Chapter 6

Learning
Chapter outline
• Types of learning
• Classical conditioning
• Operant conditioning
• Observational learning
• Cognitive factors in learning
• Biological, cultural and psychological factors in learning
• Learning and health and wellness
Types of learning
• Learning - a systematic, relatively permanent change in
behavior that occurs through experience.
• Behaviorism – a theory of learning that focuses solely on
observable behaviors, discounting the importance of mental
activity such as thinking, wishing, and hoping.
• Psychologists who examine learning from a behavioral
perspective, define learning as relatively stable, observable
changes in behavior. It emphasizes general laws that guide
behavior.
• Behaviorism maintain that the principles are the same whether
we are talking about humans or nonhuman animals.
• A century of research on learning in animals and in humans
suggest that many of the principles generated initially in
research on animals also apply to humans.
• In this chapter we look at two types of learning: associative
learning and observational learning.
Associative learning

• Associative learning occurs when an organism makes a connection, or an

association, between two events.
• Conditioning – is the process of learning these associations..
• There are two types of conditioning – classical and operant both of which
have been studied by behaviorists.
• In classical conditioning – organisms learn the association between two
stimuli. As a result of this association, organisms learn to anticipate events.
For example, lightning is associated with thunder and regularly precedes it,
thus when we see lightning, we anticipate that we will see thunder soon
afterward.
• In operant conditioning, organisms learn the association between a behavior
and a consequence, such as reward and punishment. As a result of this
association, organisms learn to increase behaviors that are followed by
rewards and to decrease behaviors that are followed by punishment. For
example, children are likely to repeat their good manners if their parents
reward them with candy after they have shown good manners.
Observational learning
• Observational learning occurs when a person observes and
imitates another’s behavior. It is different from associative learning,
because it relies on mental processes. The learner must pay
attention, remember and reproduce what the model did.
• Observational learning is important is especially important in human
beings.
• In fact, watching other people is another way in which human
infants acquire skills.
• Learning applies to many areas of acquiring new behaviors, skills
and knowledge.
• The human capacity to learn, has inspired computer scientists and
engineers who work in artificial intelligence, to create machines
capable of performing activities that require intelligence when
people do them.
 Classical conditioning

• Classical conditioning – learning process in which a neutral

stimulus becomes associated with an innately meaningful stimulus
and acquires the capacity to elicit similar response.
• Pavlov’s studies –
• In the early 1900s, Russian physiologist, Ivan Pavlov, was interested
in how the body digests food. In his experiments, he routinely placed
meat powder in a dog's mouth, causing the dog to salivate. By
accident, Pavlov noticed that the meat powder was not the only
stimulus that caused the dog to drool. The dog salivated in response
to several stimuli associated with the food, such as sight of the food
dish, the sight of the individual who brought the food into the room,
and the sound of the door closing when the food arrived.
• Pavlov recognized that the dog’s association of these sights and
sounds with the food was an important type of learning, which came
to be known as classical conditioning.
Classical conditioning

• Pavlov wanted to know why the dog salivate in reaction to

various sights and sounds before eating the meat powder.
• He observed that the dog’s behavior included both unlearned and
learned components. the unlearned part was automatic
responses or reflexes(innate).
• Reflexes are such automatic stimulus-response connections.
They include salivation in response to food, nausea in response
to spoiled food, shivering in response to low temperature,
coughing in response to throat congestion and withdrawal in
response to pain.
Classical conditioning
• Unconditioned stimulus(US) – a stimulus that
produces a response without prior learning.
• Unconditioned response(UR) – an unlearned
reaction that is automatically elicited by the
unconditioned stimulus.
• Conditioned stimulus(CS) – a previously
neutral stimulus that eventually elicits a
conditioned response after being paired with the
unconditioned stimulus.
• Conditioned response (CR) – the learned
response to the conditioned stimulus that
occurs after conditioned stimulus-unconditioned
stimulus pairing.
 Acquisition

• Whether it is humans, dogs or cockroaches, the first part of

learning in classical condition is acquisition.
• Acquisition - is the initial learning of the connection between the
US and CS when these two stimuli are paired(as with a bell and
food). During acquisition, the CS is repeatedly presented followed
by the US. Eventually the CS will produce a response.
• For this to work, however, two important factors must be present:
contiguity and contingency.
• Contiguity means that the CS and US are presented very close
together in time.
• Contingency means that the CS must serve as a reliable indicator
that the US is on its way.
Generalization and Discrimination
• Generalization in classical
conditioning is the tendency of a new
stimulus that is similar to the original
conditioned stimulus to elicit a
response that is similar to the
conditioned response.
• Discrimination in classical
conditioning is the process of learning
to respond to certain stimuli and not
others. For example, the cat that
generalizes from a harmless minnow to
a dangerous piranha has a major
problem. It has to learn to discriminate
among stimuli.
• Extinction and Spontaneous
Recovery
• Extinction( in classical conditioning) –
the weakening of the conditioned
response when the unconditioned
stimulus is absent.
• Spontaneous recovery – the process
Classical conditioning in humans
• Explaining fears –classical
conditioning provides an
explanation of fears. John.
Watson and Rosalie Rayner
demonstrated classical
conditioning’s role in the
development of fears with an
infant named Albert.
• Albert’s fear was generalized to
a rabbit, a dog, and a sealskin
coat.
• If we can learn fears through
classical conditioning, we also
can possibly unlearn them
through that process.
Breaking habits

• Counterconditioning – a classical conditioning procedure for

changing the relationship between a conditioned stimulus and
its conditioned response. Therapists have used
counterconditioning to break apart the association between
certain stimuli and positive feelings.
• Aversive conditioning – a form of treatment that consists of
repeated pairings of a stimulus with a very unpleasant stimulus.
Electric shocks, loud noises, and nausea-inducing substances are
examples of noxious stimuli that are used in aversive
conditioning.
• For example, to reduce drinking, every time a person drinks an
alcoholic beverage, he or she also consumes a mixture that
induces nausea. Through a repeated pairing of alcohol with the
nausea-inducing agent, alcohol becomes the conditioned
stimulus that elicits nausea, the conditioned response.
Operant conditioning

• Operant conditioning or instrumental conditioning – is a form of

associative learning in which the consequences of a behavior
change the probability of the behavior’s recurrence.
• The American psychologist B.F. Skinner(1938) chose the term
operant to describe the behavior of the organism.
• An operant behavior occurs spontaneously.
• According to Skinner, the consequences that follow such
spontaneous behaviors determine whether the behavior will be
replaced.
• Contingency also plays an important role in operant conditioning.
• For example, when a rat pushes a lever(behavior) that delivers
food, the delivery of food(consequence) is contingent on that
behavior.
Thorndike’s law of effect
• At about the same time that Pavlov was
conducting classical conditioning
experiments with salivating dogs,
Thorndike an American psychologist, was
studying cats in puzzle boxes.
• Thorndike put a hungry cat inside a box
and placed a piece of fish outside. To
escape from the box and obtain the food,
the cat had to learn to open the latch inside
the box. At first it made many ineffective
responses, eventually it accidently stepped
on the right lever that released the door
bolt.
• On subsequent trials, the cat made fewer
and fewer random movements until it
stepped on the lever to open the door.
• Thorndike’s resulting law of effect states
that behaviors followed by positive
outcomes are strengthened and that
behaviors followed by negative outcomes
are weakened.
Skinner’s approach to operant
conditioning

• Skinner believed that the mechanism

for learning are the same for all
species.
• Skinner and other behaviorists made
every effort to study organisms under
precisely controlled conditions so that
they could examine the connections
between the operant behavior and the
specific consequences in minute detail.
• In 1930s Skinner created an operant
conditioning chamber, sometimes
called a “ Skinner box”, to control
experimental conditions.
• The Skinner box would allow an animal
(rat) to be conditioned to push a bar to
receive a reward with minimal
interaction with a person.
 • Shaping refers to rewarding
successive approximations of a
desired behavior.
• For example, imagine trying to
teach even a smart dog how to
signal that her owner’s blood sugar
level is low-or how to turn on the
Shaping lights or do the laundry. One could
wait for a very long time for such
feats to occur.
• Nevertheless, it is possible to train
a dog or another animal to perform
highly complex tasks through
shaping.
Principles of reinforcement

• Reinforcement is the process by which a stimulus or event(a

reinforcer) following a particular behavior increases the
probability that the behavior will happen again.
• These desirable(or rewarding) consequences of behavior fall into
types,
• Positive reinforcement and
• Negative reinforcement
• Both types of consequences are experienced as pleasant, and
both increase the frequency of a behavior.
Positive and negative reinforcement
• Positive reinforcement – the presentation of
a stimulus following a given behavior in order to
increase the frequency of that behavior. For
example, when you teach a dog to “shake
hands” by giving it a piece of food when it lifts it
paw. The frequency of that behavior increases
because it is followed by a desirable stimulus.
• Negative reinforcement – the removal of a
stimulus following a given behavior in order to
increase the frequency of that behavior. For
example, taking an aspirin when you have a
headache. A reduction in pain reinforces the act
of taking an aspirin.
• Both positive and negative reinforcement
involve rewarding behavior, positive
reinforcement means following a behavior with
the addition of something pleasant and negative
reinforcement means following a behavior with
the removal of something unpleasant.
• Positive and negative has nothing to do with
good or bad, rather they refer to processes in
which something is given(positive
reinforcement) or removed (negative
reinforcement).
Avoidance learning and learned helplessness

• Avoidance learning – a special kind of response to negative

reinforcement is avoidance learning.
• Avoidance learning occurs when the organism learns that by making
a particular response, a negative stimulus can be avoided. For example,
animals that have been trained to avoid a negative stimulus, such as an
electrical shock, by jumping into a safe area may thereafter gravitate
toward the safe area, even when the shock is no longer present.
• Learned helplessness – the organism has learned that it has no control
over negative outcomes.
• Learned helplessness has aided psychologists in understanding a
variety of perplexing issues, such as why some victims of domestic
violence fail to escape their terrible situation and why some students
respond to failure at school by no longer trying to succeed.
Types of Reinforcers
• Primary reinforcer – a reinforcer that is innately satisfying; a primary
reinforcer does not require any learning on the organism’s part to make
it pleasurable. Food, water, and sexual satisfaction are primary
reinforcers.

• Secondary reinforcers – a reinforcer that acquires its positive value

through an organism’s experience; a secondary reinforcer is a learned or
conditioned reinforcer. Secondary reinforcers can be linked to primary
reinforcers through classical conditioning. For example, getting A’s and
paychecks are positive outcomes but they are not innately positive, we
learn through experience.
• Secondary reinforcers can be used in a system called a token
economy.
• In a token economy behaviors are rewarded with tokens( such as poker
chips or stars on a chart) that can be exchanged later for desired
rewards such as candy or money.
Generalization, discrimination, and extinction
• Generalization - in operant conditioning, generalization means performing
a reinforced behavior in a different situation. For example, when a student
gets excellent grades in calculus class by studying the course material every
night starts to study psychology and history every night as well,
generalization is at work.
• Discrimination – in operant conditioning, discrimination means responding
approximately to stimuli that signal that a behavior will or will not be
reinforced. For example, you go to a restaurant that has a “University
Student Discount” sign in front of the window, and you flash your student ID,
and you are rewarded with a reduced- price meal. Without the sign, showing
your ID might get you only a puzzled look, not a reduced- price meal.
• Extinction – in operant conditioning, extinction occurs when a behavior is no
longer reinforced and decreases in frequency. For example, a soda machine
that you frequently use starts eating your coins without dispensing soda, you
might stop inserting more coins. Several weeks later, you might try to use
the machine again, hoping that it has been fixed. Such behavior illustrates
spontaneous recovery in operant conditioning.
Continuous reinforcement, partial reinforcement, and schedules of
reinforcement

• Continuous reinforcement – is in which a behavior is reinforced every

time it occurs. When continuous reinforcement takes place, organisms
learn rapidly. However, when reinforcement stops, extinction takes place
quickly.
• Partial reinforcement – in which a reinforcer follows a behavior only a
portion of the time. These conditioning procedures that have developed
are particularly resistant to extinction. It characterizes most life
experiences. For example, a golfer does not win every tournament; a
chess whiz does not win every match she plays; a student does not get a
pat on the back every time he solves a problem.
• Schedules of reinforcement – are specific patterns that determine
when a behavior will be reinforced. There are four main schedules of
partial reinforcement:
• fixed ratio, variable ratio, and
• fixed interval, variable interval.
Schedules of reinforcement

• Ratio schedules involve the

number of behaviors that
must be performed prior to
reward.
• Interval schedules refer to the
amount of time that must pass
before a behavior is rewarded.
• In a fixed schedule the number
of behaviors or the amount of
time is always the same.
• In a variable schedule, the
required number of behaviors or
the amount of time that must
pass changes and is
unpredictable from the
Schedules of reinforcement
Punishment
• Punishment – a consequence that decreases the likelihood
that a behavior will occur.
• Positive punishment – the presentation of the stimulus
following a given behavior to decrease the frequency of that
behavior. Behavior decreases when it is followed by the
presentation of a stimulus. For example, parents scold a
misbehaving child.
• Negative punishment – the removal of stimulus following a
given behavior to decrease the frequency of that behavior.
Time-out or getting grounded is a form of negative
punishment.
• As was the case for reinforcement, “positive” means adding
something and “negative” means taking away something, it
can also apply to punishment.
Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA)
• Applied behavior analysis, also called
behavior modification, is the use of
operant conditioning principles to
change human behavior.
• In applied behavior analysis, the
rewards and punishers that exist in a
particular setting are carefully
analyzed and manipulated to change
behaviors.
• Applied behavior analysis has been
effective in a wide range of situations.
Practitioners have used it, for example
to treat individuals on the autism
spectrum, children and adolescents
with psychological problems, and
residents of mental health facilities, to
instruct individuals in effective
parenting, and to promote workplace
safety.
Observational Learning

OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING, THE MOST FAMOUS EXAMPLE IN THE CONTROL SITUATION, CHILDREN WHO WATCHED
ALSO CALLED IMITATION OR OF OBSERVATIONAL CHILDREN PLAYED WITH THE AGGRESSIVE MODEL
MODELING, IS LEARNING LEARNING IS THE BOBO TINKERTOYS AND IGNORED WERE MUCH MORE LIKELY TO
THAT OCCURS WHEN A DOLL STUDY, CONDUCTED THE BOBO DOLL. ENGAGE IN AGGRESSIVE
PERSON OBSERVES AND BY ALBERT BANDURA AND BEHAVIOR WHEN LEFT
IMITATES BEHAVIOR. HIS COLLEAGUES. IN THE ALONE WITH THE BOBO
STUDY CHILDREN WERE DOLL.
RANDOMLY ASSIGNED TO
WATCH AN ADULT EITHER
BEHAVE AGGRESSIVELY OR
NON-AGGRESSIVELY
TOWARD AN INFLATED BOBO
DOLL. IN THE EXPERIMENTAL
CONDITION, CHILDREN SAW
THE MODEL HIT AN INFLATED
BOBO DOLL WITH A MALLET,
KICK IT IN THE AIR, PUNCH
IT, AND THROW IT, ALL THE
WHILE HOLLERING
AGGRESSIVE PHRASES.
Bandura described four main processes that are involved in
observational learning.

• Attention- the first process that must occur is attention. To reproduce

the model’s actions, you must attend to what the model is saying or
doing.
• Retention - is the second process required for observational learning
to occur. Retention means you must hold the information in memory.
• Motor production – a third element of observational learning is the
process of imitating the model’s actions.
• Reinforcement – is a final component of observational learning. Seeing
a model attain a reward for an activity increases the chances that an
observer will repeat the behavior – a process called vicarious
reinforcement. On the other hand, seeing the model punished makes
the observer less likely to repeat the behavior- a process called
vicarious punishment.
Cognitive factors in learning

• Purposive behavior
• E.C. Tolman(1932) emphasized the purposiveness of behavior- the
idea that much of behavior is goal-directed. Tolman believed that it is
necessary to study entire behavioral sequences in order to understand
why people engage in particular actions.
• Expectancy Learning
• According to Tolman in classical conditioning, the young boy fears the
rabbit because it expects it will hurt him. In operant conditioning, a
woman works hard all week because she expects a paycheck on
Friday.
• Expectancies are acquired from people’s experiences with their
environment. Expectancies influence a variety of human behaviors.
• We set the goals we do because we believe that we can reach them.
Latent Learning or implicit learning is unreinforced
learning that is not immediately reflected in
behavior.
Insight
learning
• Like Tolman, the German
gestalt psychologist
Wolfgang Kohler believed
that cognitive factors play
a significant role in
learning. He conducted
two fascinating
experiments – the stick
problem and the box
problem.
• Insight learning requires
that we think “outside the
box”, setting aside
previous expectations and
assumptions.
Biological, Cultural, and Psychological factors in learning

• Biological constraints
• Instinctive drift – the tendency of animals to revert to instinctive
behavior that interferes with learning.
• Preparedness – the species- specific biological predisposition to
learn in certain ways but not in others. For example, taste aversion
learning occurs in animals, including humans, that choose their food
based on taste and smell. Other species are prepared to learn rapid
associations between colors of food and illness.
• Cultural influences – most psychologists agree that the principles of
classical conditioning, operant conditioning and observational learning
are universal and are powerful learning processes in every culture.
• However, culture can influence the degree to which these learning
processes are used. Culture can determine the content of learning.
Psychological constraints
• Carol Dweck uses the term mindset to describe the way our beliefs
about ability dictate what goals we set for ourselves, what we think
we can learn, and ultimately what we do learn.
• Individuals have one of two mindsets:
• A fixed mindset – in which they believe that their qualities are
carved in stone and cannot change.
• A growth mindset – in which they believe their qualities can change
and improve through effort.
• From a fixed mindset, a failure means lack of ability. From a growth
mindset, however, failure tells the person what she or he still needs
to learn.
• Your mindset influences whether you will be optimistic or pessimistic,
what your goals will be, how hard you will strive to reach those goals
and how successful you will be in college and later.
Effective strategies for developing a growth mindset
(Dweck, 2006)

• Understand that your intelligence and thinking skills are not fixed
but can change.
• Become passionate about learning and stretch your mind in
challenging situations.
• Think about the growth mindsets of people you admire.
• Begin now.
Learning and health and wellness
Research using rats and other
animals has demonstrated four
important variables involved in the
human stress response:

Predictability

Perceived control

Perceptions of improvement

Outlets for frustration

Vocabulary
• Acquisition generalization(classical and
operant)
• Applied behavior analysis or extinction( classical and operant)
behavior modification generalization
Associative learning insight learning
Aversive conditioning instinctive drift
Avoidance learning latent learning or implicit learning
Behaviorism law of effect
Classical conditioning learned helplessness
Conditioned response learning
Conditioned stimulus negative punishment
Counterconditioning negative reinforcement
Discrimination (classical and operant) observational learning
 • Operant or instrumental conditioning
unconditioned response
• Positive punishment
unconditioned stimulus
• Positive reinforcement

Vocabular • Primary reinforcer

• Punishment
y • Preparedness
• Reinforcement
• schedules of reinforcement
• Secondary reinforcer
• Shaping
• Spontaneous recovery