whs ap psychology unit 5: learning (behaviorism) essential task 5-6: apply learning principles to...
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WHS AP Psychology
Unit 5: Learning (Behaviorism)
Essential Task 5-6: Apply learning principles to explain phobias, taste aversion, superstitious behavior, learned helplessness, and biofeedback.
Learning The process by which experience or practice results in a relatively permanent change in behavior or potential behavior
Classical ConditioningThe type of learning in
which a response naturally elicited by one stimulus becomes to be
elicited by a different formally neutral stimulus
Operant ConditioningThe type of learning in which behaviors are emitted to earn rewards or avoid punishments
Social Cognitive Learning Theory
The type of learning in which behaviors are learned by observing a model
Pavlov and Watson B.F. Skinner Albert Bandura
UCS, UCR, CS, CRReinforcement and
PunishmentModeling and Vicarious
Learning
We are here
Essential Task 5-:
• Phobias• Taste aversion• Influences of Biological Predisposition• Superstitious behavior• Learned helplessness• Biofeedback.
Outline
Examples of Classical Conditioning
Phobias
After the attacks, cats become a warning stimulus for pain causing fear
when the child sees cats.
After this botched photo, 6 ft bunny becomes warning stimulus for
someone trying to capture you.
Systematic Desensitization
• This therapy aims to remove the fear response of a phobia, and substitute a relaxation response to the conditional stimulus gradually using counter conditioning.
• This is done by forming a hierarchy of fear, involving the conditioned stimulus (e.g. a spider), that are ranked from least fearful to most fearful. The patient works their way up starting at the least unpleasant and practicing their relaxation technique as they go. When they feel comfortable with this (they are no longer afraid) they move on to the next stage in the hierarchy.
Examples of Classical Conditioning
Taste Aversion
After throwing up a food, it becomes a warning stimulus
for getting sick.
Biological Predispositions
Pavlov and Watson believed that laws of learning were similar for all
animals. Therefore, a pigeon and a person do not differ in their learning.
However, behaviorists later suggested that learning is
constrained by an animal’s biology.Each species’ predispositions prepare it to learn the associations that enhance its
survival.
Biological Predisposition
Biological constraints predispose organisms to learn associations
that are naturally adaptive.
Breland and Breland (1961) showed that
animals drift towards their biologically
predisposed instinctive behaviors.Marian Breland Bailey
Ph
oto
: Bob
Baile
y
Biological Predispositions
John Garcia
Garcia showed that the duration between the CS and the US may be long (hours),
but yet result in conditioning. A biologically adaptive CS (taste) led to
conditioning and not to others (light or sound).
Taste Aversion
Courtesy of John G
arcia
Examples of operant conditioning
Superstitious Behavior
You do things you know have no real impact on
reality because that one time you did it, the team
won.
Learned Helplessness
• Learned helplessness is a mental state that arises in an organism that believes punishment is inescapable.
• The organism stops trying even when success can be obtained.
Seligman and Maier
• an animal is repeatedly exposed to an aversive stimulus which it cannot escape. Eventually, the animal stops trying to avoid the stimulus and behaves as if it is helpless to change the situation. When opportunities to escape become available, learned helplessness means the animal does not take any action.