Unit 5: Learning (Behaviorism)

1. WHS AP Psychology Unit 5: Learning (Behaviorism) Essential Task 5-5: Describe the essential characteristics of insight learning, latent learning, and observational learning (vicarious learning, live model, and virtual model)

2. LearningThe process by which experience or practice results in a relatively permanent change in behavior or potential behavior We are here Classical Conditioning The type of learning in which a response naturally elicited by one stimulus becomes to be elicited by a different formally neutral stimulus • Operant • Conditioning • The 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 Reinforcement and Punishment UCS, UCR, CS, CR Modeling and Vicarious Learning

3. Essential Task 5-: Outline • Cognitive Learning • insight learning • latent learning • Social Cognitive Learning Theory(observational learning) • vicarious learning/modeling • live model • virtual model

4. Cognitive Learning • Learning that depends on mental activity that is not directly observable • Involves such processes as attention, expectation, thinking, and memory

5. Latent Learning and Cognitive Maps • Latent learning is learning that takes place before the subject realizes it and is not immediately reflected in behavior • A cognitive map is latent learning stored as a mental image

6. Insight and Learning Sets • Insight is when learning seems to occur in a sudden “flash” as elements of a situation come together • Learning sets refer to increasing effectiveness at problem solving through experience, i.e., organisms “learn how to learn”

7. Social Cognitive Theory/Observational Learning • Individuals learn through imitating others who receive rewards and punishments. Learning a behavior and performing it are not the same thing • Tenet 1: Response consequences (such as rewards or punishments) influence the likelihood that a person will perform a particular behavior again • Tenet 2: Humans can learn by observing others, in addition to learning by participating in an act personally. Learning by observing others is called vicarious learning. The concept of vicarious learning is not one that would be subscribed to by classical behaviorists. • Tenet 3: Individuals are most likely to model behavior observed by others they identify with. Identification with others is a function of the degree to which a person is perceived to be similar to one's self, in addition to the degree of emotional attachment that is felt toward an individual.

8. Bobo Doll Experiment

9. Bobo Doll Experimental Design

10. Results • Children exposed to the aggressive model were more likely to act in physically aggressive ways than those who were not exposed to the aggressive model. (Boys averaged 38.2 with 12.7 for girls) • Children exposed to the aggressive model were more likely to engage in novel hostile acts. • Children are more influenced by same-sex models. • Results showed that boys exhibited more aggression when exposed to aggressive male models than boys exposed to aggressive female models. When exposed to aggressive male models, the number of aggressive instances exhibited by boys averaged 104 compared to 48.4 aggressive instances exhibited by boys who were exposed to aggressive female models. Outline

11. Learning by Observing • The likelihood of acting on vicarious learning changes when we see the consequences of other people’s behavior • Vicarious reinforcement or vicarious punishment affects the willingness of people to perform behaviors they learned by watching others

12. Live and Virtual Models Virtual Model Live Model

13. Mirror Neurons Neuroscientists discovered mirror neurons in the brains of animals and humans that are active during observational learning.