AP Psychology
Topic VII: Learning
Overview
A. Learning – a relatively permanent change in an organism’s behavior due to experience.
B. Associative Learning – learning that certain events occur together. The events may be two stimuli (as in classical conditioning) or a response and its consequence (as in operant conditioning).
1. Our minds naturally connect events that occur in sequence.
C. Conditioning – the process of learning associations.
Classical Conditioning (Ivan Pavlov) – a type of learning in which an organism comes to associate stimuli. A neutral stimulus that signals an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) begins to produce a response that anticipates and prepares for the unconditioned stimulus.
D. Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) – in classical conditioning, a stimulus that unconditionally – naturally and automatically – triggers a response.
E. Unconditioned Response (UCR) – in classical conditioning, the unlearned, naturally occurring response to the unconditioned stimulus (UCS), such as salivation when food is in the mouth.
F. Conditioned Stimulus (CS) – in classical conditioning, an originally irrelevant stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus (UCS), comes to trigger a conditioned response.
G. Conditioned Response (CR) – in classical conditioning, the learned response to a previously neutral conditioned stimulus (CS).
H. Five Major Conditioning Processes – acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery, generalization, and discrimination.
1. Acquisition – the initial stage in classical conditioning; the phase associating a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus comes to elicit a conditioned response. In operant conditioning, the strengthening of a reinforced response.
i. Although there are exceptions, conditioning seldom occurs when the CS comes after the UNC.
a. This fits the presumption that classical conditioning is biologically adaptive.
b. It helps the organism prepare for good or bad events.
ii. Conditioning serves a function: It helps an animal survive and reproduce – by responding to cues that help it gain food, avoid danger, defeat rivals, locate mates, and produce offspring.
iii. In humans, objects, smells, and sights associated with sexual pleasure become conditioned stimuli for sexual arousal.
a. In laboratory experiments, even a geometric figure can become sexually arousing if repeatedly associated with an erotic stimulus.
2. Extinction – the diminishing of a conditioned response; occurs in classical conditioning when an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) does not follow a conditioned stimulus (CS); occurs in operant conditioning when a response is no longer reinforced.
i. Pavlov found that when he sounded the tone again and again without presenting food, the dogs salivated less and less.
3. Spontaneous Recovery – the reappearance, after a rest period, of an extinguished conditioned response.
i. Pavlov found that if he waited several hours to elapse before sounding the tone again (after extinction), the salivation to the tone would reappear spontaneously.
4. Generalization – the tendency, once a response has been conditioned, for stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses.
i. A dog conditioned to salivate when rubbed would also salivate some when scratched.
ii. Generalization can be adaptive, as when a toddler taught to fear moving cars in the street responds similarly to trucks and motorcycles.
iii. Because of generalization, stimuli that are similar to naturally disgusting or appealing objects will, by association, evoke some disgust or liking.
5. Discrimination – in classical conditioning, the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and other stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus.
i. Like generalization, discrimination has survival value.
ii. Slightly different stimuli are at times followed by vastly different consequences.
iii. Being able to recognize these differences is adaptive.
a. Confronted with a pit bull, your heart may race; confronted by a golden retriever, it likely will not.
I. Updating Pavlov’s Understanding
1. Cognitive Processes
i. Pavlov and Watson underestimated the importance of cognitive processes (thought, perceptions, expectations).
ii. Predictability – when two significant events occur close together in time, an animal learns the predictability of the second event.
a. The more predictable the association, the stronger the conditioned response.
iii. Expectancy – An animal learns expectancy, an awareness of how likely it is that the UCS will occur.
iv. Classical conditioning treatments that ignore cognition often have limited success.
a. For example, people receiving therapy for alcoholism sometimes are given alcohol spiked with a nauseating drug. If aware of the drug, they can blame their nausea on the drug, not on the alcohol. The cognition often weakens the association between alcohol and feeling sick
v. It is not only the simple CS-UCS association but also the thought that counts.
2. Biological Predispositions
i. Pavlov and Watson underestimated the importance of biological constraints on an organism’s learning capacity. They believed the basic laws of learning were essentially similar in all animals.
ii. The biological predispositions of each species disposes it to learn the particular associations that enhance its survival.
iii. Two startling finding of the poisoned rat food experiment:
a. Even if sickened as late as several hours after tasting a particular flavor, the rats thereafter avoided that flavor
- Violate notion that for conditioning to occur, the UCS must follow the CS immediately.
b. The sickened rats developed aversions to the tastes, but not to sights or sounds.
- Contradicts the behaviorists’ idea that any perceivable stimulus could serve as a CS.
- Birds, which hunt by sight, appear biologically primed to develop aversion to the sight of tainted food.
c. Humans, too, seem biologically prepared to learn some things rather than others.
- If you get sick after eating contaminated mussels, you will probably develop an aversion to taste of mussels, but not the sight of restaurant, dinner plates, people you were with, music you heard, etc.
d. All these cases support Darwin’s principle that natural selection favors traits that aid survival.
J. Pavlov’s Legacy
1. Classical conditioning is a basic form of learning.
2. Classical conditioning is one way that virtually all organisms learn to adapt to their environment
3. Pavlov showed us how a process such as learning can be studied objectively.
4. Applications of Classical Conditioning:
i. Pavlov’s principles of classical conditioning apply to human health and well-being.
ii. Pavlov’s work provided a basis for John Watson’s idea that human behavior, though biologically influenced, is mainly a bundle of conditioned responses ("Little Albert" experiment.)
Operant Conditioning (B.F. Skinner) – a type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by reinforcement or diminished if followed by punishment.
K. Overview
1. Respondent Behavior – behavior that occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus; Skinner’s term for behavior learned through classical conditioning.
2. Operant Behavior – behavior that operates on the environment, producing consequences.
3. We can distinguish classical from operant conditioning by asking:
i. Is the organism learning associations between events that it doesn’t control (classical conditioning)?
ii. Is the organism learning associations between its behavior and resulting events (operant conditioning)?
L. Skinner’s Experiments
1. Skinner is modern behaviorism’s most influential and controversial figure.
2. Operant Chamber (Skinner Box) – a chamber containing a bar or key that an animal can manipulate to obtain a food or water reinforcer, with attached devices to record the animal’s rate of bar pressing or key pecking. Used in operant research.
3. Experiments by Skinner explored the precise conditions that foster efficient and enduring learning.
4. Shaping – an operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and closer approximations of a desired goal.
i. Successive Approximations – by this method, you reward responses that are ever-closer to the final desired behavior, and you ignore all other responses.
a. By making rewards contingent on desired behaviors, researchers and animal trainers gradually shape complex behaviors.
b. Experiments show that some animals are remarkably capable of forming concepts; they demonstrate this by discriminating between classes of events or objects.
5. In everyday life, we continually reward and shape the behavior of others, but we often do so unintentionally.
6. Principles of Reinforcement – in operant conditioning, a reinforcer is any event that strengthens the behavior it follows.
i. There are two basic kinds of reinforcement.
a. Positive Reinforcement – strengthens a response by presenting a stimulus after a response.
b. Negative Reinforcement – strengthens a response by reducing or removing an aversive stimulus. (Note that contrary to popular usage, negative reinforcement is not aversive: it removes an aversive event.
ii. Primary and Conditioned Reinforcers.
a. Primary Reinforcer – an innately reinforcing stimulus, such as one that satisfies a biological need.
b. Conditioned Reinforcer (or secondary reinforcer) – a stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer.
- Our lives are filled with secondary reinforcers – money, good grades, a pleasant tone of voice, a word of praise – each of which has been linked with more basic rewards.
- Secondary reinforcers greatly enhance our ability to influence one another.
iii. Immediate and Delayed Reinforcers.
a. Unlike rats, humans do respond to reinforcers that are greatly delayed; the pay check at the end of the week, the grade at the end of the semester, etc.
b. To function effectively, we must learn to postpone immediate rewards for greater long-term rewards.
c. A big step toward maturity is learning to delay gratification, to control one’s impulses in order to achieve more valued rewards.
d. To our detriment, small but immediate reinforcements are sometimes more alluring that big but delayed reinforments.
iv. Reinforcement Schedules
a. Continuous Reinforcement – reinforcing the desred response every time it occurs.
b. Partial (intermittent) Reinforcement – reinforcing a response only part of the time; results in slower acquisition of a response but much greater resistance to extinction than does continuous reinforcement.
- With intermittent reinforcement, hope springs eternal.
v. Four Schedules of Partial Reinforcement..
a. Fixed-ratio schedule– reinforces behavior after a set number of responses.
b. Variable-ratio schedule– provide reinforcers after an unpredictable number of responses.
c. Fixed-interval schedule– reinforce the first response after a fixed period of time.
d. Variable-interval schedule – reinforce the first response after varying time intervals.
7. Punishment – an event that decreases the behavior that it follows.
i. The effect of punishment is opposite that of reinforcement. Reinforcement increases a behavior; punishment decreases it.
ii. Studies find that spanking children increases risk for aggression, depression, low self-esteem, and fear.
iii. Punished behavior is not forgotten; it is suppressed.
iv. Even when punishment suppresses unwanted behavior, it often does not guide one toward more desirable behavior.
v. Moderate punishment can be effective when combined with reinforcement and is better than just punishment alone.
M. Updating Skinner’s Understanding.
1. Cognition and Operant Conditioning.
i. Skinner died resisting the growing belief that cognitive processes – thoughts, perceptions, expectations – have a necessary place in the science of psychology and even in our understanding of conditioning.
ii. Latent Learning – learning that becomes apparent only when there is some incentive to demonstrate it.
a. Experiments have shown that rats, like people can develop " cognitive maps."
b. Cognitive Maps – a mental representation of the layout of one’s environment.
iii. Overjustification Effect – the effect of promising a reward for doing what one already likes to do. The person may now see the reward, rather than the intrinsic interest, as the motivation for performing the task.
a. Unnecessary rewards sometimes carry hidden costs.
b. A person’s interest in an activity is more likely to survive when a reward is used neither to bribe nor to control, but to signal a job well done.
2. Biological Predispositions
i. As with classical conditioning, an animal’s natural predispositions constrain its capacity for operant conditioning.
ii. Animals can most easily learn and retain behaviors that draw on their biological predispositions, such as cats’ inborn tendency to leap high and land on their feet.
N. Skinner’s Legacy
1. He stirred a hornet’s nest be repeatedly insisting that external influences, not internal thoughts and feelings, shape behavior and by urging the use of operant principles to influence people’s behavior at school, work, and home.
2. Applications of Operant Conditioning
i. At school:
a. Students must be told immediately whether what they do is right or wrong and, when right, they must be directed to the step to be taken next.
ii. At Work:
a. Many companies now enable their employees to share profits and to participate in company ownership.
b. When workers’ productivity boosts rewards for everyone, their motivation, morale, and cooperative spirit often increase.
iii. At Home:
a. Many economists and psychologists believe people’s spending behavior is controlled by its consequences (its costs and benefits).
b. Parenting skills can improve children’s behavior.
VI. Learning by Observation
Observational Learning – learning by observing others.
Modeling – the process of observing and imitating a specific behavior.
i. Monkey see, monkey do.
So may of our ideas, fashions, and habits pass by imitation that these transmitted cultural elements now have a name: memes.
Bandura’s Experiments
ii. The Bobo doll experiement:
iii. Observing the adult model beating up the Bobo doll lowered their inhibitions. The children also imitated the very acts they observed and used the very words they had heard.
Applications of Observational Learning
iv. The bad news from such studies is that antisocial models – in one’s family or neighborhood, or on TV – may have antisocial effects.
v. Observational learning helps us understand how abusive parents might have aggressive children and why men who beat their wives often had wife-battering fathers.
vi. The good news is that prosocial models can have prosocial effects.
a. Prosocial Behavior – positive, constructive, helpful behavior. The opposite of antisocial behavior.
vii. Models are most effective when their actions and words are consistent.
a. When exposed to hypocrites, children tend to imitate the hypocrisy.
b. "Do as I say, not as I do" is not a good approach to parenting or modeling for children.
viii. What determines whether we will imitate a model? Reinforcement and punishment.
a. We are especially likely to imitate those we perceive as similar to ourselves, as successful, or as admirable.