Transcript Classical Coniditoning

THEORIES OF LEARNING
Year 12 Psychology Unit 4
Area of Study 1 (chapter 10, page 452)
THEORIES OF LEARNING
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Conditioning:
Form of learning that emphasises relationship between
environmental stimuli and behavioural responses;
 Stimuli are events that ‘trigger’ the responses;
 ‘Conditioning’ is used interchangeably with ‘learning’
but conditioning is more how we learn;
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Classical (respondent);
 Operant (instrumental).
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Other forms of learning (still to come…):
 Observational Learning.
 Learning Set.
THE BIG QUESTIONS…
How does your dog know it’s time for a walk?
 Why do certain songs have meaning to different
people?
 Why do people have phobias?
 Why can’t I ever, ever, ever eat that again?
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Why do we buy ‘brand name’ products?
ALL of these things are learned through classical
conditioning!
 Advertisers are conditioning you to buy
their product!
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FINISH THESE SENTENCES…
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A Mars a day…
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Snickers: really… (or, Snickers: Get some…)
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Once you pop, you…
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The burgers are better at…
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Skittles: taste the…
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Perfect Italiano: So simple, it’s…
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Have a break, have a…
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M&M’s: melt in your mouth…
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
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Simple form of learning.
Occurs through the repeated association of two (or
more) different stimuli.
Learning is said to have occurred when a particular
stimulus consistently produces a response that it
did not previously elicit.
Learn to associate two events/stimuli and,
eventually, one stands for the other in our minds.
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
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Made famous by Ivan Pavlov and
his experiment: Pavlov’s Dogs.
Interested in the secrets of the digestive system:
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When a dog encounters food, saliva starts to pour from
the salivary glands (which then makes the food easier to
swallow).
Pavlov noticed that even when no food was in sight,
their saliva still dribbled:
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The dogs were reacting to lab coats. Every time the dogs
were served food, the person who served the food was
wearing a lab coat.
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:
PAVLOV’S DOGS
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When dogs were fed, a bell sound was heard.
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They learned to associate the bell sound with food.
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Because food led to the production of saliva, the bell now
also led to saliva.
Eventually, the bell alone was enough to cause saliva,
because in their minds it was so closely linked with food.
http://nobelprize.org/educational_games/medicine/pavlov
/pavlov.html
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:
PAVLOV’S DOGS
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UCS (Unconditioned Stimulus): trigger that already creates a
response (usually automatically/naturally).
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UCR (Unconditioned Response): naturally occurring,
automatic response to the UCS.
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E.g. saliva (automatic response to food).
CS (Conditioned Stimulus): the trigger that we are trying to
condition/train a response to.
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E.g. food (automatically produces saliva response).
E.g. bell (doesn’t naturally produce a response, we have to teach one).
NOTE: this starts off as the ‘neutral stimulus’ because it has no response,
but once the conditioning is successful, it is called the ‘conditioned
stimulus’.
CR (Conditioned Response): what used to be the UCR, but now
we have conditioned/trained it to happen in response to the CS.
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E.g. saliva (taught them to produce saliva in response to bell, not food).
UCS – Good looking people, fun, sexy, cool, happiness
 UCR – Feeling good / desire to be like this
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NS – Coke
 CS – Coke
 CR – Feeling Good about coke / desire to buy coke
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We learn to associate Coke with positive images. Coke
becomes meaningful and we are more likely to
purchase it over other drinks.
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:
PAVLOV’S DOGS
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:
KEY PROCESSES
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Acquisition: Overall process of pairing CS and
UCS.
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Extinction: Gradual decrease in strength/rate of
CR when CS is presented alone.
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E.g. Pavlov’s process of pairing food with bell.
E.g. Over time, the bell alone produced less saliva.
Spontaneous Recovery: Reappearance of CR
when CS is presented alone, after a CS-free rest
period.
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E.g. After 24 hours without ringing the bell (rest period),
the bell is rung and saliva is produced.
Page 461
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:
KEY PROCESSES
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Stimulus Generalisation: any stimulus that is
similar to the CS will produce the CR.
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E.g. Pavlov noticed that after conditioning had been
successfully completed, the dogs would salivate whenever
they heard something similar to the bell sound.
Stimulus Discrimination: only the specific CS is
able to trigger the CR (opposite to generalisation).
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E.g. If Pavlov’s dogs had only salivated when they heard
the original bell (not any other bell sound) that would be
an example of stimulus discrimination.
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:
APPLICATIONS
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Activity: 10.7
Once classical conditioning has been successful, the
conditioned behaviour (e.g. fear or salivating) can
occur so automatically that it appears to be an
involuntary reflex (see other examples on page 465).
Because of this, conditioned behaviour is often called
a conditioned reflex (automatic response that
occurs as the result of previous experience).
The important thing to remember is that even
though it is a reflex, it isn’t a naturally occurring one
– it has been learned.
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:
REAL-WORLD EXAMPLES
UCS – Walking
 UCR – Excitement
UCS – Good times
with friends
 UCR – Positive mood
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NS – Lead
 CS – Lead
 CR – Excitement
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The dog has learned
to associate the dog
lead with being taken
for a walk
NS – Song
 CS – Song
 CR – Positive mood
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We learn to associate
the song with the good
times we had
UCS – Good looking people, fun, sexy, cool, happiness
 UCR – Feeling good / desire to be like this
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NS – Coke
 CS – Coke
 CR – Feeling Good about coke / desire to buy coke
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We learn to associate Coke with positive images. Coke
becomes meaningful and we are more likely to
purchase it over other drinks.
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UCS –Images of attractive, fit, cool, famous, successful,
tough people
UCR – Desire to achieve status of modes
NS – Nike
CS – Nike
CR – Desire to achieve status of models / purchase Nike
We learn to associate Nike with being fit, cool, fun, high
status and successful. Thus we are more likely to purchase
Nike over Big W brand because we do not associate Big W
with any of these ideas.
UCS – rebellion, alternative, cool, counter culture
 UCR – feeling unique and hip
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NS – FCUK
 CS – FCUK
 CR – FCUK making us feel unique and hip
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We learn to associate FCUK with the image of
rebellious cool, so we are thus more likely to purchase
FCUK over Target clothing.
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:
WHY WE BUY BRAND NAMES
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Because we are conditioned to see tangible value
that is not there!
Physically the products are often made from the
same materials, sometimes even in the same
factory (footwear and clothing especially)
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The value we perceive is emotional!
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Advertising adds emotional value to a product.
ADVERTISING IS
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
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Coles-Myer executive quoted in response to an official
enquiry – “non-branded footwear often incorporates the
same or similar methods of construction, technology and
components/materials. Moreover it is often sourced from
the same factory as branded footwear. The commercial
reality is that without a brand the consumer
perceives no value that warrants a premium price.”
Advertising executive – “If you think about what Pavlov
did, he actually took a neutral object and, by
associating it with a meaningful object, made it a
symbol of something else, he imbued it with imagery,
he gave it added value, and isn’t that what we try
and do in modern advertising”
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING HARD WIRES
YOUR BRAIN – FMRI RESEARCH
When subjects drank un-branded cola only the taste
sensing parts of the brain become active.
 When subjects could see Coke labelling the
hippocampus (memory) and parts of the frontal lobe
(emotions, etc.) also became active.
 Recognition and positive reaction to Coke has been
hard wired into the brain.
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CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:
WE ARE WHAT WE BUY!
Nearly half of the worlds 8 – 12 year olds say
that the clothes and brands they wear describe
who they are!
 Advertising to children aims to create hard wired
‘brand loyalty’.
 If they get you young enough they can ensure
that your brain becomes wired to prefer their
product.
 You then continue to purchase their product out
of habit.
 On average people in western countries are
exposed to 9,000 advertising messages a day.
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CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:
‘LITTLE ALBERT’ EXPERIMENT
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Famous experiment run by John B Watson.
Albert placed on a mattress then a white laboratory rat
was placed near him and he was allowed to play with it.
At this point, he showed no fear of the rat.
In later trials, whenever Albert touched the rat a loud
sound was made by striking a suspended steel bar with a
hammer. Not surprisingly, this noise made Albert cry
and show fear.
After several pairings of the two stimuli (rat and noise),
Albert was presented with only the rat. He became very
distressed, cried, turned away from the rat and tried to
move away.
Albert had associated the white rat with the scary loud
noise –he had linked the rat with the feeling of fear.
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:
‘LITTLE ALBERT’ EXPERIMENT
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UCS (Unconditioned Stimulus): Loud noise.
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UCR (Unconditioned Response): Fear, crying.
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Neutral Stimulus (before conditioning): White rat.
Then….
CS (Conditioned Stimulus): White rat.
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CR (Conditioned Response): Fear, crying.
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Stimulus Generalisation: Albert also became fearful of
rabbits, furry dogs, fur coats and Santa masks.
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:
ETHICS
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Beneficence: The possible benefits of the research should be
maximised to outweigh the possible risks to the participant
(which should be minimised).
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Respect for Persons: The researcher should properly regard
the welfare, rights, beliefs, perceptions, customs and cultural
heritage of all individuals involved in research.
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Little Albert: the experimenters did not balance the possible
advantages of the research against the obvious discomfort and risk
of harm to Albert.
Little Albert: this needed to be strictly upheld because, as an
infant, he was unable to assert himself in any way at all.
Other Ethical Issues in Classical Conditioning:
Participant’s rights, voluntary participation, informed consent,
confidentiality.
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:
PUTTING IT INTO PRACTICE
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Graduated Exposure (formerly Systematic
Desensitisation): Using classical conditioning to
gradually expose patient to increasing levels of the
CS until it no longer produces the CR.
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May start with low-level fear (e.g. standing on table)
then build up to high-level fear (e.g. sky-diving).
Imaginal Exposure: visualising the CS.
 In Vivo Exposure: real-life experience of CS.
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Usually pair fearful stimulus (e.g. heights) with
relaxation response (e.g. deep breathing, staying calm).
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:
PUTTING IT INTO PRACTICE
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Activity: 10.9
Flooding: direct & continuous contact with the fearproducing stimulus until the CR is extinguished.
Patient will panic at first.
 May take 2 or more hours.
 Theory: fear response will cease when they realise that
nothing bad has happened after direct exposure.
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Aversion Therapy: Using classical conditioning to
inhibit (block) or discourage undesirable behaviour.
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Pair the unwanted behaviour (e.g. smoking) with
something unpleasant/aversive (e.g. nausea).
Eventually, they will associate smoking with feeling sick
and stop wanting to smoke.