Learning Theories PDF

Learning Theories Psychological overview Dr. Amina Sabry Lecturer of Neuropsychiatry Neuroscience Department-CAMSJ Imam Abdulrahman bin Faisal University Objectives Understand the principles of classical and Explore the major learning theories, including operant co...

Learning Theories Psychological overview Dr. Amina Sabry Lecturer of Neuropsychiatry Neuroscience Department-CAMSJ Imam Abdulrahman bin Faisal University Objectives Understand the principles of classical and Explore the major learning theories, including operant conditioning and their practical behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism, applications in shaping behavior and and grasp their key concepts and implications learning. for education and real-life problem-solving. Definition of learning The psychological construct of learning refers to the development of a relatively lasting change in behaviour as the result of a single or repeated experience Non-associative learning: These are simple forms of learning demonstrated in lower animals where only single events are used in the learning paradigm - no pairing or ‘operation’ on the environment is required. - Habituation is a non-associative learning in which repeated stimulation leads to II a reduction in response over time as the organism ‘learns’ the stimulus. - Sensitization is an increase in response to a stimulus as a function of repeated presentations of that stimulus. Similar to habituation, repetition of exposure is required to elicit the learning effect, but the response rates go up, not down (i.e. opposite to the effect seen in habituation).  Examples Habituation: Imagine you live in a neighborhood Sensitization: Now, let's say there's a sudden where car alarms frequently go off due to minor increase in crime in your neighborhood, and disturbances like strong winds or passing trucks. you start hearing more car alarms due to actual Initially, when you first move in, you jump or feel break-ins and theft attempts. In this case, startled every time you hear a car alarm. However, as time passes and you continue to hear repeated exposure to alarming situations makes these alarms for minor reasons, you become less you more sensitive to car alarms. You become and less bothered by them. Your response more anxious and alert whenever you hear a car (startling) reduces over time because you've alarm because you've learned that they might learned that these alarms are usually not indicate a real danger. So, your response associated with serious threats. (anxiety and alertness) increases with repeated exposure, which is the opposite of habituation.  -Pseudoconditioning (cross-sensitization): The emergence of a response to a previously neutral stimulus simply as a result of exposures to a different but powerful stimulus. Pseudoconditioning, also known as cross-sensitization, means that you start reacting to something that used to be neutral because you've been exposed to something strong and different before. In other words, your response to the neutral thing changes because of your experience with the strong thing.  Examples on Pseudoconditioning/ cross-sensitization, Imagine you have a dog named Max. Max is very friendly, and you've never had any reason to be afraid of him. So, Max is like a neutral stimulus to you in terms of fear. Now, one day, you encounter a really aggressive and scary-looking dog in your neighborhood. This aggressive dog is the powerful stimulus in this situation. After this encounter with the aggressive dog, you might start feeling nervous or fearful whenever you see Max, your friendly dog, even though you never felt that way before. Your response to Max has changed because of your experience with the aggressive dog. This change in your reaction to Max, from being neutral to making you nervous, is an example of pseudoconditioning or cross-sensitization. wi.AE Associative learning: Here learning occurs through the association of two events. - Classic conditioning: learning takes place through repeated temporal association of two events. The learning organism is a passive, respondent (i.e. shows an innate, reflexive response such as salivation) but not instrumental (i.e. does not actively operate on its environment). - Operant conditioning: learning results from consequences of one’s actions – operations. The Learning organism actively operates (instrumental) on the environment. Social learning theory: Combines both classic and operant models of learning, and includes cognitive processes and social interaction to be relevant in human learning. IVAN PAVLOV: CLASSICAL CONDITIONING Russian Physiologist, Psychologist and Physician. He has pioneered the establishment of the fields of Psychophysiology and Experimental Psychology given his studies in physiology and psychology. His invention of the nature and functioning of conditional reflexes has led all research in the field of learning. He developed the Classical Conditioning (Conditional Reflex) experiments on dogs  Classical conditioning is produced by repeatedly pairing a neutral conditioned stimulus (CS e.g. bell) with an unconditioned stimulus (UCS e.g. food) that naturally evokes an unconditioned response (UCR e.g. salivation). Eventually the neutral stimulus alone evokes the desired response (salivation –now called conditioned response, CR). It is a relatively rapid process and depends upon the nature of the unconditioned stimulus. Pavlov first demonstrated this paradigm in dogs. Before conditioning : Food (UCS) Salivation (UCR) During conditioning: Bell (CS) paired with food (UCS) Salivation (UCR) After conditioning : Bell (CS) Salivation (CR) Terms related to Classical Conditioning Temporal contiguity (time between stimulus and response) is important for conditioning according to Pavlov. However, Rescorla showed that predictability is more important than temporal contiguity in humans. Example: If one can predict painful tooth extraction on hearing the dentist’s drill, then the noise gets conditioned to elicit a fear response better than two unconnected, unpredictable events having temporal contiguity. Note that for classical conditioning it is not necessary that the organism understands an association in cognitive terms but such awareness facilitates the learning  Higher-order conditioning refers to the use of an already conditioned stimulus CS1 as UCS for the next level of conditioning and eliciting a CR for another stimulus CS2. In this way second-order and subsequently higher-order conditioning are possible. Watson & Rayner Pavlovs’ experiments were conducted using human subjects by Watson & Rayner. Watson produced ‘phobia’ in an infant, by exposing him to loud frightening noise whenever he was shown a white rat, eventually, the infant became fearful of the white rat, even when he heard no loud noise. A similar fear response was seen when any furry white object was shown to the child. This ‘spread’ of associative learning from one stimulus to another is called stimulus generalization. Terms related to Classical Conditioning Discrimination is a process diametrically opposite to generalization; in many situations, associative learning can be very selective. In such cases, learned responses are made only to specific stimuli and not to other similar stimuli e.g. a child may be afraid of dogs but not all four-legged animals. Extinction: reduction/disappearance of a learned response when the UCS – CS pairing (or the reinforcer in operant conditioning) is not available anymore. Faster extinction may mean weaker learning. Extinction does not mean loss of learning, but only suppression of behavioural response. Spontaneous recovery refers to regaining a previously extinguished learned response after a period of time. Counter conditioning is a form of classical conditioning where a previously conditioned response is replaced by a new response that may be more desirable. Utilized in *Behavioural therapy –* Systematic desensitization, *Aversion therapy e.g. "In the case of someone with a phobia of flying, counter conditioning can be employed as part of a behavioral therapy approach. Through systematic desensitization, the person is gradually exposed to flying-related stimuli in a controlled and relaxed environment. Over time, the previously conditioned fear response to flying is replaced by a new response of calm and relaxation, making air travel a more desirable and manageable experience for them." Create design Someone with a phobia of flying Gradually exposed to flying-related stimuli in a controlled and relaxed environment.(e.g Semiology) The previously conditioned fear response to flying is replaced by a new response of calm and relaxation  Latent inhibition: A delay in learning the association between UCS and CS is seen if previous exposure to an isolated presentation of CS is present. e.g. Imagine a psychology experiment where researchers are studying the learning of associations between a bell ringing (CS) and receiving food (UCS) in a group of laboratory rats. In one group of rats, they have been exposed to the sound of the bell without any food for several days before the actual conditioning experiment began. In another group, rats have not been exposed to the bell sound before. The rats that hadn't heard the bell before quickly learn that the bell predicts food, while the previously exposed rats exhibit a delay in learning this association due to their prior exposure to the bell alone. This delay in learning is an example of latent inhibition.  Operant conditioning (trail-error learning): An organism learns an appropriate behaviour after many trials because the right behaviour is followed by an appropriate (desirable) consequence, this phenomenon is termed the law of effect and is often demonstrated using trial-and-error learning experiments ” described by Thorndike”. A conditioning that leads to an increase in the frequency of behaviour following learning is called reinforcement. A conditioning that leads to a decrease in the frequency of behaviour following learning is called punishment. Both reinforcement and punishment can be positive (i.e. something is given) or negative (something is o taken away) Positive Reinforcer >>>> Food for pressing a lever (given) Negative Reinforcer >>>> Ceasing of electric shock on pressing a lever (taken away) Positive Punishment >>> Points on your driving license for speeding (given) Negative Punishment >>>A monetary fine from a parking ticket (taken away) Primary Reinforcer >>> Stimulus affecting biological needs (such as food) Secondary Reinforcer >Stimulus reinforcing behaviour associated with primary reinforcers(money, praise)  Continuous reinforcement (a reward every time the behavior occurs) is the fastest way to increase that behavior, but the behavior will not last long after the reward ceases. Partial (Intermittent)reinforcement: Only some of the positive responses result in positive reinforcement – the reinforcement is determined by number of responses (ratio) or time (interval) In general, partial schedules are more resistant to extinction than continuous schedules though they take longer to learn. Variable ratios are the most resistant to extinction.  Types of partial reinforcement According to According to interval ratio Variable Fixed interval Variable interval Fixed ratio Ratio  Terms related to Operant Conditioning Premack’s principle (a.k.a. Grandma’s rule): high-frequency behaviour can be used to reinforce low frequency behaviour e.g. “eat your greens and you can have dessert”. An existing high-frequency behaviour (eating dessert) is used to reward low-frequency behaviour (eating greens). Avoidance learning: an operant conditioning where an organism learns to avoid certain responses or situations. Avoidance is a powerful reinforcer and often difficult to extinguish. A special form of avoidance is escape conditioning seen in agoraphobia where places in which panic occurs are avoided /escaped from leading to a housebound state eventually. Aversive conditioning: This is an operant conditioning where punishment is used to reduce the frequency of target behaviour, e.g., using disulfiram (noxious stimuli) to reduce the frequency of drinking alcohol.  Terms related to Operant Conditioning Covert reinforcement: In covert reinforcement schedules, the reinforcer is an imagined pleasant event rather than any material pleasure For instance, every time the students complete a study session, they picture themselves relaxing on a beautiful beach with the sound of ocean waves in the background. This mental image of the beach serves as their imagined pleasant event or reinforcer. Covert sensitization: The reinforcer is the imagination of unpleasant consequences to reduce the frequency of an undesired behaviour By using this technique, smokers are using the imagination of these unpleasant consequences (such as deteriorating health, bad breath, and the strong smell of smoke clinging to their clothes etc.) as a reinforcer to discourage their smoking behavior. Over time, the association between smoking and these negative images can help reduce the frequency of their undesired behavior, which is smoking in this case.  Flooding: An operant conditioning technique where exposure to a feared stimulus takes place for a substantial amount of time so the accompanying anxiety response fades away while the stimulus is continuously present e.g. a man with a phobia of heights standing on top of the Burj Khalifa, this will lead to the extinction of fear. When a similar technique is attempted with imagined not actual exposure then this is called Implosion.  Chaining: This refers to reinforcing a series of related behaviours, each of which provides the cue for the next to obtain a reinforcer. Chaining is used when the target behaviour is already notable in some form but not in the fully formed sequence. An example is teaching a child to write his name. The shape of individual alphabets is first taught using reinforcers and forward chaining can be used to link each alphabet in the correct order, finally reinforcing the completed name. Backward chaining starts at the end.  Incubation: An emotional response increases in strength if brief but repeated exposure of the stimulus is present. Rumination of anxiety-provoking stimuli can serve to increase the anxiety via incubation. This is a powerful mechanism that maintains phobic anxiety and PTSD. Stimulus preparedness (Seligman) explains why snake and spider phobia are commoner than ‘shoe phobia’ or ‘watch phobia’. In evolutionary terms, the stimuli that were threatening to hunter-gatherer men have been hard-wired into our system, reflexively eliciting responses immediately - and phobia develops more readily for such ‘prepared stimuli’.  Learned helplessness (Seligman): initially put forward as a behavioural model for depression. When confronted with aversive stimuli from which escape is impossible, an animal stops making attempts to escape. This was shown experimentally with a dog on an electrified floor unable to escape. After a while, the dog stopped trying, as if accepting its fate. This paradigm is frequently invoked to explain the dependence seen in victims of domestic abuse.  Reciprocal inhibition (Wolpe): If a stimulus with a desired response and a stimulus with an undesired response are presented together repeatedly, then the incompatibility leads to a reduction in the frequency of the undesired response. Imagine a person who experiences severe social anxiety when speaking in public. This anxiety leads to physical symptoms such as rapid heartbeat, sweating, and trembling, which can make the experience even more distressing. Over time, with repeated exposure and the application of relaxation techniques, the individual's conditioned anxiety response to public speaking gradually diminishes. The relaxation response becomes associated with the feared stimulus, and the anxiety response is inhibited or reduced through this reciprocal process. SIGNIFICANCE OF CLASSICAL CONDITIONING Emotional responses can be conditioned to specific triggers. Most of our subjective feelings, spanning from intense emotions to subtle mood changes, are conditioned responses. We often can't pinpoint where our emotional reactions come from due to generalization. Because emotional responses are learned, they can also be unlearned. Changing or eliminating emotional responses is a type of behavior therapy or behavior modification.  PUNISHEMENT When does the punishment work 1. The more intense the punishment more effective it is. 2. More consistently administered. 3. The closer the punishment is in time and place to the behavior being punished. 4. The stronger the response tendency being punished less effective is punishment. 5. Adaptation to punishment. 6. More effective if used simultaneously with positive reinforcement. Bandura’s social learning theory Bandura’s social learning theory: Bandura believed that not all learning occurred due to direct reinforcement and proposed that people could learn simply by observing the behaviour of others and the outcomes. According to behaviorists, learning is defined as a relatively permanent change in behaviour but social learning theorists differentiate actual performance from learning a potential behaviour. Social learning theorists emphasize the role of cognition in learning; awareness and expectations rather than the actual experience of reinforcements or punishments are sufficient to have a major effect on the behaviours that people exhibit.  Cognitive processing during social learning: 1. Attention to observed behaviour is the basic element in learning. 2. Visual image and semantic encoding of observed behaviour memory 3. Memory permanence via retention and rehearsal 4. Motor copying of the behavior and imitative reproduction 5. Motivation to act.  Reciprocal causation: Bandura proposed that behaviour can influence both the environment and the individual and each of these three variables, the person, the behaviour, and the environment can have an influence on each other. The most commonly discussed experiment illustrating Bandura’s theory is the Bobo Doll experiment. Children watching a model showing aggression against a bobo doll learnt to display the aggression without any reinforcement schedules  Cognitive learning (Tolman): reinforcement may be necessary for a performance of learned response but not necessary for the learning itself to occur (latent learning). He inferred that rats can make cognitive maps of mazes – called place learning - which consists of cognitive expectations as to what comes next. Insight learning (Kohler) is diametrically opposite to associative learning and views learning as purely cognitive and not based on S-R mechanism - a sudden idea occurs and the solution is learned. Hierarchy of Learning Gagne’s hierarchy of learning describes that simple or basic learning steps are prerequisites for later complex learning. This pattern of learning can also be seen during human development  Verbal association focuses on how individuals connect and remember words or concepts by associating them with one another. It emphasizes the role of language and associations in memory and learning. The main concept involves understanding how people build mental connections between words, facilitating language acquisition and comprehension.  Discrimination learning is about teaching individuals to distinguish between different stimuli or situations. It involves helping them recognize specific cues and respond differently to each one.  The main concept is to develop the ability to discriminate and make accurate, context-appropriate choices or responses based on learned distinctions.  Concept learning theory. It emphasizes the development of mental categories or concepts to simplify complex information processing. The main concept involves recognizing patterns and similarities to group items into meaningful categories, aiding in cognitive organization and decision-making. Rule learning theory centers on understanding how people learn to follow guidelines or logical steps in various situations. The main concept involves the acquisition of structured decision-making frameworks, which help individuals make consistent choices and solve problems efficiently.  Problem-solving learning theory centers on the process of identifying, analyzing, and resolving challenges or issues. It emphasizes the development of problem- solving strategies and critical thinking skills. The main concept involves acquiring the ability to approach complex problems systematically and applying logical reasoning to find effective solutions.  NEUROSCIENCE OF LEARNING Learning involves changes in the brain Neurochemical changes noted during learning include changes in the ability of neurons to release transmitters and electrical impulses across the synaptic cleft Anatomical changes during learning include circuits within particular brain regions: Animal experiments have shown an increase in synaptic connections and brain volume changes when learning occurs. The neurobiological basis of learning is located in the structures of the brain involved in forming and storing information, which includes the hippocampus, the cortex, and the cerebellum. Learning: senses taking in an environmental stimulus >>eventually transformed into a memory trace or memory link.