What is Learning?

Behaviorist Perspective- a relatively To demonstrate classical conditioning,

permanent change in behavior that arises Pavlov (1927) attached a tube to the salivary
from practice or experience. gland of a dog, allowing him to measure
precisely the dog’s salivation. He then rang a
Cognitive Perspective- mental change that
bell and, just a few seconds later, presented
may or may not be associated with changes
the dog with meat. This pairing occurred
in behavior.
repeatedly and was carefully planned so
How does Learning takes place? that, each time, exactly the same amount of
time elapsed between the presentation of the
1. Classical Conditioning: Learning
bell and the meat. At first the dog would
based on association
salivate only when the meat was presented,
Pavlov had been studying the secretion of but soon it began to salivate at the sound of
stomach acids and salivation in dogs in the bell.
response to the ingestion of varying
amounts and kinds of food. While doing that,
he observed a curious phenomenon: In fact, even when Pavlov stopped
sometimes stomach secretions and presenting the meat, the dog still salivated
salivation would begin in the dogs when they after hearing the sound. The dog had been
had not yet eaten any food. The mere sight classically conditioned to salivate to the bell.
of the experimenter who normally brought (Feldman 2014)
the food, or even the sound of the
experimenter’s footsteps, was enough to
produce salivation in the dogs.

Pavlov’s genius lay in his ability to

recognize the implications of this discovery.
He saw that the dogs were responding not
only on the basis of a biological need
(hunger) but also as a result of learning— or,
as it came to be called, classical conditioning.
(Feldman 2014)

Classical conditioning is a type of

learning in which a neutral stimulus (such as
the experimenter’s footsteps) comes to elicit
a response after being paired with a stimulus
(such as food) that naturally brings about
that response.
Why did the dog salivate? the way, although we don’t know for certain
what happened to the unfortunate Little
Behaviorist perspective:
Albert, it appears he was a sickly child who
Dog learned to salivate in response to the died at the age of 5. In any case, Watson, the
tone because the tone had been paired with experimenter, has been condemned for
the meat powder. using ethically questionable procedures that
could never be conducted today; Beck,
Cognitive perspective:
Levinson, & Irons, 2009.)
The dog salivated in response to the tone
because the tone became mentally
connected with the meat.

Classical Conditioning of Emotional

Responses

Emotional responses are especially likely to

be learned through classical conditioning
processes. For instance, how do some of us
develop fears of mice,spiders, and other
creatures that are typically harmless? In a
now infamous case study, psychologist John Classical conditioning also accounts for
B. Watson and colleague Rosalie Rayner pleasant experiences. For instance, you may
(1920) showed that classical conditioning have a particular fondness for the smell of a
was at the root of such fears by conditioning certain perfume or aftershave lotion because
an 11-month-old infant named Albert to be thoughts of an early love come rushing back
afraid of rats. “Little Albert,” like most whenever you encounter it. Or hearing a
infants, initially was frightened by loud certain song can bring back happy or
noises but had no fear of rats. bittersweet emotions due to associations
that you have developed in the past.
In the study, the experimenters sounded a
loud noise whenever Little Albert touched a Classical conditioning, then, explains many
white, furry rat. The noise (the unconditioned of the reactions we have to stimuli in the
stimulus) evoked fear (the unconditioned world around us.
response). After just a few pairings of noise
and rat, Albert began to show fear of the rat
by itself, bursting into tears when he saw it.

The rat, then, had become a CS that brought

about the CR, fear. Furthermore, the effects
of the conditioning lingered: five days later,
Albert reacted with some degree of fear not
only when shown a rat, but when shown
objects that looked similar to the white, furry
rat, including a white rabbit, a white seal-skin
coat, and even a white Santa Claus mask. (By
 random fashion. At some point, however, it
will probably press the lever by chance, and
when it does, it will receive a food pellet.

The first time this happens, the rat will not

learn the connection between pressing a
lever and receiving food and will continue to
explore the box. Sooner or later the rat will
press the lever again and receive a pellet,
and in time the frequency of the pressing
response will increase.

Eventually, the rat will press the lever

continually until it satisfies its hunger,
2. Operant Conditioning: Learning based
thereby demonstrating that it has learned
on consequences
that the receipt of food is contingent on
pressing the lever.

REINFORCEMENT: THE CENTRAL CONCEPT

OF OPERANT CONDITIONING

Skinner called the process that leads the rat

to continue pressing the key
“reinforcement.” Reinforcement is the
process by which a stimulus increases the
probability that a preceding behavior will be
repeated. In other words, pressing the lever
is more likely to occur again because of the
You may have heard of the Skinner box, a
stimulus of food.
chamber with a highly controlled
environment that was used to study operant A reinforcer is any stimulus that increases
conditioning processes with laboratory the probability that a preceding behavior will
animals. Animals in a Skinner box learn to occur again. Hence, food is a reinforcer,
obtain food by operating on their because it increases the probability that the
environment within the box. Skinner became behavior of pressing (formally referred to as
interested in specifying how behavior varies the response of pressing) will take place.
as a result of alterations in the environment. (Feldman 2014)
To illustrate Skinner’s contribution, let’s What kind of Stimuli can act as reinforcers?
consider what happens to a rat in the typical
Skinner box .

Suppose you want to teach a hungry rat to

press a lever that is in its box.

At first the rat will wander around the box,

exploring the environment in a relatively
 Types of Punishments

1. Positive punishment, sometimes referred

to as punishment by application, presents
an unfavorable event or outcome in order
to weaken the response it follows.
Spanking for misbehavior is an example
of punishment by application.
2. Negative punishment, also known as
punishment by removal, occurs when a
Bonuses, toys, and good grades can serve
favorable event or outcome is removed
as reinforcers—if they strengthen the
after a behavior occurs. Taking away a
probability of the response that occurred
child's video game following misbehavior
before their introduction. What makes
is an example of negative punishment.
something a reinforcer depends on
individual preferences. Although a Hershey
bar can act as a reinforcer for one person, an
individual who dislikes chocolate may find
one dollar more desirable.

The only way we can know if a stimulus is a

reinforcer for a particular organism is to Positive Punishment
observe whether the frequency of a
previously occurring behavior increases
after the presentation of the stimulus.

Types of Reinforcement Unlike negative reinforcement, which

produces an increase in behavior,
punishment reduces the likelihood of a prior
What is Punishment? response. If we receive a shock that is meant
Punishment is the presentation of an adverse to decrease a certain behavior, then we are
event or outcome that causes a decrease in receiving punishment, but if we are already
the behavior it follows. There are two kinds receiving a shock and do something to stop
of punishment. In both of these cases, the that shock, the behavior that stops the shock
behavior decreases. is considered to be negatively reinforced.
In the first case, the specific behavior is apt
to decrease because of the punishment; in
the second, it is likely to increase because of
the negative reinforcement.