PS102 Lecture Notes - Preposition And Postposition, Partial Trace, Dieselisation
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Introduction to Psychology II
Lecture One
Learning
-Process by which experience produces a relatively enduring change in behaviour or capabilities
(knowing how)
2 perspectives for understanding how learning occurs:
•Behaviourism
-Focused on how organisms learn
-Examined processes by which experience influences behaviour
-Discovered laws of learning that apply virtually all organisms
-Treated organism as tabula rasa (blank slate) no other things have been learned before, we start
blank
-Explained learning solely in terms of directly observable events
-Avoided unobservable “mental states”
Respondent Conditioning (Classical/Pavolian Conditioning)
•Based on internal responses to naturally occurring stimuli (sucking on a
lemon and natural response is to get saliva or when in heat, muscles
naturally relax)
•Some things we encounter in the world naturally elicit a response in us
•When we pair things that don’t have a value, or have a different value
with these naturally occurring pairings, the “value free” or “differently
valued” item will come to take on the new meaning
•Can take things that didn’t startle you before & make them startle you
with training (velvet drapes)
Four Important Terms
•UCS = unconditioned stimulus
-Stimulus that elicits a reflexive or innate, unconditioned response without prior learning (lemon)
•UCR = unconditioned response
-Reflexive or innate response elicited by the UCS without prior learning (sucker face after lemon)
•CS = conditioned stimulus
-Stimulus that through association with the UCS, comes to elicit a conditioned response similar to
the original UCR (ex. training you with a sound to do something)
•CR = conditioned response
-Response elicited by a conditioned stimulus
UCS UCR
•Sugar produces smile, lip licking for babies
•Sugar smile, lip licking
•Lemon “pucker”
Looking at Bridges – Wobbly Bridges – Feeling Nauseous
Types of CS-UCS pairings
•Forward short-delay
-CS (tone) still present when food (UCS) presented
-Optimal learning
•Forward trace
-CS appears & then goes off
-Best if delay if no more than 2-3 seconds
•Simultaneous
-Presented at same time
-Slower learning
•Backward
-Presented afterward
-Little learning
Operant conditioning aka Skinnerian or instrumental conditioning ethology
Lecture Two
Extinction and Spontaneous Recovery
•Extinction
-Process in which CS is presented in absence of UCS
-Causes CR to weaken and eventually disappear
•Spontaneous Recovery
-Could be a good or bad thing
-After a rest period, and without any new learning trails, the reappearance of a previously
extinguished CR
-Usually weaker than initial CR, extinguishes more rapidly
Generalization and Discrimination
•Generalization
-Stimuli similar to initial CS elicit a CR
-Aids in survival
•Discrimination
-CR occurs to one stimulus but not to another
-Ex. a fire alarm vs. someone’s watch
High Order Conditioning
•Chain of events which has 2 CS stimuli
•Expands influence of classical conditioning on behaviour
Variables Affecting Respondent Conditioning
•Response Dominance
-Refers to the relative strengths of responses elicited by the CS and UCS before they are
paired
-Best results when UCS is stronger
Extinction
•Gradual
-Systematic dieselization: based on a hierarchy what makes you least and most fearful
•Non Gradual
-Flooding
-Real events
-Implosion
-Imagine events
Classical/Respondent/Pavlovian Conditioning Influences Many Things
•Attraction
•Positive, negative attitudes
-Both of above used in advertising
•Conditioned aversions
-Dislike a certain food/drink because you became sick?
•Anticipatory nausea and vomiting (ANV)
-Common among cancer patients
Operant Conditioning
•Difference between Classical and Operant Conditioning
•Classical
-Behaviour changes due to association of two stimuli (CS-UCS) presented prior to the
response (CR)
•Operant
-Behaviour changes as a result of consequences that follow it
Operant Conditioning
•Learning through consequences
•Thorndike’s Law of Effect
-Response followed by a “satisfying” consequence becomes more likely to occur
-Response followed by an “unsatisfying” consequence becomes less likely to occur
•Skinnerian, Instrumental
-Assumes that behaviours are voluntary, under our control