Instincts, Reflexes and Learned Behavior

Learning

• Loggerhead sea turtle hatchlings instinctively know how to find the ocean and swim, unlike humans who must learn these skills, such as swimming and surfing.
• Humans pride themselves on the ability to learn.

Unlearned Behaviors

• Instincts and reflexes are innate behaviors present from birth.
• These behaviors help organisms adapt to their environments.
• Reflexes are motor/neural reactions to specific stimuli and simpler than instincts
• Reflexes involve specific body parts and primitive CNS centers like the spinal cord and medulla
• Human babies exhibit a sucking reflex
• Instincts are triggered by broader events like aging or seasonal changes.
• They are more complex than reflexes, involving whole-organism movement and higher brain centers.

What is Learning?

• Learning enables organisms to adapt to their environment through behavior changes and experience.
• Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior or knowledge resulting from experience.
• It involves acquiring skills/knowledge consciously or unconsciously.
• Associative learning occurs when organisms connect stimuli or events that happen together.
• Behaviorism includes classical conditioning, operant conditioning and observational learning.

Classical Conditioning

• Ivan Pavlov's research on dog's digestive systems led to classical conditioning through unexpected observations
• Classical conditioning is a learning process where we associate stimuli to anticipate events.
• Pavlov noticed dogs salivating not only at the taste of food, but also at the footsteps of lab assistants.
• Organisms have unconditioned (unlearned) and conditioned (learned) responses to the environment.
• Dogs were conditioned to associate a bell sound with food and would salivate upon hearing it.

Classical Conditioning Elements

• Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): A stimulus that naturally elicits a reflexive response (e.g., food).
• Unconditioned Response (UCR): A natural, unlearned reaction to a stimulus (e.g., salivation in response to food).
• Food (UCS) leads to Salivation (UCR)
• Neutral Stimulus (NS): A stimulus that doesn't naturally elicit a response (e.g., a ringing bell before conditioning).
• During conditioning, the NS and UCS are repeatedly paired
• Bell (NS) + Food (UCS) leads to Salivation (UCR)
• Conditioned Stimulus (CS): A stimulus that elicits a response after being repeatedly paired with an unconditioned stimulus.
• Conditioned Response (CR): The behavior caused by the conditioned stimulus.
• Bell (CS) leads to Salivation (CR)

Higher-Order Conditioning

• Higher-order conditioning involves pairing an established CS with a new neutral stimulus (second-order stimulus).
• Eventually, the new stimulus elicits the conditioned response without the original CS being presented
• A cat conditioned to salivate at an electric can opener sound is then conditioned with a squeaky cabinet door.
• The cat will salivate upon hearing the squeaky cabinet door alone.
• The cat essentially associates the cabinet door with the electric can opener, and therefore with food.

General Processes of Classical Conditioning

• Acquisition is the initial learning period when an organism connects a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus.
• Acquisition typically needs a short time interval between the NS and UCS, and repeated pairings.
• Conditioning can sometimes occur with longer intervals or with only one pairing, like in taste aversion.
• Extinction is the decrease in the conditioned response when the UCS is no longer presented with the CS.
• Spontaneous recovery is the return of a previously extinguished conditioned response after a rest period.

Stimuli Discrimination

• Stimulus discrimination involves learning to respond differently to similar stimuli.
• For example, a dog learns to discriminate between a bell sound that signals food and one that doesn't.
• Stimulus generalization occurs when an organism demonstrates the conditioned response to stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus
• Avoiding all spiders after disliking a specific spider is an example of stimulus generalization
• Classical conditioning can lead to habituation; learning not to respond to a stimulus presented repeatedly without change.
• As a stimulus is repeated, attention decreases.

Behaviorism & John B. Watson

• John B. Watson used classical conditioning in the study of human emotion.
• He believed that all behavior could be studied as a stimulus-response reaction
• Additionally, he believed classical conditioning could condition human emotions.
• Watson conducted the "Little Albert" study.

Little Albert Experiment

• Watson conditioned Little Albert to fear certain stimuli.
• Initially, Albert was presented with neutral stimuli, like a rabbit, dog, cotton wool, and white rat.
• Watson then paired these with a loud sound every time Albert touched the stimulus to cause fear
• After repeated pairings, Albert became fearful of the stimulus alone, for example, the white rabbit.
• Albert generalized his fear of furry stimuli and developed fear of furry things like Watson's Santa Claus mask
• It is unknown if Little Albert's fear was long-lasting.

Operant Conditioning

• B.F. Skinner proposed the theory of operant conditioning.
• Organisms associate behavior with consequences (reinforcement/punishment)
• This association is based on the law of effect: pleasant consequences make a behavior more likely
• Undesirable result makes a behavior less likely to occur again.
• For example, when one show up to work and gets paid, they continue to show up
• Skinner used rats and pigeons in experiments to determine how learning occurs through operant conditioning.

Operant Conditioning Terminology

• Positive: something is added.
• Negative: something is taken away.
• Reinforcement: increases a behavior.
• Punishment: decreases a behavior.

Classical vs Operant Conditioning

• Classical conditioning involves pairing an unconditioned stimulus (food) with a neutral stimulus (bell).
• Eventually, the neutral stimulus becomes the conditioned stimulus, bringing about the conditioned response (salivation).
• Operant conditioning uses reinforcement or punishment following a target behavior to strengthen or weaken it to exhibit the desired behavior in the future.
• In classical conditioning, the stimulus occurs immediately before the response
• In operant conditioning, the stimulus (reinforcement or punishment) occurs soon after the response.

Skinner Box

• Skinner studied operant conditioning by placing animals in a conditioning chamber (Skinner box).
• The box contained a lever where the animal pressing it would dispense food as reward.

Reinforcement

• Positive reinforcement means adding something that increases the likelihood of desired behavior, such as high grades, paychecks or praise
• Negative reinforcement means removing something to increase the likelihood of behavior, like a beeping sound in the car that only goes away with the seatbelt on

Punishment

• Positive punishment involves adding something to decrease the likelihood of a behavior (e.g., scolding a student for texting in class)
• Negative punishment involves removing something to decrease the likelihood of a behavior (e.g., taking away a toy from a child).

Shaping

• Shaping is a tool used in operant conditioning to reward approximations of a target behavior.
• Behaviors are broken down into small, achievable steps; useful when teaching a complex chain of events.
• Any response that resembles the desired behavior is reinforced.
• Following that, only the response that more closely resembles the behavior is reinforced
• Subsequently reinforce the response that even more closely resembles the desired behavior
• Continue until only the desired behavior is reinforced.

Primary & Secondary Reinforcers

• Rewards to reinforce behavior can come in many forms such as praise, stickers, money, or toys.
• Primary reinforcers have innate reinforcing qualities (e.g., food, water, sleep, sex, pleasure).
• The value of primary reinforcers don't need to be learned.
• Secondary reinforcers have no inherent value and are learned by linking with a primary reinforcer.
• Praise, a secondary reinforcer is linked with affection, a primary reinforcer.
• Money is only reinforcing when it can obtain other things such as basic needs (food) or other secondary reinforcers.
• Tokens are exchanged for other things.
• Token economies are used to encourage behavior in prisons, schools and mental institutions.

Reinforcement Schedules

• The best way to teach behavior is using positive reinforcement in many ways
• Continuous reinforcement involves receiving a reinforcer each time a behavior is displayed to teach quickly
• An example is a dog receiving a treat every time it sits when told.
• Timing is important for the treat to be presented quickly after sitting so the dog can associate the target behavior with the consequence.
• Sometimes, if the trainer runs out of treats, the dog will stop sitting, so another type of reinforcement can be used
• Partial reinforcement involves not giving a reward for every display of behavior
• There are several types of partial reinforcement schedules.

Partial Reinforcement Scales

• Fixed reinforcement is when the number of responses/amount of time between reinforcements is set and unchanging
• Variable reinforcement is when the number of responses/amount of time between reinforcements varies/changes
• Interval schedule is based on the time between reinforcements
• Ratio schedule is based on the number of responses between reinforcements
• Fixed interval reinforcement is delivered at predictable time intervals like a patient taking pain relief medication at set times
• Variable interval reinforcement is delivered at unpredictable time intervals as is the case with someone checking social media
• Fixed ratio reinforcement is delivered after a predictable number of responses such as is the case with factory workers beings paid for "x" number of items manufactured
• Variable ratio reinforcement is delivered after an unpredictable number of responses such as with gambling.

Reinforcement Schedules

• Different reinforcement schedules yield different response patterns.
• A variable ratio schedule is unpredictable and results in high, steady response rates with minimal pausing after reinforcement like in gambling.
• A fixed ratio schedule is predictable and has high response rate with short pause after reinforcement as in the case of an eye glass sales woman.
• A variable interval schedule is unpredictable and produces a moderate and steady response rate lik in the case of restaurant management
• A fixed interval schedule yields a scallop-shaped response pattern, reflecting a significant pause after reinforcement, like with a surgery patient.

Gambling & The Brain

• Research suggests pathological gamblers use gambling to compensate for low levels of norepinephrine; a hormone associated with stress, arousal, and thrill.

Cognition and Latent Learning

• Edward C. Tolman found that learning can occur without reinforcement,
• Tolman introduced the cognitive aspect to learning, which involved how the rats created a cognitive map in a maze
• Cognitive map: A mental picture of the layout of an environment
• After 10 sessions without food, food was placed at the exit, the rats quickly exited the maze and had learned the way out
• Latent learning is when learning occurs but is not observable until there is reason to demonstrate

Latent Learning Examples

• Children may learn things they don't demonstrate until they are older, like from their parents
• A child may learn the route to school by watching their parent drive but will not demonstrate this until they can drive or have to get there by bike or walking

Cognitive Maps

• Psychologist Edward Tolman found that rats use cognitive maps to navigate through a maze
• Just like in the video game, where you learn when to turn left or right, the rats did the same

Observational Learning (Modeling)

• A spider monkey learned to drink water from a plastic bottle by seeing the behavior modeled by a human

Observational Learning

• Yoga students learn by observation as their yoga instructor demonstrates the correct stance and movement
• Models don’t have to be present for learning to occur
• Through symbolic modeling, a child can learn a behavior by watching someone demonstrate it on television.

Social Learning Theory

• Albert Bandura proposed social learning theory to explain how learning occurred without external reinforcement
• Bandura believed observational learning was more than imitation and that internal mental states must be involved

Social Learning Theory Steps

• Attention: focus on the behavior.
• Retention: remember what was observed.
• Reproduction: be able to perform the behavior.
• Motivation: must want to copy the behavior.
• Motivation relies on what happened to the model.
• Vicarious reinforcement has the observer seeing the model rewarded, meaning they will copy the model
• Vicarious punishment has the observer seeing the model punished, meaning the observer will not copy the model's behavior

Bandura’s Bobo Doll Experiment

• Bandura studied modeling of aggressive and violent behaviors.
• Children observed adults act aggressively towards a Bobo doll. The adult
• was then either punished, praised or ignored for their behavior.
• The children were then given the opportunity to play with the Bobo doll.
• If the child had seen the adult punished, they were less likely to act aggressively towards the doll
• If the child had seen the adult praised or ignored, they were more likely to imitate
• Conclusion was that children watch and learn from the adults which can be both prosocial and antisocial

Video Games

• Psychological researchers suggest that there is a relationship between watching violence and aggression in children

Illustrated Analysis

• Student must create a poster highlighting either classical or operant conditioning in social media adverts.
• In that poster the student will need to use content to prepare presentations.
• The student will need peer review two posters.

Presentation Requirements

• Discussion be clear and describe evident learning type
• Next, concepts need to identified in each example and references must be included
• Concepts should refer to positive/negative punishment, as well as stimuli responses