1. Learning Unit
u07

2. Learning is a relatively permanent change to an
organism’s behavior due to experience.
• Classical conditioning
• Operant conditioning
• Observational learning

3. m21 Classical
Conditioning

4. The Office

6. Ivan Pavlov
1849 - 1936
1904, Nobel Prize in
Medicine
Originally tried to
study digestion, but
dogs became
conditioning

7. Unconditional stimulus
Unconditional response
neutral stimulus

8. NS → Conditioned stimulus
Acquisition
CS → Conditioned response

9. Generalization vs Discrimination

10. Spontaneous Recovery

11. Modernizing Pavlov
Biological predisposition to certain associations
Universal way to learn
simple worms to humans . . .
like Little Albert

13. Review
Identify the UCS, UCR, NS — then the post-acquisition CS
and CR

14. Identify the UCS, UCR, NS — then the post-acquisition CS
and CR

15. Months prior to the season opening football game between
MIT and Harvard, a psychology graduate student went to the
Harvard stadium to feed seagulls. For weeks, wearing a
white-and-black-striped shirt he walked up and down the
sidelines, blowing on a whistle, and throwing bird seed on to
the field.
At the season opener, the football game was delayed for 45
minutes as officials waited for hundreds of seagulls to leave
the field.
Identify the UCS, UCR, NS — then the post-acquisition CS
and CR

16. m22 Operant
Conditioning

17. Edward Thorndike
The LAW OF EFFECT:
rewarded behavior is likely to be be
repeated.
Corollary:
punished behavior is not likely to be
repeated

19. BF Skinner
1904-1990
Built upon the
Law of Effect
Developed
Skinner Box to
test conditioning
in isolation

21. Shaping through successive approximations

22. Reinforcement
Increases the likelihood of the
preceding event being repeated.
Positive reinforcers add
something desirable
Negative reinforcers
remove something
undesirable

23. Primary reinforcers Secondary reinforcers
are inherently are learned
desirable
eg money, grades,
food, water, air, praise
and sex

24. Positive reinforcement

25. Negative Reinforcers
• Taking aspirin to relieve a headache
• Hurrying home in the winter to get out of the cold
• Giving in to an argument or to dog’s begging to end it
• Fanning oneself to escape the heat
• Leaving a school play if the play is bad
• Smoking to relieve anxiety
• Faking a stomach ache in order to avoid school
• Putting on a seatbelt to silence the warning buzzer
• Using an umbrella to escape the rain
• Saying “uncle” to stop being beaten

26. Negative reinforcement

27. Punishment
Decreases the likelihood of the
preceding event being
repeated
Positive punishment adds
something undesirable
Negative punishment
removes something
desirable

28. Review

29. Reinforcement

30. Punishment

31. Scenarios
Does the situation require:
Punishment or Reinforcement?
positive or negative?
describe the response

32. Schedules of
Reinforcement
Continuous reinforcement
or
intermittent reinforcement
Fixed ratio Fixed interval
Variable ratio Variable interval

33. fixed ratio

34. variable ratio

35. fixed interval

36. variable interval

37. What schedule is being used?
1. Car salesman paid on commission?
2. Airline frequent-flyer rewards program?
3. Detention for eating in the halls?
4. Checking Facebook for something interesting?
5. Receiving acceptance letters from college?
6. Feeling sick after eating McDonald’s?

38. m23 Observational
Learning

40. Mirror
neurons fire
both when the
animal acts
and when it
observes a
conspecial
animal act.

41. Albert Bandura
1925 - present
Past president of the
APA
Professor at Stanford
“Bobo Doll”
experiment

43. Components of
Observational Learning
• Attention
• Retention
• Reproduction
• Motivation or reinforcement
Prosocial
or
behaviors
Antisocial

44. Agenda:
Coloring
Presentation
Practice FRQ
Optional review session:
today, 5*

45. Illustrate a scene showing:
US UR
A. Classical Conditioning CS + US UR
CS CR
B. Operant Conditioning Behavior + response
C. Observational Learning Experience & replication