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What is learning?
Learning is any relatively permanent change in behavior, or behavior potential, produced by experience. Several aspects from this definition are noteworthy: 1- The change must be relatively permanent. Temporary changes resulting from illness, or hunger are excluded from a general definition of learning. 2- The change must be brought about by experience. Changes caused by maturation, such as growing taller, do not qualify as learning.
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Pavlovs Experiment
in one of his experiments he attached a tube to the salivary gland of the dog that helped him to measure precisely the amount of salivation that occurred. Then, he sounded the bell few minutes after which he presented the dog with meat powder. While pairing the sound of bell and the presentation of meat powder Pavlov made sure that exactly the same amount of time lapsed between the presentation of sound and the meat. Salivating to the meat is a natural response. When meat is placed on the mouth of the dog it would salivate because of the biological makeup of the dog. Hence the meat in the above experiment is called the unconditioned stimulus (US) and the salivation produced in response to presentation of meat is an unconditioned response (UR).
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In classical conditioning an unconditioned stimulus produces and unconditioned response (i.e. salivating). The unconditioned stimulus is paired repeatedly with a neutral stimulus (i.e. tone of a bell). The neutral stimulus ideally occurs immediately before the presentation of the unconditioned stimulus. After multiple pairings an association between the neutral stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus is formed and the neutral stimulus alone will produce the unconditioned response. The neutral stimulus is then called the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned response is called the conditioned response. (i.e. the bell alone makes the dog salivate).
The first American follower of Pavlov was John Watson. His best known experiment was conducted in 1920. Little Albert B, an 11 month old child, was conditioned to fear a white rat by pairing it with a loud noise (which leads to the startle reflex, i.e. a good scare). His fear quickly generalized to white rabbits, fur coats, and even cotton. Later, another child, three year old Peter, was gradually de-conditioned from his fear of white rabbits by pairing white rabbits with milk and cookies and other positive things. But we should note that, even if they didn't "de-condition" him, he would have eventually lost his fear, a process called extinction
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B) Negative punishment Negative punishment describes the removal of a positive stimulus as a behavioral consequence (e. g. the opportunity to watch television). It is worth reemphasizing that the stimulus that is presented in positive punishment is usually a painful or otherwise aversive stimulus, while those stimuli that act as negative (removed) punishers are usually soughtafter or appetitive stimuli. In both of these types of punishment, the behavior decreases.
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There are a number of potential problems associated with the use of punishment: 1. According to Skinner, punishment does not extinguish an undesirable behavior; rather, it suppresses that behavior when the punishing agent is present. 2. Punishment indicates that a behavior is unacceptable but does not help people develop more appropriate behaviors. If punishment is used, it should be administered in conjunction with reinforcement or rewards for appropriate behavior. 3. The person who is severely punished often becomes fearful and feels angry and hostile toward the punisher. 4. Punishment frequently leads to aggression. Those who administer physical punishment may become models of aggressive behavior
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+ and - Reinforcement
TYPES OF CONSEQUENCES
Reinforcement
Positive (add / apply)
Pleasant consequence
Punishment
Aversive consequence added. Weakens Rs Receiving , slap Pleasant stimulus
Skinner (1938) described two types of reinforcing stimuli: primary and secondary reinforcers. 1- A primary reinforcer is anything that has the power to increase behavioral probabilities because it is involved with a biological need of the organism. Food, sleep and temperature stabilities are often used as reinforcement because we need them as a species. Escape from pain and social acceptance/contact can also be considered as primary reinforcers . 2-A secondary reinforcer is anything that can increase the probability of behavior because of its reliable association with primary reinforcers. most human reinforcers are secondary, or conditioned. Examples include money, grades in schools, and tokens.
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Generalization: In generalization, a behavior may be performed in more than one situation. For example, A pigeon reinforced for pecking at a yellow disk is likely to peck at another disk similar in color. Discrimination: Learning that a behavior will be rewarded in one situation, but not another. Discrimination is learned when the response to the original stimulus is reinforced but responses to similar stimuli are not reinforced. For example, to encourage discrimination, a researcher would reinforce the pigeon for pecking at the yellow disk but not for pecking at the orange or red disk.
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Cognitive learning
Many psychologists do not totally agree with an operant or behavioral interpretation of learning. These psychologists stress the role of mental processes. Cognitive theorists hold that cognitive process like perception, thinking and memory play key role in learning. Insight Learning by Kohler and Latent Learning by Tolman may be seen as examples of cognitive learning theories. In sum, the cognitive learning theorists try to study the cognitive processes that underlie learning. Cognitive learning connotes higher-level learning involving knowing, understanding, and anticipation. Cognitive theories also focus on the organism as an active processor of information that modifies new experiences, relates them to past experiences, and organizes this information for storage and retrieval. Cognitive psychologists also recognize that learning can take place in the absence of overt behavior.
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The cognitive theory sees learning as "transforming significant understanding we already have, rather than simple acquisitions written on blank slates". Instead of being passively influenced by the environment events, people actively choose, reflect, practice, pay attention, ignore, and make many other decisions as they peruse their goals. According to the cognitive view of learning, Knowledge is learned, and change in knowledge make changes in behavior possible. Both behavioral and cognitive theorists believe reinforcement is important in learning, but for different reasons. Cognitive theorists see reinforcement as a source of feedback about what is likely to happen if behaviors are repeated or change as a source of information.
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