Behavioral & Social Cognitive Views of Learning

After reading through chapter six, I began reading chapter seven of our psychology text titled, Learning. Learning is something we do everyday even we don’t realize it. While reading chapter seven, I learned that there are three different types of learning, classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and cognitive learning. Classical conditioning stands for two types of stimuli linking providing us the tools to have a reaction; this is the type of learning that involves automatic behaviors. Operant conditioning is the type of learning that causes a change in behavior, in reaction to consequences; this is the behavior that involves choosing of choices. Lastly, cognitive learning is the obtaining of new skills, behaviors, and information through

Psychology has revealed how the learning perspective is concerned with the environment and experiences leading to effects on a person’s actions. Within this perspective, behaviorists focus on the environmental rewards and punishers that maintain or discourage specific behaviors. B.F. Skinner once stated, I am sometimes asked, ‘Do you think of yourself as you think of the organisms you study?’ The answer is yes. So far as I know, my behavior at any given moment has been nothing more than the product of my genetic endowment, my personal history, and the current setting. (Skinner, 1983). In the average college classroom, behaviorism effects students’ way of learning in that their behavior is shaped by either positive or negative reinforcement.

Classical conditioning is a type of associative learning which occurs when two stimuli are paired together repetitively and therefore become associated with each other eventually producing the same response. Classical conditioning was developed from the findings of Ivan Pavlov to account for associations between neutral stimuli and reflexive behavior such as salivation. Pavlov (1927) accidently discovered that dogs began to salivate before they had tasted their food. To support his theory, he carried out experiments using dogs which involved measuring the amount of saliva they produced. In his experiments, food started off as an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) which produced salivation, an unconditioned response (UCR). They are both unconditioned as they occur naturally without being learned. The dogs were presented with a bell (NS), this provided no salivation. The bell and food were presented together and after many trails an

In Psychology learning is seen as a change in behaviour caused by an experience. Behaviorism, is seen as a learning theory; an attempt to explain how people or animals learn by studying their behaviour. The Behaviourists Approach has two theories to help explain how we learn, Classical conditioning and operant conditioning. In this task I will attempt to describe and evaluate this approach.

Before Classical Conditioning even takes place, there is what one refers to as an unconditioned stimulus (US), which is something in the environment that naturally and automatically triggers an individual to respond. This in turn causes an unconditioned response (UR), which is a natural (meaning is has not been taught), reaction that occurs in the presence of an unconditioned stimulus. The next term we must be familiar with is neutral stimulus. A neutral stimulus (NS), can be either a person, place or object that does not produce a response until it is paired with the unconditioned stimulus. Imagine for example, your grandmother has just baked a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies. As the cookies (the US) sit by the window to cool,

It occurs when two stimuli are repeatedly paired together, one being an unlearned stimulus and the other a neutral stimulus. The neutral stimuli eventually will produce the same reaction as the unlearned stimuli. Ivan Pavlov had been investigating the saliva reactions in dogs. He conducted a study where he noticed that dogs salivated not only when food was placed in their mouths but also when stimuli associated with the food (a bell) was presented. Pavlov identified that the dogs had formed an association between the two stimuli, that it was an example of classical conditioning. A problem with this study was the fact that we can not generalize it to humans. Watson and Rayner rectified this in a later study using a young boy named Little Albert. At the age of nine months old, Little Albert was showed a variety of stimuli including a white rat, a monkey, a rabbit and burning newspapers. Watson and Rayner observed the boys’ reaction to the stimuli and found he showed no fear in relation to them. The next time Albert was exposed to the rat the researched made a loud, unpleasant noise which made Albert cry. Eventually, Albert would cry just in the presence of the rat. After this observation ‘Watson and Rayner wrote "The instant the rat was shown, the baby began to cry. Almost instantly he turned sharply to the left, fell over on [his] left side, raised himself on all fours and began to crawl away so rapidly that he was

In 1903 a Russian physiologist by the name of Ivan Pavlov first developed an experiential model of learning called Classical Conditioning (Lautenheiser 1999). An example if Classical Conditioning would be ringing a bell when it is time for your pet to eat. The pet hears the bell and over time is conditioned that when the bell rings its dinner time thus begins to salivate, and eventually learns to be conditioned to responding to the bell in a specific manner. The bases was that neutral stimulus would be put together with an excitatory one and over time the neutral stimulus would, at some point down the line elicit the response that was associated with the original unlearned response. Pavlov later added an element known as the nonexcitatory, conditioned stimulus which is but together with an unconditioned stimulus (Lautenheiser 1999).

The social learning theory suggests that people learn new behaviors through observation of factors in their environment, by taking note of other’s

Classic Conditioning, defined by Richard A. Griggs, is learning that one stimulus signals the arrival of another stimulus. (141) A stimulus is a phenomenon perceived by the senses. When an initial stimulus is presented within a setting, the response to stimulus is referred to as a reflex. A reflex is a natural and automatic response to the initial stimulus without conscious thinking involved. The first encounter of a given stimulus is referred to as an unconditioned stimulus and the reflexive response is the unconditioned response. However, if the initial stimulus is repetitive, it will become a learned pattern referred to as a conditioned stimulus. When the conditioned stimulus is presented then the reflexive response becomes a learned habit, the conditioned response, as a result of constant repetition of the cyclical phenomenon. (142-143)

The dogs would start to salivate just by hearing the bell ringing, which normally would not produce this response. The first part of the process involves an unconditioned response, like blinking or salivating. The next part needed for classical conditioning is an unconditioned stimulus. The unconditioned stimulus is one that automatically produces the unconditioned response, such as the smell of food triggering salivation. During conditioning, the neutral stimulus, like the bell in Pavlov’s case, is repeatedly paired with the unconditioned stimulus, or the meat powder. After a while, the neutral stimulus becomes the conditioned stimulus. The conditioned stimulus then produces a conditioned response, since the subject of the experiment has associated the conditioned stimulus with the unconditioned response. Many interesting experiments have been conducted using classical conditioning. Another scientist that preformed an experiment with classical conditioning is John B. Watson. Watson used classical conditioned to make a young boy fear white fluffy objects. He scared the child by making loud noises every time the child was presented a white rat.

This is known as the unconditioned stimulus (UCS). Meat is the unconditioned stimulus because at the sight of the meat the dogs begin to salivate (Feldman, 2010).   The dog’s response to the meat educes salivation and is known as the unconditioned response (UCR). An unconditioned response is defined as a reflexive and natural response that is not connected to prior learning. Unconditioned responses always occur in the presence of the unconditioned stimulus (Feldman, 2010).   While conditioning the dogs, Pavlov would ring a bell right before the presentation of meat. Eventually, the dogs would associate the ringing of the bell with the meat. Therefore, the dogs would begin to salivate at the sound of the bell. At this point, Pavlov could state that he had classically conditioned his dogs. The bell which was a prior neutral stimulus had now become the conditioned stimulus (CS) that brought forth the conditioned response (CR) of salivation (Feldman, 2010). Moreover, we have to ask what would happen if these poor dogs were never again received food upon the ringing of the bell. This would lead to extinction. Extinction occurs when a prior conditioned response decreases in frequency and eventually disappears (Feldman, 2010).   In order for Pavlov to unconditioned his dogs he would have to break their association with the sound of the ringing bell and the presentation of food. To do so he

The process of classical conditioning follows the procedure from Pavlov’s salivation experiment. Before conditioning, when a bowl of dog food is presented the dog would “naturally” salivate at the mouth “in response to food”. Because this response occurs “automatically” and “prior training” isn’t required for hunger, this reaction is called an unconditioned response (UCR) which “is the response that is naturally elicited by the [UCS]” (Powell et al., 2013, pp. 112-115). When referring to a natural response--one is referring to an elicited reaction that is characterized as “an unlearned or innate reaction to [a] stimulus” (Powell et al., 2013, p. 115). Furthermore, the dog food is considered an unconditioned stimulus (UCS), which “is a stimulus that naturally elicits a response” (Powell et al., 2013, p. 115). According to Pavlov’s experiment, when a bell chimes without the presentation of dog food, the dog will not instinctually salivate (Powell et al., 2013, p. 112). Since the bell didn’t initially “elicit salivation” naturally, it’s called a neutral stimulus (NS) (Powell et al., 2013, p. 112). However, through conditioning, as the bell tone pairs with dog food continuously, the dog begins to salivate. Finally, after the conditioning process is completed, the pairing of “food” and the bell “now elicits salivation” (Powell et al., 2013, p. 112). Since the dog’s salivation required some type of continual prompting or, “prior training”, it’s reaction is considered a conditioned response (CR) “and the [bell]” is the conditioned stimulus (CS). By definition, a conditioned stimulus “is any stimulus that, although initially neutral, comes to elicit a response because it has been associated with an unconditioned stimulus” (Powell et al., 2013, p. 115). Responses triggered by a

Learning is the relatively permanent change in behavior (Burns, 1995), and can come in the form of observable activities and internal processes. Explanations of what happens when these actions occur are known as learning theories. These theories include behaviorist, cognitivist, humanist, social learning and constructivist. In this essay behaviorist and cognitivists will be described, compared and contrasted in order to truly understand their approache.

One limitation of Classical Conditioning is that when a behaviour stops being performed, it is very easy for these connections to be lost. This is known an extinction. In the example of Pavlov’s dogs, if the conditioned stimulus, the bell, is presented often enough without the unconditioned stimulus, the meat, the

In contiguity learning, two events are repeatedly paired together and become associated in the learner's mind. Pavlov took this idea one step further in his experiments on classical conditioning where a