Chapter 7

Learning and Conditioning

Use with Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 16th edition

Nolen-Hoeksema, Fredrickson, Loftus, Wagenaar
ISBN 978-1-4080-8902-6 © 2014 Cengage Learning
 Learning & Conditioning

• Learning
– Learning is defined as a relatively permanent change
in behavior that occurs due to experience
– Two basic kinds of learning
• Non-associative: involves learning about a single stimulus &
includes habituation and sensitisation
• Associative: more complex, involves learning about
relationships among events
– includes classical conditioning and instrumental conditioning

Use with Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 16th edition

Nolen-Hoeksema, Fredrickson, Loftus, Wagenaar
ISBN 978-1-4080-8902-6 © 2014 Cengage Learning
 Classical Conditioning

• Classical conditioning
– Learning process in which previously neutral stimulus
becomes associated with another stimulus through
repeated pairing with that stimulus
• Pavlov’s experiments
– Pavlov’s research involved measuring dogs’ salivation
in response to food (unconditioned stimulus, US) and
found that the dogs began to salivate when they saw
food dish and other stimuli associated with feeding
time (conditioned stimulus, CS)

Use with Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 16th edition

Nolen-Hoeksema, Fredrickson, Loftus, Wagenaar
ISBN 978-1-4080-8902-6 © 2014 Cengage Learning
Classical Conditioning

Use with Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 16th edition

Nolen-Hoeksema, Fredrickson, Loftus, Wagenaar
ISBN 978-1-4080-8902-6 © 2014 Cengage Learning
 Classical Conditioning

• ...Pavlov’s experiments
– Drug tolerance
• Refers to the decreased effect of a drug when taken repeatedly
• Regular intake of drug will trigger compensatory response of
the body, e.g. caffeine raises blood pressure so compensatory
response lowers it. If caffeine then taken under unusual
circumstances, e.g. by injection, compensatory response,
which has been learned through classical conditioning, does
not kick in and blood pressure raised
– Acquisition – early stage of process where repeated
pairings of CS & US take place – the learning curve

Use with Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 16th edition

Nolen-Hoeksema, Fredrickson, Loftus, Wagenaar
ISBN 978-1-4080-8902-6 © 2014 Cengage Learning
 Classical Conditioning

• ...Pavlov’s experiments
– Extinction – CR gradually diminishes if US omitted
– Spontaneous recovery – if participant allowed to rest
and then presents only CS again, CR reappears
– Stimulus generalisation – adaptive ability to react to
new stimulus which is similar to familiar one by
generalising response
– Stimulus discrimination – adaptive ability to react to
differences if negative association with aspect of
stimulus

Use with Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 16th edition

Nolen-Hoeksema, Fredrickson, Loftus, Wagenaar
ISBN 978-1-4080-8902-6 © 2014 Cengage Learning
 Classical Conditioning

• ...Pavlov’s experiments
– Second-order conditioning – possible to condition
participant to produce CR to novel stimulus by pairing
novel stimulus to CS repeatedly even though novel
stimulus never paired with US
– Conditioning and fear – CS leads to CR because it
predicts occurrence of certain US – also true for
emotional reactions. If particular CS reliably predicts
pain, then absence of CS predicts pain not coming

Use with Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 16th edition

Nolen-Hoeksema, Fredrickson, Loftus, Wagenaar
ISBN 978-1-4080-8902-6 © 2014 Cengage Learning
 Classical Conditioning

• Cognitive factors
– Pavlov & others believed conditioning occur if CS &
US were temporally contiguous (occurred close
together in time)
– Some argued that a critical factor behind classical
conditioning is what is known – classical conditioning
provides new knowledge of relationship between two
stimuli
– Research has shown a predictive relationship
between CS & US more important than temporal
contiguity or frequency of pairings
Use with Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 16th edition
Nolen-Hoeksema, Fredrickson, Loftus, Wagenaar
ISBN 978-1-4080-8902-6 © 2014 Cengage Learning
 Classical Conditioning

• Biological constraints
– To some extent animals are “pre-programmed” to
learn particular things in particular ways
• Learned taste aversion – bad experience with certain food
puts a person off that particular food but this conditioning
does not entirely comply with classical conditioning – taste
aversions common after just one bad experience (no
repeated pairings), & CS-US interval usually very long
(number of hours rather than immediate)

Use with Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 16th edition

Nolen-Hoeksema, Fredrickson, Loftus, Wagenaar
ISBN 978-1-4080-8902-6 © 2014 Cengage Learning
 Instrumental Conditioning

• Instrumental conditioning
– Involves learning the relationship between responses
and their outcomes
– Thorndike carried out experiments where animals
engaged in trial-and-error learning where behavior
strengthened if immediately followed by reward (law
of effect)

Use with Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 16th edition

Nolen-Hoeksema, Fredrickson, Loftus, Wagenaar
ISBN 978-1-4080-8902-6 © 2014 Cengage Learning
 Instrumental Conditioning

• Skinner’s experiments
– Skinner’s experiments involved putting a hungry
animal in box which is bare except for a bar with food
dish under.
• initial rate of pressing bar through exploration = baseline
• Acquisition & extinction: after baseline is established, each
time the bar is pressed, food is released which results in
frequent pressing of the bar
• If food stops being released, similar extinction of response as
in classical conditioning.

Use with Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 16th edition

Nolen-Hoeksema, Fredrickson, Loftus, Wagenaar
ISBN 978-1-4080-8902-6 © 2014 Cengage Learning
Instrumental Conditioning

Insert Concept Review Table

Use with Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 16th edition

Nolen-Hoeksema, Fredrickson, Loftus, Wagenaar
ISBN 978-1-4080-8902-6 © 2014 Cengage Learning
 Instrumental Conditioning

• ...Skinner’s experiments
– Shaping: if desired behavior is novel, there is a need to
condition it by reinforcing only variations in behavior that
deviate in the desired direction
– Conditioned reinforcer: almost any stimulus consistently
paired with a primary reinforcer (which satisfies basic
drives)
– Generalization and discrimination: organisms generalize
learning
• can be curbed by discrimination training which is effective where
discrimination stimulus clearly identifies cases for response or
response suppression
Use with Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 16th edition
Nolen-Hoeksema, Fredrickson, Loftus, Wagenaar
ISBN 978-1-4080-8902-6 © 2014 Cengage Learning
 Instrumental Conditioning
• ...Skinner’s experiments
– Schedules of reinforcement
• Ratio schedules: reinforcement depends on the number of
responses an organism makes
– Fixed ratio schedule (FR): number of responses needed fixed
at particular value whereas for
– Variable ratio schedule (VR): value for responses needed
varies unpredictably
• Interval schedules: reinforcement is available only after
certain time interval elapsed (& animal makes a response)
– fixed interval schedule (FI): organism reinforced for first
response after time interval elapsed since last reinforcement
– variable interval schedule (VI): interval duration varies
unpredictably

Use with Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 16th edition

Nolen-Hoeksema, Fredrickson, Loftus, Wagenaar
ISBN 978-1-4080-8902-6 © 2014 Cengage Learning
 Instrumental Conditioning

• ...Skinner’s experiments
– Aversive conditioning: receiving a negative
event immediately after a response results in
response weakening or suppression
– Escape learning: a response terminates
aversive event
– Avoidance learning: a response is learned to
prevent an aversive event

Use with Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 16th edition

Nolen-Hoeksema, Fredrickson, Loftus, Wagenaar
ISBN 978-1-4080-8902-6 © 2014 Cengage Learning
 Instrumental Conditioning

• Cognitive factors
– Temporal contiguity is again an important factor for it
occur
– Control: instrumental response is conditioned only
when an organism interprets reinforcement as being
controlled by its response
– Contingency:
• in classical conditioning, a behavior is contingent on a
particular stimulus
• in instrumental conditioning, a behavior is contingent on a
particular response

Use with Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 16th edition

Nolen-Hoeksema, Fredrickson, Loftus, Wagenaar
ISBN 978-1-4080-8902-6 © 2014 Cengage Learning
 Instrumental Conditioning

• Biological constraints
– As with classical conditioning, biology imposes
constraints on what may be learned through
instrumental conditioning
– organisms find it easier and faster to learn response if
the behavior required makes sense on an ethological
level

Use with Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 16th edition

Nolen-Hoeksema, Fredrickson, Loftus, Wagenaar
ISBN 978-1-4080-8902-6 © 2014 Cengage Learning
 Learning and Cognition

• Observational learning
– Humans often learn without behavior being reinforced
immediately through imitation & observational learning
– copying behavior of others you deem successful
– Bandura
• Models inform us about consequences of behavior – so
reinforcement is “vicarious”
• Studied observational learning of aggressive behavior in
children – found a learner needs to pay attention to a model’s
behavior, remember & be able to reproduce behavior & be
motivated to do so

Use with Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 16th edition

Nolen-Hoeksema, Fredrickson, Loftus, Wagenaar
ISBN 978-1-4080-8902-6 © 2014 Cengage Learning
 Learning and Cognition

• Prior beliefs
– With learning relationships between stimuli that are
not perfectly predictive, people often invoke prior
beliefs that constrain learning
• Non-existent but plausible relationships detected by
participants referred to as spurious associations

Use with Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 16th edition

Nolen-Hoeksema, Fredrickson, Loftus, Wagenaar
ISBN 978-1-4080-8902-6 © 2014 Cengage Learning
 Learning and the Brain
• Neural plasticity
– Ability of neural system to change through experience
• Change in the synapse is the neural basis of learning and the
effect of this change is to make synapse more (or less) efficient
• Habituation and sensitization
– Types of non-associative learning
– Habituation: a behavioral response decreases over
successive presentations of a stimulus
– Sensitization: a behavioral response increases during
presentations of an intense stimulus

Use with Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 16th edition

Nolen-Hoeksema, Fredrickson, Loftus, Wagenaar
ISBN 978-1-4080-8902-6 © 2014 Cengage Learning
 Learning and the Brain

• Classical conditioning
– Eye-blink conditioning: conditioning an eye to blink at
just a sound
• is associated with changes in synaptic transmission in the
cerebellum, known as long-term depression (which leads to
decrease in synaptic transmissions)

Use with Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 16th edition

Nolen-Hoeksema, Fredrickson, Loftus, Wagenaar
ISBN 978-1-4080-8902-6 © 2014 Cengage Learning
 Learning and
the Brain
• ... Classical
Conditioning
– Fear conditioning

Insert Figure 7.13

Use with Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 16th edition

Nolen-Hoeksema, Fredrickson, Loftus, Wagenaar
ISBN 978-1-4080-8902-6 © 2014 Cengage Learning
 Learning and the Brain

• Cellular basis of learning

– What causes the changes in synaptic transmissions?
Possibilities include:
• Learning results in increase/decrease in a neurotransmitter
secreted because of an increase/decrease in the number of
axon terminals that secrete a neurotransmitter
• There may be no change in a neurotransmitter but change in
number of postsynaptic receptors
• Synapse could change in size
• New synapses could be established

Use with Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 16th edition

Nolen-Hoeksema, Fredrickson, Loftus, Wagenaar
ISBN 978-1-4080-8902-6 © 2014 Cengage Learning
 Learning and Motivation

• Arousal
– Physiologically – arousal refers to the level of alertness
of an organism
– Psychologically – arousal refers to the tension that can
accompany different levels of arousal, ranging from
calmness to anxiety
– Hebb proposed that organisms are motivated to
maintain levels of arousal appropriate to the behavior it
is engaged in

Use with Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 16th edition

Nolen-Hoeksema, Fredrickson, Loftus, Wagenaar
ISBN 978-1-4080-8902-6 © 2014 Cengage Learning
 Learning and Motivation

• From incentives to goals

– Early theorists focused on incentives (behavior
motivated by expected reward)
• Not all behavior could be motivated in this way
• our ability to anticipate long-term consequences of current
behavior is an example of goal-oriented behavior
• Intrinsic motivation and learning
– Cognitive approach to the study of motivation
emphasizes individual’s understanding and
interpretation of their own actions

Use with Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 16th edition

Nolen-Hoeksema, Fredrickson, Loftus, Wagenaar
ISBN 978-1-4080-8902-6 © 2014 Cengage Learning
 Learning and Motivation

• ...Intrinsic motivation and learning

– Intrinsically motivated: motivated by internal feelings
– Extrinsically motivated: motivated by anticipated
external rewards
– Intrinsically motivated individuals:
• more persistent at a task
• memory of complex concepts is better
• handle complex material in more creative ways
– External rewards can harm intrinsic motivation

Use with Atkinson & Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology 16th edition

Nolen-Hoeksema, Fredrickson, Loftus, Wagenaar
ISBN 978-1-4080-8902-6 © 2014 Cengage Learning