Learning Theories
o Part of behaviourism (first type of psychology) – famous behaviourists: Watson,
Thorndike, Pavlov, Skinner
o Beliefs: behaviour must be observed to be scientifically credible, you have to see it
for it to be real, our mind is a blank slate ready to be written on, all behaviour is
reaction to stimuli + shapes our later experiences
o Against: anything internal (e.g. Freud/mental processing irrelevant to them),
acknowledged more later on
o Law of Effect = if something happens + has positive consequences, we do it again +
vice versa
o Development: Wundt used introspection in first lab experiment of theory (ppt think
about their thinking/how they process info + explain these to the researcher) =
difficult to draw scientific conclusions/measure carefully
o Key assumptions: environment experienced shapes people by reinforcement to
develop in specific ways, scientific methods lead to knowledge (specific actions must
be isolated to find out what causes them/what will stop them, IV/DV, controls =
measurable, scientific, reliable), learning is stimulus-response, creating pathways in
the brain that are not studied in detail
Classical Conditioning – Learning by Association
Type of learning, learn to link two or more stimuli + anticipate events – only to
conditioning of reflexes
Developed by Pavlov:
Believed our behaviour was partly based on evolution (esp. instinctive reflexes to
survive in evolutionary past)
Working on digestion of dogs – realised they made association with food + footsteps
of the person bringing it + the arrival of the researcher was enough (the food did not
need to be present) led to his research
Pavlov could only assume that CC works using pathways created in the cerebral
cortex
Some reflexes innate (automatic instincts) + others learnt by association
Dogs without access to their cerebral hemispheres do not survive even though some
reflex behaviours remain
Different dogs respond in different ways + if dog is not alert, conditioning may not
take place/may take longer
The Process of Conditioning:
1) All learning starts with a stimulus that leads to a response (natural reaction/learning)
unconditioned stimulus (UCS) unconditioned response (UCR)
2) Neutral stimulus (no real connection to UCS and no particular reaction) paired with
UCS = process of learning, so needs a number of trials to form an association; after a
period of time, NS becomes conditioned stimulus
neutral stimulus (NS) + unconditioned stimulus (UCS) unconditioned
response (UCR)
3) Neutral stimulus takes on properties form the UCS, which is lost
conditioned stimulus (CS) conditioned response (CR)
, Same response
All happens without any thought and without us doing anything (natural association)
Stimulus = something that produces a response (here a reflex/automatic/involuntary
behaviour)
Key Terms and Concepts:
Extinction – when a response is lost, when the original stimulus not presented with
the NS now and again, can take a long time to revert back of the NS
Spontaneous recovery – response lost/extinct, but the association/response is shown
again after a period of time (animal thinks they might get what they want by showing
the response – survival mechanism)
Stimulus generalisation – when an association is made and later on similar neutral
stimuli are introduced and the response is generalised to theses too (logical: in the
past, if one animal was dangerous, a similar one may be too)
Discrimination – telling the difference between the conditioned stimulus + things
very different to it
Contingency – the NS and UCS must have some reasonable link to be associated or
CS and later/additional CS
Temporal contiguity – NS has to be paired with UCS in the same time and space for
an association to be made
o Unconditioned stimulus: what gives the UCR naturally – a stimulus that gives a reflex
response
o Unconditioned response: term for the reflex response
o Neutral stimulus: what is going to be paired with the UCS and will eventually give
the same response
o Conditioned stimulus: when the NS is paired with the UCS, it becomes the CS
o Conditioned response: after the association has been set up, the CS gives the CR
Forward conditioning: best form of conditioning, means the CS is presented before
the UCS
Delayed conditioning: overlap – CS keeps going as the UCS is introduced
Trace conditioning: break between the pairing – CS can start and end before the
UCS is introduced
Backward conditioning: UCS presented and then afterwards comes the CS (not as
effective as forward conditioning, probably because in forward conditioning the CS
comes to signal the arrival of the UCS, whereas in backward conditioning, the CS
signals the end of the UCS, so is less likely to elicit the UCR – e.g. Pavlov’s
experiment: an electric buzzer made louder over time and 5-10 secs after the
unconditioned stimulus (meat) did not achieve salivation, but an electric buzzer
appearing with meat once, but before the meat, did give salivation)
Stimulus-Substitution Theory:
Suggested by Pavlov, means that the UCR is the same as the CR, but appears in
response to a different stimulus
But studies have found that the CR is not always exactly the same as the UCR – it can
be weaker (e.g. a biological reaction to an electrical shock is a faster heart rate, but
if something is paired with the shock and becomes a CS, then the response to that
CS is a lowered heart rate (not what CC predicted and seems that the CNS, when
involved, can yield different responses to what is expected)
Freedom Reflex:
, One of Pavlov’s early experiments = to hold the dog steady in one position using
loops round its legs and feed it
After a time, dog began behaving oddly and became very irritable
Realised it had problems standing for that length of time + was not related to the
food regime = freedom reflex
Realised dogs would have such reflexes even with damage to their cerebral cortex,
but they would not survive
Realised that some higher-order thinking was necessary for survival, not simple basic
reflexes like the freedom reflex or reflex to eat
Pavlov’s (1927) Experiment with Dogs
Aim: (not what he ended up studying)
- Study how the cerebral cortex works – started with natural associations between
stimuli + reflex responses
- Aimed to look at reflexes and work out pathways in the brain
- Find what it was about cerebral functioning that leads to survival
Procedure:
Special chamber: sealed room to prevent any unwanted stimuli that would affect the
conditioning process + isolate variable, presented dog with sound of NS only
(controls)
35 dogs of varying breeds
IV: one condition = dogs’ natural reflexive behaviour, other condition = after being
conditioned
DV: how many drops of saliva in graduated cylinder (salivation reflex measurable +
relatively calm)
Repeated measures design (same dogs before and after)
Pavlov paired metronome with food (giving food with the sound around 20 times) –
forward conditioning
Results:
Metronome study: salivation started 9 secs after hearing the sound; by 45 seconds,
11 drops had been collected
Reflex test: put meat in the mouth of dogs to test their salivation (natural reflex) +
found immediate salivation
Electric buzzer: after meat = no salivation; before meat and paired just once =
salivation
Dog had to be alert and no other stimuli present to distract/affect learning
Could be secondary conditioning: when first conditioned stimulus (e.g. metronome),
which gives the conditioned response (salivation), paired with another neutral
stimulus (e.g. buzzer), which can become a conditioned stimulus and give the
conditioned response (salivation)
Conclusion:
It is signalisation in the brain that links the metronome to food and thus gives the
reflex response of salivation, so needed for an organism to survive (incl. innate
instincts + learned associations)
Found he could repeat his conditioning experiments with dogs and get the same
findings
External stimuli could disrupt conditioning process + sensitive to extraneous
variables/individual differences
