CHAPTER 6: LEARNING - Learning: Changes in behavior or knowledge that take place after ones experience - Supertitions: A behavior that

occurred as a result of obtaining a reward after engaging in a behavior - Operant conditioning: Learning connections made between events that occurred in an organisms environment. <this explains superstitions actually - Phobia: an irrational fears specific objects or situations (classical conditioning) 1) CLASSICAL CONDITIONING (Pavlovian Conditioning) Definition: stimulus earned the ability to evoke a reaction that was originally evoked by another stimulus 1.1 Pavlovs Demonstration: Psychic Reflexes - particularly his work shows that stimuli in the external world shape our behavior and actions -- association could be built up in consciousness 1.2 Terminology and Procedures - Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS/US) a stimulus that evokes an unconditioned response (UCR) without previous conditioning << means that this is the first time such exposure has been made - Unconditioned Responses (UCR) an unlearned reaction that has been evoked by an exposure to an unconditioned stimuli without previous conditioning - Conditioned Stimuli (CS)- a neutral stimuli that has been previously conditioned and has the capacity to evoke a conditioned response (CR) - Conditioned response (CR)- is a learned reaction that is evoked by Conditioned stimuli that exist due to previous conditioning - Psychic Reflex is also known as conditional reflex; the reflect is already known from a relationship of CR and CS - Trial in classical conditioning: any presentation of a stimuli or in pair 1.3 Classical Conditioning in Everyday Life 1.3.A Conditioned Fear and Anxiety - occurred because of previous experience or have been told/feared with negative image of an act -- e.g: fear of riding a plane, fear of bridge because dad told a bad story - a stimulus is paired to create a feared image

1.3.B Evaluative Conditioning of Attitudes (Behaviour) - Evaluative conditioning: changes in preference towards stimuli that is resulted from pairing that stimuli with other positive/negative stimulus - Used by advertisers to promote their product -- nice looking girl, nice music to create positive stimuli to the consumer - suggestion from studies: attitudes can be shaped through evaluative conditioning without participants conscious awareness - suggestion from other studies: awareness is needed for evaluative conditioning - agreement: evaluative conditioning shapes peoples attitudes 1.3.C Conditioning and Physiological Responses - classical conditioning also affects ones physiological process - immunosupression: body activity that reduces the lower the antibodies production -- e.g: a chemical substance (US) that emits immunosupression effect is administered to a dog and it is given a drink (CS). Experiment is repeated without injection but only the drink (CS) and the result shown the drop in the dogs antibodies production - others: allergic reaction, drug tolerance, withdrawal symptoms, sexual arousal - Drug tolerance -- consuming drugs causes body to produce compensatory responses in an attempt to compensate the effects of the drug on the body -- the greater the compensatory responses (CCR), the more of the drug needed to produce same effect > explains tolerance - classical conditioning may also produce fetishes for inanimate objects 1.3.D Conditioning and Drug Effects - the CCR helps to maintain homeostasis (internal balance) in physiological processes - the drug administering process will eventually become the Conditioned Stimuli (CS) ; stopping from taking drug will cause the withdrawal effect - As the drug is administered more and more often, and the CCR grows in the strength, the attenuation of the drug becomes more pronounced -- this occurs when the CCR strengthen and they neutralize more of the drugs effect, they produce drug users unresponsiveness towards the drug (drug tolerance) 1.4 Basic Processes in Classical Conditioning - conditioned response are reflexive and difficult to control 1.4.A Acquisition: Forming New Responses - Acquisition: the initial stage of learning something

Stimulus contiguity (degree of sameness) - stimuli are contiguous if they occur together in time and space - theorists: contiguity alone doesnt necessitate the process of conditioning - Instead: stimuli that are novel, unusual, intense have more potential to be the CS because they stand out more < not everything paired together will emit CS, the one that stand out will! 1.4.B Extinction: Weakening Conditioned Responses - extinction: the gradual weakening and disappearance of a conditioned response tendency -- method: the consistent presentation of the CS without the US (bell w/o meat) -- example: Pavlov only present the tone without the meat and the dogs salivating reduced over the time 1.4.C Spontaneous Recovery: Resurrecting Responses - Spontaneous recovery: the resurrection of a conditioned response tendency after a period of nonexposure to the CS (response to bell after so long never been exposed) -- method: an exposure to the CS after a period of nonexposure brings back the conditioned response tendency reaction (CR back alive) - nonetheless, the reaction is lower than the previous continuos exposure - Renewal effect: if a response is extinguished in a different environment than it was acquired, the extinguished response will reappear if the animal is returned to the original environment where acquisition took place << so you make the effect disappear in other place and then make the effect appear in the original place of conditioning - significance: extinction somehow suppresses a conditioned response rather than erasing a learned association. - extinction does not lead to unlearning - renewal effect is one of the reasons why conditioned fears and phobias are difficult to extinguish 1.5 Stimulus Generalization and the Mysterious Case of Little Albert Figure: John B. Watson and Rayson Rayner - its considered unethical as the kid is affected emotionally (scare tactic) - Stimulus generalization: when an organism learn to response to stimuli similar to the original stimulus (click sound and stapler sound / bridge and other similar bridge) Law of governing generalization: The similar the stimulus to the original CS, the higher the generalization -Effect: causes panic disorder which is the result of overgeneralization fear towards one thing is brought to something else similar

1.5.A Stimulus Discrimination - the case applies to same CR but subject respond to similar CS differently- subject might fear the original CS but not to the similar CS - Stimulus discrimination: subject doesnt give the same response when exposed to stimuli similar to the original stimulus -- this happens when subject has enough experience with both type of stimuli and knows how to differentiate them (like dog waiting for the owners car, it knows how to differentiate the owners car and car owned by someone else) - Law of Discrimination: the less similar the unconditioned stimuli (UCS) to the conditioned stimuli, the greater the likeliness for the subject to discriminate (distinguish) the UCS -- need a very distinct feature to differentiate the original stimuli with the new UCS 1.5.B Higher-Order Conditioning - occurs when a stimulus that has undergone a conditioning and after that it is paired with something else (another new stimulus), the exposure of the new stimulus will condition it and enable it to obtain similar reaction from the subject - foundation: need an established CR to enable new CS to gain similar CR too - Higher-order definition: when a conditioned stimulus (the new stimulus that has been exposed) is able to function as the unconditioned stimulus (CS >> UCS: it can emits same reaction when UCS is present) -- meat elicits saliva >> clicker exposed with meat powder enables clicker to be the conditioned stimulus >> light exposed with the clicker enables the light to be unconditioned stimulus and then emit the same saliva releasing response 1.5.C Recent Directions in Pavlovian Conditioning - associative learning: role played by amygdala and cerebellum and in Pavlonian fear and eyeblink conditioning respectively - Ap Djiksterhuis (subliminal conditioning) : raise peoples self-esteem level 2. OPERANT CONDITIONING (Instrumental Learning) - the response is dependent on the consequences - figure: B.F Skinner (the proponent of behaviorism) - figure: Edward L. Thorndike : introduced instrumental learning 2.1 Thorndikes Law of Effect - if response to something leads to satisfying effect (consequences), association between the stimulus and the response increase >> there will be more tendency to repeat the action to earn the reward 2.2 Skinners Demonstration: Its All a Matter of Consequences - trivia: B.F. Skinner is the most famous American psychologist in the world

- concept of reinforcement: occurs when events following responses are desirable, so, the tendency to repeat the action is higher 2.3 Terminology and Procedures - operant chamber (Skinner box): box where animal is put, response is recorded, and variables (consequences of the responses) are controlled what the researchers want to observe - reinforcement contingencies: rules that determine whether the responses demonstrates the occurrence of reinforcement - cumulative recorder: graphic record of responding in the SB in a time period > x- axis: time > y-axis: accumulation of responses (graphic record) -- rapid: steep slope -- slow: shallow slope -- zero: flat curve 2.4 Basic Process in Operant Conditioning 2.4.A Acquisition and Shaping - acquisition: the initial stage of learning - shaping: gradual process that consists of the reinforcement of closer and closer approximation of a desired response > necessary when the subject doesnt elicit the required response (need training) >> but subjects may demonstrate certain behavior because they want to see something that equipped the action 2.4.B Extinction - the gradual weakening of a response because the consequences that followed (reinforce like reward) slowly disappear (or not present) - resistance to extinction: the time taken for the subject to stop responding to a response > the greater the resistance, the longer the period for the action to stop - renewal effect: when the response is cancelled somewhere else, and after the subject is rereturned to the original location and it demonstrates the original response, renewal effect takes place 2.4.C Stimulus Control: Generalization and Discrimination (R-O association) - Discriminative stimuli: when subjects learn to emit a response after receiving certain cues knowing that they will gain some desired outcome << notice the difference with stimuli discrimination - Discrimination: react to only specific condition and stimuli and doesnt react to others

- generalization: responding to a new stimulus as if it were original >> fear of specific bridge is spread to other type of bridge 2.5 Reinforcement: Consequences That Strengthen Responses - they dont care the feeling of the subject - Primary reinforcers: events that are reinforcing because they satisfy biological needs - Secondary reinforcers: acquire reinforcing qualities by being associated with primary reinforcers

2.5.A Reinforcement and Superstitious Behaviour - Skinner: noncontingent reinforcement: the basis for superstitious behavior >> not a very strong theory - superstitious may be influenced by some accidental reinforcer 2.6 Schedules of Reinforcement - determines which occurrence of specific response that results in presentation of reinforcer >> indentifying the response -continuos reinforcement: when every designated response is reinforced >> every time does something, it will cause subject to repeat the response >> used to train subject before researchers move on to something - Intermittent /Partial reinforcement: when the designated response is reinforced some of the time >> the response is effective some of the time - subjects are more resistance to extinction with intermittent reinforcement Method: 1) Fixed-ratio (FR) schedule: the reinforcer is given after a fixed amount of nonreinforced response 2) Variable-ratio (VR) schedule: reinforcer is given after a variable number of the nonreinforced response 3) Fixed-interval (FI) schedule: reinforcer is given for the first response after a fixed interval time has elapsed 4) Variable-interval (VI) schedule: reinforcer is given for the first time after a variable interval time has elapsed - Variable schedules vs fixed counterparts: greater resistance to extinction, steadier response - Ratio schedules vs fixed intervals: faster responding leads to reinforcement sooner 2.7 Positive Reinforcement versus Negative Reinforcement - Positive: because reinforcement is followed by rewarding - Negative: because reinforcement is followed by the removal of negative/unpleasant stimulus

2.8 Negative Reinforcement and Avoidance Behavior 2.8.A Escape Learning - response that ends a negative stimuli (active action) 2.8.B Avoidance Learning 2.9 Punishment: Consequences that Weaken Responses - Punishment: when events following the response (consequences) weaken - Confusion: the term negative reinforcement and disciplinary purpose 2.9.A Side Effect of Physical Punishment - figure: Elizabeth Thompson Gershoff- punishment is associated with poor-quality-parent-childrelationships, aggression etc etc < however, there isnt sufficient evidence - figure: Strauss and Paschall- how often children were spanked > those spanked have lower IQs > age 1 2: increase aggression > age 2-3 : lower cognitive ability Applying Punishment Effectively: 1) Punish swiftly: punish immediately and it invites confusion 2) Use the least severe punishment/severe enough to be effective 3) Involve the removing privilege/Use noncorporal punishments (physical touch) 4) Make punishment consistent 5) Explain the punishment (most effective) 3) CHANGING DIRECTIONS IN THE STUDY OF CONDITIONING 3.1 Recognizing Biological Constraints on Conditioning - there are limits to the conditioning principles- limited by biological heritage 3.1.A Instinctive Drift: The Case of the Miserly Raccoons - Instinctive Drift: animals innate response tendencies that interfere with conditioning response > animals behave in a particular way due to their instincts that give unintended response 3.1.B Conditioned Taste Aversion: The Sauce Bearnaise Syndrome: - Victim: Martin Seligman - violate certain principles of conditioning- nausea occurred 6 hours later - Conditioned taste aversion: solved by John Garcia >> when taste cues followed by nausea, organisms quickly acquire conditioned taste aversion >> Garcia: by-product of evolution 3.1.C Preparedness and Phobias - Seligman associates with evolution - Preparedness: organisms predisposition to be conditioned certain ways and not the other way around

>> mean: some species simply have the pre-existing tendency to react in a particular manner - Figure: Arne Ohman and Susan Mineka > Theory of Preparedness (Evolved module for fear learning) - automatically activated by these stimuli - Activity of neural circuitry that runs through amygdala - stimuli related to survival history in the evolutionary threats - resistant to conscious efforts to suppress the resulting fear 3.1.D Evolutionary Perspectives on Learning - sometimes, these mechanisms have been changed due to the environment 3.2 Recognizing Cognitive Processes in Conditioning - Pavlov and Skinner- view conditioning as mechanical process - Figure: Edward C. Tolman (American Pscyhologist) refutes them- cognitive process plays a role in conditioning 3.2.A Latent Learning and Cognitive Maps - Latent learning: learning process that is not immediately apparent from behavior when it first occurs > motivation is needed for learning to occur > the rat experiment: constantly rewarded, not rewarded, rewarded after a number of trials Significance: - learning can take place even if reinforcement is absent - those who display latent learning possess the cognitive map of the maze 3.2.B Signal Relations - Figure: Robert Rescorla- research focuses on cognitive process as an element in conditioning > environmental stimuli serve as signals and some stimuli are more dependent than other - good signal: accurately predict unconditioned stimuli > rat experiment: for 100% trials, Conditioned Stimuli elicits stronger response 3.2.C Response-Outcome Relations and Reinforcement - reinforcement is not automatic when favorable consequence occurs - more of if the person thinks so, then the response will be strengthened - therefore, conditioning is not a mindless mechanical process > like, you dont think that it is eating that helps you to score high in exam 4) OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING - Observational Learning: occurs when subjects response are influenced by the observation of others who are called models Figure: Albert Bandura

- perceives observational learning as an extension of classical and operant 4.1 Basic Processes - Attention: pay attention to learn the process - Retention: the learned behavior may not be used immediately. So, the mental representation has to be stored - Reproduction: enacting a modeled response but may not be successful, depending on the ability to convert the mental representation into overt behavior Motivation: whether or not it is worth to try to replicate the behavior 4.2 Acquisition versus Performance - reinforcement is critical determinant for behavior - it enhances performance rather than the learning process - thus, reinforcement wins for performance, not acquiring process 4.3 Observational Learning and the Media Violence Controversy - known as knowledge pursuit for its own sake - Bobo Doll experiments- to demonstrate aggression in children - Jonathan Freedman- confirmed Banduras observation - exposure to TV increases the likelihood of physical aggression, verbal aggression, aggressive thoughts and aggressive emotions in both children and adults - Desensitization: people show muted reaction to real violence > follow-up studies: numbing effect of media violence causes people to be less sensitive of others and less likely to help others - Study shows: media violence can desensitize peoples reaction to aggression (numbing) - Neurostudies by Maren Strenzoik > parts of brain that are concerned with emotional reactivity decreased in activation level > exposure to aggressive media results in a blunting of emotional responses, which in turn may prevent the connection of consequences of aggression with an appropriate emotional response, and therefore may increase the likelihood that aggression is seen as acceptable behavior 4.4 Observational Learning and the Brain: Mirror Neurons - Mirror neurons: neurons that are activated by performing an action or observing another person doing the same action >> also considered as neurons that internally represent an action >> located in parietal and frontal lobe - Figure: Giacomo Rizzolatti - mirror neurons may underlie our ability to understand others, to understand what is going on in the minds of others, making intersubjectivity possible, thus setting the stage for our social behavior