Chapter 1 Flashcards
Learning
The process where changes in behavior arise as a result of experience interacting with the world
Empiricist
Humans are shared primarily by their experience (nurture)
Which philosophers held an empiricist view?
Aristotle and Locke
What are Aristotle’s three principles of association?
- contiguity
- frequency
- similarity
Explain Aristotle’s Rule of Contiguity
Experiences near each other in time/space are associated
Explain Aristotle’s Rule of Frequency
Experiences repeated often are connected more strongly
Explain Aristotle’s Rule of Similarity
Experiences similar to one another are associated
Which philosophers held a nativist view?
Plato and Descartes
Explain the modern view on nature versus nurture
We are shaped by both nature and nurture
- people are less likely to be strict empiricist or nativists
Give an example of the modern view
Mathematical Abilities
- Nature: some people are naturally better at mathematical reasoning
- Nurture: there are certain steps on follows to solve an addition problem
Experimental Psychology
Testing psychological theories by experimentation rather than observation of natural events
- transition of the study of learning from philosophy to a natural science
Herman Ebbinghaus
First to study memory scientifically
- empirical: collected data
- experimental: manipulated the IV to observe effects on DV
- quantitate: expressed observations numerically
limit: studies were only on himself
Describe Herman Ebbinghaus’ memory experiments
- Studied a list of 3 letter non-sense words (couldn’t be real words because he could more easily remember words he was familiar with)
- Put list away
- Came back to list and tried to remember as many as possible
- continued the process until he remembered all words
- collected data on time savings
Time Savings
The amount of time it took to learn the words the second time minus the original amount of time it took to learn them
- strong if the delay between learning and relearning is short
- as the delay increases, savings decreases
Memory
The record of our past experiences, which are acquired through learning
Associationism
Memory depends on forming linkages between pairs of events/sensations/ideas so that recalling one of the pair elicits a memory of the other
- Defined by Aristotle
Nativism
Humans are shaped primarily by their inherited nature
The Forgetting Curve
Most of what we learn, we forget/loose very rapidly
The Retention Curve
How much information is retained after a specific point in time following learning
Describe Pavlov’s Work
- studied animal learning
- developed classical conditioning
- explained extinction and generalization
Classical Conditioning
Learn that a specific stimulus predicts and event, causing a behavioral response to the stimulus
Extinction
The weakening of a learned response when the specific stimulus no longer predicts the event
Generalization
The ability to transfer past learning to similar situations
- ringing a different but similar bell may also make the dogs mouth water
Operant Conditioning
Organisms learn to make responses in order to obtain/avoid consequences
Law of Effect
The probability of a particular behavioral response increases/decreases depending on the consequences that follow
- increased if response led to a desirable outcome
- decreases if the response led to an undesirable consequence
Behaviorism Belief
Psychology should restrict itself to the study of observable behaviors and avoid internal mental processes
Who is considered the founder of behaviorism? Describe his studies
Watson
- studied learning in rats by placing them at the entrance to a maze and rewarding them if they found the exit
- stimulus response learning
What are the principles of behaviorism?
- Focus on behavior over mental processes (mental processes are irrelevant)
- Empiricism: should be studied experimentally
- Supports evolutionary perspective (what works for rats works for humans, all organisms are the same)
- Quantitate
- Supports Law of Effect
What is the problem with behaviorism?
It can’t explain all of human learning
- doesn’t explain:
- the formation of a cognitive map
- latent learning
- reasoning
Latent Learning
Learning that takes place even when there is no specific motivation to obtain or avoid a specific consequence
- challenges the behaviorist assumption of stimulus response learning
Cognitive Map
An internal representation gif the spatial layout of the external world
Describe Tolman’s Experiment to show Watson’s rats were doing more than stimulus response learning
- if you block the rats route in the maze, they find a new one
- if you start the rat at a new part of the maze, they still find the exit
the rats have goals and intentions
