Behaviorism and

Learning

•Superstitious behavior and applications of Behaviorism•Social Learning Theory•Introduction to Learning and Memory (chapter 7)

Skinner and Superstitious Pigeons

• Power of accidental reinforcement

– Skinner put pigeons in a box

– Every 15 seconds, they were given a grain of food

– 6 of the 8 pigeons developed specific behaviors (turning clockwise, pecking at wall)

Applications of Operant Conditioning

• Teaching language and behaviors to autistic children–Lovaas Autism video

–Clockwork Orange clip

• Token Economy–Earning tokens for desired behaviors

–Applied in treatment of schizophrenics

Behavior modification

• Alcoholics: Conditioning nausea using Antabuse

• Pedophiles: Pairing shock with pictures of children

• Phobias: Pairing relaxation with the feared stimuli

• Heroine: naltrexone (opioid receptor antagonist)

Reinforcement and Punishment

Reinforcement Schedules

How Does Watching Others Affect Learning?

Learning Can Be Passed on through Cultural Transmission

The Meme

Meme

• Unit of cultural transmission– Behaviors– Traditions– Religious beliefs/rituals– Art/cultural artifacts– Lifestyles/food habits

• Memetics

IMO: Monkey Genius

Meme: Dawkins

• Memes are analogous to genes– Genes: instructions for making proteins– Memes: instructions for carrying out behavior

• 3 ingredients of natural selection – Variation– Inheritance– Selection

Memes: continued

• Memes seem to meet all three requirements

• 3 attributes of a “successful replicator”– Fidelity: copying accuracy– Fecundity: copying frequency– Longevity: the characteristic of remaining

distributed in the population long enough for selection pressures to act

Learning Can Occur through Observation

• Observational learning is powerfully adaptive

Albert Bandura

• Bandura’s Bobo doll observational studies suggest aggression is learned

Bobo Doll Experiment (1961)

• Bobo Doll video segment

Observational Learning

• Observational Learning occurs through vicarious reinforcement.

• ‘Learning would be exceedingly laborious, not to mention hazardous, if people had to rely solely on the effects of their own actions to inform them what to do’ (1977).A. Bandura (1925-)

Animals and Humans Imitate Others

• Human babies imitate facial expressions early in life

• Modeling = imitation of observed behavior

• “Vicarious reinforcement” influences the probability of modeling and imitation and results in “vicarious learning”

• Mirror Neurons:

Social learning theory

• Classical and operant conditioning can be learned through observation with attention & retention.

Observational Learning

• Learning by observing and imitating the behavior of others

• Modeling–Process of observing and imitating

behavior

Cognition and Learning

• Cognitive Map–mental representation of the layout

of one’s environment

• Latent Learning–learning that occurs but is not

apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it

Observational Learning

• TV viewing linked to adult violence (Johnson, 2002)

What to focus on: Ch 6

• Classical and Operant conditioning

• Social learning theory

• Memes and cultural transmission

• Dopamine

• Neuronal learning

Memory

• Function of Memory– Allows conscious access to your

personal past and to the collective (historical) past.

– Enables effortless continuity of experience

– Memory Clip