Learning

Ultimate and Proximate causes are relatively permanent change in behavior or behavior potential that results from experience.

Classical Conditioning

Ivan Pavlov was Russian physiologist who discovered classical conditioning while studying dogs saliva in 1927.  He found that  he didn’t have to put food in the dogs’ mouths’ after a while to get the dogs salivating. So he knew that

Something + Food = Salivation

Initially, Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) (food) elicits salivation, but the Conditioned Stimulus (CS) (tone) does not. In other words, you give a dog food, and he will salivate because he is hungry and likes food. You ring a bell and the dog does nothing but look at you like you are stupid. However, put the two stimuli together (feed the dog and ring the bell) and over a period of time the two will become paired.

CS (the bell) is paired with UCS (the food) over time.

Eventually….

The CS (Ringing the bell) alone elicits salivation.

No food is  needed to elicit salivation. Ringing bell gives desired response.

Instincts arn unlearned complex behavior pattern (building a web). Humans have unlearned reflexive behavior but no instincts.

A Critical Period is the period of time after birth when an instinct kicks in. Baby ducks believe the first thing that moves near them is their mother.

A reflex arc is a behavior that is unlearned and not complex. (Feeling something hot and you pull your arms back.

Classical conditioning is done at the reflexive level.

Neutral stimulus is paired with the unconditioned stimulus to elicit the unconditioned response. After while, neutral stimulus elicits the unconditioned response without presence of unconditioned stimulus. The neutral stimulus is now the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned response is now the conditioned response. (conditioned = learned)

Classical conditioning involves the temporal relationship between two stimuli and simple reflexive response.  The response does not have an effect on the outcome.

Classical Conditioning Paradigm

Unconditioned stimulus (UCS) → unconditioned response

Conditioned stimulus (CS) + unconditioned stimulus (UCS) → unconditioned response

Conditioned stimulus → conditional response

In psychology, a lot of emotions are classically conditioned.

Acquisition is the progressive increase in strength of a conditioned response with presentation of CS and UCS.

Extinction is the progressive decrease in strength in a previously conditioned response with presentation of the CS only.

Spontaneous recovery is the recurrence of a previously extinguished response after a period of rest. The recurrence is not as strong as the initial acquisition.

Speaking in public – audience is cs and there is not ucs

If you want to get over it, you have to speak in public. If you won’t do that, you can start by just standing in front a large group of people.

Stimulus generalization occurs when a response classically conditioned to a particular cs will be elicited by a similar cs.

Instrumental Learning (operative learning)

Instrumental learning involves the relationship between a response and the stimulus that follows. This time, the response has an affect on the outcome.

Thorndike’s Puzzle Box was box where a cat was placed. There would be a string that would open a door to where there was food (Cat, string, door open, food outside). This type of learning is referred to as trial and error learning (Cat takes time to pull string). The cat eventually realizes that the pulling of the string opened the door. Therefore, he would begin pulling it more often. Until he pulled that string, he was getting an unfavorable response to its behavior (door staying shut). When he behaved well (pulled string), it was able to get food (favorable). This is Thorndike’s “law of effect” in a nutshell. It says 

If behavior is followed by a reward,  it will increase the probability that the behavior will occur again. If the behavior is followed by a punishment, it will decrease the probability that the behavior will occur again.

Therefore…

What causes behavior?

The Behaviorist’s perspective

Behavior is determined by its natural and probably consequences.

Skinner: “Selection by consequences”

No free will.

In other words….Behavior is motivated by the perceived events and conditions that follow it. Importance of “perceieved”

Example: The TN lottery (a tax on the stupid)

A – B – C Model

Antecedents refer to persons, places, things, or events occurring before a behavior that encourage a person to perform a behavior. They only work when they signal consequences.

Behavior is any behavior.

Consequences are the events that follow behavior and change the probability that the behavior will occur again.

Behaviorist believe that consequences and consequences alone are what determine behavior.

Humanism is the belief that people grow towards perfection. In the behaviorist view, humanists place an over-emphasis on antecedents and under-emphasis on consequences.

Not All Consequences Are Made Equal

Categorizing Consequences

A consequence can be positive (something applied or given) or negative (something removed or taken away). (P/N)

A consequence can be immediate or in the future. (I/F)

A consequence can be certain or uncertain. (C/U)

The most effective consequences are PIC and NIC (immediate and certain = it’s coming soon and coming for sure). The least effective consequences are NFU and PFU.

You shouldn’t ask someone why they do something. You should ask what happens to someone when they do something.

If you can’t enforce consequences, you are NOT the consequence manager.

Past experiences with rewards and punishments help determine ones behavior.

Burrhus Frederic Skinner

Skinner was a professor at Harvard and theorized how operant conditioning works using his operant chamber (Skinner box).

Was it ……

Trial and error learning?

Or

Behavior shaping?

(rewarding partially correct behavior)

Behavior shaping is accomplished through reinforcing successive approximations.

What does it mean to be responsible for your behavior?

Important Dimensions of Consequences

Magnitude – has to be something worthwhile

Timing (How long after the behavior is the consequence experienced?

Schedules of Reinforcements 

Continuous reinforcement (CFR) is a consequence that is given every time a certain behavior occurs. In over words, every time you do it, you get rewarded.

Intermittent reinforcement (INT) is when a consequence is not given every time that a particular behavior occurs. In other words you don’t reward every response. There are different types of intermittent reinforcement. Each type is based on what basis you determine to reward or punish a particular behavior. The first type is referred to as fixed ratio (FR). Suppose you want to run 100 trials. You go ahead and say that you are going to reward this participant  for 10% correct, 20%correct and so on. Therefore, it would be rewarded at 10/100  and again (but not until) 20/100 corrects. Fixed interval reinforcement is determined by length of time. Every 30 second, you reward the participant. Variable ratios is a reinforcement schedule in which the number of responses necessary to produce reinforcement varies from trial to trial. A VR schedule of VR10 means that if one averaged the number of reinforcers, on the average every tenth desired response was reinforced. Variable interval  is a schedule of reinforcement that is reinforced on an average every nth amount of time. the ‘n’ is an average.

Ratio strain

too much or too little VR or VI