Learning How do w e l earn? Classical conditioning Operant conditioning

2. Learning • How do we learn? • Classical conditioning • Operant conditioning • Biology, cognition, and learning • Learning by Observation

3. How Do We Learn? • Learning • The process of acquiring, through experience, new and relatively enduring information or behaviors • Associative learning • Learning that certain events occur together—the events may be two stimuli (as in classical conditioning) or a response and its consequences (as in operant conditioning) • Cognitive learning • Acquisition of mental information, whether by observing events, by watching others, or through language

4. How Do We Learn?

5. Learning • Classical conditioning • Type of learning in which we learn to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events • Operant conditioning • Type of learning in which we learn to associate a response and its consequence • Thus, we learn to repeat acts followed by good results and to avoid acts followed by bad results Let’s take a closer look.

6. Classical Conditioning

7. Operant Conditioning

8. Conditioning is not the only form of learning • Through cognitive learning we acquire mental information that guides our behavior • Observational learning, another form of cognitive learning, facilitates learning from others’ experiences

9. Why are habits, such as having something sweet with that cup of coffee, so hard to break?

10. Classical Conditioning • Pavlov’s experiments • Pavlov’s legacy

11. Classical Conditioning Pavlov’s experiments • He and his associates explored five processes: acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery, generalization, and discrimination. IVAN PAVLOV “Experimental investigation should lay a solid foundation for a future true science of psychology” (1927).

12. PAVLOV’S CLASSIC EXPERIMENT After studying this experiment, let’s make sure all the definitions are clear.

13. Can you define each of these more completely?

14. Neutral stimulus (NS) • In classical conditioning, a stimulus that evokes no response before conditioning • Unconditioned stimulus (US) • In classical conditioning, a stimulus that unconditionally—naturally and automatically—triggers a response (UR) • Unconditioned response (UR) • In classical conditioning, an unlearned, naturally occurring response (such as salivation) to an unconditioned stimulus (US) (such as food in the mouth)

15. Conditioned stimulus (CS) • In classical conditioning, an originally irrelevant stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus (US), comes to trigger a conditioned response (CR) • Conditioned response (CR) • In classical conditioning, a learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus (CS)

16. An experimenter sounds a tone just before delivering an air puff to your blinking eye. After several repetitions, you blink to the tone alone. What is the NS? The US? The UR? The CS? The CR?

17. Classical Conditioning • Acquisition • First stage in classical conditioning • Place where link between the NS and US is learned • A quail tale • Recent research on Japanese quail shows how their capacity for classical conditioning gives them a reproductive edge • How did the researchers develop the quail’s preference for their cage’s red-light district?

18. AN UNEXPECTED CS Psychologist Michael Tirrell (1990) recalled: “My first girlfriend loved onions, so I came to associate onion breath with kissing. Before long, onion breath sent tingles up and down my spine. Oh what a feeling!”

19. In horror movies, sexually arousing images of women are sometimes paired with violence against women. Based on classical conditioning principles, what might be an effect of this pairing?

20. Classical Conditioning • Extinction and spontaneous recovery • Extinction • In classical conditioning, the weakening of a conditioned response when an unconditioned stimulus does not follow a conditioned stimulus • In operant conditioning, the weakening of a response when it is no longer reinforced • Spontaneous recovery • Reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response

21. ACQUISITION, EXTINCTION, AND SPONTANEOUS RECOVERY The rising curve (simplified here) shows that the CR rapidly grows stronger as the NS becomes a CS as it is repeatedly paired with the US (acquisition). The CS weakens when it is presented alone (extinction). After a pause, the CR reappears (spontaneous recovery).

22. The first step of classical conditioning, when an NS becomes a CS, is called________. When a US no longer follows the CS, and the CR becomes weakened, this is called ________ .

23. Classical Conditioning • Generalization • The tendency, after conditioning, to respond similarly to stimuli that resemble the conditioned stimulus • Can be adaptive • Discrimination • Learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and other irrelevant stimuli • Is also adaptive

24. Pavlov’s Legacy • Pavlov showed how a scientific model can be used to objectively study the learning. • Many responses to many stimuli can be classical conditioned. This is true for every species tested.

25. If the aroma of cake baking makes your mouth water, what is the US? The CS? The CR?

26. Classical Conditioning in Everyday Life • Pavlov’s principles influence human health and well- being in a variety of ways • Examples • Patients can develop classically conditioned side-effects to drugs given as cancer treatments • Former drug users often feel a craving when they are again in the drug-using context

27. In Watson and Rayner’sexperiments, “Little Albert” learned to fear a white rat after repeatedly experiencing a loud noise as the rat was presented. In this experiment, what was the US? The UR? The NS? The CS? The CR? Archives of the History of American Psychology, The University of Akron

28. Operant Conditioning • Skinner’s experiments • Skinner’s legacy • Close-up: Using operant conditioning to build your own strengths • Contrasting classical and operant conditioning

29. Differences: Classical and Operant Conditioning Classical • Involves learning associations between events that are not controlled by learner • Respondent behavior: Automatic responses to stimuli Operant • Involves learning associations between behavior and resulting events • Association with one’s own actions with consequences

30. With ________ conditioning, we learn associations between events we do not control. With ________ conditioning, we learn associations between our behavior and resulting events.

31. Operant Conditioning • Skinner’s experiments • Built on Thorndike’s law of effect: Rewarded behavior is likely to be repeated • Developed to reveal principles of behavior control • Shaping behavior (successive approximation) • Operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide actions closer and closer toward a desired behavior • Used as we continually reinforce others’ behavior

32. CAT IN A PUZZLE BOX Thorndike used a fish reward to entice cats to find their way out of a puzzle box (right) through a series of maneuvers. The cats’ performance tended to improve with successive trials (left), illustrating Thorndike’s law of effect. (Adapted from Thorndike, 1898.)

33. Types of Reinforcers • Positive reinforcement • Increases behaviors by presenting positive stimuli • Is anything that, when presented after a response, strengthens the response • Negative reinforcement • Increases behaviors by stopping or reducing negative stimuli • Is anything that, when removed after a response, strengthens the response • Is notpunishment

34. A SKINNER BOX Inside the box, the rat presses a bar or button for a food reward. Outside, a measuring device (not shown here) keeps records of the animal’s responses. WAYS TO INCREASE BEHAVIOR

35. Operant Conditioning; Types of Reinforcers • Primary reinforcers • Unlearned; innate • Conditioned reinforcers (secondary reinforcers) • Learned associaitions with primary reinforcers • Immediate reinforcers • Immediate rewards • Delayed reinforcers • Delayed Can you think of examples for each of these?

36. Operant Conditioning • Reinforcement schedule • Is a pattern that defines how often a desired response will be reinforced • Reinforcement schedules vary and influence our learning • Continuous reinforcement • Is good for behavior mastery; extinction can occur • Partial (intermittent) reinforcement • Is slower but extinction is less 6-7 How do continuous and partial reinforcement schedules affect behavior?

37. Operant Conditioning • Fixed-ratio schedules • Reinforce behavior after a set number of responses • Variable-ratio schedules • Reinforce after an unpredictable number of responses • Fixed-interval schedules • Reinforce the first response after a fixed time period • Variable-interval schedules • Reinforcement after an unpredictable number of responses VitalyTitov & Maria Sidelnikova / Shutterstock

38. Telemarketers are reinforced by which schedule? People checking the oven to see if the cookies are done are on which schedule? Airline frequent-flyerprogramsthat offer a free flight after every 25,000 miles of travel are using which reinforcement schedule?

39. Punishment • Ways to decrease behavior • Major drawbacks of physical punishment • Punished behavior suppressed; punishing behavior reinforced • Discrimination among situations taught • Generalization occurs; fear taught • Aggression may be increased by modeling David Strickler / The Image Works

41. Skinner’s Legacy Sam Falk / Science Source B. F. Skinner “I am sometimes asked, ‘Do you think of yourself as you think of the organisms you study?’ The answer is yes. So far as I know, my behavior at any given moment has been nothing more than the product of my genetic endowment, my personal history, and the current setting” (1983). • Urged people to use operant principles to influence the behavior of others • Criticized for neglecting people’s personal freedom and advocating for external control of others

42. Applications of Operant Conditioning • At school • Many of the ideas for education are used today • Electronic adaptive devices are often Skinnerian • At work • Many organizations used reinforcers to influence productivity • At home • Reinforcement is used and abused in many parenting situations • Reinforcement can be used effectively to help children change and manage their behavior

43. Ethan constantly misbehaves at preschool even though his teacher scolds him repeatedly. Why does Ethan’s misbehavior continue, and what can his teacher do to stop it?

44. Contrasting Classical and Operant Conditioning Classical • Form of associative learning • Associate different events that one cannot control • Respond automatically Operant • Form of associative learning • Links behaviors to act on the environment to produce rewarding or punishing events

45. Using Operant Conditioning to Build Your Own Strengths • State your goal in measurable terms and announce it • Decide how, when, and where you will work toward your goal • Monitor how often you engage in your desired behavior • Reinforce the desired behavior • Reduce the rewards gradually

46. Salivating in response to a tone paired with food is a(n) behavior; pressing a bar to obtain food is a(n) behavior.

47. Biology, Cognition, and Learning • Biological limits on conditioning • Cognitive influences on conditioning

48. Biology, Cognition, and Learning • Biological limits on conditioning • Humans are biologically prepared to learn some things rather than others • Humans are naturally disposed to learn associations favored by natural selection Garcia and Koelling’staste aversion research ended the belief that environments rule out behavior. Findings help disprove the belief that almost any stimulus could serve equally well as a conditioned stimulus.

49. How did Garcia and Koelling’staste aversionstudies help disprove the belief that almost any stimulus (tastes, sights, sounds) could serve equally well as a conditioned stimulus? Explain.

50. Biology, Cognition, and Learning Courtesy of Kathryn Brownson, Hope College Limits on operant conditioning • Each species has a limit on their capacity for operant conditioning • Our biology predisposes us to learn associations that are naturally adaptive ROMANTIC RED In a series of experiments that controlled for other factors (such as the brightness of the image), men found women more attractive and sexually desirable when framed in red (Elliot & Niesta, 2008).