PSY

• Learning


  A systematic, relatively permanent change in behaviour that occurs through experience
• Types of Learning


  • Behaviourism
  • Associative learning / Conditioning
  • Observational learning

  
• Behaviourism


  • Focuses solely on observable behaviour (Does not take into account mental activity)
  • Maintains the principles of learning are consistent across both humans and nonhuman animals
  • Research done on animals are also apply to humans
• Associative learning / Conditioning

  • Organism makes a connection / association, between 2 events
  • Classical conditioning: organism learns the association between 2 stimuli
  • Operant conditioning: Organisms learns the association between a behaviour and a consequence

  
• Observational learning


  • Occurs when a person observes & imitates another behaviour (relies on mental processes)
  • The learner has to pay attention, remember, and reproduce what the model did
  • Is especially important to human beings

  
• Classical conditioning


  Organisms learn to anticipate events

  
• Classical conditioning example


  • Child associates fear of getting a shot with doctor's office
  • A neutral stimulus (the sound of a toilet flushing) becomes associated with an innately meaningful stimulus (the pain of scalding hot water) and acquires the capacity to elicit a similar response (panic)
• Pavlov's Studies were accidental research; original research focus was physiological in nature
• Pavlov observed unusual phenomenon with dog salivation during his study
• Classical conditioning terminology


  • Conditioned
  • Unconditioned
  • Unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
  • Unconditioned response (UCR)
  • Neutral stimulus
  • Conditioned stimulus (CS)
  • Conditioned response (CR)

  
• Acquisition


  The initial learning of the connection between a conditioned stimulus (CS) and an unconditioned stimulus (US) when they are consistently paired

  
• Factors for successful conditioning

  • Contiguity (CS and US must be presented extremely closely together in time)
  • Contingency (CS must reliably signal the impending arrival of the US)
• Generalisation


  The tendency of a new stimulus that is similar to the original condition stimulus to elicit a response as similar to the conditioned response
• Discrimination


  Learning to respond to specific stimuli and not others
• Extinction


  The conditioned response (CR) weakens due to the absence of the unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
• Spontaneous recovery


  A previously extinguished conditioned response reappears after a period of time without additional conditioning
• Spontaneous recovery can occur several times, but as long as the CS is presented alone (that is, without the UCS), spontaneous recovery becomes weaker and eventually ceases
• Renewal


  The recovery of the conditioned response when the organism is placed in a novel context
• Classical conditioning in humans - Explaining Fears

  • John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner's classical conditioning experiment with an infant named Albert
  • Albert became fearful after the white rat was repeatedly paired with a loud noise
• Counterconditioning


  A classical conditioning method used to alter the relationship between a conditioned stimulus (CS) and its conditioned response (CR)

  
• Aversive conditioning


  A treatment involving repeated pairings of a stimulus with an unpleasant one, such as (electric shocks or nausea-inducing substances)
• Classical conditioning plays a role in habitual behaviours, with environmental cues acting as (CS) triggering automatic, often mindless, responses, both positive and negative

  
• Placebo effect


  The influence of a substance or procedure used to distinguish the real effects of a treatment
• Strong evidence for classical conditioning's impact on placebo effects is found in research on the immune and endocrine systems
• Classical conditioning can lead to immunosuppression, reducing antibody production and weakening the body's ability to fight disease
• Classical conditioning effects extend to the endocrine system, where placebo pills can influence hormone secretion based on past experiences with actual drugs
• Taste aversion learning


  A unique form of classical conditioning where a specific taste becomes associated with nausea after just one pairing
• Taste aversion can occur even if the taste is unrelated to the sickness, and it highlights the importance of associations in life-or-death situations
• Classical conditioning principles, particularly discrimination, have been used to address taste aversion issues in medical contexts
• Classical conditioning in advertising

  Advertisers strategically use principles of classical conditioning to pair positive stimuli with products
• Even without commercials, advertisers utilize classical conditioning through product placement or embedded marketing
• Drug habituation


  Classical conditioning plays a role, where a mind-altering drug (US) is systematically paired with neutral stimuli (CS), and the conditioned response (CR) can be the body's preparation for the drug's effects, often opposite to the unconditioned response (UR)
• Classical conditioning links a specific setting (CS), like a bathroom, to drug use, and if a person takes the drug in a different context, the body is unprepared, potentially leading to unexpectedly strong effects, contributing to the risk of overdose
• Operant conditioning (Instrumental conditioning)


  Association between a behaviour and its consequence, to explain voluntary behaviours, changing behaviour alters the likelihood of that behaviour happening

  
• Thorndike's Law of Effect


  The consequences of a behaviour determine whether it becomes part of an organism's repertoire, responses that lead to satisfying consequences are more likely to be repeated
• Skinner's Approach to Operant Conditioning

  • The Skinner box: A chamber with a highly controlled environment, used to study operant conditioning with laboratory animals
• Shaping


  Rewarding successive approximations of a desired behaviour, demonstrating the importance of contingency in operant conditioning
• Positive reinforcement


  Behaviour increases because it is followed by addition of a desirable stimulus (something pleasant)
• Negative reinforcement


  Behaviour increases because it is followed by removal of an unpleasant stimulus
• Behaviour


  Determines whether it becomes part of an organism's repertoire