Unit 4 · Learning Theory · Reading 1 of 13
What Is Learning?
Before you read
Think of one thing you do without deciding to: flinching, your mouth watering, your stomach dropping. Hold onto it. By the end of this reading you'll be able to say whether it was learned.
Words you'll own by the end
- Associative learning: learning that two things go together.
- Self-referent learning: connecting new material to your own life so it sticks.
- Classical conditioning: learning an association between two stimuli. It explains involuntary responses.
- Stimulus / Response: anything that causes a reaction / the reaction itself.
- Unconditioned / Conditioned: unlearned / learned.
1. Most learning is connecting things
This unit is about how humans and animals learn. A lot of that learning comes from associations: noticing that two things go together.
Some associations you make on purpose. Suppose your teacher gives extra points every time you answer a question. You link "answering" with "points," and you start raising your hand more. That is a choice you're making.
Other associations happen to you. Suppose the light switch in your room shocks you every time you touch it. Soon you'll flinch as you reach for it, even though you never decided to flinch.
Not all learning is associative, though. We also learn by watching other people, and by thinking problems through. So this unit breaks into four parts:
- Classical conditioning
- Operant conditioning
- Social learning (also called observational learning)
- Cognitive learning
Check-in: The light-switch flinch and the hand-raising for points are both associations. What's the key difference?
2. Make it about you
When you connect new material to your own life, it is called self-referent learning. It creates deeper understanding, and it makes you more likely to remember the material later, for example on a quiz. That's why these readings keep asking about you. Don't skip those questions. They are doing real work.
3. Classical conditioning: learning that happens to you
The name has nothing to do with classical music. It's called "classical" because it was the first kind of learning scientists studied this way. It is tied to Ivan Pavlov, whom you'll meet in Reading 2.
Classical conditioning is learning an association between two stimuli, and it only explains involuntary or reflexive behaviors. Example: you walk in the door, smell your favorite dinner cooking, and your mouth starts watering. You didn't choose to drool. Your body learned that this smell means this food.
Now the non-examples. Your dog sits to earn a treat. Your sister makes a face when you walk into the room. Neither is automatic. The dog and your sister are choosing those actions, so they are not classical conditioning.
The test to use all unit: Did the response just happen, or did the learner choose to do it? If it just happened, think classical.
Try it: Automatic or chosen?
Decide whether each response is automatic (possible classical conditioning) or chosen (not classical conditioning).
Your heart starts pounding when you hear the ringtone your coach uses to call you.
You study harder because your parents pay you for every A.
You feel nauseous when you smell the food you ate right before you got the stomach flu.
Your cat runs to the kitchen when it hears the can opener.
Your shoulders tense when you hear your old school alarm sound on TV.
The cat one is tricky. The cat may also start drooling at the sound, and that part would be classical. Running to the kitchen is the cat's choice. Bring this one up in class if it bugs you.
4. The four building-block words
Classical conditioning has its own vocabulary. It looks scary, but every term is made of these four words:
- Stimulus: anything that can cause a response.
- Response: the reaction to a stimulus.
- Unconditioned: unlearned, automatic. It was there from the start.
- Conditioned: learned through experience.
Combine them and you get the terms in Reading 2. An unconditioned stimulus is something that triggers a response without any learning. A conditioned response is a reaction you learned. Practice swapping in "learned" for conditioned and "unlearned" for unconditioned. That one habit makes this whole unit easier.
Check-in: Using only the four building blocks, what would a "conditioned stimulus" be?
Am I ready for a pop quiz?
Check a box only if you can say the answer out loud without scrolling up.
Come back to your "before you read" example
Was the automatic reaction you picked something you were born with, or something you learned? If you learned it, what did it become associated with? Write a one-line answer in your notes. It's good practice for the kind of question you'll get on a pop quiz.