Development In Childhood And Adolescence 2021-2022 Lectures 21-29 Associative learning - learning the relationship between 2 events. Associative learning: - Pavlovian or classical conditioning. - Operant or instrumental conditioning (Skinner). EVENT 1 EVENT 2 (REINFORCER) CLASSICAL OPERANT Stimulus (light, noise). Stimulus (shock, food). Action. Stimulus (shock, food). Key assumptions: ? Simple conditioned associations are the building blocks of learning. - Same laws of learning apply regardless of what's being learned or who is learning. Pavlov's dog - the prototype: CS UCS UCR 1a Food. Saliva. 1b 2 (conditioning) 3 (testing) Light, bell. Bell Bell Nothing. Food Saliva. Saliva. Acquisition and extinction: Acquisition (US and CS) 14 12 Extinction (CS alone) 24 hour rest Spontaneous recovery (CS alone) 10 8 Strength of CR (drops of saliva elicited by CS) 6 4 N 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Trials 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Further issues: - Temporal contiguity - CS & UCS must be close in time for dog to make association. ? Contingency: o CS reliably predicts UCS. 0 A cognitive view - knowledge about the relationships between 2 stimuli. o Confirmed in experiments by Rescorla (1967). ? Spontaneous recovery: o Extinction is learning a NEW association. o Dog remembers light USED to predict food. ? Latent inhibition - past learning experience A acquisition of new associations. Biological constrains: ? Concept of preparedness - some associations (learning) are biologically advantages (challenges equipotentially). ? Phobias. ? Conditioned taste aversions: 0 Sauce béarnaise syndrome - Seligman. o Overcome time delay. o Selectivity of conditioning. Bright, noisy water - Garcia & Koelling, 1966: 1. Flavoured water - light & click. 2. Conditioning - X-rays, Li or shock. 3. Testing - flavoured water OR water with light & click. 4. Outcome - sickness: avoid flavoured water. pain: avoid bright, noisy water. Chemotherapy: - Anticipatory nausea/vomiting (20-40%). CS Sights/smells/thoughts preceding treatment. Sights/smells/thoughts preceding treatment. UCS Chemo. UCR Nausea/vomit. Nausea/vomit. Event 1 = action e.g. bar press, running, neat writing. Event 2 = reinforcement e.g. food, avoid shock, gold star. Further issues: ? Second order conditioning. o New CS successively paired with old CS. o New CS able to elicit CR.
? Generalisation. o Greater similarity of new CS. More likely to elicit CR. Discrimination. ? o Responding to diffs via reinforcement. Basic principles: ? Association - things that occur together become associated. ? Law of effect - behaviours that are followed by good things happen more often. Types of reinforcers: ? Primary (unconditioned): o Inherently reinforcing e.g. food. Secondary (conditioned): ? o Become reinforcing e.g. money. ? Social: o Consequences of behaviour (smiling, nodding, verbal praise, attention). Shaping - reinforcements of successive approximation of desired act/behaviour. Chaining - complex behaviours broken into component parts. Each stage in sequence +vely reinforced. Reinforcer cues next stage in the sequence. Types of reinforcement: - Those that 1 responding. o +ve reinforcement. o -ve reinforcement. -