PSYC 102

PSYCHOLOGY FOR EVERYDAY

LIVING

Session 1 – Learning Part I

Lecturer: Dr. Paul Narh Doku, Dept of Psychology, UG

Contact Information: pndoku@[Link]

College of Education
School of Continuing and Distance Education
2014/2015 – 2016/2017
 Session Overview

• This session introduces learners to the principles of

learning and behavior by surveying relevant
theoretical and empirical approaches within learning
psychology. The following topics will be reviewed:
Meaning and scope of learning, classical conditioning
and its practical applications. Understanding these
learning theories and principles is an integral part of
psychology and other domains of human behavior,
such as marketing, sports, health, education and
relationships
Dr. P. N. Doku, Slide 2
 Session Outline
The key topics to be covered in the
session are as follows:
•Topic One – Learning and its scope
•Topic Two – Types of Learning
•Topic Three - Classical Conditioning (CC)
•Topic Four – Key elements in CC
•Topic Five – Principles in CC
•Topic Six – Applications in CC
Slide 3
 Reading List
• Refer to students to relevant text/chapter or reading materials
you will make available on Sakai

Dr. Richard Boateng, UGBS Slide 4

 TOPIC ONE: LEARNING AND ITS SCOPE
• Learning can be defined as the process leading to
relatively permanent behavioural change or
potential behavioural change

• It is a relatively permanent change in behaviour

due to experience.

• As we learn, we alter the way we perceive our

environment, the way we interpret the incoming
stimuli, and therefore the way we interact, or
behave.
5
Behavioural Changes that are not Learning
It excludes
A). Temporary changes caused by:
• Fatigue
• Diseases
• Injury
• Drugs
• Reflexes

B) Permanent Changes caused by:

• Maturation
• Disabilities 6
 Part Two - Types of learning
• Classical learning/conditioning

• Operant conditioning

• Observational learning

• Cognitive learning
TOPIC THREE: CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
Pavlov, a Russian physiologist,
first described classical
conditioning in 1899 while
conducting research into the
digestive system of dogs.
He was particularly interested
in the role of salivary
secretions in the digestion of
food and was awarded the
Nobel Prize for Medicine or
Physiology in 1904.
 Pavlov’s Research

Pavlov used an apparatus

to measure the amount of
saliva produced when a
dog ate.
The flow of saliva
occurred naturally
whenever food was
placed in the dog’s mouth,
as salivation is an
involuntary, reflex
response.
 Pavlov’s Method
• Dog was restrained in a harness
to avoid extraneous variables.
• Meat powder was placed directly
on the dog’s tongue or in the
bowl.
• A tube was surgically attached to
the dog’s cheek near one of the
salivary glands and a fistula was
made so that the saliva drained
straight out into a measuring
device.
• Further on, more sophisticated
measuring devices were used to
measure the speed of saliva flow.
 What did Pavlov observe?
• Pavlov observed that the dogs • A stimulus is any event that elicits
salivated not only at the sight of a response from an organism.
the food, but also at the sight or • A response is a reaction by an
sound of the lab tech who had organism to a stimulus. In
been preparing the food. Pavlov’s experiment, the stimulus
• Pavlov was intrigued by these of food initially produced the
unintentional observations & he response of salivation.
decided to conduct further • Eventually the sight or sound of
experiments. the tech became the stimulus.
• His subsequent experiments
provided clear evidence of a form
of learning based on the repeated
association of 2 different stimuli.
 How is this response explained?
• The salivation response • This process is in
is controlled by the essence the process of
autonomic division of classical conditioning.
the PNS.
• Involuntary.
• The salivation had
become associated
with, and conditioned
to, a new stimulus – the
lab tech.
 What is Classical Conditioning?

• Also known as respondent • In classical condition, a

conditioning refers to a response that is
form of learning that occurs
automatically produced
through the repeated
association of 2 or more by one stimulus
different stimuli. becomes associated, or
• Learning is only said to have linked, with another
occurred when a particular stimulus that would not
stimulus consistently normally produce this
produces a response that it response.
did not previously produce.
4 key elements in Classical Conditioning

There are 4 key elements that are

used to describe the process of
classical conditioning. These are:
•unconditioned stimulus
•unconditioned response
•conditioned stimulus
•conditioned response
 1. Unconditioned Stimulus
• The unconditioned
stimulus (UCS) is any
stimulus that
consistently produces a
particular, naturally
occurring, automatic
response.
• In Pavlov’s experiment,
the UCS was the food
(meat powder).
 2. Unconditioned Response
• The unconditioned
response (UCR) is the
response that occurs
automatically when the
UCS is presented.
• A UCR is a reflexive,
involuntary response that
is predictably caused by a
UCS.
• In Pavlov’s experiments,
the UCR was the
salivation.
 3. Conditioned Stimulus

• The conditioned stimulus • Association refers to the pairing

(CS) is the stimulus that is or linking of 1 stimulus with
another stimulus.
neutral at the start of the
• In Pavlov’s experiments, the bell
conditioning process and and subsequently other stimuli
does not normally produce were initially neutral, but each
the UCR. became associated with the meat
• Yet, through repeated powder.
• Once conditioning has occurred
association with the UCS,
and the originally neutral
the CS triggers a very similar stimulus produces the response
response to that caused by of salivating, then it is called the
the UCS. CS.
 4. Conditioned Response
• The conditioned response • Pavlov’s dogs displayed a CR
(CR) is the learned response (salivation) only when they
that is produced by the CS. began to salivate to a CS.
• The CR occurs after the CS • When the dog responded
has been associated with to a CS, such as the sound
the UCS. of a bell, classical
• The behaviour involved in a conditioning had taken
CR is very similar to that of place because salivation
the UCR, but it is triggered would not be a usual
by the CS alone. response to the sound of a
bell.
Illustration of Classical Conditioning
5 Processes/Principles in Classical Conditioning

Pavlov distinguished several key processes that are

involved in classical conditioning. These are known
as:
•Acquisition
•Extinction
•stimulus generalisationIN CLASSICAL
KEY PROCESSES
•stimulus discrimination
CONDITIONING
•spontaneous recovery.
 Acquisition
• Each paired presentation of the • Acquisition is more rapid
NS with UCS is referred to as a when the NS occurs and
trial. remains present until the
• Acquisition is the overall UCS is presented.
process during which the • The end of the acquisition
organism learns to associate 2 stage is said to occur when
events. the CS (previously NS) alone
• Timing of the NS and UCS produces the CR.
pairing is critical.
• Pavlov found that a very short
time between presentations of
the 2 stimuli was most effective
 Extinction
• A conditioned stimulus-response • E.g. Pavlov’s dogs eventually
association can fade over time or ceased salivating (CR) in response
disappear altogether. to the bell (CS) presented alone
• Extinction is the gradual decrease after a number of trials in which
in the strength or rate of a CR the food (UCS) did not follow the
that occurs when the UCS is no sound of the bell).
longer presented. • There is some variation between
• Extinction is said to have individuals in the rate at which
occurred when a CR no longer extinction of the same
occurs following presentation of conditioned response will occur.
the CS. • There is also considerable
variation between the rates at
which different response will be
extinguished.
 Spontaneous Recovery

• Extinction of a CR is not • Spontaneous recovery

always permanent. does not always occur
• In CC, spontaneous and when it does it is
recovery is the often short-lived.
reappearance of a CR • Furthermore the CR
when the CS is tends to be weaker than
presented, following a it was originally.
rest period after the CR
appears to have been
extinguished.
 Stimulus Generalisation
• Pavlov observed that his dogs • However, the amount of saliva
salivated to other noises that produced by the dog would tend to
sounded like a bell. be less than the amount produced by
• This is known as stimulus the original bell to which the dog was
generalisation which is the tendency conditioned.
for another stimulus to produce a
response that is similar to the CR.
• The greater the similarity between
stimuli, the greater the possibility
that a generalisation will occur.
• E.g. is a stimulus generalisation to the
sounds of a bell occurred with one of
Pavlov’s dogs, the dog might also
salivate in response to the ringing of
the front-door bell.
 Stimulus Discrimination
• Stimulus discrimination occurs when a person or animal responds to the
CS only, but not to any other stimulus that is similar to the CS.

• E.g. in a CC experiment, stimulus discrimination would be observed

when a dog salivated only in response to the sound of the ‘experimental
bell’, and not in response to any other similar sound such as a door bell.
Classical Conditioning of Behaviour

• Behaviours that have • A conditioned reflex is an

been classically automatic response that
conditioned may occur so occurs as the result of
automatically that they previous experience.
appear to be reflexive. • A conditioned reflex
• CC behaviours are like involves little conscious
reflexes in that they occur thought or awareness on
involuntarily, but they are the part of the learner.
unlike reflexes in that • E.g. listening for thunder
they are learned. when you see lightning.
Watson’s ‘Little Albert’ experiment
• An emotional reaction such as
fear of a specific stimulus is
learned through CC.
• A conditioned emotional response
is an emotional reaction that
usually occurs when the
autonomic nervous system
produces a response to a stimulus
that did not previously trigger
that response.
• E.g. fearing the sound of the
dentist’s drill.
Watson’s ‘Little Albert’ experiment
• American psychologist John B.
Watson and his graduate student,
Rosalie Rayner first used CC to
elicit an emotional response.
• Aim to test the notion that fears
can be acquired through CC.
• The research participant was
Albert B. (Little Albert), the 11
moth old son of a woman who
worked at the same clinic as
Watson.
 How was Little Albert conditioned to
hate the rat?
• They placed him on a • For the next 17 days Watson
mattress in a room where a and Rayner began a series
white lab rat (CS) was of fear-conditioning
within reaching distance. experiments.
• Albert showed no initial fear • They also conducted tests
of it and played with it. to find out if Albert’s fear
• They then struck a hammer response could be
on a steel bar behind Albert generalised.
(loud noise, UCS) and Albert • Albert also seemed to fear a
began to cry. white rabbit, a dog and a
seal skin coat.
APPLICATIONS OF CLASSICAL
CONDITIONING

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING IN
CC is used in a range of different settings, many of which are
concerned with therapeutic benefits. These include:
PRACTICE
Aversion therapy and systematic desensitisation.
 Aversion Therapy
• When people develop behaviours • The aim of aversion therapy is to
that are habitual and harmful to suppress or weaken undesirable
themselves or to others, such as behaviour.
substance dependence, it is • E.g. to stop unwanted behaviour
difficult to help them such as nail biting, we might paint
permanently stop the unwanted our nails with a foul-tasting
behaviour. substance.
• Aversion therapy is a form of • The association between nail
behaviour therapy that applies CC biting and the unpleasant taste is
principles to inhibit or discourage learned quickly.
undesirable behaviour by
associating it with an aversive
stimulus.
When was aversion therapy first used?

• 1930s to treat alcoholism.

• Alcoholics were
administered painful
electric shocks whenever Association becomes so strong that
they could smell, see or the person beings to anticipate
taste alcohol. nausea as an inevitable result of
consuming alcohol.
• Today, nausea-inducing
drugs are paired with
alcohol consumption to
make the alcoholic feel ill.
 Limitations of aversion therapy

• The learned aversion often

fails to generalise.
• This may be due to
conditioning being
dependent on cues that
indicate the aversive
stimulus will follow.
• People may experience the
aversion only when they
know that the UCS is going
to coincide with alcohol
consumption.
 Systematic desensitisation

• Developed in the 1950s by • The client associates being

psychiatrist Joseph Wolpe, relaxed with the anxiety or
systematic desensitisation fear-arousing stimulus by
is a kind of behaviour means of a series of graded
therapy that attempts to steps.
replace an anxiety or fear • Basic principle is that the
response with a relaxation client is gradually
response through a classical desensitised to anxiety or
conditioning procedure. fear-arousing objects,
activities or situations.
 Wolpe’s procedure:

1. Person is taught to • Case study: fear of flying.

relax. Most frightening

2. Break down the fear •Experiencing mid air

turbulence
arousing situation into •Taking off
a logical sequence of •Taxiing down the runway
•Boarding the plane
steps (steps are ranked •Waiting to get on the plane
from least to most •Travelling to the airport in a
car
fear-inducing). •Buying a place ticket.

Least frightening
 Procedure cont…

• Once the steps are ranked, the • The best results seem to occur
therapist then teaches the using real life desensitisation,
person deep muscle relaxation such as the therapist sitting in
and asks them to imagine the a plane with the person or
least frightening scene on the introducing them to the pilot
list and so on… for reassurance.
• In the end the person learns to • By allowing the client to
imagine the most frightening confront the phobia under
scene without becoming such supportive
afraid. circumstances, the fear of
flying is eventually overcome.
 Enuresis (bedwetting)

• Some children continue to • Some cases of enuresis are

wet their beds long after caused by physiological problems
(e.g. weakness of muscles near
they are toilet trained and bladder), yet the condition is
out of nappies. mostly associated with:
• This is known an enuresis – problems during toilet
(persistent involuntary training
discharge of urine after the – stressful situations such as
age of when bladder control hospitalisation
– underlying emotional
is expected)
problems relation to entering
school or the birth of a
sibling.
Treatment of persistent bedwetting
• CC procedures have been • Wickes decided to use the sound
successfully applied in treating of a buzzer as a UCS to reliably
enuresis. awaken a person sleeping.
• E.g. Wickes (1958) and a team of • The sound would follow the
research assistants successfully stimulation from a full bladder
treated 100 cases of enuresis in (CS).
participants aged between 5 & • After a series of such paired
17. presentations, the response of
• Wickes believed the individual waking up – buzzer (UCR) –
had simply failed to learn to wake should begin to occur in response
up in response to the stimuli to stimulation from a full bladder
arising from a full bladder and (CR)
that this necessary learning could • Then the person would go to the
be brought about by CC. toilet instead of wetting the bed
while asleep.
 Treatment cont…
• Problem – to arrange for a buzzer • The recent modification of using
to sound shortly after the a small ultrasonic monitor
person’s bladder was full. mounted on an elastic belt worn
• Solution – have the person sleep around the abdomen, has been
with a gauze pad appropriately made to Wickes’ method.
positioned so that the first drop • The belt triggers an alarm when
of urine closed a circuit that set the bladder capacity reaches a
off the buzzer. certain level.
• Wickes found that his treatment
proved to be an effective method
for curing enuresis, as many
children and adolescents began
to wake up in response to the
stimulation from a full bladder-
before wetting the bed.
 References
• Coon, D. and Mitterer, O. J (2013). Introduction to
Psychology (13th ed). Wadsworth Cengage learning. Pp. 206-
232
• Feldman, S. R, Collins, J. E. and Green, M. J (2005).
Essentials of understanding psychology (2nd ed). McGraw-
Hill Ryerson. pp. 154-179
• Kosslyn, M. S, and Rosenberg, R. (2006). Psychology in
context. pearson. Pp. 235-271
• Weiten, W. (2009). Psychology: Themes and variations (8th
ed). cengage learning. Pp. 232-259

Dr. Richard Boateng, UGBS Slide 40