Download Cognition and Operant Conditioning

PSYCHOLOGY
Chapter 8
Learning
Learning

Learning
 relatively
permanent
change in an
organism’s
behavior due
to experience
Association
 We learn by association
 Our minds naturally connect events that
occur in sequence
 Aristotle 2000 years ago
 John Locke and David Hume 200 years ago
 Associative Learning
 learning that two events occur together
 two stimuli
 a response and its consequences
Association
Event 1
Event 2
 Learning to
associate two
events
Sea snail associates splash with a tail shock
Seal learns to expect a snack for its showy antics
Classical or Pavlovian
Conditioning
 We learn
to
associate
two stimuli
Operant Conditioning
 We learn to
associate a
response and
its
consequence
Classical Conditioning:
video clip
 Ivan Pavlov
 1849-1936
 Russian
physician/
neurophysiologist
 Nobel Prize in
1904
 studied digestive
secretions
Pavlov’s Classic
Experiment
Before Conditioning
UCS (food
in mouth)
UCR
(salivation)
During Conditioning
Neutral
stimulus
(tone)
No
salivation
After Conditioning
UCS (food
in mouth)
Neutral
stimulus
(tone)
UCR
(salivation)
CS
(tone)
CR (salivation)
Classical
Conditioning
 Pavlov’s device
for recording
salivation
Classical
Conditioning
 Classical Conditioning
 organism comes to associate two stimuli
 a neutral stimulus that signals an
unconditioned stimulus begins to
produce a response that anticipates and
prepares for the unconditioned stimulus
Classical
Conditioning
 Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)
 stimulus that unconditionally--automatically
and naturally--triggers a response
 Unconditioned Response (UCR)
 unlearned, naturally occurring response to
the unconditioned stimulus
 salivation when food is in the mouth
Classical
Conditioning
 Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
 originally irrelevant stimulus that, after
association with an unconditioned stimulus,
comes to trigger a conditioned response
 Conditioned Response (CR)
 learned response to a previously neutral
conditioned stimulus
Classical
Conditioning
 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
Classical
Conditioning
UCS
(passionate
kiss)
CS
(onion
breath)
CS
(onion
breath)
UCR
(sexual
arousal)
UCS
(passionate
Kiss)
CR
(sexual
arousal)
UCR
(sexual
arousal)
Classical
Conditioning
 Extinction
 diminishing of a CR
 in classical conditioning, when a
UCS does not follow a CS
 in operant conditioning, when a
response is no longer reinforced
Classical
Conditioning
 Spontaneous Recovery
 reappearance, after a rest
period, of an extinguished CR
 Stimulus Generalization
 tendency for stimuli similar to CS
to elicit similar responses
Classical
Conditioning
 Stimulus Discrimination
 in classical conditioning, the learned
ability to distinguish between a CS
and other stimuli that do not signal a
UCS
Nausea Conditioning in
Cancer Patients
UCS
(drug)
UCR
(nausea)
CS
(waiting
room)
UCS
(drug)
UCR
(nausea)
CS
(waiting
room)
CR
(nausea)
Behaviorism
 John B. Watson
 viewed psychology as
objective science
 generally agreed-upon
consensus today
 recommended study of
behavior without reference
to unobservable mental
processes
 not universally accepted by all
schools of thought today
Behaviorism: John B.
Watson continued….
 Stimulus-Response Behavior
 Watson argued that psychology should
study only stimulus-response
relationships
 Watson on Sigmund Freud
 Watson was not pleased with the
growing acceptance of Freud’s
psychoanalytic viewpoint
 Watson believed Freud’s approach relied
too heavily on the unconscious mind as a
means to explain behavior
Behaviorism: John B.
Watson continued….
 Watson on phobias
 phobias are disruptive, irrational fears
 Freud said these phobias were
unconscious fears left over from
childhood
 Watson believed these fears were
created by classical conditioning
Watson & Rosalie
Rayner
 Little Albert
 Watson intentionally established a fear of rats in
an 11-month-old boy now known as Little Albert
 Albert was not afraid of rats at first
 Watson and his assistant Rayner were able to
change this by sneaking up behind Albert when
he was in the presence of the rat
 They would bang a steel bar behind his head to
make a startling noise
Watson & Rosalie
Rayner
 Little Albert continued….
 The banging of the steel bar was the UCS which
produced the UCR of fear in the form of crying
 Because the UCS was paired with the rat, the
rat became the CS which produced the same
fear response in the form of crying which
became the CR
Watson & Rosalie
Rayner
 Little Albert continued….
 Watson and Rayner were able to prove that
Little Albert’s fear was a predictable outcome of
an environmental condition
 In this case, it was proven that his response did
not represent some sort of repressed,
unconscious conflict (Freudian)
Law of Effect: video
clips
 Edward Thorndike
 Law of Effect
 Thorndike’s principle that
behaviors followed by favorable
consequences become more
likely, and behaviors followed by
unfavorable consequences
become less likely
Operant Conditioning
 Operant Conditioning
 type of learning in which behavior is
strengthened if followed by reinforcement or
diminished if followed by punishment
Operant Conditioning
 Operant Behavior
 operates (acts) on environment
 produces consequences
 Respondent Behavior
 occurs as an automatic response to
stimulus
 behavior learned through classical
conditioning
Operant Conditioning
 B.F. Skinner
(1904-1990)
 elaborated
Thorndike’s Law
of Effect
 developed
behavioral
technology
Operant Chamber
 Skinner Box
 chamber with a
bar or key that an
animal
manipulates to
obtain a food or
water reinforcer
 contains devices
to record
responses
Operant Conditioning
 Reinforcer
 any event that strengthens the
behavior it follows
 Shaping through successive
approximations
 operant conditioning procedure in
which reinforcers guide behavior
toward closer approximations of a
desired goal
Operant Conditioning
Principles of
Reinforcement
 Primary Reinforcer
 innately reinforcing stimulus
 i.e., satisfies a biological need- food
 Conditioned Reinforcer
 stimulus that gains its reinforcing
power through its association with
primary reinforcer
 secondary reinforcer- money
Schedules of
Reinforcement
 Continuous Reinforcement
 reinforcing the desired response each time it
occurs
 Partial (Intermitent) Reinforcement
 reinforcing a response only part of the time
 results in slower acquisition
 greater resistance to extinction
Schedules of
Reinforcement
 Fixed Ratio (FR)
 reinforces a response only after a specified
number of responses
 faster you respond the more rewards you get
 different ratios
 very high rate of responding
 like piecework pay in which people get paid
based on the number of items they produce and
not by the amount of time that they are at work
Schedules of
Reinforcement
 Variable Ratio (VR)
 reinforces a response after an
unpredictable number of responses
 average ratios
 like gambling, fishing
 very hard to extinguish because of
unpredictability
Schedules of
Reinforcement
 Fixed Interval (FI)
 reinforces a response only after a specified time
has elapsed
 response occurs more frequently as the
anticipated time for reward draws near
 like people checking more frequently as the
“normal” time for their mail delivery approaches
 like people checking to see if the JELLO is ready
to eat because the time stated on the box has
almost elapsed
Schedules of
Reinforcement
 Variable Interval (VI)
 reinforces a response at unpredictable
time intervals
 produces slow steady responding
 like a pop quiz
 like checking for an email
 like checking for a text message
Schedules of
Reinforcement
Number of
responses
1000
Fixed Ratio
Variable Ratio
Fixed Interval
750
Rapid responding
near time for
reinforcement
500
Variable Interval
250
Steady responding
0
10
20
30
40
50
Time (minutes)
60
70
80
Punishment
 Punishment
 aversive event that decreases the
behavior that it follows
 powerful controller of unwanted
behavior
Punishment
 An undesirable event following the
behavior
 a toddler puts his hand on a painfully
hot stove burner
 the behavior of touching the burner is
punished, because it leads to an
undesirable event: getting burned
Punishment
 A desirable state or event ENDS
following the behavior
 traffic fines are another example of
punishment
 a revoked driver’s license is another
example of punishment
Problems with Punishment
 Many learning experts oppose the use of
punishment
 These experts feel that punishment is likely
to back fire in the long run
Problems with Punishment
 Punishment does not end the desire to
engage in the behavior
 Children punished for using bad language often
continue to use bad language- just not in the
presence of the one who punished them for it
 Punishment can lead to fear, anxiety,
and lower self-esteem
 Frequently punished children or animals may learn
to engage in avoidance behaviors:
 Run away from home
 Drop out of school
Problems with Punishment
 Punishment is aggressive behavior
 when adult role models use aggression to solve
their problems, children learn to model that
aggressive behavior is a problem-solving strategy
 This may help explain why abusive parents tend to
come from abusive families
 Although, most abused children do not go on to be
abusive parents
How Punishment is
effective
 Punishment can effectively control
certain behaviors
 Punishment can effectively certain behaviors
especially if the punisher’s goal is to protect a
child from a dangerous situation
 For example, if a toddler has developed the bad
habit of running into the street, a harsh reprimand
or a smack on the hand may be appropriate
 A young child needs to develop some fear and
avoidance of the street
Cognition and Operant
Conditioning
 Cognitive Map
 mental representation of the layout of
one’s environment
 Example: after exploring a maze, rats act
as if they have learned a cognitive map of
it
 Latent Learning
 learning that occurs, but is not apparent
until there is an incentive to demonstrate it
Cognition and Operant
Conditioning
 Intrinsic Motivation
 Desire to perform a behavior for its
own sake and to be effective
 Extrinsic Motivation
 Desire to perform a behavior due to
promised rewards or threats of
punishments
Cognition and Operant
Conditioning
 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 intrinsic interest, as the
motivation for performing the task
Observational
Learning
 Observational Learning
 learning by observing others
 Albert Bandura conducted the now famous Bobo
doll experiment
 children observed adults acting aggressively
toward the Bobo doll and imitated that behavior
when provided with their own Bobo doll
 Modeling
 process of observing and imitating a specific
behavior
Observational
Learning
 Prosocial Behavior
 positive, constructive, helpful behavior
 opposite of antisocial behavior
 Mahatma Gandhi & Martin Luther King, Jr. drew
on the power of modeling
 they made nonviolent action a powerful force for
social change by modeling the actions of previous
historical figures who had also acted nonviolently
Observational
Learning
 Mirror Neurons
 Neuroscientists have discovered these
mirror neurons
 frontal lobe neurons that fire when
performing certain actions or when
observing another doing so
 may enable imitation, language
learning, and empathy
Observational
Learning
 Mirror Neurons
 When a monkey performs a task such as grasping,
holding, or tearing, these neurons fire
 But they also fire when the monkey observes
another monkey performing the same task
 Thus the phrase, “Monkey see, monkey do.”
Observational
Learning
 Mirror Neurons examples……
 Mimicry
 yawning
 sticking out your tongue
 Laughter smiling
 Language development- mirror neurons help children learn by
observation how to mimic lip and tongue movements when
forming new words
 Empathy- brain activity related to actual pain is mirrored in
the brain of an observing loved one; you can emapthize with
them and “feel their pain”