Solution Manual for Psychology Perspectives and

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Solution Manual for Psychology Perspectives and Connections 2nd Edition by Feist

Chapter 8: Learning
BRIEF CHAPTER OUTLINE
Basic Processes of Learning
Habituation and the Orienting Response
Association
Conditioning Models of Learning
Classical Conditioning
Pavlov’s Dogs
How Classical Conditioning Works
The Conditioning of Little Albert
Operant Conditioning
Reinforcement and Punishment
How Operant Conditioning Works
Schedules of Reinforcement
Challenges to Conditioning Models of Learning
Conditioned Taste Aversion
Latent Learning
Social Learning Theory
Connecting Psychologists to Their Discoveries: Albert Bandura and Social Learning
Theory
The Interaction of Nature and Nurture in Learning
Imprinting
Imitation, Mirror Neurons, and Learning
Synaptic Change During Learning
Experience, Enrichment, and Brain Growth
Bringing it all Together: Making Connections in Learning: Why Do People Smoke?
Chapter Review

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EXTENDED CHAPTER OUTLINE
BASIC PROCESSES OF LEARNING
• Learning: enduring changes in behavior that occur with experience.
o Suggestion: Link learning and its definition to memory (see TOC for chapter on
memory).

Habituation and the Orienting Response

• Orienting response: The automatic shift of attention toward a new stimulus
• Habituation: the process by which one orients to a stimulus.
• CONNECTION: Right now you are habituated to dozens of stimuli – including the feel
of clothing on your skin. Now you are sensitized to it. How so? (See Chapter 4.)

Association
• Association: occurs when one piece of information from the environment becomes
linked repeatedly with another and the organism begins to connect the two sources of
information.
• Stop and Think: How long does it take for orientation to a dark room to occur? See how
long it takes you to move from the orienting response to habituation. You are in a
darkened room. Ask a friend to enter the room with a bright light and to start a stopwatch.
When your friend sees that you no longer respond to the bright light, your friend should
stop the watch. Check how many seconds have elapsed. Repeat this a few times and
average the times that it takes you to habituate to the bright light in a dark room.

CONDITIONING MODELS OF LEARNING

• Conditioning: form of associative learning in which a behavior becomes more likely as a
function of a link between that behavior and certain events in one’s environment.
• For example, your significant other is conditioned to say “thank you” when you
compliment them, or put the toilet seat down, or buy you flowers when they are going to
be late for something important.
• Two types of conditioning (both are forms of associative learning):
o Classical conditioning: organisms learn from the relations between stimuli. That
is, event-event learning or stimulus-stimulus (S-S) relationships with experience.
o Operant conditioning: organisms learn from the consequences of their behavior.
That is, behavior-event learning or stimulus-response (S-R) learning.

Classical Conditioning
• Learning occurs when a neutral stimulus becomes associated with a stimulus to which
one has an automatic, inborn response.
Pavlov’s Dogs
• Perhaps the most famous example is Pavlov’s dogs. Initially, Pavlov studied digestion in
dogs – he used meat powder to stimulate salivation. After doing this for a while, he
noticed that the dogs would begin to salivate even before the meat powder was presented.
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• Pavlov reasoned that the dogs formed an association between a stimulus that had no
inherent deliciousness (the sound of the apparatus) and one that did (the meat powder).
To test this, he used new dogs and presented a neutral stimulus (a bell sound) just before
showing them the meat powder. After repeated presentation, dogs not only salivated to
the meat powder but also to the bell. Thus, the bell (formally neutral) has now become an
associated stimuli.
How Classical Conditioning Works
• Pavlov called the kind of learning he’d observed the conditioning of reflexes. Today this
is referred to as classical conditioning.
• Unconditioned response (UCR): the natural automatic, inborn response to a stimulus. In
the Pavlov example, salivation is the UCR. It might help to explain to students that
unconditioned simply means “unlearned.”
• Unconditioned stimulus (UCS): the environmental input that elicits an unlearned,
reflexive response. For Pavlov, this is the meat powder.
• Conditioned stimulus (CS): a previously neutral stimulus that an organism learns to
associate with the UCS. In Pavlov’s study, the CS would be the bell ringing. It is
important to note that Pavlov presented the neutral stimulus (bell) immediately before the
UCS (meat powder).
• Conditioned response (CR): a behavior that an organism learns to perform when
presented with the CS alone. In Pavlov’s study this was also salivation but here the
salivation was in response to the anticipation of food presentation.
Nature Nurture: Through classical conditioning, innate responses— like salivation—can
become associated with and changed by almost any experience.
• Forward conditioning: the neutral stimulus being presented just before the UCS, or the
neutral stimulus and the UCS presented simultaneously.
• Backward conditioning: a slightly less successful form of conditioning in which the
neutral stimulus follows the UCS.
• Pavlov’s criteria for successful conditioning:
1. Multiple pairings of UCS and neutral stimulus (CS) are necessary for an association
to occur, so that the CS will produce the conditioned response.
2. Temporal continuity. The UCS and CS must be paired or presented very close
together in time in order for an association to form.
• Other issues in the acquisition process are stimulus generalization and stimulus
discrimination:
o Stimulus generalization: extending the association between UCS and CS to include
a broad array of similar stimuli.
o Stimulus discrimination: when a CR (such as salivation) occurs only to the exact CS
to which it was conditioned.
o Extinction: the weakening of a CR when the CS and the UCS are no longer paired
together. For example, if Pavlov stopped providing food after bell ringing would they
salivate forever? No.
• Spontaneous recovery: the sudden reappearance of an extinguished response.
The Conditioning of Little Albert

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 • Perhaps one of the best illustrations of stimulus generalization comes from Watson and
Rayner (1920), in the conditioning of Little Albert.
o A 9-month-old baby known as Little Albert was conditioned to fear a white rat.
Initially, Watson and Rayner brought out a white rat and showed it to Albert. He
was curious, but not afraid of it. They then presented the rat with a very loud
noise (the sound of a hammer striking a steel bar right behind Albert’s head).
Naturally, the loud sound (a UCS) startled Albert (the UCR), and he got very
upset. Eventually, the rat (CS) elicited the fear response (CR). Amazingly, Albert
further generalized the fear response to a slew of stimuli, including a rabbit, dog,
and white fur coat, and even a Santa Claus mask! This generalization is very
impressive, if not disturbing, as he generalized from animate to inanimate stimuli.
o CONNECTION: The ethics of human research today would not allow Watson do
his research on Little Albert. To see the section on Ethical Research with Humans
in Chapter 2.

Operant Conditioning
• Thorndike: Spontaneously emitted behavior can become favored and reinforced when it
is followed by certain consequences. He tested this using a device called a puzzle box.
Here, cats are placed in a specially designed cage from which they want to escape.
Simply based on its random behaviors, the cat would eventually be rewarded by the door
opening. This reward increased the probability of the now specific behavior happening
again, leading to further rewards. Moreover, this specific behavior would occur more
quickly over time. Thorndike labeled this the law of effect.
• Skinner: Coined the term operant to refer to behavior that acts, or operates, on the
environment to produce specific consequences.
• Operant conditioning: the process of modifying behavior by manipulating the
consequences of that behavior. That is, a behavior that is rewarded is more likely to occur
again.
Reinforcement and Punishment.
• Reinforcer: anything that increases the frequency of a behavior (e.g., receiving smiles,
money, food, oxygen, compliments, alleviation of pain).
o There are two dimensions of reinforcement: Primary vs. Secondary and Positive
vs. Negative
▪ Primary reinforcers are innate and satisfy biological needs (e.g., food,
water, sex).
▪ Secondary (or conditioned) reinforcers are learned by association
(usually via classical conditioning). Examples include money, grades, and
peer approval.
▪ Positive reinforcement: the presentation of something, someone, or a
situation as a reward for behavior (e.g., giving a child stickers for doing
homework correctly, good grades, praise).
▪ Negative reinforcement: removal of an unpleasant stimulus that increases
the probability of behavior (e.g., smoking to alleviate stress, napping to
alleviate fatigue, giving a fussy child a cookie to stop them from crying).
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 ▪ It is important to note that students will again find these concepts difficult.
You should explain that the terms “positive” and “negative” are somewhat
misleading. They do not refer to polarity of behavior but rather the
addition or subtraction of a stimulus. For example, if you give a fussy
child a cookie that is a positive reinforcement for the child (they have
learned that fussing leads to cookies) but a negative reinforcement for the
parent (who has learned that cookies lead to quiet children).
• Punishment: any stimulus that decreases the likelihood that a behavior will occur.
o Like reinforcement, punishment can be positive or negative (but remind students this
refers to the addition or subtraction of the stimulus – that is, all punishment is “bad”
and all reinforcement is “good” regardless of whether the word “positive” or
“negative” proceed it.
▪ Positive punishment: the addition of a stimulus that may decrease behavior
(e.g., spanking in an effort to stop an undesirable behavior, electric shocks,
putting bad-tasting chemicals on a child’s thumb to assist them in stopping
undesirable thumb sucking, getting a fine for speeding). In any of these
examples, an unwanted situation/stimulus is added in the attempt to dissuade
negative behaviors.
▪ Negative punishment: removal of a stimulus in order to decrease behavior; in
other words, something that is desirable is taken away (e.g., grounding a child
by taking away their freedom, taking an adolescent’s cell phone away for
breaking curfew, losing your license for a DUI).
• CONNECTION: What is addiction? See the discussion of drugs in Chapter 6.
How Operant Conditioning Works
• Basic idea: any behavior that is reinforced will occur more often in the future.
• Skinner box: a simple cage used for operant conditioning in which a small animal (e.g., a
rat) can move around, with a food dispenser and a response lever to trigger food delivery.
Using this device, Skinner demonstrated how a rat could be coaxed to perform a desired
behavior (such as lever pressing) through reinforcement of behaviors that occurred when
the rat got closer and closer to pressing the lever using shaping (the reinforcement of
successive approximations of a desired behavior).

Schedules of Reinforcement.
• Reinforcement may be presented every time a behavior occurs, or only occasionally.
o Continuous reinforcement: rewarding a behavior every time it occurs. For
example, giving a dog a cookie every time he sits on command.

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 o Intermittent reinforcement: reinforcement that does not occur after every
response. Tends to produce a stronger behavioral response than continuous
reinforcement.
• Skinner identified four patterns of intermittent reinforcement called schedules of
reinforcement. These schedules vary along two dimensions: whether you are being
reinforced based on the number of behaviors (ratio) or the amount of time that passes
(interval) and whether reinforcement occurs after a set number or amount of time has
passed (fixed) or whether this amount varies (variable).
o Fixed ratio (FR) schedule: reinforcement follows a set number of responses. For
example, every third time Fluffy the Shih Tzu sits on command, Fluffy gets a
cookie. Interestingly, a continuous schedule is a fixed ratio where the number of
response is set at 1.
o Variable ratio (VR) schedule: the number of responses needed for reinforcement
varies. For example, playing slot machines, which reinforce variably but at a
preordained schedule, or checking your email to see if you’ve got mail.
o Fixed interval (FI) schedule: responses are always reinforced after a set period
of time has passed. For example, getting paid every two weeks.
o Variable interval (VI) schedule: responses are reinforced after time periods of
different duration have passed. For example, your instructor may use CPS
questions to track attendance or reward you with points, but it varies at what
lecture and at what point in the lecture they are asked.

Psychology in the Real World: Sleep Facilitates Learning

• To learn material in a class, you have to pay attention, take in new information, form new
associations, and then store it in a form that can be recalled or used later. The processes of
consciousness, memory, and learning all come together in classroom learning; you need
sleep to do all of these things.
• A growing scientific literature shows that sleep plays an important role in learning.
Beginning in infancy, better sleep is associated with increases in cognitive functioning -- it
enhances and consolidates what we learn during the day.
• College students who have the most and best quality sleep have higher course grades in
psychology and higher overall GPAs than those who have disruptive and disturbed sleep
(Beebe, Rose, & Amin, 2010; Gilbert & Weaver, 2010; Howell et al., 2004). Pulling all-
nighters is associated with a lower GPA.
• Before running a maze, rats had very thin electrodes painlessly implanted in their
hippocampus (learning and memory center) to measure activity patterns of specific
neurons. When the mice were running the maze, a particular pattern of neural firing was
observed. Much to the researchers’ surprise, while these rats slept, a very similar pattern of
brain activity was replayed in the hippocampus and the visual cortex. In other words, while
they slept their brain spontaneously and without effort was rehearsing and consolidating
what it learned during the day. In fact, the phenomenon of “sleeping on” a problem and
working it out spontaneously during the night and having a solution suddenly appear in the
morning is probably related to rehearsal and replay of learned experience (Walker &

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 Stickgold, 2006). Dozens of human studies support a strong role for sleep in memory
consolidation and learning

Challenges to Conditioning Models of Learning

Conditioned Taste Aversion
• Conditioned taste aversion is the learned avoidance of a particular taste or food if
nausea occurs at the same time as or shortly after exposure to the food.
• The Traditional Learning Model: Pavlov assumed there was no “eureka” type of learning;
that is, he assumed the CS and the UCS were paired repeatedly to create a conditioned
response. However, with taste aversion it can be a single pairing.
o In contrast to the traditional conditioning approach, one could describe acquired taste
aversion as an evolutionary adaptation. From this perspective, we readily learn to
avoid any taste or food that might make us sick, and we learn it quickly.
o Discussion: Ask students to describe any taste aversion experiences they have had.
Have them discuss it in terms of these two perspectives. Which does a better job of
explaining conditioned taste aversion?
• Refining the Learning Model: Garcia and his colleagues (1955) wanted to see if they
could condition rats to develop an aversion to water sweetened with saccharine—
something they normally like a lot—by pairing it with radiation (a UCS for nausea at
certain doses). They began with the following questions:
1. Could taste aversion to a preferred substance (saccharine water) be achieved by
pairing the taste with radiation (a UCS for nausea)?
2. How long would the taste aversion last without repeated exposure to radiation (the
UCS)?
o Researchers varied the conditions of groups of rats. All of the groups had access to
either plain water or saccharine water during the radiation period. One control group
had access to plain water during irradiation. The other control group got saccharine
water and no radiation. In the experimental condition, rats subjected to different
levels of radiation were given saccharine water. All of the groups that received
radiation were exposed to it for the same amount of time, 6 hours overall. In some
cases, the interval of time between when the rats were irradiated (UCS) and when
they tasted the drink (CS) lasted several minutes. The independent variable was the
radiation, and the dependent variable was measured in terms of how much saccharine
water the rats consumed after the pairing of saccharine water with radiation.
• Results: Regardless of radiation level, both groups of rats that had
been drinking saccharine water during irradiation consumed
significantly less saccharine water after conditioning.
• This study is important because it showed that long-lasting
conditioned taste aversion could occur even when the UCS and CS
were paired only during a single session. This is now known as the
Garcia effect.
• Garcia and Koelling (1966) varied the type of aversive stimulus (UCS) to which the rats
were exposed. Nausea (the UCR) was induced by exposure to X-rays, whereas pain
(UCR) was induced by shocks through the floor. When the rat licked the drinking tube, it
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 received the CS of either saccharine water or “bright-noisy water” (plain water
accompanied by a light and a buzzer that went on when the rat touched the drinking
tube). The UCS for half the rats was X-rays. The other half received a shock.
o Results: The rats that were made nauseous avoided the sweet water but not the
bright-noisy water, whereas rats that were given a mildly painful shock avoided the
bright-noisy water but not the sweet water.
o The key finding here is that, contrary to the predictions of traditional learning theory,
an organism cannot be conditioned to respond to just any “neutral” stimulus paired
with an unconditioned stimulus.
• Garcia’s findings in several studies undermined two major assumptions of classical
conditioning: (1) that conditioning (learning) could happen only if an organism was
exposed repeatedly within a brief time span to the UCS and CS together and (2) that
organisms can learn to associate any two stimuli.
• The assumption is that taste aversion can be learned quickly because it is adaptive.
Natural selection has produced a learning mechanism that helps organisms survive
dangers that would kill them if they did not learn to avoid them after one trial.
• Limitations of Conditioned Taste Aversion
o Researchers have found that a single pairing of saccharine water with morphine (a
pain-relieving drug that is highly addictive) reduced saccharine water consumption in
rats.
o Another example is the drug disulfiram, which can be used to condition alcoholics to
have an aversion to alcohol. If people drink alcohol while taking disulfiram, then they
get very sick. The problem is that alcohol does not become a CS for nausea when the
disulfiram is discontinued. It is tough to condition alcohol to become a CS for nausea
because the intoxication it produces is a positive reinforcer, especially for alcoholics.
Instinctive Drift
• This section talks about whether learning is universal to all species, the idea being that
there is something primal about base aspects of learning in all species. Breland and
Breland (1961), two of Skinner’s students, successfully conditioned 38 different species
and more than 6,000 animals. They coined the term instinctive drift, which they defined
as learned behavior that shifts towards instinctive, unlearned behavior tendencies.
• Biological constraint model: some behaviors are inherently more likely to be learned
than others. In other words, biology constrains, or limits, options to make the adaptive
ones more likely to occur. The idea here is that constraints on learning have positive
evolutionary implications; that is, it is useful for survival. For example, if you were
attacked by a dog (like the Fluffy example, above), and did not learn a fear response, you
might wind up dead.
• CONNECTION: Every human learns a language. Why is that? See Chapter 9.
• Nature-Nurture Pointer: Animals are primed from birth to readily learn some things
and not others. Humans, for example are primed to talk.
• The fact that not every species can be conditioned to learn anything illustrates a major
theme of this book. Namely, biology and experience interact to determine who we are.
Latent Learning

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 • Latent Learning (Tolman & Honzick, 1930): learning that occurs in the absence of
reinforcement and is not demonstrated until the reinforcement is provided at a later time.
• Tolman reasoned that these rats had formed internal cognitive maps—like pictures in
their minds—of the maze from all the practice they had received. When they finally had
rewards waiting for them, the rats could use these maps to run the maze more efficiently.
It is difficult to know whether the rats really had maps of the maze in their minds. What
is clear from these findings is that some learning can occur in the absence of
reinforcement. Running the maze, even without rewards, helped the rats in Group 3 run
much better when reinforcement was available
• Stop and Think: How do organisms learn in classical conditioning? How do they learn
in operant conditioning? Which type of reinforcement or punishment adds a stimulus?
Which type takes away a stimulus? What are the four types of schedules of
reinforcement? What biological constraints occur in conditioning?
• Connection: People who cannot form new memories nevertheless learn. The body can
learn things of which the conscious mind is not aware. See Chapter 7.

SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY

• Enactive learning: learning by doing.
• Observational learning: learning by watching others
• CONNECTION: Do you think watching violence in movies and TV leads to aggressive
behavior? Overwhelmingly, the answer seems to be “yes.” See Chapter 15.
Connecting Psychologists to Their Discoveries: Albert Bandura and Social Learning
Theory
• Bandura, the father of Social Learning, argued much of what we learn is done
vicariously, his social learning theory (1986). The primary method for such vicarious
learning was termed modeling (the process of observing and imitating behaviors
performed by others).
• People learn best those things they are rewarded for doing, whether the rewards are
external (such as praise, money, candy) or internal (such as joy and satisfaction). Bandura
realized that reinforcement matters not only for the person carrying out the behavior, but
also for those who watch.
• A series of classic studies in the 1960s involved a Bobo doll. This research demonstrated
that those who viewed aggression were more aggressive with the doll than those who did
not see aggression. The consequences for the model also mattered. Children who saw the
aggressive adult rewarded for his aggression were more violent with the toys and Bobo
doll than those who saw the aggressive adult get punished. Those who did not see an
aggressive model did not show much aggression with the toys, nor did those who saw the
adult punished. These studies show how modeling and reinforcement can work together
to influence behavior. Kids are more likely to copy behavior that they see others get
rewarded for doing.
• Stop and Think: What are the two basic components of social learning theory? How did
children act after they saw adults who behaved aggressively and were rewarded for that
aggression?

9
THE INTERACTION OF NATURE AND NURTURE IN LEARNING
• Four learning processes that illustrate the dynamic interplay between nature and nurture:
imprinting, imitation, synaptic change, and brain growth with enrichment.

Imprinting
• Imprinting: the rapid and innate learning of the characteristics of a caregiver within a
very short period of time after birth.
• Ethology: the scientific study of animal behavior, and especially from the work of
Lorenz on ducklings and goslings (baby geese).
• Imprinting provides clear evidence of sensitivity periods in learning (periods during
which, if an animal is exposed to a particular stimulus or situation, it will learn it very
readily). Once the animal has moved beyond that period, it becomes much harder, if not
impossible, to learn certain skills or make use of certain kinds of information.
• Imprinting and sensitivity periods in learning make it clear that the mind is not a blank
slate but rather is structured in such a way that certain kinds of experiences are more or
less easily learned at different periods in life (e.g., vision, hearing, and language).
CONNECTION: Mirror neurons help explains why even newborn infants imitate adult
behavior so easily. See Chapter 5.

Imitation, Mirror Neurons, and Learning

• Imitation by infants may be a result of mirror neuron systems in the brain (neuron
systems which respond in much the same way while watching an action as they do while
making an action).

Synaptic Change During Learning

• Synaptic connections between neurons strengthen and even grow during long-term
associative learning, indicating that the brain literally grows and changes as we learn. The
development and frequent use of new synaptic connections in response to stimulation
from the environment strengthens the associated memories and makes learning easier. So
it does seem as though “practice makes perfect” and you should either “use it” or you will
“lose it.”
• Nature-Nurture Pointer: When we stop using what we’ve learned, the synapses that
support that knowledge weaken and ultimately we forget what we once knew.

Experience, Enrichment, and Brain Growth

• Later experiments showed that animals did not have to be raised from birth in an enriched
environment to benefit. However, the best way to stimulate new neural growth is to be in
an enriched environment that continues to have new and novel forms of stimulation.
(Kemperman & Gage, 1999).
• Stop and Think: What type of learning happens within a very short period after birth?
What type of learning do mirror neurons support? What happens in the brain during long-
term associative learning?

10
 • CONNECTION: Can experience and learning generate new neurons in an elderly
person? See Chapter 5.

Bringing it all together: Making Connections: Why Do People Smoke?

• Social learning probably offers the best explanation to how the smoking behavior is
acquired. Most smokers start smoking as teenagers, and most teens start smoking because
they seek some of the rewards that appear to come with smoking: coolness, peer
acceptance, looking like an adult. Kids see that others who smoke get some of these
rewards for smoking. Thus they might model the smoking behavior in order to obtain
these rewards themselves.
• Once someone has become an established smoker, operant conditioning helps maintain
smoking behavior. Smoking is bolstered by a number of positive reinforcers: arousal of
the sympathetic nervous system (the “rush” of smoking), mild relaxation of the muscles,
and in some cases, increased peer acceptance. Smoking also has a number of negative
reinforcers, such as the removal of stress, the removal of social isolation for some
smokers, and a reduced appetite.
• The power of these reinforcers, combined with the physiologically addictive properties of
nicotine, makes it very difficult to quit smoking. Moreover, the potential punishers of
smoking—a substantially increased risk of lung cancer and heart disease—are threats that
are so far off in the future for teens that they tend to ignore them.
• There are several other factors to consider:
o Gender: A recent large-scale study indicated that gender influences susceptibility
to smoking, the way people work with their urges to smoke, and the ability to
successfully quit. For example, whether or not one’s friends smoke plays a
stronger role in whether adolescent girls attempt and succeed at quitting smoking
than it does in boys.
o Personality: People who are more sociable, impulsive, rebellious, hostile, and
sensation-seeking are more likely to start smoking and less likely to quit
successfully than those who do not have these personal characteristics. For
example, not having a long-term perspective, they fail to understand the negative
effects of smoking on health.
o Sociocultural: Research suggests that cultural variables (ethnic group), social
factors (availability of role models), and basic principles of learning
(observational learning) can all interact to influence whether young people start
smoking. For example, African-American children were less likely to smoke than
European-American children, and they had fewer family members and friends
who smoked.
• Behavior modification: Technique that applies principles of operant conditioning to
changing behavior. This may be particularly effective in helping people quit smoking,
especially when combined with nicotine replacement therapies (such as gum or the
patch), which ease the symptoms of withdrawal.

11
KEY TERMS
association: process by which two pieces of information from the environment are repeatedly
linked so that we begin to connect them in our minds.
behavior modification: the application of operant conditioning principles to change behavior.
biological constraint model: view on learning proposing that some behaviors are inherently
more likely to be learned than others.
classical conditioning: form of associative learning in which a neutral stimulus becomes
associated with a stimulus to which one has an automatic, inborn response.
conditioned stimulus (CS): a previously neutral input that an organism learns to associate with
the UCS.
conditioned response (CR): a behavior that an organism learns to perform when presented with
the CS.
conditioned taste aversion: the learned avoidance of a particular taste or food.
conditioning: a form of associative learning in which behaviors are triggered by associations
with events in the environment.
continuous reinforcement: reinforcement of a behavior every time it occurs.
enactive learning: learning by doing.
ethology: the scientific study of animal behavior.
extinction: the weakening and disappearance of a conditioned response, which occurs when the
UCS is no longer paired with the CS.
fixed ratio (FR) schedule: pattern of intermittent reinforcement in which reinforcement follows
a set number of responses.
fixed interval (FI) schedule: a pattern of intermittent reinforcement in which responses are
always reinforced after a set period of time has passed.
imprinting: the rapid and innate learning of the characteristics of a caregiver very soon after
birth.
instinctive drift: learned behavior that shifts towards instinctive, unlearned behavior tendencies.
intermittent reinforcement: reinforcement of a behavior – but not after every response.
latent learning: learning that occurs in the absence of reinforcement and is not demonstrated
until later, when reinforcement occurs.
law of effect: principle that the consequences of a behavior increase (or decrease) the likelihood
that the behavior would be repeated.
learning: enduring changes in behavior that occur with experience.
modeling: the imitation of behaviors performed by others.
negative reinforcement: removal of a stimulus after a behavior to increase the frequency of that
behavior. An example is buckling your seat belt to stop the buzzer in the car.
negative punishment: the removal of a stimulus to decrease behavior.
observational learning: learning by watching the behavior of others.
operant conditioning: the process of changing behavior by manipulating the consequences of
that behavior.
positive reinforcement: the presentation or addition of a stimulus after a behavior occurs that
increases how often that behavior will occur.
positive punishment: the addition of a stimulus that may decrease behavior.
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primary reinforcers: innate, unlearned reinforcers that satisfy biological needs (such as food,
water, or sex).
punishment: stimulus, presented after a behavior, that decreases the frequency of the behavior.
reinforcer: environmental stimulus that increases the frequency of a behavior.
responses: reinforced after time periods of different duration have passed.
schedules of reinforcement: patterns of reinforcement distinguished by whether reinforcement
occurs after a set number of responses or after a certain amount of time has passed since the last
reinforcement.
secondary (or conditioned) reinforcers: reinforcers that are learned by association, usually via
classical conditioning.
shaping: the reinforcement of successive approximations of a desired behavior.
Skinner box: simple chamber used for operant conditioning of small animals; includes a food
dispenser and a response lever to trigger food delivery.
social learning theory: a description of the kind of learning that occurs when we model or
imitate the behavior of another.
spontaneous recovery: the sudden reappearance of an extinguished response.
stimulus generalization: extension of the association UCS and CS to include a broad array of
similar stimuli.
stimulus discrimination: restriction of a CR (such as salivation) to the exact CS to which it was
conditioned.
unconditioned response (UCR): the automatic, inborn response to a stimulus.
unconditioned stimulus (UCS): the environmental input that always produces the same
unlearned response.
variable ratio (VR) schedule: a pattern of intermittent reinforcement in which the number of
responses needed for reinforcement changes.
variable interval (VI) schedule: pattern of intermittent reinforcement in which responses are
reinforced after time periods of different duration have passed.

MAKING THE CONNECTIONS

Habituation and the Orienting Response
CONNECTION: Right now you are habituated to dozens of stimuli – including the feel of
clothing on your skin. Now you are sensitized to it. How so? See Chapter 4.
o Discussion: Is habituation learning? Ask students to think about their job. How much
of what they do is automatic? That is, are they demonstrating habituation (they are
oriented to what they do and are exposed to repeatedly) or learning?

The Conditioning of Little Albert

CONNECTION: Could Watson do research on Little Albert in today’s world? Review the
discussion of ethics in Chapter 2.
Discussion: Watson, perhaps the father of the behavioral movement, is best known for
the infamous quote: “Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own
specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train
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 him to become any type of specialist I might select – doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-
chief, and yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants,
tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors (Watson, 1925, p. 82).” Based
on this quotation, what would this mean if you had an IQ of 100 and wanted to be a
doctor? What if you lacked an ability for athleticism, as you were born small and weaker
than most but you wanted to be a professional football player? What would Watson say?
o Discussion: What became of poor Little Albert? The book mentions that he was
never reconditioned, but why? Well, he was adopted by, presumably, a loving
family. You may want to mention, however, that in Chapter you will visit issues of
behavior modification and counter-conditioning, at which time you might wish to
open up a discussion of how this type of therapy would be applied in this instance.
o Discussion: What would Albert be like in 2008? If he was still alive today, he would
be a 90-year-old man who has gone through life with a crippling fear of all fuzzy
white things and hating Christmas.
o Discussion: Students are generally interested in this story, and you may want to also
talk about little Peter, a follow-up study done by Mary Cover Jones (1924) under
Watson’s supervision (see Suggested Readings).

Operant Conditioning
CONNECTION: What is addiction? See the discussion of drugs in Chapter 6.
o Suggested Activity: Show Alcohol Addiction (In-Psych Discovery Channel Videos)
and discuss alcohol addiction as it relates to reinforcement and punishment.

Instinctive Drift
CONNECTION: Every human learns a language. Why is that? See Chapter 9.
o Discussion: This might be a good time to preview Chomsky and the nativist
perspective in comparison to a learning perspective on language acquisition. Ask
students what language skills children are rewarded for, versus pre-wired for. Do
parents punish and correct every grammatical mistake toddlers make in speech?
Unlikely.
o Discussion: What types of language do animals display? See the bee waggle dance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jc-mtUs-eis.
o Activity: If you have Internet access in your classroom, go to
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljVd6XS-J0s for a clip on a Russian child raised
by dogs with limited language development. This is a good example of how species-
typical genes need to interact with a species–typical environment for biologically
primary skills, like language, to develop. Remind students that developmental norms
indicate a critical or sensitive period for language development.

Latent Learning
Connection: People who cannot form new memories nevertheless learn. The body can learn
things of which the conscious mind is not aware. See Chapter 7.

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 o Activity: If you have Internet access in your classroom, go to
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDNDRDJy-vo for a clip on Clive Wearing, a
man who is unable to form new memory but demonstrates learning none the less.

Social Learning Theory

CONNECTION: Do you think watching violence in movies and TV leads to aggressive
behavior? Overwhelmingly, the answer seems to be yes. (See Chapter 15.)
o Activity: If you have Internet access in your classroom, go to
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4586465813762682933 for a video clip of
Bandura discussing his famous Bobo Doll study.
o Video: Choose any segment from Jackass: The Movie and discuss its implications for
young children who idolize these types of behaviors.
o Discussion: Ask students to consider how Bandura’s research would map onto the
violent videogames on the market today.

Imprinting
CONNECTION: Mirror neurons help explains why even newborn infants imitate adult behavior
so easily. See Chapter 5.
o Video: Show Fly Away Home (1996) and discuss imprinting. Now ask students how
this model is limited in terms of human behavior and attachment.
o Activity: Show http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqZmW7uIPW4 for a brief clip
(no sound) of Lorenz with his goslings.

Experience, Enrichment, and Brain Growth

CONNECTION: Can experience and learning generate new neurons in an elderly person? See
Chapter 5.
o Discussion: See Chapter 7 for a review on how new proteins form and synapses
actually grow in long-term but not short-term memory formation. Tell students that
just listening to information and reading the bullets on a PowerPoint cause certain
synapses to form between neurons that were not there before.

NATURE-NURTURE POINTERS
How Classical Conditioning Works
Nature Nurture: Through classical conditioning, innate responses— like salivation—can
become associated with and changed by almost any experience.
o Discussion: Vomiting is another example of a reflex, but you can use the association
between the reflex of vomiting with something else, say drinking alcohol, to establish
a taste aversion. Another example given is the drug disulfiram, which can be used to
condition alcoholics to have an aversion to alcohol. If people drink alcohol while
taking disulfiram, then they get very sick. That said, alcohol does not become a CS
for nausea when the disulfiram is discontinued. It is tough to condition alcohol to
become a CS for nausea because the intoxication it produces is a positive reinforcer,
especially for alcoholics.
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Classical Conditioning
Nature-Nurture Pointer: If unconditioned responses are biologically built in, does that mean
conditioned responses come purely from experience?
o Discussion: Another way to approach this would be to ask students to provide
examples of instances in which UCR and CR differ. For example, a child is looking at
his mom’s pretty scented candle that has been burning for several hours. The child
bats at the hot wax pooling by the wick and screams in pain when he is burnt. Several
days later his mom has another candle burning. When the child sees the candle he
again screams but this time in fear. Discuss the difference in motivation of the UCR
and CR and what other possible conditioned responses are viable in this example
(e.g., crying, running away, etc.).

Instinctive Drift
Nature-Nurture Pointer: Animals are primed from birth to readily learn some things and not
others. Humans, for example are primed to talk.
o Discussion: Turkewitz (1993) is well known for his work on several species of bird
and “innate” skills. In humans, he looked at the development of the brain in utero and
discovered that the right hemisphere develops early (before the auditory system is
working). The left hemisphere develops later and rapidly surpasses the right in both
size and complexity. As the auditory system develops in concourse with the left
hemisphere, this is also when mom’s speech is most salient. Thus, the left hemisphere
becomes specialized for processing language and speech. The right hemisphere
remains “unspecialized” and thus is able to deal with visual information, spatial skills,
and face/pattern recognition – thus, new meaning to the term “innate.” Ask students
for their definition of “innate.” How would this research alter that view?

Synaptic Change During Learning

Nature-Nurture Pointer: When we stop using what we’ve learned, the synapses that support
that knowledge weaken and ultimately we forget what we once knew.
o Discussion: Synaptic connections between neurons strengthen and even grow during
long-term associative learning, indicating that the brain literally grows and changes as
we learn. The development and frequent use of new synaptic connections in response
to stimulation from the environment strengthens the associated memories and makes
learning easier. So it does seem as though “practice makes perfect,” and you should
either “use it” or you will “lose it.”

INNOVATIVE INSTRUCTION
Additional Discussion Topics
1. Classical conditioning and your pet: Ask students to think about their pet. Ask them what
happens when they go into the kitchen. How do their fish respond when they walk over to the
tank? Why do animals get excited by these mundane behaviors? Their pet has learned to
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 associate these behaviors with food. If you want to continue this line of discussion, ask them
about “false alarms.” If you go into the kitchen repeatedly and then don’t give them food,
what happens? Ask students to provide additional examples of this learning by association
(e.g., how have they trained their significant other?).
2. Combining stimulus generalization, stimulus discrimination, extinction, and
spontaneous recovery:
o Ask students to assume they were bitten (UCS) by black and white Shih Tzu (a
toy breed of dog – the CS) and that the bite elicited a pain response (UCR) such
as crying. Ask them what would happen the next time they saw a Shih Tzu (CS).
Most likely, they would cry in fear of being bitten again (CR) but the CR could
also be running away due to fear.
o With this basic outline in place, ask them if they would generalize their fear
response to all Shih Tzus. To all dogs? To all small dogs? Or to only black and
white dogs?
o Now ask students if they would only fear the offending Shih Tzu. For example,
you can expand this by asking students to assume that they have generalized their
fear to all Shih Tzus and that they have just met a wonderful person and fallen in
love with someone who owns a Shih Tzu named Fluffy. What would they do?
Can a conditioned response be unlearned?
o Now ask students to assume that their new love had them sit down with Fluffy
over and over again so that they could make friends with his/her beloved pet (CS)
and that they never got bitten or had any unpleasant experience (UCS). How
would they feel about Shih Tzus? Chances are that the fear response (CR) would
diminish. This is extinction.
o Finally, for an example of spontaneous recovery, ask students to imagine that one
day they are out walking and a random Shih Tzu attacks and bites them. How will
they feel the next time they see Fluffy? We would predict that the fear response
(CR) to Fluffy’s next appearance would be heightened – possibly even to original
levels.
3. Differences between primary and secondary reinforcers: Students may have difficulty
discriminating the differences between these two types of reinforcements. You can use the
advertising example in the text (e.g., how reinforcers may acquire pleasant characteristics by
virtue of their association with something that is inherently reinforcing, such as food or sex,
in ads for sports cars, beer, beauty supplies, etc.). You can also discuss what types of
reinforcers are most effective for different situations. For example, ask how to get
classmates to show up at different events – the answer . . . FREE FOOD (a primary
reinforcer). How might you as a faculty member get students to attend class regularly?
OFFER EXTRA CREDIT (a secondary reinforcer).
4. Behavior modification: How should you best modify behaviors? Ask students how their
parents reinforced and punished them. Which actions were most effective? Which were most
ineffective? Skinner emphasized that reinforcement is a much more effective way of
modifying behavior than is punishment. Specifically, using reinforcement to increase
desirable behaviors works better than using punishment in an attempt to decrease undesirable
behaviors. As another example, ask students to honestly report if they have ever driven
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 drunk. Then ask if they were ever caught in this act. What can government do to curb drunk
driving? Should they punish people with jail sentences, major fines, etc., or should they
reward people each time they drive sober?
5. Relating classical conditioning concepts to operant conditioning principles: Have
students discuss how concepts such as stimulus generalization, stimulus discrimination,
extinction, and spontaneous recovery discussed with classical conditioning can be applied to
operant conditioning.
6. Psychology in the Real World: Treatment of Autism: Autism: developmental disorder
usually appearing in the first few years of life. It is characterized by drastic deficits in
communication and language, social interaction with others, emotional expression and
experience, and imaginative play (Kanner, 1943). Current estimates suggest that autism
affects anywhere from 41 to 45 out of every 10,000 children between the ages of 5 to 8 years
old and that the rate is much higher in boys than in girls (Fombonne, 2003).

Although it was thought that autism was untreatable, Ivar Lovaas has developed a promising
new treatment called applied behavioral analysis (ABA), which is based on operant
conditioning principles. That is, it uses reinforcement to increase the frequency of desirable
behaviors in autistic children, and in some cases, punishment (a loud “NO!” or time-out) to
decrease the likelihood of undesirable behaviors. The intensive program involves ignoring
behaviors that are harmful or undesirable such as hand flapping, twirling, or licking objects
and aggressive behaviors, through use of time-out, and reinforcement of behaviors such as
contact with others, simple speech, appropriate toy play, and interaction with others.
Typically, the program involves at least two years of treatment for 35-40 hours per week.

Activities
1. Have students buy a copy of Sniffy (the virtual rat) or, if you do not want to add to their
expenses, load the program onto your in-class computer and work through different types
of classical conditioning and operant conditioning principles discussed in class (Alloway,
Wilson, & Graham, 2005). Students very much enjoy the interactive process, and the
hands-on experience tends to clarify their mounting confusion over these different
concepts.
2. Students will find it difficult to differentiate different types of punishments and
reinforcements. They will also find it very difficult to differentiate negative
reinforcement and punishment in general. You may wish to utilize CPS clicker questions
to ascertain their understanding of these issues before moving forward.
3. Make an additional connection between this chapter and Chapter 2 by asking students
how the Skinner box differs from Thorndike’s Puzzle Box. Students may not understand
the fundamental difference here. Review concepts of independent and dependent
variables. Now, remind them that Thorndike measured how long it took cats to escape.
Skinner is interested in how many times animals perform an action.
4. Give students a homework assignment of watching television. Have them make note of
different types of aggression they see in the course of one evening (you may wish to
differentiate physical aggression versus relational aggression). Talk to students in the
next class meeting about their observations. They will likely be surprised by just how
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 much aggression they saw. Ask them how this might influence children (you can also
talk about cartoon violence here).

Suggested Films
1. Bee waggle dance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7ijI-g4jHg
2. Fly Away Home (1996) is a good example of imprinting. It is a story of a family of
orphaned goslings who have gotten lost and imprint onto a father and daughter who
ultimately help them.
3. Alcohol Addiction In-Psych Discovery Channel Videos (http://highered.mcgraw-
hill.com/sites/dl/free/0073382760/558381/AlcoholAddiction.mpg)
4. Phobias: Living In Terror In-Psych Discovery Channel Videos (http://highered.mcgraw-
hill.com/sites/dl/free/0073382760/558381/Phobias_LivinginTerror.mpg)
5. Traffic (2000) is a good example of social learning and operant conditioning (especially
as it relates to drug addiction sections of this text (see “Making Connections: Why Do
People Smoke?” and the “Breaking New Ground” section on treating alcoholism). This
movie intertwines four separate story lines but we recommend you focus on that of the
conservative politician recently appointed as the U.S. drug czar who learns that his
daughter is a drug addict.
6. Jackass: The Movie (2002). Choose any segment from this film and discuss its
implications for young children who idolize these types of behaviors. You can include a
discussion of evolutionary and social learning issues at play here.

Suggested Websites
1. Differentiating classical and operant conditioning worksheet:
http://www.ar.cc.mn.us/biederman/courses/p1110/conditioning2.htm
2. Using classical and operant conditioning (NOTE: This is a site that provides you with
scenarios and solutions. You may not want to assign it to students, though, since the
answers are posted): http://www.utexas.edu/courses/svinicki/ald320/CCOC.html.
3. Operant conditioning worksheet:
http://core.ecu.edu/psyc/ironsmithe/Developmental/operant.htm
4. Overview of operant conditioning:
http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/behsys/operant.html
5. Overview of social learning: http://teachnet.edb.utexas.edu/~lynda_abbott/Social.html

Suggested Readings
Alloway, T., Wilson, G.& Graham, J. (2005). Sniffy: The Virtual Rat. Belmont, CA: Thomson
Wadsworth.
Bandura, A., Ross, D., & Ross, S. A. (1963). Vicarious reinforcement and imitative learning.
Journal of Abnormal & Social Psychology, 67, 601-608.
Bushman, B.J., & Anderson, C.A. (2001). Media violence and the American public: Scientific
facts versus media misinformation. American Psychologist, 56, 477-489.
Dinn, W. M., Aycicegi, A., & Harris, C. L. (2004). Cigarette smoking in a student sample:
Neurocognitive and clinical correlates. Addictive Behaviors, 29, 107-126.
Garcia, J., Kimeldorf, D. J., & Koelling, R. A. (1955). A conditioned aversion towards
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Solution Manual for Psychology Perspectives and Connections 2nd Edition by Feist

saccharine resulting from exposure to gamma radiation. Science, 122, 157-159.

Jones, M. C. (1924). A laboratory study of fear: The case of Peter. Pedagogical Seminary, 31,
308-315.
Jones, M. C. (1974). Albert, Peter, and John B. Watson. American Psychologist, 29, 581-583.
Meltzoff, A. N., & Moore, M. K. (1983). Newborn infants imitate adult facial gestures. Child
Development, 54, 702-709.
Pavlov, I.P. (1906). The scientific investigation of the psychical faculties or processes in the
higher animals. Science, 24, 613-619.
Seligman, M.E.P. (1970). On the generality of the laws of learning. Psychological Review, 77,
406-418.
Skinner, B.F. (1959). A case history in scientific method. In S. Koch (Ed.). Psychology--A study
of a science, Vol. 2 (pp. 359-379). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Watson, J. B. & Rayner, R. (1920). Conditioned emotional reactions. Journal of Experimental
Psychology, 3, 1-14.

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