Behaviourism And Cognitivism Flashcards
Who was driving force behind behaviourism?
Watson - viewed psychology as objective and experimental, rejected introspection as its subjective
Influenced by evolutionary theory (Darwin) and physiology (Pavlov) - closely related to biology -> use of animals/humans and methodology
Classical conditioning
Pavlov - dogs tuning forks = neutral stimulus but become conditioned stimulus when paired with unconditioned stimulus = food
What was Thorndike’s contribution?
Functionalist
Puzzle boxes - hungry cats had to escape using trial and error - press lever to open door and get food -> greater number of trials, faster the cats escaped - learnt not to repeat failed behaviours and focus on successive behaviours
The law of exercise and law of effect
- > exercise = connection between situation and behaviour associated with it - strengthened but repeated use and weakened by disuse
- > effect = connection strengthened when followed by ‘satisfying’ outcome and weakened by ‘annoying’ outcome
Watson wanted to apply behaviourism to real world
Little Albert study - white rat - classical conditioning
Tolman and Purposive Behaviourism (cognitive behaviourism)
Measured objective behaviour not consciousness
Less reductionist in approach
Studied rats running in mazes - learnt lay out of maze/pattern - rewards improved errors
If path blocked, rats would go back and try other paths, suggesting mental representation - cognitive map of maze
Skinner and operant conditioning
Skinners rats - positive reinforcer = food for pressing lever
- negative reinforcer = lever to end electric shock
- positive punishment = shocked when press lever
- negative punishment = food supply terminated if lever pressed
Primary and secondary reinforcers
Primary = satisfy some physiological need of organism eg. Water or food
Secondary = associated with primary reinforcer eg. Money
Skinner and Chomsky and verbal behaviour
Skinner = children learn to pair words with satisfaction of needs (mands) and social use of language is similarly shaped (tacts) - language seen as being externally motivated by people and objects in the speaker’s environment
Chomsky = highlighted inability of behaviourism to explain higher, human-specific, linguistic behaviour - eg. If see a picture and comment on it we are unlikely to all say same even though stimulus is the same -> all behaviour from external responses
What is cognitive psychology?
Refers to all processes by which sensory input is transformed, reduced, elaborated, stored, recovered and used
Mind-computer analogy
Cognitive psychologists primarily interested in software or programs run by the computer rather than hardware
A problem of behaviourism
People appear to have clear goals in life and deliberately choose and direct their behaviour -> require existence if homunculus (Little man used to refer to difficulty of explaining goal orientated behaviour without making use of an ultimate intelligent control centre)
