PSYCH 1115 - Week 10 (ch7) Learning

Question 1

How do we learn?

When we learn, our minds naturally connect events that occur in a sequence.

This is called:

Answer 1

Associative Learning

(is constrained by biological predispositions - meaning if we vomit hours after eating a burger at a restaurant, we’ll develop an aversion to the food eaten, but not to the restaurant)

Question 2

Classical Conditioning is when:

Answer 2

learning to link 2 stimuli.

Allows us to anticipate an event to which we have a reaction

EX: Pavlov discovered that salivation from eating food was eventually triggered by what should have been neutral stimuli such as seeing the food, seeing the food dish, seeing the serving person, just hearing the server’s footsteps coming with the bowl.

Neutral Stimulus: a bell (something that triggers no response)

Unconditioned Stimulus: food (something that naturally triggers a response without conditioning)
Unconditioned Response: dog salivates at food
———————————————-
Now take bell and use this device to start ‘Conditioning’:

Conditioned Stimulus: the bell
Conditioned Response: dog salivates

Then, can a 2nd device be used together with the bell to get a response? YES.

Called Higher-Order Conditioning (turning a neutral stimulus into a Conditioned Stimulus….by associating it with an already Conditioned Stimulus

Question 3

Operant Conditioning is when:

Answer 3

Changing behaviour choices in response to consequences

Question 4

RECALL:

Behaviourism:

Answer 4

behaviour can be explained in terms of conditioning, without appeal to the mind (thoughts, feelings).

Didn’t believe that the mental life was important to explore. Behaviourists believe that learning & conditioning are developed through associative learning (classical & operant), SO this means that anyone could learn any new task (doctor, lawyer, plumber, etc.) regardless of genetic backround, personality, or internal thoughts. All anyone needs is the right conditioning.

B.F. Skinner
John Watson

They didnt account for Cognitive Learning though - using observation & information, rather than direct experience.

Question 5

But, how is learning defined?

Answer 5

refers to the relatively permanent change in a person’s behaviour to a given situation brought about by his repeated experiences in that situation, provided that the behaviour change can’t be explained on the basis of native response tendencies, maturation, or temporary states of the person or other animals.

Question 6

THE 1ST STEP OF CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:

Define Acquisition:

Answer 6

The INITIAL stages of learning and conditioning.

How to know if acquisition has completed?
(how to know if there has been a successful association between a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus)

the unconditioned response (salivating) gets triggered by a conditioned stimulus (the bell – which used to be neutral)

WHEN to do this association?
Neutral Stimulus 0.5 sec before the Unconditioned Stimulus (bell before food always)

Question 7

Define Extinction:

Answer 7

When the bell is still rung but no food is brought (stopped pairing CS + UC).

Diminishing of a conditioned response when the conditioned stimulus occurs repeatedly without the unconditioned stimulus.

Question 8

Define Spontaneous Recovery:

Answer 8

a RETURN of the conditioned response (despite there being no further learning or relearning or conditioning done) after extinction occurred.

Question 9

1. Generalization:
2. Discrimination:

Answer 9

1. tendency to have conditioned responses triggered by related stimuli
   ex: Pavlov conditioned dogs to drool when petted or scratched.
2. the learned ability to only respond to specific stimuli, to prevent generatlization
   ex: Pavlov conditioned dogs to only drool at one specific bell with a specific pitch.

Question 10

EXAMPLE

Systemic Desensitization:

Question 11

Operant Conditioning:

Define Operant Conditioning:

Answer 11

A behaviour (a response) is followed by a reward/punishment

• Reinforced behaviour is likely to be done again
• Punished behaviour is less likely to be repeated

BF Skinner and his operant chamber.

In order for animals to start this operant conditioning, shaping of behaviour needed to be done based on 2 Principles.

1. Works by building on natural behaviours (pigeons naturally walk around pecking things)
2. Use method of successive approximations (as pigeons get closer and closer to the actual object that you want pecked, the pigeons get rewarded)

Thorndikes ‘Law of Effect’ essentially

Question 12

Law of Effect?
An effect relating to Operant Conditioning

Answer 12

Question 13

Discriminitive Stimuli:

Answer 13

the signal that indicates if a behaviour will be reinforced or punished

ex: pigeons will learn that they will only be rewarded if the screen turns blue (not red) – the monitor colour is the DS.

Question 14

What are Reinforcers?

Answer 14

events or things that strengthen a response

1. POSITIVE Reinforcer : add desirable stimulus
2. NEGATIVE Reinforcer: remove aversive stimulus

ex: Oliver whines for treats (positive reinforcement)
Derek needs to get up from a nap to get him treats (negative reinforcement)

ex: Girlfriend keeps bugging BF to go dancing. He finally agrees. Next time she bugs, he immediately says yes (neg. reinforcement). Girl gets him to go dancing (pos. reinforcement)

ex: kid gets yelled at in classroom. Now he acts up even more in the classroom (positive reinforcement)

ex: kid doesn’t have to help parents wash dishes because earlier he helped to cook dinner

PRIMARY: meets basic needs, such as sex, food, cupcakes
SECONDARY: associated with primary reinforcers such as money or praise
(basically, primary satisfies biological needs, while secondary depend on learning)

1. Continuous Reinforcement: giving a rewards after the target every single time.
   RESULTS: Subject gets desired behaviour quickly.
2. Partial/Intermittent Reinforcement: giving rewards sometimes. Target behaviour takes longer to be acquired and established but persists longer without the reward.
   RESULTS: usually results in steady rates of responding

Question 15

Reinforcing Schedules:

Answer 15

1. Fixed-Ratio Schedule: gets a treat every 3 times lever is hit, without fail. (ex: buy two drinks, get one free! or Maid takes 15 min break after cleaning 3 rooms)
2. Variable-Ratio Schedule: gets a treat intermittently. Produces high rates of responding AND is difficult to extinguish. (ex: casinos - if the slot machine does pay out, I’ll just keep pulling the lever just in case! or if a charity makes an average of 10 calls before getting a donation)

BASED ON NUMBER OF BEHAVIOURS

3. Fixed-Interval Schedule: a treat is rewarded every 2 minutes. As the treat time gets nearer, the rat will check the lever more frequently. (ex: baking cookies - will check the oven at 26 min, 27 min, 28 min, 28.5 min etc)
4. Variable-Interval Schedule : When a treat is rewarded at very random times throughout the day. Produces slow and steady responding
   (ex: checking emails a couple times a day because I don’t know when the emails will come in)

BASED ON TIME-BASED INTERVALS

Question 16

OPERANT CONDITIONING:

Punishments:

Answer 16

1. Positive Punishment: add something unpleasant or aversive
   ex: kid makes noises at the dinner table and gets her mouth washed out with soap
   ex: kid gets yelled at for hitting his sister, all in front of his friends
2. Negative Punishment: negate something pleasant or desirable (ex: no tv, no treats)

PROS: Works best in natural settings, such as burning your hand in a fire. Also, works best if artificial punishment is used such as taking away crayons if a child is drawing on the wall - not saying, i’m taking away stickers. Also, need to do punishment immediately, not delayed.

CONS: punishment focuses on what not to do, which does not guide people to a desired behaviour. (bring child with crayons back to art table and give paper and praise instead when the child draws on the paper)

PROBLEMS WITH PHYSICAL PUNISHMENTS:
(see below):

Question 17

Learned Helplessness:

Answer 17

when animals or people are repeatedly exposed to punishments or bad outcomes and there’s no escape, the animals or people won’t even try to escape when they have the opportunity.

Question 18

SUMMARIES

TYPES OF CONSEQUENCES:

Answer 18

SKINNER’S LEGACY:

Question 19

summaries:

operant vs classical conditioning

Question 20

Intrinsic Motivation:
Extrinsic Motivation :

Answer 20

• a desire to perform a behaviour effectively for it’s sake
• desire to perform a behaviour to receive a promised reward or to avoid threatened punishment
  (ex: kid will get a sticker for every book he reads, and every 5 stickers will result in a small toy. Reduce the toys and frequency, in time)

Intrinsic motivation can sometimes be reduced by external rewards!

Question 21

Observational Learning:

Can we learn without the direct experience of conditioning?
OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING

Need 2 skills:

1. Mirroring….
2. Cognition…

Answer 21

1. Being able to picture ourselves doing the same action
2. Noticing the consequences and associations

CAN BE OBSERVED by a a live model, a verbal instruction model, or a symbolic model (real/fictional models in books, films, tv, online media)

The Processes that these skills are done by:
* Modelling — the behaviour of others serves as a model, how to respond to a situation, this we can try without any reinforcement
* Vicarious Conditioning — experienced indirectly, but through others. We see if it’s reinforced or punished and this will affect our future choices
ex: one kid watches her sister get a cookie after helping with dishes, so she in turn, washes the dishes the next night to also get a cookie (vicarious reinforcement)

Question 22

Social Learning Theory

Answer 22

Question 23

Emotional Contagion

Answer 23

when moods and attitudes spread from one person to another

We have mirror neurons that can mimic another person’s actions or emotions (like empathy).

People with autism seems to have these mirror neurons missing as they don’t cognitively mirror.

Question 24

Media Models of Violence

Answer 24

There needs to be multiple factors such as violent video games, parenting style, lifestyle, etc.:

Scientific findings so far after viewing media violence:

1. Increase in aggressive behaviour
2. Increase in agressive thoughts and affect
3. Cardiovascular arousal
4. Decreased helpful behaviour

This violence-viewing effect might be explained by imitation and also by desensitization toward pain in others.