Psychology 101: Learning
Chapter 6: Learning
* Phobias: * Irrational fears of specific objects or situations * Learning: * Refers to a relatively durable change in behaviour or knowledge that is due to experience * Includes the acquisition of knowledge and skills but also shapes personal habits, personality traits, and personal preferences * Conditioning: * Learning associations between events that occur in an organism’s environment
Classical Conditioning * Classical conditioning: * A type of learning in which a stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus * Sometimes called Pavlovian conditioning
Pavlov’s Demonstration: “Psychic Reflexes” * Noticed that dogs accustomed to the procedure would start salivating before the meat powder was presented * What he demonstrated was how learned associations – which were viewed as the basic building blocks of the entire learning process were formed by an organism’s environment
Terminology and Procedures * Unconditioned stimulus (UCS): * A stimulus that evokes an unconditioned response without previous conditioning * Unconditioned response (UCR): * An unlearned reaction to an unconditioned stimulus that occurs without previous conditioning * Conditioned stimulus (CS): * A previously neutral stimulus that has, through conditioning, acquired the capacity to evoke a conditioned response * Conditioned response (CR): * A learned reaction to a conditioned stimulus that occurs because of previous conditioning * When evoked by the UCS (meat), salivation was an unconditioned response * When evoked by the CS (tone), salivation was a conditioned response * Classically conditioned responses have traditionally been characterized as reflexes and are said to be elicited (drawn forth) because more are relatively automatic or involuntary * Trial (in classical conditioning):
* Phobias: * Irrational fears of specific objects or situations * Learning: * Refers to a relatively durable change in behaviour or knowledge that is due to experience * Includes the acquisition of knowledge and skills but also shapes personal habits, personality traits, and personal preferences * Conditioning: * Learning associations between events that occur in an organism’s environment
Classical Conditioning * Classical conditioning: * A type of learning in which a stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus * Sometimes called Pavlovian conditioning
Pavlov’s Demonstration: “Psychic Reflexes” * Noticed that dogs accustomed to the procedure would start salivating before the meat powder was presented * What he demonstrated was how learned associations – which were viewed as the basic building blocks of the entire learning process were formed by an organism’s environment
Terminology and Procedures * Unconditioned stimulus (UCS): * A stimulus that evokes an unconditioned response without previous conditioning * Unconditioned response (UCR): * An unlearned reaction to an unconditioned stimulus that occurs without previous conditioning * Conditioned stimulus (CS): * A previously neutral stimulus that has, through conditioning, acquired the capacity to evoke a conditioned response * Conditioned response (CR): * A learned reaction to a conditioned stimulus that occurs because of previous conditioning * When evoked by the UCS (meat), salivation was an unconditioned response * When evoked by the CS (tone), salivation was a conditioned response * Classically conditioned responses have traditionally been characterized as reflexes and are said to be elicited (drawn forth) because more are relatively automatic or involuntary * Trial (in classical conditioning):