TEACHING SUGGESTIONS FROM PETER GRAY AND DAVID BJORKLUND

Transcription

1 CHAPTER 4: BASIC PROCESSES OF LEARNING QUICK GUIDE TO INSTRUCTOR S RESOURCES CHAPTER OBJECTIVES 4 1 TEACHING SUGGESTIONS FROM PETER GRAY AND DAVID BJORKLUND 4 1 FOCUS QUESTIONS 4 2 CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES/DEMONSTRATIONS 4 4 ASSIGNMENTS 4 5 MEDIA RESOURCES 4 6 ONLINE DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 4 9 CHAPTER OBJECTIVES After completing Chapter 4, students should be able to: 1. Define learning and explain why an understanding of learning is important in every field of psychology. 2. List and define Pavlov s terms for the stimuli and responses involved in conditioning a reflex. 3. Describe the basic phenomena associated with classical conditioning, including extinction, spontaneous recovery, generalization, and discrimination. 4. Explain how the learning of responses such as fear, hunger, sexual arousal, and drug tolerance are forms of classical conditioning. 5. Discuss Thorndike s law of effect, including the procedure that led to the formulation of his theory, and describe how Skinner extended the law of effect to explain learning in terms of operant conditioning. 6. Identify and describe the basic phenomena associated with operant conditioning. 7. Distinguish between positive and negative reinforcement as well as positive and negative punishment. 8. Describe the process of classical conditioning from the perspective of expectancy theory and explain how operant conditioning involves means-end knowledge. 9. Describe how learning is promoted by play, exploration, and observation. 10. Explain how specialized learning abilities have evolved related to species-typical behavior. TEACHING SUGGESTIONS FROM PETER GRAY AND DAVID BJORKLUND Learning involves adaptation to changing conditions within one s lifetime, but the mechanisms that underlie learning are evolutionary adaptations. This chapter has four main sections: classical conditioning, operant conditioning, social learning and specialized learning. Instructors who teach shorter courses may want to omit either the section on social learning (reduces chapter length by 9 pages) or specialized learning (reduces chapter length by 8 pages). 1

2 Our own preference in lectures is to place a bit less than the usual amount of emphasis on the traditional behavioral approach and a bit more on the ecological perspective, which includes play and exploration as evolved learning drives, as well as discussions of species-specific learning mechanisms. In fact, we often begin with the ecological approach, because it ties the study of learning most directly to the topic of the previous chapter (evolution) and is, in some ways, the most fundamental of the approaches. A useful thesis for such an opening lecture is as follows: Learning involves adaptation to changing conditions within one s lifetime, but the mechanisms that underlie learning are evolutionary adaptations. They came about because they helped our ancestors survive and reproduce. This thesis serves as a vehicle not only for introducing the ecological perspective on learning, but also for describing some of the basic characteristics of operant and classical conditioning in terms of their survival value. Operant conditioning is easily described in such terms, because its reinforcers are generally stimuli or events that support the animal s survival. Classical conditioning can also be understood in terms of its survival value once students see it as a means of learning to predict the occurrence of survival-related stimuli, such as food, predators, and mates. Students tend to assume that the cognitive perspective on learning (or on any other phenomenon) implies dualism. They tend to perceive such constructs as learned expectancies or cognitive maps as mental entities that have or need no scientific explanation. To help students overcome this misperception, and to help them overcome their own implicit dualism, you might give a lecture with the following thesis: The intervening constructs postulated by cognitive theories of learning are not meant to imply mystical processes. Some cognitive theorists develop computer models to prove that the steps they describe in their theories can be carried out by a machine and involve no magic. As an aid in such a lecture, I (Peter Gray) have developed a machine model of learned expectancy that explains the blocking effect and some other classical-conditioning phenomena often cited by cognitive theorists. FOCUS QUESTIONS 1. What is a reflex, and how can it change through habituation? 2. How did Pavlov discover the conditioned response? 3. After his initial discovery, how did Pavlov systematize the process of conditioning, and what names did he give to the relevant stimuli and responses? 4. How can a conditioned response be extinguished? What evidence led Pavlov and others to conclude that extinction does not return the animal to its original, untrained state? 5. How can generalization in classical conditioning be abolished through discrimination training? How can discrimination training be used to assess an animal s sensory capacities? 6. How have researchers shown that the meaning of a stimulus, not just its physical characteristics, can provide a basis for generalization in classical conditioning? 7. What were the characteristics of early North American behaviorism? Why were Pavlov s findings on conditioning particularly appealing to behaviorists? 8. How did Pavlov s S-S theory of classical conditioning differ from Watson s S-R theory? How does an experiment involving habituation of the unconditioned stimulus support the S-S theory? 9. How does the cognitive construct of expectancy help explain the ways in which conditioned responses differ from unconditioned responses? 10. What are three conditions in which the pairing of a new stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus does not result in classical conditioning? How do these observations support the idea that classical conditioning is a process of learning to predict the onset of the unconditioned stimulus? 11. How did Watson demonstrate that the emotion of fear can be conditioned? 12. How can the appetizer effect and sudden cravings for specific foods be explained in terms of classical conditioning? 2

3 13. How has sexual arousal been conditioned in humans and other animals? What is the evidence, from experiments with nonhuman animals, that such conditioning promotes success in reproduction? 14. Why is the conditioned response to a drug-related stimulus often the opposite of the direct effect of the drug? 15. How does classical conditioning contribute to the development of drug tolerance? Why is it dangerous for a drug addict to take his or her usual drug dose in an unusual environment? 16. How does classical conditioning help explain drug relapse after an addict returns home from a treatment center? 17. How did Thorndike train cats to escape from a puzzle box? How did this research contribute to Thorndike s formulation of the law of effect? 18. How did Skinner s method for studying learning differ from Thorndike s, and why did he prefer the term reinforcement to Thorndike s satisfaction? 19. What is some evidence that people can be conditioned to make an operant response without awareness of the conditioning process? How is this relevant for understanding how people acquire motor skills? 20. How can we use operant conditioning to get an animal to do something that it currently doesn t do? 21. In what ways is extinction in operant conditioning similar to extinction in classical conditioning? 22. How do the four types of partial reinforcement schedules differ from one another, and why do responses generally occur faster to ratio schedules than to interval schedules? 23. How do variable-ratio and variable-interval schedules produce behavior that is highly resistant to extinction? 24. How does negative reinforcement differ from positive reinforcement? 25. How does punishment differ from reinforcement, and how do the two kinds of punishment parallel the two kinds of reinforcement? 26. How can an animal be trained to produce an operant response only when a specific cue is present? 27. How was discrimination training used to demonstrate that pigeons understand the concept of a tree? 28. Why might a period of reward lead to a subsequent decline in response rate when the reward is no longer available? 29. How are Skinner s techniques of operant conditioning being used to deal with problem behaviors? 30. What is Groos s theory about the evolutionary function of animals play, and what are five lines of evidence supporting that theory? 31. How does exploration differ from play in its evolutionary function? 32. How do rats explore a novel environment? How did Tolman and subsequent researchers show that rats learn useful information in their exploration? 33. How does observation of skilled performers help animals learn new operant tasks? How does imitation differ from stimulus enhancement, goal enhancement, and emulation? What evidence suggests that primates (especially chimpanzees), but not other mammals, are capable of imitation? 34. What is the evidence that chimpanzees transmit cultural traditions from generation to generation? 35. How might gaze following help us learn from other people? What characteristic of human eyes makes gaze following easier for us than for other primates? 36. What are two ways in which food-aversion learning differs from typical examples of classical conditioning? How do these differences make sense in terms of the function of such learning? 37. How might rats learn which food contains a needed vitamin or mineral? 38. How has flavor-preference learning been demonstrated in humans? 39. How do rats and people learn food preferences by attending to others of their kind? 40. In sum, what has natural selection imparted to young omnivores about food selection? 41. What is some evidence that people and monkeys are biologically predisposed to learn to fear some things more easily than other things? 42. What aspects of a young fowl s ability to follow its mother depend on learning, and how is that learning guided by inborn biases? 3

4 43. What special place-learning abilities have been found in (a) birds that hide food and (b) Pacific salmon? How do all examples of specialized learning mechanisms influence thought about the concept of intelligence? CLASS ACTIVITIES/DEMONSTRATIONS Demonstrating Classical Conditioning with Balloons For this activity, you will need 15 balloons already blown up (transport in a garbage bag) and a sewing pin to pop them. The author (Vernoy, 1987) recommends purchasing a foot-long needle from a magic shop for real effect. At the beginning of class, hand out 10 balloons to different students. Then walk around popping the balloons one at a time with the needle (keep balloons away from faces!). Students will automatically blink or flinch. At this point, start a discussion about what the unconditioned stimulus (the pop) and unconditioned response (the blink/flinch) are. Once identified, take out another balloon and this time stick it without popping it. To do so, you must pierce the balloon at the nipple, and you can stick the needle all the way through to the tied end without it popping (practice before class!). Students will of course blink/flinch as you stick the needle in. At this point you can continue on with identifying the conditioned stimulus (the needle) and the conditioned response (the blink/flinch). Source: Vernoy, M. W. (1987). Demonstrating classical conditioning in Introductory Psychology: Needles do not always make balloons pop! Teaching of Psychology, 14 (3), Using Operant Conditioning to Manipulate Student Participation For this activity, you really should go straight to the source (Hodge & Nelson, 1991) to review the many manipulative ways in which operant conditioning was used. Before class starts, write students initials in the corner of the board. The simplest demonstration would be to reinforce students who participate by putting a plus mark next to their initials. If you want to demonstrate shaping, evaluate who the least participating students are before class, and during class, reinforce any behavior that is getting closer to participation with a plus mark. For example, every time one of these students answers when called on, place a plus mark by his or her initials. Then every time he or she raises a hand, place a plus mark by the initials. Eventually, only reinforce with the plus marks for self-initiated participation. At the end of class, ask students to write down what they think the initials and plus marks were demonstrating. Have a discussion, being sure they caught onto all of the operant conditioning elements you chose to incorporate. Source: Hodge, G. K., & Nelson, N. H. (1991). Demonstrating differential reinforcement by shaping classroom participation. Teaching of Psychology, 18(4), Identifying Discriminative Stimuli To start a discussion of discriminative stimuli (pp ), ask students to identify discriminative stimuli in everyday life and discuss their role in controlling animal and human behavior. You may suggest some examples, such as using the clock as a cue to check the mailbox; waiting for the ready light on the flash unit of a camera before taking a picture; or waiting until people are in a good mood (for example, right after lunch or just before the end of a workday) before asking them for a favor. An excellent way to begin a discussion on this topic is to ask students such questions as these: (1) When is the best time to ask somebody for a favor? (2) In what situation would the defense on a football team want to blitz the quarterback? (3) When is the best time to go shopping if you want to avoid the rush? (4) What characteristics would a mugger look for in a potential victim? The answers to these questions are often good examples of discriminative stimuli and will help students understand that any cue that guides behavior is a discriminative stimulus. In discussing discriminative stimuli, contrast 4

5 discrimination and generalization, emphasizing how these two processes serve to counterbalance each other (that is, too much generalization or too much discrimination would prove to be maladaptive). Applying Learning Theories to Solve Social Problems Have students get into small groups and hand out one assignment list to each. The assignment list should include one major learning theory and one example of a human problem, such as weight loss, stopping drug use, or overcoming a phobia. Instruct students that they will be coming up with a solution to their assigned human problem using their assigned learning theory. Let them know how detailed they should be based on your preference. If you do not have time to share the solutions, consider posting them to a common course Web site, or having students share the next time as a review of the theories. ASSIGNMENTS What It Is/How It Works The concepts in learning theory are often hard for students to master with lecture and text exposure alone. To help students make the material more self-relevant, have them write out for each of the different concepts: 1) What it is (the definition in their own words). 2) How it works (an example of the concept applied to the real world). This exercise will encourage them to consider what the concepts mean rather than just memorizing a book definition. Some examples of the more difficult concepts are: Unconditioned Stimulus and Response; Conditioned Stimulus and Response Generalization Discrimination Operant Reinforcement Punishment Reward Shaping If done as an online assignment, students could be divided into teams to share their work and present a final summary of each theory as a group. Psychological Scientist Column Writer You are a psychological scientist with a weekly newspaper column in which you offer advice and answers to readers looking for help. You have received the following letter: Dear Columnist, My brother and I are having an awful argument about the family dog. You see, every day at 3 P.M. Butch (the dog) sits in front of his food bowl waiting to be fed. Around that time, my mother is busy opening the can of dog food and preparing his food in the kitchen. Butch s food bowl is in the mudroom outside of the kitchen. I say that Butch must have been trained to wait by his food bowl by one of us; my bratty brother is convinced that Butch possesses some sort of humanlike intelligence allowing him to read the clock. Please help us, how does Butch know when it is time to eat? 5

6 Signed, Sibling Rival Write a two-paragraph response to Sibling Rival using your knowledge about learning. The first sentence should be a summary of your answer (the thesis). The rest of the answer should include information about which type of learning theory you think is being used, and the specifics of how that theory is in operation for this example. Source (example has been adapted): Bean, J. C. (1996). Engaging ideas: The professor s guide to integrating writing, critical thinking, and active learning in the classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Media Examples of Conditioning Have students collect a popular media example of either operant or classical conditioning. Possible media sources are newspapers, Internet stories, magazines, cartoons, or song lyrics. Students should hand in the media source (or a copy of it) along with a two- to three-paragraph description of how the media example relates to one of the two types of conditioning. Source: Lawson, T. J. (1994). The media assignment: Enhancing psychology students ability to apply their knowledge of psychology. Teaching of Psychology, 21(3), Teaching Classical Conditioning with a Salivatory Response This activity demonstrates classical conditioning by inducing a salivatory response in students. To prepare for the activity, you will need powdered lemonade mix (easily found at grocery stores) and enough small cups so each student has his or her own cup. You can ask students to come up with a word that will be the neutral stimulus; the authors use the word Pavlov. Next, explain to the students that every time you give the signal (for example, raising your hand) they should wet their finger, dip it into the lemonade powder, and taste it. Next, you should say Pavlov, wait a few seconds, and then raise your hand. To test whether the effect is working, explain to your students that sometimes you will say Test trial, then Pavlov. On these trials the students should NOT taste any lemonade powder. You can ask for a show of hands of how many students begin to feel the salivatory response on the test trials (saying Pavlov, but not having them taste the lemonade). The authors note that trials should be done every 10 to 15 seconds, and test trials after about 15 regular trials. Once most students are showing the conditioned response of salivating at the word Pavlov, you can begin extinction by continually doing test trials. After you have finished the experiment, ask students to write down the UCS, UCR, NS, CS, and CR. In subsequent classes, you could explore generalization, reacquisition, or spontaneous recovery. Source: Cogan, D., & Cogan, R. (1984). Classical salivary conditioning: An easy demonstration. Teaching of Psychology, 11(3), MEDIA RESOURCES Videos Classical Conditioning (#10), Psychology: The Human Experience Teaching Modules (3 minutes, 10 seconds) Using footage of his dogs at play and in the laboratory, Pavlov s early experiment leading to the discovery of classical conditioning is explained. The narrator provides a description of the unconditioned and conditioned stimuli and response. Footage of Little Albert and an explanation offers a human application, and a quick introduction to generalization. 6

7 You read about generalization in your text. What is it, and where did you see an example of it in this video? What types of behaviors would you expect to be most easily acquired using classical conditioning, and why? Operant Conditioning (#11), Psychology: The Human Experience Teaching Modules (3 minutes, 12 seconds) Footage and narrated photos are shared from both Thorndike s and Skinner s research. Skinner defines operant conditioning and gives an example with pigeons and a story about one of his opponents whose students shaped the opponent s behavior in the classroom to show the usefulness of operant conditioning. Positive and negative reinforcement are explained. What is the difference between positive and negative reinforcement? What types of behaviors would you expect to be most easily acquired using operant conditioning, and why? Cognitive Processes in Learning (#12), Psychology: The Human Experience Teaching Modules (6 minutes, 25 seconds) Operant conditioning is critiqued by the research of internal processes involved in learning. A study done by Bandura and Mahoney shows how one can get a dog to self-regulate his eating by making himself work before helping himself to reinforcement. Tolman s work with rats offers that those who explored the maze when it had no treats, and were then given a treat in the maze, performed like those who had at first gotten treats. The concept of cognitive maps is used to explain this behavior, as well as that of dancers on different stages. Dance also provides an example in which observational learning is more effective than classical or operant conditioning. What could be an evolutionary function of learning by observation? When do you notice humans motivated to learn by internal processes, rather than just external processes such as rewards? Besides aggression, what other behaviors might you expect to follow this pattern of modeling and repetition? What adaptive function might modeling serve? Classical Conditioning: Pavlov and his Legacy, Worth Video Anthology for Introductory Psychology (9 minutes) This program describes the four basic elements of classical conditioning identified by Pavlov. The meat powder was the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) and the salivation was the unconditioned response (UCR). The bell and salivation are not naturally occurring because the dog was conditioned to respond to the bell. Therefore, the bell is considered the conditioned stimulus (CS), and the salivation upon hearing the bell, the conditioned response (CR). How can classical conditioning be used to overcome fear and phobias? What are some of the limitations to the study of behaviorism? What other concepts does behaviorism dismiss? Why was Watson s Little Albert experiment considered controversial? Operant Conditioning: Learned Behaviors, Worth Video Anthology for Introductory Psychology (9 minutes, 2 seconds) Rewards can be as simple as seeing light when we turn on a light switch. When we learn that turning on a light switch gives us light, the likelihood that we try the switch the next time we need light will increase. This is the premise of operant conditioning: a behavior is strengthened when it is followed by a 7

8 reward and weakened when it is followed by punishment. In this program, students learn the basic principles of operant conditioning and are introduced to experimental and real-life examples of this learning method. How does one teach a rat in a Skinner box to press a bar for reinforcement? How might operant conditioning enable superstitious behaviors? How does extinction differ in operant conditioning versus classical conditioning? What are some of the limitations to the learning methods proposed by Thorndike and Skinner? How have advances in modern science expanded our understanding of the cognitive processes involved in learning? Interactive Presentation Slides 7.1 Classical Conditioning Covers the basics of classical conditioning including behaviorism, cognitive elements of conditioning, and Little Albert. 7.2 Operational Conditioning and Observational Learning Covers operational conditioning, including Thorndike, and reinforcement schedules, as well as observational learning. Student Activities/Simulations (Web Portal) PsychSim5 Classical Conditioning This activity provides a review of Pavlov s famous experiment on the salivary response in dogs, as well as the basic processes of classical conditioning: acquisition, generalization, discrimination training, and extinction. You will play the role of an experimenter attempting to produce a conditioned eye blink in a human subject. Operant Conditioning This activity describes a form of learning called operant conditioning learning from the consequences that follow our actions. The concept of reinforcement is illustrated with examples from everyday life, while the value of controlled reinforcement schedules is demonstrated in a simulated experiment showing rat bar-pressing behavior under four different schedules of reinforcement. Monkey See, Monkey Do In this activity you will learn about Albert Bandura s classic experiment on observational learning, see some video clips of two children who participated in the experiment, and be able to practice your skills in observing and labeling specific behaviors performed by these children. Concepts in Action Conditioning an Eye Blink Students are asked to condition a woman to blink her eye in response to a tone. Sequence of Classical Conditioning Students are asked to condition a person to salivate in response to a red light. Conditioning in Daily Life Students are asked to identify if a real-life example is classical or operant conditioning. 8

9 Reinforcers and Punishers Explains positive and negative reinforcement and punishment. Schedules of Reinforcement Demonstrates the various schedules of reinforcement. PsychInvestigator Classical Conditioning Students are asked to classically condition a rabbit. ONLINE DISCUSSION QUESTIONS Learning to Whine This week you have learned about different theorists trying to address the issue of learning. Pretend you are of one of the theorists (e.g., Pavlov, Thorndike, Skinner, Bandura) and draft an answer to the following: How do children learn to whine to get what they want? Media Example of Conditioning Find an Internet story, newspaper or magazine article, cartoon, or song lyric that provides an example of operant conditioning or classical conditioning. If possible, attach the media example if not, provide a brief description of it. Then explain how your example illustrates the type of conditioning (operant or classical). 9