Behaviorism Flashcards
Epiphenomenon
A secondary effect
Operant conditioning
Learning something by reinforcement or punishment. Behavior is weakened or strengthened based on the consequences that follow them.
The probability of response
Reinforcement
Things like treats where you want someone to adapt a behavior. Increases the frequency of behavior
Punishment
Negative. Is often used when you do not want someone to do something. Decreases the frequency of behavior
Global Skinner box
The whole world is a Skinner box where the history of operations are known
Pigeons
Animals that Skinner did a lot of research on
Skinner box
Operant conditioning chamber, where the researcher can control the environment
Operationalizing
Defining variables in precise, observable, and measurable terms to ensure that psychological research is objective, replicable, and scientifically valid. Focusing on observable behavior rather than abstract concepts
History of operators
The past behavior
Pavlov’s dogs
Conditioned reflexes (bell –> food)
Dennett’s intentional stance
First you decide to treat the object whose behaviour is to be predicted as a rational agent; then you figure out what beliefs that agent ought to have, given its place in the world and its purpose. Then you figure out what desires it ought to have, on the same considerations, and finally you predict that this rational agent will act to further its goals in the light of its beliefs.
A little practical reasoning from the chosen set of beliefs and desires will in most instances yield a decision about what the agent ought to do; that is what you predict the agent will do.
Classical conditioning
Needs a reflex to work on. A neutral stimulus becomes associated with a naturally occurring stimulus, leading to the neutral stimulus eliciting a response. It involves the process of pairing two stimuli to create a learned association.
Conditional reflexes
Instrumentalist
Focus on predicting and control
Functional analysis of behavior
The external variables of which behavior is a function. Predicting and controlling behavior through independent and dependent variables. Understanding is prediction and control
Variables according to behaviorism
Schedules of reinforcement ⇒ inner cause ⇒ frequency of behavior
They do not look at inner cause
Response
A onetime behavior that can be repeated. It is just a single one. The behavior controlled by the external agent
Operant
The property upon which reinforcement is contingent
The general case (opposite to response)
Reflexes
Stimulus (external agent) ⇒ Response
Internal state
Skinner acknowledges that it exists but he says that it does not matter
Cause
Change in an independent variable
Effect
Change in dependent variable
External agent
Stimulus
Mentalism
Skinner’s enemies - focus on the inner causes
Homonculus
The inner man (in the brain)
Virtus dormitiva
Dormitive principle - A type of tautology in which an item is explained in terms of the item itself, only put in different (usually more abstract) words.
Metacognition
An awareness of one’s thought processes and an understanding of the patterns behind them
Introspection
The examination or observation of one’s own mental and emotional processes.
Private mechanism
Cognitive control is contingent on the privileged access the subject has to their own cognitive state
Public mechanisms
Adaptive cognitive control is based upon the use of publicly available information such as the perceivable difficulty of a problem or the subject’s reinforcement history with the particular stimuli
Environmental cue association
Stimuli that are close together on a continuum are more difficult to discriminate than are those that are far apart
Behavioral cue association
Similar to environmental but the discriminative stimuli are generated by the subject in a way that correlates with accuracy in the primary task
Response competition
Simultaneous presentation of primary discrimination problem/memory test and the secondary metacognitive response option. The two behaviors are in direct competition
Novel behavior
Behavior that the person would not have engaged in before while engaging in the targeted behavior.
Positivist
Observations need to be intersubjective and external. Independent and dependent variables instead of cause and effect
Independent variable (behaviorism)
Schedules of reinforcement
Dependent variable (behaviorism)
Frequency of behavior
Argument against intermediary variables
Premise 1: It is rarely possible to manipulate directly, e.g. “physiological or psychic thirst”. We can predict behaviour without it, i.e. by looking at the history of operations.
Thus: intermediary variables are not necessary for predicting and controlling behaviour
Premise 2: Suppose intermediary variables were easy to manipulate directly. That manipulation would have to be included in an explanation. That manipulation is just another external operation. Explaining in terms of intermediary variables would be explanatorily empty without explaining this external operation.
Thus: intermediary variables are not sufficient for predicting and controlling behaviour
Conclusion: Intermediary variables have no place in scientific psychology
How to do psychology (according to behaviorism)
1) Observe a behaviour
2) Explain in terms of the history of operations
3) Perform further operations and predict outcomes
4) Perform those operations that lead to desired behaviour
5) Create a utopia with a technology of behaviour
Generalizing the argument
Premiss 0: Intermediary variables are necessarily question-begging in psychological theories
Premiss 1: Question begging variables are not necessary to scientific psychology
Premiss 2: Question begging variables are not sufficient for scientific psychology
Premiss 3: Variables must be either necessary or sufficient to have a place in psychology
Conclusion: Intermediary variables have no place in scientific psychology
Question-begging
Supporting a claim (a conclusion) with a premise that restates or presupposes the claim
Dennett’s comparison
Behaviourists argument against psychology:
All theories employing mental terminology require a homunculus
The homunculus used can always have the property required by the theory
You can always come up with a mental explanation of any behaviour
Thus: Intermediary variables are necessarily question begging in psychological theories
Dennett’s argument against behaviourism:
Behaviourist theories require postulating a reinforcement schedule
The schedule can always have the property required by the behaviour
You can always come up with an external explanation of any behaviour
Thus: external variables are necessarily question-begging in any behaviourist theory
Two chess computers
Behaviourist vs internalist
1) Watching a chess computer play a human
- History of operations vs. assuming rationality and intentionality
2) Two chess computers play each other
- They learn overnight by playing each other multiple times
- We do not see this and no record is kept.
3) We see them play the next morning
- Externalist: Must invoke a history of operations even though it is by definition lost
Internalist: Must invoke rationality and intentionality (being about something)
Relevance of behaviorism today
Most animal studies use behaviourist methodologies to “instruct” their animals, i.e. they need to learn a task
Metacognition
Knowing what you know and that you know
