Which Of The Following Is Best Defined As A Relatively Permanent Change In Behavior

33 What Is Learning?

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Learning Objectives

By the stop of this section, you will be able to:

Explain how learned behaviors are different from instincts and reflexes
Ascertain learning
Recognize and define three basic forms of learning—classical workout, operant conditioning, and observational learning

Birds build nests and drift equally winter approaches. Infants suckle at their mother'southward breast. Dogs shake water off moisture fur. Salmon swim upstream to spawn, and spiders spin intricate webs. What practise these seemingly unrelated behaviors take in mutual? They all are unlearned behaviors. Both instincts and reflexes are innate behaviors that organisms are built-in with. Reflexes are a motor or neural reaction to a specific stimulus in the surroundings. They tend to be simpler than instincts, involve the action of specific body parts and systems (e.grand., the knee-jerk reflex and the wrinkle of the pupil in bright light), and involve more archaic centers of the central nervous organization (e.1000., the spinal string and the medulla). In contrast, instincts are innate behaviors that are triggered by a broader range of events, such as aging and the modify of seasons. They are more complex patterns of beliefs, involve motility of the organism every bit a whole (eastward.g., sexual practice and migration), and involve higher encephalon centers.

Both reflexes and instincts help an organism adapt to its environment and do non have to be learned. For example, every good for you homo baby has a sucking reflex, present at birth. Babies are built-in knowing how to suck on a nipple, whether artificial (from a bottle) or human. Nobody teaches the baby to suck, just as no one teaches a sea turtle hatchling to move toward the sea.
Learning, like reflexes and instincts, allows an organism to adapt to its environment. But unlike instincts and reflexes, learned behaviors involve alter and experience: learning is a relatively permanent alter in behavior or knowledge that results from experience. In contrast to the innate behaviors discussed above, learning involves acquiring noesis and skills through feel. Looking dorsum at our surfing scenario, Julian will have to spend much more time training with his surfboard before he learns how to ride the waves like his father.

Learning to surf, besides as any circuitous learning procedure (eastward.g., learning about the discipline of psychology), involves a complex interaction of conscious and unconscious processes. Learning has traditionally been studied in terms of its simplest components—the associations our minds automatically make betwixt events. Our minds take a natural tendency to connect events that occur closely together or in sequence. Associative learning occurs when an organism makes connections between stimuli or events that occur together in the environment. Y'all will come across that associative learning is central to all 3 basic learning processes discussed in this chapter; classical workout tends to involve unconscious processes, operant conditioning tends to involve witting processes, and observational learning adds social and cognitive layers to all the bones associative processes, both conscious and unconscious. These learning processes will be discussed in detail later in the chapter, but it is helpful to have a brief overview of each equally you lot begin to explore how learning is understood from a psychological perspective.

In classical workout, also known every bit Pavlovian workout, organisms learn to associate events—or stimuli—that repeatedly happen together. We feel this process throughout our daily lives. For example, y'all might see a flash of lightning in the sky during a storm and then hear a loud blast of thunder. The sound of the thunder naturally makes you lot jump (loud noises have that effect past reflex). Because lightning reliably predicts the impending boom of thunder, you may associate the two and bound when you meet lightning. Psychological researchers study this associative process by focusing on what tin can be seen and measured—behaviors. Researchers ask if ane stimulus triggers a reflex, can we train a dissimilar stimulus to trigger that same reflex?
In operant workout, organisms larn, again, to acquaintance events—a behavior and its consequence (reinforcement or punishment). A pleasant issue encourages more of that behavior in the futurity, whereas a penalization deters the beliefs. Imagine y'all are education your dog, Hodor, to sit. You tell Hodor to sit, and give him a treat when he does. After repeated experiences, Hodor begins to acquaintance the act of sitting with receiving a treat. He learns that the event of sitting is that he gets a doggie biscuit ([link]). Conversely, if the domestic dog is punished when exhibiting a behavior, information technology becomes conditioned to avoid that beliefs (e.chiliad., receiving a modest shock when crossing the boundary of an invisible electric debate).

In operant conditioning, a response is associated with a consequence. This domestic dog has learned that certain behaviors result in receiving a treat. (credit: Crystal Rolfe)

A photograph shows a dog standing at attention and smelling a treat in a person's hand.

Observational learning extends the effective range of both classical and operant conditioning. In contrast to classical and operant conditioning, in which learning occurs only through direct experience, observational learning is the process of watching others and then imitating what they do. A lot of learning among humans and other animals comes from observational learning. To get an idea of the extra effective range that observational learning brings, consider Ben and his son Julian from the introduction. How might observation help Julian learn to surf, equally opposed to learning by trial and fault lone? By watching his father, he tin imitate the moves that bring success and avoid the moves that lead to failure. Can y'all think of something yous have learned how to exercise after watching someone else?

All of the approaches covered in this chapter are part of a particular tradition in psychology, chosen behaviorism, which we discuss in the next department. However, these approaches do not represent the unabridged study of learning. Split traditions of learning have taken shape within different fields of psychology, such as memory and knowledge, so y'all will find that other chapters volition round out your understanding of the topic. Over time these traditions tend to converge. For example, in this chapter you will run into how knowledge has come to play a larger role in behaviorism, whose more farthermost adherents in one case insisted that behaviors are triggered past the environs with no intervening thought.

Summary

Instincts and reflexes are innate behaviors—they occur naturally and do non involve learning. In contrast, learning is a change in behavior or knowledge that results from feel. There are three main types of learning: classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning. Both classical and operant conditioning are forms of associative learning where associations are made between events that occur together. Observational learning is only every bit it sounds: learning past observing others.

Review Questions

Which of the following is an instance of a reflex that occurs at some indicate in the development of a human beingness?

kid riding a bike
teen socializing
infant sucking on a nipple
toddler walking

Learning is best divers as a relatively permanent change in behavior that ________.

is innate
occurs every bit a result of experience
is found only in humans
occurs by observing others

2 forms of associative learning are ________ and ________.

classical conditioning; operant conditioning
classical conditioning; Pavlovian workout
operant workout; observational learning
operant conditioning; learning workout

In ________ the stimulus or experience occurs before the beliefs then gets paired with the behavior.

associative learning
observational learning
operant conditioning
classical conditioning

Critical Thinking Questions

Compare and contrast classical and operant conditioning. How are they akin? How exercise they differ?

Both classical and operant conditioning involve learning by association. In classical conditioning, responses are involuntary and automatic; however, responses are voluntary and learned in operant conditioning. In classical workout, the consequence that drives the behavior (the stimulus) comes before the behavior; in operant workout, the event that drives the behavior (the consequence) comes later on the behavior. Also, whereas classical conditioning involves an organism forming an clan betwixt an involuntary (reflexive) response and a stimulus, operant conditioning involves an organism forming an association between a voluntary beliefs and a consequence.

What is the difference between a reflex and a learned behavior?

A reflex is a behavior that humans are built-in knowing how to do, such every bit sucking or blushing; these behaviors happen automatically in response to stimuli in the surround. Learned behaviors are things that humans are not born knowing how to practise, such every bit swimming and surfing. Learned behaviors are non automatic; they occur as a result of practice or repeated feel in a situation.

Personal Application Questions

What is your personal definition of learning? How do your ideas about learning compare with the definition of learning presented in this text?

What kinds of things have yous learned through the process of classical conditioning? Operant conditioning? Observational learning? How did yous learn them?

Glossary

associative learning: course of learning that involves connecting certain stimuli or events that occur together in the environment (classical and operant conditioning)