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Learning #1 9/24/ Learning: -a relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs through experience -Behaviorism: theory of learning that focuses only on observable behaviors; not mental activities (behaviors we see only) -Associative learning: and association is made between two events -Conditioning: a process of how we learn (learning association) Classical Conditioning: -Originated: Pavlov’s dog- not a psychologist, but a physiologist. He had a lot of dogs in his lab and fed them a lot daily. The dogs would begin drooling when he walked in the room. He did experiments to see what was happening. He first rang a bell and nothing happened. Then he rang the bell and gave the dogs meat powder. The dogs drooled. Then he rang the bell again, but did not give the dogs any meat. The dogs still drooled, because they associated the bell ringing to meat. -Unconditioned Stimulus (USC): a stimulus that produces a response without learning -Unconditioned Response (UCR): unlearned response that is automatically elicited by an UCS -Conditioned Stimulus (CS): a previously neutral stimulus that eventually elicits the conditioned response after they begin association with the UCS -Conditioned Response (CR): the learned response to the CS that occurs after the pairing of a CS and an UCS UCS (food) UCR (saliva) CS (bell) CR (saliva) Terms: -Acquisition: the initial learning of the stimulus- response link. -Salience: for instance, if Pavlov signaled food by playing soft music the dogs may not have seen the connection, since the sound of the music would be common and might not have been noticed. But, the dogs could not over look a bell ringing. -Intensity: usually, the more intense UCS, the more readily conditioning takes place -Frequency: if the bell were not only occasionally accompanied by feeding, Pavlov’s dogs would have been less likely to be conditioned. *The degree to which the CS and the UCS are related, or the contingency between the two the more they will work together. *The time between the UCS and the CS pairing is important. -Contiguity: connectedness in time and space, needs to occur close-together
-Contingency: predictability of the occurrence of one stimulus from the presence of another -Generalization: a new stimulus that is similar to the original CS is likely to allot a response similar to the CR -Discrimination: the process of learning to respond to certain stimuli and not others -Extinction: the weakness of the CR in the absence of the UCS -Spontaneous Recovery: a CR can recur after a time delay with out further conditioning Classical Conditioning in our Lives (Go to you tube- “little albert”) -Little Albert study by Watson and Rayner Shot/Pain Fear/Crying Doctor’s Office Fear/Crying (Deals with when you take kids to the doctor’s office for the 1st^ time. -Initially he was not scared of anything. He let a white rat crawl on him and was not scared. They put the rat in his lap and rang a bell (UCS) behind his head. This scared him (UCR) and caused him to be afraid (CR) of the rat (CS). He later became scared of rabbits, fur coats, and furry clothes. Learning # Operant Conditioning -Instrumental Conditioning: type of associative learning in which the consequences of behavior change the probability of the behavior’s occurrence -Voluntary Behavior: Ex. $100 for coming to class: if one comes to class they will receive $100 and if on the following Monday they do not feel well, they will still come to class because the consequences of coming would be to get the money -Edward Thomdike: would put cats in puzzle boxes. He would give them food when they touched a particular lever. Even though they didn’t know where the lever was. The cat knew that if he stayed on the left side of the box, for instance, he would eventually receive food. -Law of Effect: overtime, behaviors that are rewarded will be strengthened. Behaviors that have negative consequences will be weakened. -Acquisition: occurs because a certain behavior was reinforced -Extinction: person will no longer perform a behavior if nor reinforced -Generalization: behavior can generalize if wider and wider range of behaviors is reinforced Ex. Table Manners
-Aversive Conditioning: avoiding a particular behavior or setting as a consequence of punishment in association with the given behavior or setting -Premack Principles: a more desirable activity serves as reinforcement for a less desirable one Learning #3 10/1/ Observational Learning -limitation or modeling: learning occurs when a person observes and imitates behavior -Dr. Albert Bandula: less trail and error learning 4 main processes: attention, retention, motor reproduction, and reinforcement or incentive conditions He did an experiment to show that we tend to do and act in ways people do who are around us. Cognitive Factors in Learning Do conditions matter? -Many people do believe that learning involves more then environment: behavior connections -Purposive Behavior (Tolman) -much of behavior is goal directed -goal setting in human behavior -self regulation and self monitoring Cognitive Factors in Learning -expectancy learning and information value -cognitive maps: mental representation of the structure of physical space -Latent Learning: unreinforced learning that is not evident immediately -insight learning: a form of problem solving in which the organism develops a sudden insight into or understanding of the problem’s solution Other factors in learning: Biological Constraints -Instinctive Drift: tendency of animals to revert to instinctive behaviors that interfere with learning -preparedness species: specific biological predisposition to learn in certain ways, but not others -Cultural Constraints -Psychological Constraints -Learned Helplessness: learning through experience that outcomes are not controllable 10/6/ Development of Cognitive Psychology -humans vs. computers -similarities/ differences
Input Processing Output -differences: the human mind can develop new learning goals, rules, relationships, concepts, and patterns -the human mind in aware of itself -the human mind has rich consciousness Artificial Intelligence -up to the 1950s behaviorism and psychoanalytic were the primary schools of life -by the 1950s into hey day in 1980s, cognitive psychology rising -Cognitive Psychology: explains observable behavior by investigating mental processes and structures that cannot be directly observed Thinking: -Involves manipulating information mentally -forming concepts -solving problems -making decisions -reflected in critical/ creative ways Three Types of Thought -Propositional: expresses an idea or statement Ex. “I’m hungry” “It’s almost time for dinner” -Imaginal: images that we can see, hear, or feel in out mind Ex. Can see and hear our second grade teachers -Motoric: relates to mental representation of motor movements Ex. Throwing a ball Concepts -mental categories that are used to group objects, events, and characteristics -allows us to generalize -allows us to associate experiences and objects -aid memory, more efficient -provide clues about how to react to a particular object or experience Ex. College students are intelligent people Two Models of Concepts -Classical Model: all instances of a concept share defining properties -may be difficult to define characteristics -some instances of a concept are “more typical” then others -Prototype Model: when people evaluate whether a given item reflects a certain concept, they compare the item with the most typical item in that category and look for a “family resemblance” Ex. Vegetables Problem Solving
-deep structure: refers to the underlying meaning of the combined symbols Ex. Sam ate the cake. The cake was eaten by Sam. Eaten by Sam the cake was. (all mean the same thing [deep structure] the sentences are structured differently [surface structure]) Four Main Rules
- Phonology: a language’s sound system, smallest unit of speech sound that can signal a different meaning (40 English) Ex. D-og; L-og
- Morphology: a language’s rules for word formations, smallest units of meaning in a language (100,000 English; there are 500,000 words in English) Ex. Dog, Ball, Pre-, -ed, un-
- Syntax: a language’s rules for combining words to form acceptable phrases and sentences Ex. We went to the store. OR The store to went we.
- Semantics: the meaning of words and sentences in a particular language. Ex. The plane is full of beautiful wheat and grasses. (if changed to “plain” the sematics would be clear) Speech Segmentation: perceiving where each word with in a spoken sentence begins and ends Ex. We hope you have a nice day. “We ho pew ha va nice day” *Context helps people/ us decide what words are being used. Pragmatics: a knowledge of the practical aspects of using a language Language and Cognition -Is though dependent of language or is language dependent on thought? -Some memory stored in words, helps us think, make inferences, make difficult decisions, solve problems -Can we think without words? Whorf says no, others say words reflect rather than cause the way we think Biological Influence on Language -Noam Chomsky: prewired to learn language at a certain time in a certain way *Language functions occur in many areas of the brain: -Broca’s Area: word production (frontal lobe, left hemisphere) -Wernicke’s Area: speech comprehension (temporal lobe, rear portion) -Visual Area of Cortex: recognizing written words (Women recover better if damage has occurred to these areas than men do) Enviromental Influence on Language *Parents -Active conversational partner
-Talk as if the infant will understand what you are saying -Use of language style you feel comfortable with *SES level *Educational Opportunities -Whole language approach -Phonics approach Coping: the way we think about things, events, people, objects, etc. influences how we cope with them Ex. -Negative language would cause you to use avoidant coping. -Positive language would cause you to use approach coping. -Problem focus coping (good studying)/ emotion focus coping (freaking out the night before the test studying) 10/15/ *Personality: (def. in book and underline the words enduring, thoughts, emotions, and behaviors) -Personalities Psychologists Study -characteristics that remain stable or change -effect of the social context on the person -influence of personality in illness Psychodynamic Perspectives -personality is primarily unconscious -early experiences with parents sculpt the individual’s personality -understanding personality involves exploring the symbolic meanings of behavior and the unconscious mind Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory
- Sigmund Freud and Psychoanalysis
- Freudian Slips -Misstatements that reveal unconscious thoughts -Hysteria -Physical symptoms without physical cause -over determined: multiple unconscious thoughts -Iceberg Model of Human Personality
*anatomy is not destiny *both sexes envy the attitudes of the other *need for security, not sex, is primary motivator Juung’s Analytical Theory *collective unconscious: impersonal, deepest layer of the unconscious mind, shared by all humans because of an central past *Archetypes: emotionally laden and images Alder Individual Psych Perfection, primary motivator, hot pleasure, superiority -The self: regulating center of psych and the facilitator of individuals -The shadow: the opposite of the ego image, after containing quality we don’t like -The anima: the feminine image in a man’s psych -The animus: the masculine image in a woman’s psych -The persona: how we present to the world Criticisms Psychodynamic -too much emphasis on early experiences -too much faith in unconscious mind control -too much emphasis on sexual and aggressive instincts Contributions -childhood is important to later functioning -conscious processing play a role in human development Humanistic Perspective -stress a person’s capacity for personal growth, free will, and positive qualities -humanism developed in response to: *pessimistic view of psychodynamic perspective *deterministic view of behavioral perspective Abraham Maslows -a need for self-activation is at the top of the hierarchy -focused on highly successful individuals Carl Rogers -self esteem, personal growth, self determination -self concept *an individual’s perceptions and assessments of their abilities behavior and personality *real self versus ideal self discrepancy -unconditional positive regard -empathy -consciousness
Evaluating Human Perspectives *Contributions -perception is the key to personality -consider the positive aspects of human nature -emphasize conscious experience *Criticisms -too optimistic about human nature -promotes self-love and narcissism -abstract concepts are difficult to test Trait Perspectives *Trait -an enduring personality characteristic that tends to lead to certain behaviors -traits that are the building blocks of personality *Trait Theories -people can be described be their behavior -strong vs. weak tendencies *Gordon Allport -personality can be understood through traits -behavior should be consistent across situations -Lexical approach= 4500 traits *Raymond Catell -factor analysis= 16 traits *W.T. Norman -5 factor model= 5 traits
- Openness
- Consciousness
- Extraversion
- Agreeableness
- Neuroticism (emotional stability) Evaluating Trait Perspectives *Contributions -Identifying traits have practical value -Traits influence health, cognitions, career success, and interpersonal relations *Criticisms -Ignores the role of the situation in behavior -Trades a very broad view of the person
- Ignores nuances of an individual’s personality Social Cognitive Perspectives -emphasize conscious awareness, beliefs, expectations, and goals -incorporates principles from behaviorism
