Ch.3: Effects of Behaviour Flashcards
What was Thorndike’s main purpose behind the cat in the puzzle box experiment?
Thorndike performed that experiment to figure out if animals have humanlike capabilities for thought and reason.
What did he figure out from the cat in the puzzle box experiment?
Animals do not have that “aha moment” like humans do if they were in a situation as such. Animals proceed to learn through a gradual process of trial and error until they get it right, which eventually will allow the correct response to be stamped in their behaviour.
Fill in the blank for the following sentence. Learning theories look at the formation of ______________ and ______________.
contiguity and reinforcement
How does learning occur in both the classical conditioning theory or the instrumental conditioning theory?
In classical conditioning learning occurs through contiguity. This explantion states that learning occurs due to an association that is formed between stimuli and responses because they occur simultaneously. In instrumental conditioning, learning occurs through reinforcement. This explanation maintains that learning occurs because of the consequences of the behaviour.
What is Thorndike’s Law of Effect?
Thorndike’s Law of Effect states that if some behaviour is going to lead to a negative consequence then the individual is most likely not going to engage in that behaviour, and if some behaviour is going to lead to a positive consequence then the individual is most likely going to engage in that behaviour.
What is Thorndike’s Law of Readiness?
Thorndike’s Law of Readiness has to with the individual’s motivation to engage in activity. The more motivated the individual is, the more learning will occur.
Thorndike arrived at many additional laws of learning - what he called subsidiary laws. Describe those five laws.
Multiple responses, set or attitude, prepotency of elements, response by analogy, and associative shifting. Multiple responses are basically when we perform an action, we observe and then we repeat. This is done until the response gives us the outcome we want, until then we continue to perform different responses in hopes of getting our desired response. Set or attitude is the idea that each individual has an attitude that they bring into a situation/learning environment that affects their response. For example, a picture of Jesus dying on the cross for some people will evoke emotion because it is associated with their religion, meanwhile for others they will not feel anything. This law tells us that learning has to do with us and how we perceive things. Prepotency of elements indicates that we have the ability to react to only significant elements and not the insignificant ones. Response by analogy states that as learners we use analogies to help us learn - we shift our response between similar experiences. Associative shifting is when learners shift their responses from situation to another, regardless of the experience the response it is from.
What is the difference between response by analogy and associative shifting?
Response by analogy is using analogies for learning. We shift responses between common experiences. Associative shifting is using the same response again and again but the experience does not matter.
What was the law of exercise? What mistake did Thorndike realize he made?
Law of exercise basically states that the association between stimuli and responses are strengthened through being exercised “frequently,” “recently,” and “vigorously.” He realized that the amount of times we exercised did not matter if we had the wrong information. He called this half law of effect. For example, if we were practicing a math problem again and again, but you do not understand why you got it wrong then you will not be able to get it right.
Is the only way to learn by practice?
No, there are other ways to learn. One way being by learning through ideas. Sometimes when people share ideas with us, we still learn it (don’t need to recite it). Our cognition helps us with this.
When you are taking a psychology class, why do teachers never bother to bring up other subjects, such as physics, math or something else?
This has to do with Thorndike’s principle of belongingness. This principle states that in order for learning to occur, there needs to be some sort of rational connection between the stimuli or the stimuli and the response.
The principle of belongingness was updated from someone else’s rule. Who was this person?
Principle of belongingness stemmed from Guthrie’s idea of movement produced stimuli (MPS). Guthrie mentioned how the stimuli and response must occur together. Thorndike added that it must make sense, there must be a connection.
What was Clark Hull’s dream?
Clark Hull’s dream was to use logic and experimentation to discover and infer the laws that govern human behaviour. He labelled this the hypothetico-deductive system.
What are the main components of Hull’s system?
There are two main components - stimuli and response. Stimuli acts as input variables, while responses act as output variables. Both are considered objective, meaning that we are able to identify and observe them. The relationship between the input and output variables are intervening variables, and are hypothetical. This means we need to infer their relationship, it is not directly visible.
Describe the input variable component of the system. Use an example to assist with the understanding.
These input variables are independent and are called predictors. This information is needed for the psychologist, in order for them to be able to correctly predict how a person will respond. To have complete knowledge of the input variables, a psychologist is required to know how many times in the past has the S-R bond been reinforced (1), about the physical intensity of the stimulus (2), the drive conditions of the organism (3), and the reward attached to responding (4). For example, you have a kid acting out in the grocery store because they want candy. They know that by acting out in public, they will get candy - how many times has this occurred in the past (1)? Is the child screaming and yelling very loudly, or is he/she just whining (2)? (3) The child is yelling because they want the candy - i.e. driving force. Lastly, their reward is that they get candy (4).
