LEARNING

the process leading to relatively permanent behavioral change or potential behavioral change. In other words, as we learn, we

alter the way we perceive our environment, the way we interpret the incoming stimuli, and therefore the way we

interact, or behave.

The process through which experience modifies pre-existing behavior and understanding

PRE-EXISTING BEHAVIOR AND UNDERSTANDING

Present at birth

maturation

Learned earlier

PEOPLE LEARN

Experiencing events

Observing relationship between events

Noting the regularity in the world

LEARNING ABOUT STIMULI

One kind of learning is habituation, which involves adaptation to events that are repeated often.

ex. Ticking of the clock stops = we become aware

SOLOMON’S OPPONENT-PROCESS THEORY

Habituation is the result of a relatively automatic, involuntary A-Process and a B-Process that follows and counteracts the A-

Process.ex. Heart rate

CLASSICAL CONDITION: LEARNING SIGNALS AND ASSOCIATIONS

One important type of learning, Classical Conditioning, was actually discovered accidentally by Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936).

Pavlov was a Russian physiologist who discovered this phenomenon while doing research on digestion. His research was aimed at better understanding the digestive patterns in

dogs.

THE PAVLOV’s DISCOVERY

During his experiments, he would put meat powder in the mouths of dogs who had tubes inserted into various organs to measure bodily responses. What he discovered was that the

dogs began to salivate before the meat powder was presented to them. Then, the dogs began to salivate as soon as the

person feeding them would enter the room. He soon began to gain interest in this phenomenon and abandoned his digestion

research in favor of his now famous Classical Conditioning study.

PAVLOV’s INTERPRETATION

Pavlov began pairing a bell sound with the meat powder and found that even when the meat powder was not presented, the dog would eventually begin to salivate after hearing the bell. Since the meat powder naturally results in salivation, these

two variables are called the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) and the unconditioned response (UCR), respectively. The bell and salivation are not naturally occurring; the dog was

conditioned to respond to the bell. Therefore, the bell is considered the conditioned stimulus (CS), and the salivation

to the bell, the conditioned response (CR).

EXTINCTION AND SPONTANEOUS RECOVERY

EXTINCTIONunless the unconditional stimulus continues to be paired at

least occasionally with the conditioned stimulus, the conditioned response will gradually disappear.

RECONDITIONING

It is the quick learning of a conditioned response after extinction. If the CS and UCS are paired once or twice after

extinction; that is the CR reverts to its original strength

SPONTANEOUS RECOVERY

Following the extinction, the CR often reappears if the CS is presented after sometime

STIMULUS GENERALIZATION AND DISCRIMINATION

Because of stimulus generalization, CRs occur to stimuli that are similar but not identical to CS.

ex. Sour-smelling milk – avoidance to it

Generalization is limited by stimulus discrimination, which prompts CR to some stimuli but not to others.

ex. Your dog barks – you wake up (CR)

Other dog barks – no response

THE SIGNALING OF SIGNIFICANT EVENTS

Classical conditioning involves learning that the CS is an event that predicts the occurrence of another event, UCS. The CR is

not just an automatic reflex but a means through which animals and people develop mental models of relation

between events. Ex. Preparation of dog to eat – saliva flowing in advance – easier to swallow the

food

TIMING

Classical conditioning works best when the CS precedes the UCS, an arrangement known as forward conditioning. In

essence, the CS is a signal that prepares the organism for the UCS.

In an arrangement called backward conditioning, the CS signal follows the UCS.

When the CS and UCS arrive at the same time (simultaneous conditioning), conditioning is much less likely to take place it

is in either backward or forward conditioning.

PREDICTABILITY

Classical conditioning proceeds most rapidly when the CS always signals the UCS, and only UCS.

Ex. Growl (CS) – Bite (UCS)

SIGNAL STRENGTH

A CR will be greater if the UCS is strong than if it is weak.Ex. Strong shock (UCS)- more fear (CR)

Weak shock – less fear

ATTENTION

More than one potential CS often precedes an UCS. Attention can influence which CS becomes associated with the UCS.

Ex. Child’s focus before the lightning stuck.

SECOND-ORDER CONDITIONING

When a CS acts like an UCS, creating CS out of events associated with it.

Ex. Suffers pain in injection (UCS) – doctor’s white coat (noticeable stimuli) - fear (CS) – white coat of the doctor evokes a conditioned fear response (some

properties of an UCS) – nurse calling the name = fear (CS) because it signals the white coat, which in turn signals pain

OPERANT CONDITIONING: LEARNING THE CONSEQUENCES OF BEHAVIOR

The term "Operant" refers to how an organism operates on the environment, and hence, operant conditioning comes from how we respond to what is presented to us in our environment.

It can be thought of as learning due to the natural consequences of our actions.

FROM THE PUZZLE BOX TO THE SKINNER BOX

The law of effect, postulated by Edward Thorndike, holds that any response that produces satisfaction becomes more likely

to occur again and any response that produces discomfort becomes less likely. He called this type of learning

instrumental conditioning. Skinner called the same basic process operant conditioning. In operant conditioning the organism is free to respond at any time and conditioning is

measured by the rate of responding.Ex. Sweet and bitter tastes

BASIC CONDITIONING OF OPERANT CONDITIONING

OPERANTS AND REINFORCERS

An operant is a response that has some effect on the world; it is a response that operates on the environment

Ex. When the child says to her mother that he is hungry

A reinforcer increases the probability that the operant preceding it will occur again; in other words, reinforcers

strengthens behavior. The term reinforce means to strengthen, and is used in psychology to refer to anything stimulus which

strengthens or increases the probability of a specific response. Ex. if you want your dog to sit on command, you may give him a treat every time he sits for you. The dog will eventually come to understand that sitting when told to will result in a treat. This treat is reinforcing because he likes it

and will result in him sitting when instructed to do so.

2 types of reinforcers:

Positive reinforcers, which strengthen a response if they are presented or experienced after that response occurs;

equivalent to reward. The most common types of positive reinforcement or praise and rewards, and most of us have

experienced this as both the giver and receiver.Ex. Food, smiles, money, desirable outcomes

Negative reinforcers, which strengthen a response if they are removed after it occurs. Think of negative reinforcement as

taking something negative away in order to increase a response.

Ex. Pain, threats, disapproving frown

ESCAPE AND AVOIDANCE CONDITIONING

Escape conditioning results when behavior terminates a negative reinforcer

Ex. Parents give child’s demand to avoid tantrums

Avoidance conditioning results when behavior prevents of avoids an aversive stimulus; it reflects both classical and

operant conditioning. Behaviors learned through avoidance conditioning are highly resistant to extinction.

Ex. 2 step learning process:1st step = classical conditioning (pairing a signal with coming shock)

2nd step = operant conditioning (learning to make a response to avoid the shock)

PUNISHMENT

Punishment decreases frequency of a behavior by following it either with an unpleasant stimulus or with the removal of a pleasant one. Punishment modifies behavior but has several drawbacks. It only suppresses behavior; fear of punishment may generalize to the person doing the punishing; it can be

physically harmful and may teach aggressiveness; and it teaches only what not to do, not what should be done to obtain

reinforcement.

DISCRIMINATIVE STIMULI AND STIMULUS CONTROL

Discriminative stimuli indicate whether reinforcement is available for a particular behavior.

Ex. Pigeon – see red light- they reinforce to pick the food

Pigeon – see green light – no response

Therefore, they will pick only the food when the red light is on

FORMING AND STRENGTHENING OPERANT BEHAVIOR

Complex responses can be learned through the following:

SHAPING

Shaping, which involves reinforcing successive approximations of the desired response. It is an extremely powerful, widely

used tool

Ex. Animal trainers to teach a chimpanzees to roller-skates.

SECONDARY REINFORCMENT

Primary reinforcement are inherently rewardingEx. Food

Secondary reinforcement rewards that people or animals learn to like because of their association with primary

reinforcers.Ex. “Good boy!” sound

DELAY AND SIZE OF REINFORCEMENT

In general, operant conditioning proceeds more quickly when the delay in receiving reinforcement is short rather than long,

and when the reinforcer is large rather than small Ex. A strong electrical shock will elicit a faster avoidance or escape response

than a weak one.

SCHEDULES OF REINDFORCMENTS

Reinforcements may be delivered on a continuous reinforcements schedule or on one of four basic types of

partial, or intermittent, reinforcement schedule.

REINFORCMENT SCHEDULE

Fixed–ratio schedule (FR) provide reinforcement following a fixed number of responses.

Ex. Rats may receive food after tenth bar press (FR 10) or rather every twentieth one (FR 20)

Variable-ratio schedules (VR) also call for reinforcement after a given number of responses, but that number varies

from one reinforcement to the next

Ex. In gambling, a slot machine

Fixed interval schedules (FI) provide reinforcements for the first response that occurs after some fixed time has passed

since the last reward, regardless of how many responses have been made during that interval.

Ex. Radio stations

Variable-interval schedules (VI) reinforce the first response after some period of time, but the amount of time varies.

Ex. Teacher give “points” – at unpredictably varying intervals– to children who are in their seats.

SCHEDULES AND EXTINCTION

Ratio schedules lead to a rapid rate of responding. Behavior learned through partial reinforcement, particularly through

variable schedules, is very resistant to extinction; this phenomenon is called the partial reinforcement extinction

effect. Partial reinforcement is involved in superstitious behavior, which results when a response is coincidentally

followed by a reinforcer.Ex. Broken slot machine and broken candy machine

Broken slot machine – you put in coin after coin

Broken candy machine – stop putting money in quickly

WHY REINFORCERS WORK?

Reinforcers are rewarding because they provide an organism with the opportunity to engage in desirable activities, which

may change from one situation to the next.

OPERANT CONDITIONING OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR

The principle of operant conditioning have been used in many spheres of life including the teaching of everyday social skills,

the treatment of sleep orders, and the improvement of classroom education

COGNITIVE PROCESS IN LEARNING

Cognitive process is used on how people represent, store, and use information. Also it plays an important role in learning.

Evidences like: Research on learned helplessness, latent learning, cognitive maps and observational learning

LEARNED HELPLESNESS

Learned helplessness appears to result when people believe that their behavior has no effect on the world.

Ex. Adults learn what behaviors bring success in their careers and workplaces.

LATENT LEARNING AND COGNITIVE MAPS

Both animals and humans display latent learning (learning that is not evident when it first occur). They also form

cognitive maps of their environments (mental representation of a particular arrangement), even in the absence of any

reinforcement for doing so.Ex. Observation of group A, B, and C on the rats using a maze

INSIGHT AND LEARNING

Experiments on insight suggest that cognitive processes and learned strategies also play an important role in learning,

perhaps even by animals. It results only after a “mental trial and error” process in which people predict a course of action

mentally stimulate its results, compare it to the imagined outcome of other alternatives, and settle on the course of

action most likely to aid complex problem solving and decision making

Ex. solutions of the chimps in getting the food

OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING: LEARNING BY IMITATION

The process of learning by watching others is called observational learning, or social learning

Ex. Parrot imitates what the person does say

Some observational occurs through various conditioning, in which one is influenced by seeing or hearing about the

consequences of others’ behavior.Ex. After children have observed an antagonistic model, they often reproduce many of the model’s act precisely especially if the model’s antagonistic was

rewarded

Observational learning is more likely to occur when the person observed is rewarded for the observed behavior.

Observational learning as a powerful source of socialization.Ex. Phobias may be learned through observation of fearful models.

USING RESEARCH ON LEARNING TO HELP PEOPLE LEARN

Research on how people learn has implications for improved teaching and for the development of a wide range of skills.

Teaching and Training are explicit efforts to assist learners in mastering a specific skills or body of material are major

aspect of socialization.

CLASSROOM ACROSS CULTURE.

The degree to which learning principles, such as immediate reinforcements and extended practice, are used in teaching

varies considerably from culture to culture.

Ex. Reciprocal teaching, in which children take turns actively teaching each other, a technique that closely parallels the cooperative arrangements

characteristics of Japanese education.

ACTIVE LEARNING

The importance of cognitive processes in learning is seen in active learning methods designed to encourage people to think

deeply about and apply new information instead of just memorizing isolated facts.Ex. Experiences during field trips

SKILL LEARNING

Observational learning, practice, and corrective feedback play important roles in the learning skills

Ex. Swimming coaches trains the students to further enhance their swimming skills.