General

Psychology (Psy 1)
Chapter 7 Learning

Learning – a relatively permanent change in behavior or behavior potential caused
by reinforced practice and experience (Hergenhahn & Olson, 2005; Passser & Smith,
2007)
• Important concepts in the definition of learning:
o Change must be relatively enduring
§ Depends on the length of need (behavior/capability)
o May or may not be immediately observed – learning was translated
into performance
• Excludes capability or behavior that are innately learned
o Maturation o Evolution
o Fatigue o Other causes of
o Motivation behavior change
• Reinforced Practice & Experience – the key factor in identifying learning as
the cause of change
o Antecedents of response and consequences
§ Do your interactions with the environment, which are
reinforced by desirable consequences, lead to a fairly
consistent change in your response?
• Yes. – Learning took place
• Certain conditions must exist in both learner and his environment for
learning to occur
o Intellectual capacity, readiness, past earning, motivational and
personality factors.
• A healthy balance between a desirable characteristic of the learner and
favorable factors of the environment.

1. BEHAVIORAL LEARNING
• IVAN PAVLOV discovered classical conditioning when he was studying the
physiological link between salivation and digestion among dogs.
o Dogs gets excited at the sight of food, footsteps of his colleagues
entering the laboratory, and their empty food bowls.
• CLASSICAL CONDITIONING – our
behaviors are changed using
manipulation
o UNCONDITIONED STIMULUS
(UCS) – the environmental
condition that causes a natural
response
§ Unconditionally,
naturally, and
automatically triggers a
response.
o UNCONDITIONED RESPONSE
(UCR) – the natural response
elicited

Reference: De Guzman, R., Reyes, G., Tengco-Pacquing, M. C. (2012). General Psychology: A Bird’s 1
Eye View. University of Santo Tomas Publishing House: España, Manila. ISBN 978-971-506-678-5

Prepared by: Mariel Tee, M.A. April 2016
 General Psychology (Psy 1)
Chapter 7 Learning

o NEUTRAL STIMULUS (NS)
o The conditioned stimulus is previously neutral stimulus that, after
becoming associated with the unconditioned stimulus, eventually
comes to trigger a conditioned response.
o The unconditioned response is the unlearned response that occurs
naturally in response to the unconditioned stimulus.
o The conditioned response is the learned response to the previously
neutral stimulus

• Two important factors that needs to be ensured for classical conditioning to
occur:
• Contiguity – how close together in time are the US and CS presented;
must occur simultaneously for learning to occur
• A continuous mass, or a series of things in contact or in proximity
• Association by contiguity is the principle that ideas, memories, and
experiences are linked when one is frequently experienced with
the other; the root of association by similarity
• Association by similarity is the idea that one memory primes
another through their common property or properties
• Contingency – the degree to which the US is presented must be
consistent

• Stimulus Discrimination – only produces the CR at the situation you
were conditioned or the exact situation you are in
• Stimulus Generalization – performs the same CR to all other stimuli
that are even slightly similar to the original CS
• Extinction – when US is no longer presented with the CS; CS loses its
power to elicit a response, therefore, reverts back to original nature of
being – NS

2. BURRHUS FREDERICK SKINNER’s OPERANT CONDITIONING
• Change in behavior is due to reinforcement and punishment are
consequences of our responses to either
encourage or discourage their recurrence
• Skinner Box
• Laboratory rat was successfully
conditioned or taught to press a lever
inside the box by releasing food pellets
whenever it does such behavior
a. Shaping
• Gradual teaching to produce responses
towards a final desired behavior by
giving rewards to those that are closer
to the target response

Reference: De Guzman, R., Reyes, G., Tengco-Pacquing, M. C. (2012). General Psychology: A Bird’s 2
Eye View. University of Santo Tomas Publishing House: España, Manila. ISBN 978-971-506-678-5

Prepared by: Mariel Tee, M.A. April 2016
 General Psychology (Psy 1)
Chapter 7 Learning

• The technique in which the desired behavior is “modeled” by first
rewarding any act similar to that behavior and then requiring ever-closer
approximations to the desired behavior before giving the reward
b. Reinforcement
• Is a desirable and pleasing situation that transpires after a response to
increase the likelihood of its relative permanence
• A conditioning procedure used primarily in the experimental analysis
of behavior.
• A strengthening of a specific behavior due to its association with a
stimulus.
• Refers to anything that increases the likelihood that a response will
occur
• Primary reinforcer (unconditional reinforcement) – positive
consequence that transpires after a response by satisfying a biological
need
• Secondary reinforcer (conditioned reinforcement) – associated with
primary reinforcers; indirectly satisfies your needs.
• Generalized reinforcer – results to satisfaction and encourages
behavior by just its acquisition
• Reinforcement must be confused with reward (a type of reinforcer)

Types of reinforcers:
• Positive Reinforcers – encouraging consequences after a desirable
kind of behavior; giving incentive
• Negative Reinforcers – involves removal of undesirable
consequences

Reinforcement Schedules:
• Continuous Reinforcement Schedule –reinforcer every single time
a desirable behavior is manifested
• Best used during the initial stages of learning in order to create
a strong association between the behavior and the response
• Once the response if firmly attached, reinforcement is usually
switched to a partial reinforcement schedule.
• Intermittent Reinforcement Schedule – reinforcers are given
partially or at a certain non-continuous pattern – time (interval),
behavior (ratio), constant (fixed), changing (variable)
§ Learned behaviors are acquired more slowly with
partial reinforcement, but the response is more
resistant to extinction
• Fixed Interval Reinforcement Schedule – reinforcers given
at a specific and constant periods of time
§ High amounts of responding near the end of the interval
§ Slower responding immediately after the delivery of the
reinforcer
Reference: De Guzman, R., Reyes, G., Tengco-Pacquing, M. C. (2012). General Psychology: A Bird’s 3
Eye View. University of Santo Tomas Publishing House: España, Manila. ISBN 978-971-506-678-5

Prepared by: Mariel Tee, M.A. April 2016
 General Psychology (Psy 1)
Chapter 7 Learning

• Fixed Ratio Reinforcement Schedule – reinforcers are
consistently introduced after a constant number or pattern of
behavior
§ High, steady rate of responding with only a brief pause
after the delivery of the reinforcer
• Variable Interval Schedule –reinforcers at changing and
inconsistent times (unpredictable amount of time)
§ Slow, steady rate of response
• Variable Ratio Schedule – reinforcers at changing number of
patterns of behaviors (unpredictable amount of time)
§ High steady rate of responding
• Punishment – unpleasant or unfavorable
consequences after a bad behavior which aims
to dissuade such negative behavior to occur
again – eliminating unwanted behaviors
• Positive Punishment – adding or inflicting
stimuli as a consequence of bad behavior
• Negative Punishment – the removal of
wanted and pleasurable stimulus to
weaken the behavior
* Risky and damaging effects: pain, low self-
esteem, aggressive behavior, emotions and
relationships
* Often ineffective, in producing change as
- You naturally revert back to negative
behaviors
- Fear and defensive behavior is encouraged
• Discrimination – the ability to differentiate between a conditioned
stimulus and other stimuli that have not been paired with an
unconditioned stimulus; responding only to specific stimuli or condition
• Generalization – the tendency for the conditioned stimulus to evoke
similar responses after the response has been conditioned; responding to
other similar reinforcement or punishment
• Extinction – the gradual weakening of a conditioned response that
results in the behavior decreasing or disappearing; occurs after a period
of time when reinforcement is removed
• Occurrence: if the trained behavior is no longer reinforced or if
the type of reinforcement used is no longer rewarding

3. EDWARD TOLMAN
a. COGNITIVE MAPS AND LATENT LEARNING
• Cognitive processes, thought, and insight play a significant role in changing
behaviors
• We learn cognitively even during behavioral conditioning by forming
and using our knowledge and expectation

Reference: De Guzman, R., Reyes, G., Tengco-Pacquing, M. C. (2012). General Psychology: A Bird’s 4
Eye View. University of Santo Tomas Publishing House: España, Manila. ISBN 978-971-506-678-5

Prepared by: Mariel Tee, M.A. April 2016
 General Psychology (Psy 1)
Chapter 7 Learning

• Cognitive Maps – a mental
representation of our environment
o Maze learning of rats
o Learning goes beyond simple
associations between stimuli or
responses and is possible
without the need for
reinforcement
• Latent Learning learned responses are
not manifested immediately until
incentives are provided for demonstrating the acquired behavior.
o It occurs without any obvious reinforcement of the behavior or
associations that are learned.
b. DISCOVERY LEARNING
• Understanding – the fundamental concept of learning; comprehension (also
called intellection) is a psychological process related to an abstract or
physical object, such as a person, situation, or message whereby one is able
to think about it and use concepts to deal adequately with that object.
• Rote Learning – utilize learning without understanding; mechanical learning
through reception and memorization
• Discovery Learning – provided with the tools and path towards “discovery”
of new concepts, especially those that are complex or unusual

4. SOCIAL LEARNING
ALBERT BANDURA
§ SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY (SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY or
OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING THEORY)
§ Internal & cognitive process è role of
thoughts & images to psychological
functioning
§ Attempts to explain behavior through
observation & perceptions of environment
§ Individuals learn by observing
others.
§ Model – a person or an object with enough
attractiveness and perceived credibility
that captures the attention of the learner
§ The bobo doll experiment
§ Modeling
§ Learning through modeling is highly beneficial and practical as it
allows us to avoid the tedious and risky process of trial-and-error
§ Four processes that determine if you will be influenced by the model’s
behavior: attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation

Reference: De Guzman, R., Reyes, G., Tengco-Pacquing, M. C. (2012). General Psychology: A Bird’s 5
Eye View. University of Santo Tomas Publishing House: España, Manila. ISBN 978-971-506-678-5

Prepared by: Mariel Tee, M.A. April 2016
 General Psychology (Psy 1)
Chapter 7 Learning

§ Attention – cognitive process of selectively concentrating on one
aspect of the environment while ignoring other things; allocation
of processing resources
§ Retention – the ability to retain facts and figures in memory
§ Reproduction – similar to recall in memory
§ Motivation – a driving force; a psychological one that compels or
reinforces an action toward a desired goal.

Reference: De Guzman, R., Reyes, G., Tengco-Pacquing, M. C. (2012). General Psychology: A Bird’s 6
Eye View. University of Santo Tomas Publishing House: España, Manila. ISBN 978-971-506-678-5

Prepared by: Mariel Tee, M.A. April 2016