AP Psychology: Learning (Modules 23-25)

A relatively permanent change in an organism’s behavior due to experience

Our minds naturally connect events that occur in sequence.

Ex. When we smell cookies, eat the cookies and feel satisfaction, we expect satisfaction when we smell the cookies next time.

Decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation

Ex. As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a visual stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner.

Learning that certain events occur together. The events may be two stimuli (classical conditioning) or a response and its consequences (operant conditioning)

Classical conditioning is the association of two stimuli (beep on pager and arrival of food) while operant conditioning is the association of behaviors and their consequences (doing homework and receiving a good grade).

Awareness of the associations being learned, strengthens likes and dislikes

Ivan Pavlov

A type of learning in which one learned to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events

View the psychology should 1) be an objective science that 2) studies behavior without reference to mental processes. Today, scientists typically agree with 1, but not 2.

John B. Watson

In classical conditioning, a stimulus that unconditionally – naturally and automatically – triggers a response

Food stimulus

In classical conditioning, the unlearned, natural response to an unconditioned stimulus

Salivation in response to food

In classical conditioning, a stimulus not yet associated with another stimuli (becomes a conditioned stimulus upon association)

Tone

In classical conditioning, an originally irrelevant stimulus that, after association with the unconditioned stimulus, comes to trigger a conditioned response

Tone

In classical conditioning, the learned response to a previously neutral, but not conditioned, stimulus

Salivation in response to tone

In classical conditioning, the initial stage when one links the neutral stimulus to the conditioned response. In operant conditioning, the strengthening of a reinforced response.

Conditioning helps humans and animals prepare for good and bad events. It helps animals survive and reproduce by responding to cues that help it gain food, avoid dangers, find mates, and produce offspring.

AKA second-order conditioning. A procedure in which the conditioned stimulus in one conditioning experience is paired with a new neutral stimulus, creating a second (often weaker) conditioned stimulus.

Ex. An animal learns that a tone means food. That animal might learn that a light predicts tone and eventually salivates at the sight of the light alone.

The diminishing of a conditioned response; occurs in classical conditioning when the unconditioned stimulus does not follow a conditioned stimulus; occurs in operant conditioning when a response is no longer reinforced

The reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response

The tendency, once a response has been conditioned, for stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses

In classical conditioning, the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and stimuli that do not signal and unconditioned stimulus

1) Pavlov proved that virtually all organisms learn to adapt to their environment -- many other responses to many other stimuli can be classically conditioned.
2) Pavlov showed us how a process such as learning can be studied objectively.

Watson conditioned Little Albert to be scared of rats by accompanying the sight of the rat with a frightening noise. Albert showed generalization by acting with fear when presented with similar objects like a rabbit and a dog.

A type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher

B.F. Skinner

Rewarded behavior is likely to recur

Edward K. Thorndike

Inside the Skinner box, there is a button for animals to press. Upon pressing the button, the animal is rewarded with food. A device records these responses.

In operant conditioning, the occurrence of any event that strengthens the behavior that follows

An operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior

A specific, distinct event that prompts a conditioned response

Ex. Conditioning a pigeon to peck when it sees a human face, but not when it sees anything else. Shows that pigeons can recognize that human faces are distinct from the faces of other animals.

Positive reinforcement adds a good thing to encourage behavior; negative reinforcement takes away a bad thing

Ex. Positive reinforcement is when a child is rewarded with a cookie for doing their homework. Negative reinforcement is when the child is rewarded for doing their homework by not having to eat their vegetables for the night.

An innately reinforcing stimulus such as one that satisfies a biological need

Ex. Getting food when hungry

A stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer (AKA conditioned reinforcer)

Ex. If the light turns on right before food comes, the rat will work to turn on the light because the light is associated with food.

Times when reinforcement occurs

Reinforcing every time the desired response occurs

Ex. Giving a child a piece of candy every time they do their homework

Reinforcing a response only part of the time; results in slower acquisition of response but greater resistance to extinction

Ex. Giving into children's tantrums occassionally

Reinforces a response after a fixed number of times

Ex. Coffee shop rewarding you with a free drink after every five you buy

Reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses

Ex. Players of slow machines continuing to play even without reward

Reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed

Ex. Getting paid for a job done by the hour

Reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals

Ex. Seeing the "You've got mail!" message pop up on your screen after persistently checking your email

Reinforcement encourages an action while punishment discourages an action.

Administer an aversive stimulus (add bad thing) to discourage a behavior

Ex. spanking

Withdraw a desirable stimulus (take away good thing to discourage behavior)

Ex. phone taken away

Learning by observing and imitating others

The process of learning and imitating a specific behavior

Albert Bandura

Children observed an adult act aggressively to a Bobo Doll (hitting, kicking, screaming, etc.). When left alone with the Bobo Doll, children who had witnessed the bout of aggression were not only more likely to act aggressively toward the doll, but used the same action and words they had observed.

Frontal lobe neurons that fire when performing certain actions or when observing another doing so

Mirror neurons help give rise to children's empathy and to their ability to infer another's mental state.

Positive, constructive, helpful behavior; the opposite of antisocial behavior

When their actions and words are consistent