Week Three: Learning

• From this week’s reading of chapter four and five, I found chapter four engaging, especially the section about learning.  On page 142 in the textbook, it states, “learning can take several forms, including habituation, classical conditioning, operant conditioning and imitation. In classical conditioning a neutral stimulus provokes a response that was initially formed by another stimulus. The textbook used Pavlov experiments as an example. Operant conditioning stresses the importance of the relationship between the consequences of behavior and the likelihood of the behavior occurring again. If a behavior has a pleasant consequence then the likelihood of the behavior recurring is strong. If a behavior has an unpleasant consequence then the behavior will most likely not happen again.  According to Kail and Cavanaugh, “Habituation is the diminished response to a stimulus as it becomes more familiar.” I liked the example in the book where the infant adapted to the car noise and was able to sleep through the sound. I think this example illustrates habituation. I do not have any children so learning that infants can imitate other is astounding to me.  Imitation is simply watching others and mimicking their behavior. Everyone does this as children and adolescents…I believe this is one way we learn what is and what’s not socially acceptable.  

 

• I have to compete with my cat for the sink, whether it is the kitchen or bathroom sink. I have unfortunately classically conditioned my cat to drink from the sink. Whenever he hears the sound of running water he darts for the sink. In this case, the sound of running water is the neutral stimulus that entices him to the sink.  Another example of classical conditioning is, and yes this one too involves my cat again.  My cat is classically conditioned to run to the pantry whenever it is opened. The neutral stimulus is the sound of the pantry opening. This provokes him to run because he thinks he will get a treat. Is there a way to undo this behavior? Can I re-classical condition him to stop these behaviors?

 

• I would like to know more about cultural differences in emotional expression because I would like to become a nurse and knowing these cultural differences in emotional expression can be a helpful tool because of diversity. There are 7 billion individuals on this planet and one day I would like to travel to other countries and work as nurse.