Learning: Mechanisms, Theories, and Applications in Psychology

Topic 6: Learning

Introduction

Learning is a foundational concept in psychology, referring to the process by which experience leads to a relatively permanent change in behaviour or knowledge. This topic explores the mechanisms, types, and influences on learning, including classical and operant conditioning, cognitive approaches, and the impact of media.

Unlearned Behaviours

Reflexes

Reflexes are automatic, involuntary responses to specific stimuli. They are innate and essential for survival, involving primitive parts of the central nervous system (CNS), such as the brainstem.

• Protective function: Reflexes help protect the organism from harm.

• Examples: Pupillary light reflex, startle reflex, withdrawal reflex, scratch reflex.

Instincts

Instincts are innate drives or tendencies that lead to particular patterns of behaviour. They are more complex than reflexes and involve the movement of the organism as a whole.

• Examples: Sexual activity, migration in birds.

• Involve higher brain centers: Instincts require more complex neural processing than reflexes.

What is Learning?

Definition and Types

Learning is a relatively permanent change in behaviour or knowledge resulting from experience. It involves acquiring skills or knowledge through both conscious and unconscious processes.

• Habituation: Decreased response to a repeated, benign stimulus.

• Sensitization: Increased response to a repeated, intense or noxious stimulus.

Habituation and Sensitization

Habituation

Habituation is a simple form of learning in which repeated exposure to a stimulus results in a gradual reduction in response.

• Example: A child becomes less startled by a loud noise over time.

Sensitization

Sensitization occurs when repeated exposure to a stimulus increases the organism's response.

• Example: A person becomes increasingly anxious after repeated stressful events.

Classical vs. Operant Conditioning

Overview

Both classical and operant conditioning are fundamental learning processes, but they differ in mechanisms and outcomes.

• Classical Conditioning: Learning to associate two stimuli, resulting in a change in response to one of them.

• Operant Conditioning: Learning to associate a voluntary behaviour with its consequence (reinforcement or punishment).

Classical Conditioning

Mechanism and Key Terms

Classical conditioning is a process by which organisms learn to associate stimuli and anticipate events. Ivan Pavlov's research on the digestive system of dogs led to the discovery of classical conditioning.

• Unconditioned Response (UCR): Natural, unlearned reaction to a stimulus (e.g., salivation to food).

• Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): Stimulus that naturally triggers a response (e.g., food).

• Neutral Stimulus (NS): Stimulus that does not elicit a response before conditioning (e.g., bell).

• Conditioned Stimulus (CS): Previously neutral stimulus that, after association with UCS, triggers a response.

• Conditioned Response (CR): Learned response to the conditioned stimulus.

Example: Pavlov's dogs learned to salivate (CR) at the sound of a bell (CS) after it was repeatedly paired with food (UCS).

Acquisition, Extinction, and Spontaneous Recovery

• Acquisition: The initial stage of learning when a response is first established.

• Extinction: The conditioned response decreases and eventually disappears when the CS is presented without the UCS.

• Spontaneous Recovery: The reappearance of a conditioned response after a pause.

• Renewal Effect: The conditioned response reappears when the organism is returned to the original environment.

Applications: Marketing

Classical conditioning principles are used in marketing to associate products with positive emotions or experiences.

• Example: Pairing a product with happy music or imagery to elicit a positive response from consumers.

Little Albert Study

John B. Watson applied classical conditioning to study human emotions. In the "Little Albert" experiment, a child was conditioned to fear a white rat by pairing it with a loud noise.

• Stimulus Generalization: Albert's fear generalized to other similar objects (e.g., Santa Claus mask).

• Stimulus Discrimination: Ability to distinguish between different stimuli (e.g., different alarm sounds).

Fetishes & Classical Conditioning

A sexual fixation on a nonsexual object can develop through accidental pairing of sexual arousal and a neutral stimulus.

• Example: Shoes become associated with sexual arousal after repeated pairings.

Conditioned Taste Aversion

Conditioned taste aversion develops after only one trial and can occur even with long delays between stimulus and response.

• Biological Preparedness: Organisms are primed to learn certain associations more easily (e.g., taste and illness).

• Example: Chemotherapy patients may develop aversions to foods eaten before treatment.

Operant Conditioning

Mechanism and Key Terms

Operant conditioning involves learning to associate a behaviour with its consequences. B.F. Skinner and Edward Thorndike were key figures in developing this theory.

• Law of Effect (Thorndike): Behaviours followed by rewards are more likely to occur; those followed by punishment are less likely.

• Positive: Adding something.

• Negative: Taking something away.

• Reinforcement: Increases behaviour.

• Punishment: Decreases behaviour.

Reinforcement

• Positive Reinforcement: Adding a stimulus to increase the likelihood of a behaviour (e.g., praise, paychecks).

• Negative Reinforcement: Removing a stimulus to increase the likelihood of a behaviour (e.g., turning off a beeping sound when seatbelt is fastened).

Punishment

• Positive Punishment: Adding a stimulus to decrease a behaviour (e.g., scolding).

• Negative Punishment: Removing a stimulus to decrease a behaviour (e.g., taking away a toy).

Effectiveness of Punishment

• Punishment only tells what not to do.

• Can create anxiety, interfering with learning.

• May encourage subversive behaviour.

• Can model aggressive behaviour for children.

Biological Influences on Learning

Limits and Evolutionary Predispositions

Biology places limits on what behaviours can be learned through reinforcement. Evolutionary predispositions make organisms more likely to fear certain things (e.g., snakes, spiders) over others (e.g., cars, guns).

• Instinctive Drift: Tendency for animals to revert to innate behaviours after repeated reinforcement.

Schedules of Reinforcement

Continuous vs. Partial Reinforcement

• Continuous Reinforcement: Behaviour is reinforced every time it occurs; leads to faster learning but also faster extinction.

• Partial Reinforcement: Behaviour is reinforced only occasionally; leads to slower extinction and better maintenance.

Partial Reinforcement Schedules

• Fixed Interval: Reinforcement delivered at predictable time intervals (e.g., medication at set times).

• Variable Interval: Reinforcement delivered at unpredictable time intervals (e.g., checking social media).

• Fixed Ratio: Reinforcement delivered after a predictable number of responses (e.g., factory workers paid per item).

• Variable Ratio: Reinforcement delivered after an unpredictable number of responses (e.g., gambling, tips).

Schedule	Interval	Ratio
Fixed	Fixed Interval	Fixed Ratio
Variable	Variable Interval	Variable Ratio

Graph: Variable ratio schedules produce the highest rates of responding and are most resistant to extinction.

Partial Reinforcement & Intimate Partner Violence (IPV)

Operant learning principles may contribute to decisions to stay or leave in abusive relationships. Intermittent reinforcement (e.g., occasional positive gestures after abuse) can make it harder to leave.

Conditioning & Superstitious Behaviour

Superstitious Behaviour

Occurs when a behaviour is accidentally reinforced by coincidence. Skinner's pigeons demonstrated this by repeating random behaviours that they believed caused food to appear.

• Humans: Rituals and superstitions (e.g., wearing a lucky jersey, tapping a pencil before exams).

• Takeaway: The brain is predisposed to find patterns, even when they are not real.

Cognitive Approaches to Learning

Overview

Not all learning is due to operant or classical conditioning. Cognitive approaches emphasize the role of mental processes in learning.

• Latent Learning: Learning that occurs without immediate reinforcement and is demonstrated only when there is motivation.

• Observational Learning: Learning by watching others (models).

Latent Learning

Latent learning is learning that is not immediately expressed in behaviour. It becomes apparent only when there is a reason to demonstrate it.

• Example: Tolman's rats developed cognitive maps of a maze without reinforcement, demonstrating learning only when incentivized.

• Real-world examples: Navigating new places, cooking skills, social etiquette, driving routes, emergency responses.

Observational Learning

Observational learning occurs by watching the behaviour of another person (model). It involves four key processes:

1. Paying attention and perceiving critical features

2. Remembering the behaviour

3. Reproducing the action

4. Being motivated to carry it out

• Example: Bandura's Bobo doll experiment demonstrated that children can learn aggressive behaviours by observing adults.

Violence in Television & Media

Impact on Behaviour

Exposure to violence in media can influence real-world behaviour, especially in children and adolescents.

• By Grade 8, children may have witnessed 8,000+ murders and 800,000 violent acts on TV.

• Media violence can lower inhibitions, distort understanding of violence, and desensitize viewers to real-life violence.

• Violent video game players may engage in more aggression and delinquency, with lower academic achievement.

Transmission of Bias via Observing Others

Recent Research (2024)

Observational learning can transmit biases without direct reinforcement. In recent experiments, participants adopted prejudiced reactions simply by observing a model's behaviour toward different social groups.

• Implicit attitude change can occur through observation alone.