Practice questions for this study guide can be found at:
Learning Review Questions for AP Psychology
Classical Conditioning
In classical conditioning, the subject learns to give a response it already knows to a new stimulus. The subject associates a new stimulus with a stimulus that automatically and involuntarily brings about the response. A stimulus is a change in the environment that elicits (brings about) a response. A response is a reaction to a stimulus. When food—a stimulus—is placed in our mouths, we automatically salivate—a response. Because we do not need to learn to salivate to food, the food is an unconditional or unconditioned stimulus, and the salivation is an unconditional or unconditioned response. In the early 1900s, Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov scientifically studied the process by which associations are established, modified, and broken. Pavlov noticed that dogs began to salivate as soon as they saw food (i.e., even before the food was placed in their mouths). The dogs were forming associations between food and events that preceded eating the food. This simple type of learning is called Pavlovian or classical conditioning.
Classical Conditioning Paradigm and the Learning Curve
In classical conditioning experiments, two stimuli, the unconditioned stimulus and neutral stimulus, are paired together. A neutral stimulus (NS) initially does not elicit a response. The unconditioned stimulus (UCS or US) reflexively, or automatically, brings about the unconditioned response (UCR or UR). The conditioned stimulus (CS) is a neutral stimulus (NS) at first, but when paired with the UCS, it elicits the conditioned response (CR). During Pavlov's training trials, a bell was rung right before the meat was given to the dogs. By repeatedly pairing the food and the bell, acquisition of the conditioned response occurred; the bell alone came to elicit salivation in the dogs. This exemplified the classical conditioning paradigm or pattern—
If you are having trouble figuring out the difference between the UCS and the CS, ask yourself these questions: What did the organism LEARN to respond to? This is the CS. What did the organism respond to REFLEXIVELY? This is the US. The UCR and the CR are usually the same response.
In classical conditioning, the learner is passive. The behaviors learned by association are elicited from the learner. The presentation of the US strengthens or reinforces the behavior. A learning curve for classical conditioning is shown in Figure 10.1.
Strength of Conditioning and Classical Aversive Conditioning
Does the timing of presentation of the NS and US matter in establishing the association for classical conditioning? Different experimental procedures have tried to determine the best presentation time for the NS and the UCS, so that the NS becomes the CS. Delayed conditioning occurs when the NS is presented just before the UCS, with a brief overlap between the two. Trace conditioning occurs when the NS is presented and then disappears before the UCS appears. Simultaneous conditioning occurs when the UCS and NS are paired together at the same time. In backward conditioning, the UCS comes before the NS. In general, delayed conditioning produces the strongest conditioning, trace conditioning produces moderately strong conditioning, simultaneous conditioning produces weak conditioning, and backward conditioning produces no conditioning except in unusual cases. A pregnant woman who vomits hours after eating a burrito often will not eat a burrito again, which is a case of rare backward conditioning.
The strength of the UCS and the saliency of the CS in determining how long acquisition takes have also been researched. In the 1920s, John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner conditioned a nine-month-old infant known as Baby Albert to fear a rat. Their research would probably be considered unethical today. The UCS in their experiment was a loud noise made by hitting a steel rod with a hammer. Immediately Albert began to cry, a UCR. Two months later, the infant was given a harmless rat to play with. As soon as Albert went to reach for the rat (NS), the loud noise (UCS) was sounded again. Baby Albert began to cry (UCR). A week later, the rat (CS) was reintroduced to Albert and without any additional pairings with the loud noise, Albert cried (CR) and tried to crawl away. Graphs of the learning curve in most classical conditioning experiments show a steady upward trend over many trials until the CS–UCS connection occurs. In most experiments, several trials must be conducted before acquisition occurs, but when an unconditioned stimulus is strong and the neutral stimulus is striking or salient, classical conditioning can occur in a single trial. Because the loud noise (UCS) was so strong and the white rat (CS) was salient, which means very noticeable, the connection between the two took only one trial of pairing for Albert to acquire the new CR of fear to the rat (CS). This experiment is also important because it shows how phobias and other human emotions might develop in humans through classical conditioning. Conditioning involving an unpleasant or harmful unconditioned stimulus or reinforcer, such as this conditioning of Baby Albert, is called aversive conditioning.
Unfortunately, Watson and Rayner did not get a chance to rid Baby Albert of his phobia to the rat. In classical conditioning, if the CS is repeatedly presented without the UCS, eventually the CS loses its ability to elicit the CR. Removal of the UCS breaks the connection and extinction, weakening of the conditioned association, occurs. If Watson had continued to present the rat (CS) and taken away the fear-inducing noise (UCS), eventually Baby Albert would probably have lost his fear of the rat. Although not fully understood by behaviorists, sometimes the extinguished response will show up again later without the re pairing of the UCS and CS. This phenomenon is called spontaneous recovery. If Baby Albert had stopped crying whenever the rat appeared, but 2 months later saw another rat and began to cry, he would have been displaying spontaneous recovery. Sometimes a CR needs to be extinguished several times before the association is completely broken.
Generalization occurs when stimuli similar to the CS also elicit the CR without any training. For example, when Baby Albert saw a furry white rabbit, he also showed a fear response. Discrimination occurs when only the CS produces the CR. People and other organisms can learn to discriminate between similar stimuli if the US is consistently paired with only the CS.
Higher-Order Conditioning
Higher-order conditioning occurs when a well-learned CS is paired with an NS to produce a CR to the NS. In this conditioning, the old CS acts as a UCS. Because the new UCS is not innate, the new CR is not as strong as the original CR. For example, if you taught your dog to salivate to a bell, then flashed a light just before you rang your bell, your dog could learn to salivate to the light without ever having had food associated with it.
This exemplifies the higher-order conditioning paradigm or pattern.
Other applications of classical conditioning include overcoming fears, increasing or decreasing immune functioning, and increasing or decreasing attraction of people or products.
Operant Conditioning
In operant conditioning, an active subject voluntarily emits behaviors and can learn new behaviors. The connection is made between the behavior and its consequence, whether pleasant or not. Many more behaviors can be learned in operant conditioning because they do not rely on a limited number of reflexes. You can learn to sing, dance, or play an instrument as well as to study or clean your room through operant conditioning.
Thorndike's Instrumental Conditioning
About the same time that Pavlov was classically conditioning dogs, E. L. Thorndike was conducting experiments with hungry cats. He put the cats in "puzzle boxes" and placed fish outside. To get to the fish, the cats had to step on a pedal, which released the door bolt on the box. Through trial and error, the cats moved about the box and clawed at the door. Accidentally at first, they stepped on the pedal and were able to get the reward of the fish. A learning curve shows that the time it took the cats to escape gradually fell. The random movements disappeared until the cat learned that just stepping on the pedal caused the door to open. Thorndike called this instrumental learning, a form of associative learning in which a behavior becomes more or less probable depending on its consequences. He studied how the cats' actions were instrumental or important in producing the consequences. His Law of Effect states that behaviors followed by satisfying or positive consequences are strengthened (more likely to occur) while behaviors followed by annoying or negative consequences are weakened (less likely to occur).
B. F. Skinner's Training Procedures
B. F. Skinner called Thorndike's instrumental conditioning operant conditioning because subjects voluntarily operate on their environment in order to produce desired consequences. Skinner was interested in the ABCs of behavior: antecedents or stimuli that are present before a behavior occurs, behavior that the organism voluntarily emits, and consequences that follow the behavior. He studied rats, pigeons, and other animals in operant conditioning chambers, also called Skinner boxes, equipped with levers, food dispensers, lights, and an electrified grid. In the boxes, animals could get food rewards or electrical shocks.
Skinner developed four different training procedures: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment, and omission training. In positive reinforcement or reward training, emission of a behavior or response is followed by a reinforcer that increases the probability that the response will occur again. When a rat presses a lever and is rewarded with food, it tends to press the lever again. Praise after you contribute to a class discussion is likely to cause you to participate again. According to the Premack principle, a more probable behavior can be used as a reinforcer for a less probable one.
Negative reinforcement takes away an aversive or unpleasant consequence after a behavior has been given. This increases the chance that the behavior will be repeated in the future. When a rat presses a lever that temporarily turns off electrical shocks, it tends to press the lever again. If you have a bad headache and then take an aspirin that makes it disappear, you are likely to take aspirin the next time you have a headache. Both positive and negative reinforcement bring about desired responses and so both increase or strengthen those behaviors.
In punishment training, a learner's response is followed by an aversive consequence. Because this consequence is unwanted, the learner stops emitting that behavior. A child who gets spanked for running into the street stays on the grass or sidewalk. Punishment should be immediate so that the consequence is associated with the misbehavior, strong enough to stop the undesirable behavior, and consistent. Psychologists caution against the overuse of punishment because it does not teach the learner what he/she should do, suppresses rather than extinguishes behavior, and may evoke hostility or passivity. The learner may become aggressive or give up. An alternative to punishment is omission training. In this training procedure, a response by the learner is followed by taking away something of value from the learner. Both punishment and omission training decrease the likelihood of the undesirable behavior, but in omission training the learner can change this behavior and get back the positive reinforcer. One form of omission training used in schools is called time-out, in which a disruptive child is removed from the classroom until the child changes his/her behavior. The key to successful omission training is knowing exactly what is rewarding and what isn't for each individual.
Operant Aversive Conditioning
Negative reinforcement is often confused with punishment. Both are forms of aversive conditioning, but negative reinforcement takes away aversive stimuli—you get rid of something you don't want. By putting on your seat belt, an obnoxious buzzing noise is ended. You quickly learn to put your seat belt on when you hear the buzz. There are two types of negative reinforcement—avoidance and escape. Avoidance behavior takes away the aversive stimulus before it begins. A dog jumps over a hurdle to avoid an electric shock, for example. Escape behavior takes away the aversive stimulus after it has already started. The dog gets shocked first and then he escapes it by jumping over the hurdle. Learned helplessness is the feeling of futility and passive resignation that results from the inability to avoid repeated aversive events. If it then becomes possible to avoid or escape the aversive stimuli, it is unlikely that the learner will respond. Sometimes in contrast to negative reinforcement, punishment comes as the result of your emitting a behavior that is followed by aversive consequences. You get something you don't want. By partying instead of studying before a test, you get a bad grade. That grade could result in failing a course. You learn to stop doing behaviors that bring about punishment, but learn to continue behaviors that are negatively reinforced.
Reinforcers
A primary reinforcer is something that is biologically important and, thus, rewarding. Food and drink are examples of primary reinforcers. A secondary reinforcer is something neutral that, when associated with a primary reinforcer, becomes rewarding. Gold stars, points, money, and tokens are all examples of secondary reinforcers. A generalized reinforcer is a secondary reinforcer that can be associated with a number of different primary reinforcers. Money is probably the best example because you can get tired of one primary reinforcer like candy, but money can be exchanged for any type of food, other necessity, entertainment, or luxury item you would like to buy. The operant training system, called a token economy, has been used extensively in institutions such as mental hospitals and jails. Tokens or secondary reinforcers are used to increase a list of acceptable behaviors. After so many tokens have been collected, they can be exchanged for special privileges like snacks, movies, or weekend passes.
Applied behavior analysis, also called behavior modification, is a field that applies the behavioral approach scientifically to solve individual, institutional, and societal problems. Data are gathered both before and after the program is established. For example, training programs have been designed to change employee behavior by reinforcing desired worker behavior, which increases worker motivation.
Teaching a New Behavior
What is the best way to teach and maintain desirable behaviors through operant conditioning? Shaping, positively reinforcing closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior, is an effective way of teaching a new behavior. Each reward comes when the learner gets a bit closer to the final goal behavior. When a little boy is being toilet trained, the child may get rewarded after just saying that he needs to go. The next time he can get rewarded after sitting on the toilet. Eventually, he gets rewarded only after urinating or defecating in the toilet. For a while, reinforcing this behavior every time firmly establishes the behavior. Chaining is used to establish a specific sequence of behaviors by initially positively reinforcing each behavior in a desired sequence, then later rewarding only the completed sequence. Animal trainers at SeaWorld often have porpoises do an amazing series of different behaviors, like swimming the length of a pool, jumping through a hoop, and then honking a horn before they are rewarded with fish. Generally, reinforcement or punishment that occurs immediately after a behavior has a stronger effect than when it is delayed.
Schedules of Reinforcement
A schedule refers to the training program that states how and when reinforcers will be given to the learner. Continuous reinforcement is the schedule that provides reinforcement every time the behavior is emitted by the organism. Although continuous reinforcement encourages acquisition of a new behavior, not reinforcing the behavior even once or twice could result in extinction of the behavior. For example, if a disposable flashlight always works, when you click it on once or twice and it doesn't work, you expect that it has quit working and throw it away.
Reinforcing behavior only some of the time, which is using partial reinforcement or an intermittent schedule, maintains behavior better than continuous reinforcement. Partial reinforcement schedules based on the number of desired responses are ratio schedules. Schedules based on time are interval schedules. Fixed ratio schedules reinforce the desired behavior after a specific number of responses have been made. For example, every three times a rat presses a lever in a Skinner box, it gets a food pellet. Fixed interval schedules reinforce the first desired response made after a specific length of time. Fixed interval schedules result in lots of behavior as the time for reinforcement approaches, but little behavior until the next time for reinforcement approaches. For example, the night before an elementary school student gets a weekly spelling test, she will study her spelling words, but not the night after (see Figure 10.2). In a variable ratio schedule, the number of responses needed before reinforcement occurs changes at random around an average. For example, if another of your flashlights works only after clicking it a number of times and doesn't light on the first click, you try clicking it again and again. Because your expectation is different for this flashlight, you are more likely to keep emitting the behavior of clicking it. Using slot machines in gambling casinos, gamblers will pull the lever hundreds of times as the anticipation of the next reward gets stronger. On a variable interval schedule, the amount of time that elapses before reinforcement of the behavior changes. For example, if your French teacher gives pop quizzes, you never know when to expect them, so you study every night.
fixed ratio schedule—know how much behavior for reinforcement
fixed interval schedule—know when behavior is reinforced
variable ratio schedule—how much behavior for reinforcement changes
variable interval schedule—when behavior is reinforced changes
Superstitious Behavior
Have you ever wondered how people develop superstitions? B. F. Skinner accounted for the development of superstitious behaviors in partial reinforcement schedule experiments he performed with pigeons. He found that if food pellets were delivered when a pigeon was performing some idiosyncratic behavior, the pigeon would tend to repeat the behavior to get more food. If food pellets were again delivered when the pigeon repeated the behavior, the pigeon would tend to repeat the behavior over and over, thus indicating the development of "superstitious behavior." Although there was a correlation between the idiosyncratic behavior and the appearance of food, there was no causal relationship between the superstitious behavior and delivery of the food to the pigeon. But the pigeons acted as if there were. People who play their "lucky numbers" when they gamble or wear their "lucky jeans" to a test may have developed superstitions from the unintended reinforcement of unimportant behavior, too.
Practice questions for this study guide can be found at:
Learning Review Questions for AP Psychology
5 Outdoor Games to Play in Under 5 Minutes 
Spring Fever! 6 Ways to Settle Kids Down 
6 Teacher Tips You Can Use at Home 
Is the Playground a Recipe for Disaster? 
Add your own comment