1 - Basics of learning

Question 1

What is behaviour?

Answer 1

→ Any activity of an organism that can be observed or somehow measured
→ The activity may be internal or external

Question 2

What is learning?

Answer 2

• A relatively permanent change in behavior that results from some type of experience
• The change in behavior may be delayed
  → the change might not become evident until a little while after, depending on the complexity

Question 3

What are the 2 major forms of learning?

Answer 3

1) Classical conditioning
2) Operant conditioning

Question 4

Elaborate on the characteristics of classical conditioning. Give an example.

Answer 4

• Environment induces a change in behaviour
  → this conditioning links a neutral stimulus to an involuntary response
• The process by which certain inborn behaviours come to be produced in new situations
  → These behaviours are reflexive or involuntary
  → p.ex: Moving your hand away from a hot stove top
• These reflexive behaviours are paired with a new stimulus, which then can elicit the response
  → Example: a dog learning to salivate in response to a bell that has been paired with food:
  Food → Salivation
  Bell (NS) + Food → Salivation
  Bell → Salivation (Involuntary Response)

Question 5

Elaborate on the characteristics of operant conditioning. Give an example.

Answer 5

• Behaviour induces a change in the environment
• This type of conditioning can be used to positively reinforce desired behaviours
• Involves the strengthening or weakening of a behaviour as a result of its consequences
• These behaviours are voluntary or goal-directed
• Examples:
  → Smiling encourages someone to approach you
• Example: a rat presses a lever to obtain food (behaviour)
  → Lever press → Food pellet (change in environment)
  → The effect: Likelihood of lever pressing increases
  → the consequences of the behaviour has served to strengthen future occurrences of that behaviour (pressing the lever)

Question 6

Both classical and operant conditioning are forms of ___ ___

Answer 6

Associative learning

Question 7

What is observational learning?

Answer 7

• Observational learning involves observation of a model’s behavior, which facilitates the development of similar behavior in an observer
  → Example:
  → p.ex: a child pushes a doll around in a stroller, learning to cook, learning to drive

Question 8

What are the 5 schools of behaviourism?

Answer 8

→ Watson’s Methodological Behaviorism
→ Hull’s Neobehaviorism
→ Bandura’s Social Learning Theory
→ Tolman’s Cognitive Behaviorism
→ Skinner’s Radical Behaviorism

Question 9

What was the modern view which influenced behaviourism?

Answer 9

• Had 2 main components
  1) Structuralism
• states that it is possible to determine the structure of the mind by identifying the basic elements (parts) that compose it, rather than looking at the whole
• this was used to look at conscious thoughts and emotions
  2) Functionalism
• assumes that the mind involves to help us adapt to the world around us and that the study of psychology should focus on the ways it helps us to adapt
• But there was a dilemma of objectivity
  → how can one be objective if one has to quantify their own thoughts, emotions and sensory experiences?

Question 10

In no association to Watson, what is behaviourism?

Answer 10

• Behaviourism is the study of environmental influences on observable behaviour (objective science)
  → Study of observable animal behaviour provides insight into human behaviour

Question 11

Explain Watson’s methodological behaviourism

Answer 11

• Believed that psychologists should study only publicly observable behavior
• Ignored internal thoughts, feeling, and drives (extreme view)
  → he used more a logical response to crisis
• Learning is a connection of an environmental event (a stimulus) and a specific behaviour (a response)
  → This regarded as a Stimulus-response (S-R) theory (classical)
• Complex behaviour is assumed to possess long chains of this connection (chain of events)
• Process:
  –> Environmental events (stimulus) then to observable behaviour (response)

Question 12

Explain Hull’s neobehaviourism

Answer 12

• Hull disagreed with Watson’s rejection of internal events
• He believed that psychologists should infer the existence of internal events, or intervening variables, that might mediate (form a connection) between the environment and behaviour
  → p.ex: gravity cannot be directly observed, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be measured or that it doesn’t exist
• Internal events, or intervening variables
  → Mediators largely consisted of physiological-type reactions (not introspection/mentalism processes)
• Pure S-R theory
  → specific stimuli (input) yield specific responses (output) with mediating factors in between (internal)
• Process:
  –> Environmental events (stimulus) then to internal events (intervening variables like hunger and fatigue), then to observable behaviour (response)

Question 13

Explain Tolman’s cognitive behaviourism

Answer 13

• Tolman disagreed with Hull and Watson
  → Behaviour is more than just a chain of discrete responses attached to discrete stimuli
• Tolman showed that behaviour is broadly goal-directed
  → in his view, students should be learning to get better education, rather than better grades
• He put more emphasis on internal events by calling them cognitive processes
• Gestalt view of learning and behavior
  → We identify objects not by analyzing the various parts comprising the object but by the way in which those parts are combined to form the whole
• We create cognitive maps which are mental representations of our spatial surroundings
  → Cognitive maps are based on our experiences, and expectations, not just learning based on reinforcement
  → essentially you’re trying to make moves 3 steps down the line, whatever you’re planning, you’re creating “maps” of where you want to get to (goal-directed)
• Process:
  –> Environmental events (stimulus) then to internal events (intervening variables being expectations and hypotheses) then to observable behaviours (response)

Question 14

Explain Bandura’s social learning theory.

Answer 14

• Observational learning involves observation of a model’s behaviour, which facilitates the development of similar behaviour in an observer
• Bandura doesn’t dismiss the value of introspection; it strongly still emphasizes innate and conscious mental thoughts
• Bandura’s model of reciprocal determinism, in which observable behaviour, environmental events, and internal events are all viewed as interacting with each other
• Examples: how people think violent video games will rub off on kids
  → in this case, we need to look at correlation vs. causation, this is why this theory doesn’t always apply
• Process:
  –> There is a cycle here rather than one step to the other
  –> Thoughts and feelings <-> Observable behaviour <-> Environmental events <-> Thoughts and feelings

Question 15

Explain Skinner’s radical behaviourism.

Answer 15

• Emphasizes the influence of the environment on overt behaviour
• Rejects the use of internal events to explain behaviour
  → skinner would say that the act of studying and the thoughts of achieving a high mark would result from previous experience
• Process:
  –> The emphasis is on the environmental events as the ultimate cause of both observable behaviour and internal events