1. In the degree to which all independent variables are identified and the irrelevant ones controlled, few studies equal the one by Howland. 2. The only very large differences were the ones indicating that the control group learned the poetry and the prose more quickly than the experimental group. 3. One of the simplest psychophysical methods is called the method of reproduction. 4. In most experimental work a major requirement is to keep conditions constant except for one factor, which is systematically varied. 5. Looking at the problem from another point of view one can say that intelligence; is very important for a person's adjustment. 6. To understand agression one will have to realize that tension is only one of the factors which determine whether or not an aggressive action will take place.
V. Answer the following questions based on the text
1. How may learning be defined?
2. Who was the first to start studies of learning?
3. Did Pavlov intend to investigate the problem of learning at the very be ginning of his experimental research?
4. What problem was he interested in?
5. What is an inborn response?
6. What is a conditioned response?
7. What kinds of responses did Pavlov pay special attention to?
8. What is the sequence of events in the learning process?
9. In what case would the dog salivate when the bell alone was sounded?
10. What are the two types of stimuli?
11. What is the second-order conditioning?
12. How can the habit of responding to the second-order signal be strengthened?
13. What psychological process is learning based on?
14. In what case do conditioned responses diminish and eventually stop?
VI. Speak on one of the following topics
1. Pavlov and his contribution to psychology.
2. Classical conditioning.
VII. Translate the following text into English, then retell it
. . (, ..) - , . , , - (, ) (, ). ( ), . , . , .
, . , . , , , . . , , , , .
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LESSON V
SIMPLE LEARNING
(continued)
Active vocabulary
1. avoid, v ; avoidance, n
2. cause, n ;cause, v , ,
3. goal, n
4. level, n
5. lever, n
6. memory, n ; short-term ~ ; long-term ~ ; memorize, v ; memorization, n
7. pellet, n ;
8. punish, v ; punishment, n ;
9. reason, n - 1. ; 2. ; reason, v , ; reasonable, adj , ; reasoning, n 1., ; 2. ,
10. refer (to), v ( -., -.); reference, n 1. ( -., -); 2. ( ); 3. , ; , ; reference list, n
11. reinforcement, n
12. reward, n ; reward, v
13. scheme, n , , ,
14. sense, n 1. , ; 2. pi. , ; common ~ ; 3. , ; sense, v 1. ; 2. ,
15. solve, v , (a problem, a difficulty, a puzzle); solution, n , ( ..)
16. subject-matter, n 1. , (, ); 2. (, )
17. trial, n , ;trial-and-error method, n
18. voluntary, n ; involuntary, adj .
SIMPLE LEARNING
(continued)
Many new facts have been found out since the time of Pavlov's discovery.
It is important to mention that we may learn to avoid certain signals, signs or symbols just as we can be conditioned to respond positively towards others. If a child is presented with a toy, but is suddenly startled at the same moment as the toy is offered, that child might very likely be frightened every time the toy is offered to him. Only after many trials when the toy is presented and the startling stimulus is absent will the child cease to be afraid.
A different type of learning, sometimes called operant conditioning was described most recently by B. F. Skinner of Harvard University. He examined the way learning takes place when the behaviour is spontaneous and not at the reflex level, as it is in classical conditioning. Skinner constructed a box which has inside it a lever that can be operated, a food tray, and a buzzer. When a typically hungry animal is placed inside this box it normally wanders around since its desire for food activates it. In this searching, random behaviour, the animal may accidentally depress the lever. The lever operates a machine that delivers food in the form of the pellets that drop into a tray. When the animal finds the pellet it is likely to try to depress the lever again and be rewarded with further food. After a short time, and a number of rewards or reinforcements like this, the animal learns to press away in order to obtain food. This learning scheme, where the animal operates the lever to satisfy the need, is essentially: response reward.
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We should notice that the reward, or the reinforcement, comes after the response has been made. The first correct response occurs almost purely by chance. In classical conditioning, by contrast, the food reward came before and the automatic response followed on. Both operant conditioning and classical conditioning are association schemes: classical conditioning being an association between a signal and response; operant conditioning being an association between a response and a reward. The first method is connected with automatic, reflective type of response; the latter type seems to be connected with voluntary modes of action and behaviour.
We mentioned earlier that the Skinner box had a buzzer connected to it but it was not employed. If we change the situation now so that this buzzer is connected with the food machine so that it sounds each time the lever is depressed, and the animal receives a food reward, the buzzer will seem to take on the same rewarding qualities and
associations that were also attached to the food. When the well-fed animal is later put back in the box it will push the lever a few times, as if it is a result of a pleasantly familiar past activity, and then it will ignore it. If, however, the buzzer sounds with each press of the lever the animal will press many times, as the buzzer seems to be its own reward. The behaviour which is elicited for the buzzer reward alone seems to be a secondary reinforcement. If we now want to teach this animal another kind of response, such as the pressing of a button, all that has to be done is to connect up the button with the buzzer. When the button is pressed for the first time accidentally, the buzzer will sound. Thereafter we can observe the development of this new response to the secondary reinforcement. Third-order associations, and even higher ones, can be developed in this way.
How do we develop many complex chains of habits that we make? They are probably learned by a combination of the two learned conditions, i.e.:
a) signal response and b) response reward, thus signal response reward.
Thorndike's Law of Effect summarizes this course of events. It states that satisfying experiences tend to be repeated when the organism can bring it about. Also, painful states are avoided whenever possible. The reward may be a pleasurable or need-satisfying experience, or it may be some event that is an avoidance of punishment. These signals, which were paired with, or associated with, rewards that originally satisfied our motives or needs later tend to take on their own reinforcing qualities.
It has been known for a long time that human memory is associative. One thing reminds us of another for various reasons either they occurred together, or they refer to the same subject-matter in some sense. Human learning is only partly a matter of associations of responses acquired through classical or operant conditioning experiences. Our acquired behaviour seems to be too complex to be exclusively accounted for by these two types of causes.
Trial-and-error method is an approach to the solving of problems and the search for ways to satisfy motives. Trial-and-error is the beginning of the process that soon becomes non-random. W. Koehler, a German psychologist who worked in America, demonstrated the important role of a non-random scheme of learning, called insight. We mean by insight the solution of a problem by combining previously learned experiences or solutions to problems in a new way. It is the formation of a new association for the organism trying to solve a problem or to reach a goal.
Kohler made the following experiment. He placed a chimpanzee in a room which had a banana suspended from the ceiling. Scattered around the room were a number of packing boxes. The chimp normally would try to get the banana by leaping up, but the food was too high for him. After many jumps and pauses the animal would suddenly act as if he realized the solution. He would put the boxes one on top of the other, until the pile was high enough for the chimpanzee to climb up and get the reward.
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In this and many other problems the chimpanzees act as if they developed an understanding of the behaviour necessary for the solution of the problem. In later studies it was clear that this type of problem-solving I would not take place if the animal had not had previous experiences with boxes. In effect, for this problem to be solved, an old response (experience) had to be applied in a new way, through insight. Learning to solve problems by remembering and using previous experiences in this way is very much a human method for achieving our goals and objectives. If the new problem is important to us, then our achievement of the solution may be rewarding indeed.
To sum up, all different forms of learning have some element of association in them, and some element of reinforcement. Thorndike's Law of Effect accounts for this course of events, although learning may sometimes seem much more complicated than these conditioning schemes would suggest.
(L.S. Skurnik, F. George. Psychology for Everyman. Penguin Books. 1972. P. 33 36)
Exercises
