LEARNINGMEYERS AND DEWALL

CHAPTER 6

LEARNING OVERVIEW

HOW DO WE LEARN?

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

OPERANT CONDITIONING

BIOLOGY, COGNITION, AND LEARNING

LEARNING BY OBSERVATION

LEARNING

Learning – the process of acquiring new information or behaviors through experience

Associative Learning - Our brain’s tendency to automatically notice and connect sequential

or co-occurring events

Habits can be acquired behaviors linked to a specific context

Conditioning – process by which we learn associations

ASSOCIATIVE LEARNING – CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

Classical Conditioning (Pavlovian) – learning to associate two or more stimuli

Dr. Ivan Pavlov developed classical conditioning when dogs in his research would drool

before they were given food

Unconditioned Stimulus (US) – a stimulus that automatically triggers a response

Unconditioned Response (UR) – an automatic unlearned reflexive response to a US

ASSOCIATIVE LEARNING – CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

Acquisition Stage – repeatedly pair the US with a neutral stimulus (NS)

Conditioned Stimulus (CS) – a previously neutral stimulus that becomes associated with US

Conditioned Response (CR) – a LEARNED response to a conditioned stimulus

Classical conditioning helps animals learn skills to survive and reproduce

ASSOCIATIVE LEARNING – CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

ASSOCIATIVE LEARNING – CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

Extinction – weakening of conditioned response (CR) when unconditioned stimulus (US)

doesn’t follow the conditioned Stimulus (CS)

Stimulus Generalization – expressing a conditioned response when presented with a similar

CS

Stimulus Discrimination – learning to distinguish between similar condition stimuli

ASSOCIATIVE LEARNING – CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

Pavlov discovered that almost all animals can be classically conditioned and how to study it

objectively

Classical Conditioning in Everyday Life?

John B. Watson’s Little Albert study

ASSOCIATIVE LEARNING – OPERANT CONDITIONING

E.L. Thorndike’s Law of Effect – a behavior followed by a reward is likely to be repeated

Classical conditioning involves automatic behaviors, operant conditioning involves behaviors you control

B.F. Skinner used Thorndike’s law to teach animals skills

Operant Conditioning – learning that occurs when we associate favorable or unfavorable

consequences with our actions

Operant Chamber (Skinner Box) – a box with a mechanism that provides food/water when

pressed

ASSOCIATIVE LEARNING – OPERANT CONDITIONING

How to INCREASE a behavior

Reinforcer – any event that increases/strengthens a preceding response

Shaping – gradually reinforcing behaviors that are close to the desired response “successive

approximations”

Shaping can be used in our everyday interactions

ASSOCIATIVE LEARNING – OPERANT CONDITIONING

Types of Reinforcers

Positive Reinforcement – increasing/strengthening a behavior by PRESENTING a positive stimuli

Negative Reinforcement – increasing/strengthening a behavior by REMOVING a negative stimuli

Primary Reinforcers satisfy basic needs, secondary reinforcers are associated with primary

reinforcers

Humans respond to both immediate and delayed reinforcers

ASSOCIATIVE LEARNING – OPERANT CONDITIONING

Reinforcement Schedules – the frequency/timing of reinforcement can affect behavior

Continuous Reinforcement – a behavior is reinforces after every desired response

ASSOCIATIVE LEARNING – OPERANT CONDITIONING

Partial/Intermittent Reinforcement – responses are sometimes reinforced based on rate or timing

Fixed Ratio Schedule – behavior is reinforced after a set number of responses

Variable-Ratio Schedule – behavior is reinforced after a random/unpredictable number of

responses

Fixed-Interval Schedule – behavior is reinforced only after a set time period/interval

Variable-Interval Schedule – behavior is reinforced after a random/unpredictable period/interval

ASSOCIATIVE LEARNING – OPERANT CONDITIONING

ASSOCIATIVE LEARNING – OPERANT

CONDITIONING

How to DECREASE a Behavior?

Punishment – any consequence that WEAKENS/DECREASES the frequency of a response

Positive Punishment – an undesired stimulus/event that occurs following a behavior

Negative Punishment – removing a desired stimulus/event following a behavior

Physical Punishment – models aggression as a tool, teaches fear, and only suppresses the

response in certain situations

Conditioning QUIZ

BIOLOGY, COGNITION, AND LEARNING

Behaviorism – Skinner and Watson felt that psychology should be limited only to observable

behaviors, not mental processes

What Did They Miss?

Biological Predispositions – organisms are better able to learn responses that help them

survive and reproduce

Cognitive Factors – our thoughts, beliefs, and expectations influence learning

Latent Learning – acquiring knowledge without awareness

Overjustification - rewarding people for doing things they enjoy decreases intrinsic motion

BIOLOGY, COGNITION, AND LEARNING

Observational Learning (Albert Bandura) – learning by observing the behaviors of others and

its consequences

Modeling – process of imitating an observed response

Mirror Neurons – neurons that activate when we engage in behaviors or observe other engaging in

behaviors