PSY111 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Classical Conditioning, Habituation
DEFINING LEARNING
- Learning is any enduring change in the way an organism responds, based on its
experiences.
- Change/Adaptation
- Enduring
- Necessary for survival
- Key issue: Learning cannot be observed directly. It is inferred from behaviour that is
observed.
- A reflex is a behaviour that is automatically elicited by an environmental stimulus
- E.g., blink when something rapidly approaches your eye
- Habituation is the reduction in response strength of a reflex over repeated presentations
of the stimulus
- Sensitisation is the increasing of responsiveness over repeated presentations of the
stimulus
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING (AKA PAVLOVIAN CONDITIONING)
- The learning of a new association between two previously unrelated stimuli
- We learn that a stimulus predicts a certain event and we respond accordingly.
- In classical conditioning, all responses are reflexes or autonomic responses that are
elicited by environmental stimuli.
- Habituation refers to reduction in response strength over repeated presentations of the
stimuli.
- Ivan P. Pavlov
- Discovered that dogs would salivate to the sounds of footsteps
- Examined phenomenon further by controlling signals that preceded food
- Sounded a bell just before dogs received the food
- Eventually the bell elicited salivation
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)
Any stimulus that naturally elicits a behaviour
Unconditioned Response (UCR)
The behaviour elicited by the UCS
Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
A neutral stimulus that is able to elicit behaviour only after association with the UCS
Conditioned Response (CR)
The behaviour elicited by the CS
UCS (driving) --- UCR (happiness)
• NS (takeaway book) + UCS (driving) ----- > happiness/excitement
• CS (takeaway book) ----- CR (happiness/excitement)
Document Summary
Learning is any enduring change in the way an organism responds, based on its experiences. Key issue: learning cannot be observed directly. A reflex is a behaviour that is automatically elicited by an environmental stimulus. E. g. , blink when something rapidly approaches your eye. Habituation is the reduction in response strength of a reflex over repeated presentations. Sensitisation is the increasing of responsiveness over repeated presentations of the observed. of the stimulus stimulus. The learning of a new association between two previously unrelated stimuli. We learn that a stimulus predicts a certain event and we respond accordingly. In classical conditioning, all responses are reflexes or autonomic responses that are elicited by environmental stimuli. Habituation refers to reduction in response strength over repeated presentations of the stimuli. Discovered that dogs would salivate to the sounds of footsteps. Examined phenomenon further by controlling signals that preceded food. Sounded a bell just before dogs received the food.
