Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 109 views

    Introduction To Approaches in Psychology Learning & Conditioning Keith Clements

    Uploaded by

    Yunran
    This document provides an introduction to learning and conditioning approaches in psychology. It discusses habituation as the simplest form of learning, where the response to a repeated stimulus declines. It then focuses on associative learning involving two stimuli, covering classical and operant conditioning. Classical conditioning involves associating a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus to elicit a response. Operant conditioning involves consequences following behaviors to influence their likelihood of repeating. The document discusses evidence against strict stimulus-response explanations of conditioning and provides examples of applying conditioning principles to human learning and behavior.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Introduction To Approaches in Psychology Learning & Conditioning Keith Clements

    Uploaded by

    Yunran
    109 views18 pages
    This document provides an introduction to learning and conditioning approaches in psychology. It discusses habituation as the simplest form of learning, where the response to a repeated stimulus declines. It then focuses on associative learning involving two stimuli, covering classical and operant conditioning. Classical conditioning involves associating a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus to elicit a response. Operant conditioning involves consequences following behaviors to influence their likelihood of repeating. The document discusses evidence against strict stimulus-response explanations of conditioning and provides examples of applying conditioning principles to human learning and behavior.

    Original Title

    Learning

    Copyright

    © Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)

    Available Formats

    PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    This document provides an introduction to learning and conditioning approaches in psychology. It discusses habituation as the simplest form of learning, where the response to a repeated stimulus declines. It then focuses on associative learning involving two stimuli, covering classical and operant conditioning. Classical conditioning involves associating a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus to elicit a response. Operant conditioning involves consequences following behaviors to influence their likelihood of repeating. The document discusses evidence against strict stimulus-response explanations of conditioning and provides examples of applying conditioning principles to human learning and behavior.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    109 views18 pages

    Introduction To Approaches in Psychology Learning & Conditioning Keith Clements

    Uploaded by

    Yunran
    This document provides an introduction to learning and conditioning approaches in psychology. It discusses habituation as the simplest form of learning, where the response to a repeated stimulus declines. It then focuses on associative learning involving two stimuli, covering classical and operant conditioning. Classical conditioning involves associating a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus to elicit a response. Operant conditioning involves consequences following behaviors to influence their likelihood of repeating. The document discusses evidence against strict stimulus-response explanations of conditioning and provides examples of applying conditioning principles to human learning and behavior.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    You are on page 1of 18

    Introduction to Approaches in Psychology

    Learning & Conditioning

    Keith Clements
    Aims

     To introduce students to the key


    features of operant and classical
    conditioning.
     To consider what is learnt during each
    type of conditioning.
     To consider the relevance of
    conditioning to human behaviour.
    Habituation
     The simplest form of learning is habituation.
     The response to a repeated stimulus will decline across
    repetitions.
     We know this is learning, rather than fatigue for example,
    because the response will reoccur if the stimulus is
    changed.

     Habituation is a form of non-associative learning, it


    involves only one stimulus.
     We will be concentrating on associative learning, involving
    two stimuli (one is associated with the other).
    Behaviourism

    Founded by John Watson in 1913


     Psychology as the study of behaviour
     Learning as the centerpiece of Psychology
     Focused on the relationship between
    behaviour and stimuli and events in the
    environment.
    The legacy of behaviourism
    Common Misconceptions:
     Learning is of little relevance to human behaviour
     Learning results in Stimulus-Response links

    What actually happens:


     Individuals learn about the association between two
    events.
     If A happens then B will follow

    To study this in non-human species the association


    needs to lead to a change in behaviour.
    Classical conditioning
    Involves stimuli which produce reflexive responses
    Bell No
    Neutral response
    Stimulus

    Food Reflex Salivation


    Unconditioned Unconditioned
    Stimulus Response
    Classical Conditioning 2
    During conditioning (Acquisition)

    Bell Food Salivation

    Bell Test for conditioning Salivation


    Conditioned
    Conditioned
    Stimulus
    Response
    Operant Conditioning

    Involves stimuli which have motivational


    significance.

    The consequences which follow


    behaviours influence the likelihood of their
    being repeated
    Operant Conditioning

    Appetitive Aversive
    Presented Positive reinforcement Punishment
    Positive event follows Discomfort follows
    response e.g. reward response e.g. punishment

    Removed Punishment Negative reinforcement


    Positive state removed Discomfort removed after
    after response e.g. time- response e.g. escape or
    out or omission training avoidance learning
    Evidence against S-R explanations
    Sensory preconditioning

    Rescorla & Durlach (1981)


    1 Rats drank water flavoured with saccharin & Quinine
    2 They drank saccharin water and were made ill

    This produced a learned taste aversion, rats avoid


    drinking saccharin water.
    They also avoided quinnine-flavoured water
    Evidence against S-R explanations
    Reinforcer devaluation
    Colwill & Rescorla (1985)
    Rats learned
     To press a lever to obtain food
     To pull a chain to obtain sugar water

    One group was made ill after eating the food pellets.
    When both responses were available this group made
    fewer presses but continued to pull the chain
    Illness after drinking sugar water had the opposite
    effect.
    Revision questions 1
    1) Your flatmate refuses to do the washing-up. Armed
    with the knowledge that they hate pop music but love
    classical music, how would you change their behaviour
    using the following?
    Positive reinforcement
    Negative reinforcement
    Human learning
    Several recent studies apply procedures from the study
    of learning in animals to human learning about
    contingencies.

    These principles apply to situations where learning


    occurs as a result of experience of the relevant
    contingencies. Human behaviour often obeys the same
    rules as that of other species.
    Human behaviour can also be influenced by other
    processes, including verbal rules. Such rule-governed
    behaviour may be insensitive to its consequences.
    Shanks et al (1989)

    Animal learning is sensitive to the delay between stimuli. Pavlov


    found little evidence of learning with more than a few seconds delay
    between CS & US. Operant reinforcers should be administered soon
    after the reinforced behaviour.

    Subjects could press a key which was followed 75% of the time by a
    stimulus. The delay between press and stimulus was 0, 2, 4 or 8
    seconds.
    Subjects judged how likely the stimulus was to follow the key press.
    With delays of 4 seconds subject's judgements did not differ from
    control groups, for whom the stimulus was independent of the key
    press
    Practical applications
    Classical conditioning and emotional responses.
    Phobias may be viewed as learned fear responses. Such learning
    may be particularly common in relation to biologically significant
    stimuli. Seligman (1972) suggests that such stimuli may be
    evolutionarily prepared to take part in fear conditioning.
     Positive responses may also be conditioned. Stimuli associated
    with food or drugs may acquire conditioned responses which
    encourage consumption.
     Exposure-based therapies (such as systematic desensitization)
    aim to extinguish such maladaptive conditioned responses.
    Practical applications 2

    Behaviour Modification
    Uses operant principles to modify human
    behaviour.
    Includes
    Shaping
    Conditioned Reinforcers
    References
    Essential Reading
    Chapter 7 in Carlson, Martin & Buskist (2004) covers learning,
    applications are covered in more detail on pages 747-749.

    Further reading.
    Those who want to go into the topic in more depth could look at the
    following
    Schwartz, B & Robbins, S.J. (1995). Psychology of learning and
    behaviour. London : Norton.
    Revision questions 2
    A child is startled and falls off his chair while watching
    pigeons through a window. He subsequently becomes
    distressed when birds fly near him. A psychologist sees
    the child for a number of sessions. In each, a caged bird
    is gradually moved nearer to the child, until the child
    begins to feel uncomfortable. After several sessions the
    child can watch the bird flying out of it’s cage without
    fear.
    Describe the acquisition of the child’s fear in terms of
    classical conditioning, identifying the different stimuli
    and responses.

    You might also like