Chapter 9Principles of Learning

Principles of Learning You walk into a kitchen and smell your favorite food.

- What physically happens to you? - What happens mentally?

What is learning? Learning

- lasting changes in behavior that occur as a result of practice or past experiences - acquiring the ability to do something that you haven’t done before - use an ability in a different way

Not all behavior is learned - reflex

• blinking when a puff of air hits your eye • crawling • changes in voice (adolescent boys)

Classical Conditioning Classical Conditioning

- learning situation in which a certain stimulus brings forth a response that it did not previously evoke - Ivan Pavlov

• studies the salivating of dogs • How did the experiment work?

Classical Conditioning The Experiment

- a dog was placed in an apparatus that would measure the flow of saliva when being presented with food

- a tube was attached to the mouth to measure saliva - powdered meat was placed in the dogs mouth

Classical Conditioning Pavlov’s Dogs

- Unconditioned Response (UCR): Flow of saliva • occurs normally with no learning necessary

- Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): the meat • normal, unlearned agent for causing salivation

Classical Conditioning What is the natural response to each stimulus listed below? (What happens)

Stimulus -------------------------------------------------------------------Response - a dog sees food ------------------------------> - a baby hears a loud unfamiliar noise ------------------------> - you put your hand on a lit candle ---------------------------> - your teacher yells at you ----------------------------->

Are the responses you wrote conditioned or unconditioned? Why?

Design your own example of an unconditioned stimulus followed by an unconditional response (something you do automatically).

Stimulus: ____________________ Response: _____________________

Classical Conditioning Pavlov’s Dogs

- Next, Pavlov rang a bell just and gave the dog the meat immediately after - Then he sounded the bell without giving the dog the meat

• he found that the dog still salivated even though the dog was not given the meat

- Conditioned Stimulus (CS): sound of the bell • a new stimulus that originally did not cause a response

- Conditioned Response (CR): salivating at the sound of the bell • a similar response to a new stimuli

Classical Conditioning http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhqumfpxuzI (Pavlov’s Dogs)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE8pFWP5QDM (The Office)

Classical Conditioning In the following examples, the unconditioned stimulus is paired repeatedly with

a neutral stimulus. What is the response to the pair stimuli?

Unconditioned Stimulus + Neutral Stimulus = Response

1. a dog sees food a bell rings =2. a baby hears a loud a toy appears =

unfamiliar noise 3. a hand is raised to slap a light flashes =

your face 4. you put your hand on a door slams =

a lit candle 5. You teacher yells at the teacher

you taps a pencil =

Classical Conditioning Are the responses you wrote conditioned or unconditioned? Why?

Design your own example of an unconditioned stimulus that is paired with a neutral stimulus and generate a response.

USC _________________ + NS __________________= R ________________

Classical Conditioning Conditioned Response

- What is the Conditioned Response (CR) to each of the conditioned stimulus (CS)? Conditioned Stimulus Conditioned Response

1. the dog hears a bell ---------------------> 2. a baby gets a toy ------------------------> 3. a light flashes ----------------------------> 4. a door slams -----------------------------> 5. your teacher taps a pencil ----------->

Are the responses you wrote conditioned or unconditioned? Why?

Design your own using your previous example.

HOMEWORK and QUIZ WS: Learning to Learn

WS: Classical Conditioning ExamplesQUIZ TOMORROW!

Classical Conditioning Counter-Conditioning

- conditioning the stimulus to a different response - used to get rid of certain, unwanted behaviors - EX: alcohol - can be given a drug that makes a person nauseous

- criticized for NOT treating the cause, just the symptoms EX: weight loss

Avoidance Conditioning - when an organism is taught to to avoid a stimulus

Classical Conditioning Baby Albert Experiment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hBfnXACsOI

Classical Conditioning Extinction and Spontaneous Recovery

- extinction: when the learner stops responding to a stimuli • is not always permanent

o EX: War veterans - spontaneous recovery: reappearance of the conditioned response

without reinforcement after a period of extinction

Classical Conditioning Reinforcement

- presenting the UCS immediately after the CS - faster learning

- Intermittent Reinforcement: occasional rather than continuous reinforcement

• EX: Gambler

Classical Conditioning Intermittent Reinforcement Schedules

- ratio schedule: depends on the number of correct responses • 2 types

o fixed ratio: reinforced after a set number of correct responses (every 5th correct response)

o variable ratio: number of responses between reinforcement varies

- interval schedule: reinforcement is determined between responses (TIME)• 2 types

o fixed interval: response is reinforced after a set number of times

o variable interval: time varies throughout the conditioning process

Classical Conditioning Generalizations

- a conditioned response to stimuli similar to the original stimuli EX: different tones to Pavlov’s dogs

Discrimination- tendency to respond to a particular stimulus one way and respond to a similar one another way

EX: the term “Daddy” being applied to a particular person

Operant Conditioning Suppose you want to train your dog. How would you train your dog to sit? or

fetch?

Operant conditioning - strengthening a stimulus-response relationship by following the response with reinforcement

Operant Conditioning Classical Conditioning vs.

Operant Conditioning

stimulus -> reinforcement -> response stimulus -> response -> reinforcement

Reinforcement is given before the Reinforcement followed a correct responseresponse and helps cause the response

Subject is passive and reacts only when a Subject is active and operates on the stimulus is introduced environment

The specific unconditioned stimulus is The specific unconditioned stimulus is unknown unknown

Operant Conditioning Programmed Learning

- an instruction method that uses the operant conditioning techniques of presenting an organism with a stimulus

• organism responds and receives reinforcement for a correct response

Video: Big Bang Theory http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt4N9GSBoMI

Operant ConditioningWS: Operant Conditioning WS: How do we learn?

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8vIbuoktew

Operant Conditioning Shaping Experiment - I need a volunteer to leave the classroom for a minute….

- Shaping • the experimenter rewards an organism each time it makes a response

that is close to the desired response

Reinforcement Positive Reinforcement

- strengthens a response by its presence - operant conditioning relies on reinforcement

Negative Reinforcement - strengthens a response with its absence - a reverse reward

Reinforcement Secondary Reinforcement

- a stimulus that has been associated w/ something that satisfies a need - EX: Money

• to maintain a family, individuals must provide food, clothing, shelter etc.

o Money does not give them these things but they can buy the things with money

Reinforcement Role of Punishment

- Punishment: providing negative stimulus after a behavior has occurred