4. LEARNING the process leading to relatively permanent behavioral change or potential behavioral change. In other words, as we learn, we alter the way we perceive our environment, the way we interpret the incoming stimuli, and therefore the way we interact, or behave. The process through which experience modifies pre-existing behavior and understanding PRE-EXISTING BEHAVIOR AND UNDERSTANDING Present at birth maturation Learned earlier

5. PEOPLE LEARN Experiencing events Observing relationship between events Noting the regularity in the world LEARNING ABOUT STIMULI One kind of learning is habituation, which involves adaptation to events that are repeated often. ex. Ticking of the clock stops = we become aware SOLOMON’S OPPONENT-PROCESS THEORY Habituation is the result of a relatively automatic, involuntary A-Process and a B-Process that follows and counteracts the A-Process. ex. Heart rate

6. CLASSICAL CONDITION: LEARNING SIGNALS AND ASSOCIATIONS One important type of learning, Classical Conditioning, was actually discovered accidentally by Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936). Pavlov was a Russian physiologist who discovered this phenomenon while doing research on digestion. His research was aimed at better understanding the digestive patterns in dogs. THE PAVLOV’s DISCOVERY During his experiments, he would put meat powder in the mouths of dogs who had tubes inserted into various organs to measure bodily responses. What he discovered was that the dogs began to salivate before the meat powder was presented to them. Then, the dogs began to salivate as soon as the person feeding them would enter the room. He soon began to gain interest in this phenomenon and abandoned his digestion research in favor of his now famous Classical Conditioning study.

7. PAVLOV’s INTERPRETATION Pavlov began pairing a bell sound with the meat powder and found that even when the meat powder was not presented, the dog would eventually begin to salivate after hearing the bell. Since the meat powder naturally results in salivation, these two variables are called the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) and the unconditioned response (UCR), respectively. The bell and salivation are not naturally occurring; the dog was conditioned to respond to the bell. Therefore, the bell is considered the conditioned stimulus (CS), and the salivation to the bell, the conditioned response (CR). EXTINCTION AND SPONTANEOUS RECOVERY EXTINCTION unless the unconditional stimulus continues to be paired at least occasionally with the conditioned stimulus, the conditioned response will gradually disappear.

8. RECONDITIONING It is the quick learning of a conditioned response after extinction. If the CS and UCS are paired once or twice after extinction; that is the CR reverts to its original strength SPONTANEOUS RECOVERY Following the extinction, the CR often reappears if the CS is presented after sometime STIMULUS GENERALIZATION AND DISCRIMINATION Because of stimulus generalization , CRs occur to stimuli that are similar but not identical to CS. ex. Sour-smelling milk – avoidance to it

9. Generalization is limited by stimulus discrimination , which prompts CR to some stimuli but not to others. ex. Your dog barks – you wake up (CR) Other dog barks – no response THE SIGNALING OF SIGNIFICANT EVENTS Classical conditioning involves learning that the CS is an event that predicts the occurrence of another event, UCS. The CR is not just an automatic reflex but a means through which animals and people develop mental models of relation between events. Ex. Preparation of dog to eat – saliva flowing in advance – easier to swallow the food

10. TIMING Classical conditioning works best when the CS precedes the UCS, an arrangement known as forward conditioning . In essence, the CS is a signal that prepares the organism for the UCS. In an arrangement called backward conditioning , the CS signal follows the UCS. When the CS and UCS arrive at the same time ( simultaneous conditioning ), conditioning is much less likely to take place it is in either backward or forward conditioning. PREDICTABILITY Classical conditioning proceeds most rapidly when the CS always signals the UCS, and only UCS. Ex. Growl (CS) – Bite (UCS)

11. SIGNAL STRENGTH A CR will be greater if the UCS is strong than if it is weak. Ex. Strong shock (UCS)- more fear (CR) Weak shock – less fear ATTENTION More than one potential CS often precedes an UCS. Attention can influence which CS becomes associated with the UCS. Ex. Child’s focus before the lightning stuck. SECOND-ORDER CONDITIONING When a CS acts like an UCS, creating CS out of events associated with it. Ex. Suffers pain in injection (UCS) – doctor’s white coat (noticeable stimuli) - fear (CS) – white coat of the doctor evokes a conditioned fear response (some properties of an UCS) – nurse calling the name = fear (CS) because it signals the white coat, which in turn signals pain

13. OPERANT CONDITIONING: LEARNING THE CONSEQUENCES OF BEHAVIOR The term "Operant" refers to how an organism operates on the environment, and hence, operant conditioning comes from how we respond to what is presented to us in our environment. It can be thought of as learning due to the natural consequences of our actions. FROM THE PUZZLE BOX TO THE SKINNER BOX The law of effect, postulated by Edward Thorndike, holds that any response that produces satisfaction becomes more likely to occur again and any response that produces discomfort becomes less likely. He called this type of learning instrumental conditioning . Skinner called the same basic process operant conditioning . In operant conditioning the organism is free to respond at any time and conditioning is measured by the rate of responding. Ex. Sweet and bitter tastes

14. BASIC CONDITIONING OF OPERANT CONDITIONING OPERANTS AND REINFORCERS An operant is a response that has some effect on the world; it is a response that operates on the environment Ex. When the child says to her mother that he is hungry A reinforcer increases the probability that the operant preceding it will occur again; in other words, reinforcers strengthens behavior. The term reinforce means to strengthen, and is used in psychology to refer to anything stimulus which strengthens or increases the probability of a specific response. Ex. if you want your dog to sit on command, you may give him a treat every time he sits for you. The dog will eventually come to understand that sitting when told to will result in a treat. This treat is reinforcing because he likes it and will result in him sitting when instructed to do so.

15. 2 types of reinforcers: Positive reinforcers , which strengthen a response if they are presented or experienced after that response occurs; equivalent to reward . The most common types of positive reinforcement or praise and rewards, and most of us have experienced this as both the giver and receiver. Ex. Food, smiles, money, desirable outcomes Negative reinforcers, which strengthen a response if they are removed after it occurs. Think of negative reinforcement as taking something negative away in order to increase a response. Ex. Pain, threats, disapproving frown

16. ESCAPE AND AVOIDANCE CONDITIONING Escape conditioning results when behavior terminates a negative reinforcer Ex. Parents give child’s demand to avoid tantrums Avoidance conditioning results when behavior prevents of avoids an aversive stimulus; it reflects both classical and operant conditioning. Behaviors learned through avoidance conditioning are highly resistant to extinction. Ex. 2 step learning process: 1st step = classical conditioning (pairing a signal with coming shock) 2nd step = operant conditioning (learning to make a response to avoid the shock)

17. PUNISHMENT Punishment decreases frequency of a behavior by following it either with an unpleasant stimulus or with the removal of a pleasant one. Punishment modifies behavior but has several drawbacks. It only suppresses behavior; fear of punishment may generalize to the person doing the punishing; it can be physically harmful and may teach aggressiveness; and it teaches only what not to do, not what should be done to obtain reinforcement. DISCRIMINATIVE STIMULI AND STIMULUS CONTROL Discriminative stimuli indicate whether reinforcement is available for a particular behavior. Ex. Pigeon – see red light- they reinforce to pick the food Pigeon – see green light – no response Therefore, they will pick only the food when the red light is on

18. FORMING AND STRENGTHENING OPERANT BEHAVIOR Complex responses can be learned through the following: SHAPING Shaping, which involves reinforcing successive approximations of the desired response. It is an extremely powerful, widely used tool Ex. Animal trainers to teach a chimpanzees to roller-skates . SECONDARY REINFORCMENT Primary reinforcement are inherently rewarding Ex. Food Secondary reinforcement rewards that people or animals learn to like because of their association with primary reinforcers. Ex. “Good boy!” sound

19. DELAY AND SIZE OF REINFORCEMENT In general, operant conditioning proceeds more quickly when the delay in receiving reinforcement is short rather than long, and when the reinforcer is large rather than small Ex. A strong electrical shock will elicit a faster avoidance or escape response than a weak one. SCHEDULES OF REINDFORCMENTS Reinforcements may be delivered on a continuous reinforcements schedule or on one of four basic types of partial, or intermittent, reinforcement schedule. REINFORCMENT SCHEDULE Fixed–ratio schedule (FR) provide reinforcement following a fixed number of responses . Ex. Rats may receive food after tenth bar press (FR 10) or rather every twentieth one (FR 20)

20. Variable-ratio schedules (VR) also call for reinforcement after a given number of responses, but that number varies from one reinforcement to the next Ex. In gambling, a slot machine Fixed interval schedules (FI) provide reinforcements for the first response that occurs after some fixed time has passed since the last reward, regardless of how many responses have been made during that interval. Ex. Radio stations Variable-interval schedules (VI) reinforce the first response after some period of time, but the amount of time varies . Ex. Teacher give “points” – at unpredictably varying intervals– to children who are in their seats.

21. SCHEDULES AND EXTINCTION Ratio schedules lead to a rapid rate of responding. Behavior learned through partial reinforcement, particularly through variable schedules, is very resistant to extinction; this phenomenon is called the partial reinforcement extinction effect . Partial reinforcement is involved in superstitious behavior, which results when a response is coincidentally followed by a reinforcer. Ex. Broken slot machine and broken candy machine Broken slot machine – you put in coin after coin Broken candy machine – stop putting money in quickly WHY REINFORCERS WORK? Reinforcers are rewarding because they provide an organism with the opportunity to engage in desirable activities, which may change from one situation to the next.

22. OPERANT CONDITIONING OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR The principle of operant conditioning have been used in many spheres of life including the teaching of everyday social skills, the treatment of sleep orders, and the improvement of classroom education

24. COGNITIVE PROCESS IN LEARNING Cognitive process is used on how people represent, store, and use information. Also it plays an important role in learning. Evidences like: Research on learned helplessness, latent learning, cognitive maps and observational learning LEARNED HELPLESNESS Learned helplessness appears to result when people believe that their behavior has no effect on the world. Ex. Adults learn what behaviors bring success in their careers and workplaces. LATENT LEARNING AND COGNITIVE MAPS Both animals and humans display latent learning (learning that is not evident when it first occur). They also form cognitive maps of their environments (mental representation of a particular arrangement), even in the absence of any reinforcement for doing so. Ex. Observation of group A, B, and C on the rats using a maze

25. INSIGHT AND LEARNING Experiments on insight suggest that cognitive processes and learned strategies also play an important role in learning, perhaps even by animals. It results only after a “mental trial and error” process in which people predict a course of action mentally stimulate its results, compare it to the imagined outcome of other alternatives, and settle on the course of action most likely to aid complex problem solving and decision making Ex. solutions of the chimps in getting the food OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING: LEARNING BY IMITATION The process of learning by watching others is called observational learning, or social learning Ex. Parrot imitates what the person does say

26. Some observational occurs through various conditioning , in which one is influenced by seeing or hearing about the consequences of others’ behavior. Ex. After children have observed an antagonistic model, they often reproduce many of the model’s act precisely especially if the model’s antagonistic was rewarded Observational learning is more likely to occur when the person observed is rewarded for the observed behavior. Observational learning as a powerful source of socialization. Ex. Phobias may be learned through observation of fearful models.

28. USING RESEARCH ON LEARNING TO HELP PEOPLE LEARN Research on how people learn has implications for improved teaching and for the development of a wide range of skills . Teaching and Training are explicit efforts to assist learners in mastering a specific skills or body of material are major aspect of socialization. CLASSROOM ACROSS CULTURE. The degree to which learning principles, such as immediate reinforcements and extended practice, are used in teaching varies considerably from culture to culture. Ex. Reciprocal teaching, in which children take turns actively teaching each other, a technique that closely parallels the cooperative arrangements characteristics of Japanese education .

29. ACTIVE LEARNING The importance of cognitive processes in learning is seen in active learning methods designed to encourage people to think deeply about and apply new information instead of just memorizing isolated facts. Ex. Experiences during field trips SKILL LEARNING Observational learning, practice, and corrective feedback play important roles in the learning skills Ex. Swimming coaches trains the students to further enhance their swimming skills.