Newsletter by Nadia Aldana

Section 1: Definitions and anecdotes

naldana5537 — 2024-11-15 14:59:42 UTC

Classical Conditioning: Type of learning where a neutral stimulus becomes associated with a meaningful stimulus, eventually triggering a similar response.

Ex: On my first day of freshman year there would be a bell that would ring right before the actual bell and I remember panicking because I thought that I was late to class but after hearing it a couple times I learned that it’s more of a warning bell telling you that you need to hurry and get to class. So when I heard that bell I knew I had to hurry.

Operant Conditioning: A type of learning in which the frequency of a behavior depends on the consequence that follows that behavior.

Ex: When I was Younger me and my cousins would fight a lot, so my grandpa began sitting us all in the living room and he would talk to us and we would all have to share our feelings or we would not be able to leave. We started fighting less, or at least hiding it better, so we would not have to spend hours sat in the living room talking about our feelings and we would be able to play. This was a punishment to us because it was a consequence that decreases the future likelihood of a behavior.

Social Observational Learning: Learning from the behavior of others EX: When my mom is anxious she picks at her thumb and I would always see her do that, so when I was younger I began Doing that too because I saw it would make her less anxious, Now every time Im anxious I pick at my thumb.

Section 2: Experiments

naldana5537 — 2024-11-15 15:12:52 UTC

Observational learning experiments:

I would have a little puppy and a bunny in one room and a bunny and an adult dog in a separate room for an extended period of time. I would then see how the puppy would grow up only being surrounded by bunnies, and I would see if the adult dog picks up any habits. Research question: will the puppy pick up habits of the bunny? Will the adult dog pick up any habits? Hypothesis: I think that if the puppy spends an extended amount of time with the bunny the puppy will learn some habits and act a little like the bunny. I think that the adult dog already learned from other dogs so the dog is too advance to learn new habits from a bunny.
I would give one kid a bunch of toys that are built for kids to play with. They would have different colors, and different sizes. The other kid would have a bunch of supplies, not necessarily toys but objects. I would see how the kids would play differently. Research question: Can the kid with only supplies be able to be creative and use the supplies to play with or will they just sit around. Hypothesis: I think the child with supplies/objects would get creative and manage to find a way to play with the objects and enjoy themselves.

Section 3: Classical conditioning

naldana5537 — 2024-11-15 15:36:03 UTC

Nadia goes on walks everyday and she always takes the same route, there is a girl named molly who always rides her bike at the same place but Nadia always started earlier so they never ran into each other. One day molly felt like going to ride her bike earlier so she did coincidentally at the same time as Nadia. While Nadia was walking she heard someone ring a bell but she was usually the only one on the track so she just kept walking, out of nowhere she gets hit by a bike and realized that molly was trying to warn her. Now every time Nadia hears a bell she knows she has to get out of the way and let molly pass, she still flinches when molly passes by. US: Nadia getting hit by a bike. That is an unconditioned stimulus because it is a trigger that leads to an automatic response. CS: hearing the bell ring. That is a Conditioned stimulus because it was a stimulus that was once neutral but now it leads to a response. CR: Nadia moving out of the way when she hears the bell That is a conditioned response because it’s a learned response, or a response that was created when no response existed before. NS: The sound of a bell that is a neutral stimulus because it does’t initially trigger a reponse.

Nadia has a little cousin that has a problem with hitting people, one day Nadia was sitting on the couch and her little cousin pretended to give her a hug but instead he threw her phone at her forehead. It left a big red mark and hurt really bad. Now every time he goes to give her a hug she flinches a little before returning the hug. US: Nadia getting the phone thrown at her. CS: Her little cousin going in for a hug. CR: Nadia flinches before returning the hug. NS: Her little cousin going in for a hug

Nadia’s cousin had made her cake pops for her birthday and they were so good Nadia saved 1 to have later. Nadia had forgotten she had it and when she found it she decided to eat it, as soon as she bit into it she noticed it tasted disgusting and was really squishy. She ran to the trash to spit it out and when she looked at the cake pop she realized there was mold inside and it was rotten. After realizing she went to the bathroom to throw up. Now she can’t eat a cake pop without cutting into it and looking at the inside first. After a couple of years Nadia began eating and biting into cake pops without thinking about the inside. That can be called spontaneous recovery. That is when a sudden reappearance of a extinguished response. US: Biting into the cake pop and seeing mold CS: the cake pop CR: having to cut into the cake pop before eating it NS: Nadia eating a cake pop

Section 4: Social Observational learning

naldana5537 — 2024-11-15 15:42:49 UTC

I learned how to speak Spanish by hearing it being used by my family
I learned how to drive by watching what my mom does when she drives
I learned how to straighten my hair by watching how my mom straightens my hair
I saw how my grandma would feed my little cousin so when I would feed him I did it the same way she did
I’ve learned how to cook by seeing my mom
I’ve learned how to do certain workouts by watching my gym teacher show us
I learned how to say please and thank you by hearing and watching my mom say it
I learned how to bake a cake by watching videos
I learned how to tie my shoe by watching my brother tie his shoe
I learned how to climb a tree by watching my cousins climb a tree
I learned how to braid my hair by watching my grandma braid my cousins hair
I learned how to ride a skateboard by watching and giving my cousin teach me
I learned how to fold my clothes by sitting and watching my mom do laundry
I learned how to mom and broom by watching my mom
I learned how to put gas by watching my brother put gas

Section 5: operant conditioning

naldana5537 — 2024-11-18 04:42:08 UTC

Positive reinforcement:

A student gets candy for participating in class
A mom gives her daughter $20 every time she gets an A
A man buys his wife flowers every time she cooks for him
A brother gives his sister a hug each time she makes breakfast for him
A mom treats her daughter to coffee every time she washed the dishes

Negative reinforcement:

A girls has a stomach ache and she takes medicine to make the pain go away
A student gets distracted from doing homework every time they have their phone near them, so he removes his phone and leaves it in the living room
A child is crying because they want their iPad so the mom gives it to the child
A girl does not like the soup she made and it’s making her nauseous so she throws it away
A little boy stepped on a Lego and it hurt so he picked it up and put it in the trash

Positive punishment:

A girl got a bad grade in her test so her parents told her she can’t use her phone
A boy threw his Legos at his dad, so his dad sat him in timeout
A boy left the door open and the dog ran out, so his parents made him walk around the whole neighborhood looking for the god
A child was running around a supermarket and his parents told him they would leave him with grandma next time if he did not stop
A girl hit a curb and messed up her times so her dad told her she was going to have to pay for damages since she is driving irresponsibly

Negative punishment:

A girl skipped school so her mom took away her phone
A child hit his mom in the face so his mom took away his toys
A boy stayed out late so his dad took away his car
A girl slammed her door, so her parents took away her door
A brother hit his sister so his parents grounded him and he is not allowed to hang out with his friends

Section 6: Science

naldana5537 — 2024-11-18 05:05:48 UTC

They wanted to provide information on how behaviorism can be used in the classroom to promote learning. Many experiments were hard to replicate, but a certain Russian physiologist discovered that his dog could learn how to anticipate elements. He focused on salivation reflex, and found that overtime dogs were salivating before they received any food. It was termed classical conditioning. Psychologists John Watson explained that in order for psychology to be taken seriously the focus needed to be on objective, observable behaviors. In the article it talks about classical conditioning and how it was used in this experiment. The automatic reflex was that his dog was salivating when it tasted food, he added a meaningless stimulus, which could also be the neutral stimulus and that does not initially trigger a response on its own. It needs an unconditioned Stimulus which is a trigger that leads ti an automatic response. Those create a conditioned stimulus which is a neutral stimulus that now leads to a response. Pavlov used a bell to create a neutral stimulus that turned into a conditioned stimulus. Once the dog would hear the bell the dog would began salivating. They also add how it can be used in advertisements to make us feel a certain way when we see a product. They then began to talk about operant conditioning and how there can be four different possible consequences to behaviors. It can be rewarded, or punished. The four consequences are positive reinforcement, which is anything that increases the likelihood of a behavior by following it with a desirable event or state. negative reinforcement, which is anything that increases the likelihood of a behavior by following it with the removal of a undesirable event or state. positive punishment, which presents an unfavorable event or outcome in order to weaken the response. and negative punishment, that occurs when a favorable event or outcome is removed after a behavior occurs. They talk about the behaviors in a classroom and how there are many behaviors that need to be shaped. They mention punishments that can be used to keep students from repeating the same habits.

Section 7: conclusion

naldana5537 — 2024-11-18 05:18:50 UTC

Learning is an important part in human behavior because it can shape us and help us improve from the past. Learning is a relatively permanent change in knowledge or behavior that results from experience. We are constantly learning and there are many ways for us to change. As we are growing we have people who are correcting us and teaching us what they have once learned. There are Outliers that can still influence the learning process. There could be different kinds like Generalization, that refers to when you can generalize similar things and respond the same way. There is also discrimination which is the ability to distinguish between different stimuli. There are certain abilities or traits that have evolved in us that we have learned and that can help us survive. That can be called Adaptive Value. There are many methods to teaching people that in that moment you don’t know you are being taught. We constantly learn from others whether we know it or now. If we are out in public and confused in something we are often looking around and observing what others are doing. That is called social observation learning. We are the people we are by what we have learn and the more mistakes and troubles we go through will help us continue learning and continue changing, There are a lot of things that we learn in life so they could be separated into long-term memory which is the process of storing almost unlimited amounts of info over long periods of times. Since we have a lot of information in our long-term memory we can have retrieval cues that is a clue or prompt that can retrieve a long-term memory. We also have short-time memory which can hold information for 2-30 seconds. It retains information briefly. Our overall memory is our ability to retain information over time. There are 3 parts. Encoding: which is making a mental representation of information so it can be placed into our memory. There is storing: that is a process of placing encoded information into relatively permanent mental storage for late recall. The last is Retrieving: Which is the process of getting or recalling information that has been placed into short-term or long- term storage. So when the day comes we are able to teach others what we have learned and continue this tradition that has been around for thousands of years.