The Learning Perspective

1. The Learning Perspective 12th IB Themes Learning & Behavior Zimbardo Ch. 6 (pg. 170) Myers Ch. 8 (pg. 313)

2. Assumptions • “Psychology, as the behaviorist views it, is a purely objective experimental branch of natural science. Its theoretical goal is the prediction and control of behavior. Introspection forms no essential part of its methods, nor is the scientific value of its data dependent on the readiness with which they lend themselves to interpretation in terms of consciousness.” [Watson] • 1)  Most of our behaviors are learned through interactions with our environment. • 2) All behavior can be explained in terms of forming associations (learning). • 3) Behavior is external and observable. • 4) Explanations of animal behaviors can be applied to humans.

3. 4 areas: learning perspective • 1: Learning Influenced by the Environment (Behaviorism) • 2: Learning Influenced by Cognition(Thinking) • 3: Learning Influenced by Biology • 4: Learning Influenced by Cognition & Modeling • Theories differ considerably from each other • Each have key concepts, assumptions • Criticisms of each other • Animal experiments--must link to human applications

4. Behaviorism learning influenced by the environment

5. What is learning? • Learning is… • A process that results in a relatively consistent (permanent) change in behavior (or behavior potential, ability) and is based on (as a result of) experience • The individual’s behavior is modified and continues to remain different in the future • Ex: (Pedophile, alcoholic, animal, reactive brain) • Does NOT include changes due to physical maturation or brain develop. • NOT illness, brain damage, accident

6. 3-Parts of learning • 1. A change in behavior or behavior potential • Obvious learning has taken place, able to demonstrate (perform) results, drive car, dance. • Learning-Performance Distinction: difference between what has been learned and what is expressed, perform, observed, overt behavior • Doesn’t show attitude change (art appreciation, recog. beauty, phil.) • 2. A relatively consistent change • Consistent over different occasions (dog in public, alcoholic at party and office) • Not always perm. changes (sports, languages) skills deteriorate • 3. A process based on experience • Experience involves taking in new information, evaluating, transforming, making responses that affect the environment • Response influenced by memory

7. Behavior v. Cognitive • Behaviorists focus on actual change in behavior • Perform the change physically, exhibit the behavior • Cognitive Psychologists: learning to recall facts, analyze, solve a problem • Talk about it, write it down • Ex: Racism, School, “Sunday” School, Arm-chair vs. real quarterback • Psych. study individual’s behavior in terms of specific actions, called responses • Responses mean nothing without context • Context comes from the environment, called stimuli

8. Behavior analysis • Behavior Analysis: psychology that focus on discovering environmental determinants of learning and behavior • Learning is universal, all animal species, including humans, comparable situations • Elementary processes of learning are conserved across species (nonhumans animals, humans, comparable, complex and simple life forms) • Complex forms of learning represent combinations and elaborations of simpler processes (not different phenomena)

9. Natural responses (UC) • Reflex: unlearned response, natural, innate, automatic • Ex: salivation, pupils dilate, knee jerk, eye blinking • Stimulus: Neutral (NS), no meaning until paired w/ CS • Money, Light, Nature, Noise, Smell, Food, Music • Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS/US):anything that naturally elicits a reflexive (natural) behavior • Turn off light, good food, good/bad smells (spoiled milk) • Unconditioned Response (UCR/UR): the behavior (reaction) elicited from the UCS, inborn, automatic • Lightening, loud noise, sweat when nervous, eye drops • Learning NOT needed for stimulus to control behavior • ANY Natural Reflex formed by UCS, produces an UCR

10. Classical Cond. • NOW link a Natural Reflex to a new stimuli= CR • You are now conditioned • Conditioned Response (CR): Learned through experience, the CS will produce the CR (may be same as the UCR). • Fear, air horn, “dad’s home”, memory, anger, salivate, dilate, soldier/PTSD & loud noise, repressed memories • Conditioned Stimulus (CS): when NS is paired with a NEW stimulus, behavior is cond. by assoc. • Tone/bell and food, vibration=text message, good smell=homemade cookies/food, song=good/bad feeling

11. ARE YOU Conditioned? • You’re watching a Movie (or TV show) the scary music starts, what will happen? • You’re in the house alone, in your underwear, the lights go out, you must go to the basement…with a flashlight…? • Women runs through woods, a psycho with a chainsaw follows behind her, what will happen next? • The first person to die in a movie (like Ghostbusters or Aliens) is always the…

12. ARE YOU Conditioned? • War vets returning from Vietnam…when they see children, women, hear helicopters, certain songs….? • WWII soldiers returning home, when they see someone Japanese? • What does the smell of cookies remind you of…? • The smell of coffee ? Lumpy mashed potatoes? • The odor in dentist office? The smell of bleach reminds you of…? • Do you feel stressed, sweat, anxiety at the sight of a college letter in the mail? • Do you remember the month/day a loved one dies…? • Ever eat too much candy? Drink too much…(root) beer? • Aversion therapy (used to stop smoking, drinking) • The hand game…? The sight of an Airhorn?

13. ARE YOU Conditioned? • You break-up. What happens every time you hear that “love song” you dedicated to your ex? • Generalized Response: Your ex loved country music, you HATE hearing ANY country music now • Fear of ALL dogs • Fear of ALL clowns • Love of ALL Chinese food

14. Behaviorism: USA & USSR • Behaviorism developed simultaneously in Russia and in the USA • Technically, Russia was ahead, not pub. in USA until 1920s • Watson suppressed, disagreed with many Russia theories

15. Ivan Pavlov • Russian physiologist, psychologist, 1849 –1936 • Nobel Prize in Physiology, 1904 • Investigating gastric function by externalizing a salivary gland to collect, measure, analyze saliva • Response to food (meat powder) under different cond. • (Ivan Tolochinov, Assistant) • 1890s, dog first reacted to footsteps, salivated BEFORE food. • “Psychic Secretion” Changed focus of research, manipulated the stimuli before presenting food. • 1901, “Reflex at a distance” • 1st description of classical conditioning (CC). • The basic laws for establishing and extinction of “conditional reflexes” • Pub. in English 1927, Conditioned Reflex

16. Ivan Pavlov • Watson viewed Pavlov’s “conditioned reflex” only as a physiological mechanism controlling glandular secretions (not as learning) • Later “conditioning” as automatic form of learning became a key concept in behaviorism • Watson had to change his view

17. Pavlov’s Experiment • Pavlov rang a bell* to signal food • *Wide variety of stimuli (electric shock, whistle, metronome, tuning fork) visual stimuli • UCS=food, UCR=salivation • CS=footsteps (bell, tone), produces a CR (salivation) • Later studies: • Odor of vanilla (NS), lemon juice in mouth (UCS) juiced caused heavy salivation (UCR) • 20 repetitions, vanilla produced salivation • Rotating object=food presented, 5 trials, began salivating • Cond. response (reflex) will be repressed if stimulus is wrong too often • Ex: tone and no food appears (extinction) • Neg. punishment, “NO” more difficult to pair with behavior

18. Pavlov IN russia • Pavlov held in high regard in Russia (USSR) • Praised by Lenin • He was outspoken, often at odds with Soviet govt • After murder of Sergei Kirov (1934) • Pavlov wrote to Molotov criticizing the Great Purge • Asked for reconsideration of several people he knew • His reputation and work kept him free from persecution. • Later life: used conditioning to establish an experimental model of neuroses • Worked until death (age 87) Leningrad (St. Petersburg). Lab now a museum.

19. Russian reflex studies • Ivan MikhailovichSechenov(1829-1905) • Russian Physiologist • Pavlov calls him “The Father of Russian Physiology” • “Reflexes of the Brain”, electrophysiology, neurophysiology • Sechenov’s work laid the foundations for the study of reflexes, animal and human behavior, and neuroscience • Vladimir Bekhterev(1857-1927) • Russian Neurophysiologist, Psychiatrist • “Role of Hippocampus in Memory,” 1900 • Founded field of psycho-reflexology, transferred Pavlov’s work on dogs to humans • Met with Stalin to discuss depression • Outspoken, Bekhterev diagnosed Stalin with paranoia, Stalin did not agree with the diagnosis, had the doctor killed in 1927 • Stalin executed his son in the purges • Both Russian Studies influential to John Watson

20. EX: Pavlovian conditioning • His theories of CC used to explain human behavior • Helped launch psychology as true science (empiricism) • “Pavlov’s dog” used to describe someone who reacts. • Research used for wide range of human behavior: advertising, phobias, anxiety before job interviews or exam (IOC), sexual arousal (fetishes, deviant) • Stimulus Generalization: similar stimulus cause the same CR (fear all dogs, clowns) • Stimulus Discrimination: learn to respond differently to different stimuli (sound, tone, small/large dogs) • 40 Studies Book, Meta Café: Video

21. Pavlovian Conditioning: 1966 • Robert A. Rescorla, 1966 • Psych Prof. Univ. of Penn • Contingent: predicable, reinforcement of CR • Contiguous: associated (usually by time) • Temporally contiguous=CS, UCS must occur close together (1/2 - 3 sec rule) • Rescorla used dogs, tone (CS) and shock (UCS) in a shuttlebox

22. Rescorla • Trained dogs to jump barrier from 1 side of shuttlebox to the other (to avoid electric shock) • If dogs did not jump, they received a shock. • If they did jump the shock was postponed • Used the frequency the dogs jumped the barrier as measure of fear conditioning

23. Rescorla • Next Phase: • Divided dogs into 2 groups • Random Group: UCS (shock) was delivered randomly and independently of the tone (CS) • Sometimes at a similar (contiguous) interval, only chance • The CS had no predictive value. • Contingency Group: the UCS (tone) always followed the CS (shock), a reliable predictor

24. Rescorla • Last Phase: • Dogs put back into shuttlebox • Tone occasionally sounded, random, no connection to the shock • Dogs exposed to predictable CS-UCS relationship jumped more often • Dogs exposed to the contiguous (sometimes associated, more random) CS-UCS relationship, only jumped when sound of tone/shock close together • Stimulus must be informative about the environment

25. Rescorla-Wagner model • One of the most influential models of learning • (though frequently criticized since its publication). • Co-created by Rescorla, U-Penn, & Allan Wagner, Yale • The animal learns from the discrepancy between what is expected to happen and what actually happens.

26. Layers of conditioning • Kamin, 1969 • Rats learn that a tone predicts a shock • Light is added, light and tone = shock • When light is presented alone, the rats didn’t learn the light preceded a shock • Previous conditioning (tone) blocked any new conditioning (light) • For good conditioning: • Present a strong novel stimulus in an unfamiliar situation • Or a strong familiar stimulus in a novel context

27. MODERN Pavlovian conditioning • Gustafson et al, 1974 • Problem for ranchers: wolves, coyotes killing livestock • Cond. solves problem without killing wolves • Wolves, coyotes given mutton (sheep) with lithium chloride (UCS) • Chemical makes animals ill, meat makes them dizzy, severe nausea, vomiting (UCR) • Same hungry predators in pen with live sheep (CS) as soon as they smelled their prey, stopped, stayed as far away as possible • Pen opened, predators ran away from the sheep! (fear of horses, neuroses bad experience?)

28. Modern Pavlovian conditioning • Alder & Cohen, 1985,“CNS-immune System Interactions” • CC in behavioral medicine • Can you alter the immune system with conditioning? • Gave mice water flavored with saccharine (sweet, mice love it) • Paired water with drug injection, weakened the immune system • Cond. mice given saccharine water with no injection= still showed signs of immunosuppressant (weak) • Now: Studies for the opposite (boosting immune system, music, zinc) quantum thinking?

29. Ex: Pavlovian conditioning • Mystkowski et al, 2003, “Change in Caffeine States Enhance Phobias” • Emotional state at time of cond. and extinction may play part in treatment of cc irrationally fears (phobias) • Desensitizing tech. to treat participants terrified of spiders • Some injected with coffee, some placebo • 1 week later, retested, switched some who received caffeine, placebo, some received the same • Those switched: Experienced relapse of fear response • Those that got the same= lower return of fear • Children have similar phobias to parents (snakes, spiders, food likes) accidentally cond. by Mom/Dad • How we learn our politics, religion? • Clinton Anderson, desensitizing/sensitizing, emotional state when you release pressure is what is remembered (conditioned, learned)

30. Training service Dogs • Drug dogs • Rescue Dogs • Fire Rescue • Police K-9 • Food, drugs used to cond. Dogs • Metacafe Video

31. “The Behavioral Approach” • John Watson 1878-1958, American Psychologist • Est. the psychological school of behaviorism • 1920, John Hopkins Univ., Rosalie Rayner (student, affair) • 1903, “Animal Education” rat behavior, bird • 1907, “White Rat in the Maze” • 1913, “Psych. as the Behaviorist Views It” “The Behaviorist Manifesto” • 1919, “Psych. from the Standpoint of a Behaviorist” • 1924, “Behaviorism” • “Psych. is the prediction and control of behavior” • Argued that introspection (people’s verbal reports of sensation, images, feelings) not acceptable to studying behavior, too subjective, no way to verify. • Watson’s answer: observable behavior • Began research on animal behavior, physiology of dog’s brain with Jacques Loeb (biologist), much more controversial than Albert!

32. Watson: “Little Albert” • Classical Conditioning, Watson and Rayner, 1920 • Could he condition a child to fear a stimulus which the child was not normally afraid of? • Methodology: • Chose Albert B. from hospital 9 mo old (ended 11 mo) • Some sources: orphan? • Other sources: Albert’s mother, worked at Harriet Lane Home for Invalid Children, John Hopkins, Baltimore • Exposed Albert to white rat, rabbit, dog, monkey, masks (with, without hair), cotton, burning newspapers. • Little Albert showed no fear. • A white laboratory rat placed near Albert, allowed to play with it, child showed no fear.Video: AP Psych

33. Watson: “Little Albert” • Later trials, loud sound behind Albert’s back when baby touched the rat. • (striking a suspended steel bar with hammer) • Albert cried and showed fear as he heard the noise.

34. Watson: “Little Albert” • Now, Albert was shown just the rat. • Very distressed, cried, turned, tried to move away. • 2 stimuli paired: • white rat with loud noise • Learning occurred, according to Watson

35. Watson: “Little Albert” 1st Trials • White Rat (NS) + No Noise = NO FEAR New Trials • White Rat (Now CS) + Loud Noise (UCS) = FEAR (CR) • Following progression of results: • Introduction of a loud sound (UCS) resulted in fear (UCR)= a natural response. • Introduction of a rat (neutral) paired with the loud sound (UCS) resulted in the fear (CR). • Successive introductions of a rat (now CS) resulted in fear (CR).

36. Watson: “Little Albert” • Little Albert ex of generalized stimulus • 17 days later: Albert still distressed at non-white bunny, furry dog, seal-skin coat • Santa Claus mask with white cotton ball beard • 31 days of testing, Albert taken from hospital (his mother found out about the experiments) • Watson had planned to desensitize Albert and eliminate fearful reactions • Pair white rat with warm milk, candy, stimulate the erogenous zones? • No desensitizing ever took place • Removing the Conditioned Response was denied.

37. Albert: Ethical Issues • Today’s ethical guidelines would never permit this study to be carried out or replicated. • Modern controversy, little concern about infants in Watson’s time (more concern about his animal experiments) • Albert was 8 months, 1st test (APA unethical, young age) • Albert’s mother not informed, performed without her consent • Considered unethical to evoke fear in lab setting, unless participant has given informed consent of frightful events • Experiments should not cause the participants to suffer unnecessary distress or to be physically harmed. • The welfare of the participants must always be the primary consideration (especially infants and children) • Albert’s fear was not extinguished (de-briefing)

38. Watson: On child rearing • “Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any 1 at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select – doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors.” • ~ Watson, [Behaviorism (1930), p. 82] • On Child Rearing, Magazines, book, “Psychological Care of Infant and Child”(1928) • Later regretted, said “he did not know enough” to do a good job. • CIA Training Strategies for Snipers, Sleeper Agent, “Bourne Identity” PSYOP

39. Discriminate or generalize? • Can humans/animals make successive approximations? • Do animals discriminate between stimuli? • Can a dog distinguish color? Baby sounds? Can they perceive the difference? • Yes! • Animals remarkable at determining differences, forming concepts, discriminating between events, objects • Seeing Eye Dog, green or red traffic light • Bach’s music vs. Stravinsky

40. Mary Cover Jones • Study on Reconditioning, 1924 • “Mother of behavioral therapy” (1896 – 1987) • Worked with Watson (1920s) • Studied unconditioning a fear of rabbits • “Peter” had characteristics similar to Albert B. • Peter was 2 years, 10 months old (3 yrs old) • Afraid of rabbit, white rat, fur coat, feather, cotton • Not afraid of wooden blocks and similar toys • Used “direct conditioning”, a pleasant stimulus (food) was associated with the rabbit • As the rabbit was gradually brought closer (in the presence of his favorite food), Peter grew more tolerant, and was able to touch it without fear. • Institute of Educational Research, Columbia University Teacher’s College • 1952, Jones became Professor of Education, Berkeley, CA

41. “I wanna new Drug” • “Conditioned Aspects of Drug Tolerance” Siegel et al, 1982 • Why do addicts with high drug tolerance OD on less? • Tested heroin in lab rats (Zimbardo, pg. 181) • Setting (environment) of drug use acts as a cond. stimulus • The body learns to protect itself by preventing the drug from having its usual effect • Person takes drug (UCS) for a physiological response • Body responds with counter-measures to reset homeostatis • Compensatory response becomes cond. response • To overcome this response, a larger dose is needed • Setting (CS) a change in setting causes the overdose • Pavlov (1927) & Bykov (1957) noted tolerance to opiates develops when an indiv. anticipates the pharmacological action.

42. Learning through the Environment Operant conditioning

43. Thorndike: Law of Effect • Edward L Thorndike (1874-1949) • “Law of Effect” (1898) • Trial & Error the basis of all animal learning • Rewarded behavior is likely to reoccur • Behavior followed by favorable consequences become more likely • Behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences become less likely • Watson rejected Thorndike’s “Law of Effect” (subjective) • Precursor to BF Skinner’s principle of reinforcement

44. Cat in puzzle box • Thorndike, “Cat in Puzzle Box”, 1898 • “Books have all been about animal intelligence, never about animal stupidity.” • Used a fish reward to entice cats to find their way out of a puzzle box • Were cats escaping with logic and insight? • Increased series of maneuvers • Performance improved with trials (Law of Effect) • Instruments measured “learning curves” with the time it took to escape each time • His finding was that cats consistently showed gradual learning (trial and error) not sudden insight. • http://www.metacafe.com/watch/yt-BDujDOLre-8/thorndike_puzzle_box/

45. 3 conditions that maximize learning (thorndike) • 1. The Law of Effect: the likely recurrence of a response is generally governed by its consequence (in the form of reward or punishment). • 2. The Law of Recency: the most recent response is likely to govern the recurrence. • 3. The Law of Exercise: stimulus-response associations are strengthened through repetition.

46. Law of effect in action • Mozambique, Gambian giant pouched rats • HEROrats, trained “shaped” to sniff out land mines • Receives a banana or peanut as reward • Belgian co. APOPO clicker trained from early age, associate the smell of explosives with food reward • In the field, wear harness connected to 2 handlers, multiple rats search at once • Rats detect area, stop and scratch, metal detectors brought in • Why not dogs? (several advantages) • Suited to climate (from Africa) • Resistant to endemic disease • Widely available, and inexpensive to get • Shorter training time (5-7 mo mature) • Fewer resources to raise a rat • Long life span (7-10 yrs) • Smaller size (rarely detonates mines by walking) • therefore safer to rat and handlers

47. Law of effect in action • Also use sense of smell to detect Tuberculosis. • 1.7 million deaths each yr, 9.2 million new cases per yr • Poor countries, rat detection tech. could help aid many populations. • “In verification tests, rats are about as accurate as human lab technicians who are working with microscopes. But the rodents are nearly 100 times faster. Every week, the rats spot five to 10 infections that hospital labs missed” • ~ DOT Program • Stingray City, 35 yrs Cayman Islands, scuba divers fed rays by hand, became increasingly friendly, tourists • Metacafe video (Steve Erwin died by stingray)

48. “Radical Behaviorism” • (Burrhus Frederic)BF Skinner, (1904 – 1990) • American Psychologist, Harvard (1958-1974) • Founder of “Radical Behaviorism” • “The Behavior of Organisms: Experimental Analysis” 1938 • “Walden Two” 1948 • “Science & Human Behavior” 1953 • “Verbal Behavior” 1957 • “Schedules of Reinforcement” 1957 • “Contingencies of Reinforcement: Theoretical Analysis” 1969 • “Beyond Freedom & Dignity” 1971-72 • “About Behaviorism” 1974 • “Recent Issues in the Analysis of Behavior” 1989 • “Causes of Behavior” 1990 • Pub. 21 books and 180 articles. • Most influential psychologist of the 20th century?

49. Skinner: Radical behaviorism • Everything in Psychology is behavioral • including public (external) behavior and private (internal) behavior. • Private behavior (feelings, thoughts) difficult to study • In any situation, the behavior is followed by consequences • praise, money, solving problem • behavior will be repeated • these consequencers are called reinforcers. • Other consequences make behavior less likely to repeat, called “punishers” • injuring yourself, feeling embarrassed

50. “Radical Behaviorism” • Behavior is caused by environmental stimuli • Principle of learning is the association between behavior and reward • Reward the behavior you want (shaping). • Do not reward the behaviors you do not want. • Mental events (thinking, imagining) do NOT cause behavior • Inner psychological state NOT important • Agreed with Watson • Disagreed with Tolman, Hull, Clark, Behaviorists • (Today: Dog Whisperer, dog’s past doesn’t matter)