Behaviourism- Learning Approach Flashcards
2 main assumptions of behaviorism
1)life begins as a blank slate and observable changes to our behavior result from interactions with out environment. It is enough to explain behavior in terms of what we can see
2)The process of social learning, operant conditioning and classical conditioning are ways in which humans and animals learn. Conditioning involves experiences within our environment (stimuli) that shape our behaviour (response)
Explain the difference between behaviourism and social learning
Although both approaches measure human behaviour as a result of environment and experience within it,
behaviourism assumes that bevahiour is only learnt from an individuals own experiences in its environment, and that the study of the mind should only be focused on these external processes rather and not internal processes.
Whereas social learning approach has a social dimension to it, aswell as cognitive elements assuming that people imitate behaviour aswell
Explain the difference between classical conditioning and operant conditioning
Classical is involuntary, and first a stimulus happens which then causes a behaviour
Operant is voluntary, and first behaviour occurs, then a consequence, then a modified behaviour
Who performed the classical conditioning experiment and what year
Ivan Pavlov (1927)
Describe the steps of the classical conditioning experiment
1)dog presented with a neutral stimulus, the bell ringing , and at the same time being represented with an unconditioned stimulus, which will naturally cause it to salivate
-repeatedly do this procedure until the dog forms an association with the bell and the food, so a conditioned response is formed, where they will salivate whenever they hear the bell
What is stimulus generalization
Where a similar stimulus can produce the same conditioned response
What is stimulus extinction
Process where a conditioned stimulus is applied repeatedly without the unconditioned stimulus, where over time the learnt response is forgotten, so the conditioned stimulus returns to a neutral one
Give and describe three different types of operant conditioning and relate this to skinners experiment
Positive reinforcement- giving a reward when a certain behaviour is performed. Eg the rats were given a food pellet whenever they pulled the lever
Negative reinforcement- removal of an unpleasant situation when a particular behaviour is performed. Eg the rats were placed in a cage with electrical current and sos ran to thr lever to switch it off
Negative punishment- removal of a pleasant situation when a particular behaviour is performed. Food pellets were taken away from rats to control them
Give the name for the study of operant conditioning approach and give the date
The Skinner box (1953)
Summarize the conclusions of the Skinner box
That learning is an active process learned and reinforced in response t consequences, eg when consequences are pleasant then behaviour repeated, when unpleasant then behaviour is not repeated
