Ch.

7
Learning & Behaviour Analysis

Why do we learn
o Behaviour has adaptive significance
o It increases our chances of survival and reproduction

The study of learning

o
o
o
o

Ivan Pavlov Classical conditioning model

John Watson Behaviourism
B.F. Skinner Operant conditioning model
Behavioural analysis Focus on discovering environmental determinants
of learning & behaviour

Learning, behaviourism, conditioning

o Learning A relatively permanent change in behaviour due to experience
o Behaviourism Research on learning has been influenced by this approach
to psychology that emphasizes the study of observable behaviour and the
role of the environment as a determinant of behaviour
o Conditioning The association between environmental stimuli and the
organisms responses

Major ways we learn

o Association Classical conditioning (Pavlov)

o Consequence Operant conditioning (Skinner)
o Cognitive learning, observation Social interactions (Bandura)
Behaviorism
o John B. Watson
Viewed psychology as objective science
Recommended study of behavior without reference to unobservable

mental processes
Argued against introspection
Classical conditioning
o Pavlov observed that behaviour came to be elicited by a stimulus that has
acquired its power through an association with a biologically significant
stimulus
Repeated pairing of a stimulus with stimuli that naturally elicit a reflex
response
Also called Pavlovian conditioning
o New reflexes from old
Unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
Elicits a response in the absence of learning
Any stimulus that naturally elicits a behaviour (food, pain)
Unconditioned response (UR)
The reflexive response to a stimulus in the absence of learning

Conditioned stimulus (CS)

An initially neutral stimulus that comes to elicit a conditioned

response after being paired with an unconditioned stimulus

Conditioned response (CR)
A response that is elicited by the conditioned stimulus
Occurs after the CS is associated with the US
Is usually similar to US
o Processes of conditioning
Acquisition
The process by which the CR is first elicited and gradually

increases in frequency over repeated trials

Timing of stimulus presentation important
o Delay CS is turned on prior to and stays on until the UCS

presented (strongest conditioning)

o Trace CS is turned off before UCS presented
o Simultaneous CS and UCS presented at the same time
o Backward CS presented after UCS
Extinction
The weakening of a CR as a result of the absence of CS and UCS
Spontaneous recovery
The sudden reappearance of the CR after a rest period without

further exposure to the UCS

o What is learned in classical conditioning
For classical conditioning to be most effective, the stimulus to be
conditioned should precede the unconditioned stimulus
We learn that the first event (stimulus) predicts the second
Delay conditioning
o Processes of classical conditioning
1. Acquisition
2. Extinction (CS alone)
3. Rest period
4. Spontaneous recovery (always)
o Stimulus generalization
Automatic extension of conditioned responses to stimuli that are
similar to the CS
The more similar to CS = the stronger the response
E.g. Child bitten by a big dog fears all dogs of different size
o Stimulus discrimination
Learning to respond differently to stimuli that differ from the CS on
some dimension
Works in balance with generalization to respond effectively
E.g. Red light and green light
o Classical conditioning in everyday life
Emotional responses & fear conditioning (E.g. horror movie)
Learning to fear
o Research suggests we can learn fear through association

o Watson and Raynor conditioned little Albert to be afraid of

rats by pairing the neutral stimulus (rats) with an
unconditioned stimulus (loud noise)
o Within days, Albert was not only afraid of the rats, his fear

had generalized to other furry objects

Unlearning fear
o Counter-conditioning
o The process of pairing a conditioned stimulus with a
stimulus that elicits a response that is incompatible with an
unwanted conditioned response
o Another childs fear of rabbits was removed by pairing the

stimulus which elicited fear with a stimulus that elicited

happiness
Preferences (food likes/dislikes, advertising)
Garcia effect Humans quickly learn to associate illness with
food even when the food is not the cause of becoming sick
Drug use & addiction
Siegels research indicating the setting for drug use becomes

conditioned with bodily responses

Operant conditioning
o Edward Thorndikes (1898) research on cats & puzzle boxes
o Law of effect
A response followed by satisfying consequences becomes more

probable
A response followed by dissatisfying consequences becomes less

probable
o Operant conditioning
Learning procedures which manipulate the consequences of behaviour
in order to see what effect this has on subsequent behaviour
Operant Behaviour that is emitted (voluntary)
B.F. Skinners research experiments
o Consequences of behaviour
A neutral consequence neither increases or decreases the probability

that the response will recur

Reinforcement strengthens the response or makes it more likely to

recur
Punishment weakens a response or makes it less likely to recur
o Reinforcement contingencies
A consistent relationship between a response and the changes in the

environment that it produces

Can target specific behaviours
Contingencies depend on reinforcers
Punishment changes the contingency
Reinforcer

Any stimulus that, when made contingent on a behaviour,

increases the probability of that behaviour

Appetitive versus aversive reinforcers
Reinforcement delivery of reinforcer after response
Punisher
Any stimulus that, when made contingent on a response,
decreases the probability of that response
Punishment delivery of punisher after response
Reinforcement
A stimulus strengthens or increases the probability of the
response that it follows
o Primary reinforcers are inherently reinforcing and
typically satisfy a physiological need (e.g. food, water)
o Secondary reinforcers are stimuli that have acquired

reinforcing properties through associations with other

reinforcers (e.g. money)
Reinforcers
Positive reinforcement
o Behaviour that is followed by the delivery of an appetitive
(positive) stimulus (increases behaviour)
o When a pleasant consequence follows a response, making

the response more likely to occur again

Negative reinforcement
o Behaviour that is followed by the removal of an aversive
stimulus (increases behaviour)
o When a response is followed by the removal of something
unpleasant, making the response more likely to occur
again
o Escape conditioning Response allows escape from
aversive stimulus
o Avoidance conditioning Response allows avoidance of

aversive stimuli before it begins

o E.g. seatbelt buzzer, sunburn
o Operant conditioning
Positive and negative reinforcement result in an increase in behaviour
Punishment results in a decrease in behaviour
Punishment
The process by which a stimulus or event weakens or reduces

the probability of the response that it follows

Primary punisher
o When something unpleasant occurs after a behaviour
o Something that is inherently punishing such as electric
shock
Secondary punisher
o When something pleasant is removed after a behaviour

o A stimulus that has acquired punishing properties through

an association with other punishers

Discriminative stimuli
Stimuli that precede a particular response (reinforcement or

punishment) and come to set the context for that behaviour

Referred to as the three-term contingency
o Discriminative stimulus Response Consequence
Generalization may also occur where the same behaviour is

performed in the presence of a similar stimulus

Principles of operant conditioning
Extinction In operant conditioning, it occurs when a response

is no longer followed by a reinforcer

Stimulus generalization Stimuli that are similar to the

original stimulus are more likely to trigger a response

Stimulus discrimination The tendency of a response to occur

in the presence of one stimulus but not another

Properties of reinforcers
Use of conditioned reinforcers can be applied in many
circumstances to change fbehaviour
o Token economies Use of tokens as reinforcers for
desired behaviours that can be exchanged for rewards
o Bargaining with children to do chores/homework
o Linked to response deprivation theory behaviours

become preferred & reinforcing when we are prevented

from engaging in them
External and internal reinforcers
External reinforcers Reinforcers that are not inherently

related to the activity being reinforced

Internal reinforcers Reinforcers that are inherently related to

the activity being reinforced

External reinforcers may undermine internal reinforcers
o Frequency of consequences
Continuous reinforcement reinforced after every behaviour
Partial reinforcement
Ratio: Reinforcement based on a number of responses
o Fixed ratio (FR):
Reinforced after specific number of responses
Faster you respond the more rewards you get
Different ratios, very high rate of responding
E.g. bi-weekly wages
o Variable ratio (VR):
Reinforced after a number of responses centered on

an average
Average ratios
Very hard to extinguish because of unpredictability

E.g. gambling, fishing

Interval: 1st response after a certain amount of time reinforced
o Fixed interval (FI):
Reinforces a response only after a specified time has

elapsed
Response occurs more frequently as the anticipated

time for reward draws near

E.g. Students get grades after exams every 3

weeks
o Variable interval (VI):
Reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals
Produces slow steady responding
E.g. pop quiz
E.g. Person getting through busy phone line
Schedules of reinforcement
Simple reinforcement schedules produce characteristic response

patterns
Steeper line mean higher response rates
Ratio schedules produce higher response rates than interval
schedules

Shaping
o To train people or animals to perform new or complex behaviours, often use
process of shaping
o Positive reinforcement
o Shaping by successive approximations
Reinforcing any responses that successively approximate and

ultimately match the desired response

Use differential reinforcement to define steps along the way

o Comparison of classical and operant conditioning

Response
Acquisitio
n
Extinction
Cognitive
processes

Biological
predisposi
tions

Classical conditioning
Involuntary, automatic
Associating events; CS
announces US
CR decreases when CS is
repeatedly presented alone
Organisms develop
expectation that CS signals
the arrival of US
Natural predispositions
constrain what stimuli and
responses can easily be
associated

Operant conditioning
Voluntary, operates on environment
Associating response with a
consequence (reinforcer or punisher)
Responding decreases when
reinforcement stops
Organisms develop expectation that a
response will be reinforced or punished;
they also exhibit latent learning, without
reinforcement
Organisms best learn behaviours similar
to their natural behaviours; unnatural
behaviours instinctively drift back
toward natural ones

Biology and learning

o Philosopher David Hume argued that biological processes influence learning
o Biological constraints on learning
Limitations on learning that are imposed by a species genetic

endowment
Instinctual drift when learned behaviour drifts back towards

specific instincts
Taste-aversion learning Single pairing of a CS (novel flavour) with

consequences (UCS of illness)

Cognitive influences on learning
o Cognitive processes also play a role in behavioural responses
o Tolman studies on maze completion in rats requiring spatial memory
o Demonstrated existence of cognitive maps (mental representations of maze)
o Observational learning
Cognitive aspects of learning are also demonstrated by our ability to

learn from the experiences of others (social learning)

When individuals, after simply watching another person exhibiting

behaviour that was reinforced or punished, later behaves in the same

way or refrains from doing so
Cognitive aspects = expectations
o Bandura & social learning
Classic Bobo doll studies Several factors that make a models
observed behaviour most influential
o When do we follow a model
A models observed behaviour most influential when it:
Has reinforcing consequences
Perceived positively
Model and observer share similar features/traits
When models behaviour clearly stands out

When the observer has the ability to repeat/imitate models

actions
Observer rewarded for paying attention to the model
o Social cognitive learning
Do not omit mental processes from explanations of human learning
Learning is not so much a change in observable behaviour as a

change in knowledge that has the potential for affecting behaviour

Social cognitive theories emphasize how behaviour is learned

and maintained:
Through observation and imitation of others
Positive consequences
Cognitive processes such as plans, expectations, and beliefs
Observational learning involves learning new responses by

observing the behaviour of another rather than through direct

experience
o The case of media violence
Since Bandura, hundreds of other experimental studies have

corroborated the findings

Meta-analysis shows that greater exposure to violence is related to

more aggressive behaviour when controlling for social class,

intelligence, and other factors
Other researchers are less concerned because they believe that media

violence does not cause most viewers to become aggressive

Aggressive individuals may be drawn to violent programming
o Social-cognitive view and aggression
The following variables intervene in the relationship between what we
see,

what we learn, and how we respond:

Perceptions
Interpretations
Personality dispositions (aggressiveness, sociability)

Ch. 8
Memory

Memory The capacity to store and retrieve information

Types of memories
o Implicit vs. explicit
Implicit Availability of information through memory without

conscious effort, processed in hippocampus

Explicit Conscious effort to recover information, processed in

cerebellum
o Procedural vs. declarative
Procedural (Knowing how)

Memory for how to do things, the way you remember how to get

things done
Declarative (Knowing that)
Recollection of facts and events
Semantic (General knowledge)
Episodic (Personal recollections)
Memory process
o Encoding (info into memory)
Mental representation in memory based on information processing
Getting info (visual, auditory, olfactory, etc.) into the cognitive system

by translating it into a neural code the brain processes

Attention is important
Encoding is both automatic and effortful
Automatic processing
Unconscious encoding of incidental information
o Space (Visual location of info where is that?)
o Time (When did I leave my keys?)
o Frequency (Thats the third time I have seen that.)
Effortful processing
Requires attention and conscious effort
Elaborative rehearsal (Meaning linked with experience and

past knowledge)
Rehearsal
Conscious repetition of information
To maintain it in consciousness and store it
o Storage
Retention of encoded information over time
Sensory memory ( iconic & echoic)
The immediate, initial recording of sensory information in the

memory system
Iconic memory A memory system in the visual domain that

allows large amounts of information to be stored for very brief

durations (~.5 sec.)
Working memory
Focuses more on the processing of briefly stored information
Resource involved in tasks such as reasoning and language

comprehension
Foundation for moment-by-moment fluidity of thought and action
& integration of information
Three components (Baddeley):
o Phonological loop
o Visuospatial sketchpad
o Central executive
Short-term memory
o Activated memory that holds few items briefly

o Look up a phone number, then quickly dial before the

information is forgotten
o Mechanism for focusing cognitive resources on a small set
of mental representations
o Involves preservation of very recent experiences and brief
retrieval of information from LTM when needed
o STM has a limited capacity
Millers magic number: 7 + or 2
o STM strategies
Rehearsal
Maintenance rehearsal involves repeating

information repetitively
Lack of rehearsal and interference related to

decreased memory ability

Chunking
The process of reconfiguring items by grouping
them on the basis of similarity or some other
organizing principle

Long-term memory
The relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory

system
LTM is the storehouse of all experiences, events, information,

emotions, skills, words, categories, rules, and judgments that

have been acquired from sensory and short-term memories
Involves the preservation of information for retrieval at any later

time
Unlimited capacity
Match between encoding and recall important memory
o Retrieval
Recovery of the stored information at a later time
Retrieval cues
The stimuli available as you search for a particular memory (can

be externally or internally generated)

Declarative memories differ with respect to cues necessary to
retrieve them (Tulving)
o Episodic memories
Memory for things you have personally experienced
o Semantic memories
General, categorical memories
Not linked to specific episodes where memory was

obtained (brushing teeth)

Two tests of memory:
Recall Reproduction of information to which you were
previously exposed

Recognition Realization that a certain stimulus is one you

have seen or heard before (often stronger & more

straightforward)
Context & encoding
Encoding specificity
o Memories emerge most efficiently when the context of
retrieval matches the context of encoding
o Context-dependent memory improves recall
o Retrieval can be altered by the context and distinctiveness

of the experience being recalled (contextual

distinctiveness)
Serial position effect
o The tendency for recall of first and last items on a list to
surpass recall of items in the middle of the list
o Primacy effect Improved memory for items at start of
list
o Recency effect Improved memory for items at end of

list
Levels of processing theory
o Information processed at a deeper level is more likely to be
retained
o Structural encoding Paying attention to the structural
properties of words & how it looks (shallow)
o Phonological (phonemic) encoding Paying attention
to the sound qualities of words (intermediary)
o Semantic encoding Paying attention to the meaning of

the words (deepest processing)

Transfer-appropriate processing
o Memory is best when the type of processing carried out at
encoding transfers to processes at retrieval
o Priming The advantage conferred by prior exposure to a

word or situation
o Forgetting
Ebbinghaus designed first methods used in systematic study of

forgetting:
Use of nonsense learning
Recall decrease period levels off over time
Interference is when retrieval cues do not point effectively to one
specific memory
Proactive interference Information you have acquired in the

past makes it more difficult to acquire new information

Retroactive interference Acquisition of new information

makes it difficult to remember old information

o Improving memory

Elaborative rehearsal enhances memory by elaborating on material

to be learned
Mnemonics
Devices that encode a long series of facts by associating them

with familiar & previously encoded information

o Method of loci
o Peg-word method
o Metamemory
Metamemory refers to our knowledge about the contents of our own

memories
Feelings of knowing (FOK)
Cue familiarity hypothesis FOKs based on familiarity with retrieval

cue
Accessibility hypothesis FOKs based on judgments of accessibility,

or availability, of partial information from memory

Structures in LTM
o One key feature of memory is the ability to integrate & categorize
experiences
o Concepts
Mental representations of the categories you form
Based on family resemblance or prototypical features
Objects are best categorized at a basic level (hierarchical concepts)
o Schemas
Conceptual frameworks, or clusters of knowledge, regarding objects,
people, and situations
Generalizations that can be applied to interpret situations
Using memory structures
Prototypes Comparison to a single image stored in memory
Exemplars Comparison to many images you have in memory
Memory as reconstructive
o Memory is not a permanent record of experiences
o Levelling Simplifying the story
o Sharpening Highlighting & overemphasizing certain details
o Assimilating Changing details to better fit the participants own

background or knowledge
o Reconstruction has very important implications for eyewitness memory
Eyewitnesses memories for what they have seen are vulnerable to

post-event information
Further, misinformation can be incorporated into memory and lead to

false recall
Biological aspects of memory
o Forming and retrieving memories is associated with changes in the brain
o The search for the engram (Karl Lashley)
Early attempts to determine where memories were physically
represented in the brain

Memory processes widely distributed throughout cortex & depends on

the type of memory involved

Major structures involved in memory are the cerebellum, striatum,
cerebral cortex, amygdala & hippocampus

Amnesia
o Amnesia patients provide researchers with information about where certain
types of memories are processed or stored
Anterograde amnesia Inability to form memories for events that

occur after brain damage

Retrograde amnesia Inability to remember events that occurred

prior to brain damage

Childhood amnesia Inability to remember events that occurred
before the age of 5