Lecture 12 - Learning Flashcards
Classical Conditioning
Learning to like two stimuli in a way that helps us anticipate an event to which we have a reaction (associative learning with feedback)
Operant Conditioning
Changing behavioural responses in response to consequences
cognitive learning
Learning that can occur without reinforcement and without being directly observable
Behaviourism
Mental life was much thought to be less important than behaviour
Ivan Pavlov
dogs salivated at the sounds of a bell
Ivan Pavlov - Before Conditioning
Neural Stimulus —> No response
Unconditioned stimulus —> Unconditioned response (salivates)
Ivan Pavlov - During Conditioning
NS + US —> Unconditioned Response (salivated)
Ivan Pavlov - After Conditioning
Conditioned Stimulus —> Conditioned Response (salivated)
Neutral Stimulus
Does not trigger a response
Unconditioned stimulus/response
Triggers a response naturally, before/without and conditioning
Conditioned Stimulus
Trigger the learned CR
Conditioned Response
Response triggered by the CS
Properties of classical conditioning
- Acquisition
- Extinction (and spontaneous recovery)
- Generalization and discrimination
Acquisition
- Association between a NS and US
- Timing: for the association to be acquired, the NS needs to repeatedly appear before the US
Extinction
Diminishing of a CR that occurs when CS is presented without the US
Spontaneous Recovery
After extinction following a rest period, presenting the CS alone often leads to a spontaneous recovery
Generalization
Tendency to have conditioned responses triggered by related stimuli
Discrimination
Learned ability to only respond to a specific stimuli, preventing generalization
Operant Conditioning
Involved adjusting to the consequences of our behaviours - functionalism (animals first than human beings)
How does operant conditioning work
Behavioural response is followed by a reward or punitive feedback from the environment
Reinforced Behaviour
more likely to be tried again
Punished behaviour
Less likely to be attempted in the future
Positive (additive) reinforcement
Adding something desirable
Negative (subtractive) reinforcement
Removing something unpleasant
Continuous reinforcement
Acquire desired behaviour quickly
Partial/Intermittent Reinforcement
Target behaviour takes longer to be acquired/stablished but persists longer without a reward
how can reinforcements vary
- schedule based on amount of time passed
- ratio of rewards per number of instances of the target behaviour
Fixed Interval
- Slow, unsustained responding
- Rapid near time for reinforcement
Variable Interval
Slow, consistent responding
Fixed Ratio
High rate of consistent responding
(Behaviour is directly linked to response)
Variable Ratio
- High rate of consistent responding
- very robust and not good for negative behaviour
Physical/corporal punishment
- immediately after the behaviour
- need to be consistent
- explanation for the punishment and what should have been done differently
- combined with reinforcement or direct behaviour
Behaviourists
Stimulus —> Response
- would explain the difference by learning histories
Cognitive
Stimulus —> Organism —> Response
- Organism interprets the stimulus before responding
- would content that the differing reactions stem from how they interpreted the critical in that given situation
Observational Learning
- Changed in behaviour occur by watching others (role models)
- Without reinforcement
- Form of latent learning (not directly and immediately observable)
BOBO Doll study
Independent variable: Agressive models, non-agresssive models, no model
Dependent variable: Imitation of physical acts, imitation of verbal acts, non-imitative acts
