Psychology Chapter 5

process that produces a relatively enduring change in behavior or knowledge as a result of an individual's experience

process of learning associations between environmental events and behavioral responses

explains how certain stimuli can trigger an automatic response deals with behaviors that are elicited automatically by some stimulus: doesn't produce a new behavior but rather causes an existing behavior to occur almost always involves a reflex: when dog started salivating before the food was placed on its tongue - learned stimulus process of learning an association between two stimuli: pairing a neutral stimulus with an unlearned (natural) one - if they are continuously paired together than eventually the neutral stimulus demonstrates the same conditions as the natural stimulus

helps understand how we acquire new, voluntary actions explains how we acquire the wide range of voluntary behaviors that we perform in daily life -Skinner avoided the word voluntary because it implied that the behavior was due to a conscious choice or intention

how we acquire new behaviors by observing the actions of others

physiologist - famous for his work with dogs make a dog salivate: put food on its tongue - after a few days the dog starting salivating before the food was put on his tongue

a largely involuntary, automatic response to an external stimulus

the natural stimulus that reflexively produces a response without prior learning - UCS

UCR - the unlearned, reflexive response

CS - stimulus that is originally neutral but comes to elect a reflexive response

CR - learned reflexive response to a previously neutral stimulus

-frequency: the more times that two items were paired together the stronger the association is between the two -timing of the stimulus: affects the strength of the conditioned response: conditioning most effective when the CS was presented immediately before the UCS (1/2 a second is the ideal amnt of time)

stimuli that are similar to the original conditioned stimulus also elicit the conditioned response - even though they have never been paired with the unconditioned stimulus

particular conditioned response is mdd to one stimulus but not to other, similar stimuli

second-order conditioning a CS could itself function as an unconditioned stimulus in a new conditioning trial the new CS has never been paired with the UCS - paired with the first initial stimulus that is why it elicits a response

process of decline and eventual disappearance of the conditioned response the conditioned response would reappear if the stimuli was presented

reappearance of a previously extinguished conditioned response after a period of times without exposure to the CS

behaviorism strongly believed that psychology should be redefined as the scientific study of behavior embraced Pavlov's conditioned reflex idea believed that all human behavior is a result of conditioning and learning - due to past experience and environmental influence after his wife divorced him for an affair - he went into the advertising world and invented the "sex appeal" - wanted to bring about an emotion response from people who are watching the commercial

Watson's experiment of Pavlov's classical conditioning on humans 9 m.o - healthy: no fear when presented with rat, rabbit, dog or monkey: but he was terrified of loud sounds 2 months later - condition Albert to be afraid of the rat: every time reached for the rat they would clang the metal bar behind his head (UCS) and scare albert (CR) Albert not only afraid of rat, but also other furry animals and objects

-experiment was not carefully designed or conducted: Albert's fear was subjectively evaluated by Watson and Rayner -ethnical grounds: did not help Albert alleviate these fears

mental processes as well as external events are important components in the learning of new behaviors

stimuli that can not be used to predict when an event is going to occur because of their unreliability

1968 experiment one group of rats heard a tone (CS) - paired with electrical shock (UCS) second group - same number of tone-shock pairings but also received an additional 20 shock shocks with no tone result: the rats in the first group displayed a much stronger fear response to the tone than the ones in the second group Why? - classical conditioning depends on information that the conditioned stimulus provides about UCS CS must be a reliable signal that predicts the presentation of the unconditioned stimulus: tone was more reliable for the first group

the animal behaves like a scientist - detecting casual relations among events and using a range of information about hose events to make the relevant inferences

both physical characteristics and the natural behavior patterns of any species have been shaped by evolution to maximize adaptation to the environment

when one avoids eating a dish and feels uncomfortable when smelling or even is near the food violates two principles of natural conditioning: 1. there are not repeated pairings 2. the time span between the two stimuli was several hours - not seconds

illustrated that taste aversions could be produced in laboratory rats under controlled conditions

1. rats drank saccharin-flavored water (NS) 2. hours later - injected with drug (UCS) which produces gastrointestinal distress (UCR) 3. after recovering - they refused to drink the flavored water again his results have been replicated many times

Pavlov suggested that any natural phenomenon can be converted into a CS Garcia - particular CS that is used does make a difference in classical conditioning -rats more likely to associate a painful stimulus with an external stimuli -rats more likely to associate a taste stimulus with internal stimuli (illness)

the idea that an organism is innately predisposed to form associations between certain stimuli and responses taste aversions can be classically conditioned more readily that can more arbitrary associations

used cats, chicks and dogs years before Pavlov to investigate how voluntary behaviors are acquired set the stage for Skinner first psychologist to systematically investigate animal learning and how voluntary behaviors are influenced by their consequences his dissertation focused on whether animals use reasoning to solve problems

Skinner developed operant conditioning - another form of conditioning that explains how we acquire and maintain voluntary behaviors wanted to explain order in behavior - psychology should restrict itself to studying only phenomena that could be objectively measured and verified acknowledge the existence of internal factors (thoughts, beliefs, emotions or motives) - can not be used to explain behaviors admired Pavlov's work - he thought that he found a classical conditioning that is more applicable to learning in the modern world

he put hungry cats into cages that he called "puzzle boxes" -when cat first put into the box - engage in many different random behaviors to escape -cat would then accidentally pull on the loop or step on the lever opening the door and escaping from the box he explained their learning as a process of trial and error not humanlike insight or reasoning

responses followed by a satisfying state of affairs are strengthened and more likely to occur again in the same situation responses followed by an unpleasant or annoying state of affairs are weakened and less likely to occur again

any active behavior that operates upon the environment to generate consequences

occurs when a stimulus or an event follows an operant and increase the likelihood of the operant being repeated defined by the effect is produces operant - active response emitted reinforcer - the stimulus or event that is sought in a particular situation: something desirable, satisfying or pleasant

think of in terms of a + sign: something is added the process of following an operant with the addition of a reinforcing stimulus a response is strengthened because something is added or presented ex. doing a student production for extra credit

- sign: something is removed when an operant is followed by the removal of an aversive stimulus a response is strengthened because something is being subtracted or removed ex. two aspirins (operant) remove a headache (aversive stimulus) situations are (-) reinforced when they allow: 1. escape aversive stimuli that are already present 2. avoid aversive stimuli before they occur

typically involve physical or psychological discomfort that an organism seeks to escape or avoid

one that is naturally reinforcing for a given species even if an individual has not had prior experience with the particular stimulus - the stimulus still has reinforcing properties

secondary reinforcer one that has acquired reinforcing value by being associated with a primary reinforcer

process in which a behavior is followed by an aversive consequence that decreases the likelihood of the behavior's being repeated always decreases the future performance of an operant

-Skinner invented -positive punishment -response being followed by the presentation of an aversive stimulus -touching a hot iron, live electrical wires are natural punishing stimuli

-negative punishment -what is being removed is the loss or withdrawal of a reinforcing stimulus following a behavior punishment is defined by the effect that is produces

-more effective if it immediately follows a response than if its delays -more effect if it is consistent

-may decrease a specific response but it doesn't necessarily teach or promote a more appropriate response in its place -intense punishment may produce undesirable results -likely to be temperery

the specific stimulus in the presence of which a particular operant is more likely to be reinforced

individual behavior is determined by environmental stimuli and the person's reinforcement history in that environment

that ideas such as free will, self determination and individual choices are just allusions behavior is determined by the environment

He believed that this was the idea that all individuals are help responsible for their conduct and given credit for their achievements

a movement that advocates turning daily life into a kind of virtual reality game "points" or other conditioned reinforcers are awarded to reward healthy or productive behaviors

"Skinner Box" small cage with a food dispenser - attached to the cage is a device that automatically records the number of operants made by an experimental animal

a process that involves reinforcing successively closer approximations of behavior until the correct behavior is displayed

immediate reinforcement every time the operant is used

responses that are only reinforced occasionally

learned response no longer results in reinforcement the likelihood of the behavior's being repeated gradually declines

partially reinforced behaviors tend to be more resistant to extinction than are behaviors conditioned using continuous reinforcement

the collective name of the different reinforcement arrangements

(FR schedule) reinforcement occurs after a fixed number of responses produce a high rate of responding that follows a burst pause burst pattern

reinforcement occurs after an average number of responses, which varies from trial to trial the number of responses on any given trial is unpredictable - but over repeated trials the ratio of responses to reinforcers works out to the predetermined average produce high, steady rates of responding with hardly any pausing between trials or after reinforcement

reinforcer is delivered for the first response emitted after the preset time interval has elapsed produce a scallop shaped pattern of responding - number of responses increases as the time for the next reinforcers draw near

reinforcement occurs for the first response emitted after an average amount of time has elapsed - interval varies from trial to trial unpredictable nature - produce moderate but steady rates of responding

the application of learning principles to help people develop more effective or adaptive behaviors involves applying the principles of operant conditioning to bring about changes in behavior ex. reduce public smoking in teenagers, reduce problem behavior in school children

believed that cognitive processes played an important role in the learning of complex behaviors - even in lowly laboratory rats cognitive processes can be experimentally verified and inferred by careful observation of outward behavior rats in mazes: built up a cognitive map of the maze - a mental representation of the layout rewards(reinforcement) is not necessary for learning to take place: Group 3 Rats learned the course just by walking it for three days

learning that is not immediately demonstrated in overt behavior

young psychology graduate students explained the dogs' passive behavior to the shocks -with the tone-shock pairings in the classical conditioning setup: dogs had learned that shocks were inescapable (learned to be helpless - developed the cognitive expectation that their behavior would have no effect on the environment)

a phenomenon in which exposure to inescapable and incontrollable aversive events produces passive behavior

established a successful business training animals for TV commercials noticed that non reinforced behaviors seemed to reflect innate, instinctive responses learned that reinforcement is not the sole determinant of behavior

when natural behaviors interfere with the operant behaviors people are trying to condition

psychologist most strongly identified with observational learning believes that observational learning is there exult of cognitive processes that are "actively judgmental and constructive" - not just mechanical copying experiment - four year old children separately watched a short firm showing an adult playing aggressively w/ a bobo doll - three different versions 1. adult reinforced with soft drinks 2. adult was punished 3. adult experienced no consequences the child who watched the 2nd movie was much less likely to attack the doll in a violent manner when left alone in the toy room conclusion: reinforcement in not essential for learning to occur - expectation of reinforcement affects the performance of what has been learned -must pay attention to the other person's behavior -remember the other person's behavior so that you can perform it at a later time -transform this mental representation into actions that you are capable of reproducing (three steps necessary for learning to take place through observational learning) -motivation for you to imitate the behavior

determined by Giacomo Rizzolatti neurons that fire both when an action is performed and when the action is simply perceived imitate the observed action as if the observer was actually carrying out the action

examined the impact of TV portrayals of sexual activity on the behavior of US adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 over two years - adolescents who watched large amounts of television containing sexual content were twice as likely to begin engaging in sexual behavior in the following year