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Box 5.2 Learned Helplessness It is an interesting phenomenon, which is a ressuffered the shock through, and did not attempt to of an interaction between the two forms of escape. This behaviour of the dog was called learned conditioning. Learned helplessness underlies helplessness. psychological cases of depression. Seligman and This phenomenon has been shown to be operative Maier demonstrated this phenomenon in a study in humans also. It has been found that continuous on dogs. First, they subjected dogs to sound (Cfailure in a set of tasks shows the occurrence of andelectricshock(US)usingclassicalconditioning learned helplessness. In an experimental study, the procedure. The animal had no scope to escape orsubjects are initially given failure experience avoid the shock. This pairing was repeated a irrespective of their performance. In the second phase number of times. Then the dogs were subjected tthe subjects are given a task. Learned helplessness shock in an operant conditioning procedure. Theis often measured in terms of the subject’s ability and dogs could escape the shock by pressing their persistence before they give up the task. Continuous heads against the wall. After having experiencefailureleadstolittlepersistenceandpoorperformance. inescapable shock in the Pavlovian contingency,This shows helplessness. There are numerous studies the dog failed to escape or avoid shock in the that demonstrate that persistent depression is often operant conditioning procedure. The dog just caused by learned helplessness. reinforcement, extinction or non-occurrence lead to the desired response. Such a response of learned response, generalisation of is shaped by reinforcing successive learning to other stimuli under some approximations to the desired response. specifiable conditions, discrimination between reinforcing and non-reinforcing Extinction stimuli, and spontaneous recovery. Extinction means disappearance of a learned response due to removal of reinforcement from Reinforcement the situation in which the response used to Reinforcement is the operation of occur. If the occurrence of CS-CR is not administeringareinforcerbytheexperimenter. followed by the US in classical conditioning, Reinforcers are stimuli that increase the rate or lever pressing is no more followed by food or probability of the responses that precede. pellets in the Skinner box, the learned We have noted that reinforced responses behaviour will gradually be weakened and increase in rate, while non-reinforced ultimately disappear. responses decrease in rate. A positive Learning shows resistance to extinction. reinforcer increases the rate of response that It means that even though the learned precedes its presentation. Negative reinforcers response is now not reinforced, it would increase the rate of the response that precedes continue to occur for sometime. However, with their removal or termination. The reinforcers increasing number of trials without may be primary or secondary. A primary reinforcement, the response strength reinforcer is biologically important since it gradually diminishes and ultimately it stops determines the organism’s survival (e.g., food occurring. How long a learned response shows for a hungry organism). A secondary reinforcer resistance to extinction depends on a number is one which has acquired characteristics of of factors. It has been found that with the reinforcer because of the organism’s increasing number of reinforced trials experience with the environment. We resistance to extinction increases and learned frequently use money, praise, and grades as response reaches its highest level. At this level reinforcers. They are called secondary performance gets stabilised. After that the reinforcers. Systematic use of reinforcers can number of trials do not make a difference in 84 Psychology Reprint 2026-27