Learning

1. Learning

2. “Pay Attention!” In order for people to pay attention effectively they generally have to be able to do the following: • identify and focus on the important elements of the situation • maintain attention on that while ignoring competing information • retrieve memories related to what is being focused on • redirect attention to new information when appropriate

3. Memory and Learning • Memory plays a key role here. When learning takes place, a neural pathway is formed. The more that pathway is used, the more it becomes strengthened. • The stronger the pathway, the easier memory retrieval occurs. • The brain uses two systems to retrieve information. • There is a fast system to note where objects are located (the background) • And a slower one to discern what the objects are (the foreground). • Children who have dyslexia have a fast system that does not work fast enough. The words that have been read do not shift to the background while new ones are being read, causing them to blur. • The same dysfunctional fast system applies to those with Attention Deficit Disorder. • Irrelevant information from the environment is not filtered out during tasks that require attention. • The result is the sound of a pencil writing becomes as important as the test that is being written.

4. The brain can be tricked into producing the same result with the fast system of memory. Stroop test http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/everest/exposure/stroopnonshock.html • People will often say the color of the letters rather than saying the word the letters spell. • This is because their attention is divided between the colors the words are printed on and the name of the color the word denotes. When the two are mixed up, then accuracy fails.

5. Conditioning • A nine month-old baby lay in a hospital crib starving to death; his weight less than 12 pounds. The baby was so thin that his ribs stuck out and the skin hung from the bones of his arms. His eyes were wide and dull; he spent most of his time staring into space. Death seemed inevitable because each time he swallowed food, it would reach a certain point in its downward movement and then his muscle would contract in the opposite direction, causing him to throw up.

6. Conditioning: association is made between two events by repeatedly having them occur close together in time. • Doctors found the exact location in the digestive tract that was causing reversal of the food movement took place. • A wire that would carry an electric shock was attached to the infant’s leg. • Each time the food arrived at the “reversal spot”, a shock was sent to the leg at one-second intervals until the vomiting was over. • By that time the food reversing had been thoroughly associated with something very unpleasant for the infant. • His brain decided to stop the reversal process in order to avoid the shock. • Soon afterward, the infant began to gain weight and he was discharged, well and happy. Thus, it is possible to condition mental or physical behavior by a process of association.

7. Social Influence • However, conditioning can also be very subtle and complex. • A good example is the concept of handsomeness, which is conditioned by each culture. • Males in the Boloki tribe demonstrate their attractiveness and masculinity by chiseling their upper from teeth to V-shaped points. • Apparently the women in the tribe like it, but it is hard to imagine this technique attracting many people in North America.

8. Four Types of Learning • The first type of learning involves unavoidable physical association, such as the shock to the boy’s leg. This is called classical conditioning. • The second involves learning caused by the actions we perform. For instance, we learn that pressing one’s finger very hard on the edge of a knife is not a good idea. This is called operant conditioning. • The third type of learning is the learning that results from observing others. If someone dives into a black lagoon and does not resurface, you know not to do that. This is called social learning (because it results from viewing other people). • The fourth type emphasizes thought processes in learning. It is called the cognitive approach.

9. Classical Conditioning • It was first demonstrated by a physiologist in the 1900s, Ivan Pavlov. • Pavlov’s original goal was to understand how the digestive system works. He wanted to discover how salivation and gastric juice aids in digestion. • By today’s standards, the experiments were both basic and simple, but such was not the case in the early 1900s. • Pavlov surgically separated the stomach from the esophagus in dogs. This meant that: (1) food taken by mouth would never reach the stomach and (2) food could be put directly into the stomach without having to travel through the mouth.

10. Importance of Association • Pavlov was quick to note three strange things. • First, food put directly into the stomach did not generate all by itself enough gastric juices for digestion. Thus, salivation at the time of eating is critical to proper digestion. • Second, even though no found was placed in the dog’s mouth, the animal would still salivate copiously just at the sight of the food. • But Pavlov’s third finding was the most surprising and important one: the sight of the experimenter who fed the animal would cause the dog to salivate even if that person was not carrying any food. This meant that receiving food could be conditioned to (associated with) the mere presence of the experimenter. • Later Pavlov rang a bell before feeding the dogs and the dog’s associated the ringing of the bell with food. They would salivate whenever the bell was rung even if food wasn’t provided.

11. Outline of Classical Conditioning • Since Pavlov’s experiments were the first in the learning area, they also are considered classical. This is how we get the term classical conditioning. • The following steps are involved in classical condition. You start with a reflexive or “natural” stimulus-response pair. The word stimulus refers to anything that causes some kind of reaction. That reaction is termed the response. • Thus, since meat makes a dog salivate, meat is the stimulus (S) for the response (R) of salivation. The behavior involved is completely automatic; the animal salivates when food is put into its mouth. Here is a diagram of this activity: Receives food (S)  Salivates (R) • So food is a stimulus (S) and salivation is • a response (R) to that stimulus.

12. Note that no special conditions are needed for meat to cause salivation; it is natural and automatic. Hence Pavlov called the food an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) and salivation an unconditioned response (CR), because they occur without any special conditions needed. Replacing the diagram above with more accurate terminology, this is what we get: Receives food (UCS)  Salivates (UCR) Since seeing an experimenter will not elicit salivation all by itself, some specific conditions are necessary – namely, the animal must associate the experimenter with food. When that association takes place over time, then “seeing the experimenter” becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS). In other words, the special condition of associating the experimenter with food has been met. A diagram of this process of association would look like this: Sight of experimenter (CS)  Receives food (UCS)  Salivation (UCR) Eventually the animal responds to the conditioned stimulus alone, by salivating, much as it did to the unconditioned stimulus of food. Salivation at the sight of the experimenter, since it is now triggered by a CS, with no food present, becomes the conditioned response (CR) (even though it’s the same type of salivation). The last step is: Sight of experimenter (CS)  Salivation (UCR)

13. Textbook example: Here is a quick review to help set the terms in your brain. You hear someone mention that he or she desperately wants a juicy dill pickle. Note that just reading this is causing you to salivate. How is this possible? In the past: Eating pickle (UCS)  Salivation (UCR) Before you actually eat a pickle, you think or say to yourself “Pickle”. Word pickle (CS)  Eating pickle (UCS)  Salivation (UCR) Over time, the word pickle, which is only a sound and not an object, becomes associated with a real pickle, which does cause salivation. So now we have: Word pickle (CS)  Salivation (CR)

14. Classical Conditioning Comic • http://www.psychotube.net/psychology-comic/ivan-pavlov-classical-conditioning/ Review of Terms • http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/classical-conditioning.html • Example in “The Office” • http://vimeo.com/5371237

15. John Watson and Emotional Conditioning • Several years after Pavlov’s early experiments, psychologist James Watson appeared on the scene. While he was working his way through school, one of his jobs was to take care of laboratory rats. • Gradually the rats become Watson’s pets and friends. • One of his favorite pastimes was to teach them all kinds of tricks. The rats were able to find their way through elaborate mazes he built, to solve problems such as the need to dig through obstacles he had put in their path, to act as construction workers in tunnels he started for them, and so forth. • Based on his observations, Watson eventually decided that what seemed to be the rats’ complex behavior actually resulted from little more than a series of stimuli and responses, rather than from some exotic concept such as “intelligence”. • Watson went even further to suggest that at the human level, “deep emotions” are also just the result of association and learning. • One of his most famous experiments involved trying to get a human to generalize the emotion of fear from one object to another; this he thought, would demonstrate that emotions can be mechanically induced.

16. Controversial Experiment • Watson’s work in this area concerned many people because of the ethics involved in how he dealt with a child. • His research would never be allowed today. • A woman who worked at the same clinic as Watson would bring her child with her while she was working. Unknown to the mother, Watson started a series of conditioning experiments with the child. • This 11-month old is now famous in psychology and is known as “Little Albert”.

17. Fear • Before describing what • happened to Little Albert, we need some background information on fear. • An unexpected noise makes anyone’s heart race. We don’t have to learn to be startled. It happens automatically. So, a sudden loud noise is an unconditioned stimulus for the unconditioned response of fear.

18. Watson put a white laboratory rat into the room with Albert. Albert loved the furry creature and played with it. While Albert played, Watson sneaked up behind him and made a loud, startling noise. Albert fell forward, crying and burying his face in a mattress on the floor. The next time he reached for the rat, Watson repeated the crashing noises. Little Albert became terrified of the rat. Here is the situation: Loud sound (UCS)  Fear (UCR) followed by the association phase: Rat (CS)  Loud sound (UCS)  Fear (UCR) which then becomes: Rat (CS)  Fear (CR)

19. Watson then went on to demonstrate what is called stimulus generalization, which means that a response can spread from one specific stimulus like the white rat to other stimuli resembling the original one in some way. • To show this had occurred, Watson brought in a white rabbit, which also frightened Albert. • Albert even showed some concern about a fur coat and a mild negative response to a Santa Claus mask, objects somewhat similar to the white rat.

20. Mom freaked out and stopped the experiment • Before the mother discovered these goings on and fled with Albert, Watson had shown two things: (1) conditioning of emotions to neutral objects is possible and (2) a conditioned emotion can generalize to other objects that have similar characteristics. • All of this is helpful to know, but there is a problem because no one ever located “Big” Albert after Watson’s experiment and because no one since Watson has done a similar kind of experiment, we don’t know how long such conditioned emotions last. • Most likely Albert’s fear disappeared, since we do know from other studies (with adults) that if you stop pairing something like a frightening noise with an object, the original association will begin to disappear. • This disappearance is called extinction. • Thus, after a while, Pavlov’s dogs would extinguish (stop) their salivation at the presence of the experimenter unless the experimenter continued to feed them occasionally.

21. This type of conditioning is the basis behind slot machines in Las Vegas. As long as a player receives a pay-out, even occasionally, they continued to pull the lever and keep gambling.

22. Removal of Fears • One very important discovery was made as a result of Watson’s experiments, and it came from a student who worked for Watson, Mary Cover Jones. • Aware of the effect that Watson’s experiments had had on Little Albert, she wondered if she could reverse the procedure and cure a child of a terrible fear. • She found a three-year old, “Peter,” who panicked at the sight of a rabbit. In an experiment, she brought a rabbit into the room with Peter, close enough for him to see it. • She then gave the child some food he liked. She moved the rabbit closer and gave more food, and she continued this process, associating the pleasure of food with the feared object. • It worked: Peter lost his fear of rabbits. Jones had found the key to removing all manner of fears, called phobias, that can make people’s lives miserable – fears of elevators, snakes, dogs, and the like. • Associating something pleasant with a feared object is still used quite successfully today to reduce or stop such fears.

23. Operant Conditioning • behavior is learned or avoided as a result of its consequences. • In classical conditioning, learning takes place without any choice; in other words, meat on the tongue (or something that has been associated with meat) will automatically cause salivation without any choice by the organism. In operant conditioning, the organism plays some role in what happens. This theory claims that humans and animals learn as an end product of performing certain actions (or operations). • The distinction between classical and operant conditioning is often hard to grasp when encountered for the first time. But the brain has a way of remembering unusual things better than it remembers the commonplace so by now giving you an example that is truly absurd, you won’t ever forget it.

24. First scene: Someone in your household decides to condition you classically to hate a certain vegetable. • At random times this person, carrying a handful of the cold vegetable, sneaks up behind you and shoves it into your mouth while talking into your ear about something nauseating. • After a few of these encounters, you will find the thought of that vegetable quite unpleasant. • You have now been classically conditioned to dislike the vegetable, since you had no control whatsoever over what was happening. Second scene: You find three different varieties of canned vegetables in the cupboard. • You have never eaten any of them. You reach in, take one out, cook it, and eat it. You do the same thing with the other two later on. • The one you like best you will probably reach for and cook again. • In this case, you have been operantly conditioned by your actions (operations) and their consequences to prefer one vegetable over another.

25. B.F. Skinner • Psychologist B.F. Skinner is best known for his work with the operant conditioning theory. • He believed that how we turn out in life is the result of what we learn from all the operations we make over the years. • If our actions result in people getting angry and disliking us, we are being operantly conditioned to believe that the world is a dangerous and threatening place. • If the environment rewards us when we perform certain acts, then we tend to repeat them. • Thus, if you study hard, do a good job on a paper, and get a note of praise, you will tend to study hard and do a good job again; if you get a nasty note on your paper even though you’ve done well, you will lose your desire to repeat these actions.

26. Operant Conditioning Processes Reinforcementfollows a response and strengthens our tendency to repeat that response in the future. For example, say that there is a bar inside an animal cage, and each time the animal presses the bar, food appears. The behavior of bar pressing is reinforced (strengthened) by the arrival of the food. After awhile, when the animal is hungry, it will walk right over and push the bar. • Primary reinforcement: something that is absolutely necessary for survival, such as food or water. The possibility of obtaining one of these when you perform an action is the strongest incentive to learn. • Secondary reinforcement: anything that comes to represent a primary reinforcer. - Because money can buy food and drink, it represents these primary reinforcers. - All secondary reinforcers are related to some primary one. For example, you work for a high grade because it is a formal way of receiving praise, and this praise represents the physical love (primary reinforcement) in the form of hugs that you got from your parent(s) when you did a good job as a child. • Positive reinforcement occurs when something the organism wants (such as food) is added on (+, positive) after an action. • Negative reinforcement occurs when something unpleasant (negative) is stopped or taken away (-, negative) if the organism does something. • In one, something pleasant is added; in the other, something unpleasant is stopped or avoided. • Try to remember that reinforcement always strengthens a response, rather than weakening it, and this will be easier to understand.

27. Example: • If the floor of a cage gives an animal a shock and the animal learns to push a bar in order to stop the electricity, this is negative reinforcement; it strengthens a response (pushing the bar). • Say that someone wants you to take out the trash, which you keep forgetting to do. So the nagging starts, and it keeps on and on. • You are being negatively reinforced: all you want to do is find a way to stop the endless whining about what a mess you are. You take out the trash and are therefore performing an act in order to stop something unpleasant.

28. Big Bang Theory: Operant Conditioning • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teLoNYvOf90

29. Punishment • Students often confuse negative reinforcement with punishment, but there is a very basic difference. • Punishmentis an attempt to weaken a response by following it with something unpleasant, not to strengthen it. • There are two basic ways to go with punishment. • First, something desired can be taken away, as when someone is fined for a traffic violation. • Second, something unwanted can be added, as when students had to write “I shall not talk in class” 100 times on the blackboard.

31. Generalization and Discrimination Generalizationcan also occur in operantly conditioned behavior. • For instance, a boy who pats a dog and gets a wagging tail is likely to approach the next dog he sees in the same fashion. If that dog also wags its tail, the boy’s actions will generalize to all dogs, for the boy will assume they are all friendly. Suppose, however, that the third dog the boy pats bites him. In such a case, generalization has been instantly halted and replaced by discrimination learning. In other words, the child learns to tell the difference (discriminate) between dogs or between situations that are not all the same. Babies often embarrass adults because of their generalizations. For instance, a baby girl hugs her father and says, “Dada.” Daddy gets so excited about this that he praises her and runs to tell the mother that she has called him by name. The little girl generalizes the response, sensibly in her own mind, by calling every man she meets “Dada.” When the other men don’t give her the same positive reinforcement, she gradually discriminates between who is actually “Dada” and who isn’t – even though she doesn’t actually know what that sound means.

32. Extinction • Often, when a response is no longer followed by reinforcement, a person will gradually stop making that response. • This situation is called extinction, the same term used earlier with classical conditioning. • In both classical and operant conditioning, then, extinction can occur. • In both cases, an association has been weakened: in classical conditioning, because the unconditioned stimulus is no longer present; in operant conditioning, because reinforcement is no longer present.

33. Shaping and Chaining • So far we have been talking about fairly, simple one-step behaviors. Two major techniques can be used to teach more complex or complicated responses. 1. Shaping = the “method of successive approximations.” • In shaping, increasingly closer versions (approximations) of the desired response are reinforced in turn (successively). We start out reinforcing a rough version of the response we’re after. • Once that rough version has been learned, the standard goes up. Now, a smoother or more accurate attempt is required before reinforcement will be given, and so on. • Example: A dog being trained to jump through a hoop will first be reinforced by praise or food for approaching the hoop that lies on the ground. Next it is reinforced for walking through the hoop as it is held vertically touching the group. Then the dog is shaped to jump through the hoop held a few inches off the ground, and so forth. The same process is gone through when someone is learning how to play a tune on the piano or how to swim. Shaping

34. Chaining • When we want a complete sequence done in order, we usually have to start by reinforcing each part of that sequence. Then, each part or link is connected to the others by reinforcement. 2. Chaining= in “connecting together.” Example: In learning a new dance, people learn the different steps or parts of the dance first. Then they put the parts together like links in a chain. • Seeing Eye dogs for the blind are highly intelligent and remarkable examples of what shaping and chaining can produce. • They can read stoplights and traffic patterns, find curbs and doors, discover dangerous holes that might trip their owner, or find things the owner drops. They even will resist dangerous commands from the sightless person. • All these behaviors occur as a smooth, ongoing process that looks completely effortless – and is, after being done hundreds and hundreds of times. • Since these animals are capable of forming close psychological bonds, only occasionally during training is a reinforcer such as food used. • The dog wants to please the trainer to such a degree that a pat on the head or some other form of approval or praise is much more than enough and is generally even preferred.

35. Pigeon Rescuers! • The Coast Guard Search and rescue teams tested an unusual one for pigeons because a pigeon’s vision is so much sharper than a human’s. The pigeons were trained to search for an orange disk and when it was located, to push a button with their beaks as a signal. After training, they went on helicopter rescue missions to watch for orange “disks” – life jackets attached to people in the water. • Pilots have trouble seeing them, but the pigeons don’t. Pigeons have a 90% success rate, whereas the pilots are stuck at 35%. • The victims were thankful when the pigeon spotted the life jacket and pecked a signal to the rescuers.

36. Schedules of Reinforcement • There are different methods of providing reinforcement during operant conditioning. So far we have focused on continuous reinforcement – that is, each time a desired behavior occurs, it is reinforced. • In many cases, this is not a good method because the creature gets used to having something and will quit if it doesn’t show up every time. • This problem can be avoided by using different schedules of reinforcement, that is, different techniques. • When the organism is not being continuously reinforced, it is on a partial reinforcement schedule, of which there are four. • In partial reinforcement, the animal or person does not get a reward each time a desired act is performed.

37. 1. Variable Ratio • A pigeon quickly learns to peck at a button for food. But if you use continuous reinforcement, the pigeon will quit unless it is really hungry. • On the other hand, if the pigeon gets food after five pecks, then after seven pecks, then three, or whatever variable numbers you want to use, once you stop the reinforcement, they will peck of 10,000 times before they finally give up. • This is the variable ratio schedule; “ratio” refers to numbers. Thus, with the pigeons, you vary the number of pecks required before reinforcement occurs. • Humans can really get hooked on this type of schedule, which is how slot machines work. Since players don’t know exactly when the money will fall through the chute, they work hard at it, just like the pigeons. • Usually the machines are set to give a few coins as reinforcement every now and then but to give a jackpot only infrequently.

38. 2. Fixed Ratio • What would happen if you kept the ratio the same, so there is one reinforcement every time the creature performs a certain number of acts? • For example, what if the pigeon is rewarded after every five pecks? This is called a fixed ratio schedule since the relationship between the number of pecks and the number of reinforcements is always the same. • With this method, the pigeons will peck as rapidly as possible because they know that the faster they go, the greater the number of reinforcements they will receive. • At first this seems like it might be a good way to squeeze every drop of work possible out of factory workers – but there are many pitfalls. • Suppose that an auto company decides to put the workers on a fixed ratio schedule in which they are paid by the number of cars they produce. As workers are forced to speed up, they will put screws in halfway and leave out parts in order to save time and produce more cars. • Even when this system looks like it might work – some workers may decide to try to out produce the others – pressure from the group as a whole will force a quick end to this competition. On occasion it may work, as with individual farmhands who are paid by the bushel.

39. 3. Variable Interval • A third type of partial reinforcement is called variable interval schedule. • Here the creature never knows (in terms of time, or “interval”) when the reinforcement will arrive. • It may come at the end of three minutes, then two minutes, then five minutes, and so forth. • A real-life example can be found in that baffling activity called fishing, in which a person sits hour after hour holding a pole up in the air staring into space while apparently nothing happens. • Actually, variable interval reinforcement is going on and keeps the person moving the boat or adjusting the line: the line is attached to a bobber that floats on the water and at unpredictable intervals (from the current or a small wave most often, but on occasion from a fish), the bobber will disappear below water level, causing considerable excitement and keeping hope alive. • With variable interval reinforcement, animals will keep working at a steady, sluggish pace, just to be sure they are performing the right act when the prize comes. But they don’t overdo it in terms of speed.

40. 4. Fixed Interval • A fourth type of schedule, called fixed interval schedule, gives a reward when a specific, fixed amount of time has passed. It has an interesting effect on the behavior of animals. • Pigeons that learn they are going to be rewarded every five minutes no matter how fast they peck become very casual about it all. • They walk over to the pecking button, hit it once, saunter away for a while, and then return, hitting it again. They mope about until just before the five-minute interval is over. Then they move to the button and peck rapidly.

41. Social Learning • In present-day psychology, most of the research has moved away from classical and operant conditioning. While both play a role in learning, they fall short of explaining complex learning processes. • One of the current theories about learning is called social learning, and its most prominent theorist is psychologist Albert Bandura. • He claims that the most important aspect of learning was missed by Pavlov, Watson and Skinner, for he feels that between the stimulus and the response is the complex “inner person” who is able to analyze events and make decisions before a response is given. • Bandura feels that a more complex explanation for behavior is needed when analyzing group, or social, living. • In order to survive, he says, we imitate directly the activities of those around us, “social learning” is the general term for this imitation.

42. “Bobo Doll” • Much of our behavior is acquired by observational learning, meaning that we learn patterns of behavior by watching others and deciding what to imitate. • From the parent, a child learns speech patterns, personal habits, and how to react to other people. In other words, the child observes and then patterns behavior after that of the important people in his or her life. • “Social learning” refers to all learning in a social situations; “observational learning” is one of the processes used for social learning in which we watch events, persons, and situations for cues on how to behave. • In a now-famous experiment, Bandura demonstrated that children who observe aggressive adult models become aggressive themselves as a result. The children watched adults slugging plastic stand-up dolls. • When the children were left alone, they imitated this behavior. The important point that Banduras is making: the child does not require a specific reinforcement such as food for learning to occur. • Social learning can occur by expose and imitation alone. Bandura felt that earlier explanations of learning were too simplified.

43. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zerCK0lRjp8

44. Cognitive Psychology and Learning • Bandura’s approach to learning is clearly more complex than earlier theories. Today psychologists are finding that even his version doesn’t fully account for the elaborate task of learning. • As a result, much of the present research looks at a means of learning. As a result, much of the present research looks at a means of learning called the cognitive approach. • The word cognitive here means “knowledge-using,” with “knowledge” meaning far more than just a stimulus and response or imitation. • Using the cognitive approach, we are able to learn very abstract and subtle things that could not be learned simply through conditioning or social learning. • For instance, some people have learned through the stories of others that it is very bad luck to walk under a ladder or to break a mirror: this kind of belief is very abstract and hence could not be learned by any method other than the cognitive one. When psychologists study cognition, then, they focus on how complex knowledge is obtained, processed, and organized.

45. Complexities of Conditioning • Cognitive psychologists support their position by pointing out that even classical conditioning is not as simple as it first appears. • For example, the type of cage an experimenter keeps an animal in will affect the animal’s learning ability, as will the amount of time the animal has previously spent in the cage. • If an animal is in unfamiliar surroundings, it gets preoccupied with its new environment and doesn’t pay attention to the experiment. And as in the case of Pavlov’s dogs falling asleep, animals vary in the degree to which they are interested in the experiment itself. • There are also strange individual preferences – for example, pigeons will tend to peck at lighted keys even without reinforcement, and they will peck differently if they are trying to get water as compared to food. • Animals condition more easily to pictures of rats or spiders than they do to pictures of flowers and mushrooms. All of these findings make the animal far more complex than just a responder to stimuli. • To see how complicated it can become at the human level, think about how the experimental results might have changed if Little Albert had been a bit older and had known that Watson was standing behind him making the noise.

46. Under the cognitive theory, complexities Watson didn’t know about take on a new light. • For instance, at first it seems reasonable to assume that Watson’s work with Little Albert can explain such human problems as phobias – in other words, that fears of closed spaces, heights, snakes, open places, or germs arise from straight association. But this is not necessarily the case. • Psychologists have discovered a strange quirk about phobias: while many of them may indeed come from association, there is clearly a cognitive (or knowledge-based) aspect to them, because phobias only develop in relation to some kind of natural danger. • Thus, if you are in a closed space, you really may be trapped; if you are up high, you may fall; some snakes are indeed poisonous; if you are out in the open, you may be more vulnerable; germs can kill you. • All of these are known phobias; in contrast, there are no phobias for neutral or “unnatural” things, such as umbrellas, trees, light switches, or automobile tires. As you can see, the conditioning of fears seems to develop through a sophisticated cognitive process.

47. Cognitive Maps • In the 1930s, psychologist E.C. Tolman was already arguing that the mechanical stimulus-response view was too shallow an explanation for all learning. But only with the emergence of cognitive psychology has his early claim been taken seriously and studied extensively. • Tolmanclaimed that even rats in a maze were able to form what he called a cognitive map. • This term refers to the human and animal ability to form a mental image of where he or she is located in the environment. • Thus, when a maze is changed, a rat is able to visualize the change after going through it once and then can run the maze to seek food using the new mental image.

48. We now know that Tolman was right, that there is no such thing as a simple organism. • Rats in mazes, for example, not only form some kind of cognitive map but they also use strategies of their own to explore carefully the alleyways of a maze without going over the same territory more than once. • Chimpanzees in a maze are remarkable. An experimenter can carry a baby chimp through a complicated maze and deposit bananas in 18 different places in the alleyway while the chimp watches. • When freed, the chimp can find an average of 12 of the 18 bananas quickly without duplicating any routes. • Birds that store pine seeds in the ground for months at a time have the same excellent record; in fact, they even pass by storage places for other birds and pick up only their own seeds.

49. One of the most amusing of these experiments involves bees who use a “scout” to find food. After finding the food, the scout flies back to the hive to tell the others where the food is. • The location is indicated by an elaborate scout-bee “dance” that shows the direction and distance of the food location by the length of up-down movement and the general pattern of its flying. • One researcher took a scout bee out to the middle of a lake in a boat and exposed it to food. When it flew back to the hive, it dutifully reported direction and distance of the food to the others. • Since the other bees also have cognitive maps, they presumably thought the scout was mentally disturbed (food in the middle of the lake? He’s got to be kidding!) because not one bee moved. In the next step of the experiment, a scout bee was taken by boat to the shore at the other side of the lake, exposed to food, and let go. When it reported back to the same hive, all the bees came flying posthaste!

50. In Summary: Classical Conditioning: Learning by association Operant Conditioning: Learning through reinforcement Social Learning: Learning by observing and imitating Cognitive Learning: Learning through mental processing