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[music]
[guitar music]
This is AEDT1170U,
Psychological Foundations and Digital Technology.
Module 5, video clip 5.1 ,
Theories of Learning.
This clip will provide you with a historical overview
of three schools of learning –
classical conditioning with Pavlov,
operant conditioning with B.F. Skinner,
and observational learning with Albert Bandura.
As you review the learning theories,
begin to consider how they might apply
in digital situations.
These may be online learning, online gaming,
social communities, or even online addictions.
Here are the guiding questions for this video.
Describe the major theory of classical conditioning
through Pavlov's work,
and how might classical conditioning
be applied to the digital world?
Describe the major theory of operant conditioning by Skinner,
and in what ways is operant conditioning visible
in online environments?
And finally, how does observational learning
apply in digital environments?
Learning could be considered a relatively permanent change
in an organism’s behaviour due to experience.
So by definition, experience is key to learning.
We learn by association,
and our minds naturally con- connect events
that occur in sequence because we associate them.
Simpler animals can learn simple associations,
such as training a dogs- well, maybe not my dogs,
but, they- suppose they can still learn.
So thus, we call this type of learning associative learning.
There may be two stimuli, as in classical conditioning,
or a response and its consequences, as in operant conditioning.
Conditioning is the process of learning these associations.
In classical conditioning, we associate two stimuli
and learn to anticipate events.
For example, we learn that every time we play online poker,
we might win.
So a variable schedule of results
means we go back, just in case we might win again.
In operant conditioning,
we associate a response and its consequences,
so we can shape the behaviour that we want.
For example,
texting a friend usually has, as a positive consequence,
that you receive a text in return as your social reward.
So this means we learn that texting is a positive experience.
And finally, observational learning
is when we learn from others’ experiences and examples.
There is evidence to show that some behaviour,
including violent behaviour,
increases as a result of watching certain violent video games.
Pavlov performed classic experiments
using dogs salivating to tones,
in order to demonstrate classical conditioning.
And Watson followed the work of Pavlov,
and his work argued that although it is biologically influenced,
most human behaviour is mainly
just a bunch of conditioned responses.
So his work influenced psych- psychology
for the really the first half of the 20th century,
and focused on behaviourism.
Both Pavlov and Watson did not like the idea
of mental concepts such as consciousness, awareness.
They believed that the basic laws of learning
were the same for all animals, whether dogs or humans.
Do you agree?
Those of you who are dog owners may or may not agree.
Let's take a more detailed look at classical conditioning.
What Pavlov did was he paired various neutral stimuli, such as a bell tone,
with food in the mouth, to see if the dog would begin salivating
to the neutral stimulus alone.
And after several times of placing food in the mouth
with a bell tone,
the dog began salivating to just the tone alone.
Can you think of some examples where this would apply
in the digital world?
Here are some terms to remember.
The unconditioned response would be the salivating
in response of food in the mouth,
which happens automatically without any learning,
and the unconditioned stimulus would be the food in the mouth
that triggers salivation.
After learning occurs, we have a conditioned response,
which means that the salivation is triggered by the bell tone,
and the conditioned stimulus is the actual bell tone
that used to be irrelevant to the animal,
but now causes a conditioned response.
[David] Hi Psych 101 class, I'm David,
and I'm gonna be testing Pavlov's theory of classical conditioning
on my roommate Brian.
The conditioned stimulus will be this sound effect,
[electronic device] 'That was easy.'
[David] And then I'm gonna shoot him with this airsoft gun.
He will soon learn the relationship
between the sound effect and the shot,
before he gets too hurt.
[electronic device] 'That was easy.' [click of gun]
[electronic device] 'That was easy.' [click of gun]
[Brian] Agh!
[electronic device] 'That was easy.' [click of gun]
[Brian] F*#k.
[electronic device] 'That was easy.' [click of gun]
[electronic device] 'That was easy.'
[David] Alright guys, looks like Pavlov's theory worked.
[bell rings] [Jim] Oh, damn,
I've lost another file.
Gonna have to reboot, again.
[Windows reboot sound]
[Jim] Hey Dwight, do you want an Altoid?
[Dwight] What do you think?
[Jim] In school, we learned about this scientist
who trained dogs to salivate at the sound of a bell
by feeding them whenever a bell rang.
So for the past couple of weeks, I've been conducting
a similar experiment.
[Windows reboot sound]
[Jim] Dwight, want an Altoid? [Dwight] Okay.
[Windows reboot sound]
[Jim] Altoid? [Dwight] Sure.
[Windows reboot sound] [Jim] Hey Dwight, imprinting?
[Dwight] Yes.
[Windows reboot sound]
[Dwight sighs]
[Jim] What are you doing?
[Dwight] I....
[Jim] What? [Dwight] I don't know, I...
oh... my mouth tastes so bad all of a sudden.
Agh.
[lecturer] Some people might argue that we're conditioned
to respond to technology.
Do you agree?
Applications of this are basically the "use it or lose it" phenomenon.
In acquisition, which is the first stage of classical conditioning,
uh, we derive the behaviour
and we elicit a conditioned response.
Extinction means that we have diminished
the conditioned response – basically we've stopped practising it,
we've stopped responding to that sim- stimulus.
Spontaneous recovery means that after a rest period
of an extinguished response, we can actually regenerate
that res- learned response.
Generalization means our tendency to respond to stimuli
that are similar to the conditioned stimulus.
For example, for a toddler who is taught to fear moving cars,
might also respond the same to trucks or motorcycles,
whatever is in the street.
And discrimination can happen –
Pavlov’s dogs learned to respond to a particular tone
and not to other tones.
So that's a learned ability to distinguish between
the conditioned stimulus and other irrelevant stimuli.
I'm not really sure my animals could do that.
Pavlov and Watson were early behaviourists,
and they underestimated the importance
of our cognitive processes –
our thoughts, perceptions, our feelings and expectations.
And classical conditioning treatments that ignore cognition
have some limited success.
We now know that an animal’s capacity to learn
is constrained by its biology,
and there is a definite difference between pigeons and people.
Some practical applications of classical conditioning
might be where a drug counsellor advises and adul- addict
to steer clear of settings that are associated
with previous drug use.
Or using an aversive and negative experience related to using,
it can reverse people's positive associations with it.
Let's move on to operant conditioning with B.F. Skinner.
Skinner designed an operant chamber called a Skinner box
where basically, he ch- trained a rat
to shape its behaviour and press a lever
to get a food reward.
He called this learning process "shaping,"
where reinforcers such as food
gradually guide the actions that you want
towards a desired behaviour.
And if you've ever tried to train your animals,
you know what this is.
The trainer builds on the organism’s
pre-existing naturally occurring behaviours
such as eating.
In online shopping, for example, or online gaming,
we are progressively rewarded for continuing to play or buy
with points or other rewards.
Some of the principles of reinforcement in operant conditioning are as follows.
The positive reinforcer is the reward
that strengthens the frequency of the behaviour.
The negative reinforcer means we're removing something negative
in order to strengthen the desired behaviour.
A primary reinforcer is something like food
that meets a biological need,
and a secondary reinforcer is something that gains its power
through its association that we learn
with the primary reinforcer.
Continuous reinforcement means we're rewarded every time it occurs,
such as a video game when we get points.
And partial or intermittent is the desired response
that increases greater persistence and resistance to extinction
in the long run.
[audience laughter]
[Japanese voice on TV]
[audience laughter]
[Penny] What's this cartoon called again?
[Leonard] 'Oshikuru Demon Samurai' [audience laughter]
[Sheldon] It's not a cartoon, it's anime.
[audience laughter]
[Penny] Anime...
You know, I knew a girl in high school named "Anna-May."
Anna-May Fletcher.
[audience laughter]
[Penny] She was born with one nostril,
and she had this bad nose job and basically wound up with three!
[audience laughter]
[Penny] Ha, ha, ha.
Ahhh.
[Sheldon] You're here a lot now.
[audience laughter]
[Penny] Oh, am I talking to much?
Oh, I'm sorry, zi-p! [Sheldon] Thank you.
Chocolate? [audience laughter]
[Penny] Yes please.
[audience laughter]
[cell phone rings] [Penny] Oh! Hey Kim!
Yeah, I...
You know what, hold on, let me take this in the hall.
[audience laughter]
[Penny offscreen] You'll never guess who they got to replace the...
[Leonard] Okay...
I know what you're doing. [Sheldon] Really?
[Leonard] Yes! You're using chocolates as positive reinforcement
for what you consider correct behaviour!
[audience laughter]
[Sheldon] Very good! Chocolate?
[Leonard] No! [inaudible] [audience laughter and applause]
[Leonard] Sheldon, you can't train my girlfriend like a lab rat.
[audience laughter]
[Sheldon] Actually, it turns out I can.
[audience laughter]
[Leonard] Well, you shouldn't.
[Sheldon] Oh, augh, there's just no pleasing you is there, Leonard?
You weren't happy with my previous approach
to dealing with her, so I decided to employ
operant conditioning techniques,
building on the works of Thorndike and B.F. Skinner.
Ye- by this time next week,
I believe I can have her jumping out of a pool,
bouncing a beach ball on her nose.
[audience laughter]
[Leonard] No! This has to stop now.
[Sheldon] I'm not suggesting we really make her jump out of a pool!
I thought the "bazinga" was implied!
[audience laughter]
[Sheldon] I'm just tweaking her personality,
sanding off the rough edges, if you will.
[Leonard] No, you're not sanding Penny!
[Sheldon] Are you saying that I am forbidden
from applying a harmless scientifically valid protocol
that will make our lives better?
[Leonard] Yes... you're forbidden.
[Sheldon] Bad Leonard. [audience laughter]
[lecturer] Reinforcement schedules can vary
in classical conditioning.
The fixed ratio means we reinforce the behaviour
after a certain number of responses- correct responses,
and the variable means we reinforce
after an unpredictable number of responses.
A fixed interval schedule means
you reinforce the first response, and then after a fixed time period,
versus the variable interval,
where you reinforce the response after varying time intervals.
And there are different results for each of these.
Skinner didn't consider, really,
that cognitive processes could affect learning and behaviour.
We know now that we can develop cognitive maps
and mental representations of our surroundings,
and that we move beyond things like reward and punishment,
so that learning in human beings is a very complex process.
What are the applications of operant conditioning?
Well, in schools, we have things like reward and punishment.
In businesses, we have employee performance rewards,
and consumer behaviour, such as collecting aeroplan points or rewards.
Uh, and also in drug use and abuse,
rewards and punishment are, are factor in treatment of that.
Skinner’s belief that a good education needs immediate rewards
might be evident in any kind of web based learning
where we can get immediate feedback for correct responses.
Finally, let's move on to observational learning.
This is an important one, given our world of social media.
Bandura was a pioneer in social learning
and observational learning.
He did a famous Bobo doll experiment
that showed that kids would learn to be violent with a doll
after witnessing an aggressive outburst.
He also said that antisocial models have antisocial effects.
Prosocial models can also have prosocial affects.
So let's think of some of the, um, implications for this
in kids watching TV, in violent TV or violent movies.
Here are the Synthesis Questions for this video.
First, how does technology condition us
to respond in certain ways?
What rewards reinforce our responses to technology
as in operant conditioning?
And how do you think exposure to violence or virtual reality
changes our learning experience
and our perception of what is actually real?
[guitar muic]