Lecture 8 Learning PDF

Lecture 8 Learning  What Is Learning: the acquisition, from experience, of new knowledge, skills, or responses that result Learning? in a relatively permanent change in the state of the learner  Habituation: a general process in which...

Lecture 8 Learning  What Is Learning: the acquisition, from experience, of new knowledge, skills, or responses that result Learning? in a relatively permanent change in the state of the learner  Habituation: a general process in which repeated or prolonged exposure to a stimulus results in a gradual reduction Non-Associative in responding Sensitization: a simple form of learning Learning that occurs when presentation of a stimulus leads to an increased response to a later stimulus Associative Classical Conditioning Learning Operant Conditioning  Rejected the mind as the cause of behaviour demonstrated how the environment, or Ivan Pavlov external stimuli, could come to control behavior Conducted laboratory studies with dogs Contributed significantly to our understanding of classical conditioning  Unconditioned stimulus (US) Something that reliably produces a naturally occurring reaction in an organism The Basic Unconditioned response (UR) Reflexive reaction that is reliably produced by Principles of an unconditioned stimulus Conditioned stimulus (Conditioned Stimulus) Classical Stimulus that is initially neutral and produces a reliable response in an organism Conditioning Conditioned response (CR) Reaction that resembles an unconditioned response but is produced by a conditioned stimulus  Acquisition: phase of classical conditioning when the Conditioned Stimulus and the US are presented together Acquisition, Extinction: gradual elimination of a learned response that occurs when the US is no longer Extinction, presented Second-order conditioning: conditioning where Spontaneous the Conditioned Stimulus is paired with a stimulus that became associated with the US in Recovery an earlier procedure Spontaneous recovery: tendency of a learned behaviour to recover from extinction after a rest period  1st order Pair NS and US to produce UR CS will produce CR EX: Pair bell and food to produce salivation; bell Second order will produce salivation after conditioning 2nd order Conditioning Pair new NS and CS to produce CR Produces a new CS which elicits the CR EX: Pair light with bell to produce salivation; light will produce salivation after conditioning Generalization and Discrimination It wouldn’t be very adaptive for an organism if each little change in the Conditioned Stimulus–Unconditioned Stimulus pairing required an extensive regimen of new learning Generalization: process by which the Conditioned Response is observed even though the Conditioned Stimulus is slightly different from the original one used during acquisition Discrimination: capacity to distinguish between similar but distinct stimuli Classical Conditioning and Fear Refers to a particular type of learning where a certain environmental stimulus becomes connected with an aversive stimulus. The amygdala plays an important role in fear conditioning John B. Watson In 1919 Watson published “Psychology as the Behaviourist Views it” and made the following main points: 1. Human psychology has failed to live up to its natural science aspirations and has failed to address problems that vitally concern human interest. 2. The failure to replicate findings using the introspective method is a serious and irresolvable flaw in psychology’s claims to have scientific method. 3. Consequently, one must dispense with consciousness and the introspective method if psychology is to achieve a scientific status and if it is to yield useful, practical findings. 4. The behavior of animals and man can be investigated without appeal to consciousness and must be viewed as being equally essential to a general understanding of behavior Conditioned Emotional Responses: The Case of Little Albert Watson and Rayner (1920) conditioned a 9-month-old baby (Albert) to fear a white rat (by striking a steel bar whenever he was presented with the rat). Operant Conditioning Edward Thorndike The shift from anecdotal to comparative methods Studied cats, dogs and chicks in order to understand learning Made use of enclosures called puzzle boxes Image: New York Public Library Digital Collection The Development of Operant Conditioning: The Law of Effect Edward Thorndike (1874–1949) focused on instrumental behaviours; he created a puzzle box to show the law of effect. Law of effect: principle that behaviours that are followed by a “satisfying state of affairs” tend to be repeated and those that produce an “unpleasant state of affairs” are less likely to be repeated Operant conditioning: type of learning in which the consequences of an organism’s behaviour determine whether the behaviour will be repeated in the future Puzzle Boxes Placed animals (cats, birds etc.) inside boxes that needed to be manipulated in order to escape Cats first placed in the box behaved disorganized, chaotic and random But when you placed the same cat in the same box multiple times, they became more orderly and efficient Eventually they knew how to get out of the box immediately. His work had important implications for understanding learning B. F. Skinner B.F. Skinner felt that there was something missing from the work of Watson and Pavlov The environment needed to be explored. He developed the Skinner box and looked at the concept of rewards The principle of reinforcement: A principle stating that any behaviour that is rewarded will be repeated and any behaviour that is not rewarded won’t be repeated. Reinforcement Operant behaviour: behaviour that an organism produces that has some impact on the environment Reinforcer: any stimulus or event that functions to increase the likelihood of the behaviour that led to it Punishment Punisher: any stimulus or event that functions to decrease the likelihood of the behaviour that led to it Positive punishment and negative punishment Types of Reinforcers Primary reinforcers satisfy biological needs. Examples: food, comfort, shelter, warmth Secondary reinforcers are associated with primary reinforcers through classical conditioning. Examples: verbal approval, trophies, money The Basic Principles of Operant Conditioning Discrimination, generalization, and the importance of context Learning takes place in contexts, not in the free range of any plausible situation Discriminative stimulus: a stimulus that indicates that a response will be reinforced Same response in a different context likely produces a different outcome Extinction More complicated in operant conditioning than in classical conditioning Depends, in part, on how often reinforcement is received Schedules of reinforcement: organism responds in the pattern with which reinforcement appeared Interval schedules are based on time intervals between reinforcements. Ratio schedules are based on the ratio of responses to reinforcements.  Schedules of reinforcement Fixed-interval schedule (FI) Variable-interval schedule (VI) Fixed-ratio schedule (FR) Variable-ratio schedule (VR)  Simple Interval Schedules Schedules based on time Fixed-Interval (FI) Schedule The first response after a fixed amount of time following the previous reinforcement is reinforced and a new interval begins  Simple Interval Schedules Variable-Interval (VI) Schedule The length of the interval changes unpredictably From one reinforcement to the next Lengths of Variable Interval schedule vary around some mean value  Ratio Schedules Based on number of responses emitted Fixed-ratio (FR) schedule Reinforcement occurs each time a set number of responses of a particular type is emitted.  Ratio Schedules Variable-ratio (VR) schedule The number of responses required to produce reinforcement changes unpredictably from one reinforcement to the next. Cognitive Elements of Operant Conditioning Edward Tolman (1886–1959) saw operant conditioning as means–ends relationship Latent learning: condition in which something is learned but is not manifested as a behavioural change until sometime in the future Cognitive map: mental representation of the physical features of the environment The Neural Elements of Operant Conditioning There are structures and pathways in the brain that deliver rewards through stimulation. Observational Learning Observational Learning Observational learning: learning by watching the behaviour of others Diffusion chain: Bobo Albert Bandura Aggressive Observational Learning Found that observational Learning was responsible for producing behaviours Neural Elements of Observational Learning Mirror neurons fire to produce observational learning in humans as well as other animal species. Represented in the frontal and parietal lobes  Modelling and Treatment Modelling healthy behaviour can help people to overcome problems, especially those associated with fear and Anxiety.  Implicit Learning Implicit learning: learning that takes place largely without awareness of the process or the products of information acquisition  Factors that Facilitate Learning Timing Context Awareness and Attention Social networking and multi-tasking Sleep