UNIT 3: THE PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING

• Classical Conditioning• Operant Conditioning• Observational Learning• Punishment

Learning:

Think about:

1.) How do people / animals learn? Try and brainstorm five ways.

2.) Why do people learn? Brainstorm three reasons.

Thinking and Learning: Nearly every organism exhibits some type of

learning to survive in its environment

The ability to adapt to the environment is often the key to determining which organisms survive and pass their genes to future generations

From an evolution perspective learning is viewed as an adaptive behavior that underlies natural selection and promotes the survival of the fittest

Learning:

- is defined as a change in behavior that occurs as a result of experience.

There are three basic types of learning:

1. Classical Conditioning:

- Learning that occurs when two stimuli (things) are paired together and become associated with each other.

- This association is a learned behavior !!!!

2. Operant Conditioning:

- Learning that occurs when the participant must make a response to produce a change in the environment in

- This change is in response to rewards (reinforcements) or punishments (consequences)

Think of an example

3.Observational Learning:

- Learning that occurs through watching and imitating the behaviors of others

Think and write an example

Classical Conditioning:

Conditioning:

- Refers to the fact that the learner is “conditioned” or taught an association between two stimuli (things)

Example: Bell and the end of class

or Pavlov ringing the bell and his

dogs’ drooling

Pavlov’s Dogs

1. What are conditional reflexes?

2. What does it mean when it says that the dogs

“anticipated” their meals?

3. Briefly summarize Pavlov’s test?

4. Why did he call it signalization?

5. What was Watson’s Fingertip withdrawal reflex study?

6. What is the basic pattern found in call classical

conditioning?

Classical Conditioning:

Always begins with a Neutral Stimulus (NS) Sound or Bell

Then two unrelated things are paired together (Learned Association)

Neutral Stimulus (Bell) + Unconditioned Stimulus (Food), the Neutral Stimulus is transformed into a Conditioned Stimulus

Remember the Unconditioned Stimulus always causes an Unconditioned Response (Drool)

Then due to this pairing eventually you can remove the Unconditioned Stimulus (Food) and the new Conditioned Stimulus (Bell) will elicit the same Unconditioned Response (Drool), which is now referred to as the Conditioned Response.

Step 1: Neutral Stimulus = Sound

Step 2: Pair two unrelated things Neutral Stimulus (sound) + Unconditioned

Stimulus (food) = Unconditioned Response (drool) Step 3: Due to this pairing

Neutral Stimulus (Bell) ---(becomes) ----- Conditioned Stimulus (sound)

Step 4: Conditioned has occurred Conditioned Stimulus (sound) = Conditioned

Response (Drool).

Try an Example on your Own:

The premise for this example is based on the fact

that most of us have been conditioned to flinch

when we see someone about to stick a pin into a

balloon.

Initially the pin is the __________ because it alone does notelicit any particular response.

Once the pin is used to pop a balloon and therefore is pairedor associated with a loud bang that causes someone to jumpor become frightened it then becomes the ______________

The loud bang the balloon makes when it pops would be the__________ and the jump or startle you feel when you hearthe loud pop would be the ___________.

After pairing the pin with the loud noise numerous timeseventually someone just pretending to use the pin to pop the balloon will make you flinch.

Now the pin which is the ________ causes you to flinch which isThe ____________.

John Watson- “Little Albert Experiment:

In this experiment John Watson conditioned a 9-month old infant “Little Albert” to fear a white rat.

1. Initially Albert showed no fear of the rat and even allowed it to crawl on him

2. While Albert played with the rat – Watson hit a large steel rod with a hammer making a sudden deafening noise

3. Albert became extremely startled and scared

4. Each time the loud noise was paired with the presence of the rat. Albert cried in fear

5. After numerous pairings of the two stimuli – Albert started crying at the sight of the rat, even when there was no noise

6. He eventually came to fear any object that resembled a rat, such as a white rabbit and even the white whiskers on a Santa Claus Mask

7. Albert developed a phobia for rats and other white objects

Lets Analyze the elements of “Little Albert” Classical Conditioning Experiment!

Identify:

1. Unconditioned Stimulus:

2. Unconditioned Response:

3. Conditioned Stimulus:

4. Conditioned Response:

Lets Analyze the elements of “Little Albert” Classical Conditioning Experiment!

Identify:

1. Unconditioned Stimulus: Loud Noise

2. Unconditioned Response: Startle

3. Conditioned Stimulus: White Rat

4. Conditioned Response: Startle Response to White Rate

Importance:

Watson’s study was important because it was one of the first experiments to show that an emotional reaction, such as fear, could be classically conditioned.

Some Examples

1.  Every time someone flushes a toilet in the apartment building, the shower becomes very hot and causes the person to jump back. Over time, the person begins to jump back automatically after hearing the flush, before the water temperature changes.

US: UR: CS: CR:

Some Examples

1.  Every time someone flushes a toilet in the apartment building, the shower becomes very hot and causes the person to jump back. Over time, the person begins to jump back automatically after hearing the flush, before the water temperature changes.

US: Hot Water UR: Jumping Back CS: Toilet Flush CR: Jumping Back to the Toilet Flush

Some Examples

2.  You eat a new food and then get sick because of the flu. However, you develop a dislike for the food and feel nauseated whenever you smell it.

US: UR: CS: CR:

Some Examples

2.  You eat a new food and then get sick because of the flu. However, you develop a dislike for the food and feel nauseated whenever you smell it.

US: Flu Sickness UR: Nausea CS: New Food CR: Nausea to New Food

Some Examples

3.  An individual receives frequent injections of drugs, which are administered in a small examination room at a clinic. The drug itself causes increased heart rate but after several trips to the clinic, simply being in a small room causes an increased heart rate.

US: UR: CS: CR:

Some Examples

2.  An individual receives frequent injections of drugs, which are administered in a small examination room at a clinic. The drug itself causes increased heart rate but after several trips to the clinic, simply being in a small room causes an increased heart rate.

US: Drug UR: Accelerated Heart Rate CS: Small Room CR: Accelerate heart rate due to room

Phobias

Chances are good that you are afraid of some object or situation that most other people do not fear. Classical conditioning offers some insights into this, as many of our fears and anxieties may have been classically conditioned.

On your journal tracking activity sheet brainstorm and explain an example where a fear may have been classically conditioned.

Phobia:

- Refers to an irrational fear of an object, situation, or activity that is out of proportion to the actual danger it poses

- Because many phobias create so much anxiety they often interfere with normal functioning and therefore are classified as anxiety disorders.

Phobia’s and Classical Conditioning:

We frequently hear about people who haveClaustrophobia: - an intense fear of enclosed places.

Task: Pretend you are a psychologist dealing with a patientwho has come to you with a case of extreme Claustrophobia.During therapy you discover your patient was locked in a smallspace as a child and left there for awhile, during which timehe/she experienced intense feelings of anxiety and fear. Using theprinciples of classical conditioning, explain how this experiencemay have lead to the conditioning of his/her presentClaustrophobia.

One explanation:

Being locked or trapped in a small space would act as the Unconditioned Stimulus because it caused you to become very badly frightened (Which would act as the unconditioned response).

Now you fear anything that remotely resembles a closed space, such as elevators, small rooms etc. (Which act as conditioned stimulus) because you have learned to associate these things with the feeling of fear or anxiety (Conditioned Response).

Classical Conditioning as Treatment for Phobias

Systematic Desensitization

Psychologists have developed this procedure to help eliminate phobias, by using the principles of Classical Conditioning

It involves slowly classically conditioning a desired response (relaxation) to the phobic stimulus

This process can be extremely slow and take many years

Generalization:

responses to other stimuli that are similar to the Conditioned Stimuli

Example: White rat – white cat – Santa mask

Discrimination:

Response only to a specific Conditioned Stimuli

Requires the stimuli to be clearly distinguishable

Example: Dogs only drooling to a specific tone

Taste - Aversion

Involves the development of an aversion to a flavor that has become associated with illness

Example: Throwing up after eating a specific food, the sight / smell of the food then causes you to feel sick

Extinction:

The process though which the strength of the Conditioned Response is decreased until it is eliminated

Easiest was to do this is to present the Conditioned Stimulus without the Unconditioned Stimulus repeatedly

Spontaneous Recovery:

At times a classically conditioned participant seems to “forget” that extinction has occurred

It refers to when the Conditioned Response recovers some of the strength it lost during the previous extinction sessions

Eventually the amount of spontaneous recovery decreases until finally it does not occur at all . . . Then only has true extinction occurred

Second Theory of Learning:

Operant Conditioning:

- Learning that occurs when the participant must make a response to produce a change in the environment in

- This change is in response to rewards (reinforcements) or punishments (consequences)

Today you are working individually on:

Your Operant Conditioning Booklets – Homework check on Monday – 10 Marks

Catch up work on outstanding assignments – Cut off for this report card is today 3pm

Final Project

Operant Conditioning:

Correct Booklets – Need to know for Test / Exam Purposes

Operant Conditioning:

Just like in Classical Conditioning, in Operant

Conditioning Generalization and Discrimination occurs

In Operant Conditioning participants have not necessarily been conditioned to respond to a particular stimulus

Instead participants use stimuli as cues or signals that certain behaviors will be reinforced or punished

Discriminative Stimulus:

Any signal that tells a participant that their response or

behavior will be reinforced or punished

Example: Green light in a Skinner Box

Or

Your mother’s “serious” look !! !

Generalization:

Just like in Classical Conditioning, Generalization works the same in Operant Conditioning

Participants often learn to Generalize the appropriate response or behavior that they have made to similar stimuli in the past

For example: Your mother reinforces your polite behavior at home, so when you go to school you act polite because you assume your teacher will do the same

Generalization is not always good though, just like in Classical Conditioning, participants need to develop Discrimination as well.

For example: Your child might run up and meet a relative whenever they come to the door, but you wouldn’t want your child to run up to an adult stranger at the door.

Animals, children and adults learn which behaviors are appropriate in different situations through Operant Conditioning (reinforcements and punishments)

For example: Behaviors appropriate for a sports even are not appropriate for weddings, even though both situations have a common stimulus, which is the crowd of people.

In- Class Task:

Add all Unit Three Assignments into journals

Read Review Summary (if needed or you can refer to notes)

Do Study Break Assignment

On Journal Sheet: Brainstorm and explain two “Discriminative Stimulus’ in your

own life Brainstorm and explain one example of where the Generalization

of a behavior would be a good thing, and then one where it would be a bad thing

Repeat for the Discrimination of a behavior.

Punishment – the Opposite of Reinforcement

Effect of a reinforcer (either + or -) is to increase the likelihood of a target response or behavior being repeated

A punisher has the opposite effect – it decreases the likelihood of a target response or behavior being repeated

Just as there are positive and negative reinforcers, there are positive and negative punishers

Punishers:

Positive Punishers: Undesired (bad) stimuli or events are presented

Negative Punishers: Pleasant Stimuli or events are removed

Remember:

Reinforcement (+ or -) increases the likelihood that the subject will repeat the behavior

Punisher (+ or -) decreases the likelihood that the subject will repeat the behavior

Punishment:

When punishment is used properly, it can eliminate

undesirable behaviors. If punishment is to be used

effectively psychologist say six criteria must be met:

1. The punisher should be delivered (positive) or taken away (negative) immediately after the response that is to be eliminated

2. The punisher should be strong enough to make a real difference

3. The punishment should be administered after each and every undesired response

4. There should be no unauthorized escape form the punisher

5. If you are using a punisher you should be prepared for the possibility of aggressive behavior

6. Provide the participant with an alternative desired behavior that can replace the punished behavior

Write 3 examples of punishment in our lives.

Does it meet the criteria listed above?

Most psychologist believe it is difficult to punish effectively

Instead they believe the best solution would be to reinforce an alternative desired behavior

This philosophy originated with the educator E.L. Thorndike in the early 1900s

Created the influential theory known as the Law of Effect which states: Presenting a reinforcer leads to the strengthening of

learning or new responses Whereas presenting a punisher leads to the weakening or

unlearning of responses

Drive the speed limit Put their shoes in the closet when they

enter a home. Getting to work on time Stop smoking Stop chewing their nails Kids to swearing in the hallways at school Getting to class on time.

You’re the PsycholochistFor Each List a Possible Punishment, and reinfocement that you would use. Then state which method you feel would be more effective.

Observational Learning:

For many years psychologist believed that a participant had to actually perform a response for learning to occur

In early 1960s Albert Bandura changed this view with his famous “Bobo Doll” Experiment

Lead to the development of the Theory of Observational Learning.

Observational Learning: Learning that occurs through watching and imitating

the behavior of others

Because the observation of others is a central factor in this form of learning, this approach is often called the Social Learning Theory

Observational Learning is sometimes just called modeling, and is a wide spread phenomenon even found among a number of animals Example: Monkeys fearing snakes experiment

The Role Model:

Key to Observational Learning is that the participant identifies with the person being observed

The ability to put ourselves in another person’s place for a moment and imagine the effects of a reinforcer or a punisher is a phenomenon called:

Vicarious Reinforcement Vicarious Punishment

In your notes write 2 examples of each

A Canadian children’s writer once stated in aspeech about the need for heroes that,

“if we do not provide our children with heroesthey will go to other places to find them . . . Theworse kind of places . . . gangs, books,television shows, and movies. . . where lust is sooften mistaken for love, violence is so oftenmistaken for courage . . . where the hero isreally not so different from the villain.”

According to the Social Learning Theory proposed by Bandura:

For Observational Learning to be effective the following

five conditions must be met:

1. You must be able to pay attention to what the person is doing and to what happens to him or her

2. Need to store the memory of what you have observed

3. Must be able to repeat or reproduce the behavior you observed

4. You must have motivation to learn / copy behavior

5. You must pay attention to discriminative stimuli

Observational Learning and Children:

The knowledge that children model behaviors of adults has led to concerns about the possible effects of media violence

On a positive note children also learn good behaviors by viewing others, such as generosity, empathy, and tolerance.

Observational Learning Con’t

Observational Learning has also been used to reduce or eliminate phobias

Behavior Modification:

- Using the principles of learning to change inappropriate behaviors.

Brown Eyes, Blue Eyes Simulation Group Discussion Guide

1. How does Jane Elliot’s simulation recreate or symbolize a

smaller version of society? Periods or events in History?

2. What was the psychological impact of discrimination on the

children? What things changed when the children were in the

inferior group? Why do you think this was?

3. In your response what is the root cause of discrimination? Is

racism a learned response? Explain.

Psychology 41G: Individual Work Period:

Students may work on: Any old outstanding work All Unit 3 Journal Entries that were due on Monday Nov. 24th:

Conditioning Activity Sheet Classical / Operant Conditioning Video Guide Sheet Journal Activity Tracking Sheet [Balloon activity, Little Albert Activity, Phobia

Activity] Operant Conditioning Journal Reflection Observational Learning Video and 16 Mark Individual Reflection Super Nanny Analysis or Article Review

Test Review – Test Part I Monday Dec.1st, Part II Tuesday, Dec. 2nd: Go through review material – If missing material borrow notes

from peers Study for Test