AP Psych Prep 6

Learning

Introduction to Learning
Learning - long lasting change in behaviour that comes about because of our experience Learning is measured by looking for change in behaviour; change in behaviour is OFTEN evidence of learning.

Overview:
Well look at a few types of learning.

Classical Conditioning Operant Conditioning Cognitive Perspectives on Learning

Classical Conditioning
Ivan Pavlov - Russian physiologist - studied digestion in dogs.

He wasnt trying to study learning, but he found principles of classical conditioning

Pavlovs Dogs
Dogs were fed, and a bell was rung. Pavlov found that dogs started to salivate (drool) along with the bell; the two became connected. Humans and non-human animals can associate a reflexive behaviour with a neutral stimulus (one that normally does not cause a behaviour)

Classical Conditioning Terminology

Unconditioned Stimulus (US or UCS) original, natural stimulus (e.g. food) Unconditioned Response (UR or UCR) the original, natural response to the US (e.g. salivating / drooling)

Classical Cond. Terms

Then, after the conditioning process.... Conditioned stimulus (CS) - the new stimulus that before was neutral (e.g. bell) Conditioned response (CR) - the response that is now connected to the CS (e.g. salivation / drooling) Note: UCR and CR are the same response, the difference is if it happens because of the original stimulus, or because of the new stimulus.

Classical Conditioning
The result is learning or acquisition. Order of stimulus presentation and timing can influence acquisition

Some patterns of training are more effective than others

Training Patterns:
Delayed Conditioning - ring bell, and while it is still ringing, give food. (Very Effective)
Trace Conditioning - ring bell, wait a short period, then give food (not a bad method) Simultaneous Conditioning - ring bell and give food at the same time (also not bad) Backward Conditioning - give food first, and then ring bell (least effective method)

Other Conditioning Concepts:

Extinction - unlearning. If you ring the bell without giving food, eventually the association between the two will fade, and the CR will stop appearing Spontaneous recovery - where after extinction, the CS brings about the CR again for some reason. Why is not understood well yet.

Extinction and Sp. Recovery

Other Conditioning Concepts:

Generalization - learned responses are often elicited by stimuli that are similar to the CS (e.g. different bells) (See Little Albert)

But can be trained to Discriminate between different stimuli and respond only to the the right one. (ring diff bells, dont give food; ring right bell, give food)

Example: Little Albert

Little Albert was a very young boy, who was conditioned by the researchers John Watson and Rosalie Rayner.

They taught him to be afraid of a white rat.

Little Albert

Fear of the white rat

Little Albert

Even generalized to other similar stimuli, things that were white and fluffy or hairy

Classical: Aversive Conditioning

Aversive Conditioning - conditioning using negative stimuli
e.g. Antabuse is a drug that stops alcohol from being broken down in your body; causes nausea, vomiting, headache, and other symptoms if you drink alcohol.

People will associate those negative symptoms with drinking, and will eventually stop drinking because of this association.

Second-Order (or higher-order) conditioning

This is where you first condition with one stimulus (e.g. bell), and then use that stimulus to condition another. e.g. once bell causes you to drool, you start pairing the bell with a smell. After some trials, the smell alone can cause you to drool (even though smell and food were never together)

Biological Influences on Classical Conditioning

Some responses are easier to condition than others It seems we are biologically more prepared to make some connections than others.

John Garcia and Robert Koelling Experiment

Easier to condition reactions to some things that make more sense in the natural world

Classical Conditioning Application

Learned Taste Aversion - if you eat / drink something, and then become sick (especially nausea, vomiting), you will pair the taste of the new thing and the nauseous feeling. Can happen very quickly and strongly (even with only one pairing)

Thought to be adaptive, to help us survive. Will prevent us from eating potentially dangerous things in the future.

Classical Conditioning Application

Learned Taste Aversion can happen even if the food or drink is not really connected to the sick feeling. E.g. you eat something, and then an hour later you feel sick and vomit because of a flu

Your mind will still try to stop you from eating that food again. If you see or smell it later you will probably feel sick.

Learned Taste Aversion

Can be used to train predators not to kill and eat our animals. E.g. A farmer might kill one sheep, and inject a mild poison into it. Then coyote or wolves eat it, and then get sick. They will then avoid eating sheep in the future. The farmer doesnt have to kill the predator

2. Operant Conditioning
Based on consequences of actions, instead of associating stimuli with responses.
(Big difference: neutral stimuli before/during vs. punishment or reward after.)

Thorndike - Puzzle Boxes

Edward Thorndike - An early operant conditioning researcher. Used puzzle boxes and studied cats ability to learn how to escape them for food.

Puzzle Boxes
Cats who escaped were rewarded with food. This makes the behaviours that cause escape to become more likely, increasing speed of escape. Law of Effect - pleasant consequences = increased likelihood of that behaviour unpleasant consequences - decreased likelihood of that behaviour http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDujDOLre-8

B.F. Skinner - Skinner Box

Used special boxes to experiment on rats and pigeons.

Skinner Box
reinforcer - a positive consequence reinforcement - act of giving positive conseq.

Reinforcement - anything that makes behaviour more likely.

Can be positive reinforc. - give good thing

Or negative reinforc. - take away bad thing

Negative Reinforcement
Escape Learning - learning to do something that stops a negative thing. e.g. leaving classroom if it gets too noisy during break time

Avoidance Learning - learning to do something that stops a negative thing from happening. e.g. not spending time in room during break time because it might get too loud.

Punishment
Punishment - makes behaviour less likely

Positive punishment - adding a negative thing. e.g. punching your friend if they bother you Negative punishment (omission training) - taking away something good. e.g. dont study, parents take away T.V. privileges

Conditioning
Both punishment and reinforcement can be used to alter behaviour Shaping can be used to get subject to do what you want. When you reward small steps in the direction of the behaviour you want.

Conditioning
Chaining is similar to shaping, but here you reward in order to teach a number of ordered behaviours. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kfxI9HXA_8&fea ture=related

Shaping - to get to one complex behaviour, Chaining - to get multiple behaviours

Types of Reinforcers
Extinction, spontaneous recovery, discrimination and generalization also happens with operant conditioning Primary Reinforcers vs. Secondary Reinforcers Primary Reinforcers - are naturally reinforcing on their own. e.g. food, water, sleep, air, Secondary Reinforcers - things we have learned to value. e.g. praise, getting to watch a movie,

Types of Reinforcers
Generalized Reinforcers (a kind of secondary reinforcer) - are reinforcers that have been paired with other reinforcers, and are reinforcing because they can provide access to a lot of other reinforcers.

E.g. Money, tokens in token economy.

Types of Reinforcers
Token Economy - tokens that function as money given as reward for desired behaviour.
Used in experiments with people and animals (e.g. chimps) but also used practically in schools and prisons.

Premack Principle
Some people like some things but not others.
Dramas, reading, etc.

Premack Princ. - an enjoyed activity can be used to reinforce a less enjoyed activity (dependent on persons preferences) If you do _____, you can do ______

Reinforcement Schedules
Different rates of reinforcement are possible Ratio Schedules - reinforcement based on the number of times the behaviour happens Interval Schedules - reinforce based on how much time has passed Variable Schedules - change time or # of responses for each reward Fixed Schedules - same time or # of responses for each reward

Reinforcement Schedules
Those can be mixed to make: Fixed Ratio (FR) - the same number of behaviours will bring reward (e.g. every 5 behaviours (FR-5), every 10, every 7, etc

Variable Ratio (VR) - after different number of behaviours, give reward. (e.g. VR-10 - after 10, then 5, then 15, then 8, then 12 [10 is average])

Reinforcement Schedules
Fixed Interval (FI) - after a certain time, behaviour will be reinforced again. (e.g. you need to wait for one hour each time before youre rewarded again FI-60min)

Variable Interval (VI) - after different amounts of time the behaviour is rewarded again (e.g. after 10 min, 20 min, 13 min, 17 min, etc. [VI-15min])

Reinforcement Schedules
Partial-reinforcement effect - if you dont reward after each behaviour, it will be less likely to quickly go extinct.

Variable schedules are more resistant to extinction, but ratio schedules make the behaviour occur more often.

Biology and Operant Conditioning

It can be very hard to teach animals to do things that are very different from their normal behaviours.

called Instinctive Drift - behaviours drift towards their instinctive behaviours.

Cognitive Learning
Psychologists who believe that thinking (cognition) is involved in learning

Classical Conditioning - Contiguity (togetherness) Model (traditional classical; ignores thoughts) vs. Contingency Model - includes thinking; humans/animals form cognitive expectations that affect our learning

Example for Contingency Model

If dog 1 is given food along with a bell sound 20 times

And dog 2 is given food along with bell sound 20 times, but ALSO no food but bell 10 times, and food but no bell 10 times.

Dog 1 has stronger response, stronger learning, because this dog can more strongly expect the two to be connected. (Even though both have 20 pairings of food and bell)

Observational Learning (or Modelling)

Learning by watching. We can watch others behaviour, and learn how to do things, and what the consequences for those actions could be.

Studied by Albert Bandura - Classic Study - Bobo Dolls studies Children exposed to aggressive or non-aggressive play, and then allowed to play with the same toys.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHHdovKHDNU

Observational Learning (or Modelling)

Obs. Learning has two steps: observing, and mimicking.

Requires some kind of cognition. The image of the behaviour has to come into the mind of the observer if they are going to mimic.

Many worry a lot about observational learning because of violent media: TV, movies, video games, etc.

Latent Learning
Latent learning - Learning that remains hidden, until its needed.

Edward Tolman - study with rats in a maze. Some rats were rewarded, some were not. If not rewarded, they didnt do well, but they still learned about the maze. Therefore later when they were rewarded, they could do the maze more easily. They learned, but only applied the learning when they needed it.

Latent Learning

Abstract Learning
Learning about concepts, rather than just actions. Some evidence that animals can understand concepts. e.g. pigeons taught the concept of tree by rewarding if they pecked pictures of trees. Then when showed new trees, they would still peck the trees. They didnt just memorize, but seemed to understand what a tree was. Teaching to apply other mental concepts like samedifferent, or use math also possible.

Insight Learning
When you suddenly realize what the solution to a problem is. It doesnt seem like you went through a step by step process; you dont know, and then suddenly you know.

Some think this happens because of unconscious processing; brain works in the background. Remembering can seem to work this way too sometimes. e.g. someones name.

Insight Learning

Wolfgang Kohler studied learning in chimpanzees. Banana problem, they would mostly be unproductive, not seeming to try the trial and error method that would be supported by operant conditioning, then due to an insight, they would suddenly solve the problem.

Classical and Operant Conditioning Videos

Classical Conditioning situation from

The Office

And Operant Conditioning situation from

The Big Bang Theory

Learning
Classical, Operant, and Cognitive perspectives on learning can show us some of the basic principles of how we learn and start to form complicated behaviours.

Next well look at more complicated mental functioning, Cognition.