Ch. 1 - Intro Flashcards
What is behaviour according to Skinner?
Anything a person or other animal does that can be measured.
What are three examples of overt behaviour?
Actions, absence of actions, and physiological reactions.
What is an example of a covert behaviour?
Thoughts and feelings.
What did Skinner acknowledge about thoughts and feelings?
That people were accurate when it came to self-reporting their emotions.
According to the text, what are three characteristics that define behaviour?
Behaviour involves a person’s actions (what people do or say); it is described with action verbs; behaviour is not a static characteristic of the person.
What is an example of the distinction between emotions and behaviour?
Being angry is not a behaviour, but screaming at her mother and slamming the door is a description of a behaviour that is labelled as anger.
What are the four dimensions of behaviour that can be measured?
Frequency, duration, intensity, and latency.
According to the text, what are two characteristics of behaviour?
Behaviours have an impact on the environment, both physical and social; and behaviour is lawful.
What is meant by lawful behaviour?
The behaviour’s occurrence is systematically influenced by environmental events.
What is an overt behaviour?
An overt behaviour is an action that can be observed and recorded by a person other than the one engaging in the behaviour
What is a covert behaviour?
A behaviour that is not directly observable by others.
What is learning?
An enduring change in the mechanisms of behaviour involving specific stimuli and/or responses that results from prior experience with those or similar stimuli and responses.
What are the two aspects of behaviour modification?
Analyzing and modifying.
What does analyzing in behaviour modification involve?
Identifying the functional relationship between environmental events and a particular behaviour to understand the reasons for behaviour or to determine why a person behaved as he or she did.
What does modifying in behaviour modification involve?
Developing and implementing procedures to help people change their behaviour.
Who develops behaviour modification procedures? How are they used?
Behaviour modification procedures are developed by professionals and used to change social significant behaviours, with the goal of improving some of a person’s life.
What is the behaviour modification term for the behaviour that is being modified?
The target behaviour.
What is a behavioural deficit?
A desirable target behaviour that the person wants to increase in frequency, duration, or intensity (ex. exercising, studying).
What is a behavioural excess?
An undesirable target behaviour the person wants to decrease in frequency, duration, or intensity (ex. smoking).
What does behaviour modification emphasize?
Current environmental events that are functionally related to behaviour.
What does behaviour modification de-emphasize?
Past events as causes of behaviour.
What often confuses people when it comes to learning?
People confuse learning with changes in performance.
Other than learning, what can changes in performance be attributed to?
Bodily state, the environment, fatigue, and maturation.
Why do organisms learn?
It’s about adaptive significance. The environmental changes outpace evolution, so organisms must adapt within their lives.
What is classical (Pavlovian) conditioning?
Where relations between events become predictive. Unlearned behaviours are associated with previously neutral stimuli.
What is operant conditioning?
Behaviour is controlled by the consequences. Involves positive/negative punishments and reinforcements.
What key idea was studied by Ivan Pavlov?
Nervism.
What is nervism?
All key physiological functions are controlled by the nervous system.
What did Ivan Pavlov study behaviour for?
To understand the nervous system.
What is Edward Thorndike credited with?
The Law of Effect.
What does the Law of Effect state?
Something that leads to a pleasant circumstance is more likely to reoccur in the future, something that leads to an unpleasant circumstance is less likely in the future.
What experimental process is Thorndike associated with?
Cats pushing a lever to get out of a box.
Who started the field of behaviourism?
John B. Watson
Which psychologist is responsible for the Little Albert experiment?
John Watson, he was kind of an asshat.
What shift in psychology did Watson begin?
From introspection and speculation to scientific methods and a study of behaviour.
Who is credited with distinguishing operant conditioning?
B.F. Skinner
What are the three basic steps to changing behaviour?
Measure a baseline, add an intervention, and measure the treatment effect over time.
What is Occam’s Razor?
The simplest explanation is usually best.
What is the central idea of the natural science approach?
All natural phenomena have causes, and causes always precede effects.
What are the 5 reasons for why animals are used in research?
Controlled subjects and a lab setting; neurobiological bases of learning; no language; no demand bias; and to study animals.
What are the 3 Rs of animal experiment ethics?
Replace, reduce, and refine.
