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General Psychology
PSYC 200
Outline
0) Definition of Learning
1) Habituation
2) Classical Conditioning
3) Operant Conditioning
Learning
Definition
• Learning = change in behavior or thought as a
result of experience
• relatively long-lasting
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Habituation
We are Change Detectors
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Habituation
• we respond less strongly over time to repeated stimuli
• highly adaptive …… but not really very impressive
• amoeba and sea slugs
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Classical Conditioning
New things can trigger reflexes
Other examples?
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Classical Conditioning
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• When a neutral stimulus evokes a response
after being paired with a stimulus that naturally
evokes a response
• simple
• passive; reactive
• automatic
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Pavlov’s Accidental Discovery
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Classical Conditioning
CS
• Studied digestion – Nobel Prize
US
UR
CR
• Unconditioned stimulus
(US) - > unconditioned
response (UR)
– Food – saliva
• Complication: Dogs began salivating
before meat powder
• Classical Conditioning
• Conditioned stimulus (CS)
pair with US
• neutral stimulus is paired with another stimulus
that elicits an automatic response
• eventually the neutral stimulus alone produces a
similar response
• Then CS can elicit
conditioned response (CR)
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Think, Pair, Share
US?
UR?
CS?
CR?
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US = shark
UR = fear
CS = music
CR = fear
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Terminology
Learning Fears
• Acquisition
• Little Albert
• learning phase
• fear of white rats
• generalized to rabbits, a white dog, a white furry coat, a
Santa Claus mask, and even Watson’s hair
• Extinction
• gradual elimination
• Spontaneous Recovery
• sudden reemergence
• Phobias
• Generalization
• or overcoming phobias
• Little Peter
• similar
• Discrimination
• different
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Biological Preparedness
Disgust/ Food Aversions
• we learn some associations more easily than others
• phobias
• Acquired easily
• biologically important
• dirty; poisonous
• dark, heights, snakes, spiders, water, blood
• food aversions
• Food aversions?
• one trial learning
Taco Bell Cheesy Double Beef Burritos stuffed
inside a sausage log wrapped in bacon.
http://thisiswhyyourefat.com/
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International Delicacies
Eel jelly
American
Delicacies
Denny’s Introduces “Just a Humongous
Bucket of Eggs and Meat - The Onion
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Question
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• Bob has contracted a stomach virus and will be extremely sick
in 6 hours. At the moment, however, Bob is completely
unaware of his condition. In fact, he is starving for his favorite
food, pizza. His roommate wants anchovies on the pizza;
although Bob never has eaten anchovies, he agrees. Bob eats
six slices of pizza and likes the taste of the anchovies. A few
hours later, Bob becomes extremely sick to his stomach.
Describe the likely taste aversion that Bob will experience. Be
sure to identify the US, CS, UR, and CR. Finally, discuss how
the conditioning process might differ if Bob was a pigeon in
Central Park instead of a college student.
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Operant Conditioning
Operant Conditioning
Learning can happen with actions
other than reflexes
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Skinner’s Rats and Pigeons
• Skinner Box = Operant Chamber
• What about more complex and voluntary
behaviors?
• dolphins at Sea World
• kids behaving properly (or improperly)
• studying for a test
• operant conditioning is learning that is controlled
by the consequences of behavior
• more active
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• Skinner trained pigeons to:
•
•
•
•
walk in a figure 8
play ping pong
maintain quality control
even keep a guided missile on course!
Operant Conditioning
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Hero Rats
Shaping
• Bart Weetjens
• land mines
• tuberculosis
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• rewarding gradual, successive
approximations to a desired behavior
• Professor example
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Opportunity NYC
• program designed to reduce poverty by
providing cash incentives for doing things that
will ultimately help people help themselves out
of poverty
•
•
•
•
attend parent-teacher conferences -- $25
get a library card -- $50
take the PSAT -- $50
complete job training or educational courses -- $200
• 2 year testing phase
But what about intrinsic motivation?
• Sometimes extrinsic rewards decrease
intrinsic motivation
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Future of Gaming?
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Important Terminology
• Jesse Schell – game designer
• reinforcement – increases or strengthens a
response
– Talks about future of games – after facebook
– Games creeping into reality
– 21 minutes in
• punishment - decreases or weakens a response
http://g4tv.com/videos/44277/dice-2010-design-outside-the-box-presentation/
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Reinforcement and Punishment
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• Positive reinforcement: Adding something
good, to increase desired behavior
• Negative reinforcement: Taking away
something bad, to increase desired behavior
• Positive punishment: Adding something bad,
to reduce undesired behavior
• Negative punishment: Taking away something
good, to reduce undesired behavior
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Positive Reinforcement
Reinforcement and Punishment
• Positive reinforcement: Adding something
good, to increase desired behavior
• Negative reinforcement: Taking away
something bad, to increase desired behavior
• Positive punishment: Adding something bad,
to reduce undesired behavior
• Negative punishment: Taking away something
good, to reduce undesired behavior
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Negative
Reinforcement
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Positive Punishment
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Reinforcement? Punishment?
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Negative Punishment
Watch out…
MIT prank
• negative reinforcement
• taking an aspirin to relieve a headache
• smoking to relieve anxiety
• saying “uncle” to stop a beating
• Positive punishment
• spanking a child to stop them from hitting
• kicking a dog after it pees on the rug
• hangovers after drinking too much
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Reinforcement or Punishment?
Positive or Negative?
• The employee of the month gets a reserved
parking space
• A basketball player is suspended for committing
a flagrant foul
• A teenager is grounded until his homework is
finished
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Schedules of Reinforcement
• reinforced by ratio (# responses) or interval (time)
• reinforced on fixed or variable schedule
• Which schedules yield higher rates of responding
– ratio or interval?
• Which schedules yield more consistent rates of
responding – variable or fixed?
• Show Skinner movie
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Group Discussion 1
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Casinos
• A child does not reliably make his bed every
morning. His parents want to use monetary
positive reinforcement to increase bedmaking. Describe how the following schedules
of reinforcement would operate: Continuous
reinforcement, fixed ratio (FR) 7, variable ratio
(VR) 7, fixed interval (FI) 7 days, variable
interval (VI) 7 days. If you were the parent,
which schedule of reinforcement would you
employ? Why?
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FR, VR, FI, or VI?
• getting a paycheck every other week
• pop quizzes
• casting and reeling back several times before
catching a fish while fly fishing
• frequent flyer programs that give you free trips
after flying 10,000 miles
• watching for shooting stars
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