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PSY304 Human Associative Learning Complete Course Notes
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Complete course notes for PSY304 Human Associative Learning. Over 200 pages of lecture and tutorial notes covering content for weeks 1-13.
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WEEK 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE AND LEARNING THEORYSeminar - Introduction to Human Associative Learning
- Course Coordinator: Kate Mulgrew
- Tutorials commence in Week 2
- Learning materials are ready
- The seminar in week 1 will provide helpful information on how the course will be run
and what to expect from the course, while the seminar in week 13 will provide
information about the exam.
- Week 1 videos provide information on what human associative learning is, some of the
domains, key terms within the field, etc.
Human Associative Learning Influences Many Things Including:
- Fear, and how we develop emotional responses, such as fear based responses (fearful
avoidance), but also positive things like love.
- Physical responses to illness like taste aversions.
Discussion Topic
- Lucy gets home from work and pours herself a glass of wine while relaxing outside with
her dog for an hour. She then starts dinner and pours another wine. Later that night she
realises that she has had a few too many wines without even thinking about it. How could
we explain this behaviour?
- Our bodies like repetition and consistency meaning we can often do something
habitually without even thinking about it.
- Lucy has associated the behaviour of drinking wine with unwinding/relaxing.
- Lucy has associated three specific behaviours with drinking wine: sitting outside
with her dog,
- Once we understand what a behaviour is we can understand what things escalate and
de-escalate it.
- Many times both simple and complex behaviours can be maintained by habit.
Texts
- Sniffy can be purchased through the Apple store.
- Chance textbook
- Companion website for Chance with lots of quizzes
- Use WOW10 for discount
Teaching Approach
Weekly, there will be:
, 1. A short check in video - contains announcements, recommended activities,
progress check etc.
2. Pre-recorded learning modules - students are encouraged to take down notes and
bring questions and thoughts to the workshop.
3. Workshops - treat these as an essential part of the course. Workshops are where
the interactive activities will be undertaken and where sniffy will be used. There
will also be dedicated content discussion and assignment time. Workshops will
always be based on the previous week's content (e.g., week 2 workshop will be on
week 1 content).
4. Discussion board - for course questions.
Tutes
- Both the tutorials and assignments are designed to complement the course content,
provide practical examples of the often abstract material that we cover, extend your
knowledge in particular areas, and familiarise you with the dominant experimental
paradigm used in learning research. They are a mix of major concepts of historical
influence and contemporary applications.
- Often, students will be “masked” when coming into tutorials/assignment activities, as
prior knowledge would influence responses.
- Students will also be invited to share their data from activities so that they can examine
the results of the class.
- Never required to do this, and all data is kept confidential.
- Ethical considerations may apply.
How Does PSY304 Contribute to Understanding of Human Behaviour?
- Course is guided by the question: Why do people behave the way they do?
- Strong focus in running experiments, conducting data and linking back to the
data.
- Focus on experimental and quasi-experimental designs -> strong focus on
observable, evidence-based constructs.
Course is particularly helpful for:
- Those interested in clinical psychology
- Counselling
*Behaviourism is the basis for many modern therapeutic approaches (e.g.,
cognitive behavioural therapy.
- Those interested in research
- Focus on experimental designs, running, interpreting, and evaluating
findings).
- And those wanting to have a broad understanding of human behaviour.
,Assessments
1a: 1,000 Word Written Piece (10%) - Week 5
2: 2,000-2,500 Word Lab Report (40%) - Week 11
1b: 1,000 Word Written Piece (10%) - Week 13
3: Examination - Week 15/16
- The 1,000 Word Written Pieces are based on typing up experiments conducted in
class. Weeks 2-4 workshops are eligible for task 1a and 5-12 workshops are
eligible for 1b.
- Lab report will be discussed in week 3-4 tutorial
1.2 What is Learning
Why Study Learning?
- It increases our understanding of human behaviour (most of human behaviour is learned;
however, there can be exceptions such as developmental processes, brain injury, or
substance abuse).
- A majority of what we do on a daily basis is done because we have learned it: we
get up at a certain time because we have learned that it is a suitable sleep time for
us [we know if we get up earlier or later we will not feel as good], we have set
schedules or routines we have learned over time).
- Affects how we approach child rearing practices
- How we approach education
- Personal habits (e.g., nail biting, cooking)
- Personality traits (e.g., clothes preferences)
- Emotional responses (e.g., how we react to songs)
- Because of how my religious upbringing has conditioned me, I consider this song
haram.
- A song on the radio that elicits an emotional response typically does this because
it typically elicits a memory of a previous experience, which is behaviourally
based.
- Learning is also a survival mechanism!
- As a species, we need to learn how to adapt to particular environments, and we do
this largely through learning.
- when we learn how to drive we learn to stop at a red light and if one did
not learn this behaviour they would die on the road).
- We learn that there are certain foods that we may have an allergic reaction
to.
*Learning is an adaptation to one’s environment. We place ourselves in environments we
are comfortable in and avoid environments that we are not comfortable in or not thriving
in.
, - This goes back to Charles Darwin’s idea of natural selection.
What is Learning?
- When discussing learning within this course we are talking about the study of behaviour
and the environmental factors that have given rise to this behaviour. Learning itself is the
thing that happens in the middle of an experience and a behaviour change.
- I.e., (1) we have an experience, (2) we learn from that experience, and this
learning is inferred; it is an internal process that we do not directly observe, and
(3) we have a behavioural change as a consequence of the experience that we do
observe.
- Thus the results of learning must be translated into observable behaviour.
Thus after this learning or experience we are capable of doing something
that we could not do before or we stop doing the behaviour that we were
doing.
- Learning is not just about an increase in behaviour, it can also be a decrease (thus
behaviours can change in shape, form, and frequency).
- Learning is considered to be relatively permanent.
- Only “durable change” constitutes learning, but what is considered durable
change is open to debate; is durable change something that occurs over a
short period of time or a long period of time.
- Generally speaking, it is said that it is a change in behaviour until
something else (another stimulus) comes along that changes the
behaviour.
In summary learning is:
- Changes in observable behaviour due to experience (Chance, 2014).
- “A relatively permanent change in behavioural potentiality that occurs as a result of
reinforced practices/experiences” (Kimble, 1061, p6).
- Mediates behaviour.
Some Things to Consider:
- How long is permanent?
- Sometimes a couple of instances can be considered as learning, however it is
considered that learning lingers until forgetting or a new behaviour interferes.
- Other factors can influence behaviour such as illness, fatigue and maturation.
- Learning vs performance
- Learning vs performance is behavioural potentiality vs actual behaviour. E.g.,
training surgeons. A surgeon does not learn how to operate through trial and error,
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