Understanding Learning

Learning is a change that occurs through one's experiences in life. Three key types of learning are behaviorism, observational learning, and associative learning. Behaviorism is a theory of learning that focuses on observable behaviors, and focuses less on the importance of thinking and wishing. John B. Watson was the first to study the process of learning and how it affected our behavior; therefore he is the founder of Behaviorism. Psychologists believe that it helps to make understand many aspects a human's life. Observational learning is the monkey see, monkey do behavior, a person observes and imitates another's behavior.  Associative learning is different because it deals with the learning that is connected between to different events. 

 Branching from associative learning is conditioning. Conditioning is what connects the two events together and helps us to link the learning together. There are two types of conditioning. The first is that, which makes us anticipate events this is called classical conditioning. Operant conditioning is the second; it is the association we make between a behavior and the consequences of that behavior. An example would be that children are more likely to repeat good manners if they are rewarded for it and if a child uses bad manners and they are punished for it than they are most likely not going to repeat the bad manners (King, 2008, 249). These types of learning are what help people to acquire new behaviors, knowledge, and different skills. 

Ivan Pavlov and Classic Conditioning

https://branfordappsych. wikispaces.com/Learning  

Ivan Pavlov, a Russian Physiologist, stumbled upon his observation while trying to understand the way food is digested. During his study he realized that the dog he was testing on was not only responding to dinner time when he recieved the meat powder but also when he saw the dog bowl or heard the door open and close. With this study of classical conditioning, comes an unconditioned stimulus (USC) followed by an unconditioned response (UCR). The unconditioned stimulus is a stimulus that produces a response without prior learning. An example could be the food in Pavlov's study. Unconditioned response is a response that is automatically induced by the UCS. This process takes place before the conditioning, but once conditioned the learning transforms into conditioned stimulus (CS) and conditioned response (CR). A once neutral stimulus is draws out the conditioned response because it has become associated with the unconditioned stimulus. Lastly in the process of classical conditioning is the conditioned response, which is the learned response of the conditioned stimulus that following the pairing of a conditioned stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus (King, 2008, 250). 

Clockwork Orange

A prime example of learning and conditioning is the movie Clockwork Orange. Alex, a fifteen-year-old wild child, is a gang leader in a city governed by totalitarism. Citizens of the town, unknown to them, are living in a place of growing violence. Alex's gang spends most of its time rapped up in crimes that involve robbery, fights, auto theft, breaking and entering, and rape. The other spare time is spent at the Korova Milkbar, a place where milk is laced with drugs. After getting into a fight with his members who have turned on him, Alex is beaten at a house they have broken into and is captured by the police. Immediately after his arrival at the station, Alex learns that a woman his gang attacked previously has died and he will stand on trial for murder. The judge comes to a verdict of fourteen years behind bars. 

  After his first two years he becomes the first to test an experimental treatment called Luovico's Technique. It is, in the most basic sense, a form of brainwashing that incorporates associative learning. Before each treatment Alex is injected with a substance that makes him extremely sick. After he has been injected he is forced to watch several violent movies and listen to classical music. Alex quickly associates the violence and music with nausea and headaches. After only two weeks Alex can no longer enjoy his love of classical music, which egged on his violent actions in the past. 

  After two weeks of treatment and his previous two years in prison, Alex is released back into society as a harmless human, unable to perform any time of violent acts. However, the downside to his new treatment was that he was now not only harmless but also defenseless making it possible for all of his old enemies and followers to take their revenge on him. 

This is an example of unconditioned response: Without prior learning, the classical music sent him into a violent state and gave him the push needed to release his anger.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v90KPJ6n4Ew

VS.

In this clip the doctors are using Alex to show how the conditioned stimulus (the music) are creating a conditioned response (being sick).

 

http://www.youtube.com/watchv=_k6CZYUxc0M&feature=PlayList&p=4E4D80E7BA95EC0B&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=8