Learning
Long night. You went to bed normal, and a zombie woke up in your place this morning. Your face feels like it's been spackled on your skull, but you manage to brush the dead-brain taste out of your mouth. (For your sake and ours, we're going to assume this zombie thing is still a metaphor.) Facebook update. Yawn. Brain activity is just booting up, super slooooowly.
Our bodies work on autopilot, but when did we "learn" to do these things?
Fast forward. Your biology teacher is dissecting a pig's guts while you're trying to keep yours from exiting your mouth. Your buddy Biff seems to intuit how every inch of the pig, um, functions. You, on the other hand, have no sense of how pigs work. (You tried to argue that you're just not pig-oriented, but that didn't exactly fly. In Spanish class, however, you sound like you were born and reared in southeast Madrid while Biff can't tell his trasero from his codo. What causes Biff to learn biology more readily than you? Why does he struggle in Spanish?
Learning, broadly defined, is the manner in which our bodies and minds are conditioned to acquire new skills and knowledge. Psychologists study how learning occurs as well as how to accelerate this process.
Study Break
"Flush." – Robert Fulghum, "All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten"
Classical Conditioning
Carrie gives Carlos a kiss every time he carries her books down the hallway. In time, Carlos comes to expect the sweet lip lock when books are placed in his hands. He has learned that carrying for Carrie equals kiss for Carlos. (How's that for alliteration?)
What does learning really mean? How important is feedback to learning? What are the consequences that go along with failing to learn?
Learning is a process by which past experience shapes future behavior.
Researchers study learning by watching how animals change behavior in response to experimental cues, such as a dolphin learning tricks if presented with the reward of fish. This process is called conditioning, and there are two kinds: classical and operant.
Pavlov's Experiment
We can't talk about classical conditioning without talking about slobbering dogs. Ivan Pavlov, a Russian scientist, studied learned behavior through slobbering man's best friend. In reality, he was trying to study digestion, not psychology, when he noticed that his mutts started drooling as soon as they heard the lab assistant, who always fed them, approaching. Since the assistant fed the dogs on a schedule, they associated his approach with snack time.
If saliva's purpose is to start the breakdown of food, why would the dogs begin to drool before they had received any food? Saliva does no good if it's just dripping from the dog's jowls. This phenomenon is what intrigued Pavlov and encouraged him to revisit his study.
Pavlov decided he would test the slobber reflex in dogs and see if they would slobber without the presence of food.
He intentionally rang a bell. Nothing happened in the dog's mouths.
He gave them food. The dogs salivated.
He rang a bell, followed by food. The dogs salivated and, after a few trials, learned that the bell meant that food was coming. After a while, all he had to do was...
Ring the bell, and presto, the dogs salivated, even when no food followed the bell.
The dogs had been conditioned. In this experiment, the following terms are important:
