one’s problems.
Group counseling attempts to counteract this isolation by assembling people with similar
issues to enforce that difficulties are not singular to one person. Additionally, knowing
other people with similar troubles can be comforting to each individual, who may not
have access in their own family and friends to people with the same problem.

Group counseling may be highly organized, with people doing specific activities together
and then sharing the results. Alternately, it may be more freeform, where people share
current issues related to the group’s purpose. One person’s verbal contributions to a
group might be discussed, validated, and provoke problem solving by other group
members in a session. It might also be an entry into a discussion regarding a certain
aspect of an illness or condition that is then primarily led by the therapist.

Group counseling may also embrace different psychological schools of thought. For
example a Jungian-oriented group dealing with depression might evaluate symbols in
dreams that could shed insight on each member’s condition. A Gestalt-oriented group
might be encouraged to question a person’s motives and evaluate both verbal and body
language. Confrontation in Gestalt therapy is considered a vital part of healing.

Some forms of group counseling take place in psychiatric hospitals. The success of such
therapy often depends upon the diversity of people’s conditions. Other group counseling
is more like A.A. meetings and may not be counselor directed, but may merely be a
group of people meeting to help find their way out of addiction.

Many large therapy businesses now offer group therapy as an alternative to private
therapy. Such groups might address subjects like living with anxiety, parenting the
special needs child, living with grief, or living with depression. Some people find the
group counseling experience a better alternative than private therapy because it tends to
cost less. Frequently group counseling is covered by insurance, and many groups offer
sliding scale fees for those without insurance.

Length of group therapy also varies. Group counseling may take place for a defined
period of time. Conversely, it may be open-ended, allowing people to drop in as needed.
Usually more freeform groups are open to drop-ins, and may last for an indefinite period
of time. More organized groups may last for a certain period of time, and require
materials, study books, or the like. These groups may require a time commitment and a
payment upfront or registration.

Not all group counseling efforts are completely successful. Occasionally, group therapy
suffers if a group is too large or small. Group therapy may also become problematic when
one person appears to monopolize the group. Usually group counseling works best when
an experienced counselor can redirect a person who is sharing too much, and allow equal
time for people to share their ideas, problems or opinions.

People may vary in their need for therapy, and generally those who monopolize a group
should not be despised but should be redirected to private counseling, where the person is
the sole focus of attention. After some time in private sessions, a person may feel less
need to monopolize a group counseling session.