Learning: A relatively permanent change in behavior due to experience

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2 Learning: A relatively permanent change in behavior due to experience

3 What are some ways that you learn? Seeing Doing Associating Other ways? 3

4 Unlike some animals we are not necessarily born with a 100% genetic blueprint for life Nature's most important gift to us may be our adaptability our capacity to learn new behaviors that enable us to cope with changing circumstances 4

5 Animals can learn simple associations Complex animals learn more response outcome associations. 5

6 We learn by association, meaning we connect events that occur in sequence Example: If after seeing and smelling freshly baked bread, you eat some and find it satisfying, then next time you see and smell fresh bread, your experience will lead you to expect that eating it will be satisfying again. 6

7 Conditioning is the process of learning associations. In classical conditioning, we learn to associate two stimuli and thus to anticipate events. We learn that a flash of lightening signals an impending crack of thunder, and so we start to brace ourselves when lightening flashes nearby. 7

8 Learning to associate one stimulus with another 8

9 Learning to associate one stimulus with another 9

10 Conditioning is the process of learning associations. In classical conditioning, we learn to associate two stimuli and thus to anticipate events. We learn that a flash of lightening signals an impending crack of thunder, and so we start to brace ourselves when lightening flashes nearby. In operant conditioning, we learn to associate a response (our behavior) and its consequence and thus to repeat acts followed by good results and avoid acts followed by bad results. 10

11 Learning to associate a response with a consequence 11

12 Learning to associate a response with a consequence 12

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14 A type of learning where a stimulus gains the power to cause a response because it predicts another stimulus that already produces that response Form of learning by association Example: Flushing toilets & Showers

15 Stimulus - anything in the environment that one can respond to Response any behavior or action

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18 Classical Conditioning involves associating a natural response with a new stimulusthat is, one that didn t elicit a response before the association was made

19 How does stimulus and response work? Stimulus - anything in the environment that one can respond to Response any behavior or action

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21 Unconditioned Response (UR) The unlearned, naturally occuring response to the unconditioned stimulus (US), such as salivation when food is in the mouth Conditioned Response (CR) The learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus (CS) Unconditioned Stimulus (US) A stimulus that uncondtionally- naturally and automatically-triggers a response Conditioned Stimulus (CS) An originally irrelevant stimulus that, after association with an uncondionted stimulus (US), comes to trigger a condtioned response 21

22 A stimulus that triggers a response automatically and reflexively Example: Scalding hot water in a shower makes you jump

23 The automatic response to the unconditioned stimulus The relationship between the UCS and UCR must be reflexive and not learned Example: If hot water is the UCS, jumping out of the way is the UCR

24 A stimulus that through learning has gained the power to cause a conditioned response The CS must be a neutral stimulus before conditioning occurs Neutral stimulus and CS=same thing

25 The response to the conditioned stimulus Usually the same behavior as the UCR Example: If I jump because of hot water (UCS), my jumping is a UCR. However, if I have learned to jump when someone yells FLUSH! (CS) my jumping is now a CR.

26 The neutral stimulus is the same as the? Conditioned Stimulus

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28 A Russian physiologist who discovered classical conditioning while doing experiments on the digestive system of dogs Won Noble Prize in 1904

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30 Pavlov s goal was to collect saliva from dogs To stimulate the production of saliva, he introduced meat powder into the dogs mouths The more familiar the dogs became with the procedure, the less likely they would wait for the meat powder before salivating Some dogs began to drool as they were harnessed and others as soon as the researcher came in the room Pavlov considered this premature drooling as misbehavior from the dogs Does your dog drool towards dinner time?

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33 UCS- meat powder, because it produces a salivation response without prior learning UCR- is salivation, because salivation is the response to the UCS of meat powder. Learning has not yet taken place. The ability of meat to make a hungry dog drool is reflexive, not learned. Neutral Stimulus-sound of the tuning fork before the dog has been conditioned. Neutral because it does not produce a salvation response. CS- sound of the tuning fork after the dog has been conditioned, because that tone now produces the response of salivation. Same as NS. CR- is salivation because salivation is now the response to the sound of the tuning fork.

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39 The process of developing a learned response Acquisition occurs when a neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired with a UCS The subject learns a new response (CR) to a previously neutral stimulus (CS)

40 The CS needs to come half a second before the US for acquisition to occur 40

41 The diminishing of a learned response Occurs as the CS loses its power to trigger a CR In classical conditioning, the continual presentation of the CS alone will weaken the association between the two stimuli

42 The reappearance after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response. After a rest period, an extinguished CR (salivation) spontaneously recovers, but if the CS (tone) persists alone, the CR becomes extinct again. 42

43 Classical conditioning is clearly represented in the story about the boy who cried wolf The boy who cried wolf when no danger was present extinguished the villagers conditioned response to come to his aid Does continuous media coverage decrease public reaction to and sentiment for tragic events? Can a lack of empathy for the plight of others be classically conditioned? How?

44 Process in which an organism produces the same response to two similar stimuli The more similar the substitute stimulus is to the original used in conditioning, the stronger the generalized response Pavlov noticed the dog conditioned to the sound of one tone also responded to the sound of a different tone never paired with food Pavlov conditioned the dog s salivation (CR) by using miniature vibrators (CS) on the thigh When he subsequently stimulated other parts of the dog s body, salivation dropped

45 A process in which an organism produces different responses to two similar stimuli The subject learns that one stimuli predicts the UCS and the other does not Example: High Five to the Ducks winning the Stanley Cup Silence and sad faces when the Kings actually win a game

46 How can generalization and discrimination be considered opposites? Generalization increases the number of occasions on which we make a specific response, but Discrimination diminishes the number of occasions on which we make the response

47 Classical conditioning would lead us into the area of behaviorism and John Watson Pavlov and Watson considered consciousness, or mind, unfit for the scientific study of psychology However, they underestimated the importance of cognitive processes and biological constraints 47

48 Founded by John Watson Behaviorism focused on objective, and observable acts By manipulating a stimulus in the environment, a psychologist can control the learner s behavioral response The view that psychology should restrict its efforts to studying observable behaviors, not mental processes Behaviorism strictly supported the idea of nurture We understand learning to be a result of cognition, which is both nature and nurture

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50 John B. Watson & Rosalie Rayner sought to explain that fears can be explained through classical conditioning They did so by intentionally establishing a fear of rats to an 11- month-old infant, Albert Led to questions about experimental ethics

51 In the beginning, the rat was the NS, no reaction from Albert The researchers would sneak behind Albert and bang a steel bar to make a startling noise which became the UCS that produced the UCR fear (crying) UCS was paired with the rat, the rat became the CS to produce the same fear response of crying Watson and Rayner announced that Little Albert s fear was a predictable outcome of an environmental condition They demonstrated generalization as he became fearful of a white rabbit but his mother withdrew him from the research before they could extinguish his phobia

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59 John Garcia showed that the duration between the CS and the US may be long (hours), but yet result in conditioning A biologically adaptive CS (taste) led to conditioning and not to others (light or sound) 59

60 John Garcia and Robert Koelling Subjects become classically conditioned to avoid specific tastes, because the tastes are associated with nausea Have you ever felt sick shortly after eating a certain food? If that food lost its appeal as a result, you experienced a classically conditioned taste aversion

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62 Early behaviorists believed that learned behaviors of various animals could be reduced to mindless mechanisms However, later behaviorists suggested that animals learn the predictability of a stimulus, meaning they learn expectancy or awareness of a stimulus (Rescorla, 1988) Example: If a shock always is followed by a tone, and then sometimes by a light that accompanies the tone, a rat will react with fear to the tone but not to the light Although the light is always followed by the shock, it adds no new information; the tone better predicts impending shock So, the more predicatable the association, the stronger the CR It is as if the animal learns an expectancy, an awareness of how likely it is that the US will occur 62

63 Developed a theory emphasizing the importance of cognitive processes in classical conditioning Pointed out that subjects had to determine (think) whether the CS was a reliable predictor of the UCS

64 We are predisposed to learn things that affect our survival. We are predisposed to avoid threats our ancestors faced--food that made us sick, storms, heights, snakes, etc.--but not modern-day threats--cars, water pollution, etc.

65 Classical conditioning forms associations between stimuli (CS and US) Operant conditioning, on the other hand, forms an association between behaviors and the resulting events 65

66 Classical conditioning involves respondent behavior that occurs as an automatic response to a certain stimulus Operant conditioning involves operant behavior, a behavior that operates on the environment, producing rewarding or punishing stimuli 66