Chapter 6 - Learning
- reflexes are simple involuntary movements that respond to the environment;
they involve primitive centers of the CNS
- instincts are innate complex behaviors that involve the organism as a whole
and higher brain centers
- behaviorism is the perspective that the environment can have an effect on
observable human behavior
- study permanent change in behavior, not internal reasons for it
Classical conditioning
- learning by association/associative learning
- first described by Ivan Pavlov (Pavlovian conditioning)
- goal: pair a neutral stimulus with a responsive one, so the neutral elicits a
response
- effective for basic-level learning (taste aversion, marketing, Antabuse)
- example: Little Albert experiment - John B Watson
Process
- start with neutral (bell) and unconditioned (meat) stimulus
- UCS brings about unconditioned response UCR (salivation)
- present both together many times (conditioning)
- unconditioned stimulus/response are associated with NS
- neutral stimulus by itself generates a conditioned response
- therefore, neutral stimulus is now a conditioned stimulus
Particulars
- stimulus generalization: when a stimulus similar to the CS will cause CR
- extinction if no periodic repairing of stimuli, the result will cease to exist
Operant conditioning
- learning by consequence
- the likeliness of a behavior depends on the consequences of it
- reinforcer increases the likelihood of behavior
- punisher decreases likelihood (does not have to be bad)
- positive adds a stimulus to the environment
- negative removes something
- stimulus generalization still applies
- extinction still exists (must continue reinforcement/punishment)
- reinforcement can go from external to internal*
- schedule of reinforcement (effectiveness is dependent on frequency)
- ratio - reward based on number
- interval - based on time
- can be fixed or variable
- reflexes are simple involuntary movements that respond to the environment;
they involve primitive centers of the CNS
- instincts are innate complex behaviors that involve the organism as a whole
and higher brain centers
- behaviorism is the perspective that the environment can have an effect on
observable human behavior
- study permanent change in behavior, not internal reasons for it
Classical conditioning
- learning by association/associative learning
- first described by Ivan Pavlov (Pavlovian conditioning)
- goal: pair a neutral stimulus with a responsive one, so the neutral elicits a
response
- effective for basic-level learning (taste aversion, marketing, Antabuse)
- example: Little Albert experiment - John B Watson
Process
- start with neutral (bell) and unconditioned (meat) stimulus
- UCS brings about unconditioned response UCR (salivation)
- present both together many times (conditioning)
- unconditioned stimulus/response are associated with NS
- neutral stimulus by itself generates a conditioned response
- therefore, neutral stimulus is now a conditioned stimulus
Particulars
- stimulus generalization: when a stimulus similar to the CS will cause CR
- extinction if no periodic repairing of stimuli, the result will cease to exist
Operant conditioning
- learning by consequence
- the likeliness of a behavior depends on the consequences of it
- reinforcer increases the likelihood of behavior
- punisher decreases likelihood (does not have to be bad)
- positive adds a stimulus to the environment
- negative removes something
- stimulus generalization still applies
- extinction still exists (must continue reinforcement/punishment)
- reinforcement can go from external to internal*
- schedule of reinforcement (effectiveness is dependent on frequency)
- ratio - reward based on number
- interval - based on time
- can be fixed or variable
