Learning

Todays topic
Classical Conditioning
Operant Conditioning
Observational Learning

Associative Learning
Learning
- A relatively permanent change in an organisms
behavior, due to experience
Associative learning
- learning that two events occur together

Classical Conditioning
Classical conditioning type of
learning in which an organism comes
to associate stimuli, and thus to
anticipate events.
The work of Ivan Pavlov led to the
understanding of classical
conditioning.

Ivan Pavlov
Studied salivary secretion in dogs
- put food in dogs mouth, it
salivates
- soon, dog salivated to stimuli
associated with food
- an important form of learning is
going on!

Pavlovs Experiment
Experiment
- Pair a neutral stimulus
with food presentation
- will the dog associate
the two stimuli (neutral
stimulus and food)?

- will the neutral stimulus make the dog salivate in

anticipation of food?

Pavlovs Experiment

Acquisition
Acquisition
the initial learning of association between stimuli
Before conditioning, NS doesnt produce a CR
Through pairing of NS and US, NS becomes a CS
producing a CR
Strength of CR gradually grows until it gets to be as
strong as the UR

Timing Of Stimulus Presentation

During Acquisition
The strength of a CR depends on the timing of the
presentation of CS and US
For a large range of situations, presenting the CS about
a half-second before the US produces strongest
response
Thinking of CS as a signal that US is
about to occur
Think of it like a caution sign on a mountain
road, warning about a hairpin turn
Most effective to post sign just before the turn

Higher-order Conditioning
Higher-order conditioning
Occurs when a NS is paired with an existing CS, eventually
causing same CR
Example: dog salivating to tone

The tone is a CS
We now pair another NS (e.g. a light) with the tone (existing CS)
The light becomes associated with the tone
Dog learns to salivate in response to the light

Example: intense dislike of professor

Professor gave student only F grade in college
Student gets angry when she sees professor, when she walks by the
classroom or his office, when she sees the professors car in the lot

Extinction & Spontaneous Recovery

If the CS is repeatedly presented without US, the CR starts to weaken.
extinction the diminishing of a conditioned response
spontaneous recovery the reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished
conditioned response.

Generalization
Pavlov noticed that once a dog was conditioned to
respond to the sound of one tone, it also responded
to the sound of a different tone.

Generalization
the tendency to respond to stimuli similar to the
conditioned stimulus
Example: dog conditioned to salivate to middle C
The farther you get from middle C, the weaker the response

Example: child bitten by large, gray dog

Fear would generalize to dogs in general, but especially large, gray
dogs
The more similar to original CS, the stronger the response

Discrimination
Discrimination the learned ability to
distinguish between a CS and other
irrelevant stimuli
Example: Dog salivates to middle C
Has generalized response to other tones
Discrimination trials
Play middle C and present food (establishes CS+)
Play other tones and do not present food (establishes CS-)
Not only is CS- not associated with the food, it becomes associated with
the absence of food.
CS- ends up being inhibiting the associated response
Results: non-middle-C notes actually come to inhibit a salivation
response

Operant Conditioning
Operant conditioning organisms associate their
behaviors with consequences.
Behaviors followed by desirable consequences
increase in frequency
Behaviors followed by undesirable consequences
decrease in frequency

Comparing Operant & Classical

Conditioning
Similarities to classical conditioning
acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery, generalization,
discrimination
Classical conditioning
respondent behavior behavior that occurs as an automatic response to
some stimulus
Operant conditioning
operant behavior behavior that operates on the environment producing
consequences.

B.F. Skinner
The most influential behaviorist
Behaviorism
Disregard cognition
Psychology is based on observable
behavior

Committed to finding ways to

objectively measure behavior
Highly influenced by Pavlov, though
his work resembled Thorndikes

E.L. Thorndike
Law of effect rewarded behavior is likely to recur
Puzzle box
- place a cat inside
- reward placed outside box to entice escape
- cat would eventually stumble across solution
- finding: as cat was repeatedly placed inside box, it took
time to
escape on each trial
Skinner later designed the operant chamber (aka Skinner box)

progressively less

Shaping Behavior
Behavior that is reinforced will increase
But what if the behavior is never performed?
Shaping reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and
closer approximations of the desired behavior.

Reinforcers: Positive vs. Negative

Reinforcer any event that
strengthens, or increases the
frequency of, a preceding response.
Positive reinforcer a stimulus
PRESENTED after a response,
causing an increase in the rate of
response. (ex: reward, praise,
attention)
Negative reinforcer a stimulus that
causes an increase in the rate of
response, but works by REMOVING
that stimulus (e.g. car seatbelt sound)

Reinforcers: Primary vs. Conditioned

Primary reinforcer a stimulus that is innately satisfying,
like one that satisfies a biological need (ex: food, water)
Conditioned (secondary) reinforcer a stimulus that
works because of its association with a primary reinforcer
(ex: money)

Reinforcers: Immediate vs. Delayed

Timing between response and reinforcement is very
important!
The behavior that is strengthened is the one that occurs just
before the reinforcer is presented.
If you wait too long, youll reinforce some random behavior
that happened to occur between the desired behavior
and the time of reinforcement.

Reinforcement Schedules
Continuous reinforcement
- behaviors are reinforced every time they occur
- learning occurs rapidly, but so does extinction
Partial (intermittent) reinforcement
- only reinforce SOME responses
- initial learning slower
- more resistant to extinction
- 4 different schedules: fixed-ratio, variable-ratio, fixed
interval, variable-interval

Partial Reinforcement Schedules

Fixed-ratio schedules reinforce
behavior after a set number of
responses
Variable-ratio reinforce after an
unpredictable number of
responses
Fixed-interval reinforce the first
response after a fixed time period.
Variable-interval reinforces first
response after VARYING time
intervals.

Punishment
Punishment decreases behavior.
Positive punishment spanking
Negative punishment take away
favorite toy

Observational Learning
In higher animals, learning doesnt have to occur
through direct experience.
Observational learning learning by observing
and imitating others.

Humans (fashion, fads, catch-phrases,

traditions, etc)
Monkeys (imitate other monkeys button
presses)

Banduras Experiment
Famous observational learning experiment
- preschool child working on drawing
- adult playing with tinker toys
- adult gets up for 10 minutes and pounds, kicks, and throws a large,
inflated, Bobo doll around the room.
- adult yells sock him in the nose! hit him down! kick him!
- when children are later put into a frustrating position, they lash out at the
doll, imitating the same acts and using the same words that they had
heard the adult use.
What determines whether or not we will imitate a model?
According to Bandura:
- likely to imitate actions that go unpunished
- likely to imitate models we perceive to be similar to us
- likely to imitate models who seem successful or admirable

Major Topics Covered in this Chapter

learning
associative learning
classical conditioning
Ivan Pavlov
unconditioned stimulus (US)
unconditioned response (UR)
conditioned stimulus (CS)
conditioned response (CR)
neutral stimulus (NS)
acquisition
timing of stimulus presentation
higher-order conditioning
extinction
spontaneous recovery
generalization
discrimination
operant conditioning
reinforcement
punishment

respondent behavior
operant behavior
B.F. Skinner
E.L. Thorndike
Law of Effect
Shaping
Positive reinforcer (and punishment)
Negative reinforcer (and punishment)
primary reinforcer
conditioned (secondary) reinforcer
reinforcement schedules (fixed-ratio,
variable-ratio, fixed-interval,
variableinterval)
observational learning
modeling / imitation
Albert Bandura