Transcript Concepts of Learning

Table of Contents
1. Introduction.
2. Elicited Behavior, Habituation, and Sensitization.
3. Classical Conditioning: Foundations.
4. Classical Conditioning: Mechanisms.
5. Instrumental Conditioning: Foundations.
6. Schedules of Reinforcement and Choice Behavior.
7. Instrumental Conditioning: Motivational Processes.
8. Stimulus Control of Behavior.
9. Extinction of Conditioned Behavior.
10. Averse Control: Avoidance and Punishment.
11. Animal Cognition I: Memory Mechanisms.
12. Animal Cognition II: Special Topics.
Psychology of Learning
“Studies of learning provide important insights into ways in which long-lasting
changes in behavior occur as a result of particular types of experiences.”
Concepts of Learning
• New experiences (information) stored as memory can be retrieved for later use
• Learning is a biological process
• nervous system mechanisms such as neurons, transmitters, circuits
• allows animals to adapt to their environment
• Animals must learn, they cannot survive without it
• Learning does not just occur in the classroom
• does not require explicit training
• does not require conscious processing
• What have you learned today?
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Historical Antecedents
• Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)
• Remembering- spontaneous recollection of something that had been
previously experienced
• Recall- actual mental search for information
• Laws of association related to recall
• Associationism began as a theory about how ideas combine in the mind
• One thought leads to another, a free association; Pear --- Apple
• Law of contiguity- When we think of something we also tend to think of
things experienced along with it
• Law of similarity- When we think of something we also tend to think of
things similar to it
• Law of contrast- When we think of something we also tend to think of
opposites
• Law of frequency- The more often things are associated together the stronger
their association
Historical Antecedents
• Rene’ Descartes (1596-1650) Human behavior is not controlled
exclusively by conscious intent (free will) but that many human actions
are reactions to external stimuli
• Cartesian Dualism: Two classes of human behavior:
• Involuntary behavior- automatic reactions to external stimuli through
special mechanism called the reflex
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Stimuli in environment cause involuntary behavior
These stimuli produce behavior through a neural circuit that involves the brain
Sense organs to brain and brain to muscles
Allows rapid reactions to external stimuli
Descartes assumed that animals only have involuntary behavior (reflexes)
Sensory input reflected in response output
what are some examples of involuntary behaviors
• Voluntary behavior – conscious intent to act (free will)
Historical Antecedents
• Rene’ Descartes (1596-1650)
• Sparked two traditions that form the foundations of modern learning
theory:
• Mentalism - Study of content and inner workings of the mind
• Reflexology – study of reflexes
• Descartes believed that some of the content of the mind came from sensory
experience
• See Descartes reflex example from “Treatise of Man”
• He also believed that some ideas were innate and existed in all of us
regardless of experience (nativism)
• Nativism is the view that certain skills or abilities are 'native' or hard wired
into the brain at birth.
• We are born with certain cognitive models (specialized genetically inherited
psychological abilities) that allow us to learn and acquire certain skills (such
as language).
The Principles of Learning and Behavior, 7e by Michael Domjan
Copyright © 2015 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Illustration of the pain pathway in
René Descartes' Traite de l'homme
(Treatise of Man) 1664. The long
fiber running from the foot to the
cavity in the head is pulled by the
heat and releases a fluid that makes
the muscles contract.
Historical Antecedents
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Thomas Hobbs (1588-1679) Accepted Descartes distinction between voluntary and
involuntary behavior, and that behavior is controlled by the mind
Contrary to Descartes, Hobbs believed that the mind does operate in an orderly,
predictable, and lawful manner
Hobbs believes that the fundamental principal guiding conscious behavior was the
principal of hedonism
• People do things in the pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain
• the positive and negative consequences of behavior
John Locke (British Empiricist 1632-1704) took exception to nativism
– Tabula Rasa (Latin for blank slate) the brain has little innate ability and almost
everything is learned through interaction with the environment.
– Empiricism is the philosophical doctrine that all human knowledge comes at first
from senses and experience
• Empiricism denies that humans have innate ideas or that anything is knowable
prior to any experience.
The Principles of Learning and Behavior, 7e by Michael Domjan
Copyright © 2015 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Historical Antecedents
• David Hume (1711-1776) The association of Ideas
– Law of resemblance – Our thoughts run naturally from one idea to similar ideas
– Law of contiguity- when we think of an object there is a tendency to think of other
things that were experienced at the same time or place
– Law of cause and effect- When we think of an outcome we tend to think of the events
that proceed them as causes
• Thomas Brown (Empiricist, 1778-1820) Variables affecting associations:
Intensity of sensation
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Frequency of sensation
Recency of sensation
Number of other associations in which event already involved
similarity of past associations to current association
• Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850-1909) Studied how associations are formed
from lists of nonsense syllables in 3 letter combinations
– ability to recall under different experimental conditions
– strength of association is influenced by
• Increased training
• How close together or far apart the items are on the list
Historical Antecedents
• Historical Developments in the Study of Reflexes
• Descartes first described the concept of the reflex
• Charles Bell (1774-1842) and Francis Mengendie (1783-1855)
Separate nerves are involved in the transmission of information from
the brain to muscles, and sensory receptors and brain
• I. M. Sechenov (1829-1905) Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)
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Not always a direct relationship between stimuli and responses
Responses release from inhibition do not depend on the intensity of the response
So a faint stimulus can result in large responses
Postulated that actions and thoughts were reflexive and can be elicited by
imperceptible stimuli
Could not account for variation in behavior because stimuli do not always elicit
same response
Helped explain a greater range of behaviors as reflexes. Much more on this in
chapter three.
The Principles of Learning and Behavior, 7e by Michael Domjan
Copyright © 2015 Wadsworth Publishing, a division of Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
The Dawn of the Modern Era
• Comparative Cognition and Evolution of Intelligence
• Charles Darwin expanded on Descartes
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Humans and nonhuman animals may be more similar than once thought
Theory of humans descended from other animals
Evolution of mental “brain circuits” as well as physical traits
Basis for Comparative Psychology
• Research with rats to understand basic psychology of mammals including humans
• Lead to neurophysiological investigations
• George Romanes book on Animal Intelligence (1884) intelligence is the ability
to learn
• Functional Neurology
• Role of nervous system regulation of behavior and modification of behavior
• Ivan Pavlov "Nervism“ all physiological functions are controlled by the nervous
system
• studied the physiology of digestive reflexes
• later applied this concept to the formation of simple associations
The Dawn of the Modern Era
• Animal Models of Human Behavior: Dollard & Miller 1939
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Research with nonhuman animals may provide information that may help understand human
behaviour
• For example: the similarities in the avoidance of toxic foods make rats a model for human food
aversions
• Simpler, better controlled, and less expensive
• Validity depends on similarity “relevant features or relevant functions” for the problem studied
Skinner 1953 expanded on Dollard & Miller to produce a formal system of behavioral testing
Similar to medical studies in that some research is less controversial with nonhuman animals
Animal models allow us to study areas of inquiry that are difficult or impossible to study with
humans
Inferences from animals as models for humans are problematic and controversial if they are not
justified:
• Need to have good rational
• Do not make assumptions that nonhuman animals (rats pigeons, primates, mice) are the same as
humans
• Should be considered models that are not exactly like human behavior
To be valid an animal model must be comparable or similar to humans in the domain being studied:
• relevant feature (structure, form or appearance)
• relevant function (action or group of activities to achieve a specific purpose)
Nature vs Nurture Confusion
• What is Nature? Instinct is the inherent disposition of a living organism toward a
particular behavior.
• Innate is an adjective meaning inborn (possessed at birth) or inherent.
• Fixed Action Pattern is an innate, stereotyped behavior.
• Predisposition is a genetic effect which influences the phenotype of an organism
but which can be modified by the environmental conditions.
• What is Nurture? Nurture has historically referred mainly to the care given to
children by their parents although any environmental experience also would
count as "nurture".
• Blank Slate "Tabula Rasa" is the notion that individual human beings are born
"blank" (with no built-in mental content), and that their identity is defined
entirely by events after birth.
• Nature vs Nurture is a false dichotomy
• Important to understand how nature and nurture interact
• Learning is a combination of nature and nurture
Nature vs Nurture Confusion
• How you think about nature-nurture is important
• Public policy regarding education, health or legal system
• For example; adolescent violent behavior
• OR organization of educational instruction
• The doctrine of the Blank Slate
• denying that human nature exists “Man has no nature; what he has is history.”
• apparently solves the problem of differences among races, sexes, and classes
• held out the hope of unlimited social progress
• equality does not happen because people are all innately the same
• Neuroscience research on the brain, genetics research and evolutionary theory has
made the doctrine of the blank slate untenable
• However, learning and culture are also important influences
• there are complex innate mechanisms for learning and culture
• for example: infants have automatic understanding of objects, intentions, numbers, faces,
tools, and language.
Interaction of Nature (genes) and Nurture (experience)
• Relationship of experience and genes
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experiences are information processed by circuits in the brain
some of the information is stored in brain circuits as memory
neurons in those circuits are changed biochemically and structurally
genes are activated when neurons process information
• Relationship of genes and behavior
• A gene is considered to be the region of DNA
• some determine the structure of proteins
• others regulate the production of proteins
• Genes do not directly determine behavior
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Genes code for Proteins which make up the structure and biochemistry of Neurons
Neurons are organized into Circuits
Circuits are part of Systems (sensory, motor, emotional, motivational)
Circuits process information, store information and produce behavior or cognition
• Concerns about interaction of genes and environment
• Most researchers still think in simplistic terms about the interaction
• Most always be an "equal" mix of the two
• It is not an additive process
Instinct vs Learning
• This is also a false dichotomy because
• instinct is the equivalent of nature
• learning is the equivalent of experience
• By definition instincts are inborn
• therefore they do not require experience
• however they can be modified by experience
• for example simple reflexes (withdrawal, knee-jerk) are modified by experience
• Learning by definition is dependent on experience
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however learning cannot occur without circuits in the brain
Basic brain circuit anatomy is determined by genes
therefore how you learn is determined by your genes
for example classical conditioning, operant conditioning and role modeling