PSY1020: Foundation Psychology B
Learning: Classical and Operant
Basic Principle
Learning refers to any enduring change in the way an organism responds based on its
experience.
Classical Conditioning
- An environmental stimulus leads to a learned response.
- Through the pairing of an Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) with a previously neutral
Conditioned stimulus (CS) or learnt reflex.
- Any Unconditioned response (UCR) is a response that doesn’t have to be learnt.
- Conditioned Responses (CR) (e.g., Taste aversion and immune system response) are
learned reflexes that can produce both adaptive and maladaptive.
- Stimulus generation occurs when an organism learns to respond to stimuli that
resemble the CS with a similar response.
- Stimulus discrimination is when an organism learns to respond to a restricted range of
stimuli.
- Extinction is when a CR is weakened by the presentation of CS without the UCS.
- Influencing factors; interstimulus interval (the degree to which presence of CS is
predictive of UCS), history and prepared learning.
Operant Conditioning
- Learning to operate on the environment and produce a consequence. Operants are
behaviours that are emitted.
- Reinforcement: the consequence that increases the probability of a response.
Learning: Classical and Operant
Basic Principle
Learning refers to any enduring change in the way an organism responds based on its
experience.
Classical Conditioning
- An environmental stimulus leads to a learned response.
- Through the pairing of an Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) with a previously neutral
Conditioned stimulus (CS) or learnt reflex.
- Any Unconditioned response (UCR) is a response that doesn’t have to be learnt.
- Conditioned Responses (CR) (e.g., Taste aversion and immune system response) are
learned reflexes that can produce both adaptive and maladaptive.
- Stimulus generation occurs when an organism learns to respond to stimuli that
resemble the CS with a similar response.
- Stimulus discrimination is when an organism learns to respond to a restricted range of
stimuli.
- Extinction is when a CR is weakened by the presentation of CS without the UCS.
- Influencing factors; interstimulus interval (the degree to which presence of CS is
predictive of UCS), history and prepared learning.
Operant Conditioning
- Learning to operate on the environment and produce a consequence. Operants are
behaviours that are emitted.
- Reinforcement: the consequence that increases the probability of a response.
