PSY236 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Orienting Response, Hypervigilance, Dishabituation
2 Jun 2018
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Focus Non-Associative Learning: PSY236 Lecture 1
What is learning?
• Learning is identified by a change in behaviour – either the acquisition of a new
response or the suppression of an existing response
• A major feature of learning that makes it different from other forms of behaviour
change is that it is relatively long lasting
• Yet, not all long-term changes in behaviour are due to learning e.g. maturation
• Learning is about how we acquire and/or change behaviour
• How behaviour is altered by experience:
o Habituation e.g. are you aware of your perfume?
o Classical conditioning – why do we salivate at the thought of drinking lemon
juice?
o Operant conditioning – why do dogs put on such soulful expressions in the
presence of food?
Defining learning:
• “A relatively permanent change in behavioural potentiality that occurs as a result of
reinforced practice”
• I.e. learning is an ENDURING change in the way an organism responds, based on its
experiences
• Learning is the ability to:
o Recognize which stimuli should be attended to and which to ignore
o Recognize relationships between environmental events
o Recognize the consequences of one’s actions
• Change – adapt to changes in environment
o Adaptation by learning is flexible
• Necessary for survival
o Humans and animals adapt to life’s demands by learning and not by instinct
• Enduring – but can be altered with future learning
• The key to learning is ASSOCIATION
Who learns?
• Do all organisms learn?
• Do insects learn? Or do they survive by instinct? – bees can learn (for rewards)
• Can plants learn?
o Gagliano et al. (2016) ‘plant cognitive ecologists’ at UWA have allegedly
demonstrated this phenomenon
o Knowing that plants have an innate tendency to grow towards light
(phototropism) – could they learn to grow towards light?
Learning about single stimuli: non-associative learning
• NOTICING and IGNORING → sensitisation and habituation
o Need to notice important events but learn to ignore events those that occur
repeatedly without consequence
Learning about relationships between events: associative learning
• Learning what events SIGNAL: classical conditioning
o Need to learn when something is about to happen so that we can prepare for it
• Learning about the CONSEQUENCES of our behaviour: operant
conditioning/instrumental learning
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