Learning Essays - Behaviorism, Learning, Experimental Psychology

Running head: LEARNING Homework Assignment Chapter 5 Learning John F. Barrow Copper Mountain College Homework Assignment Chapter 5 Learning 1. Describe the history and nature of classical conditioning. One of the major contributors to the study of learning was not a psychologist but a Russian physiologist who was, awarded, a Nobel Prize for his work on digestion. Ivan Pavlov was a brilliant scientist who directed several research laboratories in St. Petersburg, Russia, at the turn of the twentieth century. Pavlov's involvement with psychology began, as a result, of an observation he made while investigating the role of saliva in digestion, using dogs as his experimental subjects (Hockenbury Furthermore, in (1904) Pavlov's studies of digestion, the dogs salivated reflexively when food was, placed on their tongues. However, when the dogs began salivating in response to the sight of Pavlov or to the sound of his footsteps, a new, learned stimulus elicited the salivary response. The process of conditioning that Pavlov discovered was the first to be extensively, studied in psychology (Hockenbury Essentially, classical conditi oning is a process of learning an association between two stimuli. Classical conditioning involves pairing a neutral stimulus that automatically elicits a reflexive response. If the two stimuli (Pavlov + food) are repeatedly, paired, eventually the neutral stimulus (Pavlov) elicits the same basic reflexive response as the natural stimulus (food) even in the absence of the natural stimulus (Hockenbury How does it demonstrate associative learning? According to Pavlov, classical conditioning occurs simply because two stimuli are associated closely in time. Whereas, Psychologist Robert A. Rescorla, classical conditioning depends on the information the conditioned stimulus provides about the unconditioned stimulus. Rather than merely associating two closely paired stimuli, as Pavlov suggested, the animals assess the predictive value of stimuli. Applying this interpretation to classical conditioning, we can conclude that Pavlov's dogs learned that the bell was a signal that reliably predi cted that food would follow (Hockenbury & Hockenbury, 2011, pg 195-196). 2. Describe the history and nature of operant conditioning including the concept of shaping. The investigation of how voluntary behaviors are, acquired began with a young American psychology student named Edward L. Thorndike. A few years before Pavlov began his extensive studies of classical conditioning, Thorndike was using cats, chicks, and dogs to investigate how voluntary behaviors are, acquired. Thorndike's pioneering studies helped set the stage for the later work of another American psychologist named B. F. Skinner. It was Skinner who developed operant conditioning, another form of conditioning that explains how we acquire and maintain voluntary behaviors (Hockenbury Skinner's operant conditioning explains learning as a process in where behavior is shaped and maintained by, its, consequences. One possible consequence of a behavior is reinforcement. Reinforcement is, said to occur when a stimulus or an event follows an operant and increases the likelihood of the operant being r epeated (Hockenbury Shaping, involves reinforcing successively closer approximations of a behavior until the correct behavior is, displayed. For example, the researcher might first reinforce the rat with a food pellet whenever it moves to the half of the Skinner box in which the bar is located. Other responses would be, ignored once that response has, been learned reinforcement is withheld until the rat moves even closer to the bar. Then the rat might be, reinforced only when it touches the bar. Systematically, the rat is, reinforced for behaviors that correspond ever more closely to the final goal behavior pressing the bar (Hockenbury & Hockenbury, 2011, pg 209). 3. Explain the processes of acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery, generalization, and discrimination, and give an example of each. Stimulus Generalization and Discrimination, Pavlov (1927) noticed that once a dog was, conditioned to salivate to a particular stimulus, new stimuli that were similar to the original conditioned stimulus could also elicit the conditioned salivary response. For example, Pavlov conditioned a dog to salivate to a low-pitched tone. When he sounded a slightly higher-pitched tone, the conditioned salivary response would, also be elicited. Pavlov called this phenomenon stimulus generalization. Just as a dog can learn to respond to similar stimuli, so it can learn the opposite to distinguish between similar stimuli.