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Psyhology and Comparative Learning.
Defining field of psychology
is straightforward/definition of learning less so. 
The
Acquisition Process
Provisional
definition: (a) learning involves a
change in behavior( but certainly there many changes in behavior that can’t
be called learning—such as fatigue, drug states, maturation) (b) learning
because of experience, can’t say you acquired a habit, a skill, or fear without
intersecting with experience otherwise it would be getting into the instinct
arena. (c) leads to different behaviors. ( d) that change in behavior is
perceived to not be temporary but permanent.
Textbook definition (Schwartz). Relatively permanent change in behavior resulting from experience:
Behavior change: look at the eclipse of the sun and it damages
Your eyes. That
learning? Damage = learning—probably not
I don’t think there is one satisfactory definition of learning. Two
questions: what is the nature of these event we call learning and what is the
best way to talk about them.
Learning sometimes
mean about something or how to do
How computer works,
how to use it.
Procedural: action or
ways of doing things
Declarative : facts
Autobiographical:
specific event in your life
Semantic: language
1) Pigeon discovers
food when it travels and returns to same place
2) child learns to read or spell a word
3)
dog sits on
command
4)
patient
feels uneasy on second trip to the dentist
5)
cat avoids
skunks based on an adventurous hunting trip
6)
shopper
reads paper ads and goes shopping for deals
7)
author
discovers an unfamiliar word and uses it in his writing
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8)
student goes
to class in math and manages to solve a math problem
Enduring, behavior
change, results from experience
Learning performance
distiction
-------------------------------------------------______-______________----
Learning refers to
acquisition memory storage
Maintenance, and
change in organisms’ behavior
______________________________________________
Advantages of learning/an
open system—Advantages of instincts/a closed system:
Learning: allow for the
organism to change or convert or modify its behavior in the light of the
vicissitudes of an environment by its very nature is in flux. Learning is
dangerous, mistakes are made, and time is taken but it is the major vehicle of
survival modification and transformation. Instinctual behavior is mistake-free,
quick, but fixed and can lead to species extinction. 
Examples: instinctual: 1)
Arctic tern 2) Stickleback 3) Koala/Panda
4) Hungry
spiders 5) Beetle and the Mouse/Beetle defensive response of stands on its head
excretes powerful chemical which is irritating to predators. Mouse can feed on
this little chemically-hot beetle because the first spay causes the little
rodent to re-tool and either avoid or force the lethal tail into the ground and
start munching. That is learning and that is instinct. Beetle Eleodes
longicollis can’t subsequently modify is spray technology to counter the Mouse.
Learning: Special characteristics
1)
process: acquisition of information (knowledge) Pigeon head turn, could be
learned but seen as a process of approximated steps is clearly becomes learning
2)
concept:: not observable can
only be inferred from performance.
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Conditioned Response is
learned only if the tone produces fear, you have learned to play chess if you
play chess, you have memory of an event if you recall it. This is the learning
vs performance controversy.
3)
Practice) Also inherent in the learning controversy is the characteristic of
practice or multi-trial experiences.
Non-provisional definition
of learning: Thus we can define leaning as a potential change in behavior
resulting from experience.
Kimble definition in Lutz’s
text. “relatively permanent change in behavioral potential due to
practice/experience”.
Alternative definition: a
process by which an activity originates or is changed through reacting to an
encountered situation. We should now have a fairly good idea of what learning
is and what it is not/review what a stimulus and a response and what S-R
learning refers to. I will be touching on those topics later.
______________________________________________________
Ethology and Learning
America and Europe.
Beginnings of Nature
nurture. Historical influences: 1)
Cartesian dualism (mind/body split and
the reflex arc which as a concept ironically led to Pavlov's purely deterministic theory of mental functioning
but made it clear that human
thoughts defy scientific analysis 2) British empiricism knowledge comes from
sensory experience, tabula raise concept. and the notion that all thinking is
formed by laws of association (frequency, contiguity, and regency.)
3) Darwin who shared with
Decartes the view that animal and human bodies are scientifically analyazable
but extended that notion to suggest that human intelligence, emotions, and
behaviors were biological functions and thus could be studied. Mind can be studied scientifically just as
the body.
4) Pavlov becomes the first
objective and empirical investigator of learning: Tenets of Pavlovian
association theory:
1) temporal contiguity:
events must occur close in time
2) Intensisty:
3) frequency:
4) Similarity
Definition of Learning : permanent change in the
mechanisms of
behavior involving specific
stimuli and/or responses
from prior experiences with
those stimuli and responses
The behavior of an organism
is used (its performance) is used to provide evidence for learning or to infer
learning.
Performance is determined by
a multitude of factors beside learning. One must be cautious by observing a
change in behavior and inappropriately labeling it learning.
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What learning is not:
fatigue, maturation, evolutionalry adaption( genetics).
That is why you need control
groups.
NONASSOCIATIVE Learning
1) habituation: basic
property of living organisms, diminished responsiveness due to frequent
exposure
Exposed to 1000 stimuli:
cannnot possibly attend, only the critical demand attention, fading has to
occur or choas will dominate, Learning what not to respond to. This is not
receptor fatigue. Begin reading Chapter 2 and habituation and sensitization.