behaviourism Flashcards
what do behaviourists believe
that all behaviour is learnt and that it is influenced by the environment via conditioning
what are the 2 types of conditioning
classical conditioning and operant conditioning
what was pavlovs research
he showed that dogs learned to associate the sound of the bell with the food and would produce the salivation response every time the heard the sound
what is learning through association
at the start the CS doesn’t cause a response by itself. after conditioning the UCS eventually causes the dog to salivate in just the bell response
what is a stimulus
something that exists in the surrounding or that is presented
what is a response
how the animal responds to the stimulus
what is a neutral stimulus
an event that doesn’t produce a response
what is a unconditioned stimulus
an event that produces an innate unlearned reflex response
what is an unconditioned response
an innate unlearned reflex behaviour that is produced when exposed to an unconditioned stimulus
what is a conditioned stimulus
an event that produces a learned response
what is a conditioned response
a learned behaviour that is produced when exposed to a conditioned stimulus
what is timing key feature in classical conditioning
if NS cannot be used to predict UCS the conditioning doesn’t take place (gap between the two stimuli is too long)
what is spontaneous recovery key feature in classical conditioning
if the CS and UCS are then aired together the link between them is made much more quickly
what is extinction key feature in classical conditioning
unlike UCR the CR doesn’t become permanently established as a response. After a few presentations of CS in the absence of UCS it loses the ability to produce the CR
what is stimulus generalisation key feature in classical conditioning
once an animal has been conditioned they will also respond to others stimuli that are similar to the CS
what is the skinner box experiment
- he placed a rat inside a box
- every time the rat activated the letter within the box it was rewarded with food
- he also repeated it but when the rat did a certain thing it would experience an electric shock
what is positive reinforcement
recieving a reward when a certain behaviour is performed
what is negative reinforcement
have something unpleasant removed when a behaviour is performed
what is continuous reinforcement
every behaviour positively (slow response, fast extinction)
what is partial reinforcement
reinforcement only part of the time
what is positive punishment
adding an undesirable stimulus after an unwanted behaviour to discourage a person from repeating the behaviour
what is negative punishment
the removal of pleasant stimulus to decrease a behaviour
what is reinforcement
always results in a behaviour increasing
what is punishment
an unpleasant consequence of behaviour so behaviour is less likely to be repeated
AO3 strength
strength
- systematic desensitization
- development of treatments for reduction anxiety asscoied with phobias
- exposire therapy which eliminates learned response that’s associated with feared behaviour
- replaced by relaxation so person is no longer anxious
- Helped lots of people get over phobias
AO3 strength/weakness
strength/weakness
- scientifically credible
- repeated many times using different animals so there’s lots of data
- objective and observable due to it taking place in a lab
- high levels of control due to data having high levels of validity and repeatability
- Limited due to use of animals
-can’t be generalised to humans as are more complex factors like emotions
AO3 nature vs nurture
Nature vs nurture
- nurture side of the debate
- believed that behavior is learners and we are born blank slates
- Classical conditioning states that behaviours are learned through association of two stimuli
- operant conditioning states that behaviour is learned through consequent both positive and negative
- these are all environments infliuences
- issue is that it ignore nature and influence like genes and hormones
- a more valid explanation comes from interaction it’s approach where both nature and nurture are considered
