Psychology: Rescue Dogs & Conditioning

• Frida, a seven-year-old labrador retriever, became a beloved hero in the Fall of 2017 after assisting in disaster rescues following the earthquake in Oaxaca, Mexico.
• Rescue dogs are trained professionals, mastering difficult tasks like staying focused off-leash and performing search and rescue without regular trainers.

Types of learning

• Learning involves change and experience.
• Behaviorism focuses on observable behaviors, viewing internal states as behaviors caused by external factors.
• Associative learning involves making a connection, or association, between two events.
• Conditioning is the process of learning these associations and can be classical or operant.
• Observational learning is learning by observing and imitating others' behavior.
• Learning can be defined as a systematic, relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs through experience.
• Behaviorism maintains that the principles of learning are the same for animals and humans.

Classical Conditioning

• Classical conditioning involves learning the association between two stimuli, allowing organisms to anticipate events.
• Ivan Pavlov demonstrated how neutral aspects of the environment can evoke responses through pairing with other stimuli.
• Unconditioned stimulus (US) produces a response without prior learning.
• Unconditioned response (UR) is an unlearned reaction automatically elicited by the US.
• Conditioned stimulus (CS) is a previously neutral stimulus that elicits a conditioned response (CR) after pairing with the US.
• Conditioned response (CR) is the learned response to the CS after CS-US pairing.
• Acquisition is the initial learning of the CS-US connection, with the CS repeatedly presented before the US.
• Acquisition requires contiguity, meaning the CS and US are presented close together in time.
• Acquisition requires contingency, meaning the CS reliably indicates the US is on its way.
• Generalization in classical conditioning is the tendency of a new stimulus similar to the original CS to elicit a response similar to the CR.
• Discrimination is the process of learning to respond to certain stimuli and not others.
• Extinction in classical conditioning is the weakening of the CR when the US is absent.
• Spontaneous recovery is the recurrence of a conditioned response after a time delay without further conditioning.

Classical Conditioning In Humans

• Classical conditioning helps explain fears by associating a neutral stimulus to a fearful stimuli.
• The original Little Albert experiment done by John B. Watson correctively concluded that we learn some of our fears through classical conditioning.
• Counterconditioning can be used to break the association between certain stimuli and certain stimulus to unlearn fears.
• Aversive conditioning is a form of treatment that pairs a stimulus with a very unpleasant stimulus.
• Habitual behavior is another form of classical conditioning because cues of habit-based behaviors evoke feelings and behaviors without thought.
• The placebo effect is another form of classical conditioning because the expectations of a bodily response can promote that change.
• The body's endocrine and immune internal systems can be classically conditioned.

Operant Conditioning

• Operant conditioning involves learning the association between a behavior and a consequence, influencing the probability of that behavior's occurrence.
• Thorndike's law of effect states that behaviors followed by satisfying outcomes are strengthened, while those followed by frustrating outcomes are weakened.
• Shaping involves rewarding successive approximations of a desired behavior.
• Reinforcement increases the probability of a behavior and can be positive or negative
• Positive reinforcement involves presenting a rewarding stimulus.
• Negative reinforcement involves removing an aversive stimulus.
• Avoidance learning is a response to negative reinforcement where and organism responds to avoid the negative stimulus all together.
• Learned helplessness occurs where a organism, exposed to uncontrollable negative stimuli, learns that it has no control over negative outcomes.
• Primary reinforcers are innately satisfying.
• Secondary reinforcers acquire positive value through experience.
• Generalization, discrimination, and extinction also occur in operant conditioning.
• Generalization is exhibiting learning that occurred in one setting in a varity of other similar settings.
• Discrimination in operant conditioning is when an organism responds appropriately to stimuli that signal that a behavior will or will not occur.
• Extinction in operant conditioning occurs when the behavior is longer reinforced and decreases over time.

Schedules of Reinforcement

• Continuous reinforcement has an organism reinforced every time it occurs with rapid learning but quickly promotes extinction.
• Otherwise, reinforcement happens continuously, including: fixed ratio, varibale ratio, fixed interval, and variable interval.
• Ratio schedules depend on the number of behaviors before a reward
• Interval schedules depend on time elapsed before a behavior is rewarded
• Variable schedules produce steady and more consistent behavior.
• Punishment is a a consequence that decreases the likelihood that a behavior will occur.
• Positive punishment introduces a stimulus to decrease the likelihood that a behavior will occur.
• Negative punishment removes a stimulus to decrease the likelihood that a behavior will occur.
• Timing and the consequences of behavior are important for learning, as learning is easier when the stimulus and action are presented together.
• Delay of gratification means putting off the pleasure of an immediate reward in order to gain a larger, later reward and shows that humans can respond to delayed rewards and punishment.
• Applied behavior analysis (or behavior modification) is the use of operant conditioning principles to change human behavior.

Observational Learning

• In observation learning previously called "imitation" or "modeling", the learning occurs a person observes and imitates behavior of others.
• Observational learning happens because the organism is paying attention and is attending, is retaining information, has motor reproduction, and reinforcement.
• Vicarious reinforcement is the process of attaining a reward for repeating the behavior.

Cognitive Factors in Learning

• Cognition plays an important part into learning, especially purposive behavior which the idea that much of behavior is goal-directed.
• Expectancy learning and information means that from classical and operant conditioning, we learn and acquire certain expections.
• Latent learning is unreinforced learning that is not immediately reflected in behavior, also called "incidental".
• Insight learning is a form of problem solving in which the organism develops a sudden insight into or understanding of a problem's solution.

Biological, Cultural, and Psychological Factors in Learning

• Biological constraints include how an organism's body permits and inhibits certain areas of learning.
• Instinctive drift is the tendency of animals to revert to instinctive behavior that interferes with learning.
• Preparedness is the species-specific biological predisposition to learn in certain ways but not others.
• Culture can influence the degree to which learning processes are used.
• Culture can determine what content of leaning one is predisposed to.
• People have a way of creating a preference for what can make learning easier, showing a psychological constraint to leaning.