Psyc 337: Psychology of Learning

Theories of Learning

Dr. RICHMOND ACQUAH-COLEMAN

DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY
 Lecture objectives
1. Explain the behaviorist understanding of learning

2. Familiarize ourselves with the theory of classical

conditioning

3. Study Ivan Pavlov’s experiment

3. Understand elements and basic features of classical

conditioning
 Review of lecture 1
 Define learning
 Attributes of learning
 Relevance of learning
 Learning, Knowledge and performance
 Approaches to learning
 Animals and the study of learning
Behavioral Theory of Learning
 Behavioral learning theory
• Behaviourism is one of the earliest and most dominant schools in
psychology
• Early Behaviorists included: John B. Watson, B.F. Skinner, Edward
Thorndike, Ivan Pavlov (google them!)
• Behaviorists believe that every behavior is a response to
environmental stimuli or events
• Thus, behavioral learning theories generally define learning by
focusing on observable behaviours and discounting any mental
activity.
• Learning is defined simply as the acquisition of new behaviour.
 Behavioral learning theory
Key behaviorist arguments:
 Behaviour that is followed by a reinforcing consequence
will continue or strengthen.
 Behaviour that is followed by a punishing consequence will
decrease or weaken.
 Behaviour that is not reinforced will simply disappear
 Behavioral learning theory
 The behaviourists’ idea of learning is often called learning by
association.

 Through research (mainly experiments), they demonstrated how

organisms learn by forming associations between stimuli, or between
a response and its consequences.

To the behaviorist:
Learning occurs when an organism forms an association between a
stimulus, the organism’s response and the consequence of the response.

The behaviorist view is represented by two main theories of learning:

1. Classical conditioning
Classical Conditioning
 Classical conditioning
 Classical conditioning is one
of the forms of learning
explained by behaviorist
theory.

 This form of learning was

accidentally discovered by
Russian physiologist & Nobel
Laureate Ivan P. Pavlov while
studying gastric
Ivan Petrovic Pavlov (1849 – 1936)
secretion/digestion in dogs.
 Classical conditioning
 Pavlov was interested in understanding the role of saliva in
digestion.
 He surgically implanted tubes in the cheeks of his dogs.
 This allowed him to measure the amount of saliva produced
when food was placed in the dog’s mouth.
 He soon realized that the dogs started salivating to other things,
including:
 The sight of food
 The sound of rattling dishes
 His mere presence or that of his colleagues.
 Classical conditioning
• Pavlov concluded that this salivation behaviour was the
result of learning and named it the conditioned reflex.

• This is defined as:

“A learned involuntary response” (Wood, Wood, & Boyd,
2005).

• To test this, he set up a series of experiments using bells,

tones, buzzers, lights, metronomes, geometric shapes &
electric shocks.
Pavlov’s Experiment
Pavlov’s Experiment
 Pavlov’s experiment
 Pavlov’s famous experiment took place at his lab in Leningrad, Russia

 He paired the sound of a bell to the dog’s meat powder.

 To begin, he rang a bell, which at first did not elicit any response from the
dogs.

 Immediately after he rang the bell, he placed meat powder on the dog’s
tongue, which caused salivation.

 This sequence was repeated many times.

 Eventually, the dog began to salivate when it heard the bell alone
(without the meat powder!).
 Classical conditioning
 So, the dog had learnt something, which is that the
sound of the bell implies the arrival of food.
 In essence, it had formed an association between
two stimuli – the bell and the meat powder.

 It had also responded to both stimuli by salivating,

first as a reflex and then as a learned response or
conditioned reflex/response.
 Classical conditioning
 In summary:
• The key issue in CC is the formation of association
between/among stimuli which originally/initially may have
nothing in common.

• Learning here occurs through a stimulus-response

mechanism when an organism learns to respond to a
stimulus in a particular way after that stimulus has been
paired with another one over a period of time.
 Classical conditioning
Wood et al., (2003):
“A type of learning through which an organism learns to
associate one stimulus with another”

Davis & Palladino, (2005):

“Learning that occurs when two stimuli – a conditioned
stimulus (originally a neutral stimulus) and an
unconditioned stimulus – are paired and become
associated with each other”
Key elements in classical conditioning
 Approaches to studying learning
 A stimulus is “any event or object in the environment to
which an organism responds” (Wood et al., 2005).

In CC, there are three (3) types of stimuli:

 Unconditioned Stimulus (eg meat)
 Neutral stimulus (eg. bell that elicits no response)
 Conditioned stimulus (bell that elicits salivation)

and three (3) types of responses:

 Unconditioned response (salivation at the meat)
 Neutral/No response (no reaction at sound of bell)
 Conditioned response(salivation at sound of bell)
 Classical conditioning
 Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) – A stimulus that naturally
evokes a particular response (eg. the meat powder).
 Neutral Stimulus: A stimulus that does not elicit a desired response
 Conditioned Stimulus (CS) – A previously Neutral Stimulus (NS)
that now evokes a particular response after having been paired
with an unconditioned stimulus (eg. the bell) over time.

 Unconditioned Response (UCR) – An unlearned, inborn reaction

to an unconditioned stimulus (eg. salivation to the meat powder).

 Conditioned Response (CR) – A learned response to the CS that

occurs after UCS-CS pairing (eg. salivation to the bell).
 Classical conditioning
So classical conditioning actually works this way:
Step 1. BEFORE CONDITIONING

Food (UCS) = Saliva (UCR)

Bell (NS) = No Response (NR)

 Step 2. DURING CONDITIONING

Bell (NS) + Food (UCS) = Saliva

 Step 3. AFTER CONDITIONING

Bell (CS) = Saliva (CR)

Importance of Classical
Conditioning
 Classical conditioning
 Classical conditioning is important because it helps us
understand some forms of human behavior

 It can be applied in various life settings for behavior

modification eg. In student behavior management and
classroom management in schools

 It also demonstrates that emotional reactions such as fear

can be learnt.

 This was demonstrated in the Little Albert Experiment by

John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner in 1920.
Classical conditioning
 Loud noises made
little Albert cry

 Fluffy objects
however got no
response from him

 Loud clanging sound

was paired with
fluffy object over
time

 Soon, Little began to

cry on seeing the
Basic Features of Classical
Conditioning
 Features of Classical Conditioning
 Acquisition – Process in which organism gradually learns to associate two
stimuli and respond to this association.

 Stimulus Generalization – “Occurrence of responses to stimuli that are

similar to a CS” (Davis & Palladino, 2005).

 Discrimination – “Occurrence of responses only to a specific CS” (Davis &

Palladino, 2005).

 Extinction - “In classical conditioning, the weakening and eventual

disappearance of the CR as a result of repeated presentation of the CS
without the UCS” (Wood et al., 2005).

 Spontaneous Recovery – “The reappearance of an extinguished response (in

a weaker form) when an organism is exposed to the original CS following a
rest period”. This is also known as Reacquisition.
Basic Features of Classical
Conditioning
 Factors influencing CC
Some factors can influence the acquisition of classically conditioned
response. Five of these are:
1. Sequence of NS-UCS Presentation :
– A stronger conditioning occurs when the NS is
presented first and remains till the UCS is presented.
This sequence is known as forward conditioning.

– Alternatively, the UCS could be presented first

followed by the NS. This is called backward
conditioning and this produces a weaker
conditioning.
 Factors influencing CC
2. Number and consistency of NS-UCS Pairings
– Generally, the greater the number of pairings, the stronger the
conditioned response (CR).

– However, in real life events only one pairing is enough to classically

condition taste aversion or a strong emotional response to cues
associated with some traumatic event (e.g., floods, rape).

3. Strength/Intensity of the UCS

– If the NS is paired with a very strong UCS, the conditioned response
(CR) will be stronger and will be acquired more rapidly.

– If the NS were paired with a weaker UCS, the Conditioned Response

(CR) will be weaker.
 Factors influencing CC
4. How reliably the NS predicts the UCS –
For the association in CC to occur, the NS must reliably predict the
occurrence of the UCS, i.e. the CS must be informative in predicting the
UCS.

5. The temporal relationship between the NS and the UCS

 Conditioning takes place fastest if the NS occurs shortly before the
UCS
 Conditioning takes place more slowly or not at all when the two
stimuli occur at the same time or far apart in time
 The ideal time between the presentation of the NS and UCS is about
½ second
 This varies depending on the type of response being conditioned and
the nature and intensity of the CS and UCS.
 Factors influencing CC
NOTE:
 The temporal relationship between the NS and the

UCS and how it affects classical conditioning is

known as the Contiguity Theory.
 The temporal relationship can be manipulated in a
number of ways, including:
 Simultaneous conditioning – This involves the
presentation of the NS and UCS together at the same
time. So, the onset and offset of the two are the same.
There is hardly any conditioning in this process due to
overshadowing.
– Temporal conditioning – Here, no NS is presented. What
rather happens is that the UCS is presented repeatedly
with a constant time interval between presentations.
Eventually, the organism produces a CR just before each
occurrence of the UCS. Thus time becomes the CS.

– Trace conditioning – This is the opposite of backward

conditioning. Here, the onset and offset of the NS
occurs before the UCS is presented. This makes it more
difficult for a CR to be formed. If formed at all, the CR is
weak.