Learning

Pavlov’s Experiment

Classical Conditioning (Pavlovian Conditioning)

n   An organism learns to associate stimuli.

¨

 Terminology

n       Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): stimulus that always and naturally ELICITS a response

n       Unconditioned Response (UCR): response that always and naturally occurs at the presentation of the UCS

n       Neutral Stimulus (NS): stimulus that does not naturally elicit a response associated with the UCR

n       Conditioned Stimulus (CS): stimulus that will, after association with an UCS, cause a conditioned response (CR) when presented to a subject by itself

n       Conditioned Response (CR): response that occurs upon the presentation of the CS

Analysis of Pavlov’s Study

 Classical Conditioning

n      The Classical Conditioning “paradigm”

¨                               UCS--------------------->UCR

¨      NS + UCS--------------------->UCR

¨      CS------------------------------------------>CR

Relevance to your life

n   Taste-aversion learning:  associating a particular sensory cue (smell, taste, sound or sight) with getting sick and thereafter avoiding that particular sensory cue in the future. 

n  

n  

Emotional Responses

n   Conditioned emotional responses: 

¨ Little Albert.

Exercise

n   Identify the NS, UCS, UCR, CS, & CR for the following:

¨ A researcher sounds a tone, then places a piece of meat into a dog’s mouth, causing it to salivate. Eventually, the sound of the tone alone causes the dog to salivate.

¨ While listening to a song on his car radio, a man accidentally bumped into a red car in front of him.  Thereafter, whenever he sees a red car, he experiences a severe anxiety attack.

 Classical Conditioning

n       Some pointers on effective conditioning

¨      NS and UCS pairings should not be more than about 1/2 second apart for best results

¨      Intensity of UCS effects how many training trials are necessary for conditioning to occur

¨     

Operant Conditioning

n   Learning based on consequences.

¨ The consequences serve to ↑ or ↓ the likelihood of making that response again

¨

Operant Conditioning

n   Reinforcement is any procedure that

n   Punishment is any procedure that

How do you get someone to start doing something?

n     Positive Reinforcement:  The addition of a stimulus that increases the likelihood of that response occurring again.

¨ + =

n     Negative Reinforcement:  The removal of a stimulus that increases the likelihood of that response occurring again.

¨ - =

How would you weaken a response or get someone to stop doing something?

n    Positive Punishment:  The addition of a stimulus that decreases the likelihood of that response occurring again.

¨+ =

n    Negative Punishment:  The removal of a stimulus that decreases the likelihood of that response occurring again.

¨- =

Reinforcement/Punishment

Demonstration

Positive Reinforcement

n      Shaping

¨      A procedure in which a reinforcer is delivered for successive approximations of the desired response.

¨      Can be used to create a new response pattern in a subject

Demonstration

Schedules of Reinforcement

n   Continuous:  reinforcement occurs after every response

¨

n   Partial: reinforcement occurs after some, but not all, responses

¨

Partial Reinforcement Schedules

n   Ratio:  every nth response is reinforced

¨ Fixed:

¨ Variable: 

n   Interval:  first response after some interval results in reinforcement

¨ Fixed: 

¨ Variable: 

Punishment

n   Potential Problems

¨

¨ punishment often has a generalized inhibiting effect on the punished individual (they stop doing ANY behavior at all)

¨ we learn to dislike the punisher (a result of classical conditioning)

Punishment

n      Potential Problems

¨     

¨      punishment does not teach more appropriate behavior

¨      punishment may cause emotional damage in the punished individual (antisocial behavior)

Punishment

n   Potential Problems

¨

¨ the best tool for engineering behavior is positive reinforcement

Classical Versus Operant Conditioning

n   Classical conditioning—           Operant condition—

n   Classical conditioning—         Operant conditioning—

n   Classical conditioning—      Operant conditioning—

Type of Conditioning?

n   When a mother strokes her infant’s skin, the stroking creates pleasure responses in the baby.  After this goes on for many days, the baby begins to show pleasure responses simply at the sight of the mother (before even being touched).

n   The baby’s response is an example of ______ conditioning?

Type of Conditioning

Cognitive-Social Theory

n    Cognitive-social theory:

n    Observational learning refers to the notion that humans can learn through observation of models

¨ 

¨  Involves cognitive abilities to organize and remember the modeled behavior

¨ 

¨  Person must decide to use the modeled behavior

Bandura