Learning is the process of acquiring through experience new and relatively enduring information or behaviors. As humans, we have to learn to adapt to our environments- knowing when to expect pain, knowing how to act in certain social situations, knowing what behaviors will be rewarded and which will be punished, etc. Both humans and animals learn through association or associative learning - realizing that certain events occur together. 

• Personal habits, like nail-biting

• Personal preference, like the hipster look

• Emotional responses, like crying over a love song

Acquisition is the phase associating a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus comes to elicit a conditioned response

• • Initial stage of learning

  • Making a connection

  • Allows organisms to prepare for good or bad events

As we are constantly bombarded with stimuli, we do not have the capacity to make connections between all of them. Learning theorists believe that stimuli that are new, unusual, or especially intense have more potential to become conditioned stimuli, because they stand out. 

Conditioning involves learning connections between events that occur in an organism’s environment.

• Classical Conditioning: a type of learning in which a stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus

• Operant Conditioning: a type of learning in which responses come to be controlled by their consequences

Habituation is the decreasing responsiveness with repeated exposure to a stimulus (like sensory adaptation). Extinction is the gradual weakening or disappearance of  a conditioned response tendency. If the conditioned stimuli fails to coincide with the unconditioned stimuli, the conditioned response will happen less often. If Pavlov kept producing the tone without the meat powder several times, the dogs would be eventually stop salivating. 

Spontaneous recovery is the reappearance of an extinguished conditioned response after a period of non-exposure to conditioned stimulus.

Renewal Effect – If a response is extinguished in a different environment than where it was acquired, the extinguished response will reappear when the animal is brought back to the original environment where acquisition took place

Stimulus generalization occurs when an organism that has learned a response to a specific stimulus responds in the same way to new stimuli that are similar to the original stimulus. Stimulus discrimination is the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and other irrelevant stimuli.

Dogs were harnessed and equipped with a mechanism to collect saliva, then presented with a neutral external stimulus (bell/tone), followed immediately by the unconditioned stimulus (food/meat powder). After several repetitions, the dogs were presented with the external stimulus without the unconditioned stimulus to see if there was a response. If there was, the neutral stimulus has become a conditioned stimulus, and their reaction is a conditioned response. 

• Unconditioned Stimulus: a stimulus that evokes an unconditioned response without previous conditioning, i.e. natural cause

• Unconditioned Response: an unlearned reaction to an unconditioned stimulus that occurs without previous conditioning, i.e. natural response

• Conditioned Stimulus: a previously neutral stimulus that has, through conditioning, acquired the capacity to evoke a conditioned response, i.e. learned cause

• Conditioned Response: a learned reaction to a conditioned stimulus that occurs because of previous conditioning, i.e. learned response

Higher-order conditioning is when a conditioned stimulus functions as if it were an unconditioned stimulus (ex. Pairing the tone used for Pavlov’s dogs with a red light to elicit salivation).

Phobias are irrational fears of specific objects or situations. Mild phobias are common, and most phobias and fears are acquired through classical conditioning. Your sixth birthday party included a clown that terrified you or you saw the movie "It" at a young age, and now you have coulrophobia.

Another thing learned through classical conditioning is superstition. If you associate an action with an event occurring, you might modify your behavior. Your team wins a big game when you wear your favorite jersey, and now it's your "lucky jersey". You have to complete a special handshake with your teammate before the game or slap the ceiling before exiting the locker room. 

More than the early behaviorists realized, an animal’s capacity for conditioning is limited by biological constraints. For example, each species’ predispositions prepare it to learn the associations that enhance its survival—a phenomenon called preparedness. Environments are not the whole story. Biology matters.

John Garcia was among those who challenged the prevailing idea that all associations can be learned equally well. While researching the effects of radiation on laboratory animals, Garcia and Robert Koelling noticed that rats began to avoid drinking water from the plastic bottles in radiation chambers because it made them sick. Their findings came to be known as taste aversion - when exposed to the sight or smell of something that is associated with nausea or vomiting, one feels ill and is unlikely to expose themselves to it again. Have you ever gotten food poisoning and now avoid that food at all costs because it reminds you of when you got sick?

The law of effect principle developed by Edward Thorndike suggested that "responses that produce a satisfying effect in a particular situation become more likely to occur again in that situation, and responses that produce a discomforting effect become less likely to occur again in that situation (Gray, 2011, p. 108–109)."

In other words, we are more likely to do something that is rewarded and less likely to do something that is punished. Obviously.

Using Pavlov as inspiration, B.F. Skinner conducted his own research to develop his own theories on behaviorism. Skinner demonstrated that organisms tend to repeat those responses that are followed by favorable consequences.

While classical conditioning best explains reflexive responding, while operant conditioning is a form of learning in which responses come to be controlled by their consequences. Voluntary responses are altered by reinforcement. Reinforcement occurs when an event following a response increases an organism’s tendency to make that response.

• • A response is strengthened because it leads to rewarding consequences

  • Simple, but powerful

  • After the fact

  • Differs between organisms

Skinner allowed the experimenter to control the reinforcement contingencies, or the circumstances or rules that determine whether responses were due to the presentation of reinforcers. 

• Primary reinforcers: events that are inherently reinforcing because they satisfy biological needs

  • Ex. Food, water, warmth, affection

• Secondary reinforcers: (a.k.a. conditioned reinforcers) events that acquire reinforcing qualities by being associated with primary reinforcers 

  • Ex. Money, praise, good grades

An operant chamber, or Skinner box, is a small enclosure in which an animal can make a specific response that is recorded while the consequences of the response are systematically controlled.

Operant responses are usually established through a gradual process called shaping, which consists of repeatedly reinforcing closer and closer approximations of a desired response until the desired response is achieved. Shaping is necessary when the organism does not emit the desired response on its own (no food levers in nature). Stimuli that precede a response can also exert considerable influence over operant behavior (ex. hand signals and whistles to train animals).

Discriminative stimuli are cues that influence operant behavior by indicating the probable consequences (reinforcement or non-reinforcement) of a response. 

• • Ex. Birds know to look for worms after it rains, children know to ask for treats when their parents are in a good mood

  • Discriminative stimuli are monitored by stimulus discrimination and generalization

In operant conditioning, extinction refers to the gradual weakening and disappearance of a response tendency because the response in no longer followed by reinforcers. Resistance to extinction occurs when an organism continues to make a response after delivery of a reinforcer has been terminated. Resistance to extinction depends primarily on the schedule of reinforcement, which determines which occurrences of a specific response result in the presentation of a reinforcer. A favorable outcome is much more likely to strengthen a response if the outcome follows immediately. Intermittent reinforcement is more resistant to extinction (ex. Toddler tantrums).

• • Continuous reinforcement, the most simple, occurs when every instance of a designated response is reinforced. 

  • Intermittent reinforcement occurs when a designated response is reinforced only some of the time. 

A token economy is a system in which the learner earns tokens by engaging in a targeted behavior and those tokens can be exchanged for a reward.

When deciding on reinforcers, you have to consider the organisms' preferences. The Premack Principle is a theory of reinforcement that states that a less desired behavior can be reinforced by the opportunity to engage in a more desired behavior. For example, when teaching a dog how to play fetch, the dog must learn that if he wants to chase the ball again (highly desired behavior), he must bring the ball back to his owner and drop it (less desired behavior). Additionally, if children want to receive dessert (highly desired behavior), they have to eat their vegetables (less desired behavior). 

Positive reinforcement occurs when a response is strengthened because it is followed by the presentation of a rewarding stimulus.

• • Ex. Good grades, tasty meals, scholarships, promotions, attention, etc.

Negative reinforcement occurs when a response is strengthened because it is followed by the removal of an aversive or unpleasant stimulus. 

• • NOT THE SAME AS PUNISHMENT!

  • Ex. Rushing inside or putting on layers to get out of the cold, cleaning the house to rid yourself of a mess, giving in to an argument so it ends

In escape learning, an organism acquires a response that decreases or ends some aversive stimulation.

• • Ex. Leaving a party to get away from peers, making a face at the prospect of eating Brussels sprouts

In avoidance learning, an organism acquires a response that prevents some aversive stimulus from occurring. 

• • Ex. Not going to parties so you don’t have to deal with your peers, eating at a friend’s house or at a restaurant when you know Brussels sprouts are being cooked

Punishment occurs when an event following a response weakens the tendency to make that response. This can include negative punishment (the removal of a rewarding stimulus) like taking away car privileges or positive punishment (the presentation of a aversive stimulus) like teasing/bullying or pain.

Neal Miller found that rats could modify their heartbeat if given pleasurable brain stimulation when their heartbeat increased/decreased. Miller’s experiments were on biofeedback - a system for electronically recording, amplifying, and feeding back information regarding a subtle physiological state, such as blood pressure or muscle tension. Though the power of biofeedback ended up being exaggerated, it has been proven to help with tension headaches and stress management.

Beyond instinct, we cannot dismiss all cognition from the learning process, as there is evidence that mental processes play a huge role in acquisition of knowledge.

• Latent learning: learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it → Edward Tolman’s Maze Study

  • Cognitive map - a mental representation of the layout of one’s environment

  • If you were blindfolded, you could easily navigate through your home. You never studied the blueprints, but you know the layout of your house. 

• Insight learning: a sudden realization of a problem’s solution (i.e. "lightbulb" moment)

• Learned helplessness: behavior typical of an organism (human or animal) that has endured repeated painful or otherwise aversive stimuli which it was unable to escape or avoid

The cognitive perspective has also shown us the limits of rewards: Promising people a reward for a task they already enjoy can backfire. 

• Intrinsic motivation: a desire to perform a behavior effectively for its own sake (ex. Playing soccer for the pure love of the game)

• Extrinsic motivation: a desire to perform a behavior to receive promised rewards or to avoid threatened punishment (ex. Playing soccer for scholarships and/or college offers)

Problems are unavoidable. We need to learn to cope with the problems in our lives, alleviating the stress they cause with emotional, cognitive, or behavioral methods. We address some stressors directly, with problem-focused coping. If our impatience leads to a family fight, we may go directly to that family member to work things out. We tend to use problem-focused strategies when we feel a sense of control over a situation and think we can change the circumstances, or at least change ourselves to deal with the circumstances more capably. We turn to emotion-focused coping when we believe we cannot change a situation. If, despite our best efforts, we cannot get along with that family member, we may relieve stress by reaching out to friends for support and comfort. This can be adaptive, but sometimes our emotion-focused coping can harm our health, such as when we respond by eating comforting but fattening foods. Our feelings of personal control, our explanatory style, and our supportive connections all influence our ability to cope successfully.

Observational learning is the acquisition of knowledge through watching others. Children often mimic the actions of their family members and peers, who act as models. Modeling is the process of observing and imitating a specific behavior. This process is accomplished through the use of mirror neurons, which fire when we observe an action and/or attempt to perform it. This is how we learn to perform certain tasks, but also how we learn things like empathy.

To test the effectiveness of observational learning, Albert Bandura devised an experiment in which children watched adults play with various toys in a room, one of which was an inflatable clown doll named Bobo. If the children witnessed the adults playing nicely with Bobo, they would do so when they entered the toy room. If the children witnessed the adults beating, kicking, and mistreating Bobo, they would mimic those actions as well. Bandura’s studies proved that much of the behavior we learn, good and bad, is learned through observation and imitation. (i.e. "Monkey See, Monkey Do”)

The good news is that people’s modeling of prosocial (positive, helpful) behaviors can have prosocial effects. Many business organizations effectively use behavior modeling to help new employees learn communications, sales, and customer service skills. Trainees gain these skills faster when they are able to observe the skills being modeled effectively by experienced workers (or actors simulating them).

The bad news is that observational learning may also have antisocial effects. This helps us understand why abusive parents might have aggressive children, why children who are lied to become more likely to cheat and lie, and why many men who beat their wives had wife-battering fathers. Critics note that such aggressiveness could be genetic. But with monkeys, we know it can be environmental. In study after study, young monkeys separated from their mothers and subjected to high levels of aggression grew up to be aggressive themselves. The lessons we learn as children are not easily replaced as adults, and they are sometimes visited on future generations.