ITPT - lecture 2

Recap last week

Structuralism vs. Functionalism

Schools of thought: Psychoanalytic approach, Behaviourism: focus on observable behaviour, Gestalt, Humanistic psychology, Cognitivism: memory/thinking/mind (black box)

Common sense is often wrong/biased Scientific Method and evidence are required

Learning goals

› Define classical conditioning and give examples of how it works.

› Define operant conditioning and give examples of how it works.

› Describe how learning takes place through observation.

Questions from you

› How do we learn? By observation and conditioning

› Why do we act in a certain way? It’s a learned way, to avoid punishment

› Why do people react to things the way they do? Through these condition responses

› Why do people (or are able to) commit suicide? People copy behaviour

› Why do I do things a certain way, while other ways are available?

› Is there a reason why we don't like certain foods? Foods and conditioning, we learn associations, we like sugar high in sugar and fat.

› How can we trick our mind? We can challenge ourself if we can condition yourself.

› How is social functioning learned as a child and as an adult?

› How does addiction work?

› How do you motivate people/employees?/How can we adapt to the psychology of people with regards to the environment policy?

› What effect music has on the brain/ the mind?

› Why is it so difficult to break a habit?

Learning

Environment is never constant, individuals must adapt to ever-changing conditions of the specific environments they live in. Almost anything can be conditioned. Everything we do is a response to the environment.  In the 80/90’ies everyone know how these two things are related to each other. The kids from nowadays probably have no idea what the cassette is even about.

Behaviourism / Ecological perspective

Learning is an enduring change in behavior that results from experience

Non-associative learning

› Imagine a stimulus that triggers behavior

For example an airplane noise annoys you

› Repeated exposure to this stimulus, can either

- Decrease behavior

- Adaptation (Habituation): You get used to it

- Increase behavior

- Sensitization: You get even more annoyed (high pitch voices, children crying)

Associative learning

› The world is full of regularities!

› We learn connections between things

§ Things that happen close in time (cause and effect)

§ Behavior that has a predictable outcome

Reflexes: Stimules (s) à response (r)

For example: seeing food à getting hungry (food porn)

Types of Learning

› Classical conditioning: Responding to stimuli

› Operant conditioning: Responding for stimuli

Classical Conditioning

› Responding to Stimuli

› Creating new reflexes from existing reflexes

A reflex is a simple, automatic, stimulus-response sequence mediated by the nervous system

= unconditioned stimulus = unconditioned response

Classical Conditioning: Creating new reflexes

§ Pair a new (neutral) stimulus with the unconditioned stimulus triggering an unconditioned response

§ The neutral stimulus becomes the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned response becomes a conditioned response

What kind of stimulus?

For a stimulus to be conditioned it must have Predictive Value:

§ Precede the Unconditioned Stimulus

§ Signal increased probability - Repeated pairings

§ There must not already be a better predictor (animal notice that door sound is also a good prediction for when the food is coming)

How long does it last?

Extinction

§ Repeated exposure to the Conditioned Stimulus without the Unconditioned Stimulus may make the Conditioned Response disappear

What kind of stimulus?

How close to a “perfect” CS does a stimulus need to be to trigger a CR?

Generalization and discrimination

Conditioning and evolution

› Classic behaviorist view: humans and animals start as a blank slate, a tabula rasa

§ any stimulus pair leads to conditioning equally easily

› The modern view

§ Conditioning occurs most easily for stimulus pairs that are relevant for survival

§ You easily associate a taste with sickness, a conditioned taste aversion (or smell)

§ You less easily associate a sound with sickness

Phobias in context of learning

› A phobia is an acquired fear that is out of proportion to the real threat of an object/situation

Little Albert experiment: he had a long and healthy life. Only a fear for animals, that was conditioned in his youth.

Fear is dangerous because it limited our experiences in life.

Addictions in context of learning

› Addiction and conditioned drug effects

§ Relapsing Environmental cues trigger cravings (so changing environment is key)

§ Drug tolerance: the body of addicted people doesn’t have effect on drugs until there is so much of it. The body doesn’t protect you anymore from the drug.  

Why addicts that take drugs in a different setting often overdose?

OPERANT CONDITIONING

› We also respond for stimuli –

 Money, food, sex, safety, etc.

› We operate something in our environment

› An Operant Response - Which leads to a consequence - They operate on the world to produce some effect - They function like instruments/means/tools

Law of Effect

Behaviours (in a particular situation) followed by a satisfying consequence are more likely to be repeated in the future. Behaviours (in a particular situation) followed by a discomforting consequence are less likely to be repeated in future. Thorndike (1927)

Trial and Error Learning

› Operant Condition is learning the consequences of one’s actions

- If I do A, then B happens

Consequences

› Reinforcement (reward):

§ A consequence that increases the chance of a behaviour occurring again in the future › Punishment:

§ A consequence that decreases the chance of a behaviour occurring again in the future

› Positive Reinforcement

§ The addition of a stimulus INCREASES the probability that the behaviour will occur in the future Example: giving compliments

› Negative Reinforcement

§ The likelihood of particular behavior occurring again in the future is increased because of removing/avoiding the negative consequence. Example: stopping with criticizing

Punishment

The addition (+) or subtraction (-) of a stimulus to DECREASE the chance that the desired behaviour is repeated again in the future.

› Positive Punishment

§ The addition of a stimulus DECREASES the probability that the behaviour will occur in the future. Example: criticizing

› Negative Punishment

§ The subtraction/removal of a stimulus DESCREASES the probability that the behaviour will occur in the future. Example: stopping with paying compliments

Punishment

Less effective than reinforcement

§ Punishment results in dislike and resentment (classical conditioning)

§ Punishment does not allow to learn the correct behaviour

§ What the punisher means as a punishment may actually serve as a reinforcement , e.g. attention for bad behaviour

§ Punishment is more sensitive to timing issues than reinforcement - It must be: - Timely – Certain

Principles of Reinforcement Shaping

› What if your subject never makes the right response?

§ Reinforce closer and closer responses

Fixed: you know after how many days/hours

Variable interval: you don’t know when, but it will come with regularity. Checking e-mail or likes at social media. You keep on checking and keep waiting for your reinforcements.  

Variable ratio: in a gambling game, you know it will come some time, but you don’t have any glue when.

Token economies:

• kids get stickers when they’ve done their homework
• spaar- en koopzegels
• samen gezond menzis: doing healthy things will bring you coins and you can get gifts
• eco coin: will give you a reward when you life ecologically

Observational learning

› We copy others in many ways

§ Contagious yawning: when a close other we tend to yawn ourself  

§ Instructional (dance) videos: how to …. (calculate a standard deviation)  

§ Fashion / § Social norms / § Political opinions / § Suicide / § Terrorism

• Modeling

Imitation of observed behavior

› Bobo doll studies (Bandura, Ross, & Ross, 1961) adults being aggressive to a doll will cause that children play aggressive with the doll (aggressive video games will lead to violation in real life, see book for information about this)

› Modeling influenced by traits of the model (attractive, high status, (somewhat) similar to oneself). Smoking in movies is decreasing and this contribute to decrease young people start smoking.

• Vicarious learning We observe if the behavior is reinforced / punished (learning from the mistakes from others)

Questions

1. A researcher shows a flash of light | to a subject, which is followed by a loud noise that startles the subject. After a few trials, startling at the flash of light alone is the ______.

a. unconditioned response b. conditioned response c. unconditioned stimulus d. conditioned stimulus

2. Brian became extremely nauseated and | felt awful after eating a tuna salad sandwich. After that, even the sight of a tuna sandwich caused Brian to feel nauseated. In this scenario, what is the conditioned response (CR)?

1. tuna b. nausea c. sight of any sandwich

3. What type of partial reinforcement is winning at a slot machine an example of? Something like e-mails or likes.
4. Brenda has her car taken away as she comes home way past her curfew hour. What operant conditioning method are Brenda’s parents using to discipline her? Negative punishment

Summary

• › Learning via Classical conditioning by creating new reflexes
• › Operant conditioning entails learning about conditions and consequences
• › Reinforcement is typically more effective than punishment
• › Learning can occur through observational and imitation