Behaviourism Flashcards
Noticed dogs salivated AND turned to the location where the food was presented
Zener 1937
Basic concepts of behavioursim
Classical Conditioning (Ivan Pavlov, 1897)
Operant Conditioning (B. F. Skinner 1938)
Little Albert Experiment
John Watson & Rosalie Raynor, 1920
Classical (fear) conditioning
White rat + steel pipe and hammer
Stimulus generalisation
Law of Effect
Edward Thorndike, 1905
Behaviours followed by something pleasant are repeated, followed by something unpleasant are not repeated
Edward Thorndike
Law of Effect - 1905
Puzzle boxes - 1898
Work resonated with most behaviourists, just not Watson
Focused on instrumental behaviours (behaviours that require an action)
Influential people in behaviourism
John Watson & Rosalie Raynor
Edward Thorndike
Ivan Pavlov
B. F. Skinner
James Olds
Edward Chace Tolman
Crespi
Puzzle Box
Edward Thorndike, 1898
Put hungry cat in box, had to push lever to get out of box
Cats weren’t solving problem through understand, correct action was being strengthened by reward (food)
Pushing lever was instrumental behaviour
Premack Principle
David Premack, 1962
Preferred activity can be used to reinforce unpreferred one
Operant Conditioning Chamber/Skinner Box
B. F. Skinner 1938
Variant of puzzle box
Reinforcer - stimulus/event that increases likelihood of subsequent behaviour
Punisher - stimulus/event that decreases likelihood of subsequent behaviour
Positive - stimulus added
Negative - stimulus removed
Primary & Secondary Reinforcer
Primary - effective for all species members from birth, doesn’t have to be learned.
Secondary - not innately effective, but through experience and assoociationion with primary reinforcers (effective as long as CS-US link is maintained)
Superstitious Behaviour
Skinner set timer to 15 secs and left pigeons
Pigeons repeated behaviour they were doing when they first got the food
Other researchers found that this was actually food searching behaviour, so theory remains controversial
Theory seems fairly sound in humans
James Olds
Discovered pleasure centres, 1956
Put electrodes in rat brains and allowed them to stimulate these
Areas in limbic system stimulated repeatedly
Research for Reward Centre
Drugs block DA, rats stop stimulating
Pathway stimulated by cocaine/opiates/amphetamines, this is blocked by DA antagonists
Increased Nucleus Accumbens activity in men looking at attractive women or people about to receive money
Increased DA secretion in NA when hungry/thirsty rats are given food/water
Neurons in medial forebrain bundle (pathway from midbrain through hypothalamus to NA) most susceptible to pleasure
Edward Chace Tolman
Dissatisfied with stimulus-response approach
Proposed animals established means-ends relationship (response=reward)
Stimulus doesn’t stimulate response, but internal cognitive state that leads to response
Crespi
1942
Rats running through maze sped up for larger reward, slowed for smaller reward
Latent Learning
Something is learned but not manifested as behaviour change until later. Learning without reinforcement.
Cognitive map
Mental representation of physical features of environment. Controversial in animals.
Spatial representations
Capacity to encode process, store information about the shape and layout of physical environment
Reinforcement Schedules
Skinner box
Interval schedule (time elapsed) - fixed (FI scallop) and variable
Ratio schedule (number of responses) - fixed and variable
Continuous reinforcement - after every correct response. stronger correlation.
Intermittent reinforcement - after some responses. more resistant to extincition. weaker correlation.
Basic Principles of Operant Conditioning
Discrimination (of stimulus associated with reinforcement)
Generalisation
Importance of context (Thorndike)
Stimulus Control
Particular response only occurs when appropriate stimulus is present.
Skinner said most behaviour is under stimulus control
Shows discrimination + generalisation
Shaping
Learning that results from reinforcements of successive approximations to a final destined behaviour
Extinction
Reinforcement stops - responses drop fairly fast
Rest period provided - spontaneous recovery
Basic Principles of Classical Conditioning
Acquisition - CS + US presented together
Second order conditioning - use previous CS as US
Extinction
Spontaneous recovery
US = UR
US + CS = UR
CS = CR
What did Pavlov think occurred during conditioning?
Stimuli activated distinct brain regions and association strengthened the link between them.
Extinction occurred through inhibitory connection
Habituation
Process in which repeated exposure results in gradual reduction in responses
Will revert to original reaction if enough time has passed
Learning
Experience that results in a permanent change
Deliberate (explicit)
Unconscious (implicit)
Contingency
Organism has an expectation about how well the CS signals appearance of US
Experiment with mice and tones and freezing and light and not freezing (blocking)
Rescorla, 1968
Experiment with people, spider and snake pictures, and shocks
Ohman and Soares, 1998
Called discrimination training
