Psychology: Understanding Learning and Conditioning

• Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior resulting from experience, guiding future actions based on past events.

ABC's of Learning

• Antecedents: Events preceding a response.
• Behaviors: Any identifiable response.
• Consequences: Results following a response/behavior.
• Classical conditioning involves "A and B" (Antecedents and Behaviors).
• Operant conditioning involves "B and C" (Behaviors and Consequences).

Classical Conditioning

• Reflex responses become associated with new stimuli, creating involuntary learning and new responses to previously neutral stimuli.

Operant Conditioning

• Learning is based on the consequences of behavior, involving voluntary actions that increase the rate of response.

Pavlov's Experiment (1903)

• US (Unconditioned Stimulus): Food
• UR (Unconditioned Response): Salivating
• NS (Neutral Stimulus): Tone
• CS (Conditioned Stimulus): Tone
• CR (Conditioned Response): Salivation

Classical Conditioning Defined

• Associations are made between an unconditioned stimulus (US) and a neutral stimulus (NS).
• Learning is evident when the NS produces a response it didn't originally.
• Neutral Stimulus: Evokes no response or an unrelated response (e.g., a bell).
• Unconditioned Stimulus (US): Evokes an automatic and unlearned response (e.g., food).
• Unconditioned Response (UR): Unlearned reaction to an unconditioned stimulus (e.g., salivating to food).
• Conditioned Stimulus (CS): A previously neutral stimulus now producing a response due to conditioning (e.g., the bell).
• Conditioned Response (CR): Learned reaction to a conditioned stimulus due to conditions (e.g., salivating to the bell).

Principles of Classical Conditioning

• Acquisition: Associating NS (bell) with US (food) until NS becomes a CS.
• Generalization: Responding to a stimulus similar to the original CS (bell).
• Discrimination: Not responding to a stimulus similar to the original CS (bell).
• Extinction: Weakening and disappearance of CR by repeatedly presenting CS (bell) without US (food).
• Spontaneous Recovery: CS again elicits CR after extinction, but with decreased intensity.

Second Level Conditioning

• Uses CS to make a new CS as extinction happens, reinforcing further learning.
• Short delayed (forward): CS presented before US and stays until US is presented; best strategy, especially with a short delay.
• Trace conditioning (forward): CS presented, then short break, then US is presented; shorter break is better.
• Simultaneous conditioning: CS and US presented together; ineffective.
• Backward conditioning: US presented before CS; ineffective and may produce an inhibitory effect.

Biological Predisposition

• Garcia and Koelling's (1966) studies showed some classically conditioned responses are more easily acquired.
• Species have biological predispositions for associations that enhance survival.
• Humans develop taste aversions to novel foods after getting sick.
• Rats learned to avoid Sweet Water when it made them Sick, or a Light/Noise when followed by a shock.
• Rats struggled to learn when Sweet Water was followed by Pain, or Light/Noise caused Nausea.

John Watson and Behaviorism

• Founder of Behaviorism.
• Conditioned Emotional Response:
  • Little Albert Experiment (1919-20): Watson conditioned an irrational fear of a white rat in an 8-month-old.
  • Systematic Desensitization: Gradually exposing people to feared stimuli while they stay calm and relaxed.
• Flooding: Clients immediately taken to a high anxiety-producing situation.
• Aversion Therapy: Pairing an unpleasant stimulus with an unwanted behavior to create an association.
  • Example: Antabuse injection causing nausea when alcohol is consumed.
  • Example: Foul-tasting nail polish to stop nail-biting.

Cognitive Learning

• Focuses on the mental processing involved in learning.
• Cognitive Mapping: Mental representation of spatial orientation without direct experience.
• Latent Learning: Occurs without obvious reinforcement, demonstrated later when reinforcement is provided (Tolman).
• Rote Learning: Repetition and memorization, or learning a set of rules.
• Discovery Learning: Based on insight and understanding.

Transfer Learning

• Previous learning affects new learning.
• Positive: Old learning helps new learning (e.g., musical instruments, sports).
• Negative: Old learning hinders new learning (e.g., driving in different countries).

Observational (Social) Learning

• Albert Bandura's theory involves learning by watching and imitating others' actions and noting the consequences.
• Learning occurs before direct practice.
• Mirror Neurons: Frontal lobe neurons that fire when performing actions or observing others, enabling imitation and empathy.
• Bandura's Four Steps to Successful Modeling:
  • Pay attention to the model.
  • Remember (retain) what was done.
  • Reproduce modeled behavior.
  • Motivation to reproduce behavior increases if the observed behavior is rewarded.
• Additional Bandura Concepts:
  • Social Learning Theory: Many prosocial and antisocial behaviors result from observation and imitation.
  • Reciprocal Determinism: Cognitions, behaviors, and environment have a reciprocal relationship.
  • Self-Efficacy: Belief in one's ability to achieve a goal.

Operant Conditioning

• Chamber (Skinner Box).
• Focuses on how consequences affect behavior, strengthening behavior when followed by reinforcement and diminishing behavior when followed by punishment or nothing at all.

Thorndike's Law of Effect

• Responses failing to be reinforced decrease over time.

Reinforcers vs. Punishment

• Reinforcer: Event that strengthens the behavior it follows.
  • Primary: Innately reinforcing (food, water, shelter).
  • Secondary: Learned reinforcer, gains value through association (money, tokens).
• Punishment: Consequence that reduces the frequency of a behavior.
• Key to efficient punishment: It must occur immediately after the undesired behavior and be consistent.

Problems with Punishment

• Decreases bad behavior but doesn't increase good behavior.
• Attention to bad behavior may reinforce it.
• Punishments may model aggressive behavior.

Behavior Modification

• Operant conditioning without punishments, ignoring "unwanted" behaviors and reinforcing "wanted" behaviors.
• Ex: Token Economy: Giving tokens for desirable behaviors that can be exchanged for rewards.

Overjustification Effect

• Expected extrinsic incentive decreases a person's intrinsic motivation.
• Person sees external reward, not internal reinforcer, as the motivation for the task.

Shaping by Successive Approximations

• Gradually molding responses by reinforcing a series of steps toward a desired pattern.
• Complex Tasks may be learned more easily if broken down into small increments.
• Chaining: Learning simple skills that, combined, enable more complex tasks.

Schedules of Reinforcement

• Continuous Reinforcement: Reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs, results in quick acquisition, but quick extinction.
• Partial Reinforcement: Reinforcing a correct response only part of the time: acquisition is slower, but resistance to extinction is greater.

Reinforcement Schedules Key

• Ratio = Action Based.
• Interval = Time Based.
• Fixed = Set Amount.
• Variable = Changing Amount.

Fixed-Ratio Schedule

• Reinforcer given after a set number of correct responses.
• Highest Response Rate - people work hard to get to the ‘’rewarded’’ response number - easy extinction.

Variable-Ratio Schedule

• Reinforcer given after a varying number of correct responses.
• High Response Rate, Most Resistant to Extinction - keep working because the reinforcer can come at any influence.

Fixed-Interval Schedule

• Reinforcer given only after a set period of time has passed since the last reinforced response.
• Low and uneven Response Rate - people only work hard right before the set time period.

Variable-Interval Schedule

• Reinforcer given after a varied amount of time has passed since the last reinforced response.
• Low but Uniform and Stable Response Rate.