Learning Module 26

1. LearningModule 26

2. Adaptation to the Environment • Learning— the process of acquiring new behavior & knowledge/info that is relatively permanent • A relatively permanent change in behavior and/or knowledge due to experience

3. Learning by Association • Most learning comes from association – we connect events that occur in sequence. • Hearing one song on a playlist cues you to what song is coming next. • When behaviors are repeated in a certain context/environment/situation, the behavior becomes associated with that context • Over time the repeated behavior becomes a habit when you are in that situation/context. • The situation/context triggers the habitual behavior associated with it. (Takes about 66 days to form a habit) • Associative Learning = predicting the immediate future • We accurately guess what’s coming next by linking two events together.

4. Stimulus-Response Relationship • Stimulus - anything in the environment that one can respond to • Response – any behavior or action You quickly realize that the “flush” predicts hot water.

5. Stimulus-Response Relationship After linking the two stimuli together, the originally neutral “flush” elicits/causes a response. You’ve learned by association!

6. Behaviorism • The view that psychology should restrict its efforts to studying observable behaviors, not mental processes. • Founded by John B. Watson • Thought that all human behavior is a result of conditioning or due to past experience and environmental influences. • Claimed he could take any child and train him to become any type of specialist.

7. Classical Conditioning • A type of learning where a formerly neutral stimulus gains the power to cause a response because it predicts another stimulus that already produces that response • OR to put it simply: When an animal learns to do a natural reflexive responseto something that it would normally not do the response to. • Form of learning by association

8. Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936)

9. Pavlov’s Dogs • Studied digestive reflexes and salivation • “Psychic secretions” were made by dogs to things like seeing the researcher or hearing their approaching footsteps.

10. Pavlov’s Research Apparatus

11. Ivan Pavlov • Watch “Pavlov’s Discovery of Classical Conditioning” (3 min) - online • Video #6 from Worth’s Digital Media Archive for Psychology. • Click on link below to view.

12. = Neutral Stimulus — Bell Neutral Stimulus No Response • ExistsBEFORE conditioning/learning has occurred • Does notnormally elicit (cause) a response or reflex action by itself • a bell ringing • a color • a clicking metronome • None of these would naturally cause a dog to salivate.

13. Unconditioned Stimulus — Food = Unconditioned Stimulus Always elicits/causes a reflexive action: an unconditioned (unlearned) response Food causes salivating blastof air causes blinking Loud noise causes one to startled or scared

14. Unconditioned Response — Salivating = Unconditioned Stimulus • The automatic/natural response to the unconditioned stimulus • A response to an unconditioned stimulus—naturally occurring & not learned • Salivation at smell of food • Eye blinks at blast of air • Startle reaction in babies Unconditioned Response

15. Conditioned (Learned) Stimulus — Bell = Conditioned Stimulus • The stimulus that was originally neutral becomes conditioned or learned after it has been paired repeatedly with the unconditioned stimulus • Will eventually cause the unconditioned response by itself • The Bell predicts food is coming so the dog salivates • What was once neutral is now learned/conditioned because it now causes something to happen. Before it did not.

16. Conditioned (Learned) Response - Salivating = Conditioned Stimulus • The original unconditioned response becomes conditioned/learned after it has been caused by the conditioned (previously neutral) stimulus • Usually the same behavior as the UR Conditioned Response

17. NEUTRAL STIMULUS NO REACTION will elicit UNCONDITIONED STIMULUS REFLEX ACTION will elicit a UNCONDITIONED STIMULUS REFLEX ACTION will elicit a NEUTRAL STIMULUS CONDITIONED RESPONSE CONDITIONED STIMULUS will elicit a CONDITIONED STIMULUS Classical Conditioning (NS) (US) Unconditioned Response (UR) (US) Unconditioned Response (UR) (NS) (CR) (CS)

18. Pavlov’s Experiment

19. Pavlov’s Experiment

20. Pavlov’s Experiment

22. Classical Conditioning Terms • Aquisition • Extinction • Spontaneous recovery • Generalization • Discrimination training

23. Acquisition • The process of developing a learned response • The initial learning that takes place in the during/learning stageof conditioning when the animal starts toassociate the NS with the US.

24. Acquisition

25. Extinction • The diminishing of a learned response • When the CS is continually presented without the UCS then the CR will eventually begin to disappear.

26. Spontaneous Recovery • The reappearance, after a rest period, of an extinguished conditioned response • After a period of time if the CS is presented, the CR returns. • Learning may disappear but is not eliminated.

27. Spontaneous Recovery

28. Generalization • Process in which an organism produces the same CR to two similar stimuli (CS) • The more similar the substitute stimulus is to the original used in conditioning, the stronger the generalized response Different alarms still have the same effect = wake you up

29. Discrimination • Ability of an animal to not respond to a new NS/CS that is toodifferent from the original CS. • The subject learns that one stimuli predicts the UCS and the other does not. Where’s the bell? = After learning to salivate to a bell, Pavlov’s dogs didn’t drool to other sounds.

30. Generalization vs. Discrimination

31. Higher-Order/Second-Order Stimulus • A new NS gets associated with a previously learned CS and starts to trigger the CR.

32. John B. Watson and Little Albert • 11-month-old infant • Watson and his assistant, Rosalie Rayner, classically conditioned Albert to be frightened of white rats • Led to questions about experimental ethics To Watch a Short Video on Watson and the Little Albert experiment click HERE. Online version (4 min)

33. Little Albert – Before Conditioning UCR

34. Little Albert – During Conditioning UCR

35. Little Albert – After Conditioning CS: rat (CR)

37. Little Albert – Generalization & Discrimination (Generalization) (Discrimination)

38. Could Little Albert’s Fear Have Been Undone? Mary Cover Jones • YES!!! Through Counter Conditioning! • Must pair the conditioned stimulus (Rat) with something that is incompatible with fear (Candy). • Notice how we start with a conditioned stimulus not a neutral stimulus BEFORE: Rat Fear Candy Happy CS = CR UCS = UCR CS + UCS = UCR CS = New CR DURING: Rat Candy Happy AFTER: Rat Not Scared

39. Mary Cover Jones’ Peter Experiment

40. Taste Aversion • Rats drank flavored water (NS) and hours later were given a shot with a drug or radiation (UCS) that made them sick (UCR). The rats refused to drink the flavored water again. • Subjects become classically conditioned to avoid specific tastes, because the tastes are associated with nausea. • Animals that hunt by sight learn to avoid prey items that look like the prey item that made them sick. Birds will avoid butterflies that look like Monarchs. John Garcia (1917- 2012) **Differs from other Classical Conditioning in that: • It did NOT require repeated pairings of a NS and UCS. • The time span between the two was a few hours. • Rats were conditioned to taste and not anything else that occurred in the hours between when they drank the flavored water and got sick.

41. How Taste Aversion Works: Flavored Water Drug/Radiation Nausea BEFORE NS = No Response UCS = UCR DURING: NS + UCS = UCR AFTER: CS = CR Flavored Water Drug Nausea Flavored Water Fear leading to Avoidance

42. Classical Conditioning & Drug Use

43. Responses Similar to the Drug’s Effect:Classically Conditioned Drug Effect • Drugs that are regularly used to restoreNORMAL functioning produce a conditioned response (CR) similar to the drug’s effect. (see diagram below) • This can result in a Placebo Response – a psychological & physiological reaction to a fake treatment or drug. • You feel more alert after drinking decaffeinated coffee

44. Responses OPPOSITE to the Drug’s Effect:Classically Conditioned Compensatory Response • Drugs that are regularly used to DISRUPT normalfunctioningproduce a conditioned compensatory response (CCR) opposite to the drug’s effect. • This is caused by your body naturally trying to compensateand restore normal functioning. • Eventually, stimuli that reliably precede the administration of a drug cause a physiological reaction that is oppositeto the drug’s effects. • May be one explanation for the characteristics of withdrawal and tolerance

45. The Conditioned Compensatory Response

46. Siegel’s CCR Studies • If a drug abuser does their drug in an unfamiliar setting they will run the risk of overdosebecause they will not have the CCR effect before they take the drug. • Spontaneous recovery is a reason people relapse when they find themselves in a similar situation to the one in which they regularly used the drug.

47. Siegel’s Rat Study • Over the course of a month, rats gradually developed tolerance to increasing amounts of heroin. • Then, they were injected with an overdose of almost twice as much heroin as they had become accustomed to receiving. • Rats that were injected with the heroin overdose in the same setting in which they had previously received heroin were twice as likely to survive as were rats that were injected in a different setting. • Almost all the rats in the control group that had not previously been exposed to heroin died.

48. CCR & Drug Overdose • Some heroin addicts have died after injecting their usual amount of heroin in an unfamiliar environment. Why?