PRINCIPLES OF

LEARNING
PRESENTED BY
DR. MANO RANJITHA
FIRST YEAR POSTGRADUATE IN PSYCHIATRY
CHAIRPERSON: DR. MOHAN REDDY,DR.GURURAJ
COCHAIRPERSON: DR.RUTH,DR.NAVYA,DR.ALEKHYA
DATE: 1.3.2021
• LEARNING is a key process in a human behavior.

• Can be defined s a any permanent change in behaviour. For better or worse.

• It takes place in practice or experience. Changes due to growth and maturation are not
learning.
• Changes must be permanent lasting from months to years.

•
• CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:
• Experiments by Russian physiologist IVAN PAVLOV
• It is also called pavlovian conditioning or respondent conditioning.
• 1] ringing the bell, no saliva flowed from the dog
• 2]sound of the bell and the food, saliva flowed
• 3]sound of the bell alone can produce the effects of saliva flowing from the dog.
• This is a learned conditioned response.
• Conditioned responses are acquired or learned.

• two stimuli[anything in the environment that can be detected by the senses] is presented to the
learner.
• One of the stimuli is called conditioned stimuli or neutral stimulus.
• Except for alerting/attentional response, it does not evoke any other response.

• UNCONDITIONED STIMULI: this stimuli consistently evokes a response. This same

response follows the unconditioned stimuli is called UNCONDITIONED RESPONSE.
• The unconditioned stimuli and the conditioned stimuli are paired in classical conditioning. The
conditioned stimuli comeS at a short time[1/2 second to several seconds] before the
unconditioned stimulus is presented. After the stimuli has been paired number of times, the
presentation of the original neuronal conditioned stimulus evokes a response. This response is
conditioned response[CR]
• As the time passes with acquisition of conditioned responses get more stronger.
 THE C
• The course of conditioning, extinction, and reconditioning
• The acquisition or learning curves in which the course of learning is followed
over trials or time. Learning curves typically shows that it was rapid at first,
but then gradually decreases, as shown by the flattening of the curve.
• The increase in learning in later trials is less than the increase in earlier
trials.
• There is a limit in strength or magnitiude of a conditioned response in a given
experiment.in a salivary conditioning experiment, a dog could only drool so
much.
• THEORIES ABOUT CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:
• STIMULUS SUBSTITUTION
• Relies on the idea that conditioned stimuli simply as a result of pairing it with unconditioned
stimuli acquires the capacity to substitute for the unconditioned stimuli in evoking a response.
• A bond is acquired so that, conditioned stimuli becomes equivalent to unconditioned stimuli in
evoking a response.
• Both stimuli evokes the same response however conditioned response may not be at all like the
unconditioned response.
• INFORMATION AND EXPECTATION:
• Conditioned stimuli becomes a signal for unconditioned stimuli.
• When CS[Conditioned stimuli] is presented, US[unconditioned stimuli] is expected.
• US is a novel surprising event[kamin,1969,terry and wagner 1975]
• It induces the user to look through recent memory.
• The conditioned stimuli is the event consistently found in each trial before the unconditioned
stimuli. Hence a memory link formed between two.
• THE CONDITIONED RESPONSE MADE IN ANTICIPATION OF THE UNCONDITIONED
STIMULI.
• Conditioned responses are behaviours, actions engaged in by learner in expectation of the
unconditioned stimuli.
• EXTINCTION AND SPONTANEOUS RECOVERY IN CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:
• Extinction occurs when the conditioned stimuli is presented alone without the unconditioned
stimuli for a number of trials.
• The strength or magnitude of the conditioned stimuli gradually decreases,
• Pavlov thought of conditioning in terms of two opposing tendencies like excitation and
inhibition.
• During acquisition, the excitation has the upper hand and inhibition builds up to suppress
conditioned response.
• SPONTANEOUS RECOVERY:
• A day after extinction, dog is bought to the magnitude of dog’s conditioned response is much
greater than before. Such increase in response without any training is called spontaneous
recovery.
• RECONDITIONING:
• STIMULUS GENERALIZATION AND DISCRIMINATION IN CLASSICAL
CONDITIONING
• Pavlov discovered that if he conditioned an animal to salivate in the predence of a bell. It would
also salivate although not so much at the sound of a buzzer etc. hence the stimuli has been
generalised.
• For an example, a child has been conditioned to fear something that is paired with a fear
producing unconditioned stimulus like white fluffy dog that has bit the child before.
• Hence it might turn into a phobia of white fluffy objects in general like white animals,blankets
etc.
• STIMULI DISCRIMINATION:
• Learning to respond to one stimulus while not responding to another. The number of stimuli
which can cause a conditioned response is narrowed.
• DISCRIMINATION:
• SIGNIFICANCE OF CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:
• Many of our moods are probably conditioned responses.
• We learned many of these responses before we could even talk, hence it is difficult to trace
these feelings back to their conditioned beginnings.
• Some emotional responses can be unlearned just as the way it is learned.
• The extinction and alteration of disturbing emotional responses by classical conditioning s a
form of behavior therapy. Or behavior modification.
• INSTRUMENTAL CONDITIONING:
• Some action or behaviour of the learner is instrumental in
bringing about the change in the environment that make the
action more or less likely to occur in the future. If the behaviour
pays off, it it likely to be repeated.
• Instrumental conditioning or operant conditioning.
• This term is coined by B.F SKINNER to indicate that when a
response operates on the environment, it might have
consequences that can affect the likelihood that it might happen
again.
•
• REINFORCERS AND PUNISHERS:
• An environmental event that is the consequence of an instrumental response and that makes the
response more likely to occur again is known as reinforcer or a reinforcement.
• Positive reinforcer is which a stimulus or a event in which it follows a response, increases a
likelihood that the response will be made again.
• Response occurs in the occurrence of a reinforcer.
• NEGATIVE REINFORCER: is a stimulus or event which when cessation or contingent on a
response. It increases the likelihood that it happens again.
• The word negative refers to the fact that the response causes the termination of the event.
•
• POSITIVE
REINFORCEMENT
NEGATIVE AND POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT
• Negative reinforces are for an example, electric shock etc stops the
noxious event.
• PUNISHMENT
• Punisher is a stimulus or a event which when it’s onset is contingent on a
response, decreases a likelihood that it happens ever again.
• Responses followed by punishment is likely to repeat while in negative
reinforcement, it is likely to happen again.
• EXAMPLE, fines,demerits,spankings etc.
• OMISSION OF REINFORCEMENT:
• Positive reinforcement is withdrawn following a response. The effect of this is to decrease the
likelihood of the response that lead to the removal of positive reinforcement.
• Example, a aren’t switching off the television following some behaviour of the child.
• BOTH POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT AND NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT
INCREASES THE LIKELIHOOD OF THE RESPONSE.
• PUNISHMENT AND OMISSION OF REINFORCEMENT DECREASES THE
LIKELIHOOD OF THE RESPONSE.
• THORNDICKE’S EXPERIMENTS;
• Studied positive reinforcement principle in instrumental conditioning.
• A hungry cat was locked in a box, with a plate of food outside. and there was a loop of wire
hanging in the box which it has to pull and the box would open. After fumbling around and
scratching, it eventually opened it by pulling the wire by some chance.
• It happened again in consequent trials. Eventually after 20 such instances, the learning time of
the cat got quicker, it was getting out in quicker time compared to before.
• MAZES:
• Mazes were introduced with rats at the end of the maze, food would be kept. Complicated
mazes were also introduced. Instrumental conditioning is manifested by faster running of the
rats.
• MAZES AND RATS
• SKINNER’S EXPERIMENTS;
RATS AND PIGEONS IN AN
OPERANT CHAMBER:
• First step in the operant condition ing of a hungry rat is to get it tio eat food pellets. They are
given by the experimenter who operates the pellet delivery mechanism from a push button
switch outside the operant chamber.
• The pellets are delivered one by one. After some time this delivery stops. Then hungry rats are
left alone to fumble around and then it accidentally pushes a lever which delivers food.
• As the time increases, the quicker it takes for the rat to push the lever.
• This is recorded in a cumulative recorder.
• THANK YOU

• [TO BE CONTINUED]