Unit 6, Learning
Adaptability
• Our capacity to learn new behaviors that help
us cope with changing circumstances.
Learning
• learning: a relatively permanent change in an
organism’s behavior due to experience
• Three types of learning we will study
– Classical Conditioning
– Operant Conditioning
– Observational Learning
How Do We Learn?
• We learn by association.
• Our minds naturally
connect events that
occur in sequence.
• Seeing, smelling, and
hearing can all cause us
to make associations
Learned Associations
• Learned associations also feed our habitual
behaviors
• As we repeat behaviors in a given context, the
behaviors become associated with the contexts.
• Ie Popcorn in movie theater
• Our next experience of the context then
automatically triggers the habitual
response.
– Such associations can make it hard to kick a
smoking habit
Animals and Association
• Disturbed by a squirt of
water, the sea slug
Aplysia protectively
withdraws its gill
• Habituation: an
organism’s decreasing
response to a stimulus
with repeated exposure
to it
Animals and Association
• If the sea slug
repeatedly receives an
electric shock just
after being squirted, its
withdrawal response
to the squirt instead
grows stronger.
– The animal relates the
squirt to the impending
shock.
• Complex animals can
learn to relate their own
behavior to its outcomes
– . Seals in an aquarium
will repeat behaviors,
such as slapping and
barking, that prompt
people to toss them a
herring.
Associative Learning
• associative learning: learning that certain
events occur together. The events may be two
stimuli (as in classical conditioning) or a
response and its consequences (as in operant
conditioning)
Conditioning
• Conditioning is the process of learning
associations.
– In classical conditioning, we learn to associate two
stimuli and thus to anticipate events.
• Ie. We learn that a flash of lightning signals an
impending crack of thunder, so when lightning flashes
nearby, we start to brace ourselves
– In operant conditioning, we learn to associate a
response (our behavior) and its consequence and
thus to repeat acts followed by good results and
avoid acts followed by bad
Classical Conditioning
• The Russian physiologist, Ivan Pavlov, and
his dogs circa 1905
 discovered classical conditioning (a type of
learning in which one learns to link two or more
stimuli and anticipate events.)
 received the Nobel Prize in science for discovery
 Classical conditioning is learning by association
 Pavlov’s work inspired Watson who called their
type of psychology behaviorism
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhqumfpxuzI
Pavlov’s Experiment
Analysis of Pavlov’s Study
• unconditioned response (UR): in classical
conditioning, the unlearned, naturally
occurring response to the unconditioned
stimulus (US), such as salivation when food
• unconditioned stimulus (US): in classical
conditioning, a stimulus that unconditionally—
naturally and automatically—triggers a
response is in the mouth.
• conditioned response (CR): in classical
conditioning, the learned response to a
previously neutral (but now conditioned)
stimulus (CS).
• conditioned stimulus (CS): in classical
conditioning, an originally irrelevant stimulus
that, after association with an unconditioned
stimulus (US), comes to trigger a conditioned
response.
• Conditioned = learned; unconditioned =
unlearned
Pavlov’s classic experiment Pavlov presented a neutral stimulus (a tone) just before an
unconditioned stimulus (food in mouth). The neutral stimulus then became a conditioned
stimulus, producing a conditioned response.
Classical Conditioning
• Association: the KEY element in classical
conditioning
– Pavlov considered classical conditioning to be a
form of learning through association, in time, of a
neutral stimulus and a stimulus that incites a
response.
– Any stimulus can be paired with another to make
an association if it is done in the correct way
(following the classical conditioning paradigm)
Classical Conditioning
• Terminology of Classical Conditioning
– Unconditioned Stimulus any stimulus that will
always and naturally ELICIT a response
– Unconditioned Response: response that always
and naturally occurs when presented with an UC
(present)
– Neutral Stimulus any stimulus that does not
naturally elicit a response associated with the
UCR
Classical Conditioning
• Conditioned Stimulus
• Conditioned Response: any response that
occurs upon the presentation of the CS
UCS----------------->UCR
(food powder) --------------> (salvating)
NS--------------->UCS----------------->UCR
(bell)--->
(food powder) -------------> (salvating)
CS---------------------------------------->CR(bell)-----------------------------------> (salvating)
 Here’s another example:
UCS------------------>UCR
(text from your bestie) -----------------> (happiness, smile)
NS --------------> UCS ----------------->UCR
(vibrate of your phone)
(text from your bestie)--------------->
(smile)
CS ---------------------------------------->CR
(vibrate of your phone)---------------------------------->
(smile)
Importance of Classical
Conditioning
Why was this so important?
Classical conditioning is involved in many of our
behaviors
 wherever stimuli are paired together over time we
come to react to one of them as if the other were
present
 a particular song is played and you immediately
think of a particular moment
 a particular fragrance is smelled and you
immediately think of a romantic partner
Check yourself: If the aroma of cake baking sets your mouth to watering, what is the US?
The CS? The CR?
Remember:
US = Unconditioned Stimulus
UR = Unconditioned Response
CS = Conditioned Stimulus
CR = Conditioned Response
The cake (and its taste) are the US.
The associated aroma is the CS.
Salivation to the aroma is the CR.
Conditioning Processes
• Pavlov and his associates explored five major
conditioning processes: acquisition, extinction,
spontaneous recovery, generalization, and
discrimination.
Acquisition
• acquisition: (initial learning) in classical
conditioning, the initial stage, when one links a
neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus
so that the neutral stimulus begins triggering
the conditioned response.
• Conditioning helps an animal survive and
reproduce—by responding to cues that help it
gain food, avoid dangers, locate mates, and
produce offspring
– Ie Male Japanese Quail and Red Light
An unexpected CS Onion breath does not usually arouse romantic feelings. But
when repeatedly paired with a kiss, it can become a CS and do just that.
Higher Order Conditioning
• higher-order conditioning: a procedure in
which the conditioned stimulus in one
conditioning experience is paired with a
new neutral stimulus, creating a second
(often weaker) conditioned stimulus. For
example, an animal that has learned that a
tone predicts food might then learn that a
light predicts the tone and begin
responding to the light alone. (Also called
second-order conditioning.)
– IE Dog Bite/ Bark
• What will happen when Pavlov continues to
ring the bell but does not give the dog food?
Pavlov found when he sounded the bell again and
again without providing food, the dog salivated
less and less.
• The CR conditioned response lessens over
time…and eventually if not reinforced will
become extinct.
Extinction
• the diminishing of a conditioned response;
occurs in classical conditioning when an
unconditioned stimulus (US) does not follow a
conditioned stimulus (CS)
• What do you think happened when Pavlov
waited several hours then rang the bell
again?
• The salvation returned!
Spontaneous Recovery
• the reappearance, after a pause, of an
extinguished conditioned response
Pavlov discovered that when a dog
conditioned to the sound of one tone also
responded to a different tone that had never
been paired with food.
This tendency to respond to a stimuli
similar to the conditioned stimulus is
generalization.
What is this similar to that we learned about
infants?
(Schemas)
Child abuse leaves tracks in the brain Abused children’s sensitized brains react more strongly to
angry faces. This generalized anxiety response may help explain why child abuse puts children at
greater risk for psychological disorders.
 Pavlov’s dogs also learned to respond to
the sound of a particular tone and NOT to
other tones.
Discrimination is the learned ability to
distinguish between a CS and other
irrelevant stimuli.
Confronted by a pit bull your heart may
start racing. Confronted by a golden
retriever, it probably won’t.