Chapter 5 Learning PDF

Because learning changes everything. ® Chapter 5: Learning Copyright 2022 © McGraw Hill LLC. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill LLC.  Chapter Preview Types of Learning. Classica...

Because learning changes everything. ® Chapter 5: Learning Copyright 2022 © McGraw Hill LLC. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill LLC.  Chapter Preview Types of Learning. Classical Conditioning. Operant Conditioning. Observational Learning. Cognitive Factors in Learning. Biological, Cultural, and Psychological Factors in Learning. © McGraw Hill LLC 2  Types of Learning Learning: a systematic, relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs through experience. Behaviorism: a theory of learning that focuses solely on observable behaviors. Associative learning: when an organism makes a connection, or an association, between two events. The process is known as conditioning. Observational learning: leaning through observing and imitating another’s behavior. © McGraw Hill LLC 3  Figure 1: Associative Learning: Comparing Classical and Operant Conditioning (left) In this example of classical conditioning, a child associates a doctor’s office (stimulus 1) with getting a painful injection (stimulus 2). (right) In this example of operant conditioning, performing well in a swimming competition (behavior) becomes associated with getting awards (consequences). © McGraw Hill LLC (doctor office): Image Source/Jupiterimages; (shot): Amble Design/Shutterstock; (swimmer): Ryan McVay/Getty Images; (medalist): technotr/Getty Images 4  Classical Conditioning Classical conditioning: learning process in which a neutral stimulus becomes associated with an innately meaningful stimulus and acquires the capacity to elicit a similar response. © McGraw Hill LLC 5  Pavlov’s Studies 1 Ivan Pavlov noticed dogs salivated not only in response to food, but also in response to a number of stimuli associated with the food. Sight of the food dish. Sight of the person who brings food. Sound of the door when the food arrives. © McGraw Hill LLC 6  Pavlov’s Studies 2 Unconditioned stimulus (US): produces a response without prior learning. Unconditioned response (UR): an unlearned reaction that is automatically elicited by the unconditioned stimulus. Conditioned stimulus (CS): a previously neutral stimulus that eventually elicits a conditioned response after being paired with the unconditioned stimulus. Conditioned response (CR): the learned response to the conditioned stimulus. © McGraw Hill LLC 7  Figure 2: Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning In one experiment, Pavlov presented a neutral stimulus (bell) just before an unconditioned stimulus (food). The neutral stimulus became a conditioned stimulus by being paired with the unconditioned stimulus. Subsequently, the conditioned stimulus (bell) by itself was able to elicit the dog’s salivation. Access the text alternative for slide images. © McGraw Hill LLC 8  Classical Conditioning: Acquisition Acquisition: the initial learning of the connection between the unconditioned stimulus and the conditioned stimulus when these two stimuli are paired. Contiguity: the CS and US are presented very close together in time. Contingency: the CS also serves as a reliable indicator that the US is on its way. © McGraw Hill LLC 9  Classical Conditioning: Generalization and Discrimination Generalization (classical conditioning): the tendency of a new stimulus that is similar to the original conditioned stimulus to elicit a response that is similar to the conditioned response. Discrimination (classical conditioning): the process of learning to respond to certain stimuli and not others. For example, the dog learned to distinguish between the bell and other sounds because Pavlov gave food to the dog only after ringing the bell. © McGraw Hill LLC 10  Classical Conditioning: Extinction and Spontaneous Recovery Extinction (classical conditioning): the weakening of the conditioned response when the unconditioned stimulus is absent. For example, the dog stopped salivating when Pavlov repeatedly rang the bell and did not give the dog food. Spontaneous recovery: the process by which a conditioned response can recur after a time delay, without further conditioning. © McGraw Hill LLC 11  Figure 3: The Strength of a Classically Conditioned Response During Acquisition, Extinction, and Spontaneous Recovery During acquisition, the conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus become associated. The strength of the conditioned response increases. During extinction, the conditioned stimulus is presented alone, and the result is a decrease in the conditioned response. After a rest period, spontaneous recovery appears, although the strength of the conditioned response is not nearly as great at this point as it was after a number of CS–US pairings. When the CS is presented alone again, after spontaneous recovery, the response is extinguished rapidly. Access the text alternative for slide images. © McGraw Hill LLC 12  Classical Conditioning in Humans 1 Classical conditioning provides an explanation of fears. John B. Watson and Rosalie Raynor demonstrated this with the infant named Albert. Watson and Rayner conditioned 11-month-old Albert to fear a white rat by pairing the rat with a loud noise. When little Albert was later presented with other stimuli similar to the rat, such as the rabbit shown here with Albert, he was afraid of them, too. This study illustrates stimulus generalization in classical conditioning, as well as many ethical issues © McGraw Hill LLC Professor Benjamin Harris, University of New Hampshire 13  Classical Conditioning in Humans 2 Psychologists have applied classical conditioning to helping individuals unlearn feelings and behaviors. Counterconditioning: a classical conditioning procedure for changing the relationship between a conditioned stimulus and its conditioned response. Aversive conditioning: a form of treatment that consists of repeated pairings of a stimulus with a very unpleasant stimulus. © McGraw Hill LLC 14  Classical Conditioning in Humans 3 The placebo effect is the effect of a substance or procedure used as a control to identify the actual effects of a treatment. For example: A pill or syringe serves as a CS. The actual drug is the US. After pain relief following consumption of a drug, the pill or syringe might lead to a CR of lowered pain even in the absence of actual painkiller. © McGraw Hill LLC 15  Classical Conditioning in Humans 4 Classical conditioning can produce immunosuppression, a decrease in the production of antibodies to fight disease. Similar effects have been found for the endocrine system. Taste aversion is a special kind of classical conditioning involving the learned association between a particular taste and nausea. Classical conditioning principles can be used to combat taste aversions. © McGraw Hill LLC 16  Classical Conditioning in Humans 5 Classical conditioning is involved in drug habituation. Habituation: decreased responsiveness to a stimulus after repeated presentations. As a result of conditioning, the user needs to take more of the drug to get the same effect. Habituation may play a role in drug overdoses. If a drug is taken in a location other than the usual one, the drug’s effect is greater because no conditioned responses have built up in the new setting. © McGraw Hill LLC 17  Figure 4: Drug Habituation As a result of conditioning, the drug user needs to take more of the drug to get the same effect as before the conditioning. Moreover, if the user takes the drug without the usual conditioned stimulus or stimuli— represented in the middle panel by the bathroom and the drug tablets—overdosing is likely. Access the text alternative for slide images. © McGraw Hill LLC (pills): Jupiterimages/Thinkstock/Getty Images; (glass): Olga Miltsova/Shutterstock; (woman): Rick Gomez/Corbis 18  Operant Conditioning Classical conditioning explains how neutral stimuli become associated with involuntary responses. Voluntary behaviors are better explained with operant conditioning. © McGraw Hill LLC 19  Defining Operant Conditioning Operant conditioning: a form of associative learning in which the consequences of a behavior change the probability of the behavior’s occurrence. Also known as instrumental conditioning. As with classical conditioning, contingency is an important aspect of operant conditioning. When a rat pushes a lever (behavior) that delivers food, the delivery of food (consequence) is contingent on that behavior. © McGraw Hill LLC 20  Thorndike’s Law of Effect E. L. Thorndike first established the power of consequences in voluntary behavior. Law of effect: behaviors followed by positive outcomes are strengthened, and behaviors followed by negative outcomes are weakened. © McGraw Hill LLC 21  Figure 5: Thorndike’s Puzzle Box and the Law of Effect (left) A box typical of the puzzle boxes Thorndike used in his experiments with cats to study the law of effect. Stepping on the treadle released the door bolt; a weight attached to the door then pulled the door open and allowed the cat to escape. After accidentally pressing the treadle as it tried to get to the food, the cat learned to press the treadle when it wanted to escape the box. (right) One cat’s learning curve over 24 separate trials. Notice that the cat escaped much more quickly after about five trials. It had learned from the consequences of its behavior. Access the text alternative for slide images. © McGraw Hill LLC 22  Skinner’s Approach to Operant Conditioning B. F. Skinner studied animals in the hope that he could discover the components of learning. Trained pigeons to pilot missiles. Developed the Skinner box to study learning in rats. © McGraw Hill LLC 23  Figure 6: Skinner’s Pigeon-Guided Missile Skinner wanted to help the military during World War II by using pigeons’ tracking behavior. A gold electrode covered the tip of the pigeons’ beaks. Contact with the screen on which the image of the target was projected sent a signal informing the missile’s control mechanism of the target’s location. A few grains of food occasionally given to the pigeons maintained their tracking behavior. © McGraw Hill LLC 24  Figure 7: Skinner’s Operant Conditioning Chamber B. F. Skinner conducts an operant conditioning study in his behavioral laboratory. The rat being studied is in an operant conditioning chamber, sometimes referred to as a Skinner box. © McGraw Hill LLC Nina Leen/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images 25  Shaping Shaping: rewarding successive approximations of a desired behavior. For example, shaping can be used to train a rat to press a bar to obtain food. First, it rarely presses the bar. The experimenter may start by giving the rat a food pellet if it is in the same half of the cage as the bar. Rewards are given as the rat moves successively closer, and finally only when it presses the bar. © McGraw Hill LLC 26  Principles of Reinforcement 1 Reinforcement: the process by which a stimulus or an event (a reinforcer) following a particular behavior increases the probability that the behavior will happen again. Positive reinforcement: the presentation of a stimulus following a given behavior in order to increase the frequency of that behavior. Negative reinforcement: the removal of a stimulus following a given behavior in order to increase the frequency of that behavior. © McGraw Hill LLC 27  Figure 8: Positive and Negative Reinforcement Positive Reinforcement Behavior Rewarding Stimulus Provided Future Behavior You turn in homework on time. Teacher praises your You increasingly turn in performance. homework on time. You wax your skis. The skis go faster. You wax your skis the next time The table is divided into two sections; each divided into 3 columns.you Section on the go skiing. top is labeled positive reinforcement and the section at the bottom is labeled You randomly negative press a reinforcement. button on Great music begins to play. You deliberately press the button the dashboard of your car. again the next time you get into the car. Negative Reinforcement Behavior Stimulus Removed Future Behavior You turn in homework on time. Teacher stops criticizing late You increasingly turn in homework. homework on time. You wax your skis. People stop zooming by you on You wax your skis the next time the slope. you go skiing. You randomly press a button on An annoying song shuts off. You deliberately press the button the dashboard of a friend’s car. again the next time the annoying song is on. © McGraw Hill LLC 28  Principles of Reinforcement 2 Avoidance learning: an organism’s learning that it can altogether avoid a negative stimulus by making a particular response. Learned helplessness: through experience with unavoidable aversive stimuli, an organism learns that it has no control over negative outcomes. © McGraw Hill LLC 29  Reinforcement: Types of Reinforcers Psychologists classify positive reinforcers as primary or secondary. Primary reinforcer: innately satisfying; one that does not take any learning on the organism’s part to make it pleasurable. Secondary reinforcer: acquires its positive value through an organism’s experience; a learned or conditioned reinforcer. © McGraw Hill LLC 30  Reinforcement: Generalization, Discrimination, and Extinction Generalization (operant conditioning): performing a reinforced behavior in a different situation. Discrimination: an unjustified negative or harmful action toward a member of a group simply because the person belongs to that group. Extinction (operant conditioning): decreases in the frequency of a behavior when the behavior is no longer reinforced. © McGraw Hill LLC 31  Figure 9: Stimulus Generalization In an experiment by Norman Guttman and Harry Kalish (1956), pigeons initially pecked a disk of a particular color (in this graph, a color with a wavelength of 550 nm) after they had been reinforced for this wavelength. Subsequently, when the pigeons were presented disks of colors with varying wavelengths, they were likelier to peck those that were similar to the original disk. Access the text alternative for slide images. © McGraw Hill LLC SOURCE: Guttman, N., & Kalish, H. I. (1956). Discriminability and stimulus generalization. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 51(1), 79–88. 32  Schedules of Reinforcement 1 In continuous reinforcement, a behavior is reinforced every time it occurs. Organisms learn rapidly, but extinction also takes place quickly. In partial reinforcement, a reinforcer follows a behavior only a portion of the time. Schedules of reinforcement: specific patterns that determine when a behavior will be reinforced. © McGraw Hill LLC 33  Schedules of Reinforcement 2 Schedule types: Ratio schedule: relies on the number of behaviors that must be performed prior to reward. Interval schedule: based on the amount of time that must pass before a behavior is rewarded. Fixed schedule: the number of behaviors or the amount of time is always the same. Variable schedule: the required number of behaviors or the amount of time that must pass changes and is unpredictable from the perspective of the learner. © McGraw Hill LLC 34  Figure 10: Schedules of Reinforcement and Different Patterns of Responding Each hash mark indicates the delivery of reinforcement. Notice on the fixed-ratio schedule the dropoff in responding after each response; on the variable-ratio schedule the high, steady rate of responding; on the fixed-interval schedule the immediate dropoff in responding after reinforcement, and the increase in responding just before reinforcement (resulting in a scalloped curve); and on the variable-interval schedule the slow, steady rate of responding. Access the text alternative for slide images. © McGraw Hill LLC 35  Reinforcement: Punishment Sometimes the goal is to decrease a behavior. Punishment: a consequence that decreases the likelihood that a behavior will occur. Positive punishment: the presentation of a stimulus following a given behavior in order to decrease the frequency of that behavior. Negative punishment: the removal of a stimulus following a given behavior in order to decrease the frequency of that behavior. © McGraw Hill LLC 36  Positive Negative Positive Negative Punishment Reinforcement Reinforcement Punishment Behavior: You turn in Behavior: You take Behavior: You don’t Behavior: Your younger your work project on aspirin for a headache. replace the tires on the sibling comes home two time. family car when your hours after curfew. Your headache goes parent asks you to do so. Your manager praises away. Your sibling is grounded you for turning in your Your parent is angry at for two weeks. project on time. Effect on behavior: you for not replacing the You take aspirin again tires. Effect on behavior: Effect on behavior: the next time you have a Your sibling doesn’t come You turn in your next headache. Effect on behavior: home late the next time project on time. You stop dawdling and she’s allowed to go out replace the tires to avoid with friends. your parent’s anger. Figure 11: Positive Reinforcement, Negative Reinforcement, Positive Punishment, and Negative Punishment © McGraw Hill LLC 37  Reinforcement: Timing and the Consequences of Behavior Humans have the ability to respond to both immediate and delayed reinforcement and punishment. Delay of gratification: putting off the pleasure of an immediate reward to gain a larger, later reward. Timing can also affect human responses to punishing consequences. We can often avoid negative outcomes by imagining them in advance and behaving accordingly. © McGraw Hill LLC 38  Applied Behavior Analysis Behavioral approaches imply that you can modify even long-standing habits by changing the reward contingencies that maintain those habits. Applied behavior analysis: the use of operant conditioning principles to change human behavior. Also called behavior modification. Has been effective in a wide range of situations. © McGraw Hill LLC 39  Observational Learning 1 Albert Bandura argues that many complex behaviors are the result of exposure to competent models. Bandura’s social learning theory incorporates both associative learning and observational learning— learning that occurs when a person observes and imitates behavior (modeling). © McGraw Hill LLC 40  Observational Learning 2 Four processes of observational learning: Attention. Retention. Motor reproduction. Reinforcement. Observational learning can be an important factor in the functioning of role models in inspiring people and changing their perceptions. © McGraw Hill LLC 41  Figure 12: Bandura’s Model of Observational Learning In terms of Bandura’s model, if you are learning to ski, you need to attend to the instructor’s words and demonstrations. You need to remember what the instructor did and the instructor’s tips for avoiding disasters. You also need the motor abilities to reproduce what the instructor has shown you. Praise from the instructor after you have completed a few moves on the slopes should improve your motivation to continue skiing. © McGraw Hill LLC 42  Cognitive Factors in Learning Skinner’s operant conditioning and Pavlov’s classical conditioning do not deal directly with what is going on in the head of the learner. Many contemporary psychologists recognize the importance of cognition and believe that learning involves more than environment–behavior connections. © McGraw Hill LLC 43  Purposive Behavior E. C. Tolman emphasized the purposiveness of behavior. Much of behavior is goal-directed. In conditioning, we acquire expectations about what we can achieve and set our goals accordingly. Research supports an important role for expectancies in classical conditioning, including in the placebo effect. © McGraw Hill LLC 44  Latent Learning and Insight Learning Latent learning or implicit learning: unreinforced learning that is not immediately reflected in behavior. It “just happens” as a result of experience. Insight learning: a form of problem solving in which the organism develops a sudden insight into or understanding of a problem’s solution. Somewhat controversial. Involves “thinking outside the box.” © McGraw Hill LLC 45  Biological, Cultural, and Psychological Factors in Learning As an example, Einstein: Biological: genetically endowed with extraordinary intellectual skills. Cultural: received an excellent, rigorous education. He also experienced the freedom and support believed to be important in creative exploration. © McGraw Hill LLC 46  Biological Constraints Preparedness: the species-specific biological predisposition to learn in some ways but not others. Instinctive drift: the tendency of animals to revert to instinctive behavior that interferes with learning. Figure 14: Instinctive Drift This raccoon’s skill in using its hands made it an excellent basketball player, but because of instinctive drift, the raccoon had a much more difficult time dropping coins in a tray. © McGraw Hill LLC Keystone-France/Hulton Archive/Getty Images 47  Cultural Influences Culture can influence the degree to which learning processes are used. A culture’s values will affect which actions are reinforced and which are punished. Culture also determines the content of learning. © McGraw Hill LLC 48  Psychological Constraints 1 Learning styles: the idea that people differ in terms of the method of instruction that will be effective. Visual, aural, kinesthetic. There is no evidence that tailoring instruction to a given learning style actually matters to learning. People do feel like they have learned more when material is presented in their learning style. © McGraw Hill LLC 49  Psychological Constraints 2 Carol Dweck uses the term mindset for how our beliefs about ability dictate: What goals we set for ourselves. What we think we can learn. What we actually do learn. Fixed mindset: belief that our qualities are carved in stone and cannot change. Growth mindset: belief that our qualities can change and improve through effort. © McGraw Hill LLC 50  End of Main Content Because learning changes everything. ® www.mheducation.com Copyright 2022 © McGraw Hill LLC. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill LLC.