Learning and Conditioning

• Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior resulting from experience
• Innate behaviors do not require experience for a stimulus to cause a response

Types of Learning

• Single Stimulus Learning only involves one stimulus
• Habituation is becoming less sensitive to a stimulus over time
• Habituation involves less attention to stimuli, and is not sensory fatigue or adaptation
• Sensitization is becoming more sensitive to stimuli over time
• Sensitization is the opposite of Habituation
• When probing a snail's gills they retract quicker because of sensitization instead of habituation

Associative Learning

• Associative learning occurs when two events or stimuli are frequently paired to elicit a response
• Predictive value is gained when two events or stimuli become associated
• The process of connecting events occurs close in time and space
• For example, lightning predicts thunder
• Classical Conditioning was studied by Ivan Pavlov from 1849-1936
• Pavlov discovered that dogs salivate when hearing or seeing things they associate with food
• Conditioning occurs when a neutral stimulus elicits a response without the unconditioned response
• An unconditioned stimulus automatically triggers a response, for example, food
• An unconditioned response is an unlearned response to the UCS, for example, salivation
• A neutral stimulus does not produce a response, for example, a tuning fork
• A conditioned stimulus is a Neutral Stimulus that becomes associated with an UCS, for example, a tuning fork
• A conditioned response is a learned response to a CS, for example, salivation
• Extinction occurs when the unconditioned stimulus is no longer paired with the conditioned stimulus and the conditioned response fades

Operant Conditioning

• Edward Thorndike studied puzzle boxes for operant conditioning
• The Law of Effect states that if a response in the presence of a stimulus is followed by a satisfying event, the association between the stimulus and the response will be strengthened
• Operant Conditioning happens when an animal's response is reinforced or punished and the animal must behave for the conditioning process to produce learning
• Operant Conditioning changes the future expression of behavior
• Reinforcement is any event following a behavior that STRENGTHENS the behavior or makes it more likely to occur again
• Positive reinforcement is providing something you like or need
• Negative reinforcement is taking away something aversive
• Punishment is any event following a behavior that WEAKENS the behavior or makes it less likely to occur again
• Positive punishment is providing something aversive
• Negative punishment is taking away something you like/need
• Primary Reinforcement/Punishment is an innate reward/punishment or biological need, for example, food or pain
• Secondary Reinforcement/Punishment is a conditioned reward/punishment where learning and association develop with a primary reinforcer, for example, money or failing a test
• Shaping is a procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward a desired goal using successive approximations

Classical vs Operant Conditioning

• Classical conditioning presents stimuli to the animal where 2 stimuli are associated (UCS & CS) in a passive process
• Operant Conditioning requires the animal to behave to associate a response and consequences in an active process

Evolution of Learning

• Learned taste aversions happen when a blue jay eats a monarch and vomits because the monarch is poisonous, which is an example of operant conditioning
• Conditioned taste aversion is when behavior and consequences are not immediately paired and extinction is virtually nonexistent
• Preparedness describes how through evolution, animals have become biologically predisposed to learn some associations more readily than others
• Group-living populations learn to pull a ring for food more effectively than territorial populations
• The evolutionary approach to learning states that if the ability to learn is influenced by genes, then natural selection will happen under only certain circumstances
• Learning is favored if there are 2 assumptions:
  • There is some cost to learning, such as time and energy
  • Learning has some genetic basis, particularly if behavior is based on genes
• Within-lifetime predictability is low when the environment is changing rapidly and what you learn might not be applicable
• When there is low predictability, it is easier to rely on genetics than worrying about the cost of learning
• When Lifetime Predictability is high and the environment is stable, learning is possible, but genetics are still relied on because the more stable the area the more hardwired you will be to be in that environment
• When learning, you only have to risk the cost once
• Optimal Forgetting in Stomatopods might be what the ecology and ultimately natural selection shapes learning and an optimal memory span
• Evidence suggests that there is an optimal time to remember and then forget a mate
• Stomatopods are highly territorial and while together for mating they will not be territorial towards each other
• Memory coincides with how long they need to mate for (3-4 weeks)

Cognitive Perspective of Learning

• The behaviorist perspective states learning is associations between stimuli and behavior and its consequences and is "S-R" learning
• The behaviorist perspective cannot study what occurs in the organism
• The cognitive perspective states that the mental processes are involved in behavior and is "S-O-R" learning to understand what is occurring in the organism "O"
• Latent Learning is learning that occurs in the absence of reinforcement and is not displayed until reinforcement is later introduced

Imprinting (Selective Learning)

• Imprinting is a relatively sudden and irreversible form of learning that occurs only during critical periods and is hard to reverse
• The critical period is a restricted time period in an individual's development during which a particular form of learning can best occur, usually right after the egg hatches
• Animals will latch onto the first thing they see
• Konrad Lorenz studied geese for Imprinting