This slideshow was created with images from the web. I claim no copyright or ownership of any images. If a copyright owner of any image objects to the use in this slideshow, contact me to remove it. This is for a course in Introductory Psychology using Wayne Weiten's "Psychology: Themes and Variations" 8th ed. Published by Cengage. Images from the text are copyrighted by Cengage.

1. Introduction to Learning Chapter 6

2. This chapter is going to involve learning to use words in new ways. Psychologists use common words in very precise ways. To understand the ideas, you need to learn these terms.

3. That was an example. The last slide used “learn” the way you use it, probably. Click back and re-read it to see. Most people think of “learning” as what you do for school, to study for tests.

4. To psychologists, learning is a relatively durable change in behavior or knowledge that is due to experience.

5. The typical use of the word “learning” fits this definition, but the definition also includes other things. The rest of these slides introduce the basic ideas of three main types of learning.

7. Review from Chapter 1 You do not have to memorize these dates, but use them to think about this era of history.

8. Review from Chapter 1 Psychology was born in the era of the long beards.

9. Review from Chapter 1 Wundt’s lab founded in 1879 William James (functionalism) published his text in 1890 Ivan Pavlov’s discovery was in 1906

10. Review from Chapter 1 Opinions on facial hair in the late 1800s differed from ours today. After the turn of the century, beards began going out of style, despite how scholarly they looked.

11. Facial hair wasn’t the only thing that changed. Many people living during this era saw their world revolutionized. It went from horses, carts, and postal mail to trains, automobiles, and telegrams.

12. The next slide illustrates why I am stressing the historical setting of these events. Note the incredible technological innovations (green boxes) happening around the development of psychology (red boxes). (For cowboy fans, I put in the date of the famous shootout at the OK Corral in Tombstone. The wild west era was pretty much over at that point.)

13. 1876 Telephone 1861-1865 Civil War 1888 First Car 1866-1870 Trans-continental Telegraph 1906 Pavlov 1880 Edison Light bulb 1900 1860 1870 1890 1880 1869 Railroad connects coasts 1879 Wundt’s Lab 1890 William James 1880 Wyatt Earp at Tombstone 1903 Wright Bros. first flight

14. This was an exciting time, when science and technology changed the way people lived. Imagine going from cowboys to cars in one generation.

15. During that era, Psychology and Behaviorism developed.

16. Events Leading to Behaviorism Pavlov’s Dogs

17. Pavlov’s Importance Pavlov showed that a dog could learn that a metronome click signaled when food would be coming. The dog would salivate to a click.

18. Pavlov’s Importance Given that every dog owner today knows this, why were scientists interested in Pavlov’s dogs?

19. Pavlov’s Importance Pavlov demonstrated that a dog could make a mental connection between an artificial, man-made object (a metronome) and food. Moreover, that connection led to a bodilyresponse that was observable.

20. Pavlov’s Importance The dog had learned a connection between the click and food. And we could OBSERVE IT SYSTEMATICALLY.

21. Think about how much of your intelligent behavior is making connections. What if this is a fundamental way that learning happens? What if this is the way that minds work?

22. Events Leading to Behaviorism This was the motivation behind the development of Behaviorism. What if we could discover the major law-like relationships for Psychology? What if this ability to make connections, as Pavlov showed with his dogs, was something akin to Newton’s Laws of Motion, but for the mind?

23. And that is why dog spit was exciting.

24. John Watson Founder of Behaviorism Remember: Watson argued that psychology should be the science of observable behavior, and only observable behavior.

25. John Watson Watson thought that the “conditioning” observed by Pavlov may be a key to understanding behavior. He theorized that many, if not all, human behaviors, personalities, and mental pathologies are the result of conditioning.

26. Note what is going on here. You get a new discovery (Pavlov’s “conditioning”) and then scientists theorize about how far you can stretch that idea. They then conduct research to find the limits.

27. John Watson Watson thought that infants only experienced a couple basic emotions, which get paired with things in their environment. Over time, these build in complexity. The infant grows into an adult with associations for a world’s worth of objects and experiences. He started with a simple idea, and tried to see how far he could take it.

28. John Watson Studying infant learning, Watson studied how a child learns to fear things. He conducted these experiments on “Little Albert.”

29. John Watson You will read about this, and see a video, in your text. The “Little Albert” study was one of Watson’s last studies, however.

30. John Watson Gossip time.  He got in trouble for having an affair with the graduate student who helped him in that study, Rosalie Rayner (you can see her in the picture).

31. John Watson Ultimately, he left Johns Hopkins, where he conducted his research. He divorced his wife and married Rosalie. Don’t feel sorry for his lost job, though. He didn’t stay unemployed for long. He found other work.

32. John Watson He went into advertising.

33. John Watson Keep this in mind as you read the Critical Thinking Application in your text. The topic is Manipulating Emotions…in advertising. Are you a Little Albert?

35. Classical Conditioning Associative Learning

36. Terms Stimulus – input from the environment Response – a behavior emitted by an organism Conditioned – something learned (Here are more of those precise uses of words, pay attention)

37. Basics:Classical Conditioning In classical conditioning, you learn to associate something new with something that happens automatically.

38. Before Conditioning:Neutral Stimulus This is the new thing. It leads to nothing interesting at the beginning. It is a neutral stimulus. There is no learning yet. NS

39. Before Conditioning:Example Bell Ringing NS

40. Before Conditioning:Naturally Occurring S–R This happens automatically. It is not learned, so both the stimulus and response are called “unconditioned.” Unconditioned Stimulus leads to an Unconditioned Response US UR

41. Before Conditioning:Example Meat Powder US Salivation UR Automatic

42. During Training:Repeatedly pair NS with US The goal is to turn the Neutral stimulus (NS) into a Conditioned Stimulus (CS) that will lead to the same response, now a Conditioned Response (CR). (The jargon is dense, I know. Bear with me and read through examples)

43. Training, or Conditioning:Repeatedly Pair Neutral Stimulus with Unconditioned Stimulus NS Paired Presentation US UR

44. Bell NS Paired Presentation Meat Powder US Salivation UR Training, or Conditioning:Example

45. After Conditioning:The NS becomes a Conditioned Stimulus, which leads to Conditioned Response CS CR

46. After Conditioning:Example Bell CS Salivation CR

47. Simple, right?

48. Basics: Neutral stimulus – has no effect originally. NS Automatically happens – not learned – “unconditioned” Unconditioned Stimulus  Unconditioned Response Stated in shorthand, the US leads to the UR. After “conditioning” or training – the learned part Conditioned Stimulus  Conditioned Response Stated in shorthand, the CS leads to the CR.

49. NOTE: The NS and CS are the same stimulus. We call it neutral before training and conditioned after successful training. The UR and CR are the same response. We call it U or C depending on what led to the response, something already happening (U) or something learned (C).

50. Practice these!! You need to be able to label situations quickly. See examples on Blackboard and in your text.

51. I’m not joking. Practice these. You need to be able to label all parts of a classical conditioning situation.

52. Early psychologists figured out that Classical Conditioning could not explain all behavior. It works best when explaining reflexive behaviors, things that come after a stimulus is presented.

53. The next type of learning focuses on what comes after a behavior.

54. To make things confusing, they call the behaviors “responses.” This goes against how most of us use the word. You do something, and you get a response. Nope. Not for Behaviorists.

55. Change how you think for the next section. For the next type of learning, we start paying attention with the response, and we focus on what comes next.

57. Operant Conditioning or How to Train a Puppy. or How to Control a Defiant Child. or How to Get a Roommate to Do the Damn Dishes! or … you get the idea

58. Let’s say you decide to make a road trip to Cincinnati to visit friends who go to school there. The visit is epic. The next time you have gas money and nothing to do… you think immediately, “Cincinnati!”

59. You rarely try new restaurants. Deciding to be adventurous, you let a friend talk you into going to a place by campus. The food is nasty. You never go back there, and you won’t consider going to new restaurants with your friend again.

60. These are operant conditioning. Operant conditioning is all around us. Our environments are constantly affecting us.

61. You put $1.25 into a Pepsi machine (Coke machine if you are anti-Pepsi). You hear the machine work, but nothing comes out. Frustrated, you slam your palm into the sides of the machine. The pop drops. You get a tasty treat. Next time it happens…do you hit again?

62. In each case, the probability of doing something changed. That’s the key point for operation conditioning.

63. If you do something and it leads to good consequences, you do it more. If you do something and it leads to bad consequences, you do it less.

64. Deceptively Simple It is amazing how much this can explain, and how far you can take these simple ideas.

65. Reinforcement “organisms tend to repeat those responses that are followed by favorable consequences.” B. F. Skinner Short version: You do something. What comes next makes you better off. You do it more.

66. Reinforcement: Examples Went to Cincinnati. Had a good time. More likely to visit again. Reinforced response: “thinking about Cincinnati for fun.” Beat pop machine. Got pop. More likely to beat pop machines in the future. Reinforced response: “beat malfunctioning machines”

67. Reinforcement: Examples A boy wants the toy his classmate has. He grabs the toy and smacks the other child with it. He gets the toy. Reinforced Response: “hit to get what you want…”

68. Reinforcement: Examples A dog is bored. It barks and barks. The owner comes into the room (happens to be yelling and swinging a shoe, but that doesn’t matter). The dog now has something to do (run and hide) and gets attention from its owner. Reinforced Response: “bark to get attention.”

69. Key Points If a consequence increases the probability of a behavior, then reinforcement happened. The focus is on the organism being conditioned. It doesn’t matter what the trainer wanted or intended to do. In the example of the dog, the owner wanted to punish, but what happened was reinforcement.

70. Reinforcement vs. Punishment If the consequences after a response increase the likelihood of the response happening again It’s reinforcement If the consequences after a response decrease the likelihood of the response happening again It’s punishment

71. This is a specific use of the word “punishment.” It is not the way most people use the word. People typically use it to be synonymous with “discipline.” That’s now how psychologists use it.

72. Punishment Example The restaurant example was punishment. You go to a new restaurant. You have bad food and service. You are less likely to try new restaurants again. Behavior Punished: “trying new restaurants”

73. Notice that a person doesn’t have to be the trainer. In fact, there doesn’t have to be anyone there at all.

74. Punishment Example Little Johnny finds a paperclip. He sees a little man’s surprised face on the wall. He looks hungry! Playing, Johnny decides to poke the man in the eyes. BZZZT! The wall just punished a boy. Johnny will never poke a power outlet again – probability of behavior now zero!

75. Simple, right? Let’s fix that.

76. There are two types of reinforcement or punishment.

77. Review “Punishment” means that the probability of the behavior decreases “Reinforcement” means that the probability of the behavior increases

78. New Terms “Positive” means that something is added to the situation. “Negative” means that something is removed, or subtracted, from the situation.

79. Note: Positive and Negative are NOT being used to mean good and bad, or to infer any judgment.

80. Two Types of Reinforcement Positive Reinforcement – add something desirable Negative Reinforcement – remove something aversive The examples of reinforcement up till now have been positive reinforcement. There is also negative reinforcement.

81. Negative Reinforcement Example Juanita and Phil have not had a good night’s sleep since they brought home their new baby. It’s 2:00 a.m., and the baby is crying. Crying, crying, crying. They lay in bed, exhausted, barely able to stay awake. Cry, cry, cry. Phil gets up, and goes in to the baby. The baby stops crying.

82. Negative Reinforcement Example Baby Crying = aversive state. It’s not pleasant. Response = Dad goes and picks up baby. Consequence = crying stops. Aversive state removed. Probability of Dad responding to crying baby increases.

83. Negative Reinforcement Example Baby Crying = aversive state. It’s not pleasant. Response = Dad goes and picks up baby. Consequence = crying stops. Aversive stateremoved. Probability of Dad responding to crying babyincreases. Negative Reinforcement

84. The same idea applies to punishment

85. Two Types of Punishment Positive Punishment – add something aversive Negative Punishment – remove something desirable The punishing restaurant example was positive punishment. An aversive meal (bad food) and aversive service were presented to you at the restaurant.

86. Here are two examples of both types of punishment from parenting.

87. Positive Punishment Example Positive Punishment – add something aversive A child is writing on the walls with marker. The parent smacks the child’s hand. The child is less likely to write on the walls again.

88. Positive Punishment Example Positive Punishment – add something aversive Behavior = writing on walls Consequence = smack on hand. Pain. Aversive state added. Probability of child writing on walls decreases. Positive Punishment

89. Negative Punishment Example Negative Punishment – remove something desirable A child is writing on the walls with marker. The parent puts the child in time out. The child is less likely to write on the walls again.

90. Negative Punishment Example Negative Punishment – remove something desirable Behavior = writing on walls Consequence = time out. Taken away from play time. Freedom removed. Desirable state removed. Probability of child writing on walls decreases. Negative Punishment

91. The following may help. Note where the terms fall. This is very easily confused, so give yourself a lot of practice. Try to label events throughout the next day or two.

93. PRACTICE!

94. This was just to get you started. There are more terms that you need to learn. See your textbook.

95. Questions to Answer in Your Reading When do you stop reinforcing a behavior that you want to increase? What happens after you stop reinforcing a behavior? Should you reinforce a behavior every time it happens? Should you reinforce or punish?

96. Social Learning Beyond the Behaviorists’ Conditioning

97. Early behaviorists like Watson tested how far Classical Conditioning could go. Behaviorists like B. F. Skinner extensively tested how far you could take Operant Conditioning.

98. Skinner went pretty far… He hypothesized that our personality differences are due to our experiences. Your life shapes you to behave as you do. That means that there is no free will. You only do what you have learned to do. Choice is an illusion.

99. …

100. Limits of Conditioning As researchers asked these questions, big and small, they started to find limits. You can not Classically Condition any stimulus that you want. Some things are easier to condition than others, sometimes differing for different species of animals (see preparedness in your text).

101. Limits of Conditioning Not all learning has a clear classical or operant origin. In other words, these do not explain everything. One researcher who noticed this was Albert Bandura.

102. Limits of Conditioning What Bandura demonstrated was a third major type of learning.

103. Observational Learning We can learn by watching. That may seem obvious to you, but it took time to carefully craft studies to show that behaviors caused during the study had to be due to observation and couldn’t be due to classical or operant conditioning.

104. Observational Learning See your text for details on how. Pay attention to what a bobo doll is.

105. Observational Learning There are several types of Observational Learning.

106. Modeling This boy is modeling what his dad is doing. He is attempting to reproduce the behavior (act like him). His dad is a model for shaving, meaning simply that he is the person being watched.

107. Modeling Modeling is the first type of Observational Learning.

108. Modeling - Example Many birds learn their songs by modeling. If they are not exposed to adult birds singing, they do not learn the songs.

109. Vicarious Conditioning This is the second main type of observational learning.

110. Vicarious Conditioning “Vicarious” means “through another person’s experience” or “second hand.”

111. Vicarious Conditioning Vicarious conditioning happens when you learn from watching someone else get classically or operantly conditioning.

112. Vicarious Conditioning Example Remember Johnny? He put a paper clip into an electrical outlet?

113. Vicarious Conditioning Example Imagine that Sally watched this. Fortunately for Sally, she does not have to be zapped firsthand to learn. Sally will probably never put a paperclip into a wall outlet. She learned by watching. Punished, vicariously.

114. Review

115. Three Types of Learning Classical Conditioning Operant Conditioning Observational Learning

116. Classical Conditioning involves a Neutral Stimulus (NS) being paired with an Unconditioned Stimulus (US) repeatedly, which leads to an Unconditioned Response naturally (UR) The NS becomes a Conditioned Stimulus (CS), leading to the Conditioned Response (CR)

117. Operant condition involves Reinforcement – increasing the likelihood of a response Positive or Negative Punishment – decreasing the likelihood of a response Positive or Negative

118. Observational Learning involves Learning by watching, through: Modeling Vicarious Conditioning

119. Now you’re ready to start studying! Time to Learn!