Learning: long-lasting change in behavior resulting from experience

1) Associative v nonassociative

a) Associative

i) S-S: classical (Pavlovian) conditioning

ii) S-R à effect: operant (instrumental) conditioning

b) Nonassociative

i) Habituation

2) Classical Conditioning

a) Pavlov – what he was looking for and what he found

b) Terminology

c) Acquisition

d) Extinction

e) Spontaneous recovery

f) Relearning

g) Generalization

h) Discrimination

i) Little Albert (Watson & Raynor) – conditioning of human emotional responses

j) Taste aversion (Garcia & Koelling, 1966)

i) Bright, noisy, tasty water

(1) Rats made ill (drug or radiation) after tasting water with novel taste, flashing light, and click

(2) Rats later avoided the taste, not the light or click.

(3) Biological predisposition

(4) Coyotes & baboons

(5) Class examples?

3) Operant conditioning

a) Thorndike’s Law of Effect

i) R followed by a “satisfying state of affairs” will increase in probability; R not followed by “satisfying state of affairs” will decrease in probability

b) Importance of the R

i) Compare classical and operant

c) Shaping (Skinner)

d) Acquisition

e) Extinction

f) Generalization

g) Discrimination

i) Discriminative stimulus

h) Nature of the Reinforcer

i) Drive Reduction

ii) Premack Principle

(1) More preferred R will reinforce less preferred R

iii) Positive: S whose onset reinforces

iv) Negative: S whose offset reinforces

(1) Escape learning

(2) Avoidance learning

(3) Learned helplessness (Seligman)

(4) Punishment

v) Primary

vi) Secondary

(1) Token economy

i) Schedules of Reinforcement

i) Continuous reinforcement (CRF)

ii) Partial

(1) Fixed Ratio (FR)

(2) Fixed Interval (FI)

(3) Varied Ratio (VR)

(4) Varied Interval (VI)

4) Learning to Learn

a) Harlow (1940’s & 1950’s) – visual discrimination

i) Learning sets

5) Cognitions

a) Tinklepaugh (1920’s)

b) Tolman & Honzik (1930)

i) Latent learning

ii) Cognitive map