Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 How Does Cognitive Psychology Explain Learning? According to cognitive psychology, some forms of learning must be explained

Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007

How Does Cognitive Psychology Explain Learning?

According to cognitive psychology, some forms of learning must be explained

as changes in mental processes, rather than as changes in behavior alone


• Insight Learning – Problem solving occurs by means of a sudden reorganization of perceptions.. suddenly perceiving familiar objects in new forms or relationships

• Cognitive Maps –A mental representation of physical space

How Does Cognitive How Does Cognitive Psychology Explain Learning?Psychology Explain Learning?


Wolfgang Köhler and Insight Learning

• Example: chimp stacks crates to reach food

• This is a form of cognitive learning

• Behaviorism has no convincing stimulus-response explanation for Kohler’s demonstration.


• Köhler observed the manner in which chimpanzees solve problems, such as that of retrieving bananas when positioned out of reach.

• He found that they stacked wooden crates to use as makeshift ladders, in order to retrieve the food.

• Köhler concluded that the chimps had not arrived at these methods through trial-and-error (which Thorndike had claimed to be the basis of all animal learning, through his law of effect)

• Rather they had experienced an insight (also known as an “aha experience”), in which, having realized the answer, they then proceeded to carry it out in a way that was “purposeful.”


Edward Tolman’s Cognitive Map

• Organisms learn the spatial layout of their environments by exploration, even if they are not reinforced for exploring

• (Evolutionary perspective: Animals forging for food)


• Argued that is was a cognitive map that accounted for a rat quickly selecting an alternative route in a maze when the preferred path was blocked

• Challenged the work of Pavlov, Watson, and Skinner

• Claimed learning was mental, not behavioral.

Edward Tolman’s Cognitive Map


Examples of Cognitive Maps

• Giving directions

• Walking through your house in the dark


Observational Learning: Bandura’s Challenge to Behaviorism

• A form of cognitive learning• We learn by watching others’

behavior and the consequences of their behavior

• Albert Bandura: Proposed that rewards can be effective if we merely see someone else get them


Observational Learning

• Accounts for such things as the rapid spread of clothing fashions and slang expressions


Bandura’ Bobo Doll Experiment1961

• Bandura found that the children exposed to the aggressive model were more likely to act in physically aggressive ways than those who were not exposed to the aggressive model.


The Bobo Doll Experiment VideoAlbert Bandura


Children See, Children Do


Recent Cognitive Psychologists Findings

Rescorla• Has shown that the

most critical feature of a CS is its value in predicting when the US will occur– EX: Taste aversion- a

certain flavor/smell could server as a warning for illness

Kamin• Expanded on this concept and

demonstrated that a CS - R connection only occurs if the CS contains unique information about the UCS– When presents with multiple

possible CS, a subject will only become conditioned to the one that provided the best info

• EX: Flu=eat Taco Bell food or smells become the CS

• CS is not the Taco Bell sign, the colors blue, pink, and purple, bells, fountain drink stations, etc…


Summary

Reinforcement changes not only the behavior but also the individual’s expectations for future rewards and punishments in similar situations .

Reinforcement changes expectations and behavior


Brain Mechanisms and Learning

Long-term Potentiation • Biological process involving the strengthening of

synapses in groups of nerve cells; believed to be the neural basis of learning

• Dopamine a “reward neurotransmitter” is released in mammals w/ Operant Conditioning. Continuous Reinforcement of behavior releases dopamine, which brings pleasure and strengthens the neural pathway associated with that behavior, making a LASTING behavior


Are There Two Learning Circuits??

• Simple ‘mindless’ learning, like learning to ride a bike

• More complex learning that requires conscious processing: concept formation, insight learning, observational learning, memory of specific events.


End of Chapter 6

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Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007 How Does Cognitive Psychology Explain Learning? According to cognitive psychology, some forms of learning must be explained