behavourist approach Flashcards
what does the behaviourist approach come under
learning theories along with social learning theory
what did John Watson say about human behaviour
he said “men are built not born … psychology is purely objective, and a experimental branch of natural science”
what does the behaviourist approach say
- behaviour should be observable and measured
- animal behaviour is comparable to human behaviour
- all behaviour is learned from the environment
what do behaviourists refer humans to as
“tabula rasa” which is latin for blank state
human mind especially at birth is viewed as having innate ideas
what is behaviourism broken down into
classical conditioning (Ivan Pavlov)
operant conditioning (BF Skinner)
what is Ivan Pavlov famous for
he recieved the nobel prize for discovering the digestive system of dogs and how much saliva they produce
what did pavlov discover about dogs
he noticed that dogs started to salivate and drool before any food was presented to them. they salivated at the sound of footsteps as food was brought to them or the sight of the white lab coat of the person bringing the food.
what did pavlov want to further discover
he wanted to investigate how we can learn to associate one thing with another
what is classical conditioning
learning through association
what is the main idea of classical conditioning
a given stimulus should predict the response thats given
how did pavlov use classical conditioning
he wanted to see if he could associate dog food with a bell to see if dogs could salivate not when food was presented but just at the sound of a bell
what is a neutral stimulus and what does it result in
a stimulus that initially does not cause the traget reaction or response
the bell was the neutral stimulus because in and of itself it doesnt produce a response other than to look at it when it rings.
the neutral stimulus by itself does not produce a response
what is an unconditioned stimulus
a stimulus that has not been learnt. this naturally/automatically causes a response.
in this case the dog has been presented with food
what does an unconditioned stimulus result in
an unconditioned response (a response that has not been learnt). in this case the dog salivates naturally at the sight of the food. the dog doesnt learn to produce saliva in response to food
what is an unconditioned response
a natural reaction to a stimulus
what happens if a neutral stimulus and unconditioned stimulus are paired together/associated together
it produces an unconditioned response. the dog salivates
what happens if the NS and UCS are repeatedly paired together
the UCS is removed and you are left with the bell. however, because of the previous pairing is no longer a neutral stimulus.
what is a conditioned stimulus and what does it result in
when the neutral stimulus causes the same response as the UCS on its own bcause they have become paired. it is a learnt stimlus.
it produces a conditioned response. in this case the CS is the bell and CR is the dog salivating even though there is no food present
what happens when two stimuli are repeatedly paired together
they become associated with one another. the response that results from one stimulus is now associated with another stimulus
what does classical conditioning only apply to
involuntary reflex behaviours
what is generalisation
when the conditioned stimulus (bell) could be generalised to other sounds. the volume or tone can change yet still produce salivation
what is discrimination
when the sound becomes too different from the original stimulus (bell) that no salivation occurs
what is extinction
the gradual weakening of a response. if the CS continues to be presented but the real UCS never appears, the association eventually weakens and becomes extinct
what is spontaneous recovery
the sudden display of behaviour thought to be extinct. this is less strong than the original response given that the extinction has already occured.
what did BF Skinner do
his pioneering work led him to teach pigeons how to play ping pong using operant conditioning. he had read John B Watsons “behaviourism” and Ivan Pavlov “conditioned reflexes”
what did skinner believe about the understanding of human behaviour
the stimulus receieving a particular response was not enough when it came to understanding human behaviour
what did skinner say about human behaviour
“human behaviour is determined by its consquences.. shaped and maintained by its consequences.”
what is operant conditioning
learning through consequences
what was the main idea of operant conditioning
when we want to increase the likelihood of a behaviour being repeated, we want to reinforce that behaviour more.
however they might be some behaviours that we dont want others to repeat. we want to decrease the likelihood of certain behaviours happening and we tend to do this through punishing
what is reinforcement
a consequences that increases the likelihood of a particular behaviour being repeated. this strengthens behaviour
what is punishment
a consquence that decreases the likelihood of a particular behaviour being repeated. this weakens behaviour
what did skinner create
he created a highly controlled setting to carefully study the effects of punishment and reinforcement on the behaviour of animals particularly pigeons and rats. he did this using the skinner box.
what was the reinforcement in the skinner box
when the rat was placed in the box it moved around and would eventually accidentally press the lever which would release a food pellet. the rat leanred the behaviour of pushing the lever because of the reward. this strengthened the behaviour as the rat quickly learned to push the lever quickly
