7 Learning. Preview CHAPTER

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1 CHAPTER 7 Learning Preview Learning helps s adapt to or environment. Pavlov explored classical conditioning, in which we learn to anticipate events, sch as being fed or experiencing pain. In his famos stdies, Pavlov presented a netral stimls jst before an nconditioned stimls, which normally triggered an nconditioned response. After several repetitions, the netral stimls alone began triggering a conditioned response resembling the nconditioned response. While in classical conditioning we learn to associate two stimli, in operant conditioning we learn to associate a response and its conseqence. Skinner showed that rats and pigeons cold be shaped throgh reinforcement to display sccessively closer approximations of a desired behavior. Researchers have also stdied the effects of positive and negative reinforcers, primary and conditioned reinforcers, and immediate and delayed reinforcers. Althogh Skinner s emphasis on external control also stimlated mch debate regarding hman freedom and the ethics of managing people, his operant principles are being applied in schools, sports, the workplace, and homes. The behaviorists optimism that learning principles wold generalize from one response to another and from one species to another has been tempered. We now know that conditioning principles are biologically and cognitively constrained. Critics point to research on latent learning to spport their claim that Skinner nderestimated the importance of cognitive constraints. Another type of learning that is important among higher animals is what Albert Bandra calls observational learning. Children tend to imitate what a model does and says, whether the behavior is prosocial or antisocial. Research sggests that violence on television leads to aggressive behavior by children and teenagers who watch the programs. Introdctory Exercise: Fact or Falsehood? The correct answers to Handot 7 1 are as follows: 1. F 2. F 3. F 4. T 5. T 6. F 7. F 8. F 9. F 10. T 65

2 66 Chapter 7 Learning HANDOUT 7-1 Fact or Falsehood? 1. Lowly animals, like sea slgs, behave by instinct and are incapable of learning. 2. Hmans are the only animals that can learn behaviors merely by observing others perform them. 3. The stdy of inner thoghts, feelings, and motives has always occpied a central place in psychology. 4. A person can be more readily conditioned to dislike a particlar food than to dislike the place where the food was eaten. 5. With training, pigeons can be taght to discriminate between Bach s msic and Stravinsky s. 6. Negative reinforcement is another term for pnishment. 7. Psychologists agree that pnishment, regardless of its form, has little effect on behavior. 8. Animals learn only when rewards are given. 9. Animals can learn to make virtally any response if consistently rewarded for it. 10. Research indicates that televised violence leads to aggressive behavior by children and teenagers who watch the programs.

3 Chapter 7 Learning 67 Gide Learning Objectives Every qestion in the Test Banks is keyed to one of these objectives. Basic Learning Concepts and Classical Conditioning 7-1. Define learning, and identify some basic forms of learning Describe behaviorism s view of learning Describe who Pavlov was, and identify the basic components of classical conditioning Smmarize the processes of acqisition, extinction, spontaneos recovery, generalization, and discrimination Explain why Pavlov s work remains so important Identify some applications of Pavlov s work to hman health and well-being, and describe how Watson applied these principles to learned fears. Operant Conditioning 7-7. Define operant conditioning Describe who Skinner was, and explain how operant behavior is reinforced and shaped Discss the differences between positive and negative reinforcement, and identify the basic types of reinforcers Explain how the different reinforcement schedles affect behavior Discss how pnishment and negative reinforcement differ, and explain how pnishment affects behavior Discss why Skinner s ideas provoked controversy, and identify how operant conditioning principles might be applied at school, in sports, at work, and at home Describe how operant conditioning differs from classical conditioning. Biology, Cognition, and Learning Explain how biological constraints affect classical and operant conditioning Explain how cognitive processes affect classical and operant conditioning Discss how observational learning differs from associative learning, and explain how observational learning may be enabled by mirror nerons Discss the impact of prosocial modeling and of antisocial modeling. Basic Learning Concepts and Classical Conditioning How Do We Learn? 7-1. Define learning, and identify some basic forms of learning. Learning is a relatively permanent change in an organism s behavior de to experience. Natre s most important gift to s may be or adaptability or capacity to learn new behaviors that enable s to cope with ever-changing experiences. We learn by association; or mind natrally connects events that occr in seqence. The events linked in associative learning may be two stimli (as in classical conditioning, which involves respondent behavior) or a response and its conseqences (as in operant conditioning, which involves operant behavior). Conditioning is not the only form of learning. Throgh cognitive learning we acqire mental information that gides or behavior. In observational learning, we learn from viewing others experiences.

4 68 Chapter 7 Learning Classical Conditioning Lectre: Watson s Colorfl History 7-2. Describe behaviorism s view of learning. Pavlov explored the phenomenon we call classical conditioning, in which organisms learn to associate stimli and ths anticipate events. This laid the fondation for John B. Watson s behaviorism, which held that psychology shold be an objective science that stdied only observable behavior. PsychSim 6: Classical Conditioning LanchPad: Classical Conditioning: Pavlov and His Legacy; Pavlov s Discovery of Classical Conditioning 7-3. Describe who Pavlov was, and identify the basic components of classical conditioning. Pavlov received a medical degree at age 33 and spent the next two decades stdying the digestive system. This work earned him Rssia s first Nobel Prize in Bt his novel experiments on learning, which consmed the last three decades of his life, earned this feisty scientist his place in history. Pavlov wold repeatedly present a netral stimls (NS), sch as a tone, jst before an nconditioned stimls (US), sch as food, which triggered the nconditioned response (UR) of salivation. After several repetitions, the tone alone (now the conditioned stimls [CS]) began triggering a conditioned response (CR), salivation. Unconditioned means nlearned ; conditioned means learned. Ths, a UR is an event that occrs natrally in response to some stimls. A US is something that natrally and atomatically triggers the nlearned response. A CS is an originally netral stimls that, throgh learning, comes to be associated with some nlearned response. A CR is the learned response to the originally netral bt now conditioned stimls. Exercises: Classical Conditioning Using Potato Chips and Lemonade Powder; Classical Conditioning: Preparing for an Important Event; Classical Conditioning With a Watergn Project: Conditioning the Eyeblink 7-4. Smmarize the processes of acqisition, extinction, spontaneos recovery, generalization, and discrimination. Responses are acqired that is, initially learned best when the CS is presented half a second before the US. This finding demonstrates how classical conditioning is biologically adaptive becase it helps organisms prepare for good or bad events. Higher-order conditioning occrs when the conditioned stimls from one conditioning procedre is paired with a new netral stimls, creating a second, often weaker, conditioned stimls. Extinction refers to the diminishing of a conditioned response when the conditioned stimls occrs repeatedly withot the nconditioned stimls. Spontaneos recovery is the reappearance, after a pase, of an extingished conditioned response. Generalization is the tendency to respond to stimli that are similar to the conditioned stimls. Discrimination is the learned ability to distingish between a CS and other irrelevant stimli. Generalization can be adaptive becase it extends a learned response to other stimli in a given category, for example, fearing not only moving cars bt also moving trcks and motorcycles. Discrimination has adaptive vale becase it limits or learned responses to appropriate stimli, for example, fleeing from a pit bll bt not from a golden retriever Explain why Pavlov s work remains so important. Pavlov taght s that principles of learning apply across species and that classical conditioning is one way that virtally all organisms learn to adapt to their environment. Pavlov also demonstrated that significant psychological phenomena can be stdied objectively. Finally, Pavlov taght s that conditioning principles have important applications, sch as how to treat fear.

5 Chapter 7 Learning 69 Lectres: Classical Conditioning, Implicit Self-Esteem, and Atomatic Racial Prejdice; The Association Principle at Work; Phobias Exercises: Examples of Classical Conditioning; Examples of Classical Conditioning in the News; Unpacking Examples of Extinction and Spontaneos Recovery; Classical Conditioning and Advertising; Extinction and Spontaneos Recovery of Earlier Examples; Little Albert s Legacy LanchPad: John Watson and Rosalie Rayner s Little Albert Experiment; Classical Conditioning and the Immne System; Combating Lps; Overcoming Fear 7-6. Identify some applications of Pavlov s work to hman health and well-being, and describe how Watson applied Pavlov s principles to learned fears. Classical conditioning principles provide important insights into drg abse and how it may be overcome. Classical conditioning works on the body s disease-fighting immne system. For example, when a particlar taste accompanies a drg that inflences immne responses, the taste by itself may come to prodce those immne responses. Watson s Little Albert stdy demonstrated how classical conditioning may nderlie specific fears. Today, psychologists se extinction procedres or even new conditioning to change or nwanted responses to emotion-arosing stimli. Operant Conditioning 7-7. Define operant conditoning. Like classical conditioning, operant conditioning is a form of associative learning. Yet it is a very different form of learning. While classical conditioning explores associations between stimli and involves respondent behavior, operant conditioning associates actions with conseqences and ths involves operant behavior. Skinner s Experiments Exercise/Project: A Bild-It-Yorself Skinner Box Lectre: Skinner s Last Days PsychSim 6: Operant Conditioning; Shaping LanchPad: Operant Conditioning: Learned Behaviors; Thorndike s Pzzle Box 7-8. Describe who Skinner was, and explain how operant behavior is reinforced and shaped. B. F. Skinner was a college English major and aspiring writer, who, seeking a new direction, entered psychology gradate school. He went on to become modern behaviorism s most inflential and controversial figre. Skinner s work elaborated Edward Thorndike s law of effect, which states that rewarded behavior is likely to recr. Using this as his starting point, Skinner developed a behavioral technology that revealed principles of behavior control. He explored the principles and conditions of learning throgh operant conditioning, in which behavior operates on the environment to prodce rewarding or pnishing stimli. Skinner sed an operant chamber (Skinner box) in his pioneering stdies of reinforcement with rats and pigeons. In his experiments, Skinner sed shaping, a procedre in which reinforcers, sch as food, gide an animal s natral behavior toward a desired behavior. By rewarding responses that are ever closer to the final desired behavior (sccessive approximations), and ignoring all other responses, researchers can gradally shape complex behaviors. Becase nonverbal animals and babies can respond only to what they perceive, their reactions demonstrate which events they can discriminate.

6 70 Chapter 7 Learning Project/Exercise: Conditioning the Instrctor s Behavior 7-9. Discss the differences between positive and negative reinforcement, and identify the different types of reinforcers. A reinforcer is any event that increases the freqency of a preceding response. Reinforcers can be positive (presenting a pleasant stimls after a response) or negative (redcing or removing an npleasant stimls). Primary reinforcers, sch as food when we are hngry, are innately satisfying. Conditioned (secondary) reinforcers, sch as cash, are satisfying becase we have learned to associate them with more basic rewards. Immediate reinforcers, sch as the enjoyment of watching late-night TV, offer immediate payback. Delayed reinforcers, sch as a weekly paycheck, reqire the ability to delay gratification. Exercise: Partial Reinforcement Schedles Explain how the different reinforcement schedles affect behavior. When the desired response is reinforced every time it occrs, continos reinforcement is involved. Learning is rapid bt so is extinction if rewards cease. Partial (intermittent) reinforcement prodces slower acqisition of the target behavior than does continos reinforcement, bt the learning is more resistant to extinction. Reinforcement schedles may vary according to the nmber of responses rewarded or the time gap between responses. Fixed-ratio schedles reinforce behavior after a set nmber of responses; variable-ratio schedles provide reinforcers after an npredictable nmber of responses. Fixed-interval schedles reinforce the first response after a fixed time interval, and variable-interval schedles reinforce the first response after varying time intervals. Reinforcement linked to nmber of responses prodces a higher response rate than reinforcement linked to time. Variable (npredictable) schedles prodce more consistent responding than fixed (predictable) schedles. Exercises: Examples of Positive/Negative Reinforcement/Pnishment; Distingishing Among Forms of Reinforcement and Pnishment Discss how pnishment and negative reinforcement differ, and explain how pnishment affects behavior. Pnishment attempts to decrease the freqency of a behavior. Pnishment administers an ndesirable conseqence, for example, spanking or withdrawing something desirable, sch as taking away a favorite toy. Negative reinforcement removes an aversive event (an annoying beeping sond) to increase the freqency of a behavior (fastening a seatbelt). Pnishment is not simply the logical opposite of reinforcement, for it can have several drawbacks, inclding sppressing rather than changing nwanted behaviors, teaching discrimination and fear, and increasing aggressiveness. Skinner s Legacy Exercises: Sensitivity to Pnishment and Sensitivity to Reward; Assessing Self-Reinforcement; Behavioral Change Mobile Apps Exercise/Lectre: A Token Economy Lectres: In-Vehicle Monitoring Systems for Teens; Social Disapproval or Fines?; Rewarding Good Driving; Shaping HeroRATS to Detect Land Mines and Tberclosis; Dolphins Clear Mines in Persian Glf; Sperstitios Behavior; Sperstitios Behavior in Baseball Players and Trial Lawyers; Beyond Freedom and Dignity; Financial Incentives to Qit Smoking; Transforming Coch Potatoes With Operant Conditioning; Modifying Children s Behavior Project: Modifying an Existing Behavior Exercise/Project: Conditioning the Instrctor s Behavior Discss why Skinner s ideas provoked controversy, and identify how operant conditioning principles might be applied at school, in sports, at work, and at home. Skinner has been criticized for repeatedly insisting that external inflences, not internal thoghts and feelings, shape behavior and for rging the se of operant principles to control people s

7 Chapter 7 Learning 71 behavior. Critics arge that he dehmanized people by neglecting their personal freedom and by seeking to control their actions. Skinner contered: People s behavior is already controlled by external reinforcers, so why not administer those conseqences for hman betterment? Operant principles have been applied in a variety of settings. For example, in schools, web-based learning, online testing systems, and interactive stdent software embody the operant ideal of individalized shaping and immediate reinforcement. In sports, performance is enhanced by first reinforcing small sccesses and then gradally increasing the challenge. In the workplace, positive reinforcement for jobs well done has boosted employee prodctivity. At home, parents can reward their children s desirable behaviors and not reward those that are ndesirable. To reach or personal goals, we can monitor and reinforce or own desired behaviors and ct back on incentives as the behaviors become habital. Contrasting Classical and Operant Conditioning Exercise: Conditioning Honeybees, Wasps, and Fish Lectre: Discriminative Stimli, Examples of Operant Conditioning Often Confsed With Classical Conditioning Describe how operant conditioning differs from classical conditioning. Both classical and operant conditioning are forms of associative learning. They both involve acqisition, extinction, spontaneos recovery, generalization, and discrimination. Both classical and operant conditioning are inflenced by biological and cognitive predispositions. The two forms of learning differ in an important way. In classical conditioning, the organism learns associations between two stimli, and its behavior is respondent, that is, atomatic. In operant conditioning, the organism learns associations between its behavior and reslting events; the organism operates on the environment. Biology, Cognition, and Learning Biological Constraints on Conditioning Lectres: Biological Predispositions; Mindfl Learning Exercises: Hman Taste Aversions; Explaining Taste Aversions Explain how biological constraints affect classical and operant conditioning. The early behaviorists view that any natral response cold be conditioned to any netral stimls has given way to the nderstanding that each species is biologically prepared to learn associations that enhance its srvival. Ths, hmans are likely to develop an aversion to the taste of a contaminated food bt not to the sight of an associated restarant, its plates, or the msic they heard there. Similarly, rats develop aversions to tastes bt not to sights or sonds. Organisms are predisposed to learn associations that help them adapt. As with classical conditioning, an animal s natral predispositions constrain its capacity for operant conditioning. Biological constraints predispose organisms to learn associations that are natrally adaptive. Training that attempts to override these tendencies will probably not endre, becase the animals will revert to their biologically predisposed patterns. Cognition s Inflence on Conditioning Explain how cognitive processes affect classical and operant conditioning. Research indicates that, for many animals, cognitive appraisals are important for learning. That is, thoghts and perceptions are important to the conditioning process. For example, animals appear capable of learning when to expect an nconditioned stimls. The more predictable the association between the CS and the US, the stronger the CR.

8 72 Chapter 7 Learning Rats exploring a maze seem to develop a mental representation (a cognitive map) of the maze even in the absence of reward. Their latent learning becomes evident only when there is some incentive to demonstrate it. Research indicates that people may come to see rewards, rather than intrinsic interest, as the motivation for performing a task. Again, this finding demonstrates the importance of cognitive processing in learning. By ndermining intrinsic motivation the desire to perform a behavior effectively and for its own sake rewards can carry hidden costs. Extrinsic motivation is the desire to perform a behavior to receive external rewards or avoid threatened pnishment. A person s interest often srvives when a reward is sed neither to bribe nor to coerce bt to signal a job well done. Learning by Observation LanchPad: Observational Learning of Aggression: Bandra s Bobo Doll Experiment; Bandra on Social Learning With Clips From Original Experiment Discss how observational learning differs from associative learning, and explain how observational learning may be enabled by mirror nerons. Among higher animals, especially hmans, learning does not occr throgh direct experience alone; that is, it does not always involve associating stimli or behaviors and their conseqences, as in classical and operant conditioning. Observational learning also plays a part. The process of observing and imitating a specific behavior is often called modeling. Mirror nerons, located in the brain s frontal lobes, are thoght by some scientists to demonstrate a neral basis for observational learning. Or brain s activity nderlies or intensely social natre. Bandra believes that we imitate becase of reinforcements and pnishments those received by the model as well as by the imitator. By watching others, we learn to anticipate a behavior s conseqences in sitations like those we are observing. We tend to imitate models that we perceive as similar to s, sccessfl, or admirable. Lectres: Germans Who Helped Jews Escape; Observational Learning; Parents and Television Watching Exercises: Contagios Yawning; Contagios Sniffing Project: Acqiring a Skill Throgh Observation LanchPad: Do Video Games Teach People to Be Violent? Discss the impact of prosocial modeling and of antisocial modeling. Prosocial models have prosocial effects. People who show nonviolent, helpfl behavior prompt similar behavior in others. Models are most effective when their actions and words are consistent. Exposed to a hypocrite, children tend to imitate the hypocrisy by doing what the model does and saying what the model says. Research indicates that mch violence shown on television goes npnished, is portrayed as jstified, and involves an attractive perpetrator. These conditions provide a recipe for a violenceviewing effect. However, correlational stdies that link viewing violence with violent behavior do not indicate the direction of inflence. Those who behave violently may enjoy watching violence on TV, or some third factor may case observers both to behave violently and to prefer watching violent programs. To establish case and effect, researchers have designed experiments in which some participants view violence and others do not. Later, given an opportnity to express violence, the people who viewed violence tend to be more aggressive and less sympathetic. In addition to imitating what they see, observers may become desensitized to brtality, whether on TV or in real life.