Learning

Dr Ehab Eldin Mostafa,

MD psychiatry
 Learning
Definition
Learning is the process by which experience or practice
results in permanent change of behavior. Performance of
learnt behavior is influenced by reinforcement.

Instinct ‫الغريزة‬
Complex inborn pattern of behavior which does not appear
to be learnt i.e doesn’t need past experience or practice,
occurs mainly in animals. e.g. nest building in birds,
escape from danger…….etc.

Maturation ‫النضج‬
Modification of behavior that is neither learnt or instinctive
and without which skills could never be learnt. It occurs
because of development e.g. child learns to walk when he
becomes able to do so.
 Approaches to Learning
Behavioral approach
*Learning is based on association
*The animal learns that event will follows another
in classical conditioning
*The animal learns that an action did by it will be
followed by a consequence in operant
conditioning

Cognitive approach
Learning is acquisition and understanding of
knowledge
Learning by observation of other’s behavior has a
cognitive aspect
 Methods of learning
1) Trial and error
Primitive methods
Organism learns the direction of the goal in a situation with which he has become familiar.
e.g. rat in a maze.

2) Insight learning
It is trial and error on mental level (planning a solution)
Needs past experience and full information about the problem
e.g. chimpanzee learns to get bunch of bananas tied high up by climbing trees

3) Vicarious learning
Learning by watching behavior of others and its consequences (reward or punishment) i.e.
modeling ‫اضرب المربوط يخاف السايب‬

4) Imitation
Done at conscious level e.g. children

5) Imprinting
There are certain moments (critical periods of development) in which the organism is prepared to
learn certain experience. Learnt behavior is imprinted.
Lorens said; early conditioning has some fixation as an instinct.
‫التعلم في الصغر كالنقش علي الحجر‬
 Conditioning ‫التكيف‬

UCS= natural stimulus

Stimulus which produces response instinctively e.g. food
Neutral stimulus
Any stimulus that doesn’t produce desired response when applied
alone.
CS= conditioned stimulus
Neutral stimulus that is coupled with natural stimulus to produce
desired response after learning.
UCR= unconditioned response
Natural (instinctive) response produced to a natural stimulus that is
not learnt.
CR = conditioned response
Learned response produced to neutral stimulus after its coupling with
UCS.
Conditioned reflex
Conditioned response to conditioned stimulus.
 Classical Conditioning (Pavlov)
1] Definition
It is a type of learning in which an originally neutral
stimulus comes to evoke a new response after being
paired with another stimulus that reflexively
(instinctively) evokes same response.

2] Basic Principle
Coupling of CS and UCS repeatedly to get a response so
that when CS is presented alone, it will produce response
in expectancy to UCS.

3] Response
 Occurs after stimulus
 Is involuntary and inevitable i.e. automatic e.g. salivation,
anxiety
 Organism is passive
 Pavlov experiment
1- Before Conditioning
Neutral stimulus (Bell)  No Response
UCS (food)  UCR (Salivation)

2- During Conditioning (Acquisition stage)

CS Followed by US  UR
Bell is paired with food repeatedly  salivation

3- After Conditioning
CS (Bell is presented alone)  CR (Salivation)

NB.
CR seldom reaches strength of UCR
The 2 stimuli can be presented either simultaneously (at same
time) or UCS before CS or CS before UCS with varying interval in
between. The best method is applying CS first followed shortly
(seconds) by UCS.
 Stages of Classical conditioning
1-Acquisition stage: is process by which strength of CR is increased
with repeated pairing of CS and UCS.

2- Generalization
Phenomenon in which CR is evoked by stimuli different from but similar
to CS.

3- Discrimination
Phenomenon in which organism learns to make CR in response only to
one CS, not to other similar stimuli.
i.e organism learns to differentiate between similar stimuli.

4-Extinction
Process by which strength of CR decreases or fades with repeated
presentation of CS alone.

5-Spontaneous recovery
 Factors affecting Classical Conditioning

1-CS must be strong in intensity and

distinctive.
2-The order of Presentation of CS and US
The most effective is CS just before US .
3- The time between CS and US (Inter-stimulus
interval )
If too short or too long it will impair learning .
4- Number of repetition of the trial .
5- The interval between the trials
It is better to be not too long or too short.
Experimental neurosis
Is anxiety and agitation experienced by
subjects that are required to make too fine
discrimination in classical conditioning.

Instinctive drifts
It is one type of extinction. It is tendency of
behavior that has been conditioned to
return to more naturally instinctive
behaviors.
 Theories of classical conditioning
1- Cognitive point of view
Organism is viewed as information processing system that
observes coupling of CS and UCS then stores information
about these stimuli in memory so that later, when CS is
presented alone, it retrieves relevant information and
makes CR in expectancy of UCS. (Basic principle:
memory storing + expectation)

2- Behavioral point of view

Emphasizes automatic nature of learning.
Basic principle: temporal contiguity (=closeness in time) of
CS and UCS is essential for conditioning.

3- Integrated view
Basic principle: temporal contiguity + expectancy.
Most accepted
Applications of classical conditioning

1- Phobias
2- Sexual perversion
3- Sexual dysfunction
4- Addiction
Substance (heroin) taken for first time causes
pleasure so each time heroin injection (which
is painful) causes pleasure.
Behavioral therapy
Counter conditioning
It is inhibition of a response to a stimulus by coupling it with its antagonist.
Types:
systemic desensitization
Coupling anxiety provoking stimulus with relaxation (by drugs) then
gradually increase intensity of stimulus. e.g. claustrophobia,….panic
attacks ….etc
assertive technique
Coupling of 2 antagonistic emotions
aversive therapy
Coupling of alcohol + apomorphine (anxiety producing agent) decreases
pleasure.
Flooding
Flooding with anxiety provoking stimulus causes max. anxiety until patient
is exhausted then relaxation occurs.
Experimental reconditioning
Formation of new conditioned response.
If the organism is habituated to a behavior, it can be omitted by replacing it
by another behavior.
Negative practice (extinction): repeat response without reinforcement.
 Instrumental conditioning
Learning through reinforcement
(Skinner)
1] Definition
Learning is a matter of increasing rate of those responses that produce positive
consequences (satisfying) and decreasing rate of responses that produce
negative consequences (unsatisfying).

2] Basic principle
Behavior is influenced by the consequences they produce. It depends on
coupling of a voluntary act with proper reinforcement so that response will be
elicited in expectancy after reinforcement.
Operants are said to be controlled by their consequences. Thus operant
conditioning changes the rate or probability of response on basis of
consequences that result from responses.

3] Response
Occurs before stimulus
Response is voluntary and evitable.
Organism is active
 Differences between classical and operant conditioning

Classical Operant

Stimulus determines behavior Behavior determines the effect

CS Before R After R

CR involuntary & Autonomic Voluntary & Motor

Animal is Passive Active

Does not create Creates novel behavior & modeling

used in N.E Phobia

Substance abuse MR
Skinner experiment
1-hungry rat was put in a closed box,
moves restlessly.
2-During walking it presses by chance on a
bar so food falls down.
3-The animal started to press at this site
again and again to take food. Food
increases the rate of pressing the bar.
CR is pressing bar.
CS is food.
 Stages of operant conditioning

1-Acquisition Is the process in which the rate of

reinforced response increases .
2-Generalization: reinforced response that has been
conditioned to a specific stimulus may appear in
response to other similar stimuli.
3-Discrimination: process of differentiating
reinforcement where one positive stimulus is
reinforced while another negative stimulus is not.
4-Extinction: process in which rate of response
decreases as reinforcer is withhold.
5- Spontaneous recovery: phenomenon in which
previously extinguished response returns after rest
interval.
 Theory of operant conditioning

Thorandic’s law of effect

Responses are learned when they are
followed by satisfying state of affairs or
result. Learning to carry out an action is
affected by the consequences of this
action.
 Applications of operant conditioning

1- Shaping and chaining

Shaping is a procedure of reinforcing successive
approximations of a desired response, until final desired
response is made.
The complex behavior can't be learned as single entity. It
is divided into steps of increasing or upgrading difficulty.
It is applied in:
Learning animals in circus
Learning skills in MR and autistics
Phoniatrics
Schizophrenia
Its stoppage leads to extinction

Chaining is teaching complex behavior by dividing into

steps of equal difficulty. Needs high IQ
 Applications of operant conditioning

2) Phobia: avoidance is negative reinforcement

3) Learned helplessness ( Sleigman )

Subject doesn’t attempt to escape from painful situation as
the subject has learned in a previous similar situation that
escape is not possible. Once acquired, it is difficult to
overcome.

4) addiction
5) aggression
6) motivation, personality,
7) gambling
8) Behavioral therapy : reinforcement, token economy ,
modeling and shaping
 Reinforcement
Definitions
The term reinforce means to strengthen, and is used in
psychology to refer to stimulus which strengthens or increases
the probability of a specific response.
It is consequences of action that lead to feedback learning of
actions.
It is the result (or state of affair) which increases the rate or
probability of performing desired action.

Reinforcers
They are stimuli that increases the rate or probability of response
that follow them.
Example You may tell your child "good job" after he or she cleans
their room; perhaps you tell your partner how good he or she
look when they dress up; or maybe you got a raise at work after
doing a great job on a project. All of these things increase the
probability that the same response will be repeated.
 Types of Reinforcers
1) Primary Reinforcer
Reinforcer that is rewarding in itself.
They are biological or physiological (food….etc) in nature.
They are related to organism survival.
2) Secondary Reinforcer
Reinforcer whose value is learned through association with
primary reinforcer (money, praise, promotions…etc).
3) Positive Reinforcer (pleasant)
Any event or stimulus that increases the rate of response.
They are rewards e.g. food, water…..etc or praise.
4) Negative Reinforcer
Annoying or unpleasant stimuli that increases the rate of
response. to remove this painful or noxious stimulus. It
may be physical or psychological (redicule). It relieves
anxiety.
Punishment
Punishment refers to adding something aversive in order to decrease a behavior.
The most common example of this is disciplining (e.g. spanking) a child for
misbehaving. The child begins to associate being punished with the negative
behavior. The punishment is not liked and therefore to avoid it, he or she will
stop behaving in that manner.
Other types Of negative reinforcers
1-Escape conditioning
The animal learns to escape an aversive situation (After), mainly in animals.
2-Avoidance conditioning
The animal learns to avoid an aversive situation (before), mainly in man. e.g.
learning helplessness ( Sleigman ), child cleans his room to avoid
punishment.
Both are types of operant conditioning and types of negative reinforcement.
5) External reinforcers
Direct (reward or punishment)
Indirect or vicarious
6) Internal reinforcers
Self praise or self reproach

Research has found positive reinforcement is the most powerful of any of these.
Adding a positive to increase a response not only works better, but allows both
parties to focus on the positive aspects of the situation. Punishment, when
applied immediately following the negative behavior can be effective, but
results in extinction when it is not applied consistently. Punishment can also
How to choose reinforcers? According to premac (Grandma) principle
Using frequently done behavior as reinforcer to do rare or infrequent behaviors.

Timing of reinforcement
Immediately after desired response. ‫أعطي االجير أجره قبل أن يجف عرقه‬

Schedules of Reinforcement
A-Continuous or constant
It is reinforcing or rewarding every response after it occurs.
It is the most rapid for learning to occur. It is important for beginning of training
for rapid learning.
Critique: building up rapidly and fades rapidly
B-Intermittent or partial
Using strategies for reinforcing; some but not all responses.
It is the most resistant to extinction .
1- Fixed ratio
e.g. reinforcer is delivered every 5 responses. It gives rapid rate of response to
obtain greatest number of rewards.
2- Fixed interval ‫المرتب‬
Reinforcement occurs at regular intervals e.g. every 12 hrs.
Rate of response increases near time of reinforcement.
3- Variable ratio: eg after 3rd then after 5th response e.g. gambling
4- Variable interval ‫الحوافز‬
 Uses of behavioral techniques
Classical and Operant conditioning are the bases for behavior therapy .
1-Shaping and chaining(MR)
2-Flooding (phobia)
3-Modeling (phobia)
4-Systematic desensitization (phobia)
5-Aversive therapy (Substance abuse)
6-Biofeedback
*It is an apparatus
*Used to teach the person how to control physiological activity
*In order to work
Person should be motivated
The physiological activity should be observed by the patient continuously
Used in
Relaxation therapy
Hypertension
Generalized anxiety
7-Positive reconditioning (Nocturnal enuresis)
8-Relaxation training (Panic and GAD)
9-Token economy (Schizophrenia) .