Basic Learning

Processes
PSYC1001
What determines psychological and
behavioral tendencies?
• What we have discussed already

• Hormones, neurotransmitters, brain traumas

• Evolution, culture

• What we are discussing today

• Learning experience

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• A relatively permanent change in behavior or the capacity for
behavior due to experience

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Unmodifiable Behavior
Inborn Reflexes and Instincts

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 Examples of Inborn reflexes

Eye blink reflex

Withdrawal reflex

Rooting Reflex
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Inborn Reflexes
• Some inborn reflexes are lifelong and functional
• E.g. the withdrawal reflex

• Some disappear as you grow up

• Try stroking the cheek or your neighbor

• Some are no longer useful to us

• Goose bumps

• Some reflex responses can be acquired

• Classical conditioning

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Instincts
• Aka fixed action patterns
• Inborn behaviors that are elicited by
environmental stimuli
• More complex behaviors

A corgi nipping at the hind legs of sheep

Red spot on the lower bill of a herring gull

Bird migration

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 This crocodile is still probably behaving like its
ancestor 55 million years ago.

Learning as a problem
Why is learning necessary?
Aren’t reflexes and instincts good enough?

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 Human’s learning capacity

It is a big leap forward from making clay pottery (7000 BC) to building a space shuttle
(1981AD) , both of which could not acquired by reflexes or instincts.
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How do humans learn?
Insights from animal studies

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Associative learning
• Acquiring patterns between stimuli (S) and
responses (R)
• Classical conditioning (S-S association)

• Operant (instrumental) conditioning (R-S association)

Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) and his dog 12

 Before conditioning - the Drooling Reflex

Responses that do not require learning Neutral stimulus (NS) is a novel stimulus
(e.g. reflexes) that does not elicit any natural responses

UCS à UCR

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 Before conditioning - the Drooling Reflex

The neutral stimulus (NS) is repeatedly paired up After repeated pairing, the NS alone
with the unconditioned stimulus (UCS). It is the UCS can elicit the drooling reflex.
that elicits responses (UCR) at this acquisition stage
CS à CR
NS + UCS à UCR
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Three phases in classical conditioning

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Associative learning is flexible

• Generalization of stimuli

• Discrimination of stimuli

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 Taste Aversion – A powerful conditioning

Henry’s wife

Sashimi in Kenting, Taiwan

Illness
Flu

A unique flavor in Tainan cuisine

.....

There are so many stimuli around us? Some associations are more readily learned than
others, depending on the setting. 18
Taste aversion
• Evolutionary adaptiveness

• It can be learned by just one instance of S-R pairing

• Novel stimuli are more readily learned than familiar ones

• Latent inhibition (things that have been seen many times are probably
harmless)

• Preparedness of learning
• Taste is more readily paired with sickness than other stimuli (e.g. voice,
images)

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 Applying classical conditioning

• Overcoming fear by

• Exposure therapy/ flooding

• Systematic desensitization

• Changing undesirable behavior

• Counterconditioning (e.g. the use of taste aversion)

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https://www.mindfulexposurebook.com/expos
ure-therapy-implosion/
Overcoming coulrophobia
(fear of clowns)
• Learn breathing and relaxation
techniques

• Think about a clown

• Look at a photo of a clown
• Look at a doll of a clown
• Hold the doll

How could the use of virtual reality help

with the procedure? 21
 Connection?

Operant Conditioning
Classical conditioning involves involuntary (e.g. visceral) responses

What about voluntary responses?

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Thorndike’s Law of Effect in action

Note the time required to escape

shortens as the cat is put into the box
repeatedly. Are those learned behaviors
voluntary or involuntary?

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Operant (Instrumental) Conditioning

• Animals can learn new behavioral

pattern through the R-S association

• How to make a rat stand up and ring

a bell like a human?

• Treats and punishments

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The Skinner box

Note 1 – Ringing a bell and then

pressing a lever is not a natural
behavioral pattern of rats

Note 2 – To ensure fast learning,

these rats are usually starved for
days

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Four consequences to a behavior

• 2 x 2 table à 4 consequences

Add stimulus to environment Remove stimulus from

environment
Make behavior
Positive reinforcement Negative reinforcement
more frequent
Make behavior
Positive punishment Negative punishment
less frequent

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 Consequence
[Behavioral increase
or decrease?]

Stimulus property Stimulus

[Pleasant or [Adding or
unpleasant?] removing?]

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 How to teach a dolphin to do tricks?

How to stop a tiger from doing the wrong

move in a show? 29
 How does this beeping speedometer
encourage safe-driving?

How does it prevent drivers from speeding?

How would a behaviorist classify the time-out

technique in disciplining children? 30
Suppose you were Skinner’s rat. Would you be more hyped
to press the lever if

1) You were given one treat for every press?

2) You were given one treat every once in a while?

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The Power of Partial Reinforcement
• Continuous reinforcement is expensive!

• Partial reinforcement works just fine (or even better)

• Different schedules of reinforcement

• Response patterns of different schedules

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Ratio Schedules
• Fixed Ratio

• One food pellet rewards every 10 times the

lever is pressed (10 FR)

• Post-reinforcement pause (Cut me a break!) Paid by the piece

• Variable Ratio
• Food is delivered for, on average, every 10
presses made by the rat (VR10)

• Continuous responses build up in a high

rate

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Effects of Reinforcement Schedules
Interval Schedules
• Fixed Interval

• Rats are rewarded only when they press the lever

after a specified time interval has passed (e.g FI-
10; every 10 seconds)

• “Do the right thing at the RIGHT time” It is futile to check the mailbox for
your biweekly magazine everyday

• Variable Interval

• Rats are reinforced for pressing every, on average,

30 seconds. But sometimes the interval is shorter
(10s), sometimes longer (60s)

• Steady, continuous responses

It is futile to cast the fishing line at
wrong times, no matter how many 36
times you cast it.
Effects of Reinforcement Schedules
Applying operant conditioning

• Shaping (Successive Approximations)

• Reward is given to approximating

behaviors
• Sniffing near the lever
• Standing up near the lever
• Sniffing the lever
• Touching the lever
• Pressing the lever

• Breaking bad habits

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Is it possible condition a Monkey to type Shakespeare using a
typewriter?

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Biological Limitation - Instinctive drift

• It is difficult to teach a raccoon to insert coins into a piggy bank in

order to obtain food. The coins will be treated like food: The
raccoon will probably attempt get them out of the piggy bank and
attempt to rinse them

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 o ssible
P

Unl
ikel
y

• Limitations of Behaviorism

• Biological limitations

• Learning is not entirely behavioral

• The cognitive black box (e.g. intelligence)

• Indirect (vs. firsthand) experience – e.g. observational learning

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Observational Learning

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How do we learn?

• Observational learning
• Learning by observing others’ behaviors

• Vicarious (as opposed to direct, firsthand) experience

• Skills can be passed on through generations

• Saving time

• Lowering risks (poisonous food)

• Culture/ language/ social groups as a container of the knowledge

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 http://alfre.dk/monkeys-washing-potatoes/
Orangutans of Borneo learned using tree bark as soap by
The cleaning ritual of monkeys on the Koshima Island, Japan, were observing local villagers doing laundry
passed down for generations. This ensured the monkeys can enjoy
clean potatoes. Some tribes even dipped their potatoes into sea water
for seasoning

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4135466/The-moment-orangutan-uses-SAW-cut-tree-
branches.html
Observational learning vs. Operant conditioning

• Operant conditioning is driven by the consequence

• Time-consuming
• Painful punishment
• May cease when there is no more reinforcement

• Behaviors can be learned without reinforcement or

punishment
• Imitation as an instinct
• The role of mirror neurons
• Try the staring contest

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Observational learning

• Albert Bandura’s Bobo doll

experiment

• After seeing a video of an adult

assaulting a “Bobo doll”, children
were led into the room with the
same doll.

Albert Bandura, born

• Their behaviors were recorded. December 4, 1925

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Bandura’s observation

• Many children imitated the behavior of the adult model

• Some even grabbed a toy gun, which the adult model did not do

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Four components in Observational Learning
Attention Reproducing the behavior

It is easier to model the behavior of Physical capabilities

familiar and/ or powerful targets
Shaping is needed
Cartoon characters, parents

Retention in memory (cognitive) Motivation (non-behavioral)

Delayed imitation Children can learn the consequence

by observing the model
A challenge to behaviorism
Vicarious punishment/
reinforcement

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Individual Project –
How to get six pack abs in two
months?
Any six-packers here?

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How to get a six-pack?

• Reduce it into 2 behaviors

• Diet
• Exercises

• Dieting
• Environmental engineering vs. sole dependence on your willpower

• Exercising
• Reward/ token system (against willpower)
• Uploading it to social media websites (22-days pushup challenge)
• Approximating it

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How to get a six-pack?

• It’s easier said than be done, unless you are in a

Skinner box

• We humans are constantly being influenced by

multiple factors
• Willpower and cognitive capacities
• Motivation and emotion
• Personality
• Social influences

• What we will go through in later classes

• Ref. Ch. 8

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