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Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
How Does Cognitive Psychology Explain Learning?
According to cognitive psychology, some forms of learning must be explained
as changes in mental processes, rather than as changes in behavior alone
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
• Insight Learning – Problem solving occurs by means of a sudden reorganization of perceptions.. suddenly perceiving familiar objects in new forms or relationships
• Cognitive Maps –A mental representation of physical space
How Does Cognitive How Does Cognitive Psychology Explain Learning?Psychology Explain Learning?
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
Wolfgang Köhler and Insight Learning
• Example: chimp stacks crates to reach food
• This is a form of cognitive learning
• Behaviorism has no convincing stimulus-response explanation for Kohler’s demonstration.
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
• Köhler observed the manner in which chimpanzees solve problems, such as that of retrieving bananas when positioned out of reach.
• He found that they stacked wooden crates to use as makeshift ladders, in order to retrieve the food.
• Köhler concluded that the chimps had not arrived at these methods through trial-and-error (which Thorndike had claimed to be the basis of all animal learning, through his law of effect)
• Rather they had experienced an insight (also known as an “aha experience”), in which, having realized the answer, they then proceeded to carry it out in a way that was “purposeful.”
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
Edward Tolman’s Cognitive Map
• Organisms learn the spatial layout of their environments by exploration, even if they are not reinforced for exploring
• (Evolutionary perspective: Animals forging for food)
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• Argued that is was a cognitive map that accounted for a rat quickly selecting an alternative route in a maze when the preferred path was blocked
• Challenged the work of Pavlov, Watson, and Skinner
• Claimed learning was mental, not behavioral.
Edward Tolman’s Cognitive Map
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
Examples of Cognitive Maps
• Giving directions
• Walking through your house in the dark
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Observational Learning: Bandura’s Challenge to Behaviorism
• A form of cognitive learning• We learn by watching others’
behavior and the consequences of their behavior
• Albert Bandura: Proposed that rewards can be effective if we merely see someone else get them
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
Observational Learning
• Accounts for such things as the rapid spread of clothing fashions and slang expressions
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Bandura’ Bobo Doll Experiment1961
• Bandura found that the children exposed to the aggressive model were more likely to act in physically aggressive ways than those who were not exposed to the aggressive model.
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
The Bobo Doll Experiment VideoAlbert Bandura
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Children See, Children Do
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Recent Cognitive Psychologists Findings
Rescorla• Has shown that the
most critical feature of a CS is its value in predicting when the US will occur– EX: Taste aversion- a
certain flavor/smell could server as a warning for illness
Kamin• Expanded on this concept and
demonstrated that a CS - R connection only occurs if the CS contains unique information about the UCS– When presents with multiple
possible CS, a subject will only become conditioned to the one that provided the best info
• EX: Flu=eat Taco Bell food or smells become the CS
• CS is not the Taco Bell sign, the colors blue, pink, and purple, bells, fountain drink stations, etc…
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Summary
Reinforcement changes not only the behavior but also the individual’s expectations for future rewards and punishments in similar situations .
Reinforcement changes expectations and behavior
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
Brain Mechanisms and Learning
Long-term Potentiation • Biological process involving the strengthening of
synapses in groups of nerve cells; believed to be the neural basis of learning
• Dopamine a “reward neurotransmitter” is released in mammals w/ Operant Conditioning. Continuous Reinforcement of behavior releases dopamine, which brings pleasure and strengthens the neural pathway associated with that behavior, making a LASTING behavior
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Are There Two Learning Circuits??
• Simple ‘mindless’ learning, like learning to ride a bike
• More complex learning that requires conscious processing: concept formation, insight learning, observational learning, memory of specific events.
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007
End of Chapter 6