Learning

• Learning


  A relatively permanent behavior change as a result of experience
• Associative learning


  Learning that certain events occur together
• Cognitive learning


  Acquisition of mental information by observing events, watching others, or through language
• Classical conditioning


  Process by which we learn to associate stimuli and, consequently, to anticipate events

  
• Classical conditioning


  • One learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events
  • Stimulus: Any event or situation that evokes a response
  • Respondent behavior: Behavior that occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus

  
• Neutral stimulus (NS)


  Stimulus that elicits no response before conditioning
• Unconditioned stimulus (US)


  Stimulus which triggers a reflex (automatic response, UR)
• Unconditioned response (UR)


  Unlearned, natural response to a US
• Conditioned stimulus (CS)


  Originally neutral stimulus that, after association (conditioning) with a US, it triggers a CR
• Conditioned response (CR)


  Learned response to a previously neutral stimulus (CS). It is the same action as the unconditioned response, except that it is now triggered by the (CS) (formerly NS)
• Extinction


  Weakening of a conditioned response when an unconditioned stimulus does not follow a conditioned stimulus
• Spontaneous recovery


  Reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response
• Generalization


  The tendency to respond similarly to stimuli that resemble the conditioned stimulus after conditioning
• Discrimination


  The learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and other irrelevant stimuli
• Example 2


  • New food
  • Flu sickness
  • Nausea
• Example 3


  • Small room
  • Drug
  • Accelerated heart rate
• Operant conditioning


  Involves operant behavior, which operates on the environment, producing consequences
• Reinforcers


  Strengthen a behavior and make it more likely to happen again
• Punishments


  Weaken a behavior and make it less likely to recur
• Shaping


  Rewarding successive approximations of a target behavior
• Types of reinforcers


  • Primary reinforcers
  • Conditioned reinforcers
  • Immediate reinforcers
  • Delayed reinforcers
• Reinforcement schedules


  Patterns that define how often a desired response will be reinforced
• Latent learning


  Learning that occurs but is not observable in behavior until there is a reason to demonstrate it
• Cognitive maps


  Mental pictures of the layout of an environment
• Observational learning


  Learning process in which a person observes and imitates others
• Bandura's Bobo Doll experiment


  • Children observed adults act aggressively towards a Bobo doll
  • Children were then given the opportunity to play with the Bobo doll
• Mirror neurons


  Fire when we perform certain actions and when we observe others performing those actions
• Observational learning may have both prosocial and antisocial effects
• Operant vs Classical Conditioning

  • Father gives credit card for good grades (operant conditioning)
  • Eating new food then getting sick (classical conditioning)
  • Lion learns to stand on chair and jump through hoop (operant conditioning)
  • Watson's experiment with Albert (classical conditioning)