Learning CLassical conditioning.pdf

• John Watson• Watson believed that all individual differences inbehaviour were due to different experiences oflearning. He famously said:• “ Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed,and my own specified world to bring them up inand I’ll guarantee to take any one at random andtrain him to become any type of specialist Imight select – doctor, lawyer, artist, merchantchiefand yes, even beggar-man and thief,regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies,abilities, vocations and the race of his ancestors”

• What do you think Watson meant by thisstatement????? Do you agree????

• Where ever you see the word conditioningyou can substitute it with the word learning!!!• Theory involves learning new behaviour viathe process of association.• In simple terms 2 stimuli are linked togetherto produce a new learned response in aperson or animal.

• 3 stages• Stage 1: Before Conditioning▪ Unconditioned Stimulus ( UCS): produces anUnconditioned Response (UCR) in an organism. Inbasic terms this means that a stimulus in theenvironment has produced a behaviour/response whichis unlearned ( ie. Unconditioned) and therefore a naturalresponse which has not been taught.▪ No new behaviour has been learned yet.▪ For example, a stomach virus ( UCS) would produce aresponse of nausea ( UCR).

• This stage also involves another stimuluswhich has no affect on a person and is calledthe neutral stimulus (NS). The NS could be aperson, object, place. The neutral stimulus inclassical conditioning does not produce aresponse until it is paired with theunconditioned stimulus

• The stimulus which produces no response ( neutral) isassociated with the unconditioned stimulus at whichpoint it now becomes known as the conditionedstimulus (CS)• For example: a stomach virus ( UCS) might beassociated with eating a certain food such aschocolate ( CS).• Often during this stage the UCS must be associatedwith the CS on a number of occasions, or trials, forlearning to take place.• However, one trial learning can happen on certainoccasions when it is not necesssary for an associationto be strengthened over time ( food poisoning )

• Now the conditioned stimulus (CS) has beenassociated with the unconditioned stimulus(UCS) to create a new conditioned response(CR)• For example chocolate (CS) which is eatenbefore a person was sick with a virus ( UCS)now produces a response of nausea (CR)

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1g3y0SRbVc• 9 month old infant who was tested on hisreactions to various stimuli. He was shown awhite rat, a rabbit, a monkey and various masks.Albert described as “ on the whole stolid andunemotional” showed no fear of any of thesestimuli. However what did startle him and causehim to be afraid was if a hammer was struckagainst a steel bar behind his head. The suddennoise would cause “ little albert to burst intotears

• 1890’s Russian psychologist Ivan Pavlov waslooking at salivation in dogs in response tobeing fed, when he noticed that his dogswould begin to salivate whenever he enteredthe room, even when he was not bringingthem food.

Pavlov showed the existence of theunconditioned response by presenting a dogwith a bowl of food and the measuring itssalivary secretionsHowever, when pavlov discovered that anyobject or event which the dogs learnt toassociate with the food ( such as the labassistant) would trigger the same response,he realized that he had made an importantscientific discovery!!!

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhqumfpxuzI• Pavlov knew that somehow, the dogs in hislab learned to associate food with his labassistant. This must have been learned,because at one point the dogs did not do it,and there came a point where they started,so their behaviour had changed. A change inbehaviour of this type must be a result oflearning

• In his experiment Pavlov used a bell as hisNeutral stimulus. WHenever he gave food tothis dogs, he also rang a bell. After a numberof repeats of this procedure, he tried the bellon its own. As you might expect, the bell onits own now caused an increase in salivation.• So dog had learned an association betweenthe bell and the food and a new behaviourhad been learnt.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpoLxEN54ho• Because this response was learned ( orconditioned) it is called the conditionedresponse. The neutral stimulus has become aconditioned stimulus• First systematic study of basic laws oflearning/conditioning

• Classical Conditioning involves learning to associatean unconditioned stimulus that already brings about aparticular response with a new (conditioned) stimulus,so that the new stimulus brings about the sameresponse• The response to this is called the unconditionedresponse. The neutral stimulus is a new stimulus thatdoes not produce a response• Once the neutral stimulus has become associatedwith the unconditioned stimulus, it becomes theconditioned stimulus. The conditioned response (CR)is the response to the conditioned stimulus (CS)

• Skinner believed that the best way tounderstand behaviour is to look at the causesof an action and its consequences. He calledthis operant conditioning• Skinner’s work based on Thorndike’s law ofeffect and puzzle boxes• 1948 skinner studied operant conditioning byconducting experiments using animals whichhe placed in a SKINNER BOX which wassimiliar to thorndike’s puzzle box

• Operant conditioning means roughlychanging of behaviour by the use ofreinforcement which is given after thedesired response.• Skinner identified 3 types of responses thatcan follow a behaviour

• 1) Neutral Operants: responses from theenvironment that neither increase nor decreasethe probability of a behaviour being repeated• 2) Reinforcers: responses from the environmentthat increase the probability of a behaviourbeing repeated. Reinforcers can be eitherpositive or negative.• 3) Punishers: Response from the environmentthat decrease the likelihood of a behaviour beingrepeated. Punishment weakens behaviour

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhvaSEJtOV8&feature=endscreen

• Skinner showed how positive reinforcementworked by placing a hungry rat in his skinnerbox. The box contained a lever in the side andas the rat moved about the box it wouldaccidentally knock the lever. Immediately itdid so a food pellet would drop into acontainer next to the lever. The rats quicklylearned to go straight to the lever after a fewtimes of being put in the box

• The removal of an unpleasant reinforcer canalso strengthen behaviour. This is known asNegative reinforcement because it is theremoval of an adverse stimulus which isrewarding to the animal. Negativereinforcement strengthens behaviourbecause it stops or removes an unpleasantexperience.• Electric current

• Punishment is defined as the opposite ofreinforcement since it is designed to weakenor eliminate a response rather than increaseit.

• Pscyhology should be seen as a science, to bestudied in a scientific manner, Skinner’s study ofbehaviour in rats was conducted under carefullycontrolled lab contitions• Behaviourism is primarily concerned withobservable behaviour, as opposed to internalevents like thinking and emotion• Major influence on human behaviour is learningfrom out environment.• Little difference between the learning that takesplace in humans and that in other animals.