approaches I: learning Flashcards
define learning
A relatively enduring or permanent change in behavior that results from previous experience with certain stimuli and response
define behavior
Includes both unobservable mental events (thoughts, images) and observable responses (fainting, salivating, vomiting)
types of behaviorism
- Classical Conditioning
- Operant Conditioning
- Social Cognitive Learning
classical conditioning
A kind of learning in which a neutral stimulus acquires the ability to produce a response that was originally produced by different stimulus
Ivan Pavlov
- Conducted experiments with dogs
Pavlov rang a bell before putting food in a dog’s mouth After numerous trials of pairing the food and bell, the dog salivated to the sound of the bell
- This is a conditioned reflex
steps of classical conditioning
Step 1: Choosing stimulus and response
Neutral stimulus
- some stimulus that causes a sensory response but doesn’t produce the reflex being tested
Unconditioned stimulus
- UCS; some stimulus that triggers or elicits a physiological reflex, such as salivation or eye blink
Unconditioned response
- UCR; unlearned, innate, involuntary physiological reflex elicited by the unconditioned stimulus
Step 2: Establishing classical conditioning
Neutral stimulus
- trial; pair neutral stimulus (bell) with the unconditioned stimulus (food)
- neutral stimulus presented first, then short time later, the unconditioned stimulus
- UCS (food) elicits the UCR (salivation)
Step 3: Testing for conditioning
Conditioned stimulus (CS)
- a formerly neutral stimulus that acquires the ability to elicit a response that was previously elicited by the unconditioned stimulus
Conditioned response (CR)
- elicited by the conditioned stimulus and similar to, but not identical in size or amount to, the UCS
CR; less salivation than the UCR
concepts in classical conditioning
Generalization
Tendency for a stimulus that’s similar to the original conditioned stimulus to elicit a response similar to the conditioned response
Discrimination
Occurs during classical conditioning when an organism learns to make a particular response to some stimuli but not to others
Extinction
Refers to a procedure in which a conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus, and, as a result, the conditioned stimulus tends to no longer elicit the conditioned response
Spontaneous recovery
Tendency for the conditioned response to reappear after being extinguished, even though there have been no further conditioning trials
adaptive values and uses of classical conditioning
Adaptive value
Refers to usefulness of certain abilities or traits that have evolved in animals and humans and tend to increase their chances of survival, such as finding food, acquiring mates, and avoiding pain and injury
Preparedness
Refers to the phenomenon that animals and humans are biologically prepared to associate some combinations of conditioned and unconditioned stimuli more easily than others
taste aversion learning (classical conditioning)
Taste-aversion learning
Refers to associating a particular sensory cue (smell, tastes, sound, or sight) with getting sick and thereafter avoiding that particular sensory cue in the future
One-trial learning
Taste-aversion can occur with only one pairing of a smell/taste with nausea/vomiting
conditioned fear and nausea (classical conditioning)
Systematic desensitization
Procedure based on classical conditioning
Person imagines or visualizes fearful or anxiety-evoking stimuli
Immediately uses deep relaxation to overcome the anxiety
Form of counterconditioning because it replaces, or counters, fear and anxiety with relaxation
Effectiveness of systematic desensitization
Very effective at treating a variety of fearful and anxiety-producing behavior
operant conditioning
Operant conditioning
Refers to a kind of learning in which the consequences that follow some behavior increase or decrease the likelihood of that behavior’s occurrence in the future
Law of effect
behaviors followed by beneficial consequences are strengthened
behaviors followed by detrimental consequences are weakened
Immediate reinforcement
Reinforcer should follow immediately after the desired behavior
If reinforcer is delayed, the animal may be reinforced for some undesired or superstitious behavior
Superstitious behavior
Behavior that increases in frequency because its occurrence is accidentally paired with the delivery of a reinforcer
example
- potty training
skinner
Skinner’s operant conditioning
- Operant response: can be modified by its consequences and is a meaningful, easily measured unit of ongoing behavior
- Focuses on how consequences (rewards or punishments) affect behaviors
Three factors in operant conditioning of a rat
- a hungry rat is more willing to eat the food reward
- can thus condition the rat to press the bar
- successively reinforced behaviors lead up to or approximate the desired behavior (shaping)
shaping
Pressing the bar
when rat touches bar, pellet is released; rat eats and then puts paws back on bar and gets another pellet; wait for rat to push bar then release pellet
rat soon presses bar repeatedly to get pellets
rat’s behavior reinforced as it leads up to, or approximates, the desired behavior of bar pressing
