Chapter Learningshattockpsych2.weebly.com/uploads/3/2/1/1/32119005/... · 1. An unconditioned response already exists as a response to an unconditioned stimulus. The dog salivating

FIG 4.0 TO COME

Curriculum statement topicLearning

Chapter contentsNeurobiology of learning .................................... 00

Basic learning processes ...................................... 00

Behaviour modification ....................................... 00

Learned helplessness .......................................... 00

Systematic desensitisation ................................... 00

Social learning .................................................... 00

Learning

4Chapter

86 Psychology for South Australia: Stage 2

Psychology approaches the understanding of learning via four levels of explanation.v� The biological level of explanation focuses on bio-

logical predispositions, including brain structures and neurochemistry.

• The basic processes level of explanation focuses on universal psychological processes such as those associated with classical and operant con-ditioning. The emphasis of this chapter is on the basic processes level of explanation and on expla-nations of learning provided by experimental psychology.

• The person level of explanation focuses on the combinations of influences and experiences; in other words, people approach learning with dif-ferent interests in specific learning tasks and dif-ferent reserves of prior learning to build upon.

• The socio-cultural level of explanation focuses on the influences of significant interpersonal inter-actions, relationships, cultural norms and societal expectations. Learning which is expected and supported in one culture may be considered irrel-evant in another culture, or even within a culture; for example, for boys compared with girls.

NEUROBIOLOGY OF LEARNINGMuch of the knowledge about the most funda-mental aspects of how we learn has come from the study of creatures with simpler brains and bigger neurons than our own. For example, Eric Kandel and his colleagues have studied marine snails to observe the changes in all the relevant neurons as the snails learn. (Kandel, along with Arvid Carlsson and Paul Greengard, won the Nobel Prize in Physi-ology or Medicine 2000 ‘for their discoveries con-cerning signal transduction in the nervous system’.)

Learning is associated with changes at the synapses that link neurons. When we experience something repeatedly, the pre-synaptic neuron releases neu-rotransmitters more freely and the post-synaptic neuron becomes more sensitive and more readily stimulated. The more learning experiences we have, the longer these changes last. In time, the neurons may grow new synaptic connections to strengthen the links between them. Forgetting is the process whereby learned information is no longer acces-sible. There is some evidence that these connections are ‘pruned’ as we forget.

The role of neurotransmitters in learning is unclear, but several have been found to be impor-tant in certain learning tasks. For example, recep-tors for the neurotransmitter glutamate appear to be involved in classical conditioning (see page 000) of the fear response in the amygdala, a part of the brain that is central to learning related to fear and anger (Maren, 2005).

Learning happens in many areas of the brain, and memories are stored in the brain in a variety of places and in a variety of ways. However, some brain structures appear to be indispensable to the process of learning. The hippocampus is a brain structure that is central to the acquisition and con-solidation of learning. When the hippocampus is badly damaged, a person becomes unable to learn new information.

The forgetting that is commonly a part of dementia is due to widespread damage to many parts of the brain. The person with dementia has difficulty learning and remembering new details, although old learning, for example from childhood, is preserved until the illness is very advanced. Clinical neuro-psychologists identify different types of dementia (for example, alcohol-related amnestic syndromes or dementia of the Alzheimer type) by assessing the specific pattern of a person’s memory decline.

Figure 4.1 This photograph shows the nervous system of an earthworm, which consists of a small, simple brain

and a spinal cord.

Postsynapticreceptor sites

Synapse

Actionpotential

Neurotransmitter

Ion channels

Terminal

buttons

Postsynapticneurons

Membrane ofpostsynaptic

neuron

Synapticcleft

Synapticvesicles

Terminal button ofpresynaptic neuron

Axon ofpresynapticneuron

Presynaptic neuron

FIG 4.2 TO COME

Learning 87

Figure 4.2 People suffering from different types of

dementia tend to show different patterns of memory

loss, due to the parts of the brain that are affected. In

Alzheimer’s disease, the hippocampus tends to be affected

first, which interferes with the memory of personal and

spatial information. Without an intact hippocampus,

new memories are not made as effectively. In semantic

dementia, the first area affected is usually the temporal

lobe, which causes forgetting of general, factual memories

such as what objects do and what they are called.

Figure 4.3 The hippocampus

and the amygdala are parts

of the limbic system, which is

central to learning, memory,

emotion and motivation.

Figure 4.4 The transmission

of a nerve impulse. (a) A nerve

impulse travels along the

length, or axon, of the neuron

until it reaches a synapse

where the neuron meets

another neuron. (b) At the

synapse, neurotransmitters

are released to be received by

the receptor sites of the next

neuron.


People and animals appear to be biologically wired to more readily learn particular types of associations. This is called learning ‘preparedness’. One example is the readiness with which animals and people learn to associate taste and nausea. In a study using rats, Garcia and Koelling (1966) paired light, sound or taste with radiation that caused feelings of nausea. The rats learnt to avoid the flavoured water, but not the light or sound stimuli. Another group of rats were given elec-tric shocks paired with light, sound or taste. These rats avoided the light or sound, but not the taste. It is consistent with evolutionary development that animals more readily make associations between taste and nausea, and between pain and light or sound stimuli. People show some learning preparedness in their readiness to develop phobias of snakes and spiders, rather than cars, which are statistically more likely to cause them harm.

BASIC LEARNING PROCESSESLearning is the process of acquiring new behaviours, thoughts or emotions. There are some behaviours which appear to be with us from birth. For example, we instinctively draw our hand back from the painful stimulus caused by a thorn. This is not something that we must be taught. This sort of innate, instinc-tive response happens automatically and we do not have to make a conscious decision to react in this way. Innate responses are present in young babies and they generally persist throughout life unless we make a conscious and deliberate decision to over-rule them. With effort, we can discipline ourselves to avoid yawning in an inappropriate situation, despite feeling the urge to do so. Innate behaviour appears instinctive. For example, a baby rhesus monkey raised in a human family will produce the calls and facial expressions typical of rhesus monkeys, even though he may never have seen another monkey. Another innate response is dogs salivating when food is given to them. This innate response is also called an uncon-ditioned response; that is, something all dogs, and many other animals, do from birth without being taught. Other behaviours are learnt.

Certain birds and mammals form attachments during a critical period very early in their lives. This learning is called imprinting. During this point

in development, ducks and geese are so open to forming attachments that they will follow a person, or even a moving object, and mimic it and relate to it as if it were their mother. Usually the first creature a newly hatched chick sees is its mother, so in this way they learn the behaviours that are characteristic

of their species.Even very simple creatures such as worms and

snails learn to avoid things that are painful or disa-greeable (for example, electric shocks or unpleasant chemicals). More complex creatures can learn in more complex ways, and we can begin to understand these complex processes by understanding the basic principles of learning.

The psychological study of learning processes attracted interest following the publication, in 1903, of a description of his research by a Russian scien-tist, Ivan Pavlov. Pavlov had been studying digestion in dogs and he wondered whether external stimuli could affect the digestive processes. He operated a metronome at the same time as he gave food to his experimental dogs. The dogs had previously salivated only when they saw and ate their food (an uncondi-tioned response), but after repeatedly hearing the metronome at the time when their food appeared, they would begin to salivate when the metronome sounded, even if no food was present. Pavlov called this a conditioned response. The word ‘conditioned’ means that it was a reflex that had to be learnt, rather than one which was innate.

Figure 4.5 Imprinting leads goslings to follow the first moving object they

see after hatching — usually an adult goose. This photograph shows a group

of geese who instead imprinted on ethologist Konrad Lorenz.

Learning 89

Classical conditioning (learning via association)The sort of learning processes that Pavlov was describing in 1903 we today refer to as classical con-ditioning. This is conditioning or learning by associ-ation. The learning occurs because two things are closely associated. Here is how classical conditioning occurs.1. An unconditioned response already exists as a

response to an unconditioned stimulus. The dog salivating as his food is presented is the uncon-ditioned response. The food is the unconditioned stimulus.

2. The unconditioned stimulus (the food) is paired repeatedly with a new stimulus (for example, ringing a bell), and the sound of the bell becomes a conditioned stimulus when the dog learns to salivate in response to hearing it.

3. The dog salivating in response to the conditioned stimulus (the bell) is called the conditioned response.

4. If the dog has been conditioned to salivate in response to the bell, then giving food to the dog whenever the bell is rung will strengthen the con-ditioned response. However, if the bell is repeat-edly rung without food being given to the dog, eventually the dog will cease to salivate in response to it. This process is called extinction.

5. This learning depends on the events (the bell and the food) being close together in time (conti-guity) and it appearing that one depends on or is the result of the other (contingency).You can classically condition a virtual dog by

visiting www.jaconline.com.au/psychology???/?????? and clicking on the Classical conditioning weblinks.

Operant conditioningOperant conditioning refers to learning that occurs in the context of experiencing, or avoiding, rewards or punishments contingent upon performing a behaviour. In operant conditioning, performing the behaviour prompts, and is influenced by, the contig-uous, contingent events that reward or punish. Any process that increases the frequency of a targeted behaviour is called a reinforcement. We repeat or strengthen behaviour that results in a reinforcement (for example, a reward). We tend to decrease or weaken behaviour that results in no reinforcement.

The American psychologist Burrhus Skinner (usually referred to as B. F. Skinner) developed his understanding of learning by studying rats. Hungry rats find food rewarding; thirsty rats find water rewarding. These rewards could be given to hungry or thirsty rats as the positive reinforcers to teach the rats new behaviours. A reinforcer is a stimulus or an event that increases the frequency of occurrence of the behaviour that it follows. A reinforcement is the presentation of a reinforcer.

Rats find sudden loud noises, unexpected puffs of air and electric shocks unpleasant. These can be used as punishments. A punishment is a stimulus or an event that decreases the frequency of occurrence of the behaviour that it follows (see below for more

information about punishment).Reinforcement strengthens the behaviour that

immediately precedes it. Positive reinforcers may be desirable events or stimuli, such as food, water, a pleasant taste or praise. However, reinforcement may also strengthen behaviour, not by providing some-thing positive, but by removing something negative. For example ceasing to feel pain, ceasing to feel fear

Figure 4.6 Pavlov’s

dog experiments led

to his formulation

of the principles of

classical conditioning.

The dogs became

conditioned to salivate

not only to the sound

of a metronome, but to

many other aspects of the

experimental situation as

well, including the sight

of the experimenter or

the harness.


Figure 4.7 B. F. Skinner shown performing an experiment

with a rat in a Skinner box. The rat has reached up to press

the bar on the side of the box.

or ceasing to feel bored might strengthen a behav-iour that immediately preceded them. A bored baby who reaches out to touch the hair of a nearby person may have their boredom relieved by the interesting feel of that hair, as well as by the flurry of activity that occurs as the person reacts to having their hair pulled. In order to avoid becoming bored once more, the baby reaches out again. Reinforcers that increase behaviour because they remove a negative stimulus are called negative reinforcers.

Reinforcement is most effective when the rein-forcer is rewarding to the subject and when the reinforcement occurs immediately after the tar-geted behaviour. If the reinforcement occurs even a few seconds later, the behaviour that is reinforced may be something other than the target behaviour.

Animal trainers know how to use these concepts to train complex behaviours in dogs, dolphins, monkeys and other animals. They also know how dif-ficult it can be to deliver the reinforcement imme-diately following the behaviour; that is, to ensure contiguity. A dog that sits up to beg, but doesn’t receive the reward until he has dropped down onto his feet again, will be reinforced for dropping down rather than sitting up. Animal trainers address this problem by pairing a valued positive reinforcer (like food) with another stimulus, for example the sound

of a clicker or a whistle or the trainer’s words of praise. After repeatedly presenting these with food, the clicker or whistle becomes a classically condi-tioned positive reinforcer.

Delivering this sort of reward for behaviour is called a conditioned reinforcement. A conditioned reinforcer can be given immediately following the behaviour and, as long as the association with a primary reinforcer is refreshed (by sometimes pairing it again with food), conditioned (or sec-ondary) reinforcers can be very powerful. People are often reinforced by conditioned or secondary rein-forcers. Praise or tokens (like money) are useless in themselves, but have value in that they are associated with social acceptance or can later be exchanged for valued rewards.

Schedules of reinforcement

Receiving a reinforcement, such as a food pellet, for every behaviour is called continuous reinforce-ment. When reinforcement no longer happens, the behaviour may initially strengthen briefly, but then weaken until it eventually extinguishes. However, it is unusual for there to be a reinforcement to reward behaviour every time it occurs. Most everyday behav-iours are not reinforced every time they occur. Payday does not happen every day; the cat does not catch a mouse every time she pounces on one; not every shot at the basketball hoop scores a goal.

Intermittent reinforcement is a more common form of reinforcement. Some intermittent reinforce-ment happens on a regular fixed basis. We know that for many salaried workers (such as teachers) payday happens once a fortnight. This is a fixed interval schedule of reinforcement. They cannot usually get paid any earlier than the fixed day, no matter how hard they work. A fixed interval schedule provides reinforcement at equal time intervals; for example, every two weeks or every 10 minutes. As long as the behaviour is performed at least once, the subject receives reinforcement. More behaviours do not earn more frequent rewards. An interesting effect of a fixed interval schedule is that the frequency of behaviours slows down immediately after reinforcement, and then the frequency of behaviours speeds up closer to the expected time for the next reinforcement.

Some rewards depend on how much is done to earn them. For example a piecemeal worker receives payment for completing a fixed number of items, perhaps assembling 10 shirts. A fruit picker receives payment according to the number of bags, buckets or boxes of fruit. This is called a fixed ratio schedule because it depends on a regular number, or ratio, of responses being completed before earning the reward. For example, on a fixed ratio schedule a rat might receive a food pellet only once every 10

Fixedratio

Variabl eratio

Fixedinterval

Cum

ulat

ive

resp

onse

s(n

umbe

r of o

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prod

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Time

Variabl einterval

Learning 91

bar presses. Skinner found that his rats reacted to a schedule of occasional reinforcement by pressing the bar much more often than when they had received a food pellet for every bar press. When the food pellets stopped being delivered, the rats on a fixed ratio schedule extinguished more slowly than those on continuous reinforcement.

Some of the reinforcements that shape or main-tain behaviour are unpredictable. A person fishing cannot predict when he or she will catch a fish. Despite choosing the best spot to fish, he or she is still on a variable interval schedule of reinforcement. One is not likely to catch a fish sooner by repeatedly reeling in and throwing out the line. Provided the line has been cast, and the bait remains attractive, all one can do is sit and wait.

A pokies player cannot predict which press of the button will result in a win. Although poker machines operate on a fixed ratio so that over time the govern-ment and the owner gain a percentage of the player’s money, this fact is not apparent to the player who waits in the short term for a ‘win’. He cannot tell which repetition of the behaviour (pushing the button) will get the reward. So he keeps pushing the button. Even small unpredictable ‘wins’ are very powerful reinforcers, and for some they become addictive. These variable ratio schedules of reinforcement take the longest to extinguish when the reinforcements cease. Although the long-term ratio of money-in compared with money-out means that overall the player loses, each individual play is unpredictable and the player hopes that ‘this will be the one’. Occasional big wins, ‘jackpots’, strengthen the rein-forcement power of small wins. This is the principle of all gambling. The occasional unpredictable reward strengthens the behaviour more than the

losing occasions extinguish it. Pokie playing is often considered one of the most addictive of gambling behaviours and can be very hard to extinguish.

You can train a virtual bird and develop your own reinforcement schedule by visiting www.jaconline.com.au/psychology???/?????? and clicking on the

reinforcement schedules weblink.

ShapingIt is hard to imagine how trained performing animals, such as dogs, elephants or dolphins, learn their complicated tricks. Many of these tricks are based on complex chains of behaviours. The experi-enced animal trainer relies on skilful and timely application of the basic processes of learning to create complex, but reliable, patterns of behav-iour. B. F. Skinner described how he taught rats to perform behaviours like pressing a lever by a process of shaping, or ‘the method of successive approxima-tions’. Shaping involves initially reinforcing a behav-iour only slightly similar to the one desired. For example, the experimenter might reinforce a rat that approached the correct wall of his cage. Once that behaviour has been reinforced and has been estab-lished, reinforcement is given out only for variations that come a little closer to the target behaviour; for example, reaching up to the lever. Eventually the animal is rewarded only for performing the target behaviour. Animal trainers and sports coaches often use shaping. A primary school tennis coach begins by praising almost any occasion when the new player actually hits the ball. As that behaviour strengthens, the coach moves to intermittent reinforcement, then to reinforcing only the strokes with the right technique, direction or strength.

Figure 4.9 Poker machines provide a variable ratio

schedule of reinforcement.

Figure 4.9 Poker machines provide a variable ratio

schedule of reinforcement.

Figure 4.8 Schedules of reinforcement are illustrated by

a cumulative response recorder. Different schedules of

reinforcement produce different response patterns.

fig 4.10 TO COME


Some behaviours are easier to evoke or train than others. For example, it is easier to train an animal to approach a positive reinforcer than it is to train it to earn the reinforcement by backing away from it. It is easier to strengthen a behaviour that is in an animal’s or person’s behavioural repertoire than it is to generate an entirely new behav-iour. For example, it would be difficult to train a pigeon to press a lever in a Skinner box, but much easier to adapt the Skinner box by adding a disc to the wall of the cage as a target for the pigeon to peck.

Figure 4.10 Once the sound of a clicker has been

associated with other rewards it becomes a conditioned

reinforcer. The clicker’s reinforcement can be delivered

nearer to the targeted behaviour than a food reward.

BOX 4.1

9dc¼i�h]ddi�i]Z�Yd\

American animal trainer Karen Pryor’s book 9dc¼i�

h]ddi�i]Z�Yd\ explains the most effective ways to use the

basic processes of learning to train animals. She has

promoted the concept of ‘clicker training’ as an effec-

tive means of training even complex behaviours. The

‘clicker’ is a small gadget that is sometimes used as

a small noise-maker for children. When pressed, the

clicker makes a loud precise click noise. Pairing the

sound of the clicker with rewards like food can build

up associative learning (classical conditioning) so that

the clicker becomes a conditioned stimulus with the

power to reinforce, separate from the original uncon-

ditioned stimulus, the food.

Once the clicker acquires positive reinforcement

status through associative conditioning it can be

sounded whenever the trainer wants to positively

reinforce the animal. It can be immediately contin-

gent on the target behaviour, so it can be a powerful

reinforcer. Praise can be used in this way but Karen

Pryor prefers the clicker because ‘it is not a sound

heard by the animal in other circumstances. It means

one thing only: a reward is coming because of what

you did when you heard the click. It can be produced

instantly and at the exact moment a behaviour occurs.

Even a very quick and subtle behaviour, the twitch of

an ear for example, can be clicked.

‘Unlike our voices, which can say the same word in

different ways, and so express different emotions or

meanings each time, the click sounds the same every

time it is heard; its meaning never varies. Humans are

highly verbal creatures, but our pets are not. It can be

difficult for them to pick out a single word from the

stream of meaningless words they hear us speak every

day. The click’s meaning, however, is always clear. It is

always directed at the animal, and it is always good

news.

‘The clarity with which a click enables trainers to com-

municate with their animals has a profound effect on

their relationships. Their level of interaction increases,

and trainer and animal become more interesting and fun

for each other.’ A side effect of the use of positive rein-

forcement is that the animal becomes more interested

in the trainer and the trainer feels more interested and

perhaps more affectionate towards the animal which is

being so responsive to the learning processes.

Figure 4.11 Karen Pryor’s book 9dc¼i�h]ddi�i]Z�Yd\ is

based on learning theory.

FIG 4.11 TO COME

Figure 4.11 Karen Pryor’s book 9dc¼i�h]ddi�i]Z�Yd\ is

based on learning theory.

FIG 4.11 TO COME

Learning 93

Zoo uses chickens to train trainers

BALTIMORE — Trainers at the Mary-land Zoo in Baltimore start out small when learning how to communicate with animals.

WBAL–TV 11 News reporter Jennifer Franciotti said zookeepers will tell you, hands down, that elephants Anna and Dolly are the smartest animals at the Bal-timore attraction. But it’s an animal least known for its high IQ that helps with elephant training.

Butterball is a teacher of sorts. She’s part of a chicken program used to help trainers and other zoo staff learn how to give animals proper commands.

‘She’s really fast to learn. She’ll let you know if you’re making a mistake or not,’ zoo trainer Julie Grove said.

‘Because of their lack of intelligence, they respond to exactly what you ask

them to do,’ zoo trainer Colleen Baird said. ‘It teaches our keepers how to con-centrate on the three elements of training, (including) timing, criteria and rate of reinforcement.’

To do that, the zookeepers work with chickens on pecking shapes and colours. Grove demonstrated how she uses a clicker called a ‘bridge’ to teach Butter-ball to peck only the purple paper.

‘If I … bridged her for hitting the red (paper), she would have tried red the next time,’ Grove explained.

Franciotti reported that trainers have used chickens to train trainers to deal with animals like Dolly and Anna for about five years. The Baltimore staffers recently travelled to Hot Springs, Arkansas, where they learned from renowned animal trainer Bob Bailey.

‘It just teaches you to be a better trainer. All the three elements you learn in chicken training help tremendously when working with other animals,’ Grove said.

That can make all the difference because, after all, these are wild animals.

‘That’s why training is important and that’s why being consistent is so impor-tant as well — do it over and over again. There’s no room for mistakes and that keeps us safe,’ Baird said.

Franciotti said zoo staffers also use chicken training to work with leopards, otters and bears.

HdjgXZ: www.thewbalchannel.com

Punishment

Punishment weakens the behaviour that immedi-ately precedes it. A punishment may be a painful stimulus or an unpleasant event. For example a naughty child might be smacked (a painful stimulus) or something pleasant (for example, a video game) might be removed. As with conditioned reinforcers, many stimuli or events may be paired with punish-ments so that conditioned punishments are created. A stern voice, a frowning face or the parking ticket

that announces a fine are examples of conditioned punishments.

Punishment is most effective when the punishment is unpleasant to the subject and when the punish-ment occurs immediately after the targeted behav-iour. If the punishment occurs even a few seconds later, the behaviour that is punished may be some-thing other than the target behaviour. The effective-ness of both reinforcement and punishment depend on them being contiguous with the behaviour.

FIG 4.12 TO COME

Figure 4.12 Training chickens is a great way for animal trainers to improve their skills.


Most people expect that children learn to ‘do the right thing’ by being punished when they ‘do the wrong thing’. In Western cultures, punishment has been considered an effective way to train children. Lewis Carroll satisfied this method of child training in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland:

‘Speak roughly to your little boy, And beat him when he sneezes. He only does it to annoy, Because he knows it teases.’

Punishment can produce fast results in the short run, but it can also lead to some serious problems in the long run. Some of these outcomes include:v� The recipient learns fear of the punisher. v� Most typically, recipients learn what not to do

when punished, not necessarily what behaviour is desirable. v� Recipients are often quick to learn to discriminate

between times when a behaviour will be punished and times when it will not be punished. v� There can be a recurrence of the undesirable

behaviour at a later time, or it may continue but be hidden from observation. v� Sometimes a punishment has aspects that are

rewarding to the recipient. A reprimand in a class-room may be intended as a punishment, but the child who receives attention and admiration from friends may have been rewarded instead.

• The recipient of punishment can develop an apa-thetic attitude and stop trying.

v� The recipient learns to use the punishment on others.v� The punisher often feels badly about punishing.

Stimulus generalisationStimulus generalisation refers to a process within operant and classical conditioning, where a condi-tioned response starts occurring in response to the presentation of other, similar stimuli, not just the conditioned stimulus. For example, a dog is trained to sit when you give the command ‘sit’. Soon after that, the dog might sit when you say ‘hit’, ‘bit’, and ‘kick’. The dog has started to respond to similar commands. The conditioned response has generalised.

Stimulus discriminationStimulus discrimination is a term that is used in both classical and operant conditioning. In clas-sical conditioning, it refers to an ability to distin-guish between a conditioned stimulus and other, similar stimuli. For example, Pavlov trained a dog to salivate when shown a circle and not to salivate when shown an ellipse. Pavlov’s dog had developed stimulus discrimination. Gradually, the shape of the ellipse was changed so that it became increas-ingly circular. When, finally, the difference between the circle and the ellipse was only very slight, the dog became very agitated. Moreover, it no longer

Why don’t clicker trainers use punishments as well as rewards?

A consequence of any behaviour can be unpleasant as well as pleasant. So why shouldn’t punishments follow unwanted behaviours, just as rewards follow wanted behaviours?

Research tells us that punishment may decrease the frequency of an unwanted behaviour, but usually results in producing another unwanted behaviour. The results of punishment as a training method are difficult to predict and control.

In addition, punishment almost always comes after the event and is rarely clearly connected with a specific behaviour. In the animal’s perception, punishment is a random, meaningless event. It is, there-fore, less effective than the use of positive reinforcement of alternative behaviours.

Clicker trainers also feel that their rela-tionships with their animals are stronger and more rewarding when they focus on the positive rather than the negative. Like the difference between an animal behaving with intention rather than by habit, there is a big difference in atti-tude and enthusiasm between an animal that works to earn rewards rather than to avoid punishment.

How can clicker training be used to get rid of behaviours?Clicker trainers allow unwanted behav-iours to disappear through lack of rein-forcement. If a behaviour is not rewarding

to the animal, eventually it will disap-pear. If an unwanted behaviour persists, clicker trainers study the behaviour to understand why it is reinforcing to the animal. Sometimes the behaviour rein-forces itself: a barking dog is less bored than a quiet dog. The barking is its own reward. The clicker trainer provides this dog with an alternative wanted behav-iour to replace the unwanted behaviour. The bored dog may simply need more activity; or the trainer could use positive reinforcement to shape quiet resting for longer and longer periods; or the trainer could teach the dog a cue for ‘silence’.

HdjgXZ: www.clickertraining.com

Learning 95

displayed the conditioned salivating reflex it had acquired. Pavlov described this effect as ‘experi-mentally induced neurosis’; that is, anxiety caused by the experiment.

These principles were extended to human beings by the American psychologist Watson, who used classical conditioning techniques to teach an infant, Little Albert, to be afraid of a rat. Watson made a loud and frightening noise behind Little Albert when the rat was placed in front of him. Not only did Little Albert become afraid of the rat, he became afraid of other fluffy animals and objects. His learned fear had generalised. (See extended response question 5, page 000.) Since Watson’s much quoted experiment, other psychologists have developed similar processes in more positive direc-tions. For example, by associating a feared object with something that a person responds to positively, the fear of the object decreases.

In the operant conditioning context, the defi-nition is essentially the same, but here the organism discriminates between performing a learned behaviour in response to a particular stimulus and performing that behaviour in response to another stimulus. An animal trainer uses stimulus discrimination to provide another way to control or remove a problem behaviour. For example, a trained dolphin may have been rewarded for jumping out of the water, but is now jumping out of the water too often. Training the dolphin by reinforcing jumping out of the water only following two blasts of a whistle, and never reinforcing after jumping out of the water on one blast of the whistle, would utilise stimulus discrimination. The dolphin could learn to jump out of the water only when it heard two blasts of the whistle. However, if the whistle was never again blown twice the dolphin would never again receive the signal to jump out of the water.

HabituationHabituation is the process of ‘getting used to some-thing’. If you decided to paint your walls a bright and dramatic colour, you would initially be likely to notice the colour. You might notice and appreciate the colour, or perhaps regret your choice. However, over time, that colour would capture your atten-tion less strongly and less often. You could begin to ‘take it for granted’, even though your friends continued to comment on your dramatic colour scheme. This tendency to have decreased respon-siveness to a stimulus is called habituation. Habitu-ation means that we cease to notice the traffic on the busy road outside. It means that by the end of the packet of potato chips we might barely notice

the attractive salty taste that was so appealing at the start of the packet.

ExtinctionSuppose you have been able to teach your dog to roll over by shaping his behaviour with small food treats. You think that he has learnt this trick now and cease to give him any treats or other reinforcement. What do you think will happen? How many times will your dog continue to roll over without any rewards?

Trainers do not usually reward their animals for every behaviour. They reward on a variable ratio schedule. The animal does not become sated as easily; it will do more for the reward. An experi-enced animal trainer also pairs rewards like food with other stimuli, such as praise or a sound like a clicker (see box 4.1), so that these stimuli become conditioned reinforcers. However, the trainer knows that if the rewards stop altogether, the animal will eventually cease to perform the behaviour. The conditioned reinforcers will lose their effect if unconditioned reinforcers such as food are never given to maintain or boost the strength of the asso-ciation. In the absence of reinforcement, learned behaviours cease. This process is called extinction and the behaviour is said to be extinguished. In operant conditioning, extinction results when some response by the organism is no longer reinforced. The behaviour ceases.

Extinction is a very effective strategy, but there are some common difficulties associated with imple-menting it effectively. One of these difficulties is that the behaviour may be reinforced in additional unnoticed ways. Many problematic behaviours can become ‘self-rewarding’. The behaviour is being positively or negatively reinforced by some unin-tended reward. The bored dog that barks when left alone may find the sound of his own barking interesting, or he may be reinforced by the recip-rocating barking of another dog in the distance, or by the attention of the person who comes out to tell him to be quiet. Another difficulty is that when reinforcement ceases, the behaviour initially may occur more strongly or more frequently for a short period of time. This is called an ‘extinction burst’. It may be mistaken for a failure of extinc-tion, and reinforcement of the behaviour at this stage may also reinforce the increased strength or frequency of the behaviour, making the behaviour even stronger. Finally, most behaviours are on some schedule of intermittent reinforcement, even those that appear to be self-rewarding. In this case, extinc-tion may take a very long time. A single instance of reinforcement may act to maintain the behaviour under a variable schedule of reinforcement.


LEARNING ACTIVITY 4.1How do the principles of classical and operant learning apply to the following scenarios?

1. Customer loyalty programs give points for purchases and these can later be exchanged for rewards.

Scenario: Josh applied for a Fly Buys card and accu-mulated points. For several years, Josh checked his tally of points but did not accumulate enough to exchange for a free flight. He stopped carrying his Fly Buys card in his wallet.

2. Manufacturers of many products change the design of the packaging every few years.

Scenario: Mike has used the same hair gel for some time. When he ran out of gel, he looked for the familiar black jar on the supermarket shelf. Next to the black jars of his usual brand was a small purple jar of another brand. Mike thought he might try that brand because it looked interesting.

3. Recycling empty bottles, cans and garden waste has been made easier by councils collecting them in special bins along with regular garbage collec-tions. Most households put out a recycling bin each week.

Scenario: Sharni used to put her empty soft drink cans into the ordinary garbage. After she read an interesting magazine article about how much power it takes to process one drink can, she decided to recycle her cans. Having done this for some months, she noticed that there was a very large number of cans and decided to take them to a recycling depot every few months. Then she would continue to feel good that she was helping the environment, and she could take a friend to see a film with the money she received. She said that she really liked ‘getting something for nothing’.

4. Many people in Australia can spare some of their income to help those who live in poverty.

Not everyone who can afford to give to charity does.

Scenario: Nila saw a TV program about the devasta-tion resulting from the 2004 tsunami and decided she could afford to donate some money to help the victims. However, she got used to seeing the pictures and forgot about her decision. Later, a friend suggested they regularly donate money to support a little boy orphaned by the tsunami. Nila felt good when she received his letter and photo.

5. Shoplifting is a crime in Australia. Scenario: Marco had taken items from delis and

supermarkets since he was about 11. His friend Jamie also shoplifted. At 13, Marco was caught and warned by the police. He and Jamie found ways to avoid being noticed. At 15, they were caught again. They went to court and Jamie stopped stealing. However, Marco was caught again. This time it was much more serious, but Marco said that the police were just out to get him. His new friends seemed to be impressed by the way he shrugged it off, and Marco felt like the risk was worth it.

6. Driving above the speed limit can be detected by a camera.

Scenario: Signs are placed on suburban roads to indicate that a speed camera is nearby. The average speed of cars is lower on roads where one of these signs is displayed. A roadside sign advertising glass repairs has patterns and colours similar to one of the speed camera signs. The average speed of cars on this road was initially lower. Later, there appeared to be no effect on the traffic.

7. Small children learn from the behaviours of their parents and carers.

Scenario: Consider the situation of the mother in a supermarket shopping with a toddler who demands a sweet. Mother refuses the request several times, but the child shouts, cries and draws the attention of other shoppers. The embarrassed mother gives in, buys the sweet and the child calms down. Next time the mother takes the child shopping, he demands a sweet in the supermarket and quickly escalates to a tantrum.

How to quit smokingby Nancy Rigotti, M.D.

Quick, what’s the greatest threat to a smoker’s health? Lung cancer is a good guess, and a wrong answer. Cigarettes cause 124 000 lung-cancer deaths in America each year, but they kill even more people (138 000) via heart disease.

Smokers suffer heart attacks at twice the rate of non-smokers — and they’re less likely to survive them. Fortunately, these effects are reversible. Quit smoking, and your risk of a heart attack drops almost immediately, returning to that of a never-smoker within five to 15 years. Breaking the addiction isn’t easy — some 40 per

cent of smokers try each year, and most of them fail. But a failed attempt is not a final defeat. What distinguishes suc-cessful quitters is their willingness to keep trying. Smoking cessation is a mar-athon, not a 50-yard dash, and winning takes practice. Here are some strategies for reaching the finish line.

Learning 97

Implicit (or latent) learningThere is evidence that animals and people often learn things but don’t show this learning until there is some reason to demonstrate it. Implicit (or latent) learning happens when we are not aware of the learning process. For example, someone who travels by bus to work each day may find they are able to give directions when a friend drives them in a car,

LEARNING ACTIVITY 4.2Applying learning theory to change unwanted behaviour

Read the article ‘How to quit smoking’ and answer the following questions.1. What positive reinforcement maintains smoking?2. What negative reinforcement maintains smoking?3. Why do you think that knowing about the health

risks associated with smoking does not prevent people from smoking?

4. The author suggests ‘switching from coffee to tea’ at the end of a meal. What stimulus control strategy is she suggesting?

5. How could the toothpick help? 6. What sources of positive reinforcement for

ceasing smoking are mentioned in the article? 7. What sources of negative reinforcement for

ceasing smoking are mentioned?8. What other reinforcements or learning strategies

might help someone to give up smoking?

LEARNING ACTIVITY 4.2Applying learning theory to change unwanted behaviour

Read the article ‘How to quit smoking’ and answer the following questions.1. What positive reinforcement maintains smoking?2. What negative reinforcement maintains smoking?3. Why do you think that knowing about the health

risks associated with smoking does not prevent people from smoking?

4. The author suggests ‘switching from coffee to tea’ at the end of a meal. What stimulus control strategy is she suggesting?

5. How could the toothpick help? 6. What sources of positive reinforcement for

ceasing smoking are mentioned in the article? 7. What sources of negative reinforcement for

ceasing smoking are mentioned?8. What other reinforcements or learning strategies

might help someone to give up smoking?

even though they were not conscious of learning the route. This would be a demonstration of latent learning. By contrast, explicit learning refers to a scenario where the person is conscious of what they are learning, and often has intended to learn.

Much of the social learning we do seems to be latent learning. We find ourselves singing along with an advertisement although we have made no con-scious effort to remember the words or the tune. We remember that the shoe repairer also cut new keys, although we had no need for a new key at the time we collected our repaired shoes.

In 1930, Tolman and Honzik published an article called ‘Insight in rats’. They described what they noticed when they placed rats in a maze without any reinforcement. For 10 days, these rats wandered about the maze, and on the eleventh day Tolman and Honzik reinforced these rats with food. Within two days (on day 13) these rats were as good at solving the maze as rats that had been reinforced every day for the whole 13 days. These rats had been learning about the maze while they were wandering about. Tolman called learning that is not revealed in behav-iour ‘latent learning’.

Explicit learning happens when we know that we want to learn something and we pay attention for that purpose. For example, a student learning Japa-nese might spend some time learning several new vocabulary words, so that the next day she can use these words in her Japanese lesson. Another example of explicit learning is when someone checks the starting time of a film or TV program so that they can plan their time to enable them to see it from the start. Deliberately memorising information, for example the meaning of a word, a list of items or how to assemble a bookshelf, is also explicit learning.

Think ahead. It often helps to set a date to quit and to spend some time pre-paring yourself for the challenges you’ll encounter. The first ones are physiological. Tobacco smoke delivers nicotine, a pow-erful psychoactive drug, to the nervous system. Most smokers become irritable, restless, anxious or depressed when they try to go without it, and many have trouble concentrating and sleeping. Fortunately, these withdrawal symptoms are transient. They usually peak within two to three days and then wane steadily. So think beyond the discomfort of the moment. If you can make it to day four, life will get easier.

Use crutches. Medical treatment makes the transition easier. Nicotine adminis-tered through patches, gums, lozenges, inhalers or nasal sprays can alleviate with-drawal symptoms, and the prescription

drug Zyban (bupropion) can help reduce craving. Studies suggest that quitters who use any of these aids double the chances of success. For best results, you should con-tinue using them for two to three months.

Change your routine. Nicotine isn’t the only reason quitting smoking is hard. Cigarettes become a part of a smoker’s everyday routine. If you’re accustomed to lighting up whenever you have a cup of coffee, finish a meal or encounter a stressful situation, you may need to recon-dition yourself. Simple tricks can help you sidestep temptation. Some people try switching from coffee to tea for a while, or using a toothpick as an after dinner pacifier. New rituals are easy to adopt, and they quickly become old ones.

Seek support. Quitting is easier if you have people to lean on, so don’t go

it alone. Friends, co-workers and family members can provide much-needed moral support, especially if they’ve been through the process themselves. Physicians and psychotherapists can offer valuable coun-selling. And though smoking cessation programs can’t guarantee results, they can increase your chances of success.

Smoking is a powerful addiction, but it can be beaten. Former smokers now outnumber current ones in this country, and indoor-smoking bans are giving people new incentives to quit. Medicines now in development could soon make smoking cessation easier, but no one should wait for them. Today’s treatments are effective, and too few smokers are benefiting from them.

HdjgXZ: CZlhlZZ`, 3 October 2005


1 3 5 7 9 1 1 1 3 1 5 1 7

No food reward until day 11

Regular food rewar d

No food rewar d

10

8

6

2

4

Aver

age

erro

rs

Days

Figure 4.13 This graph records the average number of

errors made by rats learning to navigate a maze. The rats

that received rewards only from the eleventh trial onwards

quickly performed as well as rats that had been rewarded in

every trial. When rewarded, they utilised their earlier latent

learning about the maze.

HdjgXZ: Tolman and Honzik (1930, p. 267)

Learning through insightInsight learning involves the spontaneous combi-nation of a number of isolated experiences to produce a new behaviour that is effective for gaining a desired result. Humans are able to exercise insight, and they can explain the process of putting ideas, known information and past experiences together to solve a problem or achieve a goal. Some people will describe a process of mental trial and error where they try out various approaches or solutions in their minds. They might describe this as imagining. In humans, insight is probably aided by latent learning and by this process of imagined trial and error.

However, it is not easy to identify such behav-iour in most other animals. We presume animals are using insight, or reasoning, when they solve a problem too rapidly for normal trial and error to occur. The higher primates appear to sometimes show behaviours resulting from insight learning, but the evidence of such learning becomes progressively less conclusive with animals with simpler brains. One famous researcher, Wolfgang Kohler, filmed apes in the process of solving problems in ways that appeared to show insight. However, even this persua-sive record of primates using insight has been ques-tioned (see box 4.2).

BOX 4.2

@d]aZg¼h�gZhZVgX]�dc�i]Z�bZciVa^in�d[�VeZhWolfgang Köhler, a psychologist trained at the Univer-

sity of Berlin, was working at a primate research facility

maintained by the Prussian Academy of Sciences in

the Canary Islands when the First World War broke out.

Marooned there, he had at his disposal a large outdoor

pen and nine chimpanzees of various ages. The pen,

described by Köhler as a playground, was provided with

a variety of objects including boxes, poles, and sticks,

with which the primates could experiment.

Köhler constructed a variety of problems for the

chimps, each of which involved obtaining food that

was not directly accessible. In the simplest task, food

was put on the other side of a barrier. Dogs and cats

in previous experiments had faced the barrier in order

to reach the food, rather than moving away from the

goal to circumvent the barrier. The chimps, however,

presented with an apparently analogous situation, set

off immediately on the circuitous route to the food.

It is important to note that the dogs and cats that

had apparently failed this test were not necessarily less

intelligent than the chimps. The earlier experiments

that psychologists had run on dogs and cats differed

from Köhler’s experiments on chimps in two important

ways. First, the barriers were not familiar to the dogs and

cats, and thus there was no opportunity for using latent

learning, whereas the chimps were well acquainted

with the rooms used in Köhler’s tests. Second, whereas

the food remained visible in the dog and cat experi-

ments, in the chimp test the food was tossed out the

window (after which the window was shut) and fell out

of sight. Indeed, when Köhler tried the same test on a

dog familiar with the room, the animal (after proving to

itself that the window was shut), took the shortest of

the possible indirect routes to the unseen food.

The ability to select an indirect (or even novel)

route to a goal is not restricted to chimps, cats and

dogs. At least some insects routinely perform similar

feats. The cognitive processing underlying these abili-

ties will become clearer when we look at navigation

by chimps in a later chapter. For now, the point is that

the chimpanzees’ abilities to plan routes are not as

unique as they appeared at the time.

Some of the other tests that Köhler is known for

are preserved on film. In a typical sequence, a chimp

jumps fruitlessly at bananas that have been hung

out of reach. Usually, after a period of unsuccessful

jumping, the chimp apparently becomes angry or frus-

trated, walks away in seeming disgust, pauses, then

Learning 99

looks at the food in what might be a more reflective

way, then at the toys in the enclosure, then back at the

food, and then at the toys again. Finally the animal

begins to use the toys to get at the food.

The details of the chimps’ solutions to Köhler’s food-

gathering puzzle varied. One chimp tried to shinny

up a toppling pole it had poised under the bananas;

several succeeded by stacking crates underneath, but

were hampered by difficulties in getting their centres

of gravity right. Another chimp had good luck moving

a crate under the bananas and using a pole to knock

them down. The theme common to

each of these attempts is that, to

all appearances, the chimps were

solving the problem by a kind of

cognitive trial and error, as if they

were experimenting in their minds

before manipulating the tools. The

pattern of these behaviours —

failure, pause, looking at the poten-

tial tools, and then the attempt

— would seem to involve insight

and planning, at least on the first

occasion.

But there is more to the story.

First, Köhler’s films are of chim-

panzees that had repeatedly

approached the problems in ques-

tion; their successes, such as

they were, were achieved slowly.

The crate stacking behaviour,

after nearly three years of prac-

tice, remains laughably inept:

the animals still try to balance

on a corner, or even position the

crates so that the open end faces

up, which makes it difficult either

to stack additional crates or find

stable footing on the existing pile.

Later studies, notably Paul Schil-

ler’s attempt to reproduce Köhler’s

work in the late 1940s, demon-

strated that experience playing with

the toys that later become tools was

essential to eventual success. He

noted that if provided with sticks,

chimps poke and swing at almost

anything (and frequently at nothing

at all), and try to connect them

into pairs with no reward in sight.

Chimps love to climb on crates

to provide an elevated stage for

swinging sticks, and to stack crates

for the apparent fun of it. Schiller

reported that each tower-building

chimp ‘climbed on the tower jumping upward from the

top repeatedly with arms lifted above the head and

stretched toward the ceiling. For the human observer

it was hard to believe that there was no food above

them to be reached. Needless to say, none of these

animals had ever been tested in box-stacking problem

situations.’

HdjgXZ: http://www.pigeon.psy.tufts.edu/psych26/

kohler.htm OR book I]Z�6c^bVa�B^cY

by J. L. Gould & C. G. Gould???

Figure 4.14 Photos and captions from I]Z�BZciVa^in�d[�6eZh. (a) Grande on an

insecure construction (b) Chica on the jumping stick


In 1945, a report by H. G. Birch appeared in the Journal of Comparative Psychology. This report summarised a replication of Köhler’s research. Six chimpanzees were presented with the Köhler pole and banana problem. One chimp solved the problem in five seconds. This chimp had previous training in getting food by pulling on a string. Another chimp solved the problem in twelve seconds. That chimp had previous practice fitting poles together to reach things that were out of normal reach. The remaining four chimps did not solve the problem. Later, the four were given poles to play with for about three days. Then they were put back into the Köhler problem situation and all solved the problem within twenty seconds. This is good evidence for chimpanzees applying prior learning and prior experience to new situations.

LEARNING ACTIVITY 4.3Review questions

Read the article about Wolfgang Köhler’s research with chimpanzees and answer the following questions.1. What filmed behaviour appeared to show

insightful learning in apes?2. Gould and Gould describe variations between

the conditions for Köhler’s experiments with chimps, dogs and cats. How were these variations important in drawing conclusions from the experiments?

3. How did H. G. Birch demonstrate the impor-tance of prior experience? How do you think prior experience contributes to solving a new problem?

LEARNING ACTIVITY 4.3Review questions

Read the article about Wolfgang Köhler’s research with chimpanzees and answer the following questions.1. What filmed behaviour appeared to show

insightful learning in apes?2. Gould and Gould describe variations between

the conditions for Köhler’s experiments with chimps, dogs and cats. How were these variations important in drawing conclusions from the experiments?

3. How did H. G. Birch demonstrate the impor-tance of prior experience? How do you think prior experience contributes to solving a new problem?

BEHAVIOUR MODIFICATIONBehaviour modification is a process that draws on the principles of operant conditioning. Desirable behaviour is reinforced with rewards. In particular, the reinforcement of the more desirable of two incompatible behaviours can be very effective. For example, someone who had decided to give up smoking could be rewarded with a piece of choco-late every time they refuse a cigarette.

Behaviour modification programs are often success-fully used in schools to help children to develop new behaviours. Single behaviours can be targeted with a chart that accumulates points towards a goal. A series of behaviours can be targeted to shape a new complex behaviour. It is important that the child understands precisely what behaviours will be reinforced. Starting with low expectations and small steps ensures early success, rewards and therefore reinforcement. The behaviour modification chart can acquire value as a conditioned reinforcer and small successes prevent the child from being discouraged by failure. Small rewards could be stamps, stickers, snacks, playing a special game, permission to play with special toys, verbal praise, a positive note home from the teacher or an outing.

Designing a behaviour modification programKimberly’s teacher has told her parents that Kimberly is tired at school. Her mother has found it difficult to wake her in the morning and she is sometimes late for school. Kimberly likes to stay up late watching TV. Her parents talked with her teacher about modifying this behaviour. They decided to draw up a chart to help Kimberly to change this behaviour. This is the behav-iour modification chart they designed so that Kimberly could tick off each night that she was in bed on time.

Table 4.1 Kimberly’s chart #1. What aspects of this program are likely to lead to a successful change in Kimberly’s behaviour?

How could this program be improved?

My Goal: To go to bed early! (so I am not grumpy in the morning)

Monday Monday Monday

Tuesday Tuesday Tuesday

Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday

Thursday Thursday Thursday

Friday Friday Friday

Saturday Saturday Saturday

Sunday Sunday Sunday

7 s � chocolate bar late night � no TV next day

Learning 101

LEARNED HELPLESSNESSIn the 1970s, American psychologist Martin Seligman had a major influence on psychological research into depression with his theory of learned helplessness. Seligman had been studying the effects of inescap-able painful shock on dogs. Initially the dogs could not avoid the shocks. Then these dogs were placed in a situation where they could avoid shock by jumping over a barrier. Most of the dogs failed to learn to avoid shock. Seligman argued that prior exposure to inescapable shock interfered with the ability to learn in a situation where avoidance or escape was possible. Seligman used the term ‘learned helpless-ness’ to describe this phenomenon.

Seligman argued that there are similarities between the symptoms of depression in humans and helpless-ness. It was observed that the helpless dogs showed reduced motivation with no incentive to try new coping responses: they ate less and lost weight, they were passive in the face of shock, they appeared to lose interest in their surroundings. There was much interest in this concept, and comparisons and specu-lations were made between learned helplessness and the effects of difficult childhoods and uncontrollable trauma on people. However, researchers found that many people did not get depressed, even after many bad life experiences, so the causality of learned help-lessness has been questioned.

Martin Seligman suggested in his book Learned optimism (1990) that one can overcome depres-sion by learning new ways of thinking about what happens. This is the basis of cognitive therapy. In such therapies, the focus is on learning to search for a more helpful or optimistic interpretation of what we have habitually assumed or believed.

In recent years, Seligman has focused his atten-tion on an area called ‘positive psychology’. In addi-tion to helping people to overcome depression, this area of psychology aims to help people to feel happier in life. Seligman and other associated psy-chologists published the findings of their research into simple interventions to improve people’s levels of happiness (Seligman, Steen, Park & Peterson, 2005). Their subjects were Internet responders who had followed prompts (for example from ‘happi-ness’) and said that they wanted to be happier and would agree to take part in the research. One of the most successful strategies tested in this project asked people to write down each day ‘three things that had gone well’ and also to write down ‘what had caused these things to go well’. After six months the people who used this strategy had improved in levels of hap-piness and decreased in symptoms of depression. Many of them had learnt the habit of reviewing their day and noting the events with positive outcomes. Had they ‘learned optimism’?

SYSTEMATIC DESENSITISATIONSystematic desensitisation is a form of treatment for phobias. This approach is based on conditioning relaxation with the feared object. Joseph Wolpe (1958) popularised this treatment in which the person is taught to use specific relaxation and vis-ualisation techniques when experiencing anxiety associated with their feared stimulus. In Wolpe’s therapy, the client is asked to develop a ‘hierachy of fear’. The client is encouraged to relax and the least upsetting item on the hierarchy is introduced.

Table 4.2 Kimberly’s chart #2. The second time Kimberly’s parents drew up her behaviour modification chart it proved to be

more successful. Briefly explain why this chart might be more successful.

My Goal: To be in bed by 9 o’clock!(so I will be more energetic in the morning)

Monday Monday Monday

Tuesday Tuesday Tuesday

Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday

Thursday Thursday Thursday

Friday Friday Friday

Saturday Saturday Saturday

Sunday Sunday Sunday

7 s � go-carting

6 s � video

5 s � chocolate bar

signed Mum ……………………..…

signed Dad ….……………………..

signed Kimberly ………..….....……


Repeated exposure to this item eventually lowers the intensity of the person’s response. Then the person maintains their state of relaxation while the next item, a little more challenging, is introduced. By gradually increasing the perceived dangerousness of the target, many phobic fears can become less sensitive and less powerful. Eventually, the person can confront the source of their fear without feeling anxious. For example, in the case of arachnophobia (fear of spiders), the person might first look at pic-tures of spiders, move on to look at spiders through glass at a distance, then close by until he or she can touch them and eventually cope with them running across their hand. The systematic aspect of his desen-sitisation technique was critical to Wolpe’s success. Sink-or-swim methods were expected to make the symptoms worse.

In recent years, systematic desensitisation has been less often used and exposure without relaxation has been shown to be more successful (see also chapter 7, part 2). All that is required is exposure to the fear, but the patient should be exposed to the stimulus until the anxiety has substantially subsided, or else the program of exposure may not be successful.

SOCIAL LEARNINGObservational learning in childrenAlbert Bandura and Richard Walters (1959) were researchers with an interest in adolescent aggres-sion who found that hyper-aggressive adolescents often had parents who modelled hostile attitudes. Although the parents would not tolerate aggres-sion in the home, they demanded that their sons be tough and settle disputes with peers physically if necessary. They also displayed aggression toward the school system and toward other youngsters whom they believed were giving their sons a difficult time. For these aggressive adolescents, the vicarious influ-ence of seeing an aggressive model outweighed the suppressive effect of receiving punishment for aggressive acts. It did not seem that reinforcement was a necessary part of their learning to be aggres-sive. Bandura later designed a series of experiments to investigate the effects of observational learning (Bandura used the term ‘social learning’) on aggres-sive behaviour.

In the famous Bobo doll experiment (Bandura, Ross, & Ross, 1961) young children between three and six years old saw an unknown adult model act aggressively or non-aggressively towards an inflat-able clown called a ‘Bobo doll’. The child’s subse-quent behaviour towards the doll was evaluated for aggressive and non-aggressive behaviour.

Method

After settling the child in one corner to play with stickers and stamps, the experimenter escorted the adult male or female model to the opposite corner of the room which contained a small table and chair, a Tinkertoy construction set, a mallet, and a 150 cm-tall inflated Bobo doll. With children in the non-aggressive condition, the model assembled the Tinkertoys in a quiet subdued manner, and totally ignored the Bobo doll. However, with subjects in the aggressive condition, the model began by assembling the Tinkertoys, but soon began to punch the Bobo doll, sit on it, lift it and strike the doll on the head with the mallet. Then the model tossed the doll up in the air aggressively and kicked it about the room, interspersing verbally aggressive remarks such as ‘Sock him in the nose . . .,’ and two non-aggressive comments ‘He keeps coming back for more’ and ‘He sure is a tough fella’. Children in the control group had no exposure to either an aggressive or non-aggressive model.

Following the exposure experience, the experi-menter took the child to another room that con-tained especially attractive toys, but as soon as the subject became sufficiently involved with those toys (usually in about two minutes), the experimenter remarked that these were her very best toys, that she did not let just anyone play with them, and that she had decided to reserve these toys for the other chil-dren. However, the child could play with any of the toys that were in the next room. This intervention was designed to induce some frustration in the chil-dren. The experimenter and the child then entered a third experimental room with a variety of toys including a Bobo doll, a mallet and peg board, two dart guns and a tether ball with a face painted on it which hung from the ceiling. The non-aggressive

Figure 4.15 Bobo the inflatable clown was used to

demonstrate observational learning in the studies by

Bandura et al.

Figure 4.15 Bobo the inflatable clown was used to

demonstrate observational learning in the studies by

Bandura et al.

Learning 103

toys included a tea set, crayons and colouring paper, a ball, two dolls, three bears, cars and trucks, and plastic farm animals. The experimenter remained as inconspicuous as possible by busying herself with paper work at a desk in the far corner of the room and avoiding any interaction with the child.

Results

Subjects in the aggressive condition reproduced a good deal of physical and verbal aggressive behav-iour resembling that of the models (see table 4.3). v� In the aggressive condition, children’s mean

scores for imitative aggression differed markedly from those of children in the non-aggressive and control groups (approximately 70 per cent of those children had zero scores).

• Imitation was not confined to the model’s aggres-sive responses. Approximately one-third of the subjects in the aggressive condition also repeated

the model’s non-aggressive verbal responses while none of the subjects in either the non-aggressive or control groups made such remarks.v� The children’s use of the mallet aggressively

toward objects other than the Bobo doll reveals that both the aggressive and the control groups, relative to subjects in the non-aggressive condi-tion, produced significantly more mallet aggres-sion. The difference was particularly marked with regard to girls. Girls who observed the non-aggres-sive model performed a mean number of 0.5 mallet aggression responses as compared to mean values of 18.0 and 13.1 for girls in the aggressive and control groups, respectively.v� Children in the aggressive group sat on Bobo

more often than the non-aggressive or the control children. v� The aggressive and non-aggressive groups dif-

fered significantly from each other, with children

Table 4.3 Mean frequencies of children’s responses in the Bobo experiment

Experimental groups

Aggressive Non-aggressive

Female model Male model Female model Male model Control group

Imitative physical aggression*

Girls 5.5 7.2 2.5 0.0 1.2

Boys 12.4 25.8 0.2 1.5 2.0

Imitative verbal aggression**

Girls 13.7 2.0 0.3 0.0 0.7

Boys 4.3 12.7 1.1 0.0 1.7

Mallet aggression***

Girls 17.2 18.7 0.5 0.5 13.1

Boys 15.5 28.8 18.7 6.7 13.5

Punches Bobo doll#

Girls 6.3 16.5 5.8 4.3 11.7

Boys 18.9 11.9 15.6 14.8 15.7

Non-imitative aggression##

Girls 21.3 8.4 7.2 1.4 6.1

Boys 16.2 36.7 26.1 22.3 24.6

Aggressive gun play###

Girls 1.8 4.5 2.6 3.7

Boys 7.3 15.9 8.9 16.7 14.3

Response measures * This category included acts of striking the Bobo doll with the mallet, sitting on the doll and punching it in the nose, kicking the doll and tossing it in the air.

** Subject repeats the phrases ‘Sock him’, ‘Hit him down’, ‘Kick him’, ‘Throw him in the air’ or ‘Pow’.

*** Subject strikes objects other than the Bobo doll aggressively with the mallet.# Punches Bobo doll: Subject strikes, slaps or pushes the doll aggressively.## This category included physically aggressive acts directed toward objects other than the Bobo doll and any hostile remarks except for those in the verbal imitation category,

e.g. ‘Shoot the Bobo’, ‘Cut him’, ‘Stupid ball’, ‘Knock over people’, ‘Horses fighting, biting’.### Subject shoots darts or aims the guns and fires imaginary shots at objects in the room.

HdjgXZ: Bandura, A., Ross, D. & Ross, S. A. (1961). Transmission of aggression through imitation of aggressive models.

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exposed to the aggressive models displaying the greater amount of non-imitative physical and verbal aggression. v� Of great interest was the finding that children who

observed non-aggressive models spent more than twice as much time as children in the aggressive condition simply sitting quietly without handling any of the toys.

Influence of gender of model and gender of subjects on imitative behaviour

Girls spent more time than boys playing with dolls and with the tea set, and colouring. Boys spent more time than girls playing with the guns. No gender differences were found in the children’s use of the farm animals, cars or tether ball.

Boys reproduced more imitative physical aggres-sion than girls but did not differ in their imitation of verbal aggression. For example, boys exhibited more physical and verbal imitative aggression, more non-imitative aggression and more aggressive gun play following exposure to the aggressive male model than the girls.

Girls exposed to the aggressive female model per-formed considerably more imitative verbal aggres-sion and more non-imitative aggression than did the boys but the mean differences did not reach statis-tical significance.

Children exposed to the non-aggressive female model did not differ from the controls on any of the measures of aggression.

Children exposed to the non-aggressive male model performed significantly less imitative physical aggression, less imitative verbal aggression, less mallet aggression, less non-imitative physical and verbal aggression, and were less likely to punch the Bobo doll.

ConclusionsChildren exposed to aggressive models reproduced a good deal of aggression resembling that of the models. Children in the aggressive conditions also exhibited significantly more partially imitative and non-imitative aggressive behaviour and were gener-ally less inhibited in their behaviour than children in the non-aggressive condition.

Imitation was found to be differentially influenced by the gender of the model, with boys showing more aggression than girls following exposure to the male model. The difference was particularly marked on highly masculine-typed behaviour.

Children who observed the non-aggressive models, especially the subdued male model, were generally less aggressive than the controls.

DiscussionMuch research on social learning has focused on the shaping of new behaviour through rewarding and punishing consequences. The results of this study provided strong evidence that observation of the behaviour of others elicits behaviours for which the original probability is very low. Social imitation (or observational learning) may hasten or shortcut the acquisition of some behaviours without overt rewards.

Boys were more imitative of physical aggres-sion than girls, but did not differ in imitation of verbal aggression. The children were differentially affected by the gender of the model. Extrapola-tion must also take into account the degree to which the behaviour in question is sex-typed. For example, in the Bobo experiment some boys made spontaneous remarks about the display of aggres-sion by the female model, e.g. ‘Who is that lady. That’s not the way for a lady to behave. Ladies are supposed to act like ladies . . .. ‘You should have

LEARNING ACTIVITY 4.4Summary of Bobo doll study

1. How does observational learning differ from clas-sical or operant conditioning?

2. Why did Bandura and his colleagues choose to study aggressive responses?

3. Why did Bandura et al. include a control group in their research design?

4. Why did the experimenter in the Bobo experi-ment busy herself in the corner of the room instead of observing the child’s behaviour?

5. What influences might the non-aggressive verbal responses like ‘He sure is a tough fella’ have had on the children?

6. What evidence is there that the children did not imitate only the aggressive behaviours?

7. ‘Eyeballing’ the data. Psychologists are trained to evaluate data by

testing its statistical significance, and the Bobo results that have been reported in this text were found to reach criteria for statistical significance. However, when data are assembled, most psychol-ogists will ‘eyeball’ the data to notice what trends appear to have emerged from their research. ‘Eyeball’ the data in table 4.3. What trends do you notice?

Learning 105

seen what that girl did in there. She was just acting like a man. I never saw a girl act like that before. She was punching and fighting but no swearing’. Aggression by the male model, on the other hand, was more likely to be seen as appropriate and approved by both the boys (‘Al’s a good socker, he beat up Bobo. I want to sock like Al.’) and the girls (‘That man is a strong fighter, he punched and punched and he could hit Bobo right down to the floor and if Bobo got up he said, “Punch your nose”. He’s a good fighter like Daddy.’). The gender differences found in this research are a reminder that, while a researcher may hope to focus on the process level of explanation, there are also influences at the person level and at the level of society and culture.

Consistent with Bandura’s social learning theory, Bandura, Ross and Ross (1963) found in later research that children exhibited more aggression in their observational learning when adult models were rewarded for their aggression rather than when they were punished. Bandura concluded that reinforcement doesn’t affect the learning of novel responses, but it does ‘determine whether or not observationally acquired competencies will be put into use’. He discovered that similar learning took place when the aggressor was a cartoon character, Herman the Cat, rather than a human model. In other studies, he discovered that removal of restraint is greatest for boys when the model is male and greatest for girls when the model is female. Consistent with traditional gender-based roles, boys were more generally violent than girls.

Figure 4.16 This experiment recorded children’s aggressive

responses after they had observed a model playing with

an inflatable Bobo doll. The model was presented in five

different ways: real-life aggressive model, filmed aggressive

model, cartoon aggressive model, no model control and non-

aggressive model. What do these data suggest?

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Figure 4.16 This experiment recorded children’s aggressive

responses after they had observed a model playing with

an inflatable Bobo doll. The model was presented in five

different ways: real-life aggressive model, filmed aggressive

model, cartoon aggressive model, no model control and non-

aggressive model. What do these data suggest?

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Bandura (1986) has developed a social cognitive theory that emphasises cognitive, vicarious, self-regulatory and self-reflective processes in human learning. Social cognitive theory emphasises that people are proactive, self-organising, self-reflecting and self-regulating, not just reactive organisms shaped by environmental forces or driven by con-cealed inner impulses. A major focus of Bandura’s theorising addressed the symbolising capacity of humans. By drawing on their symbolic capabilities, people give structure and meaning to their lives and solve problems, plan action and gain new know-ledge by reflective thought. Bandura has continued to investigate the power of psychological modelling in shaping human thought, emotion, and action. As technology has expanded, the media has become a pervasive source of vicarious modelling, and Bandura has also contributed to this extensive area of psychological study.

LEARNING ACTIVITY 4.5Extended response question

Much psychological research has been directed at determining the factors that influence observational learning. The gender of the child and the gender of the adult model both influenced the behaviour exhibited by the children in the Bobo doll experi-ments. What factors would you hypothesise could influence:v�� the acquisition of observational learning (e.g.

attributes of the learner like motivation, readi-ness to learn, paying attention etc.)

v�� the performance of learned behaviours (e.g. environmental cues, social reinforcement, expec-tation of outcomes etc.)

v�� the persistence of such behaviours (e.g. cultural norms that support or oppose, punishment or reward etc.)?

Discuss these ideas and work in a group to: v�� identify as many of these factors as possible

and/or

v�� design an experiment to test a hypothesis regarding one or more of the factors affecting observational learning, and present your design as a research proposal and/or

v�� evaluate the ethical concerns inherent in learning research and/or

v�� present one or more brief roleplays illustrating one or more of these factors, and ask your audi-ence to identify the factors illustrated.


Learning through observation or instructionMost people tend to think of observational learning as what happens in school, with a teacher instructing us in what we need to know. Teachers are trained in understanding how people learn and the factors that affect learning. Most people who read this book will think that our classroom settings are the best way to learn. However, instructional learning may be a specialised form of observational learning. For example there are some differences in learning style that may be cultural.

Odden and Rochat (2004) investigated the role of observational learning for children in Samoa. They found that Samoan children learn a range of different values, practices and beliefs via observational learning ‘without the benefit of . . . intensive instruction’.

A study (Mejia-Arauz, Rogoff & Paradise, 2005) of American children at school found that those with Mexican heritage tended to observe without asking for additional information. This pattern was also related to the education level of their mothers, with the chil-dren of more highly educated mothers asking more questions. Western schooling usually features active participation and questioning, and the child who just watches is sometimes considered to be ‘wasting their time’. The authors suggest that this may be a reflec-tion of Western cultural practices and that cultural traditions are associated with different expectations of the styles of children’s learning experiences.

To investigate the role of observational learning and questioning, Horner (2004) arranged for pre-schoolers to see a model ask questions during a shared book reading. Preschoolers who saw the model ask questions about letters did ask more questions and made more comments about letters than those chil-dren who did not. However, the questioners did not learn more about letters than children who did not make such comments.

Figure 4.17 Formal instruction is usually considered the

most important part of education.

FIG 4.17 TO COME

Figure 4.17 Formal instruction is usually considered the

most important part of education.

FIG 4.17 TO COME

Observational learning and the mediaIn January 2006, The Weekend Australian reported a summary of research involving observational learning. This research was probably considered newsworthy because it addressed a serious social problem (young teenagers drinking alcohol) and a pervasive social influence (watching movies). Researchers in the US made an assessment of the presentation of alcohol drinking in movies and found that it was shown in 52 per cent of G-rated films, 89 per cent of PG-rated films and 95 per cent of R-rated films. Subsequently, American students, aged 10 to 14, were asked about their drinking habits and about the movies that they watched. The researchers interviewed their subjects two years later. The ‘never drinkers’ with higher exposure to movie alcohol use at the first study were more likely to have started drinking during the follow-up period. This research suggests that observational learning from movies may affect teenagers’ drinking habits (Sargent et al., 2006).

However, while laboratory research is able to control many factors, field surveys are more diffi-cult to interpret. What other forms of observational learning might contribute to young teens drinking alcohol? Could any of these factors also contribute to the types of films they watched?

Many psychologists are concerned about the influence of media observational learning on drug use, sexual predation, aggression and civic respon-sibility. These concerns appear to be justified. Pro-fessor Rowell Huesmann is completing a 15-year longitudinal study of the development of aggres-sion in children in four nations. Huesmann (in Hurley & Chater, 2005) reviews the evidence that

Figure 4.18 Children also learn through informal

instruction by observing and interacting with others.

Figure 4.18 Children also learn through informal

instruction by observing and interacting with others.

Learning 107

supports the role of media violence in teaching violent behaviour. In addition to short-term proc-esses such as instances of observational learning and immediate imitation, Huesmann suggests that there are also long-term influences that promote and maintain the behaviour. Huesmann suggests that these include desensitisation and learning of cognitions; in particular, schemas for attributing hostile intentions to others, scripts that link situa-tions to aggressive responses, and norms for evalu-ating such scripts.

A randomised controlled trial of third- and fourth-grade students in California (Robinson et al., 2001) found that an intervention to reduce television, videotape and video game use decreased aggressive behaviour. These findings suggest a causal influ-ence of these media on aggression and support the potential benefits of reducing children’s media use. More recent study (Bushman & Huesmann, 2006) found modest but significant short-term and long-term effects of violent TV, movies, video games, music and comic books on aggression in both chil-dren and adults. The short-term effects of violent media were greater for adults than for children, whereas the long-term effects were greater for chil-dren than for adults. Bushman and Huesmann con-sidered that their results were consistent with the theory that short-term effects were mostly due to the priming of existing schemas, or beliefs, which adults have had more time to learn. In contrast, long-term effects require the learning of schemas, or beliefs. Children can learn new schemas and beliefs via observational learning with less interfer-ence and effort than adults.

A relatively new area for psychological investiga-tion is the role of learning in video games, including observational learning and a variety of other learning processes. A press release posted in 2000 on the American Psychological Association website sug-gested that video games may be “more harmful than violent television and movies because of the inter-active nature of the games”. There is a very active debate on this. You might recognise many learning processes (e.g. classical conditioning, operant con-ditioning, schedules of reinforcement, implicit learning, explicit learning, observational learning and instructional learning) that are influential in video games. What might people learn from The Matrix, Halo 2, The Sims or Playboy: the Mansion?

Figure 4.19 Studies have found that playing violent video

games can lead to an increase in violent behaviour.

FIG 4.19 TO COME

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Short answer questions

1. Briefly describe the changes at neuronal synapses that are associated with learning.

2. Briefly describe what is meant by the term ‘innate’.

3. Briefly describe what is meant by the term ‘unconditioned response’. Illustrate your answer with an example.

4. Briefly describe imprinting and explain how it promotes learning.

5. Briefly describe what is meant by the term ‘conditioned response’.

6. Briefly describe the difference between a positive reinforcer and a negative reinforcer. Illustrate your answer with an example of each.

7. What is a token? Give an example.

8. Briefly describe the difference between a fixed interval schedule of reinforcement and a fixed ratio schedule of reinforcement. Illustrate your answer with an example of each.

9. Give one example of a variable interval schedule of reinforcement and one example of a variable ratio schedule of reinforcement.

10. Briefly describe the factors that influence the effectiveness of a reinforcer.

11. What is extinction? How is a behaviour extinguished?

12. What steps are necessary for systematic desensitisation?

13. Briefly describe the difference between observational learning and instruction.

Extended response questions

1. ‘Punishment can produce fast results in the short run, but it can lead to some serious problems in the long run.’ What are the problems associated with relying on punishment for learning? Why is punishment the usual response to criminal behaviour in our legal system?

2. Sam wants to train her dog, Rambo, to bring her father’s slippers for him to put on when he comes home from work. Rambo has been to obedience classes with Sam and can sit, stand and heel in response to her hand signals. Sam has taught him to be reinforced by her saying

‘good boy’ and clapping her hands, along with occasional dog treats. Rambo will pick up a slipper, but does not want to put it down. How could Sam teach Rambo this complex new trick? How could she teach him to perform his trick only when he hears her father opening the garage door?

3. Most of us have habits or behaviours we wish to change. Design your own behavioural modification program. Include the following steps.• Select a goal. If possible, formulate this as a

positive target.• Determine what behaviours you will need

to reinforce.• Choose rewarding reinforcers.• Devise a way to monitor your progress.• Determine your reinforcement schedule.• Reinforce your behaviours for the greatest

learning impact.• Determine the time frame or the end point.• Commit yourself and start.• Monitor your progress and ‘fine tune’ your

program.• Report your outcome.

4. What ethical issues should be considered in research on learning in animals and in people? Consider ethical issues involved in:• punishment• learned helplessness• schedules of reinforcement• extinction• systematic desensitisation.

5. The research example of Little Albert is well known in the study of psychology. It is commonly believed to be a classic example of learned fear by classical conditioning. An examination of this research was described in the journal American Psychologist in 1979 by Ben Harris. He drew attention to many of the inaccuracies and ethical issues that occurred in reporting this research. You can read this article by visiting www.jaconline.com.au/psychology/psych??? and clicking on the Little Albert weblink.

Work in a group to review this article and present your findings. What conclusions do you draw from your findings?

6. Discuss the balance between explicit and implicit observational learning from television programs and/or advertisements. What ethical issues might be relevant in considering the potential for learning in programs and advertising directed at children?

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Learning 109

7. Martin Seligman and his associates used Internet responders as subjects for his research into learning to be happier. What ethical issues are important in the selection of subjects for research into learning? What additional ethical issues are important to consider in research that draws on Internet responders? Does the use of a sample of Internet responders pose other challenges to the researcher?

8. In his research for his Master’s thesis in 1993, Adelaide psychologist, Dr Alex Ask, concluded that frustrating violent video games tended to increase anger while non-frustrating violent video games tended not to. Low frequency players seemed to be more affected by such experiences than high frequency players. Discuss the ethical issues involved in designing research in this area.

9. Evaluate a video game from a learning perspective. Consider classical conditioning, schedules of reinforcement and observational learning of behaviour and cognitions. Present your findings in a poster.

10. Consider your school’s litter problem. Using your knowledge of the principles of learning, write a report that answers the following questions:a. How do students learn to litter?b. What reinforcements might be

maintaining the behaviour of littering?c. How might the relevant cues and

reinforcements of the school environment promote or maintain littering?

d. What types of learning might be involved in learning alternative behaviours?

e. Discuss how your school might plan to modify student behaviour using learning principles.

11. A variety of games, puzzles and learning activities can be found by visiting www.jaconline.com.au/psychology/psych??? and clicking on the Puzzles and games weblink. These learning activities are rated for different age groups and some rely on complex combinations of learning principles. Identify the learning strategies illustrated by these activities.

Documents

Chapter Learningshattockpsych2.weebly.com/uploads/3/2/1/1/32119005/... · 1. An unconditioned response already exists as a response to an unconditioned stimulus. The dog salivating