Dr Mark Worthington

Clinical Psychologist

Association of events Allows an understanding of what is likely to

follow in any given situation Association between response and outcome Adaptive, robust, often automatic Habituation: A constant or repeated stimulus

will result in decreased response

One event/stimulus becomes associated with another through repeated pairings

No awareness / understanding necessary Awareness can facilitate

• A type of learning in which the future probability of a behaviour occurring is affected by its consequences.

• Positive reinforcement: Behaviours leading to

positive consequences are more likely. Associations between stimulus and response.

• Associations develop from random actions.

• Operant conditioning quicker when reinforcement is clearly under the control of the organism.

• Negative reinforcement: Behaviours leading to avoidance of negative consequences are more likely. – Escape – the aversive event is terminated.– Avoidance – the event is prevented.

• Punishment: non-behaviour is reinforced. The behaviour is associated with aversive (positive) or omitted -desirable (negative) stimulus.

Learning associations through observation. Conditioning can be classical or operant. Observational (or vicarious) reinforcement

through passive witnessing of another being rewarded.

Takes longer than direct learning. Depends upon the features of the model

and the mode of observation.

Optimal conditions: Live modelling is more

effective than symbolic

modelling

(e.g. watching a video) Active participation and

familiarity with the

model improve learning

Involves a degree of awareness. Awareness can facilitate but is unnecessary in

operant and classical conditioning. Awareness is necessary in the following:

Explicit transmission of facts Where a situation is mentally structured to find a

solution Awareness is initially absent but increases in

social learning (Social competence, awareness of rules).

A CR can be weakened / eliminated when the CS is repeatedly presented in absence of US

Decrease is a function of features of the reinforcement.

The strength of response = the number of responses over time without reinforcement.

Response can spontaneously recover. Old CR can be relearned more quickly.

Phobias: Develop through classical conditioning Maintained by operant conditioning

Avoidance of / escape from anxiety–provoking stimuli removes unpleasant emotions, thus reinforcing behaviour of avoidance

More aversive stimuli require fewer pairings.

Fear: Classical conditioning, vicarious, instruction

Jellyfish + look of fear in others fear in self

• Individual with social anxiety will feel a significant decrease in anxiety once he/she decides to avoid attending a large social event. – results in the removal of the unpleasant anxiety

symptoms thereby reinforcing avoidance behavior; thus, it becomes the person's preferred method of coping with future social events.

• If individual attempted to go to the event, despite their reservations, they might experience a panic attack while there– person immediately exits the party, panic subsides,

behaviour of escape is rewarded by the swift reduction in panic symptoms.

Depression: Learned helplessness Individual has learned to behave helplessly, even when

the opportunity is restored for it to help itself by avoiding an unpleasant circumstance to which it has been subjected

Addiction: Operant conditioning: Positive reinforcer – elevated mood. Negative reinforcer – escape of an unpleasant event(s). Relapse upon reintroduction to existing environment.

Extreme inactivity in chronic pain: Learned avoidance.

• Generalisation:

– Similar stimulus elicits the conditioned response

• Fear of a white rat may generalise to fear of white, furry things

– Strength of response depends on the similarities

• Discrimination:

– The ability to distinguish between stimuli

– Established more slowly if similarities are greater

• Secondary reinforcement:

– Reinforcing properties of a stimulus acquired through pairing with a primary reinforcer

• E.g. clicker training with dogs

• Incubation:– Where fear increases over successive non-reinforced

presentations of the CS– Due to the conditioning of an emotional response – Escape negatively reinforced by escape from emotion

• Stimulus Preparedness:– Biological predispositions to react with fear– Conditioning quicker, more resistant to extinction– Enhances two stage model of phobia to account for

the failed ‘equipotentiality assumption’

• Consent is required.

• Relies on accurate formulation.

• Reciprocal inhibition.– Rewarding desired behaviours whilst not

rewarding (ignoring) or punishing undesirable behaviours.

– Desirable change is enhanced if the two behaviours are incompatible.

• Habituation.– A form of counter-conditioning.– Successive presentation leads to a decrease in

response.– E.g. systematic desensitisation– Facilitate with substitution (e.g. relaxation).– Exposure methods:

• Flooding = enforced exposure.• Desensitisation = gradual exposure.• Modelling = vicarious exposure.• Imagery = exposure to the imagined stimulus.

• Chaining.– Learning complex behaviours through breaking into

steps.– Backward chaining facilitated by the end reward .

• Shaping.– Successive approximations are rewarded.

• Cueing.– Cue = the stimulus that elicits the behaviour. – Use the phobic object to cue opposite behaviours.– Cue desirable behaviours at appropriate times.

Continuous: 1:1; quick learning, rapid extinction.

Fixed / Variable, Interval / Ratio

• Can elicit aggression and side effects – interferes with subsequent attempt to teach more appropriate behaviour

• People may become conditioned punishers

– Unwanted behaviour suppressed only when CP is present, or avoidance of CP all together

• Punishing may be modelled or imitated

• Becomes relied upon and increases following spontaneous recovery

• Does not establish more appropriate behaviour, may even result in general suppression of behaviour

• Ideally should only be used with positive reinforcement of alternative response

• Learning should be considered in terms of its global function: to adapt to the environment.

• Learning can be conscious or unconscious.

Dr Mark Worthington

Clinical Psychologist

• Intelligence varies across individuals and can be measured.

• Eysenck – intelligence reflected at different levels:– Biological (substrate)– Behavioural (e.g. exam success)– Psychometric (as measured by intelligence tests).

• Existence of a general intelligence factor ‘g’– statistic used in psychometrics to quantify the mental

ability underlying results of various tests of cognitive ability

• Fluid – creativity, novel solutions.• Crystallised – knowledge, application to concrete problems. • Psychometric tests and factor analysis : Correlate subscales.• The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Test – Third edition (WAIS-III)

– Full Scale IQ• Verbal Scale IQ • Verbal Comprehension Index• Working Memory Index

– Performance Scale IQ• Perceptual Organisation Index• Processing Speed Index

• IQ = Generally, ratio between test score and age norm x 100.

• Computational models - components:– Metacomponents (strategy, higher-order

control)– Performance components (execution)– Acquisition components (learning processes)– Retention components (memory, retrieval)– Transfer components (generalisation of

knowledge)

• Populations need to have a mean of 100. • Those developed in other countries to have a

mean of 100 leave western subject performing poorly.

• Immigrants increase performance over time due to crystallised intelligence.

• Intelligence/IQ is whatever the tests measure.

• The reverse is a circular argument.• Several factors influence performance. • Tests that minimise the influence of the

material.

Dr Mark Worthington

Clinical Psychologist

Initial ideas...

• Thought and language are closely related.

• Thought is evident in imagery but mainly propositional.

• The mind/brain has an ability to reduce information processing load.

Concept: Mental representation of a class of objects

Categorisation: The process whereby objects are assigned to groups

Prototypes: An exemplar: represents the best example of the concept

Cores: The necessary and sufficient properties for inclusion in concept

• A deductive argument is where the conclusion must be true if the premises are true.– A > B; B > C; Therefore A > C

• Adults good at assessing validity in simple cases– Less good as complexity (No. of premises) increases.

The conclusion does not necessarily follow◦ A is usually > B; B is always > C; therefore A > C.

• Algorithms = A set of rules that guarantee the solution if applied stepwise.

• Heuristics = ‘Rule of thumb’ approach.– Experienced based techniques for problem solving, learning

and discovery– Reduces the number of possibilities considered based on

likelihood.– Allows an initial solution to be tested rapidly.– Draws upon prototypes.– Prototypes may lead to errors in judging probabilities.– Can also lead to humans outperforming computers.