Transcript Learning Continued

LEARNING CONTINUED
Operant Conditioning and Cognitive Learning Skills
Operant Conditioning
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In operant conditioning, organisms (humans and
animals) learn to engage in behavior that results in
something good – like a reward
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Learning in operant conditioning happens when
behaviors are associated with consequences
Maybe the child gets a cookie when they say please
and thank you.
The student gets an A when they study hard.
We also learn to avoid behaviors that produce a
negative consequence, such as pain or failure.
Operant conditioning is different from classical
conditioning because…
In OC, voluntary responses are conditioned – not
biological!
Skinner’s Box
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So – he built this box….
And he placed a rat in this box…
And the rat was starving for food…
All of a sudden, a little pellet of rat food appeared
and dropped into the box…
The rat sniffed around and engaged in random
behavior hoping to find more food…
The rat accidentally hit a lever and another pellet of
food appeared!
So, the rat hits the lever again and again making lots of
little pellets appear!
The rat never would have thought that hitting the lever
was the right reaction – until he saw the food.
Skinner’s box
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQtDTdDr8vs&f
eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl7jr9EVcjI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_ctJqjlrHA
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Skinner stumbled on the concept of reinforcement.
Reinforcement is the process by which a stimulus increases
the chance that the preceding behavior will occur again.
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A reinforcer is a stimulus that increases the likelihood of a
prior response
Animals usually need to be motivated with food or
attention.
People, however, can simply be told what to do.
For example, we learn whether or not we made the right
choice in a situation right away.
If we turn on our car, and the engine stalls, we realize
we’ve made a mistake and will attempt different
behavior.
When we turn on our car and the engine starts right up,
we know that that behavior was correct and we will do it
again and again and again.
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So, if a reinforcer increases the probability of a behavior,
A punishment DECREASES the chance that a previous
behavior will occur again
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Punishment is the process of decreasing of the probability that
a behavior will be repeated
An example?
If you want to increase the likelihood that your dog will sit
on command…you give your dog a treat- a reinforcer
If you want your dog to stop jumping on you, you scold
your dog…the scolding is the punisher that is there to stop
the behavior
Positive and Negative Reinforcers
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In order to better understand positive and negative
reinforcement, it is useful to understand appetitive
and aversive stimuli
Appetitive stimulus = pleasant
Aversive stimulus = unpleasant
A positive reinforcer introduces an appetitive
stimulus
A negative reinforcer removes an aversive stimulus
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A positive reinforcer is one that increases the frequency of
the behavior they follow when applied.
Food, fun, and social approval are all examples of
positive reinforcers.
Negative reinforcers Increase the frequency of the
behavior when the unpleasant stimulus is removed;
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Behavior is strengthened because something unpleasant goes
away
For example: if we sit in the sun too long, we get hot, so
we stop sitting in the sun.
If we have gnat bites all over our bodies, we scratch them,
even when told not to, because we act to make that
discomfort disappear.
Reinforcement v. punishment
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A reinforcer increases the probablity of repeated
behavior
A punishment decreases the probability of repeated
behavior
Positive punishment = an aversive (yucky) stimulus is
presented (to stop behavior)
Negative punishment = an appetitive stimulus is
removed (again to stop behavior)
Examples?
Negative punishment = taking away driving privileges
 Positive punishment = spanking
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How do we know?
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In order to figure out if the conditioning is positive or negative,
reinforcement or punishment, ask yourself these questions:
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Is the conditioning purpose to repeat behavior or to stop behavior?
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If a stimulus presented or taken away?
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Repeat = reinforcement
Stop = punishment
Positive = presented
Negative = taken away
If the answer to these questions are______ and _____ then the type
of conditioning is:
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Repeated; pleasant
Repeated; unpleasant
Stopped; pleasant
Stopped; unpleasant
positive reinforcement
negative reinforcement
negative punishment (removing pleasant)
positive punishment (adding unpleasant)
Types of Reinforcers
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A primary reinforcer is something that function due to
biological makeup.
Examples would be food, water, and shelter.
No animal or human needs to know why those things are
important.
Secondary reinforcers are learned.
Examples would be money, attention, and social approval.
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Occasionally, secondary reinforcers only emerge
after long periods of time.
Good grades, for example, may not be a
secondary reinforcer at first.
Then, when college looms, grades may be
important.
It may take some people longer!
They may need to understand that getting into a
great college leads to connections and jobs and,
therefore, money…
Then, the good grades become the secondary
reinforcer.
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EXAMPLES: identify the unpleasant stimulus and the behavior
that is being strengthened by its removal
taking aspirin to relieve a headache
hurrying home in the winter to get out of the cold
weather
Giving in to an argument or to a dog’s begging
fanning oneself to escape the heat
leaving a movie theater if the movie is bad
following prison rules in order to be released from
confinement
faking a stomach ache to avoid school
putting a car safety belt to stop an irritating buzz
putting up an umbrella to escape the rain
turning down the volume of a very loud radio
Identify the positive and negative reinforcers in this ad.
Negative = taking something away
 Positive = adding something
 Reinforcement = goal is to repeat
behavior
 Punishment = goal is to STOP
behavior
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Lets work with some more examples:
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We may continue to go to work each day because
we receive a paycheck on a weekly or monthly
basis.
An employee is late for work and consequently, the
employer takes away that person’s privilege of
listening to music while working
If we receive awards for writing short stories, we may
be more likely to increase the frequency of writing
short stories.
an employee does not follow directions, and this
behavior decreases as the result of being criticized
by a supervisor
Receiving praise for our karaoke performances can
increase how often we sing.
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MORE:
1. putting a bark collar on a dog that shocks
the dog when it barks excessively
2. Taking the car keys away from a
teenager when they are “grounded” due
to misbehavior
3. You apply aloe lotion to relieve yourself
of the burn from a sunburn
4. So, getting kicked off of the basketball
team because of failing grades
5. The basketball player starts to study
more to make the feeling of failure go
away
In Groups:
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We are going to be divided into small groups, and
your group should choose ONE BEHAVIOR that you
want to shape.
Then, decide how you will use positive
reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive
punishment, and negative punishment to shape that
behavior
Reward and Punishment
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A reward increases the frequency of behavior.
However, reward is a simple term and does not
get to the heart of the concept.
A positive reinforcer is something that any
organism will find rewarding.
A reward is less likely to please every organism
every time.
Punishments are unwanted events that decrease
the frequency of the behavior they follow.
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Punishment is not the same as negative
reinforcement.
Punishments decrease the frequency of behavior
Negative reinforcers increase the frequency of a
behavior when the reinforcer (the unwanted idea)
is removed
So, getting kicked off of the basketball team
because of failing grades– punishment
But, the feeling of disappointment from getting
kicked off is the negative reinforcer, and the
basketball player may study harder to rid
him/herself of that disappointment (so, the
disappointment INCREASES the frequency of
studying)
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A person is caught littering and receives a
$1000 fine….
PUNISHMENT!
A student studies for a test and decreases
fear of doing poorly on the test…
NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT
Another student is studying and is enjoying
learning new material…
POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT!
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Strong punishment can rapidly end bad
behavior.
Some psychologists believe it is not the ideal
way to deal with an issue for a variety of
reasons.
First, punishment does not TEACH an alternate
behavior. A child only learns what NOT to
do, not the alternative.
Second, punishment only works when
consistent and guaranteed. If a student gets
away with not wearing a uniform 20 times,
they will continue to break the rules.
Third, people or animals who are severely
punished may try to run away from the
punishment and the situation, rather than
attempting to solve the issues.
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Fourth, punishment creates anger and hostility. The
severely punished child takes it out on other
children.
Fifth, punishment is not clear: Why am I being
punished? I do not know so I will keep doing
everything the same as before!
Sixth, PUNISHMENT IS IMITATED. When a child
does not get what he or she wants out of the
behavior of another child, they will punish that
child. These children believe that hitting another
person solves problems.
Finally, some children learn that the only way to
get attention from their parents is to misbehave…
Reinforcement Schedules
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Continuous reinforcement = reinforce the behavior
every time the behavior occurs
Partial = behavior is NOT reinforced every time;
the behaviors learned through partial
reinforcement tend to last longer
2 types of partial reinforcement schedules
1- deals with amount of time (or interval) that occurs
between the reinforcements and the behavior
2- deals with the number of correct responses that
must be made before a reinforcement occurs (ratio)
Interval Schedule
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Fixed Interval: set time between reinforcements
 Friday
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quizzes- kids study on Thursday night
Variable Interval: varying amount of time between
reinforcements
 Response
rate is consequently steadier
Ratio Schedules
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ratio schedule depends on how many responses
are needed for a reinforcement
Fixed-ratio schedule: reinforcement is provided
after a fixed number of correct responses
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response must occur five times before a
reinforcement occurs, then the ratio is 5:1
Variable ratio schedule: reinforcement is
offered at a varied number of correct
responses- so, reinforcement can come at any
time
Lets Practice- what kind of reinforcement
schedule is being used?
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Buying state lottery tickets and winning
A hotel maid may take a 15 min break after cleaning 3 rooms
Watching and seeing shooting stars on a dark night
A teenager receives an allowance every Saturday
Checking the front porch for a newspaper when the delivery
person is extremely unpredictable
A professional baseball player gets a hit approximately every
third time at bat
Checking the oven to see if chocolate chip cookies are done,
when baking time is known
A blueberry picker receives $1 after filling 3 pint boxes
A charitable organization makes an average of ten phone calls
for every donation it receives
Calling a garage mechanic to see if your car is fixed yet
A student’s final grade improves one level for every three book
reviews submitted
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Extinction happens in operant conditioning
too.
For example, when Skinner’s rat pushed the
lever again and again and no food was
dropped into the box, the rat stopped
pushing the lever.
When a student studies for a test but does
not get a good grade, that student will stop
studying for tests because they were not
reinforced.
Cognitive Factors in Learning
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Latent learning is learning that remains hidden until it is needed.
For example, no one has reinforced you to remember the layout of this
school – but when you leave class, you know where to go to get to your
next class.
When you leave school, you know how to get home, even though no one
offered you a cookie to learn that information!
If you drive the same route to school every morning, and pass a
particular corner, you do not think about that corner, right?
But, if your friend asks to meet you on that corner on a Saturday, you
know how to get to that corner… that is latent learning at work.
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Observational Learning
Albert Bandura (we’ve met him before)
discovered that we acquire knowledge and skills
by observing and imitating others.
For example, the new student in the class may
learn that speaking up during discussion is
welcomed by observing the other students.
Children learn to speak, eat, and act by
observing their parents and siblings.
We learn to buy products based on advertising
campaigns……
Violence in Media
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Bandura’s research has been used to argue that violence in
media has had a destructive effect on children.
T.V. is one of our observational learning touchstones.
If a child watches 2-4 hours of T.V. every day during his or her
time in elementary school…
That child will have witnessed 8,000 murders and 100,000 other
acts of violence before entering middle school.
The American Psychological Association, in partnership with
other medical associations, released data showing:
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Media violence supplies models of behavior for children
Children exposed to violence are more likely to assume that acts
of violence are acceptable behavior
Viewing violence can lead to emotional desensitization and can
decrease the likelihood that the child will come to the aid of
someone experiencing violence.
Viewing violence can lead to REAL LIFE VIOLENCE. Children
who are exposed to violence are more likely to engage in violent
activity later in life.
PQ4R
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Based on the work of educational psychologist Francis P.
Robinson, the PQ4R method to learning works best.
Many students expect the simply attending classes in biology,
psychology, history or Math will allow them to learn the
subjects.
In reality, students must take an active approach to learning if
they are to actually absorb anything.
This method has been tested and is believed to help students
learn to study in primary, secondary, and later in their
educational careers.
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1. PREVIEW
Get a general idea of a book, a presentation, notes. Get an overall
cognitive map of the material so you know to where to return later with
questions.
2. QUESTION
Establish goals! Ask questions about what you are going to learn!
When we want to learn, we become better learners.
Write down all the heading in a book, for example, and phrase
questions around those headings or lead paragraphs.
3. READ
Duh.
4. REFLECT
Relate new information to old information, whether from earlier in a
course or from your personal life. MAKE IT MATTER!
5. RECITE
It’s old school, but it still works. Reciting new information implants it in
the brain for future reference.
Memorization is not learning – true.
HOWEVER, reciting new information puts it in the brain so that it can be
used to connect ideas and enlarge the scope of learning.
6. REVIEW
Go back over notes, chapters, presentations, and lectures. This will jog
your memory. Quiz yourself. STUDY REGULARLY!