Classical and Operant Conditioning

• Learning is a change in an organism's behavior due to experience in its environment.

Non-Associative Learning

• Involves a relatively permanent change in the strength of response to a single stimulus after repeated exposure.
• Habituation: Response decreases as a stimulus is repeated.
• Sensitization: Response increases as a stimulus is repeated.
• Cross sensitization (pseudo-conditioning): Response is increased to similar stimuli.

Associative Learning

• It occurs when an association between two stimuli or a behavior and a stimulus is learned.
• Classical conditioning (Stimulus-response theory)
• Operant conditioning (trial & error theory)
• Social learning

Classical Conditioning

• Pavlov noticed increased salivation in dogs when offering food
• Pavlov started ringing a bell before he offered dogs food
• Then he saw salivation increased when he rang the bell, even without food.
• Acquisition in classical conditioning: A response occurs to a stimulus by associating another stimulus.
• Formula: Unconditioned stimulus (UCS) + Conditioned stimulus (CS) = Unconditioned response (UCR) + Conditioned response (CR).
• Food (UCS) + Bell (CS) = Saliva for Food (UCR) + Saliva for Bell (CR)
• Extinction/fading: The disappearance of a conditioned response over time.
• Recovery: The reappearance of a conditioned response.
• Stimulus Generalization: Responding to similar stimuli.
• Stimulus discrimination: Responding only to a specific stimulus.

Operant Conditioning

• Skinner noticed that an animal would do random movements to release food from a closed box.
• Eventually, the number of movements and effort decreased as the animal learned how to get the food.
• Environment response is either neutral, punishment [painful] or reinforcement [pleasurable]
• Positive Punishment: Adding a bad event; for example, the animal experiences pain.
• Negative Punishment: Removing a good event; for example, the animal loses access to food.
• Negative Reinforcement: Relief from a bad event; for example, avoiding getting hurt.
• Positive Reinforcement: Adding a good event; for example, finally getting the food.
• Chaining: Reinforcing step-by-step tasks to achieve a desired behavior.
• Shaping: Reinforcing approximations to the desired behavior.

Reinforcement Schedules

• Continuous: Reward given with each instance of behavior.
• Intermittent: Reward given sometimes with behavior.
• Interval: Reward given after a time period when behavior happens (fixed/variable).
• Ratio: Reward given based on the number of times a behavior happens (fixed/variable).

Social Learning

• Bandura described observational learning
• Antecedent, behavior and consequence are the set through which behavior is understood
• People tend to imitate others if the consequence of their behavior is favorable.

Effects of Organism on Learning

• Imprinting: Sensitive life phase where learning certain behaviors is most appropriate, such as when little geese learn swimming from their parents at an early age.
• Stimulus preparedness: Hard-wired responses from ancestors, like fear of snakes in humans and monkeys.

Factors Affecting Learning

• Organism: Physical condition (imprinting phase, stimulus preparedness), IQ, emotional and mental state.
• Environmental effect (stimulus or reinforce): Quality (painful/pleasurable).
• Frequency (continuous/intermittent).
• Amount (fixed ratio/variable).

Clinical Applications

• Disorders:
• Phobias: Learning to feel afraid of neutral things.
• Depression: Learning to feel helpless and hopeless.
• Addictions: Overeating and perversions being learned behaviors.
• Therapies:
• Therapies can address overcoming of fear, sadness, and cravings, through stimulus control (avoidance) or competing responses.