Changing directions in the study of conditioning

1. Changing directions in the study of conditioning Two major changes in thinking about conditioning have occurred: (1) Recognition of cognitive processes in conditioning (2) Recognition that an organism’s biological heritage can limit or channel conditioning

2. Cognitive Processes in Conditioning Cognitive Learning is learning that takes place as a result of changes in cognition

3. What is Cognitive Learning? • Cognition includes our thoughts, ideas, beliefs, understanding, and knowledge • Information is taken in and organised • Pavlov, Skinner and their followers claimed that higher cognitive or thought processes could not be involved in the process of conditioning

4. What is Cognitive Learning? (ii) • Cognitive psychologists maintain that there is a step in the conditioning process between stimulus and response, namely thought processes or mental activity. • Animals and humans can be aware of conditioning experiences Can anticipate future events Can form expectations of what is going to happen

5. Cognitive Learning • They adapt their behaviour to obtain the required results • E.g. Dog hears rustling of dog food in the bag Animal develops an expectation (a cognitive process) that the sound (previously neutral) will be followed by food. • This learned expectation lies at the root of all learning processes

6. The Power of reinforcement • The cognitive perspective also illustrates an important point about the power of reinforcement through rewards • To offer a reward for behaviour which is already enjoyed can undermine the reward the person feels when simply engaging in that behaviour

7. Cognitive Element • There is a clear cognitive element when people are conditioned • E.g. Certain medicine given to alcoholics. • It is not only the simple stimulus-response association which counts • Thought processes play an important role

8. Signal Relations Robert Rescorla conducted research around the cognitive element in conditioning • Environmental stimuli serve as signals • Some stimuli are better and more dependable signals than others • Rescorla manipulated signal relations in classical conditioning

9. Signal Relations (ii) CS-UCS relations influence whether a CS is a good signal A ‘good’ signal is one that follows accurate prediction of the UCS Example: • For one group of rats the CS (tone) and UCS (shock) are paired in 100% of the experimental trials • For another group the CS and UCS are paired in only 50% of the trials

10. The predictive value of CS • The two groups of rats have had an equal number of CS-UCS pairings • CS is a better signal or predictor of shock for the 100% CS-UCS group than for the 50% CS-UCS group • This difference must be due to the greater predictive power of the CS for the 100% group The predictive value of a CS is an influential factor governing classical conditioning

11. Response-Outcome Relations and Reinforcement • Response-outcome relations and reinforcement highlight the role of cognitive processes in conditioning • Reinforcement is not automatic when favourable consequences follow a response • Individuals actively reason out the relation between responses and the outcomes that follow • The response is more likely to be strengthened if the person thinks that the response caused the outcome

12. Response-Outcome Relations and Reinforcement (ii) • Animals also engage in causal reasoning They recognise causal relations between responses and outcomes • Identifying the contingencies among environmental events • Stimuli are viewed as signals that help animals minimize their aversive experiences and maximize their pleasant experiences

13. Learning through Insight • The first cognitivist was the German Gestalt psychologist Wolfgang Kohler (1887-1967) • Kohler assumed that information was organised in a far more complex way than the principles of association allowed • Allowed for the spontaneous reorganisations of information of the type found in insight learning

14. Learning through Insight (ii) Phenomenon of Insight A sudden, spontaneous and total clarification after several unsuccessful trial-and-error attempts • Kohler demonstrated the phenomenon of insight in chimpanzees • Human being’s advanced ability for insight is an important asset

15. Latent Learning and Cognitive maps Latent learning is when the information is stored somewhere in the brain, but has not yet been reflected in the behaviour • Tolman (1930) demonstrated latent learning in a famous experiment with rats • Hungry rats were put into a maze and had to find their way to the exit the rats developed a cognitive map of the maze during the first ten days

16. Latent Learning and Cognitive maps (ii) • The ability that we human beings have to form cognitive maps or mental representations of our environment is of great importance • Cognitive processes enable us to perform essential new responses to reach a goal • Thus we are not limited to our well-known, over-used repertoire of responses

17. (2) Biological constraints on conditioning Contemporary findings have shown that there are limits to the generality of conditioning principles An organism’s biological heritage imposes limits Instinctive Drift Occurs when an animal’s innate response tendencies interfere with conditioning processes

18. Preparedness and Phobias Preparedness Involves a species-specific predisposition to be conditioned in certain ways and not others • Can explain why certain phobias are more common than others • People tend to develop phobias to snakes, spiders, heights, and darkness quite easily

19. Preparedness and Phobias (ii) What characteristics do common phobic objects share? • Most were real threats to our ancestors • Evolutionary forces slowly programmed humans to acquire conditioned fears of these objects easily and rapidly