Conditioning and Learning Essay Example for Free

Conditioning and Learning Essay Learning, acquiring knowledge or developing the ability to perform new behaviors. It is common to think of learning as something that takes place in school, but much of human learning occurs outside the classroom, and people continue to learn throughout their lives. (Gregory, 1961) Conditioning is the term used to designate the types of human behavioral learning. Since the 1920s, conditioning has been the primary focus of behavior research in humans as well as animals. There are four main types of conditioning: ? Classical Conditioning ?Operant Conditioning ?Multiple-Response Learning ?Insight Learning. Conditioning and Learning 2 LITERATURE REVIEW Classical Conditioning Classical conditioning, also called associative learning, is based on stimulus-response relationships. A stimulus is an object or situation that elicits a response by one of our sense organs, like how a bright light makes us blink. Associative learning allows us to associate two or more stimuli and change our response to one or more of them as a result of simultaneous experience. (Moore, 2002) According to classical conditioning, learning occurs when a new stimulus begins to elicit behavior similar to the behavior produced by an old stimulus. Studies into classical condition began in the early 1900s by the Russian physiologist Ivan P. Pavlov. (Klein, 1998) Pavlov trained dogs to salivate in response to two stimuli: noise or light, and food or a sour solution. The dogs salivation is automatically elicited by the food and sour solution, so these were called the unconditional stimulus. However, when the noise or light (conditional stimulus) was repeatedly paired with the food or sour solution over an extended period of time, the dogs would eventually salivate at the noise or light alone. This is a prime example of a conditioned response. Unconditional stimuli, such as the food and sour solution, allow the learning to occur, while also serving to reinforce the learning. Without an unconditional stimulus in his experiment, Pavlov could not have taught the dogs to salivate at the presence of the noise or light. Conditioning and Learning 3 Classical conditioning is particularly important in understanding how people learn emotional behavior. For example, when we develop a new fear, we have learned to fear a particular stimulus, which has been combined with another frightening stimulus. Operant Conditioning. Operant conditioning is goal-directed behavior. We learn to perform a particular response as a result of what we know will happen after we respond. (Blackman, 1975) For example, a child may learn to beg for sweets if the begging is usually successful. There is no single stimulus that elicits the begging behavior, but instead it occurs because the child knows that this action may result in receiving treats. Every time the child receives sweets after begging, the behavior is reinforced and the tendency of the child to beg will increase. During the 1930s, American psychologist and behaviorist Burrhus F.Skinner performed several important experiments into operant conditioning. Using what is now termed a Skinner Box, he trained rats to press levers to receive food. A hungry rat would be placed in a box containing a special lever attached to concealed food. At first the hungry rat would wander around the box, investigating its surroundings. Eventually it would accidentally press the lever thereby releasing a food pellet into the box. At first the rat would not show any signs of associating the two events, but over time its exploring behavior becomes less random as it begins to press the lever more Conditioning and Learning 4Â  often. The food pellet reinforced the rats response of pressing the lever, so eventually the rat would spend most of its time just sitting and pressing the lever. This type of learning is based on the idea that if a behavior is rewarded, the behavior will occur more frequently. There are four main types of operant learning: Positive Reinforcement, Negative Reinforcement, Punishment and Omission Training. Observational Learning When we learn skills, we must first learn a sequence of simple movement-patterns. We combine these movement-patterns to form new, more complicated behavioral patterns with stimuli guiding the process. (Domjan, 1995) For example, efficient typing requires us to put together many finger movements, which are guided by the letters or words that we want to type. We must first learn to type each letter, and then learn to put the movements together to type words and then phrases. To investigate this type of learning, psychologists have observed animals learning to run through mazes. An animal first wanders aimlessly through the maze, periodically coming to a choice-point, where it must turn either left or right. Only one choice is correct, but the correct direction cannot be determined until the animal has reached the end of the maze. By running through the maze numerous times, the animal can learn the correct sequence of turns to reach the end. It has been found that the sequences of turns near the Conditioning and Learning 5 Two ends of the maze are learned more easily than the parts near the middle. Similarly, when we try to learn a list of items, we usually find the beginning and the end easier than the middle. Insight Learning Insight refers to learning to solve a problem by understanding the relationships of various parts of the problem. Often insight occurs suddenly, such as when a person struggles with a problem for a period of time and then suddenly understands its solution. Therefore insight learning is solving problems without experience. Instead of learning by trial-and-error, insight learning involves trials occurring mentally. In the early 1900s, Wolfgang Kohler performed insight experiments on chimpanzees. Kohler showed that the chimpanzees sometimes used insight instead of trial-and-error responses to solve problems. When a banana was placed high out of reach, the animals discovered that they could stack boxes on top of each other to reach it. (Schwartz, 1983) They also realized that they could use sticks to knock the banana down. In another experiment, a chimp balanced a stick on end under a bunch of bananas suspended from the ceiling, then quickly climbed the stick to obtain the entire bunch intact and unbruised (a better technique than the researchers themselves had in mind). Kohlers experiments showed that primates can both see and use the relationships involved to reach their goals. Conditioning and Learning 6 CONCLUSION There are many differences and similarities between each of these learning processes. For example, classical conditioning involves only involuntary or reflex responses where as operant conditioning involves both involuntary and voluntary reflexes. These diverse learning processes can be used independently in many different situations. Where classical conditioning may be extremely effective in one situation it might be ineffective in another. For this reason each of these learning processes, classical and operant conditioning and observational and insight learning are each as important and effective as the other. Conditioning and Learning 7 References. Kimble, Gregory: (1961) Conditioning and Learning, New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc. John W Moore: (2002) A Neuroscientists Guide to Classical Conditioning. Stephen B. Klein: (1998) Contemporary Learning Theories: Pavlovian Conditioning and the Status of Traditional Learning Theory, Chap. 5 (Perceptual and Associative Learning). Derek E. Blackman: (1975) Operant Conditioning: Experimental Analysis of Behaviour (Manual of Modern Psychology). Michael Domjan: (1995) The Essentials of Conditioning and Learning. Tighe, Schwartz: (1983) Modern Learning Theory, Psychology of Learning and Behavior 2nd edition.

Sociology of Racial and Cultural Groups Essay -- Sociology and Race

Three sociological perspectives used in the study of minorities are: Structural functionalism, symbolic interactionalism and conflict theory. These perspectives offer "theoretical paradigms" for explaining how society influences people, taking into account the social factors that impact on human behavior. However, different theories, ideas, and prejudices can influence a sociologist's conclusions. Each of these theories has a contribution to make with a distinct focus. Functional theory was influenced by Emile Durkheim. Adherents of this theory emphasize, "Various parts of society have functions or positive effects that promote solidarity and maintain the stability of the whole." (Parrillo 11) Thus a society is held together by "social consensus," or cohesion whereby members of the society agree upon and work together to achieve what is best for society as a whole. The social structure consists of status positions, roles and institutions (family, education and religion), and members that share common values. It is a system of interrelated and independent parts, and each of these parts plays an important role in fulfilling certain functions for a smooth operation of society. Functionalists think that all elements of society should function together to maintain order and stability, and under ideal conditions, a society would be in a state of balance with all parts interacting harmoniously. Problems come about when the social system is no longer functional offsetting society's balance. . The most frequent cause for this disorganization is rapid social change, which causes conflicts. Because the focus is on societal stability an important issue in this analysis of societal disorganization is `whether to restore the ... ...to attain socioeconomic growth, educational and job opportunities, and also maintain ethnic solidarity. Alba and Nee indicate that we will have a better understanding of ethnic and racial differences if we refine the assimilation theory to address differences in settlement, language acquisition, and mobility patterns. REFERENCES Janzen, Rod. "Melting Pot or Mosaic." Educational Leadership 79:9-11 Ruane, Janet M. and Karen A. Cerulo. 1997. " Education is the Great Equalizer." Pp156-162 in Seeing Conventional Wisdom through the Sociological Eye. California. Pine Forge Press. Parrillo, Vincent J. 2003. Strangers to These Shores. New York: Allyn and Bacon. Dzgourides, George and Christeie S. Zgourides. 2012. Cliffs Quick Review Sociology New York. IDG Books Worldwide Inc. Samuelson, Robert J. 2014 "Can America Assimilate." Time, April 9, pp42

Flags of Our Fathers & Letters of Iwo Jima

‘Flags of our Fathers’ is a movie directed by Clint Eastwood and takes place during World War 2 about the Battle of Iwo Jima. The film circulates around the five Marines and the lone Navy solider who raised the American flag on Mt. Suribachi. Although the photo was taken when they raised the replacement flag, since the military wanted to keep the original so politicians would not take it and put it in their home as a shrine. There were only three survivors out of the six that raised the flag, so they were shipped back to the United States.When they got back they travel the United Stated shaking people’s hands and telling them about the photo in order to raise money for the war. Throughout the trip Ira is constantly getting drunk and eventually gets shipped back to his unit as he wished since he made the General very angry. The remaining two soldiers continue to travel and raise money. After the war ends, all three finally get to go home. Although two of the soldie rs struggled with their life after the war, since one went on to become a school janitor and the other hitchhiked across the country and could not escape his past.While the other soldier bought a funeral home and ran it until he passed away, he was the only successful one. All three saw each other one last time at the unveiling of the Marines War memorial, which was a statue of the flag raising on Mt. Suribachi. ‘Letters from Iwo Jima’ was also another movie about World War 2 involving Battle of Iwo Jima directed by Clint Eastwood, except this film shows you the other side of the war. It shows you what the Japanese did to prepare for the war and shows there perspective of it.Although it mainly focuses on a few soldiers and one particularly, who was a just a young man who was a baker who got drafted. It starts off when Japanese soldiers were digging trenches on the beach then the General comes and changes everything. He tells to start digging tunnels for what they though t would be a better defense. Since the Japanese fleet was destroyed he did not think it was necessary to have trenches on the beach. Then the United States invaded Iwo Jima, they quickly over took the beach. Shortly after, they quickly took over all of Iwo Jima.The Japanese soldiers knew it was over so some started committing suicide but the young baker refused to and got away trying to save his own life. He then travels all the way across the island where he meets the general, who saves his life. In returning the favor, the general asks the baker to burn all his military documents and basically gives him a chance to go back to his family while he leads one last attack. He then burns all the documents like he was told but decides to put all the letters in a bag and buries them in the dirt so someone can find them.Some years down the road they are found and that is how the story is told from the Japanese point of view. ‘Flags of our Fathers’ and ‘Letters from Iwo J ima’ both take place during World War 2 which was from 1939 to 1945 but the battle both movies focuses in on took place on February 19th, 1945. The message Flags of our Fathers is that no matter who you are you can always make a difference. All it takes is faith, consistency and hard work. The flag raising was also very patriotic and it gave many Americans hope that we had won the war and it was over.Although they failed to realize what the Americans had to go through in the war, they just saw the picture and realized everything was fine and came up with their own story on what they think happened. While in ‘Letters of Iwo Jima’ the Japanese soldiers were also very patriotic I believe. The film shows you that you should never disrespect your country regardless of what type of situation you are in. You should always fight, stand up, and have pride for your country and never take the cowards way out. In the film ‘Flags of our Fathers’, I believe there is one bias.This is that the people of America mainly just paid recognition to the three soldiers who raised the flag and seemingly forgot about everyone else fighting in the war. Yes I am well aware of that the movie focuses on that flag raising, but they even said so in the movie that people saw the picture and assumed victory and came up with their own story about it. At first while watching the movie while reading the questions I thought it was pretty obvious that the two marines and lone navy corpsmen were the heroes of the movie but later on I found out that there were no heroes.In the final scene of the movie, the son of one of the soldiers states; there is no such thing as heroes and the soldiers were uncomfortable being called heroes, since heroes are something we create and need. It is a way for us to understand what is almost incomprehensible. How people could sacrifice so much for their buddies. They may have fought for their country but they died for their friends with a man in front and a man beside them. If we wish to truly honor these men, we should remember them how they truly were.After I heard that statement he made, it really opened up my mind and made a lot of sense. I strongly believe in that statement, they were just regular guys doing what they ordered to do. Then enemy in the film is clearly Japan since there is no other option. That is the country we are fighting in the war against. Yes, I believe both countries were treated fairly and there was no misrepresentation of history. I think Japan got what was coming to them and is a perfect example of the old saying â€Å"what goes around comes back around†.Since they attacked China several times and even had the courage to attack the United States when they bombed Pearl Harbor. So it is not United State’s fault they were beaten so badly in the movie because quite frankly, they started it but could not back it up. In ‘Letters of Iwo Jima’, it is hard to determine if there are any biases and I do believe that there is not any. Also, the heroes of this movie were also hard to determine. Although, I believe there were two different heroes on the Japanese side of the battle.I think the first hero was General Kuribayashi, since he saved Saigo who was the young baker’s life three different times. The first time being when he said unpatriotic things about Japan to his friend then the Captain overheard and almost killed him before the General stopped him. The second came when the same captain tried killing him again for not obeying orders when he left Mount Suribachi and the General saved him again. Then the third time was when the General told him to stay behind and burn all the war documents and letters while he led one last attack.Obviously, the second hero I believe was Saigo since he chose to bury all the letters instead of burning them, therefore people could know what really happened on Japans side of the battle because if had not hav e buried them, nobody would have never knew. The enemy is obviously the United States since they are the ones Japan is trying to defend their country from. Japan was treated fairly but they could not match up well with the United States since they started bombing all these countries and thought they were invincible and lost their Navy Fleet, which was the main reason why they lost the battle so quickly and easily.

Racism, Discrimination, And Prejudice - 1458 Words

Racism, discrimination, and prejudice. When most people in America see those words, their first thought is our country’s past relationship with slavery. According to Cunion, slavery is â€Å"the institution of human bondage, in which individuals are held against their will in the service of another.† In the movie 12 Years a Slave, we see the unforgiving truths about everything that came along with slavery. Living in Saratoga, New York, 1841, along with his wife and two kids, Solomon Northup is a free African American man who plays the violin for a living. Solomon received news about an opportunity to play music out of town, so he made the journey, excited to showcase himself in the circus. Yet this trip takes a turn for the worst when he is†¦show more content†¦After much research, Wright notes that 12.5 million captive men, women, and children were taken on slave ships for sub-Saharan Africa and 10.7 million of those Africans made it to America. In the sixteen th century, the annual average of slaves going through the Atlantic slave trade was about 3,000; by the last quarter of the eighteenth century, that number sky rocketed to 72,000 (Wright). Between the sixteenth and the eighteenth century, slavery in America was held together by the Atlantic slave trade. Slaves that were brought to the north were treated completely different than the slaves that were brought to the south in America. In the south, there were two regions, the upper and the lower south, each having their own distinctive slave labor systems. The areas of the lower south, â€Å"evolved from a frontier settlement to an integrated part of the Atlantic slave economy† whereas the upper south had â€Å"gradually replaces indentured servitude† (Keene 82). Although different in the way things were run, but the upper and the lower south held poor working conditions and inequality to the slaves. In the north, the rural slaves would â€Å"work as field hands on small family farms† and the urban slaves worked â€Å"as domestics in wealthier homes† (Keene 83). Soon, free slaves began to emerge in the North. Some freed by owners who realized how terrible slavery really was,Show MoreRelatedRacism, Prejudice and Discrimination617 Words   |  2 Pagesantisemitism means prejudice against or hatred of Jews. In 1933 the Nazis rose to power and the party ordered anti-Jewish boycotts, destruction of Jewish property, and created many laws to prevent Jewish German citizens from doing certain things. In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws were created and they decided to separate the Aryans and the â€Å"non-Aryans,† which led to a â€Å"racist hierarchy† in Germany. While this was happening, many Germans tolerated the hate crimes and did nothing to stop the discrimination. 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We have other minorities and races, so should it be okay for everyoneRead More Racism, Prejudice, and Discrimination in the Workplace Essay483 Words   |  2 PagesRacism, Prejudice, and Discrimination in the Workplace The workplace, including its composition and internal organization, is subjected to extensive regulation by the state. The civil society and its voluntary associations, have in fact, an important function with regards to workplace matters. In particular, they serve as a buffer against the state and an autonomous domain. Without them, differences and individual voices can eventually challenge the prevailing political order. 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Since the author won’t get through to people if they just simply say that a person was racist, they use characters such as Tom Robinson from To Kill a Mocking Bird. Or from a modern point of view, racism isn’t always up front to someone’s face it can also be from social media, becauseRead MoreTo Kill a Mockingbird vs a Raisin in the Sun1396 Words   |  6 Pagesis a novel about how prejudice and discrimination can lead to an innocent man being convicted of a crime he didn’t commit just because of his skin color. A Ra isin in the Sun is a play about how the value of a family can overcome racism in a new town and allow a family to prosper, even in the worst conditions. However, both of these works deal with racism and discrimination in similar ways. 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