Transcript Learning

Respondent
Learning
Lesson 4
What’s going to happen next?
If we know…we can be
prepared
 Increases our chances
for success
 Predicting important
events critical for survival
 food & water
 sex
 danger ~

Associative Learning
Events become associated
 linked
 Association via
 Respondent Learning

– (AKA: Classical or Pavlovian Conditioning)
involuntary

behavior
Operant Learning
– (AKA: Instrumental)
motivated
behavior ~
Associative Learning
Respondent learning
 Elicited (involuntary) behavior
 Triggered by external events
 Learned “reflexes”
 Operant learning
 Emitted (motivated) behavior
 Attempt to change environment
 Controlled by consequences ~

Motivation
Will expend energy to achieve goal
 Approach satisfiers /Avoid annoyers
 What “motivates” operant behavior?
 Physiological responses
 Emotional responses
 Cognitive response
 Involuntary responses
 Both innate & learned ~

Respondent Learning
A.K.A. Classical or
Pavlovian Conditioning
 Ivan Pavlov
 dog learned to salivate
when bell rings
 Throughout animal kingdom
 cockroaches, sea slugs,
dogs, humans ~

Learning Associations
Signal--Important event
 Based on reflexes
 stimulus  response
 automatic (involuntary)
 After association learned…
 signal triggers response ~

Eye-blink Reflex
Puff of air  eye blinks
 prevents injury to eye
 “click” precedes puff of air
 Reflex
 inherited
 stimulus  response
 automatic ~

Respondent Learning: Eye-blink
signal
stimulus
response
“Click”
Air puff
Eye blink
After Learning Occurs
signal
“Click”
Eye blink
Learned
response
Anticipatory response
What is learned?
Relationship between events
 Predicts biologically important events
 What kind of responses can be learned
(conditioned)?
 Physiological Responses
 Emotional Responses
 Expectancies ~

Unconditional Stimulus (US)
Part of reflex
 automatically elicits a response
 Biologically important
 motivational significance
 food, sex partner, drugs
 physical trauma, toxins ~

Unconditional Response (UR)
Response to US
 Automatic response
 Reflexive
 Physiological & emotional responses
  HR/temp. - sexual arousal/pleasure
 Pain/nausea – fear/anxiety ~

Examples: USURs
US
URs
Good food in mouth
salivation, chewing,
swallowing, pleasure
Bad food in mouth
gagging, spitting,
disgust
Loud noise
 HR, flinch, orient, fear
Dust in nose/throat
sneeze/cough, anxiety
Animal bite
pain, withdrawal, fear
Reflexive Behavior
Unconditional
stimulus
Bite
Unconditional
response
Pain/fear
Conditional Stimulus (CS)
Initially neutral stimulus (NS)
 does not trigger UR of interest
 Reliably precedes US
 Cue or signal ~

Conditional Response
Learned response
 in response to CS only
 usually similar to unconditional
response
 homogeneous
 After many pairings of CS & US
 learning is usually gradual
 frequency important ~

Respondent Learning
Conditional
Stimulus
See dog
:
US
UR
bite
Pain/fear
After Respondent Learning
Conditional
Stimulus only
See dog
Fear
Conditional
Response
Anticipatory response
Milk Let-down Response

Feeding reflex

baby suckling  milk released
US
UR
Potential CSs
 crying, time of day, holding baby, etc
 precede suckling predictably
 act as CS  trigger milk release (CR)
 Generalization?
 another baby crying ~

Extinction: Respondent Learning

CS no longer followed by US
 Loses predictive value
 Behavior becomes weaker
:
 Fear
Conditioned Emotional Responses
Affect
 positive & negative
 Depends on experiences
 subjective interpretation of
physiological responses
 Expectations
 Conditioned emotional response

CER
~
Conditioned Emotional Responses
Classes of stimuli
 appetitive
 aversive
 CS predicts important event (US)
 CS+  US will occur



Positive contingency
CS-  US won’t occur

negative contingency ~
CER (affect)
CS+
Positive
Negative
CS-
Negative
Positive
Appetitive
(satisfier)
Aversive
(annoyer)
US
Likes & Dislikes
Like
 Cues associated w/ satisfying events
 Dislike
 Cues associated w/ annoying events
 Expectation + Contingency + US
 CS+/CS- and appetitive/aversive ~

CER (Likes/Dislikes)
CS+
CS-
Like
Dislike
Dislike
Like
Appetitive
(satisfier)
Aversive
(annoyer)
US
Food Preferences
Genetic component
 Taste receptors
 Salty, sweet, bitter, sour, *savory
 Or blend of these tastes
 Learned component
 Taste as CS
 Nutrients as US
 Preference for sweet/salty innate
 Can be altered by experience ~

Thiamine & Open Eating Systems
Thiamine (vitamin B1)
 Tasteless & odorless
 Beri beri  heart, neural disorder
 Rats with B1 deficiency
 Prefer tastes of foods w/B1
 Avoid tastes of foods w/o B1
 Taste preferences learned
 Associated w/ vital nutrients ~
