Learning and Cognition

1. Learning and Cognition • Cognitive Information Processing • Unit 3

2. Behaviorists • Behaviorists insist that psychologists should study only observable, measurable behaviors-not mental processes • Methodological Behaviorists study only events that can be observed and measured : the environment and the individuals actions • In contrast Radical Behaviorists deny that internal events, like hunger, or fear, cause behavior

3. Cognitivists • Concerned with mental processes • How people acquire, process, and use information • Pay attention to what goes on at the very moment of learning, not just the results of learning

4. Behaviorism • Behaviorism: The study of observable patterns of behavior. • Learning Theory: the study of our methods of learning, and how this learning then influences our behavior.

5. Classical Conditioning • Discovered by Ivan Pavlov when studying digestion and salivation in dogs. • This theory applies to things that are already reflexive or innate behaviors. • The Discovery: • Morning routine: Enter room, turn on lights, feed dogs. • Expected pattern: Lights go on, food goes down, dogs start drooling. • Unexpected discovery: After a few weeks, the dogs began to drool when the lights came on!

6. Classical Conditioning

7. Operant Conditioning • Developed by B.F. Skinner, who believed that Classical Conditioning was correct, but that behavior was not solely reflexive. • Behavior is a learned response, based on the consequences of previous behaviors.

8. Operant Conditioning

9. Operant Conditioning • Increasing or Decreasing a Behavior • Reinforcement: A consequence that increases the likelihood that a behavior will be repeated. • Punishment: A consequence that decreases the likelihood that a behavior will be repeated.

10. Operant Conditioning • Giving or Removing a Stimulus: • Positive: Presenting/Giving/Introducing a new stimulus. • Negative: Removing/Taking Away an existing stimulus.

11. “Skinner Box” .

12. Operant Conditioning • Our scenario: Your teenage daughter just received her first car and was allowed to attend a social event alone, provided she was home by 10pm. • Reinforcement: She was home at 9:45! • Punishment: Little Missy strolled in at MIDNIGHT!

13. Operant Conditioning • The Schedule of Reinforcement can impact learning! • Timing: • Interval • Ratio • Schedule: • Fixed • Variable

14. Operant Conditioning • Extinction: Cessation of a behavior based on a lack of continued reinforcement, experience of a punishment, etc.

15. Stimulus Discrimination • Telling Things Apart: • Generalization • Discrimination • Just Noticeable Difference • Training: • Shaping • Chaining • Omission Training • Escape Learning aka Avoidance Learning • Conditioned Taste Aversion

16. Behavioral Principles • Edward Thorndike’s Law of Effect: • If a behavior has positive consequences, it is more likely to be repeated. • If a behavior has negative consequences, it is less likely to be repeated. • David Premack’sPremack Principle: • An opportunity to engage in a behavior that is naturally seen frequently can serve as a reinforcement for a less frequent behavior. • Latent Learning: • The subject exhibits the desired behaviors and understands the patterns of the A-B-C model.

17. Harlow’s Rhesus Monkeys • Harry Harlow attempted to determine if physical comfort or food was more important to baby monkeys. • Monkeys were given access to 2 artificial wire “mothers”. • 1 had a bottle of milk • 1 had a fleece cover • Babies preferred the fleece mother, and Harlow concluded that primates are comforted by warm, soft things, NOT food.

18. Social Learning Theory • Albert Bandura decided to study learning from a social perspective. • Social Learning Theory states that we can learn just by watching others. • We DO NOT have to experience the consequence ourselves!

19. Social Learning Theory • The BoBo Doll Study: • Take groups of kids into a room and have them watch a video of a model punching/kicking/hitting a BoBo Doll. • Children see 3 potential endings: • Actor is Punished • Actor is Rewarded • Nothing happens, actor walks off-screen

20. Social Learning Theory • Children are given an opportunity to play with a BoBo doll. • Those who saw a reward mimic behaviors right away • Those who saw neutral mimic some behaviors. • All, INCLUDING those who saw the punishment, can mimic behaviors if asked. • Those who saw punishment were able to very closely, if not identically, mimic the video!

21. Social Learning Theory • Observational Learning: The ability to learn by watching the behaviors and consequences of others.

22. Stages of Cognitive Development • Theory was developed when Jean Piaget (a Biologist!) was helping to develop IQ tests and noticed that when children answered incorrectly, there was a PATTERN to the WAY they answered!

23. Stages of Cognitive Development

24. Stages of Cognitive Development

25. Stages of Cognitive Development

26. Stages of Cognitive Development

27. Other Cognitive Theories • Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) by Lev Vygotsky • The difference between what a learner can do on their own, and with a little bit of guidance/help from an instructor. • Scaffolding: The process of introducing new ideas with sufficient support so that the student can learn and achieve on a level they would not be capable of on their own.

28. Other Cognitive Theories • Jean Piaget • Learning is structured through the use of: • Schemes (templates) • Assimilation (adding on) • Accommodation (changing schemes)

29. Information Processing Model • Information Processing Model: Your brain is like a computer! • We move memories from… • Sensory register to… • 2-3 seconds • Very limited capacity • Short-Term Memory to… • A couple minutes to a couple hours • Capacity limited by Miller’s Magic Number (7 plus or minus 2) • Long-Term Memory • Indefinite storage • Infinite capacity

30. Information Processing Model

31. Strategies for Encoding Memories • Rehearsal • Outlines • Hierarchies • Concept Trees • Mnemonics • Method of Loci: Visual Mnemonics • Self-questioning • Chunking • Elaboration • Cued Recall • Retrieval Cues • SPAR: Survey, Process, Ask, Review • Quiz Systems • Flash Cards

32. Encoding Memories • The Debate: • Do we forget? • Or do we forget where we put it? • State-Dependent Memory aka Cued Recall • Encoding Specificity Principle Forgetting vs. Failure to Retrieve

33. Types of Memories • Working Memory: Current thoughts • Declarative Memory: Facts • Semantic Memory: General knowledge • Episodic Memory: Events • Sensory Memory: Sensory recall • Iconic Memory: Visual recognition • Echoic Memory: Auditory recognition • Procedural Memory: How-to • AKA Kinesthetic Learning aka Proprioception

34. Levels-of-Processing Principle Shallow   Deep

35. Serial-Order Effect • Serial-Order Effect: The order in which we encounter information determines how well it will be stored. • Primacy Effect • Recency Effect • Frequency Effect • Familiarity Effect

36. Memory Reconstruction • Memory Reconstruction • Hindsight Bias • Repression • Eye-Witness Effect

37. Memory Loss • Amnesia: Damage to the Hippocampus • Anterograde Amnesia • Retrograde Amnesia • Explicit vs Implicit Memory • Korsakoff’s Syndrome: Damage to the Frontal Lobe due to prolonged alcoholism

38. Memory Loss • Alzheimer’s Disease: Damage to neural networks spreading from the Frontal Lobe toward the Brainstem. • Neurolitic Plaque • Neurofibulary Tangles

39. Problem Solving • Recognition: Identify the problem • Algorithms: Step-by-step procedures • Heuristics: “Short-cuts” that may solve a problem faster

40. Cognition & Language • Categorization • Cognitive Maps • Attention • Preattentive Process • Attentive Process • Postattentive Process • Selective Attention • Pattern Recognition

41. The Stroop Effect

42. Linguistics • Linguistics: The study of language • Noam Chomsky’s Transformational Grammar: • Deep-level logic moves to surface-level grammar & word order

43. Linguistics • Broca’s Area • Broca’s Aphasia • Wernicke’s Area • Wernicke’s Aphasia

44. Language Development • Sounds: • Phonemes: An individual sound • Morpheme: A cluster of sounds with meaning • Reading: • Fixation • Saccades • Figuring Out Meaning: • Syntactic Bootstrapping

45. Language Development • Pre-Linguistic: 0-12 Months • Word Learning: 13 Months and up • Syntatic Relations: 20 Months and up • Discourse/Pragmatics: Elementary school years • Irony, sarcasm, humor • Perspective taking • Social/interactional skill

46. Language Development • Over-generalization • Under-generalization • Linguistic Schema Development

47. Intelligence • IQ Scores continue to develop and increase throughout adulthood • Types of Intelligence • Fluid Intelligence = Abstract thought, memory, speed of thought, etc. • Declines with age • Crystallized Intelligence = Accumulated learning of facts, vocabulary, etc. • Increases with age

48. Intelligence • Sternberg’s Types of Intelligence • Analytical = problem solving • Creative = artistic, musical, inventive, designing • Practical = street smart, apply knowledge to everyday life

49. Performance • Novice Performance • Expert Performance • Shift from Novice to Expert requires deliberate practice!

50. Special Needs • Gifted and Talented: A term for children who show high levels of intellectual functioning, creativity, artistic talent, leadership quality, etc. • No social, emotional, or physical difference from “normal” children. • Typically are capable of abstract thought (Formal Operational Thinking in Piaget’s model) before “normal” children.