Learning and behavior

344 Pages·2014·129.722 MB·English

by  James E. Mazur.

Learning and Behavior
James E. Mazur
Seventh Edition
ISBN 10: 1-292-02274-4
ISBN 13: 978-1-292-02274-1
Pearson Education Limited
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ISBN 10: 1-292-02274-4
ISBN 13: 978-1-292-02274-1
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P E A R S O N C U S T O M L I B R AR Y
Table of Contents
1. History, Background, and Basic Concepts
James E. Mazur 1
2. Innate Behavior Patterns and Habituation
James E. Mazur 27
3. Basic Principles of Classical Conditioning
James E. Mazur 51
4. Theories and Research on Classical Conditioning
James E. Mazur 79
5. Basic Principles of Operant Conditioning
James E. Mazur 105
6. Reinforcement Schedules: Experimental Analyses and Applications
James E. Mazur 133
7. Avoidance and Punishment
James E. Mazur 159
8. Theories and Research on Operant Conditioning
James E. Mazur 187
9. Stimulus Control and Concept Learning
James E. Mazur 211
10. Comparative Cognition
James E. Mazur 235
11. Learning Motor Skills
James E. Mazur 261
12. Learning by Observation
James E. Mazur 283
13. Choice
James E. Mazur 305
I
333
Index 333
II
History, Background,
and Basic Concepts
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading this chapter, you should be able to
■ describe the early theories of memory ■ explain how our sensory receptors respond
proposed by the Associationists and the early to “simple sensations” and how feature
memory studies of Hermann Ebbinghaus detectors in the visual system respond to
■ explain the behavioral and cognitive more complex patterns
approaches to studying learning and how ■ list three main types of changes that can
they differ take place in the brain as a result of a
■ explain the advantages and disadvantages learning experience, and present evidence
of using animals in psychological research for each type
■ discuss intervening variables, and the
debate over whether they should be used
in psychology
If you know nothing about the branch of psychology called learning, you may have some
misconceptions about the scope of this field. I can recall browsing through the course catalog
as a college freshman and coming across a course offered by the Department of Psychology
with the succinct title “Learning.” Without bothering to read the course description, I wondered
about the contents of this course. Learning, I reasoned, is primarily the occupation of students.
Would this course teach students better study habits, better reading, and better note-taking
skills? Or did the course examine learning in children, covering such topics as the best ways to
teach a child to read, to write, to do arithmetic? Did it deal with children who have learning dis-
abilities? It was difficult to imagine spending an entire semester on these topics, which sounded
fairly narrow and specialized for an introductory-level course.
From Chapter 1 of Learning and Behavior, Seventh Edition. James E. Mazur. Copyright © 2013 by Pearson
Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
1
History, Background, and Basic Concepts
My conception of the psychology of learn- type of behavior, many different questions would
ing was wrong in several respects. First, a psychol- probably come to mind. Some questions might
ogy course emphasizing learning in the classroom deal with the learning process itself: Did the ani-
would probably have a title such as “Educational mal open the can purely by accident, or was it
Psychology” rather than “Learning.” My second guided by some “plan of action”? What factors
error was the assumption that the psychology of determine how long the raccoon will persist in
learning is a narrow field. A moment’s reflection manipulating the garbage can if it is not imme-
reveals that students do not have a monopoly on diately successful in obtaining something to eat?
learning. Children learn a great deal before ever Such questions deal with what might be called the
entering a classroom, and adults must continue to acquisition phase, or the period in which the ani-
adapt to an ever-changing environment. Because mal is acquiring a new skill.
learning occurs at all ages, the psychological dis- Once the raccoon has had considerable
cipline of learning places no special emphasis on experience in dealing with garbage cans, it may
the subset of learning that occurs in the class- encounter few surprises in its expeditions through
room. Furthermore, since the human being is the neighborhood. Although the acquisition
only one of thousands of species on this planet process is essentially over as far as garbage cans are
that have the capacity to learn, the psychological concerned, we can continue to examine the rac-
discipline of learning is by no means restricted coon’s behavior, asking somewhat different ques-
to the study of human beings. For reasons to be tions that deal with the performance of learned
explained, a large percentage of all psychological behaviors. The raccoon will have only intermittent
experiments on learning have used nonhuman success in obtaining food from garbage cans—
subjects. Though they may have their faults, psy- sometimes a can will be empty and sometimes it
chologists in the field of learning are not chauvin- will contain nothing edible. How frequently will
istic about the human species. the raccoon visit a given backyard, and how will
Although even specialists have difficulty the animal’s success rate affect the frequency of
defining the term learning precisely, most would its visits? Will its visits occur at the most advan-
agree that it is a process of change that occurs as a tageous times of the day or week? Such questions
result of an individual’s experience. Psychologists concern the end product of the learning process,
who study learning are interested in this process the raccoon’s new behavior patterns. This text is
wherever it occurs—in adults, in school children, entitled Learning and Behavior, rather than simply
in other mammals, in reptiles, and in insects. This Learning, to reflect the fact that the psychology of
may sound like a large subject matter, but the field learning encompasses both the acquisition process
of learning is even broader than this, because re- and the long-term behavior that results.
searchers in this area study not only the process
of learning but also the product of learning—the
The Search for General
long-term changes in an individual’s behavior that
PrinciPleS of learninG
result from a learning experience.
An example may help to clarify the distinc- Because the psychology of learning deals with
tion between process and product. Suppose you all types of learning and learned behaviors in
glance out the window and see a raccoon near all types of creatures, its scope is broad indeed.
some garbage cans in the backyard. As you watch, Think, for a moment, of the different behaviors
the raccoon gradually manages to knock over a you performed in the first hour or two after ris-
garbage can, remove the lid, and tear open the ing this morning. How many of those behaviors
garbage bag inside. Imagine that the smell of food would not have been possible without prior learn-
attracted the raccoon to the garbage cans, but ing? In most cases, the decision is easy to make.
that it has never encountered such objects before. Getting dressed, washing your face, making your
If we were interested in studying this particular bed, and going to the dining room for breakfast
2
History, Background, and Basic Concepts
are all examples of behaviors that depend mostly
or entirely on previous learning experiences. The
behavior of eating breakfast depends on several
different types of learning, including the selec-
tion of appropriate types and quantities of food,
the proper use of utensils, and the development
of coordinated hand, eye, and mouth move-
ments. Except for behaviors that must occur
c ontinuously for a person to survive, such as
breathing and the beating of the heart, it is dif-
ficult to think of many human behaviors that do
not depend on prior learning.
Considering all of the behaviors of hu- fiGure 1 An experimental chamber in which a
mans and other creatures that involve learning, rat can receive food pellets by pressing a lever. The
the scope of this branch of psychology may seem pellets are delivered into the square opening below
the lever. This chamber is also equipped with lights
hopelessly broad. How can any single discipline
and a speaker so that visual and auditory signals can
hope to make any useful statements about all these
be presented. (Photo courtesy of James E. Mazur).
different instances of learning? It would make no
sense to study, one by one, every different example This strategy of searching for general prin-
of learning that one might come across, and this is ciples is certainly not unique to the psychology
not the approach of most researchers who study of learning. Attempts to discover principles or
learning. Instead, their strategy has been to select laws with wide applicability are a part of most
a relatively small number of learning situations, s cientific endeavors. For example, a general
study them in detail, and then try to generalize principle in physics is the law of gravity, which
from these situations to other instances of learn- predicts, among other things, the distance a
ing. Therefore, the goal of much of the research freely falling object will drop in a given period of
on learning has been to develop general principles time. If an object starts from a stationary posi-
that are applicable across a wide range of species tion and falls for t seconds, the equation d = 16t2
and learning situations. predicts the distance (in feet) that the object will
B. F. Skinner, one of the most influential fig- fall. The law of gravity is certainly a general prin-
ures in the history of psychology, made his belief ciple, because in theory it applies to any falling
in this strategy explicit in his first major work, The object, whether a rock, a baseball, or a skydiver.
Behavior of Organisms (1938). In his initial stud- Nevertheless, the law of gravity has its limita-
ies, Skinner chose white rats as subjects and lever tions. As with most scientific principles, it is ap-
pressing as a response. An individual rat would be plicable only when certain criteria are met. Two
placed in a small experimental chamber containing restrictions on the equation are that it applies
little more than a lever and a tray into which food (1) only to objects close to the earth’s surface, and
was occasionally presented after the rat pressed (2) only as long as no other force, such as air re-
the lever. A modern version of such a chamber is sistance, plays a role. If we chose to ignore these
shown in Figure 1. In studying the behavior of rats criteria, it would be easy to “disprove” the law of
in such a sparse environment, Skinner felt that he gravity. We could simply drop a rock and a leaf
could discover principles that govern the behavior and show that the leaf falls much more slowly.
of many animals, including human beings, in the But once the restrictions on the law of gravity
more complex environments found outside the are acknowledged, our experiment proves noth-
psychological laboratory. ing, because we did not eliminate the influence
3
History, Background, and Basic Concepts
of air resistance. This example shows why it is chapter will introduce a third approach to study-
frequently necessary to retreat to the laboratory ing learning—the physiological approach—which
to perform a meaningful test of a scientific prin- e xamines what happens in the brain and in indi-
ciple. In the laboratory, the role of air resistance vidual nerve cells when we learn.
can be minimized through the use of a vacuum
chamber. The leaf and the rock will fall at the
same rate in this artificial environment, thereby The aSSociaTioniSTS
verifying the law of gravity. For similar reasons,
aristotle
orderly principles of learning and behavior that
might be obscured by many extraneous factors in The Greek philosopher Aristotle (c. 350 B.C.) is gen-
the natural environment may be uncovered in a erally acknowledged to be the first Associationist.
laboratory environment. He proposed three principles of association that
Once the restrictions on the law of gravity can be viewed as an elementary theory of memory.
are specified, a naive reader might conclude that Aristotle suggested that these principles describe
the law has no practical use, because the natu- how one thought leads to another. Before read-
ral environment provides no vacuums near the ing about Aristotle’s principles, you can try some-
earth’s surface. However, this conclusion is cor- thing Aristotle never did: You can conduct a simple
rect only if extremely precise measurements are experiment to test these principles. This experiment,
demanded, because for many solid objects with a which should take only a minute or two, can be
roughly spherical shape, the role of air resistance called a study of free association. Get a piece of
is so negligible that the law of gravity makes rea- paper and a pencil, and write numbers 1 through 12
sonably accurate predictions. Similarly, it would in a column down the left side of the paper. Figure
be naive to assume that a psychological principle 2 contains a list of words also numbered 1 through
has no relevance to the natural environment sim- 12. Reading one word at a time, write down the
ply because that principle is most clearly demon- first two or three words that come to mind. Do not
strated in the laboratory. spend much time on any one word—your first few
Within the field of psychology, researchers responses will be the most informative.
have studied the topic of learning in several dif- Once you have your list of responses to
ferent ways. The remainder of this chapter gives the 12 words, look over your answers and try
an overview of these different approaches, plus a to formulate some rules that describe the types
brief history of the field. We will begin with some of responses you made. Can you guess any of
of the earliest recorded thoughts about learning Aristotle’s three principles? Aristotle’s first prin-
and memory, developed by philosophers called ciple of association was contiguity: The more
Associationists and later tested by the psycholo- closely together (contiguous) in space or time
gist Hermann Ebbinghaus. We will then ex- two items occur, the more likely will the thought
amine and compare two modern approaches of one item lead to the thought of the other. For
to learning—the behavioral and cognitive example, the response chair to the word table
approaches—and how they differ. Finally, this
1. apple 7. girl
2. night 8. dentist
3. thunder 9. quiet
4. bread 10. sunset
5. chair 11. elephant
6. bat 12. blue
fiGure 2 Words for the free-association
experiment.
4
History, Background, and Basic Concepts
illustrates association by spatial contiguity, since concept a person has is based on one or more
the two items are often found close together. The previous experiences.
response lightning to the word thunder is an ex- The opposite of Empiricism is Nativism,
ample of association by temporal contiguity. or the position that some ideas are innate and do
Other examples of association by contiguity are not depend on an individual’s past experience.
bread-butter and dentist-pain. For instance, the Nativist Immanuel Kant (1781)
Aristotle’s other two principles of association believed that the concepts of space and time are
were similarity and contrast. He stated that the inborn and that through experience new con-
thought of one concept often leads to the thought cepts are built on the foundation of these origi-
of similar concepts. Examples of a ssociation by nal, innate concepts. The Empiricist position is
similarity are the responses orange or pear to the the more extreme of the two because it allows for
prompt apple, or the responses yellow or green no counterexamples—it takes just one example of
to the prompt blue. By contrast, Aristotle meant an innate concept to refute the Empiricist posi-
that an item often leads to the thought of its op- tion. Modern research has uncovered numerous
posite (e.g., night-day, girl-boy, sunset-sunrise). examples that contradict the extreme Empiricist
Most people who try this simple free-association position.
experiment conclude that Aristotle’s principles of Fortunately, Associationism is not logi-
association have both strengths and weaknesses. cally tied to extreme Empiricism. We can grant
On the negative side, the list of principles seems that some concepts are innate but many con-
incomplete; other factors that affect the train of cepts are developed through experience. The
thought may have already occurred to you. On the British Empiricists offered some hypotheses
positive side, Aristotle’s principles have some in- both about how old concepts become associat-
tuitive validity for most people, and they seem to ed in memory and about how new concepts are
be a reasonable first step in the development of a formed. According to the Associationists, there is
theory about the relationship between experience a direct correspondence between experience and
and memory. memory. Experience consists of sensations, and
memory consists of ideas. Furthermore, any sen-
sory experience can be broken down into simple
The British associationists:
sensations. For instance, if a person observes a
Simple and complex ideas
red box-shaped object, this sensation might be
For Aristotle, the principles of association were broken down into two simple sensations: red
simply hypotheses about how one thought leads and rectangular. At some later time, the person’s
to another. For many of the philosophers who memory of this experience would consist of the
wrote about Associationism several centuries two corresponding simple ideas of red and rectan-
later, this topic assumed a much greater sig- gular. Thus, as illustrated in Figure 3a, there is a
nificance: Associationism was seen as a theory one-to-one correspondence between simple sen-
of all knowledge. The British Associationists sations and simple ideas. A simple idea was said
included Thomas Hobbes (1651), John Locke to be a sort of faint replica of the simple sensation
(1690), James Mill (1829), and John Stuart Mill from which it arose.
(1843). These writers are also called the British Now suppose that the person repeatedly en-
Empiricists because of their belief that every per- counters such a red box-shaped object. Through
son acquires all knowledge empirically, that is, the principles of contiguity, an association should
through experience. This viewpoint is typified by develop between the ideas of red and rectangle, as
John Locke’s statement that the mind of a new- shown in Figure 3b. Once such an association is
born child is a tabula rasa (a blank slate) on which formed, if the person experiences the color red,
experience makes its mark. The Empiricists be- this will not only invoke the idea of red, but by
lieved that every memory, every idea, and every
5