Associative Learning

and Cognitive
Dissonance
LeAnna Truluck, Grace Miller,
Hallie Benson
Pre-test
Icebreaker
Attitude Survey
Rate each of the following questions 1-5 (Do this by holding up your fingers)

1- strongly disagree

2- disagree

3- neither agree nor disagree

4- agree
5- strongly agree
 It is healthy to exercise
regularly at least 3 times a
week.
You should not speed
when driving because
it is unsafe.
 In order to be financially
responsible you should not
spend money on things
you do not need.
 It is better to not
procrastinate and wait till
the last minute to do your
schoolwork.
 You should not look at
your phone when driving
because it is unsafe.
Behavior Survey
Now we are going to ask you a different set of questions. In order to answer
these stand up if your answer is true/yes. Stay seated if your answer is
false/no.
Do you work out on a
regular basis?
Do you often speed
when you drive?
Do you often spend
money on things you
don’t need?
Ex. Going out for food when you
know you have food at home
 Do you tend to
procrastinate on your
schoolwork?
When you drive do
you check your
phone?
Cognitive Dissonance
● the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially
as relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change.
● In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance occurs when a person
holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values, or participates
in an action that goes against one of these three, and experiences
psychological stress because of that
Leon Festinger
● 1919-1989
● Leon Festinger was an American social psychologist from New York
● Most noted for his Cognitive Dissonance and Social Comparison Theories
● Festinger graduated with a B.S. in psychology from the City College of
New York in 1939
● He then entered the University of Iowa, where he studied with the social
psychologist Kurt Lewin and obtained a Ph.D. in 1942
● Festinger also made important contributions to the study of group
behavior, self-evaluation, and attitude change
Discovery of Cognitive Dissonance
● Leon Festinger’s discovery of cognitive dissonance occurred while
studying a doomsday cult that believed a great flood and aliens would
destroy the planet.
● Festinger and his colleagues infiltrated the cult posing as believers.
● When the date the cult leader set for the end of the world came and went,
Festinger noticed that the cult’s followers continued to proselytize and
made excuses for why the world did not come to an end.
● Festinger concluded from studying the cult that people will alter reality in
their head to conform to their beliefs.
Festinger’s Cognitive dissonance theory
● Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory proposes that inconsistency
among beliefs and behaviours causes an uncomfortable psychological
tension (i.e., cognitive dissonance), which motivates changes in thoughts
or behaviors

● Social comparison theory states that people evaluate their abilities and
opinions by comparing them with those of others when it is not feasible
to test them directly
The Forced-Compliance Paradigm
● Festinger’s best known experiment is his forced-compliance paradigm in
which the subject performed a series of repetitive and boring menial tasks
and then was asked to lie to the “next subject” (actually an experimental
accomplice) and say that the tasks were interesting and enjoyable. Some
subjects were paid $1 for lying, while others were paid $20
● Based on dissonance theory, Festinger correctly predicted that the subjects
who were paid $1 for lying later evaluated the tasks as more enjoyable than
those who were paid $20. The subjects who were paid $20 should not have
experienced dissonance, because they were well rewarded and had ample
justification for lying, whereas those paid $1 had little justification for lying
and should have experienced cognitive dissonance. To reduce the dissonance,
they reevaluated the boring task as interesting and enjoyable
Video
Observed in
Society
People continuing to smoke
even though they know the
negative outcome ( lung cancer)
Used in the
classroom
A teacher sets up a class discussion
that involves deep thinking. Students
are to think about their own beliefs
while making them have an uneasy
feelings by challenging their ideas.
Donald O. Hebb
● 1904-1985
● Donald O. Hebb was a Canadian neuropsychologist
● He was considered the “Father of neuropsychology” because
of the way he was able to merge psychology and
neuroscience
● Published his book Organization of Behavior: A
Neuropsychological Theory in 1949 which outlined how
learning is accomplished within the brain
● Most noted for his Hebbian Learning Theory
Hebbian Theory- Associative Learning
● Hebb’s theory aka the cell assembly theory explains how neural pathways
are developed based on experiences
● As certain connections between cells are used more frequently, the
stronger and faster they become
● Hebb explains this process in his book Organization of Behavior:

“When an axon of cell A is near enough to excite a cell B and repeatedly or

persistently takes part in firing it, some growth process or metabolic
change takes place in one or both cells such that A’s efficiency, as one of
the cells firing B, is increased”

● This is often described as “Neurons that fire together, wire together”

Observed in Used in the
Society
When an athlete practices their
classroom
Students practice math problems
sport to become better at the over and over, they will become
better at the skill.
sport.
Article 1
https://www.jstor.org/stable/24936719?seq=2#metadata_info_tab_contents

1. What tends to be the result in the experiment with the child and the toy?

2. According to Festinger, what do people do when experiencing cognitive

dissonance?
Article 2
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982205005439

1. Fruit flies can learn to associate what with aversive stimuli?

2. What does Hebb’s theory propose?

Article 3
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4006178/

1. What does Hebb’s principle reveal about his understanding of the

importance of causality and consistency?

2. What is considered to be the neuropsychological basis of Hebbian

Learning?
Article 4
https://www.simplypsychology.org/cognitive-dissonance.html

1. How does attitude change take place?

2. When must “things” change?

Article 5
https://neuroquotient.com/en/pshychology-and-neuroscience-hebb-principle-
rule/

1. How does the analogy relate to Hebbian Theory?

2. Does the end result of Hebbian theory always have a positive effect?
Post-test
Work Cited
http://highered.mheducation.com/sites/0078035295/student_view0/online_learning_center0/chapter4/interactivities.
html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kmVy1QPXn0

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Festinger#Early_life_and_education

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Leon-Festinger

https://can-acn.org/donald-olding-hebb/