CH 5 - Learning
CH 5 - Learning
CH 5 - Learning
o Pavlov found, however, that if he waited several hours before sounding the tone
again, the salivation to the tone would reappear.
This is spontaneous recovery the reappearance of a CR after a pause in
time
Generalization
o Pavlov also discovered that a dog conditioned to the sound of one tone also
responded somewhat to the sound of a different tone that had never been paired
with food.
This is generalization the tendency to respond to stimuli similar to the
CS
Discrimination
o Pavlovs dogs also learned to respond to the sound of a particular tone and NOT
to other tones
This is discrimination the learned ability to distinguish between a CS
(which predicts the US) and other irrelevant stimuli.
Extending Pavlovs Understanding
o Pavlov did not believe that cognition was involved in classical conditioning
o Robert Rescorla and Allen Wagner (1972) Rescorla-Wagner Model of
Conditioning a.k.a. contingency theory.
Showed that cognition does play a role in conditioning
An animal learns an expectation that some predictors (potential
conditioned stimuli) are better than others.
The strength of the CS-US association is determined by the extent to
which the US is unexpected or surprising.
The greater the surprise of the US, the more effort the organism
puts in to trying to discover its occurrence so that it can predict
future occurrences
An animal will more easily associate a US with a novel stimulus than with
a familiar stimulus
Familiar stimuli already have expectations associated with them,
making new conditioning difficult.
Once a conditioned stimulus is learned, it can prevent the acquisition of a
new conditioned stimulus blocking effect.
Leon Kamin if an electric shock given to dogs was always
preceded by a tone, and then may be preceded by a light that
accompanies the tone, a dog will react with fear to the tone but not
to the light the tone is a better predictor
o Pavlov believed that the laws of learning were the same for all animals he also
believed that any natural response could be conditioned to any neutral stimulus.
However, we now know that an animals capacity for conditioning is
constrained by its biology species are naturally predisposed to learn
associations that enhance survival biological preparedness
John Garcia
Operant conditioning learning to associate a response and its consequences. Behavior that
operates on the environment to produce rewarding or punishing stimuli.
Edward L. Thorndike
o Law of Effect a response (such a string pulling) is strengthened by a particular
situation (being in a puzzle box) by a reward (escaping and eating)
Rewards strengthen stimulus/response relationships
Punishments stamp out/weaken stimulus/response relationships
B.F. Skinner:
Reinforcement
Punishment
Skinner and other behaviorists believed that organisms acquire only those responses for
which they have been reinforced
o Edward Chace Tolman showed that rats could learn about their environments
even in the absence of reinforcement
The rats had developed a cognitive map (mental representation of the
maze), this map/learning could remain hidden until the rat was motivated
to run the maze as quickly as possible (latent learning)
o Insight Learning a sudden realization of how to solve a problem
Not acquired gradually due to the strengthening of a stimulus/response
relationship.
Wolfgang Kohler and his chimpanzee Sultan
o Biological Predispositions an animals natural predispositions can constrain its
capacity for operant conditioning
Hamsters can be conditioned to dig or stand on its hind legs because it
uses those skills to get food. However, it is hard to condition them to wash
their face. Raccoons, on the other hand, can be conditioned to wash their
face because they wash their food in the wild.
Instinctive drift an animal reverting back to biologically predisposed
patterns
Token Economics Organism given a token for desired behaviors, tokens can later be
exchanged for rewards