sahs - edlb. f. skinner •extended and formalized many of thorndike’s ideas •operant...

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Learning

SAHS

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Learning

• Classical Conditioning: Learning Signals and Associations

• Instrumental and Operant Conditioning

• Cognitive Processes in Learning

• Using Research on Learning to Help People Learn

• Linked Exercises

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What Is Learning?

• Adapting to new environments and circumstances

• A relatively permanent change in behavior and understanding due to experience

• What we want to know: – Which events and relationships do people learn about?

– What circumstances determine whether and how people learn?

– Is learning a slow process requiring lots of practice, or does it involve sudden flashes of insight?

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Non-Associative Learning

• Learning results from the influence of one particular stimulus

– Not the result of learning to associate one stimulus with another

• Solomon’s Opponent Process Theory – New stimuli disrupt equilibrium

– Opposite process restores homeostasis

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Learning About Stimuli

• Habituation decreases responses to unchanging stimuli over time – Habituation is simplest form of learning

– You get used to background noise over time

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Learning About Stimuli

• Sensitization leads to exaggerated responses to unexpected events – Especially if emotionally aroused

– Look for examples in audience reactions to scary or exciting movies

Back to TOC

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Classical Conditioning: Learning Signals and

Associations

How did Russian dogs teach psychologists about learning?

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Pavlov’s Discovery

Classical conditioning

• Natural stimulus causes a reflex – Food causes salivation

• Natural stimulus is paired with a neutral stimulus – Provide food and a tone

together

• Neutral stimulus soon generates the same reaction as the original stimulus – Tone causes salivation

Pavlov’s apparatus for measuring conditioned responses

Jump to Classical Conditioning

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Possibilities After Conditioning

• Extinction – Acquired behavior fades

over time

– Not really gone—just suppressed

• Reconditioning – Relearning acquired

behavior is faster than original conditioning

• Spontaneous recovery – Extinguished behavior

suddenly reappears

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Stimulus Generalization

• Stimuli resembling the conditioned stimulus also evoke the conditioned response – Greater similarity yields

greater response

• Adaptive advantages – Avoid things similar to

known dangers

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Stimulus Discrimination

• Differentiate among similar stimuli – Complementary process to stimulus generalization

– Responding to your own dog’s bark, not another’s

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Signaling of Significant Events

• What determines whether conditioned responses are learned?

– Responses develop when one event signals the appearance of another event

– Responses are based on information provided by conditioned stimuli

• Reliable signaling allows development of mental representations of relationships between events

• Important for adaptation and survival

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Factors Influencing the Learning of Conditioned Responses

• Timing – Forward conditioning

– Backward conditioning

– Simultaneous conditioning

• Predictability

• Intensity of the signal

• Attention

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Factors Affecting the Learning of a Conditioned Response (cont’d)

• Biopreparedness – Conditioned taste aversions

– Fear of snakes or spiders

• Higher-order conditioning – If doctor’s white coat predicts injection pain,

– and pharmacist wears a white coat,

– then a person may begin to fear the drug store.

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Some Applications of Classical Conditioning

• Classical conditioning may play a role in the development of phobias

• Demonstrated by John B. Watson’s experiments with Little Albert

• Little Albert was conditioned to fear a white rat by pairing a loud noise with reaching for a rat.

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VIDEO: Little Albert

LittleAlbert.mov

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Some Applications of Classical Conditioning

• Overcoming phobias

– Inhibitory conditioning • Having a friend nearby may reduce anxiety

– Systematic desensitization • Association of relaxation with the feared stimulus

• Pioneered by Joseph Wolpe

– Intensive exposure therapy • Flooding with the feared stimulus to reduce fear response

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More Applications of Classical Conditioning

• Predator control – Stuffed dummies give

tigers an electric shock (UCS), which they learn to associate with the human form. Humans become a CS for fear.

• Detecting explosives – Insects display an

attraction to the smell of explosives when that smell has been paired with the smell of sugar water.

Back to TOC

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Instrumental and Operant Conditioning

Behavior is Controlled by its Consequences

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Edward L. Thorndike

• Studied animals’ intelligence and ability to solve problems – Puzzle box

• What were Thorndike’s cats learning? – Instrumental conditioning

– Law of effect

• Rewards strengthen responses

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B. F. Skinner

• Extended and formalized many of Thorndike’s ideas

• Operant conditioning – Learn responses by operating on the environment

• Analyzed how behavior is changed by its consequences – Skinner box

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VIDEO: Rat in a Skinner Box

RatSkinnerBox.mov

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Basic Components of Operant Conditioning

• Operant – A behavior that has some effect on the world

• Reinforcer – Positive reinforcers

– Negative reinforcers

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Positive and negative reinforcers

• Any organism’s basic motivations – Maximize pleasure

– Minimize pain

Reinforcement

Positive Give $$ (maximize pleasure)

Negative No chores (minimize pain)

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Escape Conditioning

• Learning to end painful stimuli – The dog jumps over a barrier to

escape from a painful electric shock

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Avoidance Conditioning

• Responding to a signal to avoid a painful stimulus – The dog hears a signal which indicates a coming shock

– The dog jumps away before the shock is administered

• Based on expectancy

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Stimulus Discrimination

• Discriminative conditioned stimuli – Indicate conditions for reinforcement

• Telling a joke at a party is probably OK

• Telling a joke at a funeral is probably not

• The rat knows that its reward is only found behind doors with vertical stripes

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Stimulus Generalization

• You enjoy a restaurant with a pirate theme

• You are likely to try other, similar restaurants

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Forming and Strengthening Operant Behavior

• Shaping – Successive approximations

of the target behavior

• Reinforcement – Primary reinforcers

• Food

• Water

– Secondary reinforcers (Conditioned reinforcers)

• Money

• Praise

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Delay and Size of Reinforcement

• Timing – Reinforcement strongest when following response

• Size of reinforcer – Bigger is better

• Reinforcement schedules

– Continuous

– Partial (intermittent)

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Continuous Reinforcement

• Continuous – Reinforce every correct response

– Very fast learning

– Very fast extinction

“Oh, not bad. The light comes on, I press the bar, they write me a check. How about you?”

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Partial Reinforcement Schedules

• Fixed Ratio – Reinforce fixed # of correct responses

• Fixed Interval – Reinforce at fixed time intervals

• Variable Ratio – Reinforce unpredictable, changing # of correct responses

• Variable Interval – Reinforce at unpredictable, changing time intervals

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Schedules and Extinction

• Partial reinforcement effect – Partial reinforcement makes

behaviors resistant to extinction

• Superstitious behavior

• Gambling

• Choose reinforcement schedule based on – Time behavior needs to last

– Time available for training

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Why Do Reinforcers Work?

• Premack’s principle – Reinforcing a less desired behavior with a more

desired one • After eating your veggies you get dessert

– Response deprivation may enhance reinforcement quality of some behaviors

• Biological approach

– Primary reinforcers satisfy biological needs

– Stimulation of pleasure centers in the brain

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Punishment

• Reduces the frequency of an operant behavior – Punishment 1—maximize pain

– Punishment 2—minimize pleasure

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Drawbacks of Punishment

• Does not “erase” an undesirable habit

• Can produce unwanted side effects

• Often ineffective unless:

– Given immediately after undesirable behavior

– Given each time the behavior occurs (continuous schedule)

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Drawbacks of Punishment

• Can become aggression if given in anger

• May generate aggression in punished children

• Indicates wrong behavior, not expected behavior

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Guidelines for Effective Punishment

• Specify why punishment is being given

• Emphasize that the behavior, not the person, is being punished

• Should be immediate and noticeable

– Escalation effect problem

• Identify and reinforce appropriate responses

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Some Applications of Operant Conditioning

• Helping children to learn appropriate behavior

• Developing treatment programs – Addressing addictions

– Stopping procrastination

• Techniques include – Token economy programs

– Stimulus control therapy

Jump to Linkages Back to TOC

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Cognitive Processes in Learning

How do thoughts affect learning?

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Cognitive View of Learning

• Mental activity plays a role in learning

• Learning is affected by:

– The nature of the stimuli we experience and

– Our expectations about the stimuli

– The meaning we attach to events

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Learned Helplessness

Giving up any effort to control the environment

• Based on experience that no control is possible

– Operant behaviors do not affect outcomes

• First demonstrated in animals by Seligman

Jump to Focus On Research Methods

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Latent Learning

• Posited by Edward Tolman

• Put 3 groups of rats in a maze

– A: Reinforced every day

– B: Never reinforced

– C: Reinforced only after day 11

• Conclusions

– Group C rats could not learn the maze in 1 day

– They formed a cognitive map of the maze

Tolman & Honzik (1930)

• We all form cognitive maps of our homes, neighborhoods, and other places where we spend a lot of time

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Insight Learning

Wolfgang Köhler studied problem solving by chimps

• After solving a problem, they used that solution for like problems

• Chimps rarely tried a solution that didn’t work out

• The animals often reached a solution suddenly

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Observational Learning

• Learning by watching others – Also called social learning

• May rely on activity of mirror neurons

• Children use adults and peers as models

• Important in the socialization process

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• Bandura’s Bobo doll studies

Jump to Thinking Critically

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From Bandura, A., Ross, et al (1963) “Imitation of

film-mediated aggressive models”. Journal of

Abnormal and Social Psychology, 66 3-11.

Reprinted with permission of the author.

Vicarious Experience

Bandura found that:

• Children were more likely to model adults who were praised for their actions

• Less likely to model adults who were punished

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Back to TOC

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Using Research on Learning

to Help People Learn

What should teachers learn about learning?

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Classrooms Across Cultures

• U.S. – Teachers lecture

– Individuals work independently

– Feedback is delayed

– Relatively little time spent in school and on homework

• Japan – Teachers work with students one-on-one

– Students work together cooperatively

– Feedback is immediate

– Much time spent in school and on homework

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Active Learning

Medical students and doctors use virtual reality systems to practice surgical skills

• Methods include:

• In-class writing

• Hands-on projects

• Small group work

• Virtual reality systems

• Clickers

• Results in

• Better learning

• Better test scores

• Makes classes more interesting and enjoyable

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Skill Learning

– Practice is critical to the mastery of a skill • Should go beyond mastery to overlearning

– Feedback is also needed • Must be enough, but not too much

• Timing is important

Back to TOC

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Linked Exercises

• Focus on Research Methods: An Experiment on Human

Helplessness

• Thinking Critically: Does Watching Violence on Television

Make People More Violent?

• Linkages: Neural Networks and Learning

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Focus on Research Methods: An Experiment on Human Helplessness

• What was the researcher’s question?

– Would people develop learned helplessness after

• experiencing lack of control

• being told their control was limited

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• How did the researcher answer the question?

– Phase 1: • Group 1: Could not stop random bursts of noise

• Group 2: Could turn off noise by pressing a button

• Group 3: Heard no noise

– Phase 2: All could stop noise if fast enough • Half told it depended on their skill

• Half told it was a matter of chance

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• What did the researcher find?

– Those who previously lacked control failed to control the noise more often than the control group

– Expectation of control also had an effect on behavior

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• What do the results mean?

– Like animals, people tend to make less effort to control environment if prior experience suggests there is no control

– Unlike animals, humans need only to be told they have no control for same effect to occur

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• What do we still need to know? – When and how learned helplessness affects people

• Linked to pessimistic explanatory style

– Can learned mastery come from repeated success? • Could lead to resiliency training

Jump to Learned Helplessness Back to Linked Exercises

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Thinking Critically: Does Watching Violence on Television Make People More Violent?

• What am I being asked to believe or accept?

– Watching TV violence causes violent behavior

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Thinking Critically: Does Watching Violence on Television Make People More Violent?

• Is evidence available to support the assertion? – Anecdotes and case studies

– Correlational studies

– Experimental studies in controlled settings

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Thinking Critically: Does Watching Violence Make People More Violent? (cont’d)

• Can that evidence be interpreted another way?

– Anecdotal reports and case

studies are open to different interpretations

– Correlation is not cause • Another factor may cause this

relationship

– Problems with generalizing experimental results

“I have HAD it with you two and your violent video games”

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• What evidence would help evaluate the alternatives?

– Further evidence from controlled experiments

• Include tests with prosocial TV programs

• Potential ethical problems

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• What conclusions are most reasonable?

– Watching violent TV does not inevitably cause people to become violent

– TV violence may be one cause of violent behavior, especially in some children

Jump to Observational Learning Back to Linked Exercises

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Linkages: Neural Networks and Learning

• Connectionist models may explain how associations are stored

– Neural network models

– Parallel distributed processing models

• Knowledge is distributed throughout a network of associations

• Focus is on how connections are developed through experience

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An Associative Network

• This diagram represents patterns of neural connections in the brain

• A network of associations connects the letters D, O, and G, along with other dog-related experiences

• Each nodes is also connected to many others – D connects to daisy, danger, and many other concepts

Jump to Operant Conditioning Back to Linked Exercises

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Linked Examples

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Classical Conditioning

Jump to Pavlov’s Discovery

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In Class Writing Exercises

• Place one at the start of your presentation.

• Have your students write for a minute or two about the quote on the slide.

• This will help them center themselves on the topic to be covered in class.

• You may wish to use their responses to generate class discussion.

The following slides may be used as advance organizers for the topics in this unit.

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In Class Writing Exercise:

A moment’s insight is sometimes worth a lifetime’s experience.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

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Behavior is controlled by its consequences.

B.F. Skinner

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My teachers saw me at once backward and precocious, reading books beyond my years and yet at the bottom of the Form. They were offended. They had large resources of compulsion at their disposal, but I was stubborn. Where my reason, imagination or interest were not engaged, I would not or I could not learn.

Winston Churchill

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Man is infinitely modifiable.

E.L. Thorndike

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Personally I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.

Winston Churchill

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Give me half a dozen healthy infants and my own world to bring them up in, and I will guarantee to turn each one of them into any kind of man you please.

John B. Watson

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It doesn’t make much difference what you study, as long as you don’t like it.

Finley Peter Dunne

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Nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.

Oscar Wilde

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The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.

John Powell

sahs - edlb. f. skinner •extended and formalized many of thorndike’s ideas •operant...

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