Behavioral Sciences For Medical Students PDF

# Behavioral Sciences For Medical Students ## **Cognitive Psychology** Cognitive psychology is the study of the mental processes by which information from the environment is modified, made meaningful, stored, retrieved, used, and communicated to others. ### Attention It is the process of directi...

# Behavioral Sciences For Medical Students ## **Cognitive Psychology** Cognitive psychology is the study of the mental processes by which information from the environment is modified, made meaningful, stored, retrieved, used, and communicated to others. ### Attention It is the process of directing and focusing certain psychological resources to enhance perception, performance, and mental experience. We use attention to direct our sensory and perceptual systems toward certain stimuli, to select specific information for further processing, to ignore or screen out unwanted stimuli, to allocate the mental energy required to process selected stimuli, and to regulate the flow of resources necessary for performing a task or coordinating several tasks at once. ### Characteristics of Attention - First, it improves mental processing; you often have to concentrate attention on a task to do your best at it. - Second, attention takes effort. Prolonged concentration of attention can leave you feeling drained. And when you are already tired, focusing attention on anything becomes more difficult. - Third, attentional resources are limited. If your attention is focused on reading this book, for example, you'll have less attention left over to listen to a conversation in the next room. * **Directing Attention:** Attention is selective; it is like a spotlight that illuminates different parts of the external environment or various mental processes. Control over attention can be voluntary and knowledge based or involuntary and driven by environmental stimuli. * **Ignoring Information:** Sometimes attention can be so focused that it results in inattentional blindness, a failure to detect or identify normally noticeable stimuli. * **Divided Attention:** Although there are limits to how well people can divide attention, they can sometimes attend to two tasks at once. For example, tasks that have become automatic can often be performed along with more demanding tasks, and that requires very different types of processing, such as gardening and talking, can be performed together because each task depends on a different supply of mental resources. * **Attention and Automatic Processing:** Some information can be processed automatically, in parallel, whereas other situations demand focused attention and a serial search. ### **Laws of Attention** **A) Selectivity and attraction:** At any moment many stimuli are competing for our attention. The factors that give advantages to one stimulus over another in this competition are to be, remembered through watching the T.V. advertisements. * **External factors (factors in the stimulus):** - **Intensity of stimulus:** A stronger stimulus is more attractive than a weak one e.g. an elephant is more attractive than the fly over its head. - **Repetition of stimulus:** A loud sound repeated many times is more attractive than a single one. Repeating the cry help!!! would attract attention more. - **Changeability:** A changing stimulus is more attractive than anon-changing one. Flickering lights attract attention more than steady light. - **Contrast:** The more the contrast between a figure and background the more it is attractive. Both could be used together in advertisement. - **Unfamiliarity:** The unfamiliar stimuli are more attractive. A clown in the street can attract our attention more than a fully dressed gentleman. - **Combination of sensory stimuli:** Stimuli reaching more than one sense organ at the same time attract attention more than a single one. TV is supposed to be more attractive than the radio!! - **Combination of factors:** A stimulus characterized by more than one of the above mentioned factors is more attractive than that influenced by one factor only. * **Internal factors (Factors in the individual):** - Sensory fitness (e.g. acuity of vision in visual perception). - Intelligence (the more the individual is intelligent the more he can be readily attentive). - Physical state e.g. a feverish person is less attentive. - Emotional state e.g. a depressed person is less attentive. - Set: attention is related to what the individual is ready to perceive, (see before). **B) Shifting** One cannot focus his attention of a particular object for an indefinite time but attention shifts from one stimulus to another through: - **Spontaneity:** One has a spontaneous tendency to shift from one factor to another. - **Exploring:** With complex stimulus pattern, each part is focused at, one after another. After exploring different parts, we combine them in a whole. - **Monotony:** Attention to the same stimulus for long time gives feeling of uneasiness, hence attention shifts to another. - **Fatigue:** The efficiency of a student studying certain subject tends to decrease by time due to fatigue. Thus attention tends to shift away from the one same subject if it lasts for a long time. - **Satisfaction:** Satisfaction tends to inhibit continuation of attention. Once the person is satisfied in a given situation he tends to shift his attention to another. **C) Distraction** It is the negative aspect of attention. Attention here is attracted away from the original stimulus and turns to subsidiary passing by stimulus. This attracting foreign stimulus could be external, like a sound or opening the window that shifts attention away from a conversation. It could also be internal like the intrusion of an irrelevant idea that disrupts the original stream of thought and this is called flight of ideas. In other words, is a recurrent shifting resulting in inattention to the original task. **How to eliminate distraction?** - Get rid of the distracting stimuli e.g. turn off the radio while studying. - Putting extra-effort in attending. - Negative adaptation means to be habituated to the distracting stimulus (e.g. to the rhythmic sound while travelling in a train). - Combining the distracting stimulus with the main task e.g. when a colleague enters your room while you are studying you can overcome this distraction by inviting him to share discussing the subject. **D) Fluctuation** This refers to the fact that even if we concentrate on the same subject our attention waxes and wanes (increases and decreases). **E) Sustainability** This is the opposite aspect of both shifting, distraction and fluctuation. It is needed in studying. It refers to the ability of maintaining attention to a particular stimulus for a long time. **Factors that help sustainability:** - Interest: we keep attention if we are interested in the topic or subject we are dealing with. - Curiosity: like in reading a police novel. - Punishment and praise: which is motivating attending to a lecture or during studying. ### **Examples of Disorders of attention** 1. **Hyperprosexia:** attention is heightened more than normal e.g. in cases of hypomania. 2. **Inattention:** Diminished intensity up to stupor (the individual can be aroused by strong stimuli) or coma (he cannot be aroused by whatever stimulus). 3. **Distractibility:** marked shifting to passing stimuli or interfering internal thoughts. This could be a preoccupation, recurring irresistible idea (obsession), or even flight of ideas. ## **Thinking** Thinking is one of the psychological functions that mean mental activity for problem solving and certain behavior in problematic situation. It is not dependent directly upon motor or sensory contact with the present situation ### Basic Functions of Thought To describe, elaborate, decide, plan, and guide action. These functions can be seen as forming a circle of thought. - **The circle of thought begins as our sensory systems take in information from the world.** Our perceptual system describes and elaborates this information, which is represented in the brain in ways that allow us to make decisions, formulate plans, and guide our actions. **As those actions change our world, we receive new information-and the circle of thought begins again.** ### **Attention** - **Information processing model:** according to the information-processing model, each stage in the circle of thought takes a certain amount of time. Some stages depend heavily on both short-term and long-term memory and require some attention that limited supply of mental energy required for information processing to be carried out efficiently. - **Information-processing system:** Mechanisms for receiving information, representing it with symbols, and manipulating it. ### **Tools of Thinking** The tools of thinking are the symbols which may be verbal (language) symbol, diagram, or objects; it may be also the concepts which are ideas that refer to object, event, qualities, etc. A concept is the idea about and meaning of a symbol **A- Concepts:** Concepts are categories of objects, events, or ideas with common properties. To "have a concept" is to recognize the properties, or features, that tend to be shared by the members of the category. For example, the concept "bird" includes such properties as having feathers, laying eggs, and being able to fly. **Types of Concepts** - **Formal concepts:** A set of rules or properties such that members of the concept have all of the defining properties and nonmembers don't. For example, the concept "square" can be defined as "a shape with four equal sides and four right-angle corners." Any object that does not have all of these features simply is not a square, and any object with all these features is a square. - **Natural concepts:** There are many other concepts, though, that can't be defined by a fixed set of necessary features. For example, try listing a small set of features that precisely defines the concept of "game." True, most games are competitive, but some-such as pitch-and-catch or ring-around-the-rosey are not. And although most games require more than one player, pinball, solitaire, and many computer games don't. Similarly, "home" can be defined as the place where you were born, the house in which you grew up, where you live now, your country of origin, the place where you are most comfortable, and so on. **Concept formation:** 1. **Generalization:** It means the beginning of formation of concept by gathering and discovering the similar items of many different objects and mental formation of groupings based on similarity and familiarity of these objects by the help of previous experiences and knowledge about them. 2. **Differentiation:** It means finding the differences between the groups items and objects and discriminating between them. 3. **Abstraction:** means selection and picking up one characteristic that is common in all objects or situation. **Conceptual System:** It is the combination of interrelated concepts like the arithmetic system which includes different numbering processes, and the conceptual system related to political rules social rules, laws of nature... etc. **B- Propositions** We often combine concepts in units known as Propositions. A proposition is a mental representation that expresses a relationship between concepts. **C- Schemas, Scripts, and Mental Models** Sets of propositions are often so closely associated that they form more complex mental representations called Schemas. * **Schemas:** They are generalizations that we develop about categories of objects, places, events, and people. Our schemas help us to understand the world. If you borrow a friend's car, your "car" schema will give you a good idea of where to put the ignition key, where the accelerator and brake are, and how to raise and lower the windows. Schemas also create expectations about objects, places, events, and people-telling us that stereo systems have speakers that picnics occur in the summer, that rock concerts are loud, and so on. * **Scripts:** One particularly useful type of schema is called a script. Scripts are schemas about familiar activities, such as going to a restaurant, visiting a doctor's office, or attending a lecture. * **Mental Models:** Mental Models are representations of particular situations or arrangements of objects. For example, suppose someone tells you, "My living room has blue walls, a white ceiling, and an oval window across from the door." You will mentally represent this information as propositions about how the concepts "wall," "blue," "ceiling," "white," "door," "oval," and "window" are related. **D- Images and Cognitive Maps** Some mental models stem from sets of propositions that describe a situation, but these models are more often based on images in the "mind's eye." For example, take a moment and think about how your best friend would look in a clown suit. The "mental picture" you just got illustrates that thinking often involves the manipulation of Images - which are mental representations of visual information. **Cognitive map** -a mental model of familiar parts of your world -to find the location. ### **Types of Thinking** - **Simple thinking (reflexive):** This type depends simply on perception, interpretation, and giving meaning to the perceived stimuli with consequent appropriate response. - **Compound thinking (trial and error):** This type depends on trial and error method in problem solving. - **Insight thinking (hypothetico-deduclive):** It depends on using the hindsight, foresight, and the present information in solving the problem. It is an elaborate type of thinking and can be considered as trial and error method but on a mental level. It is more manifest in the, process of reasoning. ### **Objective Versus Subjective Thinking:** - **Subjective thinking (egocentric type):** Arises from and is related to the self. It does not consider any other objective data or external factors more than the benefit and attitude of the thinker himself. - **Objective thinking** is logical, not biased, not self-centered and deals with realistic external reasonable data, not following personal attitude or benefit. ### **Autistic Versus Realistic Thinking:** - **Autistic thinking** is imaginative, fantastic, unrealistic, wish fulfilling, and nor directed towards any goal. - **Realistic thinking** is controlled, rational purposeful, directed and conforming with real facts. ### **Abstract Versus Concrete Thinking:** - **Abstraction** means giving the meaning that stands behind the words or sentences. It also means giving the particular characteristics of meaning to be compared excluding the others. - **Concrete thinking** means giving the literal meaning of the words or sentences and does not go further beyond that level in explaining it. The ability for abstraction is usually lost in schizophrenic illness and it is detected clinically by asking the patient to explain any famous proverb (Proverb test). ## **Imagination** Imagination is a process of mental play and manipulation. ### Type of imagination - **Free imagination:** It is not directed, not goal - seeking, purposeless, and uncontrollable type of thinking. It occurs mainly in: - **Imaginative play:** It is well manifest and starts early in childhood period. The child manipulates the objects or dolls according to the meaning he attaches to them (make-believe) and he thinks of this manipulation in a story (story telling). - **Day dreaming:** It is free imagination practiced by all people in everyday life, especially during relaxation. It is usually self-motivating and wish fulfilling. - **Dreams:** It could be considered as some sort of free imagination that occurs during sleep. However, it is more out of control and beyond conscious awareness and less directed than daydreams. - **Autistic thinking:** It is unrealistic, mal-directed, and incompatible type of thinking that goes beyond normal logical understanding. - **Controlled Imagination:** It is directed, goal-seeking, purposeful, and controlled type of thinking. It usually happens in creative, inventive and artistic production. ## **Intelligence** **Cognitive abilities:** is the capacity to reason, remember, understand, solve problems, and make decisions. Intelligence is one of the major cognitive abilities. It includes three main characteristics: 1) Being able to learn, the capacity to profit by experience, and to act with foresight the ability to grasp essential relation; remember, reason, and perform other information-processing skills. 2) Using those skills to solve problems and 3) Being able to alter or adapt to new or changing environments. Recently Gardner (1993) postulated his theory of multiple intelligence. Gardner defines intelligence as the ability to solve problems or fashion products that are of consequence in particular cultural setting or community. In addition, he mentioned that there are multiple components for intelligence that enable human beings to take on such diverse roles as physicist, farmer, chairman and dancer. These multiple components are: 1. Linguistic abilities (speech, phonology, grammar, comprehension). 2. Logical / mathematical (relationships, abstract thoughts). 3. Spatial (the ability to perceive spatial or visual information, 3 dimensional images). 4. Musical (to create and understand sounds, use of pitch, rhythm). 5. Bodily- kinesthetic, (to use all or a part of the body to solve problems, and control over fine and gross motor acts). 6. Intrapersonal (the ability to distinguish among one's own feelings, intentions and motives). 7. Interpersonal (the ability recognizes and makes distinctions among other people's feelings, beliefs and intentions. 8. Naturalistic intelligence (the ability to see patterns in nature). Other researchers have suggested that people also possess emotional intelligence, which involves the capacity to perceive emotions and to link them to one's thinking. Traditional intelligence tests sample only the first three of these intelligences, mainly because these are the forms of intelligence most valued in school. Each individual represents different combinations of the various, intelligences. ## **Development and growth of intelligence:** Intelligence is the outcome of interaction between biological factors and environmental factors. Both are dependent on and influencing each other. **A) Biological factors:** - As genetic predisposition, brain development and maturation and any other factor which may influence the brain development either prenatal (drugs, X-ray irradiation, fevers, infection...) peri-natal (birth trauma, RH-incompatibility, anoxia, ....) or postnatal (fevers, trauma, anemia and lead encephalopathy....). **B) Environmental factors:** - Culture, socioeconomic status, malnutrition, over-crowdedness, illiteracy of parents and poor educational status of schools. - Mental growth like physical growth tapers off in adolescence and reaches its adult level age of 15-18 years, i.e., basic intelligence reaches its utmost at the age of 18. ### **Group differences in intelligence:** - **Rural urban difference:** Urban people have better educational opportunities, socio-economic status, facilities in life and equipments. - **Occupational differences:** Certain occupations are usually occupied by the more intelligent people. - **Racial differences:** no proof that there is any essential difference, but may be due to differences in available - **Sex differences,** no differences in basic intelligence, but males show better arithmetic and reasoning abilities while females show better linguistic abilities. ### **Assessment of intelligence:** - **The Intelligent Quotient (IQ).** IQ denotes an index of brightness or achievement, i.e., intellectual abilities in relation to the child's age. It reflects the degree to which a person's score on an intelligence test deviates from the average score of others in the same age group. **Examples** - **Stanford-Binet test used in children,** to calculate the IQ, you need to know: - The mental age = the measure of the individual's level of intelligence at a given time. - Chronological age = the actual age in months. - **IQ = Mental age X 100 / Chronological age** - **Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC III) and for adults. (WAIS)** Both include: - Verbal tests, which measure the linguistic abilities (verbal skills), and - Performance tests, nonverbal, i.e., mechanical abilities, spatial ability and the ability to manipulate materials. - **IQ Distribution Curve:** Like other normal distribution curves, it shows more people near the average, with gradual tapering off towards either extreme. (Bell appearance) - **Superior (110-119)** - **Very superior (120-139).** - **Genius (over 140),** While IQ 90-110 is considered average below 90 is below average, - **Dull average (80-89).** - **Borderline: IQ (70-79).** - **Mentally retarded IQ= < 70.** ## **Diversity in intellectual abilities and disabilities:** ### **1- Mental Retardation / Mental Sub-normality:** It is sub-normality in the general intellectual abilities, measured by a standardized test, originating during the developmental period (before 18 years old). **Grades:** - **Mild MR (Feeble minded/Moron).** IQ = 50-70, mental age usually ranges between 8-12 years. He is "educable", can be educated to tasks according to his mental age (primary school), he can protect himself with minimal disturbances in speech, motor system and general physical health. He can be prepared for simple routine works, but lacks the curiosity, spontaneity and interest of normal children. He is easily suggestible, with variable degrees of emotional and behavioral disturbances. - **Moderate MR (Imbecile) (IQ = 30-50).** He is "trainable", mental age (3-7 years) can be trained certain mechanical tasks under supervision, to take care of himself and self-help duties (toilet, dress, eat, play...). - **Severe MR (20-30) and profound MR (IQ <20) "Idiots",** cannot serve or protect themselves and needs continuous care and supervision, better in institutions, "Institutional MR" if available as their mental age is below 2-3 years. They usually suffer from severe speech, motor or any other developmental disabilities, congenital anomalies, physical illness eg, epilepsy, cardiac, in addition to the severe social, behavioral and emotional immaturity. ### **2- Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD):** They are group of disorders diagnosed when achievement on standardized tests in reading, mathematics or written expression is below that expected for age, level of intelligence and schooling chance. The learning problem significantly interferes with academic achievement or every day activities. These disorders may be found separate, eg. only in mathematics or more than one type. ### **3- Creativity:** Creativity is the capacity to produce new, high-quality ideas or products. Divergent thinking is the ability to think along many alternative paths to generate many different solutions to a problem. A set of creative skills, including willingness to work hard, persistence at problem solving, capacity for divergent thinking, ability to break out of old problem-solving habits, and willingness to take risks. ## **Memory** It is the ability to encode information, retain them for a time, and recall back to conscious awareness when needed. ### There are three stages of memory (Basic memory processes): - **Encoding → Storage → Retrieval** - **Encoding** = the transformation of physical input into memory, - **Storage** = retain or maintain. - **Retrieval** = recovered from the stores. ### **Memory Systems:** Memory could be divided into: - **A) Sensory memory:** A type of memory that holds large amounts of incoming information very briefly, but long enough to connect one impression to the next to be processed further. This maintenance is the job of the sensory registers which acts as temporary storage bins. It has a large capacity that absorbs all sensory input from a particular stimulus for a duration less than one second. - **B) Short Term: (STM):** - **Short-term memory:** The maintenance component of working memory, which holds rehearsed information for a limited time. - **Working memory:** The part of the memory system that allows us to mentally work with, or manipulate information being held in short-term memory. **Functions:** 1. Storage of information for only few seconds. 2. Computations, it has an important role in thinking and problem solving. 3. It integrates short-term perceptions and memories while other cognitive processes are taking place, so that it can combine and contrast these new memories with what is stored already (past experience). 4. It serves as a way station to long term memory. **Stages:** 1. **Encoding:** The encoding of information in short term memory is much more elaborative and varied than that in the sensory registers which is either: - **a. Phonological,** (acoustic encoding). The mental representation of information is as a sequence of sounds and verbal stimuli. In the left hemisphere (Dominant). - **b. Visual-spatial** (Visual encoding). The mental representation of information is as images. In the right hemisphere (non-dominant). - **Rehearsal** is the conscious repetition of an item overtime in a trial to keep information active. 2. **Storage:** It has a very limited capacity, average of 7 items + 2. - **Memory span** is the maximum number of items that the person can recall perfectly within few seconds. -Chunking, increases the amount of information stored in short term memory by allowing one entry to cover several items, so that while the total number of chunks is restricted, their content is not, e.g., BBC would be considered as one chunk, since they are understood as a single unit. - **Forgetting** = either due to: - i. Decay of information overtime, or - ii. Displaced by new items, as it has a limited capacity. 3. **Retrieval:** The more items in working memory, the slower the retrieval. - Retrieval processes include both recall and recognition. To recall information, you have to retrieve it from memory without much help. In recognition, retrieval is aided by clues, such as the response alternatives given on multiple-choice tests. Accordingly, recognition tends to be easier than recall. **C) Long Term Memory (LTM):** **Definition:** When information has to be retained more permanently, even for life. It is of an unlimited capacity. **Stages:** - **1) Encoding:** Through elaborate rehearsal and repetition. - **2) Storage:** Consolidation of memory, so that the learned material became a part of the molecular structure of the brain tissue and thus less vulnerable to be forgotten. **Factors affecting storage:** - Global and more elaborate learning. - Better organization of information. - Same context (state-dependent) memory. - Emotional factors (anxiety leads to disturbance of retrieval). - Repression (unconscious forgetting of traumatic childhood experiences. - Rehearsal (making voluntary) effort with strong concentration helps storage. - Interest and motivation are essential factors. - Learning by using more than one sensory modality. - **3) Retrieval:** - a) Forgetting from LTM results from loss of access to the information rather than from loss of information itself, i.e. Memory loss is a retrieval failure and not a storage failure, **Evidences** - (i) Inability to recall a fact at a time then it comes to mind later, - (ii) Psychotherapy retrieves a memory that had previously forgotten. -b) Interference of information which may be either: - (i) Retroactive = the new information interferes with recovery of old one. - (ii) Proactive = the retrieval of old memories which interferes with the learning of new one. **LTM is divided into:** - **(A) Declarative:** It is the conscious recollection of words, scenes, facts, and events, information, and personal experience. - **(B) Non-Declarative:** These are life experiences occurring unconsciously which result in behavioral changes. e.g.: the acquisition of motor and cognitive skills and habits, acquisition of new conditioned responses which may be either emotional or skeletal. ## **Physiology of Memory:** - **1) Memory trace** is the term applied to the chemical and electrophysiological changes in the brain that happen in response to the learning process (STM). Leading to the development of new pathways of transmission, once they are established they can be activated by rehearsal, if stimuli are: - a- Non- signifiant → inhibition and ignorance, i.e., Habituation. - b- Significant (painful or pleasurable stimuli) → Facilitation and Sensitization. Several neurotransmitters esp.: Acetylcholine and serotonin are involved in this process. - **2) Consolidation:** of LTM results in actual structural changes at the synaptic level, i.e., formation of new synapses and increase in the strength of others. This occurs through regulation of the process of gene expression and protein synthesis (formation of a new proteins). This process occurs mainly in the medial temporal structures, especially, the hippocampus, through the process of long term potentiation in which the neurotransmitters glutamate, nitric oxide and D-serine plays an important role. ### **Disorders of Memory “Amnesia":** - **Amnesia:** Loss of memory in the form of partial or total inability to recall past experiences. - a) **Antero grade** = amnesia for recent events, it occurs in senility, dementia, and cerebral atherosclerosis. - b) **Retrograde** = amnesia for remote events in normal forgetfulness and also in senility. - c) **Global** = for both recent and remote events. In advanced senility and advanced organic brain syndrome. - d) **Circumscribed** = Focal or presence of an amnesic gap, which is limited to a particular period of time and event, before and after which the memory is intact, it occurs in hysterical amnesia due to the presence of a traumatic event. - **Hyperamnesia:** Exaggerated degree of retention and recall. It occurs in hypomania and paranoia. - **Paramnesia:** Falsification of memory by distortion of recall which may be: - a) **Retrospective falsification:** Recollection of a true memory to which the patient adds false details. - b) **Confabulation:** Unconscious filling of gaps in memory by imagined or untrue experiences that he believes to be true. Occurs in hysteria and Korsakoff's syndrome. - c) **Deja vu:** illusion of visual recognition in which a new situation is falsely regarded as repetition of previous memory (Illusion of familiarity of visual stimuli). - d) **Deja entendu:** Illusion of auditory recognition (familiarity of auditory stimuli). - e) **Jamais vu:** False feeling of unfamiliarity with a real situation that one has experienced. - Deja vu, Deja entendu and Jamais vu occur in fatigue, epilepsy and substance intoxication. ## **Learning** Learning is the adaptive process through which experience modifies pre-existing behavior and understanding. The pre-existing behavior and understanding may have been present at birth, acquired automatically as we mature, or learned earlier. Learning plays a central role in the development of most aspects of human behavior, and helps in adjustment, or adaptation, to new environmental situations. It leads to a relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs as a result of practice & prior experience. It does not include behavioral changes caused by maturation or temporary conditions e.g.: fatigue, drug effects or alcohol intoxication. ### **Types:** - **I- Associative learning,** learning occurs through associations made between two or more phenomena: e.g.: classical and operant conditioning. - **II- Cognitive learning,** which is a more complex process in which current perceptions are interpreted in the context of previous information in order to solve novel problems. It requires constructing a mental map of one's environment. - **III- Observational learning,** learning can occur through the observation and imitation of others. It depends greatly on modeling. ### **I- Associative Learning:** **A- Classical conditioning:** It is a learning process in which a previously neutral stimulus becomes associated with another stimulus through repeated pairing with that stimulus. (Pavlov, 1972), he used dogs in his experiments. 1. He defined the concepts of the unconditioned stimulus (UCS), which is a stimulus that automatically elicits a response, typically via a reflex, without prior conditioning (eg: food). 2. **Unconditioned response (UCR),** which is the response originally given to the unconditioned stimulus, used as the basis for establishing a conditioned response to a previously neutral stimulus. (e.g.: salivation). 3. **The conditioned stimulus (CS):** A previously neutral stimulus that comes to elicit a conditioned response through association with an unconditioned stimulus (e.g.: bell or light). 4. **The conditioned response (CR):** The learned or acquired response to a stimulus that did not evoke the response originally (i.e.: CS). (e.g.: salivation). 5. **The acquisition stage:** is the period of trials during which the organism is learning the association between two stimuli. 6. **Reinforcement:** occurs due to repeated parings of the CS (light) and UCS (food) leading to strengthening of the association between both. 7. **Extinction:** The gradual disappearance of behavior due to elimination of the rewards of the behavior. If the UCS (food) is omitted repeatedly, leading to gradually diminution of the response (CR). It is an active process not simply forgetting a response, so that the animal relearns the response very much more quickly the second time if food & light are again paired together, and there is recovery of the response (CR). (Spontaneous recovery) 8. **Second order conditioning:** It greatly increases the scope of classical conditioning, in which once a CS is set up; pairing this with another neutral stimulus will make that neutral stimulus in turn a CS. For example, Cancer patients may feel queasy when they enter a chemotherapy room because they have associated the room with treatment that causes nausea. Through second-order conditioning, almost anything associated with that room can also become a conditioned stimulus for nausea. 9. **Generalization** is the tendency for stimuli similar to the CS to produce some CR (Reaction to similarities). The more similar a stimulus is to the CS, the more likely it is to produce the response and the stronger any response is likely to be. 10. **Stimulus discrimination:** (Reaction to differences), in which the animal will respond only to one particular stimulus but not to other similar ones. ### **B- Operant conditioning:** A process through which an organism learns to respond to the environment in a way, that produces positive consequences and avoids negative ones. Here certain responses are learned because they operate on, or affect the environment: the organism does not just react to stimuli as in classical conditioning but also behaves in ways designed to produce certain changes in its environment. Once the organism performs a certain behavior, the likelihood that the action will be repeated depends on its consequences. **Operant:** A response that has some effect on the world. **Reinforcer:** A stimulus event that increases the probability that the response that immediately preceded it will occur again. **Escape conditioning:** A type of learning in which an organism learns to make a particular response in order to terminate an aversive stimulus. 1. **Thorndike (1911),** worked with cats, he was able to observe their behavior, and mentioned that in trial and error learning, less time is needed to carry out the same behavior in later trails, also the performance improves gradually over a series of trials. -Thorndike postulated the **"Law of effect",** which holds that when the behavior is followed immediately by a reward and satisfaction, the learning of the action is strengthened and the response is more likely to be repeated. 2. **Skinner (1983),** worked on rats (Skinner's box or maize) He mentioned that: - **a- Positive reinforcement:** Is the pleasant stimulus that follows a desired behavior, it increases the likelihood of the desired behavior. - **Positive reinforcers:** Stimuli that strengthen a response if they follow that response. - **b- Negative reinforcement:** Removal of unpleasant stimulus after a desired behavior occurs. It increases the likelihood of the desired behavior eg: termination of an aversive event after a particular behavior is performed... both +ve and-ve reinforcement increases the probability of the behavior. - **Negative reinforcers:** The removal of unpleasant stimuli, such as pain. - **c- Reward**, can be used synonymously with +ve reinforcer, while - **d- Punishment** has the opposite effect, as it decreases the probability of the punished behavior. It can be both positive (presentation of an unpleasant stimulus) or negative (removal of a pleasant stimulus). - **3- Aversive conditioning:** - (a) In punishment training, when a response is followed by an aversive stimulus this leads to suppression of the response on subsequent occasions. - (b) Useful only when applied immediately after the undesired behavior and at the same time the organism should be rewarded for the desired behavior. Otherwise punishment is less effective than reward in learning as it only stops the undesired behavior without learning or rewarding the desired behavior. Also it induces fear and dislike for the punishing person and finally it may elicit aggressive behavior that is more serious from the original undesired behavior. - (c) Aversive events can also be used in the learning of new responses eg: escape learning in which the organism can learn to make a response in order to terminate an ongoing aversive event and avoidance learning in which the organism can also learn to make a response in order to prevent an aversive event from even starting. ### **II- Complex (Cognitive) Learning:** 1. It is an active from of learning describing how people represent, store and use information, in which mental cognitive structures (cognitive maps) are formed. It lies on the organism's ability to mentally represent aspects of the world and then operate on these mental representations rather than on the world itself. **Cognitive maps:** are mental representations of the environment, they develop naturally, and without the need for reinforcement, as people and animals gain experience with the world. Research on learning in the natural environment has supported this view. For example, we develop mental maps of shopping malls and city streets, even when we receive no direct reward for doing so. 2. It may be either - a- The mentally represented is an association between stimuli or events (corresponding to classical & operant conditioning). - b- What it represented seems more complex, it might be a map of one's environment or an abstract concept like the notion of cause, or - c- More complex than associative processes and takes the form of a mental trial and error, in which the organism tries out different possibilities in its mind. 3. Cognitive learning can occur in the following way's either: - a- Latent learning: Cognitive learning takes place but is not manifested except in certain circumstances, i.e.: it is not demonstrated at the time