Behaviourist approach Flashcards
Assumptions of behaviorism
- not concerned with investigating the mental processes of the mind
- Rejects introspection (too vague)
- all species learn in the same way
associations
All animals have natural reflexes these are made up of a stimulus and its naturally associated response
Timing
If NS does not predict the UCS the conditioning doesn’t take place or if the time interval between is too great
Extinction
CR is not permanent if presented without UCS a few times it’ll lose its ability
Spontaneous recovery
Following extinction if CS and ucs are paired again the link will be made much quicker
stimulus generalisation
Once conditioned the animal will respond to stimulate similar to the CS
operant conditioning
Learning via consequences
classical conditioning
learning via associations
consequences within operant condtioning
positive and negative reinforcement and punishment
Schedules of reinforcement
- continuous reinforcement is most effective in establishing a response
- partial reinforcement (i.e. every third time) is more effective in maintaining a response and avoiding extinction
strengths of behaviourism
important contributions to treating mental illnesses
- e.g. using systematic desensitisation to treat phobias
- works by replacing learned response (fear) w relaxation proving cc to be true
Skinner’s reliance on experimental methods
- skinners box uses controlled conditions
- by manipulating IV he was able to accurately measure the dv
limitation 1 of behaviourism
influential in using animals
- Skinner relied on rats and pigeons so cannot be fully applied to humans
- humans behaviour determined by free will than reinforcement
limitation 2 of behaviourism
Diff species face challenges to survive so have diff capabilities to learn through CC
- relationships between the CS and ucs more difficult for some species
- animals learn associations significant in terms of their survivals get unprepared to learn insignificant associations, so cannot generalise
