An Introduction toLearning 5/e

•A BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION

• We’ll get to the text soon, but first let’s consider some preliminaries about learning and studying

• This course is about learning

• SO

• It should teach you something about how to learn it

• What you do is what you learn

• OR

• What you learn is what you do

•Remember that what you do is what you learn

•Distinguish between getting it and liking it

•Don’t worry that you might learn about something that you don’t need

•Mastery can be richly rewarding, but it takes time and effort

•Remember that what you learn is what you do

How Should You Study?• Read and review each chapter at least twice (preferably 3

or 4 times) before any testing that covers it

• Make your first reading a quick pass to pick up the overall structure and worry about the details later: Start with the big picture and then get into the fine points

• Always spend some time going back over earlier material

• Browse through the whole text now and then, to become familiar with what is to come later

• If you have questions about terminology, use the chapter outlines, Glossary, index and other text resources

• Give special attention to material about questions you missed when tested

•Highlighting as an example

What is the function of highlighting?When is the best time to do it?

• Highlighting saves you time when you review, because you don’t read what you didn’t highlight

• But what if you highlighted the wrong things?

• Is there any reason to think that you learn something about an item by highlighting it?

• Highlighting is irreversible, but pencil marks in the margins aren’t

•What is this subject really about?

•Learning and Behavior

•Why should we worry about behavior?

WHERE SHOULD WE LOOK FOR THE CAUSES OF BEHAVIOR?

• Do we look inside, trying to find our causes in emotions or thoughts or feelings?

• But we have to beware of circular reasoning:• Why did you do that? Because of some

feeling. How did you know about the feeling? Because you did that.

• How about some examples (e.g., emotions)?• Maybe we should look outside, at properties

of the environment?

ABOUT EXAMPLES WITH PEOPLE AND EXAMPLES WITH ANIMALS

• In biology and medicine, nonhuman organisms have often served in basic research. The same is the case in the study of behavior.

• Creatures that don’t talk are really very different from us in their behavior, but they are like us in other basic physiological ways.

• We will discover that our verbal behavior is built upon processes that we share with other organisms.

•How is the book organized?

• Part I. INTRODUCTION

• Part II. BEHAVIOR WITHOUT LEARNING

• Part III. LEARNING WITHOUT WORDS

• Part IV. LEARNING WITH WORDS

• Part V. CONCLUSION

LEARNING

Part I. INTRODUCTION

CHAPTERS

• 1. Learning and Behavior (The ABCs)

• 2. A Behavior Taxonomy

Part II.BEHAVIOR WITHOUT LEARNING

CHAPTERS

• 3. Evolution and Development• 4. Elicited and Emitted Behavior

Part III. LEARNING WITHOUT WORDS

CHAPTERS

•5. Consequences of Responding: Reinforcement•6. Reinforcers as Opportunities for Behavior•7. Consequences of Responding: Punishment•8. Consequences of Responding: Escape and Avoidance

Part III. LEARNING WITHOUT WORDS

CHAPTERS

•9. Operants: The Selection of Behavior•10. The Structure of Operants•11. Discriminated Operants: Stimulus Control•12. Conditional Discrimination and Stimulus Classes•13. Sources of Novel Behavior•14. Motivating Operations and Reinforcer Classes•15. Reinforcement Schedules•16. Schedule Combinations: Behavior Synthesis•17. Respondent Behavior: Conditioning•18. Operant Respondent Interactions: Emotion•19. Social Learning

Part IV. LEARNING WITH WORDS

CHAPTERS

•20. Verbal Function: Formal Classes•21. Verbal Function: Intraverbals and Verbal Learning•22. Verbal Behavior Contacts the Environment•23. Verbal Governance•24. Verbal Function: Coordinations among Classes•25. Language Structure•26. The Functions of Remembering•27. The Structure of Remembering•28. Knowing: Cognitive Processes•29. Problem Solving

Part V. CONCLUSION

CHAPTER

• 30. Structure and Function in Learning