Lecture 6: Learning Flashcards
Learning
LEARNING:
change in thoughts or behaviours due to experience, study, or practice
- over time, new information may cause us to change
- learning language or instrument - consistent practice
- how do we get these changes? experience, study, or practice
- ex. experience of pandemic and regulations taught us about wearing masks, physical distancing, hand washing techniques
- this became our new normal temporarily
RELATIONSHIP TO BRAIN PLASTICITY:
- learning starts in neurobiology
- neurons forging new connections or changing connections
- real biochemical changes happening in the brain
NERVOUS SYSTEM PLASTICITY:
forming or changing connections between neurons
Habituation
- getting used to a stimulus
- stop responding to stimulus
- the more you receive a stimulus, the more you adapt and get used to it
- ex. getting used to sound of refrigerator running or getting used to train passing in backyard - you may find it’s oddly quiet if fridge stops/ runs through it’s cycle
Classical Conditioning
learning to associate an involuntary response and a stimulus
UNCONDITIONED STIMULUS:
- produces a reflexive response - no learning took place
- ex .dog food
UNCONDITIONED RESPONSE:
- unlearned response/ natural reflexive response
- ex. saliva: natural reaction
CONDITIONED STIMULUS:
- stimulus introduced
- originally neutral stimulus
- useless stimulus become meaningful with conditioning
- ex. metronome/ bell
CONDITIONED RESPONSE:
- Saliva: a natural reaction that occurs due to CS - conditioned stimulus
- salivating when hears sound
- UR pairs with CR
Stages in Classical Conditioning
ACQUISITION:
Initial learning phase - when you’re staring to learn UCS to CR
- depends on…
FREQUENCY EFFECTS:
how often CS is paired with UCS
TIMING EFFECTS:
time duration between CS and UCS
- both help to improve learning
EXTINCTION:
- elimination of CR - salivating with bell
- CS unpaired with UCS - bell un paired with food
SPONTANEOUS RECOVERY:
- sudden emergence of the CR after extinction
- no longer pairing bell with food - the conditioned response to bell decreases to elimination - then out of no where, the bells triggers salivation
- sometimes trauma reoccurs out of no where
- this is caused by the plasticity of the nervous system
Stimulus Generalization vs Stimulus Discrimination
STIMULUS GENERALIZATION:
- stimuli similar to CS will elicit a CR
- ex. dog salivating to both a bell and the door bell
- ex. little Albert’s CR to rat → rabbit → bearded men
- quick learning
- extend learning to another similar stimulus
STIMULUS DISCRIMINATION:
- CR specific to one stimulus, but not others
- ex. dog salivating only to the bell but NOT clock chimes
- effective learning
- opposite of stimulus generalization
- don’t extend learning another stimulus
Law of Effect
LAW OF EFFECT:
learning is controlled by consequences
- proposed by EL Thorndike in early 20th century
- behaviour → causes good results → will increase probability of behaviour
- behaviour → causes bad result → decrease probability of behaviour
EXAMPLES:
dog learning good behaviour or fail test because left studying to the night before
Operant Conditioning
OPERANT CONDITIONING:
associate a voluntary behaviour and a consequence - all about consequences
Reinforcement vs Punishment
REINFORCEMENT:
increases behaviour
- ex. if child is behaving well, you’d want to reinforce that behaviour to increase behaviour
POSITIVE (adding) REINFORCEMENT:
give child a treat or toy so they keep behaving well
NEGATIVE (taking away) REINFORCEMENT:
take away chores so they keep behaving well
PUNISHMENT:
decreases behaviour
- ex. if child is misbehaving, you’d want to punish the behaviour maybe by taking away video games
POSITIVE (adding) PUNISHMENT: yell at the child so they stop misbehaving
NEGATIVE (taking away) PUNISHMENT:
take away video games so they stop misbehaving
When figuring out if reinforcement or punishment - are they trying to increase or decrease behaviour
When figuring out if positive or negative - do they add or take away a stimulus
Differences between Classical and Operant Conditioning
DIFFERENCES IN TARGET BEHAVIOUR:
CLASSICAL: behaviour elicited automatically
OPERANT: emitted voluntarily
DIFFERENCES IN WHAT BEHAVIOUR IS A FUNCTION OF:
CLASSICAL: stimulus precedes behaviour
OPERANT: stimulus follows behaviour
Latent Learning
LATENT LEARNING:
learning that has occurred and is not directly observable
- reinforcement not needed - I don’t need too see your behaviours to understand that learning it taking place
EDWARD TOLMAN: coined the term
COMPETENCE:
- what we know
PERFORMANCE:
- how we show what we know
EXAMPLES:
- in class, testing and assignments are a test of our performance but it’s not always a reflection of our competence
- may pick up on language a bit but can’t speak or write the language
Observational Learning
OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING:
Albert Bandura (inspired by Colman)
SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY:
learn by watching people - people learn by watching other people
MODELS:
Bandura’s term for the people we learn from as we watch/ observe them
BOBO DOLL EXPERIMENT:
children were given room with doll and told to play but first they showed children an adult who was already playing
- one group - the adult played aggressively and then the children played aggressively
- child does what the model does
- other group - adult has tea party with bobo and then the child also had a tea party
4 Parts/ Conditions of Observational Learning
ATTENTION:
paying attention to the model is a condition for learning
- if they’re not watching the model, they won’t observe behaviour
RETENTION:
remembering what the model did is a condition for imitating the model’s behaviour
- if you can’t retain the information/ remember, you can’t reproduce the behaviour
INITIATION/ REPRODUCTION:
people must have the capacity (ex. skills) for imitating the behaviour
- must have physical ability to reproduce behaviour
MOTIVATION
people must be motivated to imitate behaviour (ex. importance of model or reward)
