``Chapter 6: learning
Learning: any relatively durable change to behaviour or knowledge that is due to experience
Conditioning: involves learning connections between event that occur in an organism’s
environment
Adaptation
Instinct: closed program
Learning: open program
Behaviourism: reaction to Freud’s concern with instincts, behaviourists in observable acts or
what we can seek, conditioning, associations that we make, connections between events
that occur in our environnements,
shapes what we like, preferences
Conditioning:
Classical Conditioning
● a type of learning where a
stimulus acquires the capacity
to evoke a response originally
evoked by another stimulus
● was pioneered by Pavlov, a
russian psychologist,
conditioned dogs to salivate
when a tone was presented
● Student discovers classical conditioning during experiment to discover aspects of
gastrology, finds dog salivating when no food present
● Mainly regulates involuntary reflexive responses
● Examples include emotional responses (fears) and physiological responses
(immunosuppression, sexual arousal)
Phobias: irrational fears of specific objects or situations
Technology and procedures
● Responses controlled through classical conditioning are said to be elicited
● Classical conditioning begins with unconditioned stimulus (UCS) that elicits an
unconditioned response (UCR)
● Neutral stimulus (NS) is paired with the UCS until it becomes the conditioned
stimulus (CS) that creates a conditioned response (CR)
Unconditioned stimulus (UCS): stimulus that evokes an unconditioned
response w/o prev. conditioning
Unconditioned response (UCR): unlearned reaction to an unconditioned
stimulus that occurs w/o prev. conditioning
Conditioned stimulus (CS): previously neutral stimulus that through
conditioning has acquired the capacity to evoke a conditioned response
Conditioned response (CR): learned reaction to a conditioned stimulus that
occurs because of the previous conditioning
Trial: consists of any presentation of a stimulus or pair of stimuli
Terms:
, Acquisition: the formation of a conditioned response tendency; initial stage of learning
occurs when CS and UCS are paired gradually resulting in a CR
Extinction: gradual weakening & disappearance of a conditioned response tendency
when a CS is repeatedly presented alone until it no longer elicits a CR
Generalization: when an organism responds to new stimuli besides the original stimulus (the
more similar the new stimuli are to the original CS, the greater the generalization)
Ex.: fear of dogs after one experience
occurs when a CR is elicited by a new stimulus that resembles the original CS, as in
Watson and Rayner’s study of Little Albert
○ Little Albert was originally not afraid of a rat, then with conditioned stimulus of
loud gong (steel rod and hammer) paired with the presence of the rat, Little
Albert started to show fear. A few days later, when the little 11 month old child
was presented with differents elements (like a rabbit, a fur coat, etc.) he
continued to show signs of fear.
○ Watson thought we arrive as a blank, clean slate; that we craft from the get
go, we become conditioned
○ Ethical issues
Discrimination: when an organism does not respond to other stimuli that resemble the
original stimulus
occurs when a CR is not elicited by a new stimulus that resembles the original CS
Ex.: fear of dogs does not translate to cats
Preparedness: involves a species-specific predispositions to be conditioned in a certain way
and not others (fears)
Spontaneous recovery: reappearance of an extinguished response after a period of non-
exposure to the CS
Higher-order conditioning: occurs when a CS functions as if it were a UCS
Counter-conditioning
● Mary Cover Jones, Peter and a rabbit
● Treatment for phobias
○ Phobias: irrational fear of an object or situation that interferes with a normal
activity
●
Rabbit
Learning: any relatively durable change to behaviour or knowledge that is due to experience
Conditioning: involves learning connections between event that occur in an organism’s
environment
Adaptation
Instinct: closed program
Learning: open program
Behaviourism: reaction to Freud’s concern with instincts, behaviourists in observable acts or
what we can seek, conditioning, associations that we make, connections between events
that occur in our environnements,
shapes what we like, preferences
Conditioning:
Classical Conditioning
● a type of learning where a
stimulus acquires the capacity
to evoke a response originally
evoked by another stimulus
● was pioneered by Pavlov, a
russian psychologist,
conditioned dogs to salivate
when a tone was presented
● Student discovers classical conditioning during experiment to discover aspects of
gastrology, finds dog salivating when no food present
● Mainly regulates involuntary reflexive responses
● Examples include emotional responses (fears) and physiological responses
(immunosuppression, sexual arousal)
Phobias: irrational fears of specific objects or situations
Technology and procedures
● Responses controlled through classical conditioning are said to be elicited
● Classical conditioning begins with unconditioned stimulus (UCS) that elicits an
unconditioned response (UCR)
● Neutral stimulus (NS) is paired with the UCS until it becomes the conditioned
stimulus (CS) that creates a conditioned response (CR)
Unconditioned stimulus (UCS): stimulus that evokes an unconditioned
response w/o prev. conditioning
Unconditioned response (UCR): unlearned reaction to an unconditioned
stimulus that occurs w/o prev. conditioning
Conditioned stimulus (CS): previously neutral stimulus that through
conditioning has acquired the capacity to evoke a conditioned response
Conditioned response (CR): learned reaction to a conditioned stimulus that
occurs because of the previous conditioning
Trial: consists of any presentation of a stimulus or pair of stimuli
Terms:
, Acquisition: the formation of a conditioned response tendency; initial stage of learning
occurs when CS and UCS are paired gradually resulting in a CR
Extinction: gradual weakening & disappearance of a conditioned response tendency
when a CS is repeatedly presented alone until it no longer elicits a CR
Generalization: when an organism responds to new stimuli besides the original stimulus (the
more similar the new stimuli are to the original CS, the greater the generalization)
Ex.: fear of dogs after one experience
occurs when a CR is elicited by a new stimulus that resembles the original CS, as in
Watson and Rayner’s study of Little Albert
○ Little Albert was originally not afraid of a rat, then with conditioned stimulus of
loud gong (steel rod and hammer) paired with the presence of the rat, Little
Albert started to show fear. A few days later, when the little 11 month old child
was presented with differents elements (like a rabbit, a fur coat, etc.) he
continued to show signs of fear.
○ Watson thought we arrive as a blank, clean slate; that we craft from the get
go, we become conditioned
○ Ethical issues
Discrimination: when an organism does not respond to other stimuli that resemble the
original stimulus
occurs when a CR is not elicited by a new stimulus that resembles the original CS
Ex.: fear of dogs does not translate to cats
Preparedness: involves a species-specific predispositions to be conditioned in a certain way
and not others (fears)
Spontaneous recovery: reappearance of an extinguished response after a period of non-
exposure to the CS
Higher-order conditioning: occurs when a CS functions as if it were a UCS
Counter-conditioning
● Mary Cover Jones, Peter and a rabbit
● Treatment for phobias
○ Phobias: irrational fear of an object or situation that interferes with a normal
activity
●
Rabbit
