Learning

(Conditioning)

Learning is how we

Adapt

to the Environment • Learning— A relatively permanent change in behavior due to experience

Behaviorism • The view that psychology should restrict its efforts to studying observable behaviors, not mental processes.

• Founded by John Watson – Thought that all human behavior is a result of conditioning or a result of past experiences and environmental influences. – Claimed he could take any child and train him to become any type of specialist.

Classical Conditioning • A type of learning where a stimulus gains the power to cause a response because it

predicts

another stimulus that naturally produces that response • OR to put it simply: When an animal learns a natural reflexive response to something that it would NOT NORMALLY respond to.

• Learning by association

Stimulus-Response • Stimulus - anything in the environment that one can respond to • Response – any behavior or action

Stimulus-Response Relationship

Stimulus-Response Relationship

Classical Conditioning Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936)

Pavlov’s Dogs • Digestive reflexes and salivation • Psychic secretion

Pavlov’s Research Apparatus

Ivan Pavlov • Watch “Pavlov’s Discovery of Classical Conditioning” Video #6 from Worth’s Digital Media Archive for Psychology.

– 3:00 clip

Neutral Stimulus • Does not normally elicit (cause) a response or reflex action by itself – a color – a furry object • What was the NS in Pavlov’s Experiment?

•

Bell

Unconditioned Stimulus • Always elicits a reflex action: an unconditioned (unlearned) response – blast of air – Noise • • What was the UCS in Pavlov’s Experiment?

Food

Unconditioned Response • The automatic response to the unconditioned stimulus • A response to an unconditioned stimulus—

naturally occurring

& not learned – Eye blinks at blast of air – Startle reaction in babies • • What was the UCR in Pavlov’s Experiment?

Salivation

Conditioned (Learned) Stimulus • The stimulus that was originally neutral becomes conditioned after it has been paired with the unconditioned stimulus • Will eventually cause the unconditioned response by itself • • What was the CS in Pavlov’s Experiment?

Bell

Conditioned (Learned) Response • The original unconditioned response becomes conditioned after it has been caused by the neutral stimulus • Usually the same behavior as the UCR • • What was the CR in Pavlov’s Experiment?

Salivation

Pavlov’s Experiment

Pavlov’s Experiment

Pavlov’s Experiment

Classical Conditioning Terms • Acquisition • Extinction • Spontaneous recovery • Generalization • Discrimination training

Acquisition • The initial learning that takes place in the during stage of conditioning when the animal starts to associate the NS with the UCS.

• NS + UCS = UCR

Extinction • The diminishing of a learned response • When the CS is continually presented without the UCS then the CR will eventually begin to disappear.

Spontaneous Recovery • The reappearance, after a rest period, of an extinguished conditioned response • After a period of time if the CS is presented, the CR returns.

• Learning may disappear but is not eliminated.

Spontaneous Recovery

Generalization • Process in which an organism produces the same CR to two similar stimuli (CS) • The more

similar

the substitute stimulus is to the original used in conditioning, the stronger the generalized response

Discrimination • Ability of an animal to not respond to a new CS that is

too different

from the original CS.

• The subject learns that one stimuli predicts the UCS and the other does not.

John B. Watson and Little Albert • 11-month-old infant • Watson and his assistant, Rosalie Rayner, classically conditioned Albert to be frightened of white rats • Led to questions about experimental ethics To Watch a Short Video on Watson and the Little Albert experiment (4:00) click HERE.

Little Albert – Before Conditioning •Watch “Watson’s Little Albert” Video #7a from Worth’s Digital Media Archive for Psychology.

– 13 seconds

Little Albert – During Conditioning

Little Albert – After Conditioning •Watch “Watson’s Little Albert” Video #7b from Worth’s Digital Media Archive for Psychology.

– 14 seconds

Little Albert - Generalization •Watch “Watson’s Little Albert” Video #7c from Worth’s Digital Media Archive for Psychology.

– 17 seconds

Could Little Albert’s Fear Have Been Undone?

• YES!!! Through

Counter Conditioning

!

• Must pair the conditioned stimulus (Rat) with something that is incompatible with fear (Candy).

BEFORE: Rat Fear CS = CR DURING: Rat Candy Happy CS + UCS = UCR AFTER: Rat Not Scared CS = New CR Candy Happy UCS = UCR

How is classical conditioning involved in the placebo effect?

• Individual expects a drug will work a certain way and have a psychological and physiological reaction to it.

• Regular use may produce “placebo response” where user associates sight, smell, taste with drug effect

Cognition and Biological Predispositions

Robert Rescorla (1940 ) • Developed a theory emphasizing the importance of cognitive/mental processes in classical conditioning • Pointed out that subjects had to determine (think) whether the NS/CS was a reliable predictor of the UCS

Rescorla’s Experiment When the rats in group 2 could not reliably predict when the shocks would occur the result was they didn’t learn to fear the tone. This shows they were using cognitive processes!

Evolutionary Perspective

Biological Preparedness • We are predisposed to learn things that affect our survival.

• Internal stimuli—associate better with taste • External stimuli—associate better with pain • The majority of phobias are about objects of natural importance to the survival of the species. • Animals seem to be biologically prepared to fear certain types of stimuli that represent natural threats to survival.

– We are predisposed to avoid threats our ancestors faced- food that made us sick, storms, heights, snakes, etc.

– But not modern-day threats--cars, water pollution, etc.

John Garcia (1917- ) Taste Aversion • Rats drank flavored water (NS) and

hours

later were given a shot with a drug (UCS) that made them sick (UCR). The rats

refused

to drink the flavored water again.

• Subjects become classically conditioned to avoid specific tastes, because the tastes are associated with nausea.

**Differs from other Classical Conditioning in that: •It did not require repeated pairings of a NS and UCS. •The time span between the two was a few hours.

•Rats were conditioned to

taste

and not anything else that occurred in the hours between when they drank the flavored water and got sick.

How Taste Aversion Works: BEFORE Flavored Water NS = No Response DURING: Flavored Water Drug Nausea NS + UCS = UCR AFTER: Flavored Water Avoidance CS = CR Drug Nausea UCS = UCR

Flooding as a Cure for Phobias (example of extinction) • When a fear is disproportionate to the harm it could cause, psychologists could use flooding to cure phobias.

• Expose person to the harmless stimulus repeatedly until fear becomes extinct.

• Drawbacks of this technique?

Systematic Desensitization • People are taught relaxation techniques and are gradually exposed to the stimulus causing fear.

• Example: Pictures of the stimulus (snakes), the actual stimulus far away, the stimulus closer, and finally holding/touching a snake.

• All the while, they are pairing the experience with something NOT fearful and hopefully relaxing • How Classical Conditioning is used for curing phobias: Virtual Systematic Desensitization – video clip #31 from Scientific American Frontiers (9:31).