Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX: LEARNING

Learning Objectives

LO 6.1: Describe learning.

LO 6.2: Explain classical conditioning.

LO 6.3: Explain operant conditioning.

LO 6.4:Understand observational learning.

LO 6.5:Describe the role of cognition in learning.

LO 6.6: Identify biological, cultural, and psychological factors in learning.

LO 6.7:Describe how principles of learning apply to health and wellness.

  1. Chapter Overview
  2. Chapter Features
  3. Connections
  4. Teaching the Chapter
  5. Lecture Outlines by Section
  6. Suggested Activities
  7. Critical Thinking Questions
  8. Polling Questions
  9. Apply Your Knowledge
  10. Suggested Readings and Media
  11. Activity Handouts
  12. Answer Key to Activity Handouts

I.Chapter Overview

Experiencing Psychology: Service Dogs: Using Learning to Save Lives

  • It is estimated that over 30,000 service dogs are active in the U.S. Service dogs are even trained to assist individuals who have diabetes and may not always know when their blood sugar is too low. Three individual cases of service dogs saving their owner’s lives are discussed.
  • How are these dogs trained and their amazing skills acquired? Using the basic principles of learning, service dogs learn to assist people in a variety of ways which are often life-saving and heroic.
  1. Types of Learning
  2. Learning involves a relatively permanent change in behavior.
  1. Behaviorism is a theory of learning that involves observable behavior. It does not include mental activity such as thinking, wishing, and hoping.
  1. Associative learning occurs when an association is made between two events. Conditioning occurs when you have learned about the association. There are two types of conditioning: classical conditioning and operant conditioning.
  1. Observational learning occurs when an individual observes and then imitates another individual’s behavior.
  1. Classical Conditioning
  2. Classical conditioning occurs when a neutral stimulus is associated with a meaningful stimulus and then acquires a similar response.
  1. Pavlov’s Studies
  2. Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist, is a pioneer in classical conditioning. He conducted research looking at digestion in the body. He discovered that dogs salivated to more than just meat powder being placed in their mouth. The dogs salivated to the sight of the meat powder, the individual that brought the meat powder, and the sound of the door closing when the meat powder arrived.
  3. The dog’s behavior included both learned and unlearned components. The unlearned components are known as reflexes.
  4. An unconditioned stimulus (US) is a stimulus that brings about a response without any prior learning.
  5. An unconditioned response (UR) is the unlearned response to the US.
  6. The conditioned stimulus (CS) is a neutral stimulus that when associated with the US elicits a conditioned response.
  7. A conditioned response (CR) is the learned response of the CS.
  8. Neutral stimulus refers to a stimulus that has no signal value at all. This stimulus would not naturally elicit the unconditioned response.
  9. Acquisition
  10. Acquisition is the learning of the association between the stimulus and the response.
  11. The timing interval between the CS and US determines the contiguity in time and space. Conditioned responses are learned best when the CS and US occur close together.
  12. Not only must there be contiguity, but there also must be contingency, which is the predictability of the occurrence of one stimulus from the presence of another stimulus.
  13. Once the association between the CS and US has been formed, the meaning of the CS changes. This once arbitrary object now has meaning or is motivational.
  14. In animal learning studies, some have shown that the CS is even more powerful than the US it signals. This high level of attachment to the CS is known as sign tracking.
  15. Generalization and Discrimination
  1. Generalization occurs when a new stimulus that is similar to the original stimulus elicits a response that is similar to the CR.
  2. Discrimination is learning to respond to certain stimuli while not responding to others.
  3. Extinction and Spontaneous Recovery
  1. When the US is taken away and no longer associated with the CS, then extinction occurs. Extinction is the weakening of the CR in the absence of the US.
  2. Spontaneous recovery occurs when the CR returns after a time delay without any further conditioning occurring.
  3. Renewal refers to the recovery of the conditioned response when the organism is placed in a novel context.
  4. Classical Conditioning in Humans
  5. Explaining Fears
  6. Classical conditioning provides an explanation for phobias, which are described as irrational fears.
  1. John Watson and his graduate student Rosalie Rayner described phobias in an experiment involving an infant named Albert. They brought a white rat into the room and Albert was not afraid of the rat; he played with it. Later, when Albert played with the white rat, Watson made a loud noise behind Albert’s head and Albert began to cry out of fear from the loud noise. The next time Watson and Rayner brought the white rat into the room, Albert started crying at the sight of the white rat. He associated the white rat with the previous loud noise that occurred the last time he was playing with the white rat.
  2. If fears can be established through classical conditioning, then should they also be able to be eliminated through the same process?
  3. Breaking Habits
  4. Therapists use counterconditioning, which occurs when the CR is weakened because the stimulus is associated with a new response that is not compatible with the unwanted behavior.
  5. Aversive conditioning is a form of treatment that consists of repeated pairings of a stimulus with a very unpleasant stimulus. To reduce drinking, every time a person drinks an alcohol beverage, he or she also consumes a mixture that induces nausea. Antabuse continues to be used in the treatment of alcoholism today.
  6. Classical Conditioning and the Placebo Effect
  7. The principles of classical conditioning help us to explain how the placebo effect works in research on the immune system and the endocrine system.
  8. Classical Conditioning and the Immune and Endocrine Systems
  9. Even the human body’s internal organ system can be classically conditioned. Research has found evidence that suggests classical conditioning can produce immunosuppression,a decrease in the production of antibodies, which can lower a person’s ability to fight a disease.
  10. Similar results in the endocrine system have been found that link the taking of placebo pills with an increase in secretion of hormones that were produced when patients had previously been taking the actual drugs.
  11. Stress also has an important role in the learned associations between conditioned stimuli and immune and endocrine functioning.
  12. Taste Aversion Learning
  13. A special type of classical conditioning is called taste aversion, by which an individual learns an association between a particular taste and nausea. It is a special case because it only requires one pairing of the neutral stimulus with the conditioned response.
  14. To combat this special type of learning, researchers have designed specific medications with flavorful, more appealing tastes to reduce the often negative responses to these drugs. This way, the patient is more likely to develop taste aversion to the flavor and not to the medication itself.
  15. Some researchers suggest that taste aversion is a demonstration of how learning through classical conditioning happens in the natural world, where associations matter to survival.
  16. Classical Conditioning and Advertising
  17. Many advertisers use classical conditioning by associating something naturally good, which is the US, with something neutral, which is the CS such as the advertisement of the E*Trade baby. When these stimuli occur together, the neutral stimulus brings on the same response as the naturally occurring response.
  18. Advertisers use classical conditioning when it comes to product placement or embedded marketing.
  19. Classical Conditioning and Drug Habituation
  1. When drugs are taken at a certain time of day and in a certain place, the body will react in anticipation of the upcoming drug ingestion.Habituation refers to the decreased responsiveness to a stimulus after repeated presentations.
  2. This aspect of drug use has been found to play a role in death caused by drug overdose. The drug user usually takes the drug in a certain place, for example, their bedroom. A CR is acquired to this location. Because of classical conditioning, as soon as the drug user enters the bedroom, the person’s body begins to prepare for the upcoming drug ingestion in order to lessen the effects of the insult of the drug. But, let’s say the drug user is at a friend’s house and they go into the friend’s bedroom to take the drug. The effect of the drug is greater because there was no CR built up from the friend’s bedroom and therefore, the body is not prepared for the drug ingestion.
  1. Operant Conditioning
  1. Defining Operant Conditioning
  • F. Skinner developed what is known as operant conditioning(instrumental conditioning), which is a form of associative learning where the consequences of behavior produce changes in the probability of a behavior’s occurrence.
  1. Operant behaviors are voluntary and bring about either rewards or punishments.
  2. Just as in classical conditioning, contingency is important in operant conditioning.
  1. Thorndike’s Law of Effect
  1. E. L. Thorndike established the power of consequences of an individual’s behavior. In his historical experiment, he placed a hungry cat inside a box. The cat could exit the box and receive a reward of food if it could figure out how to manipulate a string by pulling to lift a door for escape. After many attempts, the cat pulled the string and escaped. With subsequent trials the cat increased its time of escape.
  2. The law of effect established by Thorndike states that those behaviors followed by positive outcomes will be strengthened and those behaviors followed by negative outcomes will be weakened.
  1. Skinner’s Approach to Operant Conditioning
  1. Skinner believed that the basic principles of operant conditioning could be applied to all species. During WWII, he carried out studies using pigeons to guide missiles. He placed pigeons in the warhead of the missile and the pigeon would peck at a moving image on a screen and would receive a food reward when it kept the designated target in the center of the screen. The U.S. military never used Skinner’s pigeon-guided missile concept.
  2. Skinner wrote a novel called Walden Two where he presented his ideas about a scientifically managed society that could be fully operated through operant conditioning.
  1. Shaping
  1. The term shaping refers to rewarding approximations of a desired behavior. Each step toward the desired behavior is rewarded until the desired behavior occurs.
  2. The concept of shaping can be used to examine complex behaviors of service dogs.
  3. Research indicates a connection between brain activity and operant conditioning that helps us determine which reinforcers are rewarding.
  1. Principles of Reinforcement
  2. Reinforcement occurs when a stimulus or an event strengthens the probability of a behavior occurring again.
  3. Positive and Negative Reinforcement
  1. Positive reinforcement occurs when something is given as a reward to increase the likelihood of the behavior occurring again.
  2. Negative reinforcement occurs when something bad is taken away to increase the likelihood of a behavior occurring again.
  3. Both positive and negative reinforcement refer to rewarding desired behavior. Positive and negative are not references to good or bad, rather they indicate the process in which something is either given or removed that reinforces the behavior.
  4. A special kind of response to negative reinforcement is called avoidance learning. In this case, the organism learns that by making a particular response, a negative stimulus can be altogether avoided. However, in some cases, this can produce learned helplessness which means that the organism has learned that it has no control over negative outcomes.
  5. Types of Reinforcers
  1. Primary reinforcement involves reinforcers that are biological in need, meaning they are needed for survival. Some primary reinforcers are food, water, sex, etc.
  2. Secondary reinforcers gain their positive value through experience. They are usually used to gain access to primary reinforcers. Money is a good example of a secondary reinforcer.
  3. Secondary reinforcers can be linked to primary reinforcers through classical conditioning. Consider pairing the sound of a whistle and food to reward a desirable behavior for an animal to perform, such as a trick.

2.Generalization, Discrimination, and Extinction

  1. Generalization
  2. Generalization occurs when the same response is given to similar stimuli.
  1. Discrimination
  2. Discrimination occurs when an individual responds to stimuli that signal when a behavior will or will not be reinforced.
  1. Extinction
  1. Extinction occurs when a previously reinforced behavior is no longer reinforced and therefore, the individual is less likely to perform the behavior.
  1. Continuous Reinforcement, Partial Reinforcement, and Schedules of Reinforcement
  1. Continuous reinforcement occurs when the behavior is reinforced every time it occurs.
  2. Partial reinforcement occurs when the behavior gets reinforced only some of the time.
  3. Schedules of reinforcement determine when a behavior will be reinforced.
  4. A fixed-ratio schedule reinforces a behavior after a set number of behaviors. For example, a child may receive a piece of candy after practicing the piano for 5 days instead of every time he plays.
  5. A variable-ratio schedule occurs when a behavior is reinforced after an average of times it occurs, but that average is unpredictable. A good example of a variable-ratio schedule is slot machines. The payout on the slot machines is set, but the player doesn’t know when that is.
  6. A fixed-interval schedule rewards the desired behavior after a specific amount of time has passed. An example of a fixed-interval schedule is election time. Politicians beef up their campaigns around election time and then after they are elected they become more relaxed until election time rolls around again.
  7. A variable-interval schedule occurs when the desired behavior is rewarded after a varying amount of time has passed. Pop quizzes are a good example of variable-interval schedules because the students do not know when the quizzes will occur, but they do know there will be a quiz at some point in time.

4.Punishment

a.The effect of punishment is usually used to extinguish some behavior.

b.What Is Punishment?

  1. Punishment decreases the likelihood of a behavior occurring again.
  2. In the case of punishment, the behavior is weakened; therefore, it is not the same as negative reinforcement.
  3. Positive punishment occurs when something bad is given to decrease the likelihood of a behavior occurring again.
  4. Negative punishment occurs when something good is taken away to decrease the likelihood of a behavior occurring again. A time-out is a form of negative punishment. In this situation, the child is removed from a positive reinforcement situation.

5.Timing, Reinforcement, and Punishment

  1. Immediate Versus Delayed Reinforcement
  2. In operant conditioning the shorter the time span between the behavior and reinforcer the better. It works best if it is a few seconds. This is especially true in lower intelligence animals. Humans, however, have the ability to learn from delayed reinforcers.
  3. Sometimes in life the decision comes down to whether to receive a small, immediate reinforcer or wait for a larger reinforcer.
  1. Immediate VersusDelayed Punishment
  2. Immediate punishment is more effective than delayed punishment. Again. this is more the case with lower animals than with humans.
  1. Immediate VersusDelayed Reinforcement and Punishment
  1. Sometimes the potential delayed consequences are negative, but the immediate consequences are difficult to override. Such is the case with eating and obesity. Individuals know that eating too much and gaining weight is a health risk, but the immediate satisfaction of eating is often too great to stop the overeating.
  2. When the delayed consequences are punishers, but the immediate consequences are reinforcers, the immediate ones usually win.

6.Applied Behavior Analysis

a.Also called, behavior modification, applied behavior analysis uses operant conditioning techniques to change human behavior by analyzing and manipulating unwanted behaviors through the enhanced use of rewards and punishers.

b.If we can figure out what rewards and punishers are controlling a person’s behavior, we can change them—and impact the behavior itself.

c.Applied behavior analysis has a wide range of uses: training autistic individuals, children and adolescents with psychological problems, instruction of effective parenting, and to enhance environmentally conscious behaviors.

  1. Observational Learning
  1. Bandura’s Model of Operational Learning
  1. Observational learning occurs when a person observes and imitates behavior. It takes less time than operant conditioning.
  2. For attention to occur a person must attend to what another individual is doing or saying.
  3. Retention occurs when the individual must encode the information and keep it in memory so that it can be retrieved.
  4. Motor reproduction occurs when the individual imitates what the other individual is doing.
  5. Reinforcement occurs when there are incentive conditions for imitating the behavior. If there is no incentive, then the behavior will not be imitated.
  6. Observational learning has been studied in a variety of contexts from examining how gorillas learn from one another to how individuals use it to make economic decisions. Researchers are interested in comparing learning from experience with learning through observation.
  1. Cognitive Factors in Learning
  • Both Skinner’s approach to operant conditioning and Pavlov’s approach to classical conditioning do not take into account how memory, thinking, planning, and expectations might be important to learning.
  • Purposive Behavior
  • The purposiveness of behavior is the idea that much of behavior is goaldirected.
  • E. C. Tolman believed that the whole behavioral sequence must be studied in order to understand why a person engages in a behavior.
  1. Expectancy Learning and Information
  1. Tolman believed that the information value of the CS is important as a signal that the US will follow.
  2. Cognitive maps are an organism’s mental representation of the structure of physical space.
  1. Latent Learning
  1. Latent learning is a type of unreinforced learning that is not immediately reflected in behavior. What an individual learns may not be noticeable right away, but at a later time that original learning comes out.

3.Insight Learning