PSYC 200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Classical Conditioning, Heart Rate, Observational Learning
14 Jun 2018
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PSYC 200 Chapter 6: Conditioning & Learning
What is learning?
• Response: Any identifiable behaviour
o Internal: Heart rate
o Observable: Eating, scratching
• Stimulus: Any physical energy that could potentially evoke a response in an organism.
• Learning: Any relatively permanent change in behaviour that can be attributed to
experience
• Reinforcement: Any event that INCREASES the probability that a response will occur.
Classical Conditioning
• Reflex: An innate, automatic(non-learned) response to a stimulus (for example, an eye-
blink)
• Classical Conditioning: A form of learning in which reflex responses are associated with
new stimuli
o Subject is PASSIVE
Classical Conditioning & Pavlov
• Russian physiologist who initially was studying digestion
• Used dogs to study salivation when dogs were presented with meat powder
• Also known as Pavlovian/Respondent Conditioning
• Bell becomes associated w/ meat powder → Pavlov would ring a bell b/w giving meat
powder
o Dog would then start to salivate after hearing the bell
o Only when you remove meat powder completely
when the bell is considered a conditioned stimulus
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Principles of Classical Conditioning
• Extinction: Weakening of a conditioned response through removal
of reinforcement
o Ex) Keep ringing bell WITHOUT reinforcing w/ food
• Spontaneous Recovery: Reappearance of a learned response
following apparent extinction
o Implies a memory was traced (Ex) Muscle memory
• Image: less than 4 trials in, dogs salivating to bell
o 4 trials in of not giving food → behaviour extinguishes
Conditioning Concepts
• Stimulus Generalization: A tendency to respond to similar stimuli, but not identical, to a
conditioned stimulus (e.g., responding to a buzzer or a hammer banging when the
conditioning stimulus was a bell)
• Stimulus Discrimination: The ability to respond DIFFERENTLY to various stimuli (e.g.,
Rudy will respond DIFFERENTLY to various bells (alarms, school, timer)
Classical Conditioning in Humans
• Phobia: Intense, unrealistic, irrational fear of a specific situation or object (e.g.,
arachnophobia (fear of spiders)
• Conditioned Emotional Response: Learned emotional reaction to a previously neutral
stimulus
• Desensitization: Exposing phobic people gradually to feared stimuli while they stay calm
and relaxed
• Video: Fear of pickles → tried to take the stimuli (pickle) and expect a different response
o Was’t gradual & she WA“N’T al/relaed
****Factors Influencing Classical Conditioning
1. Number of pairings b/w CS and UCS
a. Ex) # times the bell rings & # times food presented
2. How reliably CS predicts UCS
a. Ex) Need of consistency of bell & food together to go faster
3. Intensity of the UCS
a. Ex) How much food you give. More food → More Salivation
4. Temporal Order b/w CS & UCS
a. Ex) Bell needs to follow the food
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Chapter 6: conditioning & learning: response: any identifiable behaviour. Classical conditioning: reflex: an innate, automatic(non-learned) response to a stimulus (for example, an eye- blink, classical conditioning: a form of learning in which reflex responses are associated with new stimuli, subject is passive. Principles of classical conditioning: extinction: weakening of a conditioned response through removal of reinforcement, ex) keep ringing bell without reinforcing w/ food, spontaneous recovery: reappearance of a learned response following apparent extinction. Implies a memory was traced (ex) muscle memory. Image: less than 4 trials in, dogs salivating to bell: 4 trials in of not giving food behaviour extinguishes. Rudy will respond differently to various bells (alarms, school, timer) More food more salivation: temporal order b/w cs & ucs, ex) bell needs to follow the food. Conditioned taste aversion: a learned aversive response to a specific food, developed when a novel/unfamiliar food is associated w/ an unpleasant reaction, ex) nausea/vomiting.
