Introduction to Psychology
Chapter 6: Learning
Learning
• a relatively permanent change in behavior
Behaviorism
• theory of learning that involves observable behavior which include mental activity such
as thinking, wishing and hoping.
Classical Conditioning
• occurs when a neutral stimulus is associated with a meaningful stimulus and then ac-
quires a similar response.
(US) = Unconditioned Stimulus is a stimulus that brings about a response without any prior
learning
(UR) = is the unlearned response to the US (unconditioned response)
(CS) = is a neutral stimulus that when associated with the unconditioned stimulus elicits a condi-
tioned response (Conditioned Stimulus)
(CR) = conditioned response is the learned response of the CS
Example:
(Unconditioned Stimuli)- First time David is going to the dentist and sees the
dentist.
(Unconditioned Response)- David becomes scared when the dentist starts to
clean his teeth.
______________________ 10 years later______________________
(Conditioned Stimuli)- David thinks about his upcoming dentist appointment at
12 years old.
(Conditioned Response)-David becomes scared at the front door.
Neutral Stimulus refers to a stimulus that has no signal value at all. This stimulus would not
naturally elicit the conditioned response
Operant Conditioning
• operant behaviors are voluntary and being about either rewards or punishments
Positive Reinforcement: occurs when something is given as a reward to increase the likelihood
of the behavior occurring again.
Negative Reinforcement: occurs when something bad is taken away to increase the likelihood
of a behavior of occurring again.
Please Note: Both positive and negative reinforcement refer to rewarding desired behavior. Posi-
tive & negative reinforcement are not references to good or bad, rather they indicate the process
in which something is either given or removed that reinforces the behavior.
** Think of reinforcement as a way for the behavior to occur more frequently in the future **
** Think of punishment as a way for the behavior to be stopped and not take the place in the fu-
ture **
Punishment: decreases the likelihood of a behavior occurring again
• the behavior is weakened, therefore it is not a negative reinforcement
Positive punishment: occurs when something bad is given to decrease the likelihood of a behav-
ior occurring again.
Negative punishment: occurs when something good is taken away to decrease the likelihood of
a behavior occurring again. (Ex. a child being put on timeout)
Observational Learning
• occurs when a person observes and imitates behavior
Examples
Classical Conditioning
• Megan starts preschool at 3 years old (US)
• Megan hits her head in preschool on the door and she began to cry (UR)
• Megan is in high school and she notices all the doors in her school (CS)
• Megan taker her time to go through the door because she remembers hitting her head in
preschool (CR)
Positive Reinforcement
• a mother gives her son praise (reinforcing stimulus) for doing homework (behavior)
• a little boy receives $5.00 (reinforcing stimulus) for every “A” he earns on his report card
(behavior)
Negative Reinforcement
• Bob does the dishes (behavior) in order to stop his mother nagging (aversive stimulus)
• Natalie can get up from the dinner table (aversive stimulus) when she eats 2 bites of her
broccoli (behavior)
Positive Punishment
• a child touches a hot stove (behavior) and feels pain (aversive stimulus)
• a person eats spoiled food (behavior) and gets a bad taste in his/her mouth (aversive
stimulus)
Negative Punishment
• a child kicks a peer (behavior) and is removed from his/her favorite activity (reinforced
stimulus removed)
• a child fights with her brother (behavior) and has her favorite toy taken away (reinforced
stimulus removed)
-Completed by Professor C. Hill
