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MCAT
Course: MCAT > Unit 11
Lesson 9: Learning- Learning questions
- Classical and operant conditioning article
- Classical conditioning: Neutral, conditioned, and unconditioned stimuli and responses
- Classical conditioning: Extinction, spontaneous recovery, generalization, discrimination
- Operant conditioning: Positive-and-negative reinforcement and punishment
- Operant conditioning: Shaping
- Operant conditioning: Schedules of reinforcement
- Operant conditioning: Innate vs learned behaviors
- Operant conditioning: Escape and avoidance learning
- Observational learning: Bobo doll experiment and social cognitive theory
- Long term potentiation and synaptic plasticity
- Non associative learning
- Biological constraints on learning
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Operant conditioning: Escape and avoidance learning
Created by Jeffrey Walsh.
Want to join the conversation?
- LOL I loved that fire example, it caught me by surprise. I love seeing fun humor in Khan videos!(74 votes)
- I shouldn't have gone through the comments before the video...
Well now I know what avoidance learning is firsthand(2 votes)
- This video is hilarious. It really woke me up. I had to rewind it a few times just to laugh. Great job, Jeffrey. THANK YOU.(39 votes)
- Wouldn't learning to flee the room listening to the alarm, be an example of classical conditioning?(4 votes)
- No.
If it was classical conditioning, it would mean that you had experience being in flames (unconditioned stimulus) which made you try to run (unconditioned response). So the second time, when you're in a fire, you hear a bell (neutral stimulus) and you pair the bell with the fire. SO the third time, when you hear the bell, it's a conditioned stimulus that causes you to run before you see the fire.
Long story short, most of us have never been conditioned to running when we hear a bell because we have never experienced a fire and heard the bell ring at the same time to know that one is predictive of the other. Even first grade kids know to run when they hear an alarm because they've been taught that it's how to avoid a fire. It's a learned behaviour. It's not because they got caught in a fire once and are now conditioned to run when they hear a bell.(19 votes)
- Can you clarify the difference between escape and avoidance learning? I've had multiple questions on practice exams that have asked me to identify which one was demonstrated.(1 vote)
- Just from this video, I think: Escape = a physical, painful stimulus (fire) motivates action. Avoid = the promise (alarm) of a physical, painful stimulus (fire) motivates action before the stimulus itself is felt.(8 votes)
- Where do I go for quizes of information that I have learned thus far?(3 votes)
- what knowledge have you learned thus far? here's a website with general knowledge quizzes then go from there http://www.allthetests.com/knowledge-tests-trivia-general-knowledge.php(3 votes)
- Hahaha the fire! 😂(2 votes)
- Or rather just fight or flight.. the fire is just so unnecessary(0 votes)
- There's no fight - you aren't trying to fight the fire. This is making a distinction between essentially the innate reaction of fleeing fire and the learned behavior of avoiding fire by reacting to just an alarm.(34 votes)
- My favorite part of this video was how he didn't label anything. Very helpful. Thanks for that(0 votes)
Video transcript
So the topic today is
about escape learning versus avoidance learning. And these two types
of learning fall under the category
of aversive control. And aversive control
is a term used to describe situations in
which a behavior is motivated by the threat of
something unpleasant. So let's say this
is you and you're studying the definition
of escape learning, which is when you perform a
behavior-- what the heck. A fire is breaking out. I'm sorry, you're going to
have to get out of this video. It's unsafe here. There's a fire breaking out. So thankfully there's an exit. Let's just get you out of here. And you're gone. So let's see if I can
put out these fires here so we can continue
on with our lecture. So thank goodness that
you got out safely. But let's bring you back
here so we can continue on. So as I was saying,
escape learning, also known as
escape conditioning, is when you perform
behavior to terminate an ongoing, unpleasant,
aversive stimulus. It's the kind of reaction you
have when you say to yourself, just get me the
heck out of here. There's an element of surprise
in escape conditioning because you're thrown
into a situation where you have to find
a way to get out. So in this case, when
the fire broke out you weren't expecting it. But you reacted appropriately
by escaping from the situation by using the exit door. So that's escape learning. Now, escape learning can
be converted into avoidance learning if some
sort of signal is given before the aversive or
unpleasant stimulus occurs. So using the fire
example, for instance, if you were standing
here listening to me talk and suddenly this
fire alarm started ringing off-- you would make
your way to the exit door and be long gone before
the fire's broke out. Put another way, you're
able to avoid the fire. So those are the two types
of aversive control, escape and avoidance.