learning
a relatively permanent change in an organism’s behavior due to experience
classical conditioning
learning by connecting two things that happen in sequence
operant conditioning
learning through rewards and punishments
observational learning (modeling)
learning by watching others
ivan pavlov
pavlov’s experiments with dogs
unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
natural stimulus
in pavlov’s experiment: food
unconditioned response (UCR)
naturally response
in pavlov experiment: salivation to food
conditioned stimulus (CS)
unnatural/learned stimulus
in pavlov experiment: bell
conditioned response (CR)
unnatural/learned response
in pavlov experiment: salivation to the bell
neutral stimulus
no connection
acquisition
the first moment a connection occurs
the first time a dog salivates to the bell
extinction
the moment a connection is lost
you ring a bell long enough without food, the dog will stop salivating to the bell
spontaneous recovery
after a rest period an extinguished learned behavior can return
stimulus generalization
stimulus discrimination
the dog salivates to a bell, but NOT a doorbell
cognitive processes
biological predispositions
pavlov thought all animals (including humans) could be conditioned the same way, which is not true
john garcia’s rat experiments
john watson’s little baby albert experiment
law of effect
if you are rewarded for doing something you are likely to repeat it
b.f. skinner’s rat and pigeon experiments
skinner used the ideas of a psychologist named thorndike who came up with the idea of the law of effect
operant chamber (skinner box)
shaping
the operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward the desired target behavior through successive approximations