Chapter 4 Notes - Tipp City Exempted Village Schools

Chapter 6: Learning

Section 1: Classical Conditioning

• Learning – any relatively permanent change in an organism’s behavior due to experience • Conditioning – learning (pairing different stimuli)

• Classical conditioning – one stimulus calls forth the response that is usually called forth by another stimulus

Ivan Pavlov • Studied salivation in dogs • Dogs salivated when received meat • Salivated at sight of assistants entering laboratory • Pavlov rang a bell – meat given to dogs • After a while, dogs salivated when they heard bell even if there was no meat

• Unconditioned Stimulus (US) – stimulus that causes a response that is automatic, not learned – The Meat • Unconditioned Response (UR) - the automatic response – Salivating

• Conditioned Stimulus (CS) – Learned stimulus The Bell • Conditioned Response (CR) – learned response to a stimulus that was previously meaningless – Salivating

Higher-Order Conditioning • A previously learned neutral stimulus comes to serve as a learned, or conditioned , stimulus after being paired repeatedly with a stimulus that has already become a learned stimulus

Taste Aversion • Learned avoidance of a certain food • May only take one pairing of food and illness to create aversion (most C.C. takes many associations)

Extinction • When a conditioned stimulus is no longer followed by an unconditioned stimulus, it will eventually lose it’s ability to bring about a conditioned response • CS is disconnected from the US – the result – CS no longer causes CR

Spontaneous Recovery • Organisms can display responses that were extinguished earlier • Sometimes response is weaker than original response

Generalization and Discrimination • Generalization – act of responding in the same ways to stimuli that seem to be similar, even if the stimuli are not identical • Discrimination – act of responding differently to stimuli that are not similar to each other • Help people adapt to their environments

Applications of Classical Conditioning • Can help people overcome fears of various objects and situations, or help children stop wetting their beds

Flooding • A person is exposed to the harmless stimulus until fear responses to that stimulus are extinguished • Effective, but unpleasant

Systematic Desensitization • People are taught relaxation techniques • Exposed gradually to whatever stimulus they fear while they remain relaxed • Takes longer to work, but not unpleasant

Counterconditioning • A pleasant stimulus is paired repeatedly with a fearful one, counteracting the fear

Section 2: Operant Conditioning

Operant Conditioning • People and animals learn to do certain things & not do others because of consequences • In classical conditioning – conditioned responses are often involuntary biological behaviors • In operant conditioning – voluntary responses (we control) are conditioned

Reinforcement • Process by which a stimulus increases the chances that the preceding behavior will occur again • Skinner boxes held rats that were deprived of food • Pressed lever – received food pellets • Pellets reinforced lever-pressing behavior

Positive Reinforcement • Increase the frequency of behavior they follow when they are applied • Food, fun activities, social approval • Different reinforcers work with different people • What serves as a reinforcer at one time may not work later on

Negative Reinforcers • Encourage a behavior by removing something unpleasant • Discomfort, fear, social disapproval

Immediate vs. Delayed Reinforcement • Immediate much more effective • Short-term consequences provide more of an incentive than the long-term consequences • Examples: – Most students do better with frequent tests – Difficult to quit smoking – reinforcement of nicotn

Primary Reinforcers

Secondary Reinforcers

• Function due to biological makeup of the organism

• Initially acquire their value through being paired with established reinforcers

• Food, water, warmth, sex • (Don’t have to be taught to value these)

• Money, attention, social approval

Reward • Increase frequency of behavior • Some say it’s the same as positive reinforcement • Positive reinforcement doesn’t make you get inside organism’s head to determine what they find rewarding

Reward vs. Punishment Positive reinforcement: • Telling a kid, "Great job! You said this perfectly!" or giving a High 5. • This is good because, it makes the student want to learn more independently...he'll be satisfied with learning for learning's sake. This helps build self-motivation. Reward: • Giving a kid candy for doing a great job or telling the winning team that they can eat lunch early. • This is bad because, it'll teach kids to only work hard enough for a reward. Brattiness could arise with constant rewards.

Punishment • Discourage a behavior by being applied • Strong punishment can quickly end bad behavior • Not the ideal way to deal with a problem

Schedules of Reinforcement • When and how often reinforcement occurs • Partial & Continuous

Continuous Reinforcement • Reinforcement of a behavior every time the behavior occurs • New behaviors learned quickest using this method • Only maintain behavior as long as you’re being reinforced

Partial Reinforcement • Behavior not reinforced every time it occurs • Tends to last longer after no reinforcement than continuous reinforcement

Fixed – Interval Schedule • Fixed amount of time must elapse between reinforcements

Variable – interval schedule • Varying amounts of time go between reinforcements – Timing of the next reinforcement is unpredictable

Fixed – Ratio Schedule • Reinforcement provided after a fixed number of correct responses have been made • People tend to want to get fixed number of responses “out of the way” • If ratio is high, not very effective

Variable – Ratio Schedule • Reinforcement provided after a variable number of correct responses have been made • unpredictable

Extinction • Repeated performance of the response without reinforcement • Can spontaneously recover

Shaping • A way of teaching complex behaviors in which one first reinforces small steps in the right direction

Applications of Operant Conditioning • Induce children to acquire gender-appropriate behavior patterns • Play with friends who are generous & nonaggressive • Adults reward kids when they express attitudes similar to own and punish / ignore contradictory attitudes

BFT & Behavior Modification • Biofeedback Training – people receive reinforcement in the form of information • Parents often reinforce bad behavior by pay8ing attention / punishing kids & ignoring when they behave well

The Bell-and-Pad Method for Bed-Wetting • Teaches kids to wake up in response to bladder tension • Sleep on a special pad placed on bed • When kid starts to urinate, water content triggers a bell, ringing wakes up kid • After a few weeks, kids usually cured

Section 3: Cognitive Factors in Learning

Learning • Latent Learning – Learning that remains hidden until it’s needed

• Observational Learning – Learn by watching or being told how others do things – Learn to predict likely outcomes of actions by watching others

Albert Bandura & Observational Learning • Acquire knowledge by observing and imitating others (Observational Learning ) – Learn to speak, eat, play – Used in modern advertising

Effects of Media Violence • TV is a main source of informal observational learning • Link between media violence and aggression – Supplies models of aggressive skills – See violence as an acceptable way to behave – Leads to emotional desensitization to violence in real life – More likely to behave aggressively and violently