Skyline General Psychology, Fall 2015

1. Learning
Meghan Fraley, PhD
Theories and Principles of Learning and
Behavior

2. Learning Autobiography
Difficulties
Joys
Passions
Future
How did you learn?
Are you a self-motivated learner?

3. Theories of Learning
Learning
Classical
Conditioning
Operant
Conditioning
Social
Learning
Theory

4. The Behaviorists
Pavlov, Watson, Thorndike, Skinner

5. Classical or Pavlovian Conditioning
We learn to associate two stimuli
S R
A stimulus is
presented
in order to get
a response:

6. Altoid?

7. CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

8. Pavlov: Reflexes and Dogs

9. Conditioning Life Example:
Nausea in Cancer Patients
UCS
(drug)
UCR
(nausea)
NS
(waiting
room)
CS
(waiting
room) CR
(nausea)
UCS
(drug)
UCR
(nausea)
Neutral Stimulus (NS)
Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)
Unconditioned Response (UCR)
Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
Conditioned Response (CR)
Unconditioned ~ Innate
Conditioned ~ Learned

10. Timing is Everything!
Delay Conditioning (Standard Pairing):
• CS precedes US and overlaps
Trace Conditioning:
• CS precedes Us with short break
Temporal Conditioning:
• Time is the CS. US is presented at a time interval
Simultaneous Conditioning:
• NS and US completely overlap
Backward Conditioning:
• US precedes NS
True conditioning only occurs when the CS (bell) is presented before the US (food)
Weakerconditionedresponding

11. Is Fear a Conditioned Response?
Watson and Baby Albert

12. Stimulus Generalization
Watson and Little Albert: Little Albert was afraid of bunnies!
Stimulus
Generalization
• Tendency for a
stimuli similar to
CS to evoke
similar responses

13. How do we Unlearn?
Classical Extinction
To unlearn a conditioned response, we repeatedly present the
conditioned stimulus with unconditioned stimulus

14. Do you REALLY Unlearn?
Spontaneous Recovery
During extinction trials, after a brief rest period, the conditioned
response often briefly reappears.

15. Discrimination
Learning to discriminate between two similar neutral stimuli
when only one is paired with the unconditioned stimulus (US)
Experimental Neurosis: Making stimulus discrimination too
difficult may cause agitation. Later, if returned to original
mastered discrimination, dog is no longer able to discriminate.

16. Stimulus Discrimination: Your Turn

17. Pseudoconditioning
Accidental learning caused by inadvertent pairing or heightened
arousal.
UCS
(passionate
kiss) UCR
(sexual
arousal)
CS
(onion
breath)
CS
(onion
breath) CR
(sexual
arousal)
UCS
(passionate
Kiss) UCR
(sexual
arousal)

18. Habituation
Becoming accustomed to an unconditioned stimulus (US). It no
longer evokes the unconditioned response (UR).
• Only related to unconditioned stimuli/response

19. Wolpe: Reciprocal Inhibition
Inhibit anxiety by eliciting a
feeling or response that is not
compatible with the feeling of
anxiety.

20. Classical Conditioning Applied:
Systematic Desensitization
Different levels of anxiety
Systematic Desensitization: Outgrowth of Reciprocal Inhibition

21. In Vivo Exposure with Response
Prevention (Extinction)
• 45 Minutes of Flooding
• Expose person to feared
stimulus
• Absence of Feared
Association
• Do not permit
avoidance/escape

22. OPERANT CONDITIONING
We learn as a result of reward and punishment.
Operant conditioning explains Voluntary behavior
AKA: Instrumental Conditioning

23. Thorndike’s Law of Effect

24. Thorndike: Cat’s in the Puzzle Box
How is a new skill learned?

25. Reinforcement and Punishment
Positive Reinforcement = Reward
Negative Reinforcement = Relief
Positive Punishment = Pain
Negative Punishment = Loss
Positive = Added
Negative = Taken Away

26. Classical versus Operant Conditioning
Classical
Conditioning:
Automatic responses
•Is the organism learning associations
between events that it doesn't control?
•Respondent behavior: Dogs automatically
salivate over meat, then bell- no thinking
involved.
Operant
Conditioning
Behavior determines
consequences
•Is the organism learning associations
between its behavior and resulting events?
•Operant behavior: Behaviors influence the
environment and have consequences. Dog
learns to roll over to get treat

27. Name that Learning Strategy

28. Name that Learning Strategy Part 2

29. Schedules of Reinforcement
1. Continuous
Satiation
Thinning
Satiation
Fixed Interval (FI) Variable Interval (VI)
Fixed Ratio (FR) Variable Ratio (VR)
2. Intermittent

30. Reinforcement Schedules
Thinning  Graduate!

31. Reinforcement Schedules Graph

32. Operant Conditioning & Gaming

33. Operant Extinction
Ceasing to reinforce behavior
that has previously been
reinforced.

34. Shaping by Successive
Approximations
Shaping:
• Shaping involves reinforcing successive approximations to the desired behavior

35. Chaining:
OperantConditioningandComplexBehaviors
Chaining:
• Chaining is used to establish complex behaviors that consist of
responses that must be linked together to form a “behavior change”
• Stringing behaviors to accomplish goal

36. Name that Learning Theory
Operant or Classical Conditioning?

37. Social Learning Theory
Reciprocal Determinism:
Interactive triad of
person/behavior/environmen
t regulate behavior.
Bandura posited that
observational learning
requires four steps:
1. Attention
2. Retention
3. Production
4. Motivation

38. The Bobo doll experiment

39. Social Learning Theory: Factors
Influencing Strength
Research indicates that the following factors
influence the strength of learning from models:
1. How much power the
model seems to have
2. How capable the model
seems to be
3. How nurturing (caring)
the model seems to be
4. How similar the learner
perceives self and model
5. How many models the
learner observes

40. Reflect/Journal: Your Learning
Process
Do you enjoy learning? Why or why not?
Do you feel confident in your ability to learn?
What is your favorite thing to learn about? Why?
What have been bad experiences you have had with learning?
What is the point of going to school for you? Why is it important
to you to be here at Skyline learning?

41. Learning Theory & Teaching

42. Learning Theory Overview
1. Classical Conditioning
• -Pavlov, Reflexes
2. Operant Conditioning
• -Reinforcement/Punishment
3. Social Learning Theory

43. Are these experiments ethical?
What ever happened to Baby Albert?

44. Learning Concepts to Know
Concepts
Habituation
Classical Conditioning
Instrumental Conditioning
Observational Learning
Varieties of Learning