Unit 6- Learning

Learning

Learning: A long lasting change in behavior due to experience.

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov was a Russian physiologist known primarily for his work in classical conditioning. He experimented with dogs, their ability to salivate is a learned one.



Classical Conditioning: is passive learning, when its automatic the learner doesn't have to think about its actions.

Unconditioned stimulus: is something that causes an automatic natural reaction. 

Unconditioned Response: A natural, usually unvarying response evoked by a stimulus in the absence of learning or conditioning.
  
Neutral Stimulus: is one that elicits no response.

Acquisition: refers to the first stages of learning when a response is established.

Extinction: refers to the gradual weakening of a conditioned response that results in the behavior decreasing or disappearing.

In John Watson's baby Albert experiment, he shows that emotional reactions can be classically conditioned to people. 

 

Garcia and Koelling Study: Fed rats sweet liquid followed by an injection which made them sick, then the rats avoided sweet liquid. (Taste Aversion) 




Operant Conditioning: is a type of learning in which an individual's behavior is modified by its antecedents and consequences.

The Law of Effect: Edward Thorndike placed cats in puzzle boxes, the cats learned to pull the lever to come out of the box to a reward of fish. Any behavior that is followed by pleasant consequences is likely to be repeated, and any behavior followed by unpleasant consequences is likely to be stopped.

BF Skinner: Believed the best way to understand behavior is to look at the causes of an action and its consequences. (Operant Conditioning)




Reinforcer: anything that increases a behavior. There's positive reinforcement, which is the addition of something good, and Negative reinforcement, the removal of something unpleasant. 

 

Shaping: the process of reinforcing a specific behavior that a person is trying to install within their subject.



Chaining Behaviors: Subjects are taught a number of responses in succession to get a reward.  










Primary Reinforcers: things which are in themselves rewarding.
Secondary Reinforcers: things we have learned to value (money is a generalized reinforcer)




Token Economy:  is a system of behavior modification based on the systematic reinforcement of target behavior.

Premack Principle: Taking into consideration the reinforcers used, the reinforcer wanted.  

Reinforcement Schedule: How often you use the reinforcer. 
Fixed Ratio: reinforcement after a set number of responses. 
Variable Ratio: Reinforcement after a RANDOM number of responses. 



Observational Learning: Albert Bandura, we learn through modeling behavior from others. 



Latent learning: 3 rat experiment, Edward Toleman, Latent means hidden.