What is learning?

Four Types of Learning

1. Classical Conditioning

• Method of conditioning – associations are made between a natural stimulus and a learned, neutral stimulus.

2. Operant Conditioning

Conditioning that results from the individual’s actions and the consequences they cause.

3. Cognitive learning• Emphasizes thought process in

learning

4. Social Learning • Learning that results from

observing others

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

• Pavlov – Page 5 in packet

Unconditioned stimulus Unconditioned responseConditioned stimulus Conditioned response *Neutral (not vocab word): has no response prior to learning

Complete page 6 in packet

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

• Conditioned Taste Aversion (in packet)– learned association between the

taste of a certain food and a feeling of nausea

– Examples ?

Writing Response • “Give me a dozen healthy infants,

allow me to control the environment, and I can make them into anything I want.” – Is this possible? How – What ethical issues would be

involved?

John Watson and Emotional

Conditioning: (conditioning an

emotion)

Little Albert ________ + ___________ _______

N UCS UCR ___________ ___________ CS CR

Rat (N) Loud sound (UCS) Fear (UCR)Rat (CS) Fear (CR)

Little Albert • Stimulus Generalization?

– A response spread from one specific stimulus to other stimuli that resemble the original.

John Watson showed 2 things:

• 1. Can condition emotions 2. Conditioned emotion can generalize to other objects

Ethical Issues? • Would this experiment be allowed

today? –Name some ethical issues

Where is Big Albert? • Extinction?

– The Gradual loss of an association over time.

– Pavlov’s dogs would extinguish (stop) their salivation at the experimenter unless the experimenter continued to feed them occasionally.

• Set up classical conditioning equation

• 1. Jim and Dwight

• 2. Closing time

Removal of Fears• Mary Cover Jones

– Removed fear of rabbits found in 3 year old boy by pairing rabbit with pleasant stimulus.

Operant Conditioning

Operant ConditioningRECALL:Conditioning that

results from one’s actions and the consequences they cause

Reinforcement• Reinforcement?

– strengthens a behavior – you want it!• Positive reinforcement?

– addition of something pleasant• Negative reinforcement?

– taking away or avoiding something unpleasant.

• Primary reinforcers • Secondary reinforcers?

Punishment• Punishment?

– weakening a behavior– Positive punishment?

• something unpleasant is added

– Negative punishment? • something pleasant is taken away

Skinner box?

What do you think are the Problems with

Punishment?1. The effects temporary

2. does not teach desired behaviors.

3. may be reinforcing.

4. may respond with fear, anxiety, or anger.

Big Bang Theory

Principles of Operant Conditioning

• Generalization: (recall) – a behavior that spreads from one situation

to a similar one.– E.g., Petting a friendly dog – all dogs are

friendly • Extinction: (recall)

– when a response is no longer followed by reinforcement, person will gradually stop making that response.

• Discrimination learning?– to tell the difference between one event or

object and another– E.g., petting a third dog and getting bitten –

not all dogs are friendly

Generalization, Discrimination, and Extinction

• Brett makes a wisecrack in his first-period psychology class, and everyone laughs, even the teacher. The following types of learning may occur:

• Generalization: He makes wisecracks in other classes, in front of other teachers.

• Discrimination: He makes wisecracks in other classes, but when no one laughs or when the teacher glares at him, he stops. He decides to tell jokes only during first period psychology class.

• Extinction: He continues to make wisecrack during first period, but when others tire of his jokes and stop laughing, he stops.

Spanking and IQ article

Schedules of Reinforcement

• So far we have focused on continuous reinforcement– Each time a behavior occurs, reinforcement is

given. But there are problems with this approach

What is schedule of reinforcement?

1. Variable Ratio Schedule? Reinforcement occurs after a desired

behavior occurs, but a different number of the desired acts is required each time. – E.g., varying how many times a pigeon

has to pecks before giving them food. Will pick over 10,000 times once learning has taken place!

– How is slot machines an example?

2. Fixed Ratio?• Reinforcement occurs after the desired act is performed a specific number of times – E.g., A pigeon is rewarded after every

five pecks – May produce less quality of desired

behavior

3. Variable Interval?• Reinforcement occurs after

varying amounts of time if a desired act occurs – The organism never knows

(in terms of time) when the reinforcement will arrive. • E.g. ?

4. Fixed interval Schedule

• A reinforcement is received after a fixed amount of time has passed if the desired act occurs– E.g. ?

Bobo Doll Experiment• Albert Bandura • Children who observe aggressive

adult models become aggressive themselves.

• Admired and rewarded models most likely to be copied

• Children see children do

Violent Video Games

Cognitive Learning • based on abstract mental

processes and previous knowledge.

Phobias • Recall: Watson and little Albert. • Not all phobias form from straight

association.• Conditioning of fears develop through a

cognitive process. – Phobias develop in relation to some kind of

natural danger.

Cognitive Maps • E.C. Tolman • Cognitive Maps: A mental image of where

one is located in space. • Strategies: Methods for solving Problems

Sensory Memory • 1 -2 seconds • Raw information from the

senses • Needs attention to move on

– If given attention passes through to the short term memory

Short Term Memory • HOLD onto new information • 15-20 seconds • 5 – 9 items

• Chunking – grouping of info into meaningful units – allows us to remember more and remember easier

How do we move to long term?

• Serial Position effect– Recency effect – more likely to

remember words at the end of list (still in STM

– Primacy effect – more likely to remember words at the beginning of list (rehearse words = LTM)

Maintaining Long Term Memory

• Rote rehearsal – repeating info over and over

• Elaborative Rehearsal – Making info meaningful – make a connection!

Which is the real penny?

Forgetting verse Not Getting

• Do we forget or not pay attention?• Which color is on top of a

stoplight?

• Is Lincoln wearing a tie on the penny?

Maintaining LTM • Rote rehearsal – repeating info

over and over • Elaborative Rehearsal – Making

info meaningful – make a connection!

• Mnemonics – Techniques that help you remember – Peg Word System

• Visuals work!

Types of LTM • Episodic Memory

– Personal Memories (daily journal) • Semantic Memory

– Facts and concepts (dictionary/encyclopedia)

• Procedural Memory – Motor skills & Habits (How to Guide)

• Emotional Memory – Learned emotional responses

Explicit Memory – we can easily express in words and are aware of having

Implicit Memory – Memories we cannot easily express in words – may be unaware of having

• 1. What you use while riding a bike

• 2. What you use while recalling

the events that led up to the Civil War

• 3. What you use when you scream at the sight of a spider

• 4. What you use when you remember

• your first date

• Schemas: organized mental frameworks that we rely on to interpret incoming information – Influence retrieval of info in long-term

memory • Can cause us to fabricate false

memories that are consistent with our schemas

Forgetting • Decay – we lose memories as time

passes on • Amnesia

– Retrograde – cannot remember what happened shortly before injury

– Childhood/infantile – difficulty in remembering experiences from age 2 and under • Child’s brain not fully developed • Lack clear sense of self • Lack language skills

Forgetting - Interference

• Retroactive Interference– New material interferes with info already in LTM – Move to new house – new address –

forget old house address • Proactive interference – old

material interferes with new material

State-dependent memory

• Recall material better if you return to the same state that you were in during learning – E.g., caffeine

Context-dependent memory

• Having the same environmental cues when you recall what you have learned – E.g., police take witness back to the

scene of a crime

• Man with 30 Seconds

Cognition and Mental Abilities

Chapter 7

Standford-Binet • First test developed • Measure four abilities: verbal reasoning,

abstract/visual reasoning, quantitative reasoning, short term memory

• Given individually • Introduced IQ EXAMPLE1. Describe the difference between laziness and

idleness 2. Which direction would you have to face so

that your right ear would be facing north?

Wechsler Intelligence Scales

• Most commonly used • Stanford-Binet emphasized verbal

skills (flaw)– Ability to handle life situations?

• Two parts: verbal skills, performance skills

• Two separate scores, overall IQ

Problem Solving • Problem representation – define

the problem • Solution Strategy

– Trail and Error – Algorithms – step-by-step method of

problem solving that guarantees a correct solution

– Heuristics – rules of thumb – do not guarantee a solution

Obstacles to Solving Problems

• Mental Set – tendency to perceive and to approach problems in certain ways – Problems if stuck in mental set

• Functional Fixedness – tendency to perceive only a limited number of uses for an object (blocks problem solving process)

• Representative Heuristic – judge the likelihood of an event based on how well it seems to match (represent) a typical member of a category.

• Availability heuristic – judgment or decision is based on information that is most easily retrieved from memory

Insight • Insight: sudden understanding of

a problem – component of intelligence– ‘aha’ feeling

• Brainstorming – strategy in which an individual or group produces numerous ideas and evaluates them only after all ideas have been collected

Creativity • No correlation with intelligence • But…• Creative people perceived as

being more intelligent