Learning
Chapter 7
❖ Fact or falsehood:
➢ Primitive animals, like sea slugs, behave by instinct
and are in capable of learning
■ False
➢ The study of inner thoughts, feelings, and motives has
always occupied a central place in psychology
■ False
➢ Ted is afraid of doctors because he doesn’t like
receiving injections; this is a form of learning
■ True
➢ Ivan Pavlov was a psychologist who focused all his
research on learning
■ False
➢ Biological preparedness helps explain why some
associations are easier to acquire than others
■ True
❖ Definition:
➢ Learning- is a relatively permanent change in an
organism’s behavior due to experience
■ Behaviors depend to a large extent on the process
of learning:
● Behaviorism (conditioning)- Ivan Pavlov. John
B. Watson, & B.F. Skinner
● Social Learning Theory- Albert Bandura
➢ Associative Learning- linking two events that occur
close together in time
❖ Pavlov’s Experiments:
, ➢ Before conditioning, food (unconditioned stimulus, UCS)
produces salivation (unconditioned response, UCR);
however, the tone (neutral stimulus) does not
■
❖ Conditioning:
➢ Conditioning- the process of learning associations
between events and behavioral responses
■ Stimulus 1:
● See lightning
■ Stimulus 2:
● Hear thunder
➢ Classical conditioning- a type of learning where we
learn to associate two stimuli and anticipate events
■ Stimulus:
● See lightning
■ Response:
● Cover ears to avoid sound
❖ Acquisition:
➢ Acquisition- is the initial learning stage in classical
conditioning in which an association between a neutral
stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus takes place
■ In most cases, for conditioning to occur, the
neutral stimulus needs to come before the
unconditioned stimulus
■ The time between the two stimuli should be about
half a second
❖ Extinction:
Chapter 7
❖ Fact or falsehood:
➢ Primitive animals, like sea slugs, behave by instinct
and are in capable of learning
■ False
➢ The study of inner thoughts, feelings, and motives has
always occupied a central place in psychology
■ False
➢ Ted is afraid of doctors because he doesn’t like
receiving injections; this is a form of learning
■ True
➢ Ivan Pavlov was a psychologist who focused all his
research on learning
■ False
➢ Biological preparedness helps explain why some
associations are easier to acquire than others
■ True
❖ Definition:
➢ Learning- is a relatively permanent change in an
organism’s behavior due to experience
■ Behaviors depend to a large extent on the process
of learning:
● Behaviorism (conditioning)- Ivan Pavlov. John
B. Watson, & B.F. Skinner
● Social Learning Theory- Albert Bandura
➢ Associative Learning- linking two events that occur
close together in time
❖ Pavlov’s Experiments:
, ➢ Before conditioning, food (unconditioned stimulus, UCS)
produces salivation (unconditioned response, UCR);
however, the tone (neutral stimulus) does not
■
❖ Conditioning:
➢ Conditioning- the process of learning associations
between events and behavioral responses
■ Stimulus 1:
● See lightning
■ Stimulus 2:
● Hear thunder
➢ Classical conditioning- a type of learning where we
learn to associate two stimuli and anticipate events
■ Stimulus:
● See lightning
■ Response:
● Cover ears to avoid sound
❖ Acquisition:
➢ Acquisition- is the initial learning stage in classical
conditioning in which an association between a neutral
stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus takes place
■ In most cases, for conditioning to occur, the
neutral stimulus needs to come before the
unconditioned stimulus
■ The time between the two stimuli should be about
half a second
❖ Extinction:
