Learning
Learning is a semi-permanent change in knowledge or behavior due to experience. So when you argue with your parents and get grounded, then shut up the next time they confront you and say nothing, you’ve learned that arguing has negative consequences on you.
In psychology there are classifications for different types of learning. In classical conditioning you learn when two or more events are paired in time. For example, every time you hear a bell you get kicked in the leg and then scream. Two or three kicks later you learn to associate the bell with the kick and then start screaming at the sound of the bell. In that scenario, the kick is called the unconditioned stimulus, or the thing that will automatically produce a response(your scream). The scream is called the unconditional response because it is the unlearned reaction to the unconditioned stimulus. So what does that make the bell? Well, the bell is the neutral thing that when paired with the unconditioned stimulus (kick) acquires the ability to elicit a conditioned response. And the conditioned response is simply a term for the event where the learned response to the conditioned stimulus (bell) resembles the unconditioned response. So your response to the bell is similar to your response to the kick.
To prove that this was true, a guy named Pavlov did an experiment with a dog, some dog food and a bell. (You must read this because all educated people know about Pavlov’s Dog.)
Ivan Pavlov was studying digestive processes in a certain dog when he realized that the dog would begin salivating to food-related stimuli after working with Pavlov repeatedly. The food dish, the usual person who fed the dog, and even footsteps in the hall all made the dog salivate. At first this annoyed Pavlov because it interfered with his work on digestion, but the implied learning process intrigued Pavlov and he ditched his digestive study for the study of this form of learning. To determine what triggered the dog to salivate, Pavlov and his associates set up an experiment. The dog already had a surgically implanted tube in its mouth that was attached to the salivary gland. This tube ran into a test tube that recorded exactly how much saliva the dog was producing. By pairing neutral stimuli to the food in the dog’s mouth, they hoped to be able to condition the dog to salivate to the neutral stimuli when it was presented alone. Pavlov’s experiment eventually led to his sounding a tone just before placing the food in front of the dog. After several pairings of the tone and the food, the dog began salivating to the tone alone. This effectively proved that one can condition a response and led to a new term for a recently researched type of learning--classical conditioning.
A drawing of the Pavlov's Dog experiment
Before we proceed, you should probably know that CS stands for conditioned response, UCS stands for unconditioned stimulus, CR stands for conditioned response, and UCR stands for unconditioned response.
Under the classification classical conditioning, there are FIVE more sub-classifications, or categories. They are as follows:
1. SIMULTANEOUS CONDITIONING- CS & UCS begin at the same time.(minimal learning)
2. DELAYED CONDITIONING - CS starts first and continues at least until the UCS begins. (very effective for learning)
3. TRACE CONDITIONING- CS starts before and ends before the UCS is presented. (minimal effectiveness in learning due to long interval between time)
4. TEMPORAL CONDITIONING- UCS presented alone at time intervals, so time becomes the CS because the CR occurs according to time
5. BACKWARD CONDITIONING- UCS presented before CS
INTERESTING TERMS...
EXTINCTION- THE CS IS REPEATEDLY PRESENTED WITHOUT THE UCS, SO THE CS LOSES THE ABILITY TO ELICIT THE CR
SPONTANEOUS RECOVERY- AFTER EXTINCTION, THE CR RETURNS WITHOUT RECONDITIONING (wow)
DESCRIMINATION- LEARNING TO RESPOND TO A NARROW RANGE OF STIMULI THAT VARY ALONG SOME DIMENSION OF THE CS
Another type of learning is called Instrumental Learning. This is learning that occurs when a response is strengthened or weakened by consequences. The LAW of EFFECT = the principle of reward and punishment that encourages and discourages responding. So, you don’t study for a test and as a result you fail. Failing is the consequence and the next time that your teacher informs the class that there is a test coming up your new response will (hopefully) be to study.
And yet another type of learning is Operant Conditioning. This was B.F. Skinner’s theory of learning and it is simply instrumental learning that involves some kind of environmental control of responses. This involves a discriminative stimulus (stimulus that sets the occasion for a response that will lead to reinforcement) and the operant(behavior to be reinforced). As most children know there are different ways to reinforce a behavior. One may be reinforced with reward to ensure that the behavior continues, or one may use an aversive reinforcement that ensures the behavior will not occur again(grounding). Skinner believed in training procedures such as positive reinforcement or reward training. This is when actions that follow an operant response make responding more probable.(Your parents give you money when you get an "A" on a test.) Punishment is the opposite of positive reinforcement with negative events following an operant response that therefore make the response less probable.(You tease your big brother and he hits you.) Omission training occurs when an operant response removes a positive event and thus becomes less probable.(You yell at your parents and they take away your car keys.) And finally, negative reinforcement occurs when an operant response removes an aversive(negative) event, making the response more probable.(You’re grounded until you apologize to your teacher, once you apologize you are free, so apologizing becomes probable!)
There are 3, I said 3, types of reinforcers.
1. PRIMARY REINFORCERS- NATURAL EVENTS WITH BIOLOGICAL RELEVANCE THAT INCREASE THE PROBABILITY OF THE BEHAVIORS THAT PRODUCE THEM
2. SECONDARY REINFORCER- A NEUTRAL EVENT IS PAIRED WITH A PRIMARY REINFORCER AND CAN THEN TAKE ON THE PROPERTIES OF THAT REINFORCER
3. GENERALIZED REINFORCER- SECONDARY REINFORCERS THAT ARE ASSOCIATED WITH A WIDE VARIETY OF OTHER REINFORCERS (FOOD, MONEY, CLOTHES)
Cognitive learning is learning that involves mental processes, like thinking and development of decision rules. Have you ever gone totally blank in the middle of a test? You know how you just sit there staring at the question, wondering what the class will be like next year when you are in it for the second time because of this one, stupid question the teacher pulled out of nowhere? And then, poof, the answer suddenly comes to you and you have the relief of knowing that you won’t be in old lady Uptight’s class next year afterall. There is actually a technical term for what we call luck. It’s Insight Learning and the definition is what I just described, the sudden awareness to the solution of a problem.
What about those things you can’t learn by thinking about? Things like the Tootsie Roll. You can’t learn a new dance by thinking about it, you have to watch someone else do it first. And that type of learning is referred to as observational learning
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