Nina Ian John “G” Rachel Mark Jocelle Edo Gienah Jho Kath Aynz Je Glad Nickie Ricobear

Teacher Dadang Niňa Arlene Vivs Paul F. Rico F. Ren Mai Revs Mavis Jepay Yana Mayi Serge Hung Tope Bien Ag

Lec 6: LEARNING THEORIES, ATTACHMENT and COGNITIVE THEORY Pretrans Edition

LEARNING THEORY  Example: a dog conditioned to respond to a bell also responds to

the sound of a tuning fork
LEARNING
DISCRIMINATION
 Change in behavior resulting from repeated practice, and
both the environment and the behavior interact to produce  Process of recognizing and responding to differences between
the learned change. similar stimuli
 May be STATE DEPENDENT (learning is best recalled when  If two stimuli are sufficiently different, an animal can learn to
a person is in the same internal state or external respond to one and not the other
environment in w/c the info was first acquired)  Example: an animal can learn to respond differentially to similar
 Types: bells or a child learns to discriminate 4-legged animals into dogs,
o Classical Conditioning cats, cows, etc.
o Operant Conditioning
o Social Learning Theory OPERANT (INSTRUMENTAL) CONDITIONING

CLASSICAL (RESPONDENT) CONDITIONING  Developed by B.F. Skinner

 The animal is active and behaves in a way that produces a
 Ivan Pavlov reward
 Results from the repeated paring of a neutral (conditioned)  Related to a TRIAL and ERROR learning
stimulus with one that evokes a response (unconditioned o Person attempts to solve a problem by trying different
stimulus), such that the neutral stimulus eventually comes to actions until one proves successful
evoke a response  Results from the consequences of a person’s actions
 Before conditioning:
o Food (UCS) = salivation (UCR) Thorndike’s law of effect
o Bell (CS) paired with food (UCS) = salivation
(UCR)  States that certain responses are reinforced by reward, and
 After conditioning: organism learns from these experiences
o Bell (CS) = salivation (UCR)
FOUR KINDS OF OPERANT CONDITIONING

Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) – natural cause of a response 1.) Primary reward conditioning – simplest kind; learned response is
Unconditioned Response (UCR) – natural reaction to the stimulus instrumental in obtaining a biologically significant reward
Conditioned Stimulus (CS) – cause of response paired with the UCS
2.) Escape conditioning – organism learns a response that is
Conditioned Response (CR) – reaction to the CS
instrumental in getting out of some place where it prefers not to
be
EXTINCTION 3.) Avoidance conditioning – a response to a cue is instrumental in
avoiding a painful experience
 Occurs when the conditioned stimulus is constantly repeated 4.) Secondary reward conditioning – instrumental behavior to get a
without the unconditioned stimulus until the response evoked stimulus has no biological usefulness itself but has in the past
by the conditioned stimulus gradually weakens and been associated with biologically significant stimulus
eventually disappears.
o Bell (CS), repeatedly rung without food (UCS) = Two types of behavior (Skinner)
salivation (CR) does not occur
A.) RESPONDENT – results from known stimuli (e.g. knee jerk reflex)
PARTIAL RECOVERY B.) OPERANT – independent of a stimulus (e.g. random movements
of infants)
 If the animal is rested after extinction , the conditioned
response returns, although less strong than the original TERM DEFINITION
response Reinforcer (Reward) Anything that maintains a
response or increases its
STIMULUS GENERALIZATION strength

Primary Reinforcer Independent of previous

 A conditioned response is transferred from one stimulus to
learning
another
 Animals respond to stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus Secondary Reinforcer Based on previous learning
Programming (Reinforcement Varying the schedule of reward
Schedule) or reinforcement for a

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 behavioral pattern ALBERT BANDURA

Continuous Reinforcement Schedule Leads to most rapid acquisition  Major proponent of social learning school
(Contingency of behavior, not the  Behavior results from the interplay between cognitive and
Reinforcement/Management) maintenance of behavior
environmental factors – RECIPROCAL DETERMINISM
Maintaining behavior that is  Persons learn by observing others intentionally or accidentally 
Partial/Intermittent Reinforcement resistant to extinction modeling
Positive Reinforcement Process by which certain  Choice of model is influenced by age, sex, status and similarity
consequences of a response  If chosen model reflects healthy norms & values, person develops
increase the probability that SELF-EFFICACY  capacity to adapt to normal, everyday life as
the response will recur
well as to threatening situations
Process by which a response
Negative Reinforcement that leads to the removal of an COGNITIVE LEARNING
adverse event is increased;
NOT PUNISHMENT COGNITION

Punishment Aversive stimulus that is  Process of obtaining, organizing & using intellectual knowledge
presented specifically to  Focus on the role of understanding
weaken/suppress an
 Implies understanding the connection between cause and effect,
undesired response
Aversive Control Organism changes its behavior between action & the consequences of the action
to avoid a painful, noxious, or  Involves calling up and processing relevant information from
aversive stimulus stored memory
Shaping Behavior (Successive Involves changing behavior in
Approximation) a deliberate and COGNITIVE STRATEGIES
predetermined way
 Mental plans that persons use to understand themselves and the
The closer the time of environment
reinforcement is to the operant
 Aaron Beck – treatment therapy for the depressed; teaches
behavior, the better the
learning patients to recognize and value their assets and alerts them to the
Escape Learning Animal learns a response to cognitive patterns that causes the depression
get out of a place where it  Beck’s Cognitive Triad (exists in depression)
does not want to be (e.g. o Person’s negative view of self
animal jumps off an electric o Negative interpretation of experience
grid whenever the grid is
o Negative expectation of the future
charged)
INFORMATION PROCESSING
Requires an additional
Avoidance Learning response (e.g. rat on the grid  Sequence of mental operations involving input, storage, and
learns to avoid a shock if it output of information
quickly pushes a lever when a
Note: For an animal to shift from escape light signal goes on) COGNITIVE DISSONANCE
to avoidance learning, an animal must
make an anticipatory response to prevent  Incongruity or disharmony among persons’ beliefs, knowledge,
the punishment. and behavior. When dissonance becomes too great, persons
change their ways of thinking or behaving to lessen the
Adventitious Reinforcement Responses accidentally disharmony (e.g. a person’s unwillingness to believe that a very
reinforced by coincidental expensive car or one that is considered a status symbol could
pairing of response and have anything wrong with it or could be defective in anyway)
reinforcement  Dissonance occurs when there is a palpable disparity between
two experimental or behavioral elements
PREMACK’S PRINCIPLE (GRANDMA’S RULE)  Apparently produces an uncomfortable tension state that persons
 States that a behavior engaged in with high frequency can be are motivated to change
used to reinforce a low frequency behavior
 Grandma’s rule: “If you eat your spinach, you will have dessert” ATTRIBUTION THEORY

SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY  Cognitive approach concerned with how persons perceive the
causes of behavior; persons are likely to attribute their own
 Relies on rare modeling, identification, and human interactions behavior to situational causes but are likely to attribute others’
 Persons can learn by imitating the behavior of another person behavior to stable internal dispositions (personality traits); the
 Incorporates both classical and operant models of learning but particular cause that a person attributes to a given event
also considers a reciprocal interaction influences subsequent feelings and behavior

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 NEUROPHYSIOLOGY OF LEARNING MOTIVATION

 Clark L. Hull – drive reduction theory of learning  State of being that produces a tendency toward an action
o Postulated that neurophysiological connections  The state may be:
established in the CNS reduce the level of the drive o Deprivation (e.g. hunger)
(e.g. obtaining food reduces hunger) o Value system
 Habit – critical connection between the stimulus and the motor o Strongly held belief (e.g. religion)
response; a neurophysiological reaction  The INTENSITY of motivation to master any task is determined
 Habits are strengthened when a response further reduces the by:
drive associated with the aroused need o Achievement motive
o Likelihood of Success
NEUROPHYSIOLOGY OF LEARNING  ANXIOUS BEHAVIOR
HABITUATION Causes the organism to stop responding reflexively as a o Joseph Wolpe
result of the repeated stimulus o Persistent habits of learned or conditioned responses
SENSITIZATION Reflex response made more sensitive, so that a
acquired in anxiety – generating situations
subthreshold stimulus can elicit a response

ATTACHMENT THEORY
 Example: The snail Aplysia: withdrawal retraction of its siphon
when it is touched is a defensive reflex mechanism. But it learns
 ATTACHMENT – emotional tone between children and their
to not withdraw its siphon when you touch its siphon repeatedly
caregivers and is evidenced by an infant’s seeking and clinging to
(habituation). It can also be sensitized by giving it a strong
the caregiver person
stimulus (e.g. an electric shock) then, even a subthreshold
 BONDING – concerns the mother’s feelings for her infant and
stimulus causes the animal to withdraw its siphon and gills.
differs from attachment
 The experiment on the Aplysia shows that habituation develops
BEFORE sensitization
PHASES OF ATTACHMENT
 Eric Kandel – learning avoidance behavior alters the chemical
Preattachment stage Babies follow their mother with their eyes
structure of cells in the nervous system (birth – 8 or 12 wks) Turn toward and move rhythmically with their
mother’s voice
MEMORY FORMATION & STORAGE Attachment in the Become attached to one or more person
STRUCTURES INVOLVED Hippocampus making
Cortex (8 to 12wks – 6 mos)
Cerebellum Clear –cut Attachment Cry and shows signs of distress when separated
(6mos – 24 mos) from the caretaker
Note: Learning begins w/ the senses Fourth Phase The mother figure is seen as independent
taking in an environmental stimulus that (25mos and beyond) More complex relationship develops
is eventually transformed into a memory
trace or a memory link
 John Bowlby
TYPES OF MEMORY
o Normal attachment in infancy is crucial to a person’s
LONG – TERM MEMORY Has increased time to link with many
(Recent memory, recent past locations in the cortex  retained healthy development
memory, remote memory, longer; more connections  better o Attachment  warm, intimate and continuous
secondary memory) chance of relieving the memory relationship with the mother
Repeated relieving of a memory o Suggested a Darwinian evolutionary basis for
enhances its permanence. attachment behavior that is, adults protect their young
 Ethological studies
Smell and emotion may underlie long
term memory o IMPRINTING – an instinctual attachment system;
SHORT – TERM MEMORY Adversely affected by chronic emotional certain stimuli can elicit innate behavior patterns during
(Immediate memory, working stress, psychological exhaustion, or too the first few hours of an animal’s behavioral
memory, primary memory and much input development (in humans, imprinting occurs in a span
buffer memory) of years rather than hours)
Limited to FIVE TO NINE bits of  The first year of life is the so-called critical
information
period in which the infant builds attachment
and bond between the mother/caregiver
 Storage is the key to a good memory
o Harry Harlow
 Processing information at a semantic level involves more of the
 Demonstrated the emotional and behavioral
mind than does rote memorization
effects of isolating monkeys from birth and
 Semantic information decays at a slower rate than information keeping them from forming attachments
superficially memorized.
 Mary Ainsworth
 Learning and memory is affected by stress o Interaction between the mother and her baby during
o ↑ in adrenaline (from stress) CAN ENHANCE learning the attachment period significantly influences the
(tara, magpakastress na tayo!) BUT WAIT! baby’s current and future behavior
o TOO MUCH stress, can INHIBIT learning (aww, so
tamang stress lang pala dapat)

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 o Confirmed that attachment serves the purpose of  Psychological health and sense of well-being depend significantly
reducing anxiety upon the quality of a person’s relationships and attachment to
o SECURE BASE EFFECT – enables children to move others
away from attachment figures and to explore the  Attachment styles
environment o Anxious-ambivalent
o STRANGE SITUATION – the research protocol for  Obsessed with romantic partners
assessing the quality and security of infant’s  Suffer extreme jealousy, high divorce rates
attachment o Avoidant
 Afraid of intimacy
ANXIETY  Tend to withdraw when there is stress in the
relationship
 A child’s sense of distress during separation is perceived as o Secure
anxiety and is the prototype of anxiety.  Highly invested in relationships
 Security – the opposite of anxiety  Behave without much possessiveness or
 Separation anxiety – response of a child who is isolated or fear of rejection
separated from its mother or caretaker
 Stranger anxiety – anxiety response to someone other than the COGNITIVE THEORY
caregiver
 Jean Piaget
SIGNAL INDICATORS  4 developmental stages:
o Sensorimotor Stage (Birth to 2 years)
 Infant’s sign of distress that elicit a response in the mother o Preoperational Thought (2 to 7 years)
 Primary signal – crying o Concrete Operations (7 – 9 years)
 Three types: o Formal Operations
o Hunger
o Anger STAGE CHARACTERISTICS
o Pain Sensorimotor
 Other signals: smiling, cooing and looking Birth to 2 years Uses inborn motor and sensory
reflexes to interact and
LOSING ATTACHMENTS accommodate to the external world

 Person’s reaction to the death of a parent or spouse can be 2 – 5 months Primary circular reaction –
coordinates activities of own body 5
traced to the nature of their past and present attachment to the
senses
lost figure
5 – 9 months Secondary circular reaction – seeks
DISORDERS OF ATTACHMENT out new stimuli in the env’t;
intentional behavior begins
 A biopsychosocial pathology that results from maternal
deprivation, a lack of care by and interaction with the mother or 9 mos – 1 year Shows preliminary signs of object
caregiver permanence
 Sequence of behavior patterns children manifest when they are
1 year – 18 mos Tertiary circular reaction – seeks out
long separated from their mothers (>3 mos) new experiences through active
o Protest – crying, calling out, searching experimentation
o Despair – child lose hope
o Detachment – child emotionally separates himself from 18 mos – 2 years Symbolic thought – uses symbolic
mother representation of events and
objects; shows signs of reasoning;
 Anaclitic depression (Hospitalism)
attains object permanence
o Rene Spitz Preoperational Thought Uses symbols and language more
o Infants who had made normal attachments but were extensively; reasoning are intuitive;
suddenly separated from their mothers and placed in unable to think logically or
institution or hospitals deductively and their concepts are
o Children  depressed, withdrawn, unresponsive and primitive; cannot deal with moral
vulnerable to physical illness but recovers when dilemmas
mother returns
Immanent Justice – belief that
punishment for bad deeds is
CHILD MALTREATMENT inevitable
Egocentrism – see themselves as
 When children are rejected by their parents or are afraid of them, the center of the universe; limited
their attachment may increase point of view; they are unable to take
the role of another person
RELATIONSHIP DISORDERS

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 Phenomalistic Causality – events
that occur together are thought to
cause one another

Animistic Thinking – tendency to

endow physical events and objects
with lifelike psychological attributes, Brought to you by: Luke Psych-walker
such as feelings and emotions
(RPE-JG)
SEMIOTIC FUNCTION – children
can use a symbol or sign to stand
for something else
Concrete Operations Children operate and act on
concrete, real and perceivable world
of objects and events; egocentric 
operational thought

Operational thought – involves

dealing with a wide array of
information outside the child. Ergo,
children can see things from
someone else’s perspective

Syllogistic reasoning – logical

conclusion is formed from two
premises

Conservation – ability to recognize

that although the shape of objects
may change, the object still maintain
or serve other characteristics that
Note: The most important sign that enable them to recognize as the
the child is STILL in preoperational same
stage is that they have not achieved
conservation or reversibility Reversibility – capacity to
understand the relation between
things, to realize that one thing can
turn into another and back again
(e.g. ice and water)
Formal Operations Ability to think abstractly, to reason
deductively, and to define concepts
and also by the emergence of skills
for dealing with permutations and
combinations

HYPOTHETICODEDUCTIVE
THINKING – highest organization of
cognition; enables a person to make
a hypothesis or proposition and to
test it against reality; deductive
reasoning(general to particular) is a
more complicated process than
Inductive reasoning (particular to the
general)

STAGE IMPORTANT CHARACTERISTICS

Sensorimotor Object Permanence
Preoperational Thought Semiotic Function
Concrete Operations Respects for rules
Formal Operation Abstract thinking and deductive
reasoning

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