Psychology Lecture 5: Learning Concepts

Introduction to Psychology - Lecture 5: Learning

• Learning Outcome: Students should be able to define learning, identify the assumptions of behaviorism, compare different learning perspectives, and explain the conditions for learning.

What is Learning?

• Learning is defined as any lasting change in behavior brought about by experience or practice.
• Behaviorism is a systematic approach to understanding behaviors.

Behaviorism

• Behaviorists believe psychologists should only study observable, measurable behaviors.
• Assumptions of Behaviorism:
  • Behavior is learned through stimulus-response (cause-and-effect) relationships.
  • Internal mental states (thoughts, feelings) are irrelevant to explaining behavior.
  • Behavior is determined entirely by the environment.

Assumptions of Behaviorists (Further detail)

• Assumption 1: Behavior is Learned through Stimulus-Response: All behaviors have causes, and behavior is shaped by the connections between stimuli and responses. For example, animals deprived of food will exhibit behaviors that increase their likelihood of obtaining food.
• Assumption 2: Internal Mental States are Useless: The mental states involved in a behavior are not relevant for explaining it. For example, when describing a behavior like yelling, one only needs to describe that the behavior was performed instead of attempting to explain what feelings triggered the behavior.
• Assumption 3: Behavior is Determined by the Environment: The environment determines how behaviors will occur in the future. An example of this is John B. Watson's quote stating that if one is given children they could be trained into any occupation despite their background.

Learning Theories

• Classical Conditioning: Forming an association between two stimuli resulting in a learned response.
• Operant Conditioning: Learning by associating a behavior with its consequences (reinforcement or punishment).
• Observational Learning: Learning by watching and imitating others.

Classical Conditioning

• Examples:

  • Flinching at the sight of lightning due to the associated thunder.
  • Feeling happy when listening to a particular song.
  • Avoiding a food after becoming ill from eating it.

• Classical Conditioning Story: Pavlov's research involving dogs demonstrated how a conditioned stimulus (e.g., a bell) could trigger a learned response (e.g., salivation) after being paired with an unconditioned stimulus (e.g., food).

• Important Terms:

  • Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): naturally triggers a response (e.g., food).
  • Unconditioned Response (UCR): unlearned response to the UCS (e.g., salivation).
  • Neutral Stimulus (NS): a stimulus that doesn't initially produce a response (e.g., a bell).
  • Conditioned Stimulus (CS): previously neutral stimulus that triggers a learned response after being paired with the UCS (e.g., a bell).
  • Conditioned Response (CR): learned response to the CS (e.g., salivation).

Operant Conditioning

• Thorndike's Law of Effect: Behaviors are affected by their consequences. Successful behaviors are more likely to be repeated.
• B.F. Skinner and the Skinner Box: Reinforcement and punishment shape behavior and explored through experiments using Skinner boxes which reward or punish animals depending on their behavior.
• Reinforcement: Increasing the likelihood of a behavior.
  • Positive Reinforcement: Adding a stimulus to increase behavior (e.g., giving a child a treat for good behavior).
  • Negative Reinforcement: Removing a stimulus to increase behavior (e.g., a headache going away when taking medicine).
• Punishment: Decreasing the likelihood of a behavior.
  • Positive Punishment: Adding a stimulus to decrease behavior (e.g., spanking a child for misbehavior).
  • Negative Punishment: Removing a stimulus to decrease behavior (e.g., taking away a child's favorite toy for misbehavior).
• Examples:
  • Positive Reinforcement: Giving a treat when a dog sits.
  • Positive Punishment: Scolding a child for talking back.
  • Negative Reinforcement: Taking medicine for a headache.
  • Negative Punishment: Taking away a child's phone privileges for bad behavior.

Observational Learning

• Also known as social learning. Learning occurs by watching and imitating others.
• Models: Individuals who are observed and whose behavior is imitated.
• Bobo Doll Experiment (Bandura et al., 1963): Demonstrated that children imitated aggression they observed in adults.
• Vicarious Conditioning: Learning by watching others experience reinforcement or punishment for a behavior.